It’s like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. NASA recently released the largest Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, displaying sweeping views of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a…
Photograph by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Although NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken many breathtaking images of the universe, one snapshot stands out from the rest: the iconic view of the so-called “Pillars of Creation.” The jaw-dropping photo, taken in 1995, revealed never-before-seen details of three giant columns of cold…
NASA took its first major step towards a manned mission to Mars today with the successful launch and landing of its Orion spacecraft. Orion completed its first voyage to space, traveling farther than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more than 40 years. Orion blazed into the morning sky at 7:05 a.m.…
During Expedition 40 in the summer of 2014, NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman — along with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst — explored the phenomenon of water surface tension in microgravity on the International Space Station. The crew “submerged” a sealed GoPro camera into a floating ball of water the size…
Brian Cox visits NASA’s Space Power Facility in Ohio to see what happens when a bowling ball and a feather are dropped together under the conditions of outer space. The facility is home to the largest vacuum chamber in the world. The clip is a preview from Human Universe: Episode 4 on BBC Two.…
Photograph by NASA In this incredible aerial photograph by NASA, we see an overhead view of the Sarychev Peak Volcano erupting on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is a stratovolcano covering almost the entirety of Matua Island in the Kuril Islands of Russia. It is a young, highly symmetrical stratovolcanic cone. During this particular…
Watch Expedition 38 crew members Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio give a brief geography lesson as they hurtle through space at 27,600 km/h (17,100 mph) onboard the International Space Station.
Photograph by Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid on Twitter) “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this. 10 minutes ago on the #ISS #aurora” Those were the words of astronaut Reid Wiseman who is currently aboard the International Space Station. He posted the photo above to Twitter last night at 6:04 pm ET (19…
Photograph by NASA [NASA April 21, 2010] Perhaps the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for “pile” and “rain cloud”) clouds form due to vigorous convection (rising and overturning) of warm, moist, and unstable air. Surface air is warmed by the Sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is…
Photograph by Buzz Aldrin In a tweet last month, astronaut Buzz Aldrin informed the world that he was responsible for taking the first ever selfie in space during the Gemini 12 mission in 1966. The mission took place from November 11-15 lasting 3 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes. The two-man crew included Aldrin…
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