Tags
New Horizons is successful in flyby of Pluto
14 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted New Horizons, Pluto
in14 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted New Horizons, Pluto
inTags
27 Thursday Feb 2014
Posted Photo of the week
inTags
We have another Martian oddity on our hands.
In this late 2013 image of the red planet, a field of dunes appear in V-shaped formation. Located on a large crater in an old Martian valley, the dunes number in the dozens.
“For dune fields, the spacing of individual dunes is a function of sand supply, wind speed, and topography,” according to NASA.
The formations have been likened to migratory bird formations and even a popular sci-fi show.
@NASA @HiRISE These shapes remind me of something but I just can’t put my finger on it https://t.co/u3BWIZNST4 pic.twitter.com/DOiV85Dmg1
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 19, 2014
Ha!
27 Thursday Feb 2014
Tags
Discoveries, Discovery, Kepler, Kepler mission, NASA, planets
The Kepler planet-hunting mission continues to rake in results.
Over 700 new planets have been discovered, Kepler researchers announced yesterday. A large majority of the planets – about 95 percent – are the size of Neptune, which is four times larger than Earth.
Kepler has been searching for planets outside of our Solar System for several years now. This discovery brings the total number of confirmed exoplanets to 1,700. That’s amazing! And, there are still over 3,000 potential planets that have not yet been confirmed.
This infographic explains how scientists have detected exoplanets and the small portion of sky Kepler has focused its attention.
26 Wednesday Feb 2014
Posted Solar activity, Video
in
The sun released a “significant” solar flare Monday – a monster in fact, according to some media reports. The powerful blast of radiation doesn’t seem to be headed our way, but if it were, NASA says not to worry. Earth’s atmosphere protects us from being harmed by radiation. However, we might have some problems tweeting.
… when intense enough [solar flares] can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.”
Not good. Here’s more about Monday’s flare:
These @NASA_SDO images from Feb. 24, show the first moments of an X-class flare http://t.co/qw1Kphfxuz pic.twitter.com/3Sl6ZXrMPR
— NASA Goddard Images (@NASAGoddardPix) February 25, 2014
Some believe a large enough flare could cause damage to the North American electrical grid, the effects of which could leave Western nations in the dark for months. But that’s for another time. If you’re interested in learning more about solar flares and the sun’s active cycle – which is happening right now!! – check out some of our past posts.
06 Thursday Feb 2014
Posted launch, Photo of the week
inTags
atmosphere, bill ingalls, Cape Canaveral, launch, Mars mission, MAVEN, NASA
This photo is amazing! I can’t believe I didn’t see it make the rounds last November.
Here we see the spacecraft MAVEN launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at the tail end of 2013. NASA researchers hope to learn a bit more about Mars’ upper atmosphere, which disappeared millions of years ago. So far, everything is on track with MAVEN, which will begin orbiting the red planet in mid-September.
How far has the spacecraft traveled since this picture was taken? More than 137 million miles. Go, Maven!
01 Saturday Feb 2014
Much has changed since the beginning of space exploration. What better way to look back at all the advancements than by illustrating them with an infographic?
Thanks to Meilen L. for sending this my way.
Space Travel: Then and Now [Infographic] [Infographic] by the team at Wish.co.uk
Posted by Lillian M. Ortiz | Filed under Shuttle program
31 Friday Jan 2014
Who doesn’t love the Jovian moon Europa?
It has mystery, intrigue and so much possibility. One of Jupiter’s largest moons, Europa has the potential to harbor life, according to researchers, who believe an ocean of water exists below the satellite’s frigid surface. Most recently, there’s been some evidence to support that claim.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured images of water vapor surrounding the northern region of the icy moon. Researchers are confident that the vapor is caused by erupting water plumes on Europa’s surface.
Should further observations support the finding, this would make Europa the second moon in the solar system known to have water vapor plumes.
The first moon believed to have ejected water vapor is Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons.
The search for water is paramount to the search for life and scientists believe there are countless areas in our solar system and beyond that have H20. Here’s a photo gallery of some of the places that are believed to have had or have water. Which is your fav?
27 Wednesday Nov 2013
Ever wonder what astronauts eat on Thanksgiving while they’re in orbit? (Spoiler alert: It doesn’t look too appetizing.) Skip to the two-minute mark for some weightless fun with food.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
04 Friday Oct 2013
Posted NASA
inIt feels like forever since we’ve been able to log onto NASA’s website, and even longer since we’ve seen a tweet from one of its affiliated accounts.
Three days into this government shutdown and we’re getting a bit antsy.
Scrolling through Twitter feeds tonight, we found a cool, new campaign that is keeping the lines of science open. On Oct. 1, @RidingRobots tweeted:
People seem to like #ThingsNASAMightTweet. We do!
https://twitter.com/DownhereonEarth/status/385971401993093120
https://twitter.com/KristenFitzpat1/status/385954523254390784
27 Monday May 2013
Posted Solar activity, Video
inTags
2013, flares, NASA, solar flare, x-class
It’s been awhile since I posted anything about solar flares. (Though, it’s also been awhile since I’ve written about anything in general … Hopefully the astronomy news hanging out in the dark tunnels of my email archive will soon see the light.) Anyway, here’s a video of X-Class solar flares, a first for 2013.
The video was taken earlier this month when, within a 24-hour time period, the sun emitted three fairly large flares.