Tag: space

158 posts since October 2011 RSS

  • September 28th, 2013 11:18am

    sci-universe:

    Earth is expected to be habitable for another 1.75 billion years

    Findings published today in the journal Astrobiology reveal the habitable lifetime of planet Earth. The research team looked to the stars for inspiration. Using recently discovered planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) as examples, they investigated the potential for these planets to host life.

    “We used stellar evolution models to estimate the end of a planet’s habitable lifetime by determining when it will no longer be in the habitable zone. We estimate that Earth will cease to be habitable somewhere between 1.75 and 3.25 billion years from now. After this point, Earth will be in the ‘hot zone’ of the sun, with temperatures so high that the seas would evaporate. We would see a catastrophic and terminal extinction event for all life,” said Andrew Rushby, who led the research.

    However, conditions for humans and other complex life will become impossible much sooner – and this is being accelerated by anthropogenic climate change.

    (GIF from the video of a geostationary satellite Electro-L)

    Good news, for now. 

  • September 24th, 2013 8:06pm

    sagansense:

    Alien frontier: see the haunting, beautiful weirdness of Mars

    Mounted to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it floats high above the red planet is the HiRISE telescope, an imaging device capable of taking incredibly high-resolution photos of the martian landscape. It’s sent back nearly 30,000 photos during its time above the planet, which have been used by NASA to find clear landing spots for rovers, and by researchers to learn more about the features of Mars’ surface.

    via thisistheverge

  • August 17th, 2013 6:46pm

    knowledgethroughscience:

    The Moving Moons of Saturn – Mimas and Enceladus.
    The above time lapse movie was created by the Saturn-orbiting robotic Cassini spacecraft over a period of about 40 minutes.
    (Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA)

  • August 15th, 2013 1:45pm

    nationalpostphotos:

    Sad fate of the broken telescope — NASA is calling off all attempts to fix the crippled Kepler space telescope. But it’s not quite ready to call it quits on the robotic planet hunter. Officials said Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013 they’re looking at what science might be salvaged by using the broken spacecraft as is. (AP Photos/NASA, File)

    🙁

    With close to a thousand confirmed exoplanets and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of candidates, WE NEED TO REPLACE THIS FUCKING THING. IT’S VERY IMPORTANT. 

  • August 9th, 2013 4:32pm

    svo-hljott:

    shawtyandgarfuckel:

    this was so sweet i just had to turn it off and go to sleep 

    sometimes i just get really emotional about cosmos and carl sagan

    and by sometimes i mean like every second of every day idk help

    Sagan was such an awesome guy. 

  • August 8th, 2013 11:00pm

    discoverynews:

    NASA Probe to Solve Mars Atmosphere Mystery

    The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, nicknamed MAVEN, is designed to provide some answers as to why Mars’ atmosphere was stripped into space. From its orbital perch around Mars, MAVEN will track how the solar wind picks away at the planet’s thin atmosphere. The information will then be used to create computer models that move backward in time so scientists can determine when the planet was most suited for life and how long that period lasted. Read more

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