TagsTagsNASA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, launched about 90 days ago, has produced an absolutely amazing super high resolution full-disc image of the Earth, produced in several passes over Central America. Click to enlarge You can also download a giant, incredibly detailed image (8,000 x 8,000 pixels) from NASA.
For a change of pace from the nasty details of Anthony Weiner's creepy "sexting" and Andrew Breitbart's creepy lies, here's a simply gorgeous video released today by NASA, shot by astronauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft that had just undocked from the International Space Station. Looks so nice and clean up there. ...
That announcement from NASA-funded scientists of the discovery of a bacterium that could incorporate arsenic into its DNA came in for quite a bit of criticism this week; in fact, it looks like the initial publicity about the discovery ("an arsenic-based life form!") was mostly hype. Carl Zimmer has a great ...
Biology, Mono Lake, NASA, Biochemistry, Extraterrestrial Life
New temperature measurements released yesterday by NASA show that 2010 was the warmest year ever recorded. The 2010 meteorological year, which ended on 30 November, was the warmest in NASA's 130-year record, data posted by the agency today shows. Over the oceans as well as on land, the average global ...
NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon and her team today announced an astonishing discovery, in the poisonous waters of California's Mono Lake: a new type of bacteria that does not share the basic biological building blocks of any other organism on Earth. The new life form, dubbed GFAJ-1, has a biochemistry ...
Biology, Mono Lake, NASA, Biochemistry, Extraterrestrial Life
NASA’s Earth Observatory has released a high resolution image (10MB) of the Gulf of Mexico, showing the frighteningly gigantic scale of the oil spill disaster. Click for enlarged detail (Hat tip: Thanos.)
Oil, Offshore Drilling, disaster, Deepwater Horizon, BP, NASA, Photography
Two separate sources of climate data have confirmed that this April was the warmest April ever recorded — and the world’s average temperature was the highest on record for the January-April period: 2010: Warmest year on record so far. Two separate sources of temperature data – the National Climatic Data ...
For a graphic illustration of the appalling size of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, NASA’s Terra satellite took this natural color photograph of the gigantic oil slick approaching the coastline of Louisiana yesterday: Gulf Oil Spill Creeps Towards Mississippi Delta. Click to enlarge
Awesome launch-camera video of the Apollo 11 moon mission, July 16, 1969, with narration by Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films. [Video]
Here’s a video from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies with stunning satellite imagery, illustrating the basic principles of global warming. If you already know the basics, you won’t get any new information from this — but it’s worth watching anyway for the pretty pictures. The 720p HD version is ...
Global Warming, Science, AGW, Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide, CO2, NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies
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Onion, Satire, Humor, Comedy, Video, NASA, Science, Space, Dating
Lord High Climate Denier Christopher Monckton, fresh from his latest appearance on the radio show of 9/11 Truther Alex Jones (during which he compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler), told an Australian audience yesterday that NASA deliberately planned the crash of a satellite during launch last year, because it would ...
Global Warming, Science, AGW, Climate Change, Christopher Monckton, Conspiracy Theories, Alex Jones, Rhinovirus, NASA
When NASA deliberately crashed the LCROSS satellite into the moon last month, the media spun the event as a dud because the impact didn’t create a huge glowing explosion and pretty pictures for the nightly news. In fact, it wasn’t even visible from Earth at all. But it was no dud, ...
A spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope’s newly-installed Wide Field Camera 3, showing a birthplace of stars in the nearby galaxy M83: Hubble Image Showcases Star Birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel. (Hat tip: Phil Plait, who has interesting commentary on how this image was generated, and what you’re seeing.) ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Photography, Galaxies, Universe
Newly released images from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys give us a look at two galaxies that are losing it. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) allows astronomers to study an interesting and important phenomenon called ram pressure stripping that is so powerful, it is capable of ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Photography, Galaxies, Universe
A fascinating discovery, from the tail of a comet 242 million miles away from Earth: Building block of life found on comet. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that ...
Science, Space, NASA, Comet, Astronomy, origin of life, Space Exploration
Here’s an excellent high definition video on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field images, with a 3D simulation that flies you through Hubble’s most awe-inspiring photographs. The Deep Field images were created by pointing the Hubble Space Telescope for several days at a tiny patch of apparently empty sky — “empty” sky ...
Science, Space, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Photography, Deep Field, Galaxies, Universe
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has sent back pictures of the landing sites of five Apollo moon missions; after 40 years in the airless environment, you can still see the tracks of the Apollo 14 astronauts, where they walked through the lunar dust to set up some scientific instruments: LRO Sees ...
NASA, Apollo, Moon Landing, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Space, Space Exploration
The first crystal clear images from the high resolution cameras on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have been released, showing an area near the Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds): NASA - LRO’s First Moon Images.
Science, Space, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon, NASA, Photography
The space shuttle Atlantis glided in to a perfect landing in California this morning, after a very successful 13-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle was rerouted to California because of poor weather conditions in Florida. Total distance traveled during the mission: 5.3 million miles. Image credit: ...
NASA, Space Shuttle, Atlantis, Space Exploration, Science, Hubble Space Telescope
The astronauts are finished with their repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope, and now we can’t wait to see the images from the powerful new instruments they’ve installed. They’re doing tool inventory and cleanup before ending their final spacewalk; you can watch live at NASA TV.
NASA, Space Shuttle, Atlantis, Space Exploration, Science, Hubble Space Telescope
The astronauts from shuttle Atlantis are working on the Hubble Space Telescope right now, entering the fourth hour of their spacewalk. You can watch live at NASA TV; as I write there’s a glorious view of the Earth with an astronaut silhouetted against it, as they pass over Africa at ...
NASA, Space Shuttle, Atlantis, Space Exploration, Science, Hubble Space Telescope
Space shuttle Atlantis is about to latch onto the Hubble Space Telescope to begin its repair mission; here’s the live feed from NASA TV as Atlantis approaches the telescope: [Live feed now disabled...] UPDATE at 5/13/09 10:17:48 am: It’s so cool to watch this live — the shuttle has successfully used its grappling ...
NASA, Space Shuttle, Atlantis, Space Exploration, Science, Hubble Space Telescope
A perfect launch this morning sent the space shuttle Atlantis into orbit, ready to begin an 11-day mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA TV is replaying the launch on their video channel.
NASA, Space Shuttle, Atlantis, Space Exploration, Science, Hubble Space Telescope