NASA

Showing 44 posts tagged NASA

The Canadian Space Agency has one of the better summary videos about Expedition 34/35’s return to Earth from the International Space Station. Watch CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield and his crewmates Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko climb into the Soyuz spacecraft, separate from ISS, and parachute down before getting extracted out of the amazingly small capsule that brought them safely home. Regarding Hadfield’s historic trip, CSA tweets: 

They also conducted over 130 science experiments, a record amount for the Station.

Our gravity must feel strange after five months of floating.

So how many people are in space right now

With footage taken from the International Space Station, NASA fan Bruce W Berry Jr cleaned up and created this Time-Lapse | Earth homage. The location views are listed in order: 

1. A Jump over the Terminator
2. Sarychev Volcano
3. From Turkey to Iran*
4. Hurricane Irene Hits the US
5. Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean Through the Cupola*
6. Central Great Plains at Night*
7. Aurora Borealis over the North Atlantic Ocean*
8. Aurora Borealis from Central U.S.*
9. Up the East Coast of North America*
10. Myanmar to Malaysia*
11. Western Europe to Central India 
12. Middle East to the South Pacific Ocean
13. Aurora Borealis over Europe*
14. City Lights over Middle East*
15. European City Lights*
16. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
17. Moonglow over Canada and Northern U.S.*
18. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (1)
19. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (2)
20. Stars from the Pacific Ocean (3)
21. Stars and the Milky Way over the Atlantic*
22. The Milky Way and Storms over Africa (1)
23. The Milky Way and Storms over Africa (2)

Footage Note: The slower video represents a closer resemblance to the true speed of the International Space Station; this footage was shot at one frame per second. Clips are all marked with an *.

There are more International Space Station videos in the archives, including a tour of ISS and what is perhaps our favorite time-lapse view: Further Up Yonder: A Message From ISS To All Humankind

Thanks, @MarbleSpark.

Photographer Dan Finnerty’s time lapse view of comet Pan-STARRS over Southern California is breath-taking. The colorful sunset and moon setting doesn’t hurt either. Full screen!

From Forbes

The comet is called C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS, and it’s a frozen ball of dirt with a long tail made of debris. PANSTARRS isn’t coming very close to our planet –the closest it gets is 170 million kilometers, more than 400 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. But the comet’s tail is roughly ten times longer than the Earth is wide, and as it passes through our neighborhood all that ice and dust reflects light, so the comet shines bright in the night sky.

PANSTARRS will remain in our night sky through the end of the month.

Nasa has this helpful graphic in their ScienceCasts: A Naked-Eye Comet so that you might catch a glimpse before the view grows dim.

via Wired Science.

Because doing physics in space can produce some rarely-seen results, NASA astronaut Don Pettit conducted experiments on video while aboard the International Space Station in 2011/12. In this Science Off the Sphere video, he pops balloons in microgravity. Space Balloonacy!

So here’s the test — think about what you think will happen in this scenario. Will the water stay exactly where it was pre-pop, or will it move? If you think it will move, why would it move?

There are Science Off the Sphere videos galore at PhysicsCentral.com.

via Mental Floss.

We’ve seen this experiment a few times before, but never with Hello Kitty “catonaut” in a Japanese rocket made by a 12-year-old. And perhaps not with such a glorious pop:

NASA doesn’t have a lock on space exploration anymore. Just ask Lauren Rojas, a seventh grader in Antioch, Calif., who recently launched a balloon to 93,625 feet using a do-it-yourself balloon kit from High Altitude Science

The project is a terrific illustration of just how accessible the near-space environment has become. High Altitude Science was founded two years ago by Joseph Maydell, a flight controller for the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who wanted everyone to experience the beautiful views of the planet that he got to see in the course of his work.

Not only does Maydell sell a kit and a flight computer on his site, but he also includes tutorials to get started with.

From the archives, more views of Earth’s curvature

via Scientific American.