The Cassini probe, in orbit around Saturn, has captured a new radar image showing a long river on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. From the European Space Agency: "The international Cassini mission has spotted what appears to be a miniature extraterrestrial version of the Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more …
Tag: NASA
Earth at Night
NASA recently released Earth at Night, a global view of the planet at night, with city lights, oilfield flares, night time fishing fleets, and auroras. Google has created a wonderful viewer for this data, which can be found at its Earth at Night 2012 site. Grace and Peace
Vesta video
From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: NASA Dawn's Virtual Flight Over Asteroid Vesta Grace and Peace
Lunar topography
From NASA: LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon. The science team that oversees the imaging system on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created. This new topographic map, from Arizona State University in Tempe, shows the surface shape …
Seven years of Opportunity
The rover Opportunity has been on the surface of Mars for over seven years now. From Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 29th: Opportunity at Santa Maria Crater. The panorama is much more detailed on the APOD site. The description from APOD: Celebrating 7 years on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars exploration …
Ice on the Moon
From Astronomy Picture of the Day 10/25/2010: Water Ice Detected Beneath Moon's Surface Blue is hydrogen-rich (probably water ice) and red is hydrogen-poor. The explanation from the APOD site: Is there enough water on the moon to sustain future astronauts? The question has important implications if humanity hopes to use the Moon as a future …
NASA going nowhere?
From Yahoo! News: Senators to NASA chief: Go somewhere specific President Obama's budget proposal would axe NASA's planned trip to the moon. So where should NASA send astronauts? The long-term goal is to send astronauts to Mars, but what are good shorter-term objectives? Here are two items that caught my attention regarding a future trip …
Earth Observatory — recent images
Some recent images from NASA's Earth Observatory Image of the Day: Grace and Peace
Anak Krakatau
From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Erupting Volcano Anak Krakatau. You will have to go to APOD to see it in all its glory. Grace and Peace
Sarychev Peak eruption
From NASA's Earth Observatory: Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands, Russia. From the Earth Observatory description: A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. [...] Ash from the multi-day eruption has been …
Drought and recovery
These images from the NASA Earth Observatory show areas of drought (brown = below average plant growth) and excess plant growth (green = above average plant growth). Northern Iraq is suffering a severe drought. Much of the country's grain is dependent on seasonal rainfall rather than irrigation: Grain-producing regions of Afghanistan, on the other hand, …
A cheaper way to get humans to Mars: One-way tickets
NASA's Astrobiology Magazine has the text of a presentation given by physicist Paul Davies: A One-way Ticket to Mars. The greatest expense in sending a group of astronauts to Mars is actually getting them back to Earth. Davies estimates that we may be able to save up to 80% of the costs by sending a …
Continue reading A cheaper way to get humans to Mars: One-way tickets
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — Winning image
The votes are in from the NASA Earth Observatory's viewers' favorites contest, and the winning image out of over 3000 possibilities is: A view of Earth from Saturn. To see the top ten vote-getters go to Earth Observatory's Top Ten Images of the Day. Grace and Peace
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites — final day of voting
Monday, April 27th is the last day to vote for your favorite image from NASA's Earth Observatory. Grace and Peace
Sand dunes on Mars
From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Flowing Barchan Sand Dunes on Mars This view includes crescent-shaped barchans as well as lonitudinal dunes. The prevailing wind is from the right to the left. Grace and Peace
Ares-I and Ares-V
The space shuttle is being phased out. Here is an artist's depiction of part of the replacement, the Ares-I launch vehicle, which is scheduled for its first test launch this summer: The Ares-I will be used for carrying crews into Earth orbit. The crew capsule will look similar to that used in the Apollo missions …
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites — final round
Out of over 3000 images that have appeared over the past ten years on the NASA Earth Observatory site, viewers have voted and narrowed it down to their favorite 50. From now until April 27th, viewers can vote for their favorite out of these 50, and the winning image will be announced on April 29th. …
Continue reading NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites — final round
Space shuttle — 28 years
This week marks the 28th anniversary of the first launch of the space shuttle. It is hard to believe the shuttle fleet is that old. HT: NASA Image of the Day Gallery Grace and Peace
NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites
The NASA Earth Observatory is ten years old (this is where I get many of the images I show on The GeoChristian). For most of that time, EO has featured a new image every day, for a total of over 3,000 fantastic images of the Earth (mostly). EO is asking for its viewers to vote …
Continue reading NASA Earth Observatory turns 10 — vote for your favorites
Moon rover
NASA's Image of the Day Gallery has a concept of what the next lunar rover will look like: Here's the description from NASA: NASA's Next Generation Moon Rover In the year 2020, NASA will be back on the moon. This time NASA will explore thousands of miles of the moon's surface with individual missions lasting …
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