Astronauts Grow First Flower In Space

So have you heard? An edible flower was grown in space - for the first time! Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted the first image last Saturday!...

GeoBeats News

Why Are The Planets In The Order They’re In?

Yes. Why are they? "Why is Uranus in the back?" ;)
Our solar system was created billions of years ago. How exactly did every planet find its current place?...

DNews

Mars Curiosity Descent - Ultra HD 30fps Smooth-Motion

Such an amazing accomplishment by humans! So that's what it's like to land on Mars, all thanks to the Curiosity rover.  A few years ago it captured high resolution photos as it was descending towards Mars, and it took the uploader of this video four weeks, working frame by frame to produce this great 30 fps smooth-version of the descent...

The sounds are added in post-production. Ultra-resolution, smooth-motion, detail-enhanced, color-corrected, interpolated from the original 4 frames per second to 30 frames per second. This video plays real-time at the speed that Curiosity descended to the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012.

 

Maker Life. Science and Technology Videos

Info source: liveleak

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Heli

Get Ready for the Supermoon Eclipse

We've been hearing about this 'supermoon eclipse' - a supermoon PLUS a total lunar eclipse - all happening this weekend, so get those telescopes ready for this rare double feature event...

WIRED

A Strange Woman Walking On Mars

Proof of Life on Mars? Everyone's closely checking out this photo of what appears to be a Lady on Mars, captured from NASA’s Curiosity Rover. UFO Sightings Daily, first brought attention to the photo, saying that the shape “looks like a woman partly cloaked.” You decide. The original photo can be seen further below...

UFOvni2012

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Here is the original picture, as seen on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab website...

Info source: kdvr

EPIC View of Moon Transiting the Earth

This animated vid showing real satellite images of the far side of the moon transiting the Earth is only 20 secs long and 2 days old and has already generated over 1M views on YouTube. Note how much darker the moon looks -  a great demonstration of just how dark the surface of the moon is compared to the Earth as one viewer points out. Usually we see it as the brightest thing in the sky...
 

The moon, illuminated by the sun, crosses between the DSCOVR spacecraft Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and telescope, and the Earth - one million miles away.

 

NASA.gov Video

Sunset on Mars - Gale Crater | Space Video

This not-something-you-see-everyday capture of 4 images of the sun setting on Mars took place over a span of 6 minutes, 51 seconds and was recorded in sequence by the Mars Curiosity rover in Gale Crater on April 15, 2015...

CoconutScienceLab

The Fermi Paradox — Where Are All The Aliens?

"Are we the only living things in the entire universe?" asks the narrator. We doubt it. Especially when you consider for every grain of sand on earth, there are 10,000 stars in the observable universe. That's a lot of stars! Trillions of them and even more planets. So where is everybody? Why haven't we seen any signs of alien lifeforms? We don't know but this 6-min vid with neat visuals by the Kurzgesagt team, (Kurzgesagt - German for  "in a nutshell") is the best explanation we've seen so far...

The Fermi paradox (or Fermi's paradox) is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity's lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations.

 

Kurz Gesagt - In a Nutshell

First Donut in Space

It took months of planning but on April 9th, 2015 a couple of Swedish guys was able to launch a donut into space, 32km up, with a weather balloon from Askim, in Østfold county, Norway and all we have to say about that is - sweet!...

Stratolys

Hyundai - A Message To Space (short edit)

Having 11 (Hyundai) cars and the desert as your canvas makes for one helluva message to create and send to outer space! This young daughter wanted to send her astronaut dad a message. Creative advertising at its best!...

13-year old Stephanie from Houston, Texas, misses her astronaut father working at the International Space Station. Hyundai Motor dispatched 11 Genesis cars to write an epic message measuring the distance of 5.55 km². The creation has been officially recognized as ‘the largest tire track image’ ever by Guinness World Records, proving that distance is no obstacle for Hyundai when uniting loved ones.

 

Hyundai Motor Europe

SMARTER EVERY DAY AND SPACE!!!! - 129

Interesting. Astronaut Donald Pettit uses a laser to turn off a street lamp that's always interrupting his night view of the skies via his telescope. This and more exciting things about space are to come says SmarterEveryDay...  

Asteroid 2004 BL86 Has a Small Moon

If you haven't heard by now, there was an asteroid that flew-by close to earth yesterday and as we've discovered, even an asteroid can have its own moon! Actually, in 1993, a tiny moon called Dactyl was discovered orbiting the large asteroid Ida and since then, several other moons have been discovered orbiting asteroids. 

This recent one, called the Asteroid 2004 BL86 that flew by Earth yesterday, is approximately 1,100 feet (325 meters) across and has a small moon approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across with it. The radar images of the asteroid were taken at its closest distance to Earth - about 800,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers, or 3.1 times the distance from Earth to the moon).
The asteroid fly-by vid below is a compilation from 20 images taken Monday by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California...

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Info source: jpl.nasa

Launch of NASA's Orion deep-space capsule

Orion - the next-generation spacecraft by NASA that promises to take 'tourists' deeper into space to Mars by the 2030s, finally had it's first test flight - and it was a success. 

... Orion needs to be able to reach very high speeds and withstand extreme temperatures and radiation levels.

Orion's first test flight saw no astronauts on board but loaded with nearly 1,200 sensors to measure every aspect of the mission. That will allow NASA to assess whether the journey would have been suitable for astronauts.

The mission tested how Orion fares in the extreme conditions of space travel. NASA has designed the capsule to take up to six astronauts into deep space, and its 16ft-wide heat shield and sophisticated service module are among the features whose durability will be inspected upon return. The capsule not only survived launch and orbit, but temperatures of about 2,200C (4,000F) as it returned through Earth’s atmosphere. NASA also tested an emergency abort function developed to save astronauts in the event of a malfunction during launch. - theguardian

ABC News 24

Planet Earth in 4K

Great time lapse vid of Earth taken in 2011 between May 15th to May 19th, by a geostationary weather satellite called the Elektro-L...

Elektro-L is located ~40,000 km above the Indian ocean, and it orbits at a speed that causes it to remain over the same spot as the Earth rotates. The satellite creates a 121 megapixel image (11136x11136 pixels) every 30 minutes with visible and infrared light wavelengths.

City lights are not visible because they are thousands of times less bright than the reflection of sunlight off the Earth.

James Tyrwhitt-Drake

Comet 67P Sings a Mysterious Song caught by Rosetta Spacecraft

Comet 67P is said to be 'singing' as the Rosetta Spacecraft hovers around it. It is believed to be the result of oscillations in the comet environment's magnetic field, a phenomenon that can be translated into a kind of song, which, by the way, are inaudible to the human ears.  The ESA has 'amplified' its sound by increasing the frequencies to make it audible for us humans on Earth.

Rosetta's magnetometer experiment first picked up the song when it closed in on the comet back in August. "The scientists think it must be produced in some way by the activity of the comet, as it releases neutral particles into space where they become electrically charged due to a process called ionisation. But the precise physical mechanism behind the oscillations remains a mystery,"  the ESA said.

If you really want to freak yourself out, they say compare the comet soundtrack to the clicking sounds Predator makes. (See 2nd vid)

The Cosmos News

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alaerian

Philae Probe Releases First Image from Landing

Philae has finally landed, albeit not according to plan in regards to its anchors not deploying. However, Philae has not only landed but it has released its first image of Comet 67P/C-G...

Space Station Astronauts Grow a Water Bubble in Space

We sure wished we had a pair of these 'red and blue stereoscopic 3D vision glasses' they recommended to view this vid but nevertheless, it was equally just as cool to watch! See the 2nd vid of the 3-D version below...

During Expedition 40 in the summer of 2014, NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman — along with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst — explored the phenomenon of water surface tension in microgravity on the International Space Station. The crew "submerged" a sealed GoPro camera into a floating ball of water the size of a softball and recorded the activity with a 3-D camera. (Video: NASA)

Note: You will need red-blue stereoscopic 3D vision glasses to view the video.

NASA's Marshall Center

 

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Preparing for #CometLanding

This is history in the making folks! If this mission is successful, it could be the key to unlocking answers about the formation of the Solar System, the origins of water on Planet Earth and maybe even life itself! 
On November 12th, after a decade long journey of almost 7 billion kilometres, ESA (The European Space Agency) is going to try to land on a comet - that’s a comet traveling 40 times faster than a speeding bullet, with their Rosetta spacecraft that will deploy the Philae lander on the surface of a tiny, spinning, comet called the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko aka Comet 67P/C-G. Watch the short introductory animated video by ESA below:

Now watch the entire video below by ScienceAtNASA on How To Land On A Comet:

Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum chamber - Human Universe: Episode 4 Preview - BBC Two

Whoa! That was fascinating to watch! Amazing experiment done by Brian Cox to show us the true nature of gravity when a bowling ball and a feather were dropped at the same time under conditions similar to outer space at the  NASA’s Space Power Facility in Ohio ...

BBC

The helical model - our solar system is a vortex

DjSadhu says we've been viewing our solar system 'slightly' wrong all along. This is a more 'accurate' representation than the traditional 'flat' diagrams leading us to believe the sun is 'stationary' and shows us our solar system is actually a vortex travelling at extremely fast speeds through our Galaxy. 
This viral vid from 2012 is once again viralling which, by the way, has garnered not only lots of views on YouTube (over 2M), but also lots of criticisms...