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Category Archives: Space & Astronomy
Ultima Thule is a Red Snowman in Space
From NASA.gov: The first color image of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 85,000 miles (137,000 kilometers) at 4:08 Universal Time on January 1, 2019, highlights its reddish surface. At left is an enhanced color image taken by the … Continue reading
SpaceX sticks the landing
SpaceX Dragon 9 booster lands safely on an autonomous floating platform, after launching a payload into space. Potentially a 10-fold reduction versus current launch costs. Game. Changer. Video at: https://youtu.be/sh8V0COrrzE?t=2129 And Blue Origin isn’t far behind. Update: The payload was the inflatable … Continue reading
Massive 2016 Snowstorm Seen from Space
As #blizzard2016 passes over #Chicago, the #EastCoast seen in distance clearly has a long way to go. #YearInSpacepic.twitter.com/qMrkTXo9ie — Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 23, 2016
Posted in Fun Science, Space & Astronomy
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SpaceX makes history by launching, then landing rocket booster
A new age of space exploration dawns as SpaceX has for the first time landed a first stage rocket booster used on an orbital mission. Some estimate that launch costs can be reduced 10 or even 100-fold if boosters — and their … Continue reading
New Horizons spacecraft spots a wandering Kuiper Belt object
As the New Horizons space craft heads out through the Kuiper Belt at the outer reaches of the solar system, it will be able to capture images of these mysterious objects more detailed than anything previously seen. In the four frame time series above, a … Continue reading
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Live Blogging the 2015 Lunar Eclipse
Updated whenever I remembered to step away from the Broncos game.
Rosetta’s Day in the Sun
The other big space exploration story this year is the ongoing Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, including the reawakening of the Philae probe on the comet surface after 211 days of hibernation. Above are recent images of the comet at its closest approach to … Continue reading
The Vistas of Pluto
New high resolution data inbound from New Horizons contains some amazing views of Pluto. The image above reveals thin upper layers of atmosphere and mountains illuminated at a shallow angle through a surface level haze. Other views have features that resemble parts of an Earth-like … Continue reading
The cold, thin atmosphere of Pluto
Pluto’s thin atmosphere is mainly nitrogen, and leaking away from the planet at a significant rate. Scientists speculate that cryovolcanic activity is continually releasing enough new nitrogen vapor to keep the atmosphere from completely dissappearing. Cryovolcanic. That’s a term you … Continue reading
Tonight’s Perseid meteor shower
No moon, and — for the moment — clear skies are making for some excellent viewing conditions here in Eastern Massachusetts. If you’re still awake, go outside, look up, and wait a bit. I saw two really nice shooting stars … Continue reading
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