An amazing time-lapse video of Earth from the geostationary orbit (see notes 1). The video was generated from the images taken by the Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8, which takes a photo of Earth every 10 minutes. Himawari 8 is the 8th of the Himawari geostationary weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency.
On August 2, 1971, during the third EVA (Extravehicular activity) of the Apollo 15 (see notes 1) mission, commander David Scott drove the rover away from Lunar Module, where the television camera could be used to observe the lunar liftoff. Then he left a small aluminum statuette called “Fallen Astronaut” next to the rover, which commemorates those astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. Scott also left a plaque bearing the names of 14 known American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts deceased by that time, along with the statuette. The names of Astronauts and cosmonauts were inscribed in alphabetical order on the plaque.
The crew of Apollo 15 kept the memorial’s existence a secret until after the completion of the mission.
Two beautiful historical Earthrise photos, taken by Zond 7, the uncrewed Soviet moon-flyby spacecraft in 1969, almost a month after the American Moon landing (on July 20, 1969).
On January 13, 1993, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 6 (TDRS-6), the American communications satellite launched by Space Shuttle Endeavour. TDRS-6 is still operational today, well past its intended design life”.
On Sunday, January 07, 2018, the residents of Aïn Séfra, a small town in Algeria, experienced a rare phenomenon: snow in Sahara, the world’s hottest desert. In the video below, published by National Geographic, snow-dusted the desert’s sandy dunes. With temperatures touching 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 °C), this white blanket stayed briefly through the morning before melting away. However, a few residents found the opportunity to enjoy some winter fun.
John W. Young, the legendary astronaut has died on January 5, 2018, aged 87. During his 42 years of active NASA service, Young flew in six space missions (with seven launches, counting his lunar liftoff), becoming the first astronaut to achieve that number. He was the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle (he was the first astronaut to command the Space Shuttle). He was also the ninth person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Young was actually one of only three people to have flown to the Moon twice, others being Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan.
This is so cool! With this tool, called “Earth Wind Map”, an animated map of global wind, weather, and ocean conditions, you can see current wind speeds all over the Earth, in real time!
On January 4, 2018, NASA has published an amazing GeoColor (see notes 1) image of the so-called “Bomb Cyclone”, a very powerful storm off the East coast of the United States. It was taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-16 satellite (previously known as GOES-R) (see notes 2).
Every year, there are two Equinoxes (around March 20 and September 23) and two Solstices (on about June 21 and December 21). Spring and autumn start with an equinox – daylight, and nighttime are of approximately equal duration all over the Earth during Equinoxes. Winter and summer start with a solstice – daylight time is the longest of the year during the summer solstice, and obviously, the night time is the longest during the winter solstice.
The video below, published by NASA Earth Observatory, is a time-lapse from geosynchronous orbit (see notes 1) that shows the four changes of the seasons, related to the position of sunlight on the planet.
An amazing image showing both the Earth and Moon. The distance between our planet and its satellite is actually much more than many would conceptualize. It is 384,400 kilometers (about 239,000 miles) on average, but as usual, our brains cannot deal with such large numbers. Only seeing that distance makes us realize how far even the closest body in the solar system to us – and gives some clues about how big is our Solar system actually. What’s more, we’ve actually been there, humanity managed to cover that vast distance and walked on the moon!