Tag Archives: NASA

Amazing and cool. A giant solar tornado – five times the Earth’s diameter – swirling at incredible speed of some 186,000 mph has been captured on video by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. ­This is the first time a giant solar twister has been caught on video. Solar tornadoes, known as solar prominences, are shaped by the sun’s magnetic field and …

NASA has released a super-high resolution image of the Earth.

Description: The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth is called the umbra. Shaped like a cone extending into space, it has a circular cross section most easily seen during a lunar eclipse. For example, last Saturday the Full Moon slid across the southern half of Earth’s umbral shadow, entertaining moonwatchers around much of the planet. In the total phase of …

NASA reports: It’s the closest match to Earth that has yet been found. Recently discovered planet Kepler 22b has therefore instantly become the best place to find life outside our Solar System. The planet’s host star, Kepler 22, is actually slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun, and lies 600 light-years from Earth toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). …

Los Angeles Times reports: With the roar of an Atlas 5 engine, NASA on Saturday began its boldest venture yet to another planet — sending the Mars Science Laboratory on an eight-month journey expected to provide more detailed information about whether the Red Planet is, or ever has been, hospitable to life.Its payload was the rover Curiosity, the largest and …

A sunspot so massive it can be seen without a telescope is expected to remain active for another week. (For scale, an image of the Earth was inserted above.) Scientists recently concluded that sunspot activity has an effect on the Earth’s weather, but to what degree remains unknown.

The crashing satellite landed in the ocean. All those arguments about the probability of being hit? Feh.

In the mere 54 years since the advent of the space age, the nations of Earth have created an orbiting trash pile of more than 150,000 pieces of junk. Now, finally, comes the call for a clean-up campaign. Because it has become increasingly difficult to fly through all that crap. The National Research Council says that the amount of space …

Just in from the ISS: From 230 miles above the Earth, cameras on the International Space Station captured new views of powerful Hurricane Irene as it churned over the Bahamas on August 26, 2011. Irene is moving to the northwest as a Category 3 hurricane, packing winds of 120 miles an hour. Irene is expected to strengthen to a Category …

(Via – Boing Boing)

A years-long drought in Texas has lowered the water in one lake to the point that the above piece of the space shuttle Columbia has been revealed. In 2003, the Columbia disintegrated over Texas during its reentry to the atmosphere.

(Source)

Speaking from beyond the grave…

Father and son attend the first Space Shuttle launch. And the last. Much bigger version at the link.

Today’s is the 39th and final launch of the space shuttle Discovery. I was there at the Cape for the Discovery’s first launch in 1984 as a lowly news assistant/gopher for WMFE-PBS in Orlando. It was a terrible gig and my first real post-college jobby-job, but I did get to attend three shuttle launches in the six months I lasted. …

Where were you on this day in 1986?

OK, maybe not ominous…but definitely intriguing. NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood. The news conference will originate from NASA Headquarters’ television studio, 300 E St. SW in Washington and carried live on NASA TV. Media representatives may …

Astronaut Doug Wheelock tweeted this photo of Hurricane Earl from the International Space Station this morning. Follow the NASA astronauts on Twitter here.

Rep. Alan Grayson opposes the president’s plan to dismantle the space program and turn future endeavors over to private industry. Grayson’s congressional district in Central Florida doesn’t include the Kennedy Space Center, but many space industry employees live in and around Orlando.