NASA Detects a Human-Made Barrier Surrounding Earth

We, humans, are changing our planet drastically that scientists say the world entered a completely new geological era called “Anthropocene“. But, it seems we are not shaping only the surface and the atmosphere of Earth, human activities are changing our near-space environment as well. The change is so big that NASA’s Van Allen probes have detected …

Why do astronauts float in space? [Microgravity explained]

We see images and videos from the International Space Station (ISS) where astronauts float in space freely. That’s because they’re in space, so there is no gravitational force of Earth there, right? Wrong. The International Space Station is in Low Earth Orbit (see notes 1) with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km (205 …

The Black Marble [Earth from Space at Night]

The first new global map of Earth from space at night since 2012 has been released by NASA scientists. The nighttime look of our planet is dubbed the “Black Marble”. But why? On December 7, 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon took a photo of Earth from space, at …

Jeff’s Earth [Amazing HD Video from the ISS]

On his most recent trip to the International Space Station (Expedition 48), recently-retired NASA astronaut Jeff Williams has recorded a great HD video of Earth (titled Jeff’s Earth) using an Ultra High Definition video camera. Here in the video titled “Jeff’s Earth” below, he shares some of those images and talks about the beauty of the …

Earth and Moon as seen from Mars

Recently, NASA published an amazing image of Earth (and Moon) from Mars, taken on November 20, 2016, by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera (see notes 1) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (see notes 2). The image is so incredibly detailed that we can see even the continents and clouds of Earth.

SpaceX unveils the Interplanetary Transport System to colonize Mars

Elon Musk, the founder, CEO, and Lead Designer of the private space travel company SpaceX announced that “they are planning to get humans to Mars in six years”. In order to achieve this goal, Musk revealed the Interplanetary Transport System, which aims to reach Mars with a human crew for the first time in history.

The scale of the Solar System and the first flybys of planets

Previously I posted two articles titled “If The Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A Tediously Accurate Map Of The Solar System“, and “A Scale Model of Solar System Drawn in the Desert and the Result is Stunning“. In these posts, science enthusiasts have shown the scale of the solar system realistically. Since the human brain …