NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is currently speeding through the outer solar system toward its July 2015 date with Pluto, when it will take a good close look at the dwarf planet’s mysterious surface, atmosphere, moons, and… rings? Less than three-quarters the size of our moon, Pluto nevertheless has no shortage of fascinating features. It has…
Tag: NASA
Hello, Earth!
It’s the 2012 version of the “Blue Marble“! Here’s an amazing new high-definition portrait of our planet, made by NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite launched back on October 28. This is a composite image created from multiple scans taken with the satellite’s Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). Suomi NPP is the first satellite designed to collect…
Mercury’s “Smooth” Plains
Mercury has a vast region of smooth volcanic plains surrounding its northern polar region, wrapping over a third of the way around the planet. But even though the plains are called smooth, they are still characteristically rugged – made obvious in this narrow-angle camera image from MESSEGER acquired December 13. Being an area close to…
2012 Hoaxes Debunked… by SCIENCE
It’s only January 5th and already nervous chatter about “end of the world” fears has gone into high gear… except, of course, among those who know that there’s nothing to worry about. Still, I have heard rumors of people, many young people still in school, who don’t know the real information and have heard only…
Happy New Year from the ISS!
2011 has given us many amazing images and videos of our planet from the International Space Station, which received its last US-built components this year during the STS-133 and 134 shuttle missions. The Expedition 30 crew now aboard the ISS will ring in 2012 from orbit, and they have recorded the video above to wish…
Breaking News: Kepler Team Spots First Earth-Sized Exoplanets
The video above sums up the big astro-news of the day: NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the existence of not one but TWO Earth-sized planets orbiting a Sun-like star 1,000 light-years away. This is a big deal!
Is Vesta a Planet Among Asteroids?
After nearly 5 months in orbit around Vesta, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has returned some incredibly detailed data about the composition and structure of what was once surely considered an asteroid. But now scientists are starting to have second thoughts about what exactly Vesta is… is it really an asteroid? Or is it more like a…
Twitter Hearts Space Tweeps
Twitter released the video above today to promote the latest version of its mobile browsing app. I’m not sure why they made a new version, whether it’s to compete with other social media platforms or just offer up a change of scenery, but one thing I know for certain: the video recognizes its community of…
Pluto Probe Goes Where None Has Gone Before
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft passed a new milestone today, officially becoming the closest spacecraft ever to the distant dwarf planet Pluto! As it continues its trip through interplanetary space, clocking an impressive 35,000 mph (more than twice the speed of the ISS in orbit!) New Horizons is currently in hibernation mode, and has already passed…
Curiosity Launches!
Can’t see the video below? Click here. This morning at 10:02 a.m. EST, the Atlas V rocket with Mars Science Laboratory (a.k.a. Curiosity) encapsulated in its payload successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. It was a beautiful launch and the HD video is above… enjoy! MSL successfully separated from the rocket phase 44…
ISS Docking Success!
Tonight at 11:24pm CST a TMA-22 Soyuz vehicle containing the three members of Expedition 29/30 crew successfully docked with the ISS, 248 miles above the south Pacific. It was the first docking of a manned vehicle to the ISS since the end of the shuttle program.
Earth From Orbit – in HD!
Watch this! Videographer Michael König assembled several time-lapse videos taken from the crew aboard the ISS into one long continuous video, and cleaned up the footage and added music as well. Really beautiful work on an already stunning series of videos! Needless to say this has gone the rounds on the ‘net today.
Lights in the Dark 