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Best High Resolution Earth Image

asadali — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:00:59 +0000

Suomi NPP - NASA’s Earth watching satellite has captured a 8000×8000 pixel resolution image of the Earth – The Blue Marble 2012. Its one of the best, excellent and most beautiful Earth image ever. You always find many eye-catching and awsome Earth pictures but Suomi NPP’s Earth image is better than all. We may say that Suomi NPP has achieved one of its missions as it was sent to capture beautiful Earth images, natural disaster monitoring and weather forecasts predictions.

Numerous swaths of Earth surface were taken first then this composite high resolution images was made. The Blue Marble 2012 is named after legendary “Blue Marble” – a photograph taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on Dec, 7, 1972. It took a long period to beat Blue Marble 1972.

You can download The Blue Marble 2012 here. Its worth downloading. Let us know how you find and rate this image by your comments.

Solar Eruption Caused Strongest Radiation Storm [Video]

asadali — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:48:23 +0000

A huge solar blast caused worst and strongest magnetic radiation storm – hits earth on Tuesday. It effected air traffic badly throughout Asia and other parts of the world. An ultraviolet flash was noticed and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center warned about the expected radiation storm. However, its not harming population on earth.

On January 22, 2012 a huge eruption on the Sun caused enormous energized solar particles to hit earth at 2,000 km per second. It can harm passengers in high-flying aircrafts, disrupts satellite operations and degrades HF radio communications. However, people on earth are pretty safe. It is rated M9-class eruption- second most powerful type of solar storms.

Space Race For Moon is Back Again

asadali — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:21:13 +0000

Construction of a permanent base on the Moon isn’t a new idea. However, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos showing strong dedication for the construction of a permanent base on the moon. A dialogue is in process between European Space Agency (ESA, NASA and Roscosmos.

Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said, “We are now discussing how to begin [the moon’s] exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency. Either to set up a base on the moon or to launch a station to orbit around it”.

Roscosmos already started working on the 2 options. They are planning to send prospective manned transportation system and two unmanned missions to the Moon. Even NASA has planned a human mission to the moon in 2020. All these missions are prior to the permanent base on the moon.

Inside The International Space Station [Video]

asadali — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:43:48 +0000

International Space Station (ISS) is the most expansive international scientificconstruction ever. However, it is built jointly by 16 nations including the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and the member states of the European Space Agency. ISS has made space exploration much easy. Many people want to know what is inside ISS. Finally a video by “BestOfScience” revealed what is inside ISS.

The total weight of ISS is 1,040,000 pounds.It is 365 feet wide and 290 feet long. Solar panels are the power source. It orbits at 250 statute miles with an inclination of 51.6 degrees.

The video starts from the back part of ISS known as Soyuz and takes you through the entire craft to the shuttle. A brief visit of the docking compartment, the Russian MRM2 science module and the robotics workstation is shown first. A Japanese experimental module is also part of ISS. This module consists of gym, sleep station, laboratory and more storage.

Alien Planets [Video]

asadali — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:45:00 +0000

NASA’s Kepler mission found 3 alien planets orbiting a star smaller than Sun. KOI-961, is a red dwarf star. The 3 alien planets are smaller than earth as their diameters are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times of Earth. They are the smallest alien planets ever discovered.

The KOI-961 exists in Constellation Cygnus and 120 light-years away. The KOI-961 is very small and 1/6 of Sun. The Alien planets are very close to it and they are rocky like Earth. The surface temperature of these alien planets ranges from 720 Kelvin (836 degrees F) to 450 Kelvin (350 degrees).

Principal investigator John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, John Johnson said, “It’s almost like you took a shrink gun and zapped a planetary system, the whole thing, including the sun”.

How To Work For NASA

asadali — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:41:30 +0000

Are you willing to work for NASA? certainly yes! Then here is the opportunity for the programmers. NASA has launched a new website code.nasa.gov. The website will introduce programmers to open-source projects on which they can work with the space agency. NASA will increase open source activities through this website. It will provide a forum for discussion over existing and upcoming projects.

Currently there are only four open projects. But there would be lot of opportunities coming up for programmer. The website is spearheaded by NASA’s Ames Research Center.

William Eshagh, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center said, “Ultimately, our goal is to create a highly visible community hub that will imbue open concepts into the formulation stages of new hardware and software projects, and help existing projects transition to open modes of development and operation”.

How Astronauts Shoot Time-Lapse Videos From Space [Video]

asadali — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:46:01 +0000

NASA launched a strikingly attractive time-lapse videos of Earth in November, 2011. More than 6.29 million people viewed it within 2 months. It was launched for public via The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

A video documentary is released by NASA showing how astronauts captured images from International Space Station for such an eye-catching video. Its a short documentary hosted by Mike Massimino. Expedition 29 commander Mike Fossum gives the details how they captured the catchy earth images using Nikon D3 Camera in the presence of moon light. The full documentary is as under.

China’s Five Year Space Program

asadali — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:05:51 +0000

China is going to intensify its space program by creating new spacecrafts, satellites and a space lab in next five years. They will enlarge space exploration volume with the collaboration of international community to make contributions toward space development. They already started working on the five year program by launching spacecraft Shenzhou-8 earlier this year.

According to China’s Information Office of the State Council, “In the next five years, China will strengthen its basic capacities of the space industry, accelerate research on leading-edge technology and continue to implement important space scientific and technological projects, including human spaceflight, lunar exploration, high-resolution Earth observation system, satellite navigation and positioning system, new-generation launch vehicles and other priority projects in key fields”.

“China will push forward human spaceflight projects and make new technological breakthroughs, creating a foundation for future human spaceflight,” the report said. “It will launch the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spaceships and achieve unmanned or manned rendezvous and docking with the in-orbit Tiangong-1 vehicle.” the report by China’s Information Office of the State Council.

Space Lab is also in the program plan which will allow astronauts to work on space-station technologies including regenerative life support and propellant refueling. The country sent 79 spacecrafts since 2006 that shows the efforts to explore space.

Technology of 2011 Review [Video]

asadali — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:15:29 +0000

Good Bye, 2011………!!!!!

Year 2011 is ending with good and bad times but it was full of inventions, Success, progress and excellent in technology. Communication medias improved with iPhones/iPads, space technology strengthened with Kepler-22b discovery and Mars Curiosity Mission while smartphones packed the world in one’s hand. There is an enormous change in the computing and internet world this year.

Let’s take a look back at what made this year great. iPhone by Apple, smartphones by Nokia and Samsung impressed the communication world. Play-station Vita, Skyrim, Modern Warefare 3 and Batman stood top in the gaming world. In social world, Google+ was the impressive addition although Twitter came up with upgraded Twitter V 4.0. In space technology Mars curiosity Mission was a pleasant experiment. A Youtube video is presented here as review.

Christmas Day in Space [Video]

asadali — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:43:40 +0000

Apollo 8 is setting ground-work for Apollo 11 as Christmas Day arrived. Three astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William celebrated Christmas day in space. A very rare experience by people. Celebrating Christmas day in space with three people only is interesting and sometimes sad as you far away from people on earth.

For such occasion, one astronaut said, “The vast loneliness up here on the moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.”

To mark this historic event the crew also sent back Christmas greetings to Earth, closing with a special message, “good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth”.