Categories
Space Exploration Earth from Space

Stunning Aurora video from Space in Ultra-HD (4K)

An amazing Aurora video published by NASA, showing both Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern lights). It is taken from the International Space Station (ISS) using the time-lapse shot. Enjoy one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in ultra-HD (4K).

Categories
Life on Earth Animals

Crocodile Attack Database: CrocBITE

Several hundred attacks on humans by crocodilians are reported annually, both non-fatal and fatal. To improve our understanding of human-crocodile conflict (HCC), a database was launched back in 2016. The Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database, “CrocBITE” website and database was co-funded in 2013 with a small grant ($10,000 AUD) from Australia’s Charles Darwin University.

Where native large crocodilians and humans live close to each other, crocodile attacks on humans occasionally occur. In fact, only 9 out of 23 crocodilian species are considered dangerous to adult humans, and in those six species, only individuals 2 meters (6.6 feet) and longer in length are capable of killing adult humans.

Categories
Astronomy Physics

LIGO detects gravitational waves from neutron star merger

On October 16, 2017, for the first time ever in history, scientists were able to detect gravitational waves from two neutron stars’ merger.

Carl Sagan’s famous quote says “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” In that famous quote, Sagan makes reference to the whole Universe started off with hydrogen and helium, all stars produce helium, and then stars over a certain mass threshold produce carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and lots of heavier elements – which are also the source of the life on Earth. The star stuff is inside us – every living thing on Earth.

But, even stars aren’t powerful enough to create heavy elements like silver, gold, and cesium. Since the 1950s, scientists have wondered: where do most of the elements in the periodic table come from?

Categories
Geology

Humans can cause deadly Earthquakes

Humans can cause deadly earthquakes, and it’s called the Human-Induced Earthquake (HiQuake). On May 12, 2008, a huge 7.9 MW earthquake hit Chengdu, a sub-provincial city that has served as the capital of China’s Sichuan province. Over 69,000 people lost their lives. 374,176 were reported injured, with 18,222 listed as missing as of July 2008. The earthquake also left about 4.8 million people homeless. Some scientists believe that the construction and filling of the Zipingpu Dam with 320 million tons of water over a well-known fault line may have triggered the earthquake (see notes 1).

Sichuan earthquake is only one example of (but the deadliest by far, though) many earthquakes that triggered by human activities, according to a study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters, titled “Database of earthquakes triggered by human activity is growing – with some surprises”.

Categories
Geology

Shinmoedake Volcano Eruption [Amazing Drone Footage]

James Reynolds, the storm chaser, and a drone pilot shot amazing aerial footage of the eruption of Shinmoedake, a volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan. You can also hear the rumbling sound coming from the volcano.

Categories
Earth from Space Space Exploration

First-Ever 360-Degree Spacewalk Video

Russian TV network Russia Today (RT) has released the first 360-Degree Spacewalk Video ever. The video is recorded by the Russian Cosmonauts Sergey Ryazansky and Fedor Yurchikhin outside the International Space Station (ISS) while doing their 7.5-hour spacewalk on August 16, 2017. The video contains breathtaking images of Earth. You can watch the 360-Degree interactive video below.

Categories
Planet Earth

World Sunlight Map

A world sunlight map: you can watch the sunrise and sunset all over the world on this computer-generated illustration of the Earth’s patterns of sunlight and darkness, in real-time. Provided by die.net, which hosts collective ‘net projects of a few dozen friends in the United States.

You can access the world sunlight map by clicking here. Here is a sample view of the map below, which is showing the sunlight pattern of Earth on October 5, 2015.

Categories
Mars Moon Landing Space Exploration

Space Race 2.0? Lockheed Martin and NASA have teamed up to send humans to Mars

It seems the space race 2.0 is on the way! While Elon Musk and SpaceX planning to send humans to Mars as early as 2024, the American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technologies company Lockheed Martin has also revealed animations of a reusable rocket to colonize the red planet. The American company has teamed up with NASA, to build a space station (Mars base camp) orbiting Mars and a reusable, water-powered lander. The goal is to send humans to Mars only in a decade.

Categories
Planet Earth Geology

Earthquakes Between 2001 and 2015 (animation)

The American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published an animation on youtube showing the Earthquakes of the First 15 Years of the 21st Century (between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2015). The animation shows every recorded earthquake in sequence as it occurred at a rate of 30 days per second. It is based on the new SOS dataset of all the earthquakes in that period from the US NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Categories
Mars Science Fiction Solar System Space Exploration

Making Life Multiplanetary [Musk reveals a new plan to colonize Mars]

The billionaire founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk has revealed a new plan to colonize Moon and Mars with giant reusable spaceships. He provided an update on their Mars colonization plan at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC, see notes 1) in Adelaide, Australia this week. Musk plans to send 1 million people to Mars using BFR (see notes 2), and “making life multiplanetary”. He has highly ambitious plans, like launching and landing at least two uncrewed cargo ships on Mars as early as 2022.

The newly announced BFR is smaller than the one Musk revealed at the same event last year, 106 meters (348 feet) tall and carrying capacity of 150 tonnes compared to the previous design’s 122 meters (400 feet) and 300 tonnes. But, (naturally) it’s way cheaper than the previously announced version, and according to Musk, “lower cost is the biggest update”. And, still, it is more powerful than any of SpaceX’s or NASA’s other planned rockets.