One of the things I love most about my job at the Ontario Science Centre is that it gives me opportunities to connect with some pretty amazing people. I’ve met some incredible communicators, scientists, leaders, astronauts, and people from all walks of life doing amazing things. Last night my astronomy background gave me an opportunity to work a special event for future astronauts who are participating in the Virgin Galactic commercial space flight program. The group consisted of about 20 people, some of whom were lead flight engineers and technicians forking on SpaceshipTwo. Others were commercial development and administrators for Virgin...
This is a story that not many know, about a Russian cosmonaut named Vladimir Komarov. He was one of the first Soviet cosmonauts in the 1960s during the cold war space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. He was the first cosmonaut to fly on more than one space mission, and he sadly became the first human being to die due to space flight. An Aerospace Engineer and test pilot, he was one of the few exceptional candidates accepted into Air Force Group One, the original Soviet cosmonaut program. He wasn’t medically fit for the program on...
A video released a couple of days ago is a brilliant short film about a group of friends who went in to the Nevada desert and built a scale model of the solar system to give us a perspective on how large space actually is. Filmmakers Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet led the project, which featured footage of the production of the model as well as some interesting results. Watch right to the end, where some fabulous footage of the Apollo program is shown, along with some inspiring words from the few men who have seen the Earth from beyond...
I’m over-stimulated. I literally can’t take it anymore. These images from Pluto are mind-blowing, but with so many incredible photos released over the past week, I have reached my limit. I can no longer contain my excitement(not that I have in the past). Here are the newest images showing a Pluto we have never seen before. This second image is my favorite. It shows so much depth and detail, and reveals Pluto to be a world, far more than just a boring rock occupying the outer reaches of our solar system. Visible in the image is the layered atmosphere, mountain...
For years there has been talk of a subsurface ocean present within Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. Many have simply assumed it to be fact, but the reality is, something so complex on a world so far away is very difficult to prove conclusively. But now, using data from over a decade of observations by the Cassini spacecraft, mission scientists have shown conclusively that Enceladus must have a global ocean beneath a surface of ice. Previous data analysis suggested that there was a lens-shaped liquid ocean beneath the south polar region of the planet, giving a source for the observed plumes...
The International Space Station is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 400 Km, give or take. This gives it an orbital period of about 90 minutes. Keen observers on Earth can track these movements and look for the ISS in the sky as it passes overhead. Some of the keenest observers even take photos, and plan for incredible transits. In the case below, we can see the ISS transit the Sun, twice in one day. A carefully chosen time and place on Earth by the photographer Hartwig Luethen, this photo was taken on August 22nd, during two successive transits....
The mysteries of the Occator crater on Ceres have continued to puzzle astronomers and the public, even as we have seen increasing resolution in recent photos. The latest photos show a resolution of 140 meters per pixel and reveal striking details, though the jury is still out on what exactly the bright material is and where it came from. It seems incredibly likely that the bright spots are ices of some sort, maybe even water ice, since Ceres is a water-rich body, and may have more water than Earth! One hypothesis is that Ceres has a subsurface layer of water,...
Nothing like a rocket launch in the early morning to inspire and wake you up. The 4 Million Newtons of thrust and a weight of over 500 tons gives a nice blast of power to your morning that coffee never could. I am talking about the Atlas V rocket that launched on September 2nd, carrying a US Navy communications satellite up into orbit. There is a lot happening in this medium exposure photo. The rocket blasts off in a bright flash, then climbs into the atmosphere, where its exhaust plume becomes a noctilucent cloud, illuminated by the Sun that hasn’t...
A bright fireball appeared in the sky over Hawaii a couple of days ago. It appeared to break into several pieces and burn up in the atmosphere. Naturally one would expect it to be a meteor, but if you take a look at the video below, it sticks around a little bit too long for that. Aside from the over-the-top reaction of those watching, it’s not as exciting and quick as a meteor. In fact, most meteors can move through the sky at up to 70 km/s, enough to burn up quickly and leave a bright flash in their wake....
With the historic fly-by of Pluto last month, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us an up-close look at the former 9th planet, showing that it is a dynamic world with icy plains, tall mountains, and an atmosphere. But now that New Horizons has passed by Pluto, it has the infinite cosmic horizon in its stead. So what’s next for the $700 Million spacecraft? Its battery will keep it going for a few more decades, and it will likely pass beyond the edge of the solar system, in the stead of the Voyager crafts. What else is ahead? The good news is...
