Our Planet

Astronaut Robert Stewart untethered above the Earth during Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Exercise

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 13, 2018
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Robert L. Stewart during EVA-1 of STS-41-B mission. February 7, 1984. He and Bruce McCandless II became the first astronauts who perform an untethered spacewalk. Image: Reddit

A breathtakingly beautiful photo of a historical moment: NASA Astronaut Robert L. Stewart untethered above the Earth during the first Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) exercise. The photo was taken on February 7, 1984, during the EVA 1 (Extravehicular activity) of STS-41-B, the tenth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and the fourth flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The total duration of the spacewalk was 5 hours 55 minutes. Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart tested a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). In this EVA, Bruce McCandless II broke the untethered spacewalking record with a distance of 98 meters (320 feet).

New Horizons beats Voyager 1’s Record for being farthest from Earth while capturing images

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 12, 2018
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New Horizons poster — Artist's conception depicting New Horizons spacecraft near Pluto. Pluto's moon Charon, also known as (134340) Pluto I is in the background. New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched on January 19, 2006, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 kilometers per second (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph). Its primary mission was to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015. It has a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow. It is the fifth of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System (others being Pioneer 10 - launched in 1972, Pioneer 11 - launched in 1973, Voyager 2 - launched in August 1977, and Voyager 1 - Launched in September 1977). Image: NASA Goddard Media Studios

It took 27 years, but finally, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft beat Voyager 1‘s record for being farthest from Earth while capturing images. Taken on December 5, 2017, New Horizons’ image of the open star cluster NGC 3532 (also commonly known as the Football Cluster or the Wishing Well Cluster) became the farthest image ever made by any spacecraft, breaking a 27-year record set by Voyager 1. But for a very short time! About 2 hours later, New Horizons broke its own record with images of two Kuiper Belt objects.

Animals Evolution Life on Earth

20 Amazing Lion Facts

Lion facts - A portrait of a male lion — A portrait of a male lion. Source: Deposit Photos

The Lion (Panthera leo) is the second-largest cat in the world, after the tiger. The lion and tiger are closely related and they share a very similar body type. As its scientific name suggests, Lion is one of the five members of the Panthera genus (see notes 1). Here are 20 amazing lion facts.

Space Exploration

The entire earth reflects off the side of a… car!

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 8, 2018
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One of the most interesting photos in history: the entire Earth clearly reflects off the side of a… car!

Astronomy

Hubble Observes Atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets in the Habitable Zone

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 6, 2018
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TRAPPIST-1 system compared to Earth (February 2018). TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool dwarf star, which is only about 9 percent as massive as our Sun. It is slightly larger than the planet Jupiter in size but has much more mass. It is located 39.6 light-years (12.1 pc) from the Sun in the constellation Aquarius. It was discovered in 1999 and astronomers first discovered three Earth-sized planets orbiting the dwarf star in 2015. On 22 February 2017, astronomers announced four additional exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1, and three of them were in the habitable zone

Good news for the search for extraterrestrial life: the TRAPPIST-1 System might be rich (very rich!) in water and all of the planets are mostly made of rock. Using data from NASA’s Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes, researchers calculated the densities of TRAPPIST-1 planets more precisely than ever, and they determined that all of the planets are mostly made of rock. Additionally, some have up to 5 percent of their mass in water, which is around 250 times more than the oceans on Earth. Researchers published their findings in a recent study in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics titled “The nature of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets”.

Space Exploration Earth from Space

Falcon Heavy 1st Test Flight

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 6, 2018
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Falcon Heavy Test Flight: Starman and Earth 3. — Australia, you look good from here. Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that was the dummy payload for the Falcon Heavy test flight in February 2018. Starman, a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit, occupies the driver's seat. The car was installed in the Falcon Heavy rocket at an inclined position above the payload adapter in order to account for the mass distribution.

This will go down as one of the greatest videos in history, and you must share it with everyone you know. It is one of the great achievements our species has ever done. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy test flight was successful and the rocket’s upper stage, together with Elon Musk’s electric sports car Tesla and the dummy “Starman”, are on their way to Mars.

When Falcon Heavy lifted off, it became the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. This rocket that may one day carry humans to the Moon or Mars! With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)-a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage, and fuel-Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.

Space Exploration Earth from Space Moon Landing

20 Longest Spacewalks in History

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 4, 2018
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Susan Helms during STS-102 EVA 1, the longest spacewalk in history — STS-102 mission astronaut Susan J. Helms translates along the longerons of the Space Shuttle Discovery during the first of two space walks. During this walk, the Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 was prepared for repositioning from the Unity Module's Earth-facing berth to its port-side berth to make room for the Leonardo multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency. The Leonardo MPLM is the first of three such pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station's (ISS') moving vans, carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments, and supplies to and from the Station aboard the Space Shuttle. The cylindrical module is approximately 21-feet long and 15- feet in diameter, weighing almost 4.5 tons. It can carry up to 10 tons of cargo in 16 standard Space Station equipment racks. Of the 16 racks the module can carry, 5 can be furnished with power, data, and fluid to support refrigerators or freezers. In order to function as an attached station module as well as a cargo transport, the logistics module also includes components that provide life support, fire detection and suppression, electrical distribution, and computer functions. NASA's 103rd overall mission and the 8th Space Station Assembly Flight, STS-102 mission also served as a crew rotation flight. It delivered the Expedition Two crew to the Station and returned the Expedition One crew back to Earth. With 8 hours 56 minutes, STS-102 EVA 1 was the longest spacewalk in history. Image: NASA

Spacewalking or Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut or cosmonaut outside a spacecraft beyond the Earth’s appreciable atmosphere (a moonwalk is also an EVA). The first spacewalker was the Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov. He became the first human to conduct an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on March 18, 1965; exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk. Since this very short EVA, a lot of astronauts/cosmonauts spent many hours outside their spacecraft, mostly for maintenance missions. Here are the top 20 longest spacewalks in history.

Space Exploration Earth from Space

Can you find the spacewalker’s legs in this photo?

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date February 2, 2018
No Comments on Can you find the spacewalker’s legs in this photo?

Russian Spacewalk, Feb. 2, 2018 — Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Aleksandr Misurkin set out for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk on February 2 to upgrade an antenna at the International Space Station (ISS).

During the Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Expedition 54 Commander Aleksandr Misurkin’s spacewalk on February 2, 2018, NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei published a photo on his twitter account and asked his followers that “Can you find the spacewalker’s legs in this photo?” Vande Hei added, “Russian spacewalk continues!”

Earth from Space Places Space Exploration

Astronaut shares photos of places he’d visited [alongside photos of the same locations he snapped from space]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date January 30, 2018
No Comments on Astronaut shares photos of places he’d visited [alongside photos of the same locations he snapped from space]

Venice, Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge — The Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge (Italian: Ponte Rialto). Public transport over the canal grande is provided by water buses (Italian: vaporetti) and private water taxis, and many tourists explore the canal by gondola. I took this photo back in March 2009.

NASA astronaut Randy “Komrade” Bresnik, the commander of Expedition 53 (the 53rd expedition to the International Space Station) has published a beautiful video on his Twitter account titled “Through the eyes of a spaceman: One World Many Views”. In the video, Bresnik shared photos of places he’d visited on Earth alongside photos of the same locations he snapped from space. He also wrote: “You don’t have to be in outer space to experience the beauty of our home planet. Capture the beauty of a moment, or the excitement of an instant, and share it with others.”

Earth from Space Space Exploration

Earth from the Geostationary Orbit [Himawari 8 images]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date January 29, 2018
1 Comment on Earth from the Geostationary Orbit [Himawari 8 images]

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.