A Solar Eclipse (left) Happens When The Moon Gets In The Way Of The Sun’s Light And Casts Its Shadow

Earth and Moon

Sirens of Titan

The last shuttle

A view from Mars. Earth, Jupiter, and Venus

Watch a NASA Spacecraft Touch Down On an Asteroid to Collect a Sample

On Tuesday, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down on an asteroid called Bennu for about six seconds in order to collect a mineral sample to bring back to Earth.

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36), and bring at least a 2.1-ounce sample back to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

The video above is a time lapse sequence of the touch down, sampling, and subsequent take off.

These images were captured over approximately a five-minute period. The imaging sequence begins at about 82 feet (25 meters) above the surface, and runs through the back-away maneuver, with the last image in the sequence taken at approximately 43 feet (13 meters) in altitude – about 35 seconds after backing away. The sequence was created using 82 SamCam images, with 1.25 seconds between frames.

What Neil Armstrong knew is what we never will

A tour of the vastness of the Universe

From astrophysicist Robert Simpson, a tour of the Universe from humans to the largest structure of the Universe. The piece is full of interesting little bits like:

The average female is 1.62 metres [tall] – that’s 5.4 light-nanoseconds.

If the Earth was a beach ball then all life on Earth exists within just 1mm around the surface.

Out by Pluto, the Sun itself is has dimmed to look like an other stars.

If the Sun was a blood cell then the Milky Way is the size of Europe.

See also Steven Strogatz on the Sagan Planet Walk in Ithaca, NY.

As you stroll from one to another, you can’t help noticing that the first four planets are really close together. It takes a few seconds, a few tens of steps, to walk from the Sun to Mercury and then on to Venus, Earth and Mars. By contrast, Jupiter is a full two-minute walk down the block, just past Moosewood Restaurant, waiting for someone to stop by and admire it. The remaining planets are even lonelier, each marooned in its own part of town. The whole walk, from the Sun to Pluto, is about three-quarters of a mile long and takes about 15 minutes.

My favorite detail: they added a new station to the Sagan Walk, the star nearest to our solar system. It’s in Hawaii.

2,000 light years from hone, Ceres

All the planets in the solar system would fit between the Earth and the Moon

Space cards