Can’t see the video below? Click here. This is one for the OMG Holy Crap files… a passenger on board an airplane waiting at JFK airport captured this incredible video this morning as the space shuttle Enterprise landed on the adjacent runway! Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime shot!
Tag: science
Fragile Earth Puts a Century of Climate Change At Your Fingertips
As a follow-up to the previous Wonders of the Universe i-app released by Harper Collins, Fragile Earth brings us back from the farthest reaches of the Universe to our own beautiful blue world, whose surface is rapidly changing due to the effects of human civilization. With Fragile Earth those changes are brought to light with…
The Sun Fires Off a Warning Shot
Today, April 16, a class M1.7 coronal mass ejection (CME) exploded from the Sun’s eastern limb — an enormous expulsion of solar material, flung out into space by a giant snap of the Sun’s complex magnetic field.
Mighty Melanthius
The 662-mile-wide Tethys is one of the most heavily cratered worlds in the solar system, tied with sister moons Rhea and Dione. In this recent raw image captured by Cassini on April 14, we can see some of the moon’s larger craters, including Melanthius with its enormous central peak.
Coolest. Sun Pic. Ever.
Alan Friedman does it again — and this time with a brand new camera! — in his latest photo of our home star, guaranteed to blow your mind. Check out the full image here. Image © Alan Friedman. All rights reserved.
Signs of Surprisingly Recent Volcanic Activity in Tycho
A team of researchers at India’s Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) claims it has found evidence of relatively recent volcanic activity on the Moon, using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Chadrayaan-1 spacecraft. According to the findings the central peak of Tycho crater contains features that are volcanic in origin, indicating that the Moon was geologically…
Did We Find Life On Mars… 35 Years Ago?
NASA’s twin Viking 1 and 2 landers launched in August and September of 1975 and successfully landed on Mars in July and September of 1976. Their principal mission was to search for life, which they did by digging into the ruddy Martian soil looking for signs of respiration — a signal of biological activity. The results,…
A Golden Oldie
Time to go “all way back” to 2006! In this Cassini image beautifully color calibrated by Gordan Ugarkovic we see the moon Mimas tucked into the shadow of Saturn’s rings. Nicknamed the “Death Star” moon, Mimas features a large crater with a sharp central peak, giving it a striking resemblance to the infamous sci-fi space…
“Birthday Candles” on the Sun
Make a wish! Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have identified new “birthday candle” structures in the Sun’s super-hot corona that may shed some light on the way its magnetic fields evolve — especially near the edges of vast, dark, wind-spewing coronal holes.
MESSENGER Gets It “Donne”
Named after the 17th-century English metaphysical poet, Mercury’s Donne crater was captured in this image by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. The 53-mile (83-km) -wide crater features a large, rounded central peak and numerous lobate scarps lining its floor. What are lobate scarps? Find out more here.
A Solar “Danse Macabre”
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a video on March 27 – 28 showing two large areas of “dark” plasma on the Sun’s limb, twisting and spiraling in our star’s complex magnetic field. The southern region bears an uncanny resemblance to three figures swaying to some spooky, unheard music… a real “danse macabre” on the Sun! Watch the…
The Color of Rhea
If someone were to ask you today what the most heavily-cratered world in the Solar System is, you can’t go wrong with saying “why, Rhea of course!” (I don’t know why someone would ask you that, but if anyone does you can now consider yourself well-prepared.) 🙂
Lights in the Dark 