Tag Archives: Space

Saturday space foto: The light o'er Kraken Mare

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Kraken Mare. Sounds Gaelic enough. NASA snaps this pic of a 150,000 mile methane lake.

That’s about five times the surface area of Lake Superior.

From the space agency:

By comparing the new image to radar and near-infrared light images acquired from 2006 to 2008, Cassini scientists were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a Titan lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers 150,000 square miles. The reflection appeared to come from a part of the lake around 71 degrees north latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.

via Cassini Equinox Mission: Image Details.

Tesla Tuesday: Telsa relates ET radio contact

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Thanks to David Grinspoon, for this wonderful, found artifact:

“Brethren! We have a message from another world, unknown and remote. It reads: one… two… three…”

via Letters of Note: We have a message from another world.

In the summer of 1899, whilst alone in his Colorado Springs laboratory working with his magnifying transmitter, the inimitable Nikola Tesla observed a series of unusual rhythmic signals which he described as ‘counting codes’. Having just detected cosmic radio signals for the first time, Tesla immediately believed them to be attempted communications from an intelligent life-form on either Venus or Mars, and later said of the experience, ‘The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another’.

Milton will shut off lights to save money – Milton, MA – Wicked Local Milton

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In a few months, Milton at night will be half as bright as it used to be.

The town this week began shutting off half of its 3,000 streetlights, going down each street and flipping the switch for every other fixture

via Milton will shut off lights to save money – Milton, MA – Wicked Local Milton.

Frak me: Battlestar props on the block

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Baltar on the block

Baltar on the block

It’s completely mental, but I feel an uncontrollable impulse to bid.

Now that Battlestar Galactica is finished, there are plenty of props hanging around doing nothing but collecting dust and NBC/Universal have decided to auction them off. The variety of items on offer is simply staggering, ranging from medals and rank insignia, to rocket launchers and flight helmets. You can even buy currency and letters, should such things tickle your fancy.

via The Escapist : News : Battlestar Galactica Ships Up For Grabs.

Stupid animatronic trick of the day

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Photo: CC/Toni Lucatorto

Photo: CC/Toni Lucatorto

Japan is talking-up yet another bipedal robot (at least officials are not describing this one as a potential sexual partner, yet), to help humans settle-in on the moon, in about ten years.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan hopes to have a two-legged robot walk on the moon by around 2020, with a joint mission involving astronauts and robots to follow, according to a plan laid out Friday by a government group.

Specifics of the plan, including what new technologies will be required and the size of the project’s budget, are to be decided within the next two years, according to Japan’s Strategic Headquarters for Space Development, a Cabinet-level working group.

via The Associated Press: Japan aims for walking robot on the moon by 2020.

Batty ABC headline for NASA story

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Weird: Is ABC seriously wondering whether a wee bat managed to reach space? (See my emphasis, in the excerpt, below). Granted, the stakes are pretty low for this story, but…

The shuttle accelerates to an orbital velocity of 17,500 milers per hour, which is 25 times faster than the speed of sound, in just over eight minutes. That’s zero to 100 mph in 10 seconds.

Did it make it into space? No one knows yet. But photos of Discovery as it cleared the launch tower showed a tiny speck on the side of the tank. When those photos were blown up, it became apparent that the speck was a bat.

Sand circle baffles Google sightseers

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Fascinatin’:

Saharan Stone Circle Mystery

Right in the middle of the Sahara desert, in the dunes of northern Niger, there’s a circle which is clearly not a natural formation. The circle itself is roughly 52 metres across, but if we zoom out a little, we can see eight other markings which mark the sides and corners of a huge square area, about 620 metres on each side. This French website claims that French soldiers created similar looking circles and markings elsewhere in the Sahara “at the beginning of the aviation era”, although the reason why is unclear. Although the one in the article has no coverage [...]

You can't trust Google Earth's prying eyes

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Image: From Google Earth. CC/Mark Baard

Interesting examples here (link, excerpt from blog, below), of Google Earth images tweaked to protect government installations, mostly.

Those caught in the nude must fend for themselves, however.

Thanks to widespread coverage, many people are now familiar with the idea that “sensitive” areas of our planet are being hidden from view in the images that online mapping services display.

It’s also commonly understood that the images are usually altered by the company who originally took them (rather than Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, or any other buyer), allowing them to remain in line with their local laws and regulations.

Such areas include military installations, government buildings, and airports – but the point is usually simply to prevent people from viewing the exact details of the site, rather than attempting to deny their very existence.

Last year we saw some imagery in the Netherlands had been altered in a more dramatic way – drawing the ridicule of the Photoshop Disasters blog in the process – which in turn led to even wider recognition of the attempted cover up.

via The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Airport – Google Sightseeing.

Worshiping Darwin from space

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In another example of the Earth-oriented focus of the world’s space agencies, ESA salutes Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday with this shot of the Galapagos Islands.

Discovered in 1535, the islands became famous in the early 19th century when English scientist Charles Darwin wrote ‘The origin of species’ based on his observations made on Galapagos.

Galapagos’s largest island is Isabela (visible). The five volcanoes seen on the island are (from north to south): Wolf Volcano, Darwin Volcano, Alcedo Volcano, Sierra Negra Volcano and Cerro Azul Volcano. The bigger island to the right of Isabela is Santiago Island.

via ESA – Observing the Earth – Earth from Space: Galapagos Islands.