Category: Space

Celestia

 

I love the night sky, I used to spend hours looking at stars and planets with my 4-1/2" reflecting telescope when I was young. Now days, I rarely have the time to do that any more because of work and other things (like this blog). However, I did run across a very cool program that makes it easy to have a look around the sky. Its Celestia. This free multi platform open space exploration program is great. With it you can zoom in on where the International Space Station is, or check out the moons of Jupiter, or even see how our solar system looks from thousands of light years away.

Celestia

Mars Unearthed – In 3D!

Mars Unearthed

Here is an impressive collection of images of the planet Mars from the spacecrafts and rovers that are out there now. I’m partial to the crosseye stereo images myself but some of the anaglyphs are pretty cool.

This site contains Mars 3D anaglyphs, 3D flash movies, comparisons, and free view stereo pairs from images returned by the Mars Global Surveyor’s Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), camera systems aboard the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and European Space Angency’s Mars Express High Hesolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).

Mars Unearthed

Looking For Aliens On The Moon

Moon

But the big question is: If something is found, will they tell anyone?

When astronauts return to the Moon, they should keep their eyes peeled for extraterrestrial artefacts – pieces of technology from alien civilisations that have wound up on the lunar surface either by chance or design.

[via Futurismic] 

Looking for aliens on the Moon

Astronomical Toilet Paper

Astro TP

 

 

 

In an attempt to make astronomy more popular, a Japanese company has come out with toilet paper that is printed with astronomical information. So far you can get either ‘The life of a star’ or ‘Beyond the zodiac’. ‘The life of a star’ tells the story of solar evolution, from a molecular cloud up to a planetary nebula. A translation can be found here. The second set, ‘Beyond the zodiac’, as they say, "… we represent the signs of zodiac and some astronomical objects toward these constellations. You can feel the depth of the universe with this ATP." I’d hope that you would feel the softness of the paper and not the universe but that’s another story.
As a teaching tool it will probably go a long way in increasing the awareness of astronomy among those who read while doing their business.

[via Ektopia] 

Astronomical Toilet Paper

Titan Descent Data Movie

Titan Movie 

This is like a performance art piece from space. The decent of the Huygens probe on to the surface of the moon Titan took almost four hours but this video compresses it into 5 minutes. The visuals give you information on what the cameras were seeing, how the parachute moved (handy for telling wind conditions), and what sensors were doing what.

[via boing boing] 

NASA – Titan Descent Data Movie with Bells and Whistles – Movie