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Showing posts with the label space

Your tax dollars at work - Thanks NASA!

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NASA is a great program that produces technical wonders including freeze dried food (yuck) and cameras (YAY - including the one in your phone. In the past few years we've been receiving photos from various space projects and some of them are just so stunning they look fake. But these are fake news photos! This picture of the moon in front of the sun was taken from NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite that sits a million miles away from Earth. "In 2015, it looked back at its home planet and captured a series of images showing what rock band Pink Floyd refers to as the 'dark side' of the moon (more aptly known as the 'far side' of the moon) as it passed between the camera and Earth. It's an almost startling perspective from a satellite that has a primary mission of monitoring solar winds." Here's one reminiscent of All Hallows Eve- the sun looks like an evil Jack-O-Lantern. This picture was taken by the Solar Dynamics Obser...

A Rocky Football Field Just Missed Earth

Asteroid DA14 just streaked by the earth on February 15 - half the size of a football field. The day before a meteor hit Russia causing loads of damage and panic, and according to the experts these two events are unrelated. Want to watch NASA track a DA14? Here's the footage: Video streaming by Ustream Here's something to think about. An asteroid the size of DA14 hit Earth on June 30, 1908 and levelled 820 square miles. Accourding to NASA when DA14 makes its closest approach to Earth at approximately 11:25 a.m. PST (2:25 p.m. EST / 19:25 UTC), the asteroid will be about 17,150 miles (27,600 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. The commentary will be available via NASA TV and streamed live online at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 Many objects in outer space are discovered and tracked by astronimacal enthusiasts, people just like you and me. Should we have an agency that watches for these kinds killer asteroids?