Space
Red Bull is supposed to give you wings bit that would only slow Felix Baumgartner down. This week the daredevil made a test skydive from 18 miles up in preparation for his upcoming jump from 120,000 feet (22 miles) in which he hopes to reach speeds of 690 MPH and be the first person the break the sound barrier. In the latest test jump Felix went 0 to 509 MPH in just 30 seconds and all that is without the aid of a plane fo rocket, just pure gravity baby!
Felix Baumgartner Skydives From The Edge Of Space [11 High Quality Photos]
PBS is exploring the hidden patterns and rhythms that make America work. They are taking this data and visualizing it in a series being called, “ America Revealed .” Visualization of internet distribution The pinpointed distribution of the unemployed Domino’s Pizza’s raw ingredients’ delivery routes in the Northeast
Aerial Data Visualisation Reveals Life In The United States
Last November, the team at NASA launched its Mars Space Laboratory, known as Curiosity , on a long journey through space. On August 6th, the rover will touch down in a crater on Mars and begin its study of climate, geology, and any potential signs of life on the red planet. Although this landing is the culmination of eight months in space, the success of the mission will boil down to what happens in just seven minutes--what NASA refers to as the "7 Minutes of Terror." It will take seven minutes for Curiosity, which has its own Twitter account, to descend from the top of Mars’ atmosphere down to the surface. What will transpire in that time is a marvel of modern ingenuity, which is recounted in suspense-movie-worthy detail in the video above. Because it takes 14 minutes or so for the signal from a space craft to make it to Earth (yeah, that’s how far away Mars is from us), for seven long minutes, NASA will have no idea whether the rover landed or not.
Think Your Job Is Hard? Watch NASA Crew's Riveting "7 Minutes Of Terror" Mars Landing
What the Space Shuttle booster saw
You've likely seen other videos taken from cameras attached to the Space Shuttle and its boosters, but this is one is exceptional in two regards: it's in HD and the sound has been remastered by Skywalker Sound. Watch, and more importantly, listen to the whole thing...at the very end, you can see the second booster land a few hundred yards away from the first one. Who knew that being in space sounds like being trapped with a whale underwater in a tin pail? (via ★mouser ) <p style="text-align:right;color:#A8A8A8"></p>
Stars & Planets Scale Comparison
A Humbling Perspective "Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise." This scale comparison shows "the true place" of Earth and our Sun among the various giants of the universe. It is simultaneously sobering and mind-boggling experience. First series of images opens with the Death Star compared to Mimas , one of Saturn's moons. Note the similarities between the two :) Earth is small enough to be swallowed by an average sunspot: (picture credt )
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus , the next brightest star . The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek : Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher"). The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A , and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, called Sirius B . The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.1 and 31.5 AU . [ 18 ]
Sirius
A newly unveiled company with some high-profile backers — including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page — has announced plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for resources such as precious metals and water. Planetary Resources, Inc. intends to sell these materials, generating a healthy profit for itself. But it also aims to advance humanity's exploration and exploitation of space, with resource extraction serving as an anchor industry that helps our species spread throughout the solar system. "If you look at space resources, the logical next step is to go to the near-Earth asteroids ," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson told SPACE.com. "They're just so valuable, and so easy to reach energetically. Near-Earth asteroids really are the low-hanging fruit of the solar system."