Explosion on the Moon!

Pock-marked with craters and splotched with long-cold beds of dark lava, our moon holds thousands of footprints from its violent past. But we don’t really think of it having a violent present.

Well, it still gets its fair share of action. On March 17, 2013, NASA astronomers captured video of a meteorite striking the moon. It made an explosion bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, like a temporary star drawn on the lunar surface. It turns out that these collisions are not that rare.

Most of the moon’s many meteor marks date from a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. That, combined with a magma-riffic adolescence gave the moon the special look we know today. Of course, none of that is as violent as the moon’s birth.

Anyway, make sure to watch that video above and see the meteor strike live. You’ll never look at the moon the same way again.

Terrellas: Magnetized spheres that were bombarded with beams of charged particles in order to simulate the magnetic field of the Earth, and its influence on the auroras. They were replaced by computer models years ago, but they are still hauntingly beautiful demonstrations of our best natural light show. Need more glowing skyporn? Check out my YouTube episode all about auroras. (image via Planeterrella. Tip of the terrella to The Science Llama)
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Terrellas: Magnetized spheres that were bombarded with beams of charged particles in order to simulate the magnetic field of the Earth, and its influence on the auroras. They were replaced by computer models years ago, but they are still hauntingly beautiful demonstrations of our best natural light show. Need more glowing skyporn? Check out my YouTube episode all about auroras. (image via Planeterrella. Tip of the terrella to The Science Llama)
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Terrellas: Magnetized spheres that were bombarded with beams of charged particles in order to simulate the magnetic field of the Earth, and its influence on the auroras. They were replaced by computer models years ago, but they are still hauntingly beautiful demonstrations of our best natural light show. Need more glowing skyporn? Check out my YouTube episode all about auroras. (image via Planeterrella. Tip of the terrella to The Science Llama)
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Terrellas: Magnetized spheres that were bombarded with beams of charged particles in order to simulate the magnetic field of the Earth, and its influence on the auroras.

They were replaced by computer models years ago, but they are still hauntingly beautiful demonstrations of our best natural light show.

Need more glowing skyporn? Check out my YouTube episode all about auroras.

(image via Planeterrella. Tip of the terrella to The Science Llama)

Lightning Launch Speaking of awesome lightning, did you know that Apollo 12’s Saturn V was struck by lightning less than a minute after launch? The bolt threw the navigation computer into chaos and then traveled down the energized exhaust plume. Read about the white-knuckled minutes, the near-abort and controlled self-destruct that almost happened. Until a young  flight controller suggested they flip “SCE to AUX”. (via Universe Today)
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Lightning Launch

Speaking of awesome lightning, did you know that Apollo 12’s Saturn V was struck by lightning less than a minute after launch? The bolt threw the navigation computer into chaos and then traveled down the energized exhaust plume.

Read about the white-knuckled minutes, the near-abort and controlled self-destruct that almost happened. Until a young  flight controller suggested they flip “SCE to AUX”.

(via Universe Today)

Source: universetoday.com

The Sun is getting feisty … 

The star at the heart of our solar system has released three X-class solar flares (the most powerful class of flares) and their associated waves of charged particles in the past 24 hours. Luckily for us, they have been pointed away from Earth, as seen in the upper left of the video above from NASA.

NASA’s SDO and SOHO satellites captured the explosive magnetic arcs and bursts of plasma in stunning form in the video, which is full-screen worthy. By viewing the sun through different wavelength filters (the colored angstrom filters you see above) we can zoom in on activity happening at different temperatures and involving different ionized elements from hydrogen to iron. 

This happens as the sun ramps up for its predicted 11-year solar maximum later in 2013. Wear your sun(plasma)block!

Don’t you wish there was sound in space so you could hear these things? Sigh.

You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
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You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
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You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
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You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info
You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science. Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science. (GIFs by framesandflames)
Zoom Info

You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science.

Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science.

(GIFs by framesandflames)

edwardspoonhands: Google Earth Engine is a joint project between Google and NASA that allows anyone access to a 30 year time-lapse of the surface of the earth. I made a video about how amazing, terrifying, and important it is. We’ve had an eye on Earth for several decades now, and thanks to the new tool from Google that Hank talks about in his video above, we can see our profound effect on the planet in just a single young lifetime. He notes that we aren’t very good at reconciling data with our own, personal daily existence and the proverbial price of eggs. Maybe that’s why graphs describing the changing climate and numbers such as “400 ppm” aren’t as effective as, say, these images here?
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edwardspoonhands: Google Earth Engine is a joint project between Google and NASA that allows anyone access to a 30 year time-lapse of the surface of the earth. I made a video about how amazing, terrifying, and important it is. We’ve had an eye on Earth for several decades now, and thanks to the new tool from Google that Hank talks about in his video above, we can see our profound effect on the planet in just a single young lifetime. He notes that we aren’t very good at reconciling data with our own, personal daily existence and the proverbial price of eggs. Maybe that’s why graphs describing the changing climate and numbers such as “400 ppm” aren’t as effective as, say, these images here?
Zoom Info
edwardspoonhands: Google Earth Engine is a joint project between Google and NASA that allows anyone access to a 30 year time-lapse of the surface of the earth. I made a video about how amazing, terrifying, and important it is. We’ve had an eye on Earth for several decades now, and thanks to the new tool from Google that Hank talks about in his video above, we can see our profound effect on the planet in just a single young lifetime. He notes that we aren’t very good at reconciling data with our own, personal daily existence and the proverbial price of eggs. Maybe that’s why graphs describing the changing climate and numbers such as “400 ppm” aren’t as effective as, say, these images here?
Zoom Info
edwardspoonhands: Google Earth Engine is a joint project between Google and NASA that allows anyone access to a 30 year time-lapse of the surface of the earth. I made a video about how amazing, terrifying, and important it is. We’ve had an eye on Earth for several decades now, and thanks to the new tool from Google that Hank talks about in his video above, we can see our profound effect on the planet in just a single young lifetime. He notes that we aren’t very good at reconciling data with our own, personal daily existence and the proverbial price of eggs. Maybe that’s why graphs describing the changing climate and numbers such as “400 ppm” aren’t as effective as, say, these images here?
Zoom Info

edwardspoonhands:

Google Earth Engine is a joint project between Google and NASA that allows anyone access to a 30 year time-lapse of the surface of the earth. I made a video about how amazing, terrifying, and important it is.

We’ve had an eye on Earth for several decades now, and thanks to the new tool from Google that Hank talks about in his video above, we can see our profound effect on the planet in just a single young lifetime.

He notes that we aren’t very good at reconciling data with our own, personal daily existence and the proverbial price of eggs. Maybe that’s why graphs describing the changing climate and numbers such as “400 ppm” aren’t as effective as, say, these images here?

Col. Chris Hadfield returns to Earth tomorrow after nearly five months in command of the International Space Station. Here are his touching personal reflections on the mission.

His stay on the ISS has captured the imagination and the curiosity of millions of people on Earth, thanks to this wonderfully interconnected world we call social media. Not only do we have the technology to send men to space for months at a time, but they can share that experience so richly with all of us.

I am truly grateful for his hard work, the hard work of people like his son Evan (who managed his dad’s Tumblr and much of his other social media) and the hard work of those who continue to support the mission. He went to space so we could ALL go to space.

Celebrate with the ten best videos from Commander Hadfield’s time aboard the ISS. I know what my favorite was (also in GIF form).

Click full screen, sit back, and turn the sky into a thousand diamonds with this beautifully ethereal time lapse captured in northern Michigan by Shawn Malone. This is North Country Dreamland. 

Ten thousand frames of stellar wonder stitched into a few minutes of earthly wow. Plus a special visit from a blue heron!

Keep looking up, and stay curious.

More of my favorite time lapse videos here and here.