Don't cry for Pluto. Planets aren't the only fascinating worlds in our Solar System.
“Space Cat” by Ruthven Todd;
Illustrated by Paul Galdone (1959)
Ruthven Todd (Pronounced ‘riven’) (1914–1978) was a Scottish poet, artist and novelist, best known as an editor of the works of William Blake, and as a writer of children’s books, including Space Cat
(via mudwerks)
Source: inter-dimensional
Jupiter’s moon Io, photographed by Voyager 2, 10 July 1979.
The end of this blog’s Io-thon follows on from yesterday’s post. The photos used in this gif were taken with longer exposures than yesterday’s, so there is a better contrast between Io and the background. Two volcanic eruptions are clearly visible in the top-left: I think that they are from Amirani and Maui. There’s also an eruption on the right-hand side, but as its only lit by reflected light from Jupiter, it requires a lot of brightening to see (NASA’s photojournal shows it here).
You can also see a volcano in the south, tall enough to stay in sunlight even as the surrounding areas fall into darkness.
Yesterday I mentioned the bright spot glinting near the equator. I asked Jason Perry (who used to write an Io blog) about it on Twitter and he said that it “looks like specular reflection off of glassy, cooled lava near Hi’iaka Patera.” So there you go.
(via n-a-s-a)
Source: pappubahry
Here’s why I could never actually be an astronaut.
Okay, let’s say through some magic combination of Weight Watchers, WiiFit and incredibly patient personal trainer I actually end up physically fit enough for the job. Let’s say somehow I miraculously survive the centrifuge and Vomit Comet without too much crying or barfing. Or cry-barfing. Or barf-crying. Let’s say that I eventually work up the nerve to learn how to use the vacuum toilet. Let’s just pretend the pretty much impossible has happened and I am in space. I am on the moon.
This is what will get me. I step in a moon-hole and land facedown in the moon-dust, feebly wiggling my little arms and legs like Randy in A Christmas Story. Other men and women (who actually HAVE the Right Stuff) would bounce right back up. Like the moon’s made of a particularly rubbery kind of cheese.
Not me. This is where I give up. Anxiety seizes me and after some futile flopping around, I tell Neil Armstrong not to waste his oxygen. To leave me where I lay. I am the the Great Lunar Turtle, unable to turn over. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the lunar module blast off for home. I feebly wave my little astronaut glove, the last of my energy spent on hyperventilation and crying. And President Nixon prepares a speech.
“In ancient days,” he says, “men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood and that one girl who had a debilitating panic attack because she fell down on the moon.”
Source: ikenbot
Source: ikenbot
We recently watched Oblivion, prompting us to ask the question: What if the Earth had no large moon?
In the movie, aliens destroy the Earth’s moon, presumably to throw our planet into chaos. You’d think we’d already be outclassed by the very definition of a species that could accomplish such a feat, but there you go.
Mild spoiler(s) and graphic depictions of shattered satellites ahead!
Would the elimination of the Moon throw our planet into immediate chaos as depicted in the film? What if we never had a large moon in the first place? And what has our nearest natural neighbor in space done for us lately, anyway?
Well. I, for one, would miss it.
Source: http
Music snobbery in space
Apollo 11 audio transcripts
Neil Armstrong: Space Hipster
Source: distractionsinspace
Source: eruptedrainbow
Methanovision composite of Titan assembled from Cassini raw images taken on August 25, 2009.
White areas correspond to areas with more methane absorbtion (less haze) and red-brown area correspond to areas with more haze (north polar hood).
Image is an RGB composite from images in taken with the CB3 CL1, CL1 BL1, and inverted image of the MT3 CL2 filters respectively. Channel mixing was done as well as contrast enhancement and stretching of the original images prior to loading them into the RGB channels. The bright blue crescent is a processing artifact.
North is located toward that top. The “Playboy Peninsula” of the Senkyo-Aztlan margin is at center.
Image credits: NASA/JPL/Mike Malaska
Source: ikenbot
Source: scanzen
On the 12th of April 1961 the 27-year-old carpenter’s son Yuri Gagarin become the first human in space, aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 capsule. He circled the Earth once on a 108-minute space flight, before parachuting safely to ground in the Saratov region of the USSR. His foray into space is regarded as one of the 20th century’s most significant achievements.
Read more about Russia’s most famous cosmonaut
Source: ITAR TASS
(via andrew2themax)
Source: touchrussia
