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Here Be Asteroids

By prawn1 Tuesday August 31, 2010

Douglas Adams once said, “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.” We’re discovering new spacey things all the time as seen in this fantastic visualization that captures in time-lapse the asteroid discoveries over the past 30 years. It starts off with slow with less than 10000 discoveries in the early 80s but more waves become visible with technological advances in the decades that follow.

As asteroids are discovered, they are highlighted white and change colour depending on whether their orbit crosses that of Earth (called “earth crossers” and shown in red) or approaches Earth (shown in yellow). All other asteroids are highlighted in green.

See Asteroid Discovery From 1980 – 2010 below.

[via Buzzfeed]

Earthrise, Earthset

By prawn1 Monday August 30, 2010

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In 1968, astronaut William Anders aboard the Apollo 8 mission took a image of the Earth as their spacecraft orbited the moon. Officially known as NASA image AS8-14-2383, the famous image came to be called an earthrise. 40 years later, a Japanese lunar orbit spacecraft called SELENE captured high-definition video of an earthrise. Check out the beautiful scene below.

In 2007, the same orbiter captured an earthset.

If you liked that, you might also enjoy a time-lapse video of a day to night Earth cycle as seen from the International Space Station. See that video after the jump.

Nick Veasey’s X-Ray Vision

By prawn1 Wednesday July 28, 2010

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Nick Veasey isn’t a traditional photographer. In the same vein as microscopist Alan Jaras who uses a scanning electron microsope to create a story about exploration, Veasey also makes uses of medical equipment to produce some unconventional art.

Veasey left the world of standard photography behind when he was asked to X-ray a cola can for a television show. Since then he has created X-ray photographs of everyday objects from mp3 players, toys, and clothes to all manner of plant life and animals. His experimentation has led to view the innards of larger subjects like motor vehicles, an office building, and even to capture the anatomy of a Boeing 777!

Veasey uses industrial x-ray machines and in the case of the airplane, 500 individual films were processed and then joined together on the computer to create the composite shot. For his “human” subjects, he has the option of using skeletons in rubber suits or cadavers. He reportedly has eight hours in which to pose and photograph the cadaver before rigor mortis sets in. I don’t know about you, but I find that a little macabre. In any case, the results are amazing to see. This is what he has to say about his art:

My work is real. X-Ray is an honest process. It shows things for what they are, what they are made of. I love that. It balances all that glossy, superficial bollocks. I’m real and straightforward. And so is my work.

Have a look at some of this most fascinating x-ray photographs after the jump.

Black Rain

By prawn1 Thursday July 22, 2010

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Black Rain is a short film by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt from the art duo, Semiconductor. They sourced the images from the satellites used in NASA’s STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) mission that traced the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to Earth.

Working with STEREO scientists, Semiconductor collected all the HI image data to date, revealing the journey of the satellites from their initial orientation, to their current tracing of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Solar wind, CMEs (coronal mass ejections), passing planets and comets orbiting the sun can be seen as background stars and the milky way pass by.

Have a look at Black Rain below.

[via CreativeApplications]

Go For Launch: Awesome NASA Time-Lapse Video

By prawn1 Thursday June 3, 2010

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Go For Launch: Awesome NASA Time-Lapse Video

Launched on April 5th and having landed on April 20th, Discovery’s flight STS-131 marks the longest mission for the orbiter. During the six week that photographers Scott Andrews, his son Philip Scott Andrew, and Stan Jirman spent in and around the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, they took thousands of photos of the staff preparing Discovery for the mission.

The photographers condensed their shots into a glorious four-minute time-lapse video that chronicles Discovery’s trip from the processing facility to the pad, and eventually to the launch itself. It’s quite amazing to watch – there isn’t any audio on the clip,so we’d suggest Black Sabbath’s Into the Void as a good accompaniment. Check out Go For Launch! below.

BONUS: While we’re on on the topic of NASA, two of their satellites have been monitoring the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The movement of the spill has been captured in images which since been compiled into a time-lapse video. See that after the jump.

Fake Science is Misleading, Very Amusing

By prawn1 Monday May 10, 2010

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Fake Science is Misleading, Very Amusing

Teachers around the world, you best avert your eyes. We know at times science can be difficult to understand at times, and a Tumblr blog called Fake Science is attempting to take a little of the confusion out of the subject by giving you trivia that is outrageously false but so very amusing. The misleading factoids cover a variety of topics such the key ingredients of volcanic explosions to how fish breathe underwater to the amazing tech behind 3D glasses.

Have a look at some of these factoids after the jump.

Spectacular Solar Images and Videos

By prawn1 Thursday April 22, 2010

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On February 11th, NASA launched the the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft designed to study our sun. It’s on a five-year mission gathering data that will aid scientists to better understand how solar activity affects our climate and our lives. The highly advanced SDO is said to take images that are 10 times better than current HD TVs and will be sending back a whopping 1.5 terabytes of data back to Earth each and every each day!

The solar-observing spacecraft has been beaming back early images and videos and they look quite amazing. Have a look for yourself, after the jump.

Zoom and Enhance: Incredibly Close-up Insect Images

By prawn1 Tuesday March 9, 2010

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Zoom and Enhance: Incredibly Close-up Insect Images

Word around the scientific cooler is that the Scanning Electron Microscope (or SEM) can magnify images 250 times better than a light microscope. The expensive bit of kit valued up to 500,000 pounds blasts materials with a high-energy beam of electrons and the messages sent back build up a super-detailed image.

Retired scientific photographer Steve Gschmeissner gets to play with this high-tech toy and has produced some amazing close-up images of insects. Check out some of his shots after the jump.

PS3 Torne

By Macross Friday January 15, 2010

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Sony has announced that they will be launching a digital video recorder (DVR) called “Torne”, in Japan this week.

The Torne (similar to the PlayTV DVR in Europe) connects to your PS3 via a USB cable. It’s got an easy to use interface and the possibility to record shows with a timer function. Shows are recorded to the PS3’s hard drive, or can also be stored on an external hard drive if you don’t have enough space on the internal drive.

Torne will automatically record pre-programmed content in Stand-by Mode, during game play or when using the XMB (XrossMediaBar).

Users can control control the program guide via the DualShock 3 controller.

Finally, users can transfer recorded content to a Memory Stick Pro Duo or Memory Stick Micro to view on the Blu-ray disc application to initiate DVR functionality.

The Torne will retail Japanese consumers ¥9,980 (872 ZAR) and will go on sale this March. There will also be a bundle available which includes a 250GB PS3 and the Torne for ¥42,800 (3736 ZAR). However there is no news on whether this will be released in other countries.

The Known Universe

By prawn1 Monday December 21, 2009

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It’s that time of year when people take stock of their lives and ponder things done right, and choices gone horribly awry. I prefer to forgo that and consider something a little more “spacey”.

The Known Universe is a short film made by American Museum of Natural History and takes you on a trip from the roof of the world to the edge of the known universe, and back again. Sit down, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.