Home/Posts Tagged ‘NASA’
Posts Tagged ‘NASA’
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, May 3rd, 2013,
I wouldn’t, but tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people would – and have. A Dutch company called Mars One is planning the first manned mission to Mars for 2018, when Earth and the red planet will be best aligned for a swift 521-day journey between them. One way, of course. The four-person crew will not be able to bathe for the entire duration and will have to drink what they excrete. After it’s been processed, I assume. The journey is to be financed by television rights to the story, basically reality TV in space. Sounds dreadful, right? I’ve said this…
Tags: manned mission to mars, mars one, NASA
Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 22nd, 2012,
Members of Colombia’s Nasa tribe are demanding that both government troops and leftist rebels leave their lands. Nasa territory has been the battle ground for a bloody offensive by the Colombian military against FARC rebels, claiming mainly civilian lives. Tribal protesters wielding wooden clubs and spears forced members of the military from their lands (the Nasa shun the use of firearms). They have also conducted trials against FARC rebels who could face banishment, flogging or being kept in stocks as punishment. From the Associated Press: The conflict claims hundreds if not thousands of lives a year, mostly civilians killed in…
Tags: Colombia, FARC, indigenous, Military, NASA
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, May 3rd, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick I’ve never told anyone this before, but when I was a kid, I always wanted a rubber chicken. Many of the comedic heroes of my childhood got to play with them — the Three Stooges, for example, and Soupy Sales (I’m dating myself and revealing my lowbrow side all at once here). It’s not like they were all that hard to find, even before the Internet. I also had a slightly more elevated set of interests, including an endless fascination with the space program. I was too young to be aware of Sputnik, but I watched…
Tags: NASA, NASA rubber chicken, NASA rubber chicken Camilla, space, space exploration
Climate Change, Conservation, Nature, Science & Technology, Apr 5th, 2012,
One of the most striking changes that has taken place in the Arctic since the start of satellite monitoring in 1979 is the rapid decline of the perennial sea ice cover. This ice is the sea ice that survives the summer melt season, and is typically the thickest part of the sea ice cover, sometimes spanning several years. Sea ice extent has declined as the globe has warmed, but the ice cover has thinned as well. Thinner sea ice melts more easily, and as multiyear sea ice is lost, Arctic sea ice has declined more rapidly. This NASA visualization shows…
Tags: arctic ice, Climate change, climatecentral.org, melting arctic ice, melting ice caps, NASA
Climate Change, Conservation, Science & Technology, Mar 29th, 2012,
Video Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio A nifty animation from NASA illustrating the paths of global ocean surface currents from June 2005 through December 2007. Surface currents circulate water of varying temperature around the globe and thus play a significant role in weather and climate patterns. Note the Gulf Stream along the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean. This powerful current transfers warm water away from the equator and up into the North Atlantic Ocean, in turn warming the climate along the eastern coast of North America and the western coast of Europe. It is believed that…
Tags: climatecentral.org, NASA, oceans, science
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 10th, 2012,
The aurora borealis, or ‘northern lights’ is an amazing phenomenon that occurs when a solar wind of charged electrical particles enters the Earth’s magnetic field. When these particles hit the Earth’s upper atmosphere above the Arctic region, the atmosphere produces an incredible spectacle of spectral multi-colored lights that ‘dance’ in the night sky. NASA has recently released a time lapse video composed of some 500 photographs of the aurora borealis taken by digital cameras on the International Space Station. From BBC News: By combining hundreds of stills taken from the International Space Station, they have produced the first ‘moving’ images…
Tags: Aurora Borealis, NASA, Northern Lights, space, video
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Feb 2nd, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman NASA released a new, high-resolution “Blue Marble” image of Earth this week, taken from instruments aboard the recently launched Suomi NPP satellite. The image is actually a composite of many pictures from Jan. 4, 2012 that were stitched together, and shows North America in stunning detail. One feature that is notably absent from the picture is snow cover, which is confined to parts of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada. In many parts of the country, snowfall has been running well below average so far this year. The image was taken by one of the five instruments…
Tags: blue marble, climatecentral.org, earth images, NASA, space
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Dec 22nd, 2011,
If the schlocky TV show Terra Nova left you grumbling and disappointed, as it did me, perhaps the real life search for a new Earth might spark your interest and inspire your imagination. NASA’s Kepler Mission is exploring the Galaxy in search of Earth-like inhabitable planets. Terrestrial planets are one half to twice the size of Earth and Kepler is particularly on the lookout for such planets that orbit stars at a distance allowing liquid water – and thereby the possibility of life – to exist. From NASA’s Kepler Mission homepage: The Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, is specifically…
Tags: Earth, kepler, NASA, planet
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Dec 6th, 2011,
NASA scientists for the first time managed to confirm the existence of extrasolar planets present in the so-called ecosphere – the zone around the star where there are favorable conditions for the emergence of life, such as liquid water. A unique planet could be seen through the telescope Kepler (a space based observatory) whose one of the tasks is to search for Earth-like extrasolar planets. – This is a milestone on our way to finding Earth’s twin sister, said excited Douglas Hudgins of NASA. The planet has been called Kepler-22b, it is 600 light-years far from Earth in the zones…
Tags: Earth-like planet, ecoshpere, extrasolar, Kepler -22b, liquid water, NASA
Science & Technology, Dec 4th, 2011,
Scientists from the U.S.have developed a washing machine designed for the International Space Station (ISS). It usespressurized steam, compressed air and microwaves. The machine was constructed on the orders of the American space agency NASA. Until now, the astronauts were provided with new uniforms and other garments by the Progress transport ships, which when the clothing was worn out, or simply dirty, got placed together with other space junk in the modules that would be sent into the atmosphere and burned. However, NASA has come to the conclusion that the continuous transport of textiles into orbit was too expensive…
Tags: astronauts, cleaning, NASA, washing mashine
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 8th, 2011,
The biggest solar flares in five years have been witnessed and filmed by NASA cameras. The flares, which are eruptions of high-energy radiation on the surface of the sun, may cause satellite disruptions. While some tabloids – like the ironically named Sun – are claiming that the filmed blast is “expected to cause a massive geomagnetic storm when it reaches earth”, possibly knocking out power supplies, the more sober Telegraph quoted NASA’s solar dynamics observatory in their description of the flares as “visually spectacular”, but resulting in “fairly small” effects down here on terra firma. Check out the following ITN video…
Tags: NASA, solar blast, solar flare, video
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Dec 2nd, 2010,
At 2 p.m. EST today (that’s 7 p.m. GMT and 8 p.m. local time in Belgium and surrounding European countries) NASA will hold a news conference on astrobiology discovery. According to the press release found on the NASA website the astrobiology discovery that will be disclosed will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Earth is the only known inhabited planet in the universe to date. However, advancements in the fields of astrobiology, observational astronomy and discovery of large varieties of extremophiles with…
Tags: aliens, astrobiology discovery, extraterrestrial life, NASA
Climate Change, Nature, Science & Technology, Nov 25th, 2010,
In a global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, a first of it’s kind, NASA researchers have found that the Earth’s largest lakes have warmed up in the past 25 years in response to climate change. For the study, researchers at NASA measured and monitored the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide. Per decade, an average warming rate of 0,45 degrees Celsius (0,81 degrees Fahrenheit) was reported, with some exceptions where surface temperature warm-up reached as much as 1 degree Celsius (1,8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The overall warming of lakes is not local trend but of global…
Tags: Climate change, global warming, lake surface temperature, NASA, warming of lakes
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, Jul 7th, 2010,
An analysis based on national emissions targets suggests that global temperatures will rise by 4C (7.2F) by 2100. Six months after over 100 governments pledged to limit their countries’ emissions in order to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5-2C (2.7-3.6F) above pre-industrial levels a major international study of over 60 nations, called the Climate Scoreboard, has calculated that temperatures are set to double if current targets are held to. Another study by Climate Analytics, at the Potsdam Institute in Germany, suggests there is “virtually no chance” world governments will keep the temperature rise to below 2C, and the rise…
Tags: albedo, climate, Climate change, global, ice, melt, melting, NASA, polar, rise, satellite, sheet, snow, study, targets, temperatures
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Jun 15th, 2010,
Scientists at the university of Colorado have discovered evidence that suggests that much of Mars was once covered by ocean. From an article by Australia’s ABC News: To test their theory Dr Hynek and Mr Di Achille used global databases of known deltaic deposits and valley networks, together with topography data from a laser altimeter aboard NASA’s Mars Observer spacecraft which is orbiting the red planet. If Mars had that much water 3.5 billion years ago, what happened to it? And did it once support life? While turning its sights towards Mars and Jupiter, NASA has turned away from the…
Tags: asteroid, Earth, Independent, Mars, moon, NASA, Obama, ocean, President, space
Science & Technology, Apr 1st, 2010,
On March 20th, a volcano in Iceland erupted after nearly 200 years of dormancy. Now, there is a rather interesting satellite image that shows all the lava fountains and flows. The image was taken several days after the eruption (March 24) by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite. You can see lava fountains, which created a number of small hills of scoria—bubble-filed lava rocks. Also visible in the image are the volcanic gases that escaped from the vent and erupting lava, plus steam from where the lava hits the snow. Reports claim that the eruption of…
Tags: eruption, Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, NASA, satellite image, volcano
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Mar 29th, 2010,
A NASA physical oceanographer has found no slow down in the giant ocean currents that bring warm water from the tropical Pacific to the North Atlantic. These currents, which function like a ‘conveyor belt’ driven by ocean salinity, make much of Europe far more habitable than it would be without the constant influx of warm water. The observation that these currents are not slowing and probably have not slowed since the early 90s is good news for warm-current dependent regions like the UK. These latest findings, which draw on data from drifting sensors and satellites, support other recent evidence downplaying…
Tags: climate, conveyor, current, currents, Europe, ice, NASA, ocean, warming
Science & Technology, Mar 4th, 2010,
Last Saturday’s deadly earthquake in Chile may have slightly shortened the day and affected the position of the Earth’s axis, according to NASA scientists. The quake measured 8.8. on the Richter scale and is estimated to have shifted the Earth’s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (8 cm or 3 in) and shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second) according to an article from Bloomberg. So much land was moved during the earthquake that it may have significantly changed the Earth’s distribution of mass enough to affect such changes. Previous earthquakes have had a similar effect,…
Tags: axis, Chile, Earth, earthquake, NASA, quake, scientists, shift, shifted
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jan 19th, 2010,
Ice. Oh, the many uses and happenings that involve ice. It keeps your drinks cold. It’s a pain to deal with in winter. It’s been known to put holes in ships and has quite the alarming melt factor as of late. The biggest news happened down at Antarctica. Apparently, a chunk of ice bigger than the size of Rhode Island broke away from Antarctica and then shattered into even more pieces. If you don’t know your US states or geography, Rhode Island is the smallest state. Some people compare this to the size of Yosemite National Park. The event was…
Tags: Antarctica, ice, NASA, Rhode Island, sea ice
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Dec 18th, 2009,
California is melting!—or at least rapidly drying out. We all know of the melting problems in Greenland, Antarctica, the Swiss Alps and Himalayas. We also know that sea levels are rising and places like Africa and India are facing some heavy water losses. Now, it has been brought to attention that the US state of California has lost nearly 30 cubic kilometers (7.2 cubic miles) of fresh water since 2003. This would be the equivalent of 12 million Olympic-sized swimming pools—7.9 trillion US gallons of water (29 trillion liters). All of these findings—including the melting ice—come from NASA’s GRACE Satellites:…
Tags: California, Climate change, global warming, GRACE Satellites, gravity maps, NASA, water loss
