At the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) from Earth; NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory took an amazing photo of the entire sunlit side of Earth on July 06, 20145. The photo was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope.
The final image showing the North and Central America was generated by combining three separate images to create a photographic-quality image. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters — from ultraviolet to near infrared — to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these color images.
A Bowling Ball and Feather Falling in a Vacuum (video)
It’s one of the basic Newton laws: how fast something falls due to gravity is determined by a number known as the “acceleration of gravity”, which is 9.81 m/s2 at the surface of Earth. The acceleration of gravity, shortly “a” means that in one second, any object’s downward velocity will increase by 9.81 m/s because of gravity. The gravity accelerates everything at exactly the same rate.
This also means
Ultra HD Video from the International Space Station
An amazing ultra high definition video, from the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has introduced a new 4K Ultra High-Definition (UHD) video, providing an unprecedented look at what it’s like to live and work aboard the International Space Station.
Philae (Rosetta’s Lander) Wakes Up From Hibernation
Good news! ESA’s (European Space Agency) robotic lander Philae finally received enough solar radiation and now is out of hibernation. On the Rosetta blog, the ESA announced that “The signals were received at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analyzed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).” It is the first contact with the spacecraft since going into hibernation in November.
According to the agency, “Philae ‘spoke’ with its team on
The World Is Going To End, Again, In September 2015? Of Course Not
There’s a super crappy 1982 science-fiction movie named “The man who saves the world”. The story is absurd – in the opening, a narrator speaks a lot. He tells about somebody attacking on Earth, but a layer made by human brains (?) is protecting our planet. Then the battle begins: two space cadets of the world get shot in the space, crash-land on a desert planet, where an evil wizard seeks the ultimate power to take over the world. Although the movie borrows some background footage from Star Wars, the plot is mostly unrelated.
If a movie is bad then you should not watch it at all. But if a movie is really, really bad then it makes more fun than a good movie. This is one of those movies, called B-movies. Perhaps this is a C-movie.
World’s Largest Crocodile? (7+ meters/23+ feet)
A widely circulated photo over the internet which shows a giant crocodile with a bunch of villagers sitting behind. A story next to the photo saying “the people in a village on the Niger River in Africa were losing fellow villagers at a rapid rate, and called in the army, which shot
Crocodiles often suffer from a prevalence of “big fish” stories and over-exaggeration. The photo below was first got shared on Reddit, and it started circulating rapidly since then. When I first saw the photo, I tried to guess the length of the crocodile, because it didn’t seem to me 7+ meters. I thought it was not more than 5 meters.
Watch: Falling Back to Earth – HD Footage From Space
A GoPro video inside a fairing from a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 flight captured some spectacular views as the rocket fell back to Earth. Footage is played in real time. Watch the amazing video published by SpaceX channel.
Vulcan Points
Can you imagine an island within a lake that is situated on an island located in a lake on an island? Confused? Well, it is really confusing, but this island does indeed exist: Vulcan Points is the world’s largest island within a lake (Crater Lake) that is situated on an island (Taal Volcano Island) located in a lake (Lake Taal) within an island (Luzon).
Can you see the tiny blue shadow in the south of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines? (In the northernmost island, or Luzon Island.)
NASA celebrates the 50th Year of Spacewalking
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) celebrates 50 years of spacewalking, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA) with a slogan: “#SuitUp”. The United States government agency, which responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research, will be celebrating accomplishments throughout the year 2015.
The announcement from NASA:
The Exact Moment of the Calbuco Volcano Eruption captured by a hiker
The exact moment of the Calbuco Volcano eruption captured by a currently anonymous hiker in Chile. The volcano erupted on April 22, 2015, for the first time in four decades (the last one was in 1972).
