And some lagniappe–look up more often!
Guest Video: Scale Model of the Solar System
And some lagniappe–look up more often!
Tag Archives: space exploration
And some lagniappe–look up more often!
Guest Videos: Space Telescopes
You might be able to view this unusual video. I can’t, but it is getting all the good reviews.
They posted “Fistful of Stars” as a regular video, though it’s designed for virtual reality. Check it out, if you can.
That’s actually just art–part of the Hubble Cantata.
Hubble itself is old, in space terms, and new scopes are on the planning horizon.
The next big one will be the Webb Telescope. NASA recently pushed back its launch date to correct sunshield and cable problems found during a March 2018 test. It’s now expected to go up in 2020.
And, as mentioned in that video, the next “space” telescope after Webb will stay on Earth, in Chile’s Atacama Desert! The Giant Magellan Telescope is due for completion in 2025.
Bumping into new discoveries–I like that!
I think.
As Georges Méliès knew back in 1898, astronomers’ dreams sometimes go awry.
Featured image: NASA Hubble
Guest Video: The Moon, Up Close in 2018
This site is someday going to be a major park (no one knows how the huge boulder got there). Learn more about it and other spectacular places on the Moon in the video NASA Goddard released last week!
Here is the LRO website.
Guest Video: Mars Update From NASA
The Curiosity rover passed its 2000-sol mark last week (1 sol = one Martian day, about 39 minutes longer than an Earth day). But the Opportunity rover–which was photographed from a spacecraft in orbit around Mars–has been going for over 5,000 sols!
This year’s InSight mission (launch scheduled for May 5, from Vandenburgh Air Force Base) is going to check out the Red Planet in depth. Here is more information about the 2020 mission.
Featured image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Guest Videos: Juno and Jupiter
We have three Lego figures orbiting the planet Jupiter now.
Seriously.
Why are the instruments in a titanium vault?
Well, for one thing, Jupiter “roars” at you, even before you get there:
For another, Jupiter’s radiation belts are much stronger than Earth’s. Reportedly, particles trapped in those belts actually hit the spacecraft like BBs.
Nevertheless, Juno and its Lego crew have been in orbit for a while now, and are doing well. The images coming back are incredible. You probably saw this one recently. It’s of polar storms:
Scientists have lots of questions, including why these storms don’t merge together. (NASA
Juno has also taken us into the Red Spot:
And recently, the Juno mission to Jupiter accomplished its chief goal by enabling astrophysicists to look inside the gas giant indirectly for the first time.
By doing this —
–scientists found that the Red Spot and all those bands at the surface are an extension of what is going on farther down in the planet.
You might be thinking “of course!”, but it’s not really simple. Look at the ocean and its currents. Deeper currents sometimes follow much different paths than those at the surface.
And Jupiter is a dense fluid, experts say, though it’s made out of hydrogen and helium, not water.
So, congratulations, Juno! You have succeeded at Jupiter, but my favorite series of images are still the ones you took years ago of my home and its orbiting Moon.
Featured image: Artist’s conception of Juno orbiting Jupiter. NASA.
Guest Video: Forms in Nature
We spend a lot of our time putting names on things, personalizing them, and figuring out how we can best use them to move ahead in life.
But our first perception of anything is just its form. All the thinking and imagining and exploitation come later.
This video is an excellent animation, but it also cuts through the whole “naming” part of perception to show that first moment of contact.
It’s a refreshing look at the wide variety of wonders in this world, natural and human.
Guest Reblog: The Face of Mars Rover “Opportunity”
Everybody knows about the Curiosity rover’s “selfie.” But that wasn’t the first Mars rover.
Amazingly, some of the older ones continued exploring the Red Planet long after their mission time was expected to expire. And recently, five thousand Martian days (“sols”) after arriving, one of them took a selfie.
Lookin’ great, Opportunity!
Featured image is by NASA. (I cropped it a little bit.)
They made up this montage in 2010, when Opportunity was a newcomer and 12 miles of Martian travel was considered a huge success. Exploration has gone much farther, in various parts of Mars, since then.
Below is a reblog I really like from Jason Major’s excellent Lights In The Dark blog on space exploration.
It’s finally happened—after over 14 years on Mars (14!!!) NASA’s Opportunity rover has turned its arm-mounted camera around to take a look at itself, giving us the very first true “selfie” of the Mars Exploration Rover mission! Hello Opportunity!
via After 5,000 Sols We See the Face of Opportunity — Lights in the Dark
No Private Indian Moon Mission Next Month
This is too bad.
Here is what was planned:
But reportedly they couldn’t meet the XPRIZE deadline.
Featured image by PIRO4D at Pixabay. Public domain.
Guest Video: Mars Curiosity Rover Update
NASA just released this overlook video – if you’re like me, you’ll have to keep repeating to yourself “this is Mars, this is Mars…”
Guest Video: Exploring the Inner Solar System
NASA
In this six-part series, NASA Goddard’s chief scientist, Jim Garvin, gives a talk on what scientists have found out about Mercury, Venus, Mars, some near-Earth objects, and the Moon. He explains it in a way that helps us to understand our own planet better.
Time is a bit tight this week, so there will be guest videos through Thursday, and then a big post about firestorms on Friday.
