Imagine the view the astronauts onboard the ISS get to taste every day. The Earth from orbit – surely a beautiful image that will navigate its way safely into your memory and stay with you forever.
Well that’s great for astronauts and well they deserve it. Thankfully enough for us astronauts frequently aim their cameras toward Earth and their images are uploaded to a huge archive. James Drake, a science educator added 600 such images, stitched them together and produced this amazing HD timelapse movie.
From the Pacific Ocean, flying over the Americas before reaching sunrise over Antarctica this video is stunning even showing the network of night-time cities that inhabit Earth and lightning storms past the southern coast of Mexico.
Raw data was downloaded from NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth which is a Johnson Space Center project hosting the best and most complete online collection of astronaut photographs of the Earth which should keep interested followers busy until the ISS gets it’s new streaming HD video cameras in 2012.
View Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth here.
NASA’s shuttle program is over, all three birds are safely home, and millions of us around the world watched in wonder (and a little sadness) knowing we would never see Atlantis and her sisters fly again.
I’ve watched replays of the launch more times than I care to admit and have seen the mission highlights shown on NASA TV many times too, so don’t be too surprised to see more NASA vids as time goes by!
Below you’ll find a half hour Atlantis “ascent highlights” video. Cameras mounted on the SRB’s (Solid Rocket Boosters) rolled from launch, through ascent, separation, and back again to splashdown in the Atlantic ocean.
We love this footage, it helps highlight just how brave and ingenious us human beings can be when everyone is focused on achieving the same goal.
Neptune has just completed its first orbit around the sun since its discovery on September 23rd 1846. With the planet being 2.8 billion miles from the sun that’s an astonishing 165 years to do a full orbit.
Neptune covered by the bright blue methane clouds that whip around at speeds measuring more than 994mph - Credit: NASA
Neptune is the first planet to be discovered using mathematics. French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier noticed irregularities in the motions of other planets, and from these perturbations he calculated that there must be an 8th planet lurking out beyond Uranus.
We know there are 13 moons which orbit Neptune, with the largest being Triton, but little else is know about the planet as it has only been photographed once close range, on the Voyager 2 mission in 1989. A future mission to Neptune – The Neptune Orbiter Mission has been removed from the official NASA mission list.
Skymap of Neptune located at the time of discovery - CREDIT: Starry Night Software
Neptune will be returning to the exact point in its orbit where it was first discovered, just north of Saturn in the constellation Aquarius.
It is back in Aquarius tonight at 22:27 Universal Time (GMT).
Following the successful launch of STS-135 Atlantis on the last ever shuttle mission yesterday, you may want to keep tabs on its location while it orbits!
The NASA ISS Tracker also shows the current orbital location of Atlantis, first as it maneuvers to rendezvous with the International Space Station, and then when it undocks to head back to Earth (after completion of its mission objectives).
Click above to open tracker - Credit: NASA Human Space Flight (HSF) Orbital Tracking
There is also a Google Earth add-on available from the NASA site (click here) which shows the shuttle location in 3D, in real-time (updated using information direct from mission control).
Click above to visit NASA Google Earth add on - Credit: Google Earth/NASA
Saturn's Auroras in Double Light Show, March 2011 - Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/University of Leicester
On 30 June 2004 the NASA Cassini-Huygens probe successfully entered orbit around Saturn.
At 9:12 p.m. PDT (+7 for GMT), flight controllers received confirmation that Cassini had completed the engine burn needed to place the spacecraft into the correct orbit and begin its four-year study of the giant planet, its majestic rings and known moons.
Happy 7th Orbitday!
See the original NASA press release from 2004 here.
