The first trailer for The Martian is out, a new film by Ridley Scott based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir. (If you haven’t read The Martian you really must check it out – it’s a fantastic “science-reality” adventure about one stranded astronaut’s struggle to survive on Mars and NASA’s attempt…
Category: Just for Fun
What Do You Think Of This Planet Earth Flag?
There was a bit of a press frenzy last week surrounding the idea of a global flag that could be used in instances of human exploration off our planet, where international collaboration could be celebrated and memorialized on alien worlds rather than the more old-timey nationalistic space races with various countries’ flags dotting remote landscapes across…
Check out Atmospheric Breakup: a Webcomic About the ISS
The International Space Station is the result of an amazing collaboration of many countries and countless individuals from around the world, a research lab and symbol of global peace and partnership put together in space. But recent and growing political tension between the two biggest contributors to the ISS – the United States and Russia – are…
What Can Hubble See? Find Out in This Music Video
Get into a little “Hubble trouble” with this music video by NPR’s Adam Cole, aka Skunk Bear. Produced in honor of the 25th anniversary of the space telescope’s launch aboard Discovery STS-31 on April 24, 1990, the video is a parody of Iggy Azalea’s “Trouble” and, in my opinion, surpasses it astronomically. (See what I did…
This is What it Would Look Like to Fight Flying Dragons on Titan
Obviously this is a totally-for-fun sci-fi video, but what a video! Created by Oscar-nominated Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson, it shows fleets of very industrial-looking fighter skiffs hunting giant flying eels through the skies of some very cloudy planet… the first thought that came to my mind was Titan! (Although Titan is more hazy than cloudy…
The Force is Strong With This ISS Crew!
The Expedition 45 crew has gone full Jedi for their team poster! (The mission patch is kinda shaped like a Star Destroyer…) Entitled “International Space Station Expedition XLV: The Science Continues,” the poster features Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko (first and second on the right), NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (left, front), Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg…
The Galaxy’s First Glimpse at Star Wars: The Force Awakens
So if you haven’t seen it yet, here it is – the first official trailer and the world’s first look at actual scenes from J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, coming to theaters next December. Some really interesting stuff here, including what looks to be exceptional aerial footage of X-wings and the Millennium Falcon,…
The Desert Dishes of Apollo Valley
Deep in the Mojave desert of central California, scattered among the scrub-covered hills and rugged, rock-strewn fields, are enormous white radar dishes pointed at the sky — NASA’s “ears” for listening to the faint calls coming from its many spacecraft out exploring our solar system. I recently had the opportunity to pay a visit to the Deep…
“It’s Like The Universe Was Talkin’ To Me” – Neil Tyson’s First Visit To The Hayden Planetarium
“It’s as though you were locked in a room your whole life and then somebody opens a window.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson Do you remember your first telescope? Your first trip to a planetarium or observatory? Astrophysicist and Cosmos: a Spacetime Odyssey host Neil deGrasse Tyson does, and in this installment of NOVA’s Secret Life…
50 Amazing Facts About the Moon
How fast does the Moon rotate? How far is it (on average) to the Moon? How long did it take to build a lunar rover for the Apollo missions? And what did one cost? You could Google all of these answers for yourself, of course, but it’ll be a lot quicker — not to mention…
Keeping the Lights On: How To Replace a Macbook Air Battery
If you’re at all like me, you are in front of a computer for most of your waking and conscious day. Everyone has their own personal preference for computer workstations, and these days I use an 11″ Macbook Air for all of my personal and professional needs. I like its small size and portability combined…
Evidence of Ancient Aliens? Nah, It’s Just Pareidolia (Again)
You’ve heard of the Man in the Moon and the Face on Mars, now meet the Mercury Man! This image, obtained by the MESSENGER spacecraft in July 2011, shows a portion of the floor of Caloris basin — the remnants of an enormous impact that occurred on Mercury nearly 4 billion years ago. Rising from…
Lights in the Dark 