Posts tagged space
The official Tumblr of the future of skepticism.
Miss NASA Beauty Pageant … so, this is something that used to happen. Meet Miss NASA 1968-69.
(More at Artifacting)
(via greatmindsofscience)
Heavenly Look-Alikes: Animal-Shaped Nebulas and Their Earthly Doppelgangers
(via physicsphysics)
Veins, not Flowers, on Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing to drill for the first time, into what appears to be sedimentary rock criss-crossed by mineral-filled veins.
Back in September last year the Mars Science Laboratory carried by the rover found a rocky outcrop on the wall of Gale Crater that was full of a crusty mix of cemented pebbles. It matched signs of an alluvial-fan feature seen from orbit and was some of the very best evidence so far of significant historical water flow across the martian surface.
Planet’s ‘Umbilical Cord’ To Star Matter Seen For First Time
Streams of gas surrounding a young star are being guzzled up by what is thought to be a giant planet in the making. An animation has been created using imagery captured by the European Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope.
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Kornmesser (ESO), S. Casassus et al., Music: Mark Peterson, Loch Ness Production
Mash Mix: SPACE.comby Video From Space.
(via gruntledandhinged)
Researchers Identify Water Rich Meteorite Linked To Mars Crust
NASA-funded researchers analyzing a small meteorite that may be the first discovered from the Martian surface or crust have found it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins.
This new class of meteorite was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed “Black Beauty,” it weighs approximately 11 ounces (320 grams). After more than a year of intensive study, a team of U.S. scientists determined the meteorite formed 2.1 billion years ago during the beginning of the most recent geologic period on Mars, known as the Amazonian.
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The ceaselessly talented Debbie Millman remembers pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, who passed away earlier this year, in this beautiful visual essay for The New York Times. The artwork is made of felt letters painstakingly hand-stitched on felt fabric.
How Long is a Day on Mercury?
1/3 the distance from the Sun than Earth, it should be no surprise that a day on Mercury is a real scorcher with temperatures soaring over 400 ºC. But in addition to its solar proximity it also has an extremely slow rotation: a single day on Mercury is 58.6 Earth days long… and you thought your Mondays lasted forever!
To be even more precise, for every 2 Mercury years, 3 Mercury days pass — a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, caused by the planet’s varying elliptical orbit. (This also makes for some interesting motions of the Sun in Mercury’s sky.)
To illustrate this, UK’s The Open University has published a new video in their 60 Second Adventures in Astronomy series… check it out above (and see more of their excellent and amusing animations here.)
Video: The Open University. Narrated by David Mitchell.
Through the Eyes of the Astronauts
A taste of the stunning selection of images to be found in the book – Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, produced by NASA to mark the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins of Apollo 11, on July 20th 1969.
(via scinerds)
Sunita Williams after adding her patch to the ISS patch collection.
(via womeninspace)
