In 2010, NASA launched the SDO or Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was tasked with recording our sun’s activity for a period of 5 years. Now, 3 years in, NASA has released a 3 minute video of just what that giant golden ball has been up to. Regularly, the SDO takes a picture every 12 seconds, across 12 different wavelengths but for the purposes of this video, NASA placed 2 daily images for the last 3 years. Don’t worry about looking directly into the sun, this time it’s ok.
Source: Geek.com
Sky-watchers: How to catch the Lyrid meteor shower tonight on.natgeo.com/17EMgLY
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) April 21, 2013
Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the sun’s atmosphere, the corona.
On July 19, 2012, an eruption occurred on the sun that produced all three. A moderately powerful solar flare exploded on the sun’s lower right hand limb, sending out light and radiation. Next came a CME, which shot off to the right out into space. And then, the sun treated viewers to one of its dazzling magnetic displays — a phenomenon known as coronal rain.
Source: YouTube
Source: Imgur
There have been several historic images of Earth taken, especially NASA’s “Earth Rise” which was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders in 1968 but a new image taken by a Russian weather satellite may have set a new record for detail.
Who knows the amount of life still undiscovered in the depths of the world’s oceans? With three fourths of Earth’s surface covered by water, chances are we still have tons of life to encounter and maybe the “Cascade Creature” is one. This YouTube video has been making the rounds since it was uploaded April 27th – you be the judge. New Creature, Plastic Bag, Bed Sheet or Something we already know about?
Nature always finds a way and in this case, the often solitary spider teams up with its fellow brethren to hunt in large packs. Yet another reminder of why I wouldn’t survive one hour in the Amazon.
Source: Noel
Image Source: DeviantArt – Source: Tumblr
Source: Imgur
Vimeo user Clamento (Clemens Wirth) is at it again but unlike his “Macro Kingdom” video we posted earlier in the week, “Micro Empire” goes under the microscope to a world that is stranger than fiction. “..as an enthusiast for little things, I wanted to go deeper than the macro universe, so I found myself hanging on the eyepiece of a microscope. The real challenge was definitely the small depth of field in microscopy. It’s really fascinating how detailed this tiny world is.”
NASA’s shuttle program may be over but the memories, both sad and joyous, will live on each and every time we see those amazing ships. Next month, NASA will send the three remaining (plus one test shuttle) to the Smithsonian, New York, Los Angeles and Florida - they will go on full public display. While NASA’s future is still very much up in the “air”, we can only hope that political minds/powers that be, get their act together and continue to fund one of the best government programs in the history of America. The Atlantic has the full gallery and more info – check it out here.
Source: The Atlantic
The end of an era, is often the beginning of something entirely new. The short term dark age of space flight, that has lingered throughout the 90′s and 00′s, will be blasted by the illumination of our next gen rockets.
Sometimes listening is the hardest thing – We as humans, have been learning this lesson for thousands of years.
The darkness only shrouds, for a limited time, the unmeasurable magic that is life. Life does look for life – always.
The Humans of tomorrow, that will venture into the darkness beyond our view, will be very different from the humans of today.
