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jtotheizzoe:

carlzimmer:

Compared to Jupiter’s moon Europa, our planet is practically a desert, as this NASA image shows.

(Details at APOD: 2012 May 24 - All the Water on Europa)

Wow. I’ve seen the Earth droplet many times, but never next to Europa. Perspective, you haz it.

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jtotheizzoe:

A Self-Portrait of Opportunity

I want you to stop and think about something. This is a picture of another planet. Where this robot is. Right now.

As we sit here on Earth in this or any moment, we each have in our heads a flurry of worries and questions and ideas. And most of them pertain to our own lives. That’s okay, it’s human nature. We are each the center of our own universe.

I often think about this in crowded places, like while in traffic, as the place I’m going is far more important than the place all of these other people are going. I’m convinced that they feel the same way. And so we sit.

But that means that there are seven billion mental universes walking around on this planet. We are staring into them through little digital windows that we carry in our hands, and certain that this decision is the most important decision. Everything that is happening is happening to us.

Yet for the past eight years, there has been a dusty, six-wheeled rover crawling around the surface of Mars, completely alone. Incidentally, that rover has exceeded its expected mission of 90 days by thirty-two times over. That’s admirable, and I can’t help but personify the little guy. Like a sort of scrappy, diligent explorer, quietly working hard for the benefit of someone else. “No complaints, boss!” Like Johnny 5 meets Wall-E.

And so we get images like this, reminding us that every day we can look beyond our personal universe. What a thought! Look at how much is out there. Think of what else we could see! Let’s go.

(via mohandasgandhi)

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ikenbot:

June 5th Transit of Venus Offers Last-Chance Views

Look skyward, space-lovers: Tuesday, June 5 is the last chance in your lifetime to see the transit of Venus across the face of the sun.

Venus won’t visibly pass between the Earth and the sun again until 2117.

how do I see this without blinding myself? 

(via fyeahcarlsagan)

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discoverynews:

Our Exoplanet View of Venus Is Coming

Next week, Venus will partake in a spectacle that won’t happen for another century.

keep reading

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(via bonesniffer)

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mothernaturenetwork:

Transit of Venus puts spotlight on planetary sun crossings
Planetary transits have allowed scientists to measure the size of the solar system, including determining the distance between the Earth and the sun.

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cozydark:

NASA’s NuSTAR Gearing Up for Launch |

Final pre-launch preparations are underway for NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The mission, which will use X-ray vision to hunt for hidden black holes, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The observatory will launch from the belly of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s L-1011 “Stargazer” aircraft aboard the company’s Pegasus rocket.

Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California are busy installing the rocket’s fairing, or nose cone, around the observatory. A flight computer software evaluation is also nearing completion and should be finished before the Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for June 1. A successful launch simulation of the Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus XL rocket was conducted last week.

The mission plan is for NuSTAR and its rocket to be attached to the Stargazer plane on June 2. The aircraft will depart California on June 5 and arrive at the Kwajalein launch site on June 6. The launch of NuSTAR from the plane is targeted for 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on June 13.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission’s outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA’s Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA

(via itsfullofstars)

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discoverynews:

guardian:

We can’t get enough of the solar eclipse photos and footage. On this picture, sun spots are visible as the moon moves into full eclipse position. Unlike in a total solar eclipse, the moon in an annular eclipse appears too small to cover the sun completely, leaving a ‘ring of fire’ effect

Photograph: JAXA/NASA/Hinode via Getty Images

Love this one. We also created this slideshow from many Tumblr submissions (and a few from Twitter and Facebook)

More here

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breakingnews:

SpaceX Dragon capsule recovered from Pacific Ocean

SpaceX has shared the 1st photo of its Dragon capsule in the Pacific Ocean. The capsule has been recovered after splashing down earlier today and is on a barge heading back to land.

(Photo via http://twitter.com/SpaceX)

the-star-stuff:

Sexiest Images From Saturn

#1. On the night side of Saturn, the planet casts a dark shadow over its rings. The moon Tethys can be seen in the upper right of the image, and the moon Enceladus is visible in the lower right. This image was taken May 30, 2010.

#2. Cassini did a flyby of the 50-mile-wide Pandora moon on June 3, 2010.

#3. In the rings on the left, the moon Daphnis (5 miles across) affects ring material as it orbits. The material on the inner edge of Daphnis orbits faster than the moon, and the material on the outer edge orbits more slowly, which causes the waves. On the right, Pan (17 miles across) also causes waves. Image taken June 3, 2010.

#4. The larger Rhea looms over its sibling moon Epimetheus with Saturn and its rings in the background. The two moons are actually about 250,000 miles apart. Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon at 946 miles across and Epimetheus is only 70 miles across. This image was taken in visible green light on March 24, 2010.

#5. Enceladus tiger stripes are active geologic regions that spew out jets of ice and other gases. It is one of only four bodies in the solar system where active eruptions have been seen. Under the outer layer of ice there might be a liquid ocean, which could make the moon capable of supporting life. This image was taken May 28, 2010.

#6. Dione is overshadowed by Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons at 3200 miles across — twice the diameter of our moon, and larger than the planet Mercury.  It is also the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and surface liquid. This image was taken April 20, 2010.

#7. Moons Tethys and Rhea are visible beyond Saturn’s southern hemisphere. They orbit in the plane of the planet’s rings, but from this vantage point appear to be below the planet. Tethys is near the center of the image, and Rhea is on the lower right. Image taken June 29,2010.

#8. The moon Tethys makes its way around Saturn. Tethys is an icy moon, thought to be composed almost entirely of liquid ice all the way through because its density is almost exactly that of water. This image was taken June 9, 2010.

Images: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

(via uraniaproject)