Cutting over a mile into the surrounding landscape, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited…and it’s no less beautiful from 200 nautical miles up! This photo was taken today by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the International Space Station and immediately sent to his TwitPic page…
Category: Earth
Darken the Lights
This Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30pm your local time, join millions of people around the world in celebration of the 4th annual Earth Hour by turning off the lights in your home or office. It’s a message of support for our planet! It’s about individual empowerment and generating an interest and a global voice on…
Windows? Seven.
NASA’s stunning Image of the Day shows STS-130 mission astronaut Nicholas Patrick finishing up the newly-installed cupola window viewport on the ISS. Since the cupola’s successful installation last week the Space Station crew has been enjoying unprecedented views of Earth through the seven large window panes. Like visiting the Grand Canyon or looking out the…
Voyager’s Valentine
On February 14, 1990, after nearly 13 years of traveling the outer solar system the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed the orbit of Pluto and turned its camera around to take a series of photos of the planets. The image above shows those photos, isolated from the original series and labeled left to right, top to…
If Earth Had Rings
Ever feel a little jealous of Saturn? I know I do. This 3DS Max animation by Ray Prol shows what the Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn and what kind of views of the sky one might see from various places around the world. A somber “Ave Maria” comprises the only…
Thin Blue Line
The setting sun lights up the the neon blue line of Earth’s atmosphere in this photo taken by the crew of the International Space Station during the STS-129 shuttle mission. Click for the full-size view. The darkness of space above and a dark night on Earth below, this “thin blue line” is all that exists…
South Pacific
Another beautiful image of Earth from the Rosetta spacecraft’s OSIRIS imaging system, showing swirling clouds in an anticyclone over the South Pacific. The false-color composite is a portion of a larger view of the planet, taken as Rosetta flew by Earth on November 13. It is a combination of image data taken through the orange,…
Good Morning Antarctica
Last night the Rosetta spacecraft took this stunning image of Earth, showing the rosy crescent of the southern pole lit by the summer sun. (It’s nearing the height of summer in Antarctica, when the sun never fully sets for several months.) Click for a larger view. Absolutely beautiful. I rotated the image so that south…
Hello, World
All I can say is ” 🙂 “. On its way back for its third and last flyby on Nov. 13, 2009, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft captured this beautiful photo of our planet. The illuminated crescent shows the south polar region, with some of Antarctica’s sea ice reflecting brightly through the swirling clouds….
Will Worlds Collide?
According to a June 10 article in New Scientist, studies on the variable nature of planetary orbits have shown some valid possibilities of collisions in the future. (The very distant future, luckily for us.) Due to the nature of Jupiter’s massive gravitational pull on the inner planets, especially Mercury, their orbits are susceptible to incredible…
No Such Thing as Global Warming?
 Tell that to the Wilkins Ice Shelf. At least 10,000 years old, the 1/3 mile wide span of ice that linked Antarctica to nearby Charcot Island broke apart on April 5, 2009, as expected by scientists watching worldwide. This collapse opens a path for icebergs from the rest of the disintegrating swath of ice…
One Last Look Back
The Messenger spacecraft took this photo of Earth as it sped off toward Mercury in August of 2004. This view of our planet shows the western coast of South America, with the Peruvian Andes curving around and down into Chile before disappearing into the dark of night. Just above and to the right of the…
Lights in the Dark 