TagsTagsA time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, ...
Hat tip to Phil Plait for pointing out this great video of last night's lunar eclipse by William Castleman, composed of individual telescopic photographs set to the music of Debussy. [Video]
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, here’s a mind-bending new image of the Carina Nebula.
Awesome launch-camera video of the Apollo 11 moon mission, July 16, 1969, with narration by Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films. [Video]
[Video]
Onion, Satire, Humor, Comedy, Video, NASA, Science, Space, Dating
Here’s a very cool animated flight over the Mojave Crater on Mars, created with accurate terrain data from the University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HIRISE). Check out the 720p version in fullscreen mode. [Video]
A stunning image of the sand dunes near the North Pole of Mars, from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera: Phil Plait explains what you’re seeing: But what are those weird tendril thingies? In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you ...
A great piece at the New York Times by Dennis Overbye looks at the latest research from the Hubble Space Telescope’s new Wide Field Camera 3, which is recording images from a time ever closer to the beginning of the universe itself: With Updated Hubble Telescope, Reaching Farther Back in ...
Astronomy, Milky Way, Galaxies, Photography, Space, Hubble Space Telescope
This really is the new golden age of astronomy. Now the three telescopic stars in this new age (Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer) have been joined by another awesome new tool: VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy). And the VISTA team is now releasing their first images, including this ...
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, ...
Phil Plait has a great description of what you see in this stunning new picture of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, a mosaic comprised of images from the Hubble (visible light), Chandra (X-rays), and Spitzer (infrared) space telescopes. There is so much going on in this image it’s ...
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
A race between gamma rays across 7.3 billion years of time and space has resulted in a virtual tie, confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity once again. The race was between gamma rays of differing energies and wavelengths spit in a burst from an exploding star when the universe was half ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Relativity, Albert Einstein, Speed of Light
I’m an unabashed fan of Carl Sagan. I’ve read all his books, some of them several times, and they’ve enriched my life more than I can express. This video is delightful and sad at the same time — a celebration of one of humanity’s great original intellects. [Video]
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
The Hubble Space Telescope gets all the publicity, but there’s another orbiting telescope that sees into the X-ray spectrum and is also sending back mind-bending images from the depths of space — the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The latest photograph from Chandra shows the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and the ...
Space, Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra Observatory, Astronomy, Milky Way, black hole
The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, and sending back photographs of the universe that can only be described with that overworked word “awesome:” Hubble Opens New Eyes on the Universe. [Video]
Space, Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomy, Galaxies, nebulae, Video
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
By the way, if you’re into rocks and bits of sand that speed through the solar system for billions of years, then burn up in fiery streaks as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, tonight’s your night. The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a good show this ...
Ten years ago APOD ran this photograph, a view from the Mir Space Station of the Moon’s shadow passing over the Earth during a total solar eclipse. (Hat tip: Racer X.)
Science, Solar Eclipse, Photography, Mir Space Station, Space, Space Exploration
From the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, this infrared image shows the impact site where something huge slammed into Jupiter sometime in the last few days, with its relative size compared to Earth.
Space, Astronomy, Jupiter, Asteroid Impact, Keck Observatory, Hawaii
Using his backyard telescope, Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley discovered that the planet Jupiter was recently struck by something very large — leaving an Earth-sized impact site: New NASA Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter. Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first ...
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 Hubble Space Telescope isn’t the only orbiting observatory sending back incredible images from the depths of space; here’s a picture generated by the Chandra X-ray Observatory combined with optical imagery: a group of colliding galaxies known as “Stephan’s Quintet.” Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/E. O’Sullivan Optical: Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/Coelum This beautiful image gives a ...
Space, Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra Observatory, Astronomy, Galaxies