On Monday 10 September in Wisconsin, USA amateur astronomer Dan Petersen saw something incredible while viewing Jupiter from his backyard – a bright white flash on the planet’s surface.
The unexpected explosion lasted for about two seconds and appeared to be about 100-miles wide, Petersen wrote on community blog CloudyNights.com. “My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history,” he added.
In Dallas, Texas, another amateur astronomer George Hall happened to capture the flash on video. Watch it below.
The possible crash adds to the theory that Jupiter acts as an impact shield for Earth, NBC News’ Alan Boyle explains:
Astronomers suspect that giant Jupiter’s gravitational pull serves as a cosmic shield, sweeping up incoming objects that would have a deadlier effect if they were to slam into our planet. Some scientists say that without Jupiter, life on Earth wouldn’t have had much of a chance.
On 1 February NASA released the first video from GRAIL, its newest moon mission. As part of the mission twin spacecraft Ebb and Flow are orbiting the moon, and Ebb has captured a video of the moon’s far side. Awesome!
The Gravity Recover and Interior Laboratory or GRAIL for short consists of two robotic probes – GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B (named Ebb and Flow by school children in January 2012). The probes are orbiting the moon in tandem, using variations in the radio signals between them to help study the moon’s gravity with the overall goal of the mission understanding more about the formation of our solar system.
GRAIL is the first robotic planetary mission to carry equipment for the sole purpose of education. One piece of equipment that both probes carry is a MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), which will allow students (in the U.S) to study specific parts of the moon helping inspire them to consider careers in science and engineering.
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.
In just a few hours NASA’s STS-135Atlantis will undock from the ISS for the very last time as the mission enters its final few days. Never again will we be able to witness the graceful “ballet” of the orbiter departing the station, separating so slowly yet both travelling over 17,000mph!
Undocking is due on Tuesday 19th July at 02:28 EDT (06:28 GMT/ 07:28 BST), followed by Atlantis performing a “flyaround” the station, both as a victory lap and to provide opportunity for a late inspection of the orbiter’s heat shield. Watch live on the NASA TV feed below.
If you have never seen an orbiter undock from the ISS it’s pretty awesome to watch, and as this sight will never be seen again it is likely to be quite an event. The NASA TV schedule for the undocking is as follows:
Atlantis undocks from ISS at02:28 EDT (06:28 GMT/ 07:28 BST)
Atlantis flyaround of ISS begins at03:27 EDT (07:27 GMT/ 08:27 BST)
Atlantis final separation from ISS at04:18 EDT (08:18 GMT/ 09:18 BST)
Late inspection of Atlantis TPS* at06:34 EDT (10:34 GMT/ 11:34 BST)
*Thermal Protection System
Landing is scheduled for Thursday 21st July at 05:57 EDT (09:57 GMT/ 10:57 BST), so don’t miss your last chance to see this beautiful spacecraft in operation, the shuttle has been iconic and will be greatly missed.
Remember you can also follow Atlantis on her way home through Google Earth (click here).
