RIP Sally Ride, the first American woman in space

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Challenger, died, NASA, Sally Ride, science, woman in space

Sally Ride floats alongside Challenger’s middeck airlock hatch. Caption and photo courtesy of NASA

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, passed away yesterday after battling pancreatic cancer. She was 61.

“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in this release. “The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally’s family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly.”

Ride made the history books when she rode to orbit on Challenger’s STS-7 mission in 1983. The very next year, she took another trip to orbit.

After the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle tragedies, Ride helped investigate the accidents. She was the only person to serve on both investigation boards.

Check out this great video of Ride talking about flying into orbit and what she saw when she looked at Earth from the space shuttle’s window. Spectacular!

RIP Sally Ride.

 

Don’t miss the transit of Venus this Tuesday

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crosses the sun, June 5, science, transit, transit of Venus, Venus

Are you as excited as we are?

In North America, the transit of Venus will occur this Tuesday, June 5 around sunset. It’ll be the last time we’ll get to see this spectacular event until 2117. So, in other words, this is your last chance so you better not miss it! Too much? Maybe. But maybe not!

Anyway, we’re hoping there’s good weather so we could actually see something. But please remember not to stare directly into the sun. You can get more information about safely viewing the transit in the infographic below.

But before you do that, check out the video above. It has some pretty good background that will get you up to speed.

Happy viewing! And don’t you worry. If the weather is bad, we’ll find some live viewing parties online to direct you to.

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

An interactive scale of the universe – Have fun!

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Cary Huang, Interactive universe, scale of the universe, science, The Scale of the Universe 2

You’re not going to be able to stop zooming in and out of this amazing, interactive scale of the universe.

http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?bordercolor=white

Please share your comments with us here. We want to know how much this messed with your brain. It sure messed us up! In a good way, of course.

Oh and apparently this was made by two 14-year-olds who worked on it for a year. They thought it was a fun project. Impressive, right?