Our Planet

10 Most Beautiful Earth Photos Taken From the International Space Station in 2018

Here are the top ten most beautiful Earth photos taken by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2018. Which one is your favorite? Or if your favorite image was not listed here, please leave a comment below. To see all images taken from the International Space Station and published by NASA, visit Space Station Images.

What is a Dyson Sphere and How to Build One?

Currently, we’re slowly transitioning to renewables and fusion energy may become available in the future. If we don’t destroy ourselves or the environment, as humanity progresses further, we will likely gain complete control of the Earth’s resources. At that stage, we’ll probably begin to look outwards for new places to expand into. But, if we want to expand into outer space someday, our planet’s resources are not enough (see the Kardashev scale below). We’d need incredible amounts of energy, even to expand into our solar system. Luckily, we know where to find it: the Sun. To harvest energy from the Sun, we can build a megastructure called the “Dyson Sphere” around it and capture a large percentage of its power output.

Here’s why NASA Launches Rockets From Cape Canaveral, Florida

Have you ever wondered why NASA chose Cape Canaveral to launch rockets? NASA’s most important rocket launches including the Mercury program, Project Gemini, the Moon Missions, and Space Shuttle lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In fact, at the first look, Florida doesn’t look like a convenient place for rocket launches: the southeasternmost state gets hit by lightning more than anywhere in the United States. And getting hit by lightning is a very bad thing during a rocket launch (see notes 1). What’s more, monster hurricanes frequently hit Florida (almost every year).

So, why NASA chose Cape Canaveral?

Cheetah facts: 20 interesting things about the world’s fastest land animal

Cheetah running at full speed in South Africa (Acinonyx jubatus)

The cheetah (scientific name: Acinonyx jubatus) is a large cat of the subfamily Felinae, which specialized for high speed. Cheetahs live in North and East Africa, and a few localities in Iran. Here are 20 amazing cheetah facts.

Apollo 8: The Daring Adventure

On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8, the second crewed spaceflight mission in NASA’s Apollo program was launched and became the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and safely return. It was also the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket.

Why We Need to Overcome Our Fear of AI

Futurists and technology advocates, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, often warn about the imminent dangers artificial intelligence poses to humanity. Many of these soothsayers ask we harken their cries of existential risk unless we wish to change an intelligence explosion. They claim such an event, often dubbed the Singularity, could create a superintelligent computer, leading to human enslavement via the likes of Skynet, from the Terminator franchise, or HAL 9000, from Space Odyssey.

Why We Need to Trust Technology to Fight Climate Change

Based on the Paris Climate Agreement, more than 6,000 cities, states, and provinces in dozens of countries must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to save life as we know it. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report foretells an inhospitable Earth unless we achieve this monumental undertaking.

Casting a $20 Million Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope (Giant Magellan Telescope)

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a ground-based extremely large telescope under construction, planned for completion in 2025. When completed, it will be the world’s largest telescope and one member of the next class of giant ground-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe. It will be constructed in the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

GMT has a unique design that offers several advantages. It is a segmented mirror telescope that employs seven of today’s largest stiff monolith mirrors as segments. Six off-axis 8.4 meter or 27-foot segments surround a central on-axis segment, forming a single optical surface 24.5 meters, or 80 feet, in diameter with a total collecting area of 368 square meters. The GMT will have a resolving power 10 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope!

The Call of Science (360° NASA Video)

Screenshot from the NASA video titled "The Call of Science"

NASA has recently published a 360-degree interactive video titled “The call of science”. You can join NASA Earth scientists as they head into the field to study ice in Greenland and coral reefs in Hawaii.

Want to Speak Elephant Language? [Now You Can!]

Ever wanted to speak “Elephant”, or to understand these amazing, beautiful animals? Thanks to a new web-based translator developed by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and ElephantVoices, now you can! “Hello in elephant” website translates human words and emotions into the “elephant language”, or elephant calls that signal similar emotions or intentions.