Onelargeprawn
XKCD and Minute Physics team up to create an informative video on how to go to space. Instead of throwing complex terms like gravity, escape velocity, and rockets at the viewer, they use ten hundred simple English words to break it down. You certainly don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand how to get the fire-water filled up-goer into space. Check it out.
[via Popular Mechanics]
Black holes are like the most terrifying serial killers in the universe. You shouldn’t need reasons to stay away from black holes but if you’re looking for one, here’s a little animation for you.
In this artist rendering from NASA, a star passes a little too close to a black hole and experiences what is called a “tidal disruption”. The star is torn to pieces and the black hole wears the debris like a memento. Check it out below.
[via The Verge]
Space is big. Really big. It would take a gargantuan trek of 21.24 billion kilometres for you to reach the outer edges of our solar system, and a further 435 sextillion (that’s 10 to the power of 21!) kilometres to reach the furthest region of the observable universe. There is so much to explore but what we’ve seen so far has been incredibly beautiful.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory keeps an extensive catalogue of cosmic images taken by the various spacecraft up in the heavens. Here’s a small selection of our favourites space images taken in 2013.
When it came to the Voltron Force, Commander Keith was the star of the show. In an alternate universe where the lions have been replaced with robotic space rhinoceri, the pecking order isn’t quite set.
While the planet is set upon by a malevolent galactic nematode, the colour-coded pilots are fighting another war. Watch as the over-qualified geek, the jack-ass jock, and stoic leader-in-waiting wax lyrical on why they should be the one in charge.
Dyna-therms are connected and infra-cells are up in the animated music video for MC Frontalot’s I’ll Form The Head. Check it out below.
[via The Twiddler]
We’ve seen some remarkable photos and videos that look out from the International Space Station but not very many that look in.
Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams has spent some 321 days aboard the ISS, as a flight engineer and more recently as a commander of an expedition. She has gone for walkabouts outside and is the first person in the world to do a triathlon in space. In this video, Williams takes us on a tour of the space craft that she has called home for almost a year, showing the different modules, sleeping quarters, kitchens, and orbital outhouses from her perspective. This is most likely the geekiest version of MTV Cribs you’re likely to see.
[via Kottke]
Since the beginning of the expeditions, the International Space Station (ISS) has been home to scientists and astronauts from around the world.
These people from the United States, Russia, Canada, Italy, Japan, and Germany have worked in mutual collaboration off the earth, for the earth. This is part of the message in Giacomo Sardelli’s wonderful time-lapse video. In it he stitched together photographs captured from the ISS and included short radio messages recorded by astronauts who gaze upon the Earth and see a world without borders. Have a look at Further Up Yonder below.
To see the video in 2K and how it was made, head over to Sardelli’s blog.
[via PetaPixel]
Reid Gower found himself on a 6-month trip travelling between five U.S. states and to seven other countries. He decided to make his first ever time-lapse video. Entitled Natural Phenomena, Gower’s compilation shows not only the beauty of nature but also of our urban jungles.
Aside from the flashing lights, picturesque mountains, shiny sun dogs, and the quintessential aurorae, the video includes a very special view taken from the edge of space. Have a look at Natural Phenomena below.
[via Mashable]
If you thought Don Pettit’s star trail photos are out of this world, then you’re sure to appreciate this stellar effort.
A number of people have used NASA’s Image Science & Analysis Laboratory source of photos to create stunning time-lapse videos of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station. The latest video from photographer Knate Myers is no different. Myers adds a touch of Photoshop to enhance some of the NASA shots and uses the tune “Sunshine” by composer John Murphy. Have a look at View from the ISS at Night below.
[via The Verge]
The photos of Don Pettit are literally out of this world. The NASA astronaut spends a considerable amount of time aboard the International Space Station, so much so that he has even constructed a device specifically for taking photos of the Earth’s surface from the satellite.
While star trail photography is commonplace, it’d be a treat to see them from a different vantage point and Pettit is happy to oblige. He explains the technique he used to create his ISS Star Trails:
My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.
Have a look at the increbible star trails from space after the jump.
Envisat (or “Environmental Satellite”) is an Earth-observing satellite that was launched into space by the European Space Agency a little over a decade ago. In that time the €2.3 billion, 8-ton satellite has orbited the Earth thousands of times and had beamed down data that has helped scientists to study ozone depletion, the spread of pollution, and monitor maritime traffic.
Envisat has also taken a few photos during its tenure. Wired Magazine celebrates the 10th anniversary of the satellite with a gallery of images of the earth as shot from space. Have a look at some of the beautiful topographies after the jump.