This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here am I, sitting in a tin can, far above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.
-“Space Oddity” by David Bowie
The words to the song Space Oddity have been sweeping across the Internet since May 12. But the voice doesn’t belong to the song’s creator, David Bowie, who originally released it in 1969.
Instead, they were sung by Canadian astronaut and International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield, who recorded it and the accompanying video as part of turning over control of the station on May 12. Hadfield was scheduled to return to Earth on May 13 after an inspiring five-month tour aboard the ISS.
The farewell rendition of Bowie’s long popular song might go down as the most epic and thought-provoking transfers of command in human spaceflight history.
May 13th, 2013
95
95 notes
http://www.tumblr.com/reblog/50360250957/EzvI42Sg
photo
Visualizing Meteorites
Add another one to the list of data visualizations that make science engaging and fun.
Data visualization designer Carlo Zapponi has created an alluring website called Bolid.es showing meteorites that have either been found on the ground or seen falling to Earth. The main draw of the site, as seen in the picture above, puts into motion the fraction of heavenly bodies actually witnessed by people or instruments as they crashed through the atmosphere and collided with the planet.
Zapponi has created a timeline that starts with the record of a 470 g meteorite that fell in Nogata, Japan, in the year 861. In total, the animation illustrates 1,045 witnessed meteorite crashes that are on record with The Meteoritical Society of some 34,800 that have been found.
Check out Zapponi’s website at Bolid.es.
May 10th, 2013
10
10 notes
http://www.tumblr.com/reblog/50084157180/E5joOllw
text
Huge Solar Outburst Captured by Fleet of Spacecraft
NASA’s fleet of spacecraft observing the sun have sent back fascinating and beautiful video from the most recent coronal mass ejection, when a massive burst of matter and magnetic fields shoot out from the star into space.
Four spacecraft recorded the eruption in the extreme ultraviolet band of the electromagnetic spectrum over the course of 2.5 hours. The space agency says CMEs typically eject more than one billion tons of particles at a speed faster than one million miles per hour.
May 7th, 2013
50
50 notes
http://www.tumblr.com/reblog/49861328058/lVCYMVVl
text
Citizen Scientists See Space as New Frontier
Space has never been accessible to the average hobbyist. It was instead the realm of elite astronauts and billionaires.
Edward Wright is on a mission to change that. As the project manager for Citizens in Space, an initiative of the nonprofit United States Rocket Academy, Wright is looking to recruit both amateur scientists and astronauts to participate in a commercial space industry that is rapidly taking shape.
Citizens in Space has made an appealing offer to aspiring space explorers: The project has purchased 10 flights on the XCOR Lynx, a commercial suborbital spacecraft, and will send that many amateur astronauts to the great beyond along with 100 small experiments or payloads.
May 1st, 2013
25
25 notes
http://www.tumblr.com/reblog/49353849562/21hRP4PH
text
