I’m having a day flailing copiously over space-sass (all prompted by this video from Chris Hadfield). Then I realised that I’d never posted this video. Seriously, there need to be more songs with lines like “throw ‘em up for manned space flight”…!

Also, sticking in what is possibly the best comment in the history of youtube, because just occasionally comments are worth reading:

I remember the first time I saw this, I thought to myself “wow, this is an old meme. Did NASA just get out-nerded?”

Then I remembered that when Gangnam Style came out, they were still busy trying to land a car on Mars. Using a rocket-suspended skycrane. That got there by being strapped to the top of an explosion.

I am sorry NASA, I should never have questioned you. I am unworthy.

Science rocks, people.

headlikeanorange: Space Shuttle Endeavour crossing a highway in Los Angeles. (Michael Moretti) A necessary reblog. Because the photos of the Shuttle trundling through the streets of LA, and the people having Shuttle parties as it went by, are some of the most wonderful things I have ever seen. End of an era, passing of a legend into history, farewell to an icon of a time.
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headlikeanorange:

Space Shuttle Endeavour crossing a highway in Los Angeles. (Michael Moretti)

A necessary reblog. Because the photos of the Shuttle trundling through the streets of LA, and the people having Shuttle parties as it went by, are some of the most wonderful things I have ever seen. End of an era, passing of a legend into history, farewell to an icon of a time.

(via senilejunta)

Source: headlikeanorange

For the astronomers out there:

Tonight is the transit of Venus, an event not due to happen again for over a hundred years. See it live at:

And keep an eye on NASA’s Twitter and The Solar Dynamics Observatory Twitter for images and further links.

liamdryden: This ring features a complete band of Gibeon Meteorite framed and mounted in an 18k gold band. The meteorite has been etched with nitric acid to reveal the characteristic patterns, or Widmanstatten figures, of iron meteorites, and set with 9 gemstones representing the planets of our Solar System. Mercury is represented by a rust colored Sapphire, Venus a golden Sapphire, Earth an irradiated blue Diamond, Mars a Ruby, Jupiter an Opal, Saturn a Cats Eye Chrysoberyl with an inlaid 24k gold ring, Uranus a green Sapphire, Neptune a blue Sapphire and Pluto a black Diamond. What really makes this ring special is that the band of meteorite spins independent of the gold ring, so when it is on, the planets rotate around the wearer’s finger. TL;DR SPACE RING GIMME ^ That. Basically.
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liamdryden:

This ring features a complete band of Gibeon Meteorite framed and mounted in an 18k gold band. The meteorite has been etched with nitric acid to reveal the characteristic patterns, or Widmanstatten figures, of iron meteorites, and set with 9 gemstones representing the planets of our Solar System. Mercury is represented by a rust colored Sapphire, Venus a golden Sapphire, Earth an irradiated blue Diamond, Mars a Ruby, Jupiter an Opal, Saturn a Cats Eye Chrysoberyl with an inlaid 24k gold ring, Uranus a green Sapphire, Neptune a blue Sapphire and Pluto a black Diamond. What really makes this ring special is that the band of meteorite spins independent of the gold ring, so when it is on, the planets rotate around the wearer’s finger.

TL;DR SPACE RING GIMME

^ That. Basically.

(via redmiel)

Source: liamdryden

“This is an 8-foot, 180-lb Venerator Class Star Destroyer made entirely out of 43,000 LEGO pieces by LEGO-maniac Erik Varszegi” Firstly, where does one get the schematics you’d need to even *think* of building one, whatever your material of choice?! This is thing has a level of detail I can barely begin to comprehend. Watch the video or check out the guy’s Flickr to get the best views of all the little bits.
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“This is an 8-foot, 180-lb Venerator Class Star Destroyer made entirely out of 43,000 LEGO pieces by LEGO-maniac Erik Varszegi”

Firstly, where does one get the schematics you’d need to even *think* of building one, whatever your material of choice?! This is thing has a level of detail I can barely begin to comprehend. Watch the video or check out the guy’s Flickr to get the best views of all the little bits.

Source: geekologie.com

This is a video where the perspective is altered so you can see the earth moving instead of the sky. Does that make sense? Not sure, but either way, watch it, it’s awesome.

EDIT: Aha, blurb! “This video shows the rotation of the Earth from the point of view of the stars. The original footage was taken at the observatory on Cerro Paranal in Chile.”

Photo (c) David Blanchard “A double flyby of the ISS leading the STS-134 Endeavour over northern Arizona resulted in this spectacular image. As the two spacecraft moved out of Earth’s shadow I noted a fuzzy “cloud” below the craft. It wasn’t long before I recognized that Endeavour was venting its tanks creating an ice cloud in space that was moving along with the two craft. Endeavour had just undocked a few hours earlier and was following very closely behind the ISS. It had not yet modified its orbit substantially so that it’s track nearly matched ISS and it is difficult to distinguish the two tracks in this image. This is a composite of eight images of 15 seconds duration. There is a small gap between each image as the camera shutter briefly closed. Also visible in this image in the upper right is the faint track of another earth orbiting satellite — most likely COSMOS 2228.” This image is a single frame where you can see the two trails, of the ISS and of Endeavour, more clearly as separate.
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Photo (c) David Blanchard

“A double flyby of the ISS leading the STS-134 Endeavour over northern Arizona resulted in this spectacular image. As the two spacecraft moved out of Earth’s shadow I noted a fuzzy “cloud” below the craft. It wasn’t long before I recognized that Endeavour was venting its tanks creating an ice cloud in space that was moving along with the two craft.

Endeavour had just undocked a few hours earlier and was following very closely behind the ISS. It had not yet modified its orbit substantially so that it’s track nearly matched ISS and it is difficult to distinguish the two tracks in this image.

This is a composite of eight images of 15 seconds duration. There is a small gap between each image as the camera shutter briefly closed.

Also visible in this image in the upper right is the faint track of another earth orbiting satellite — most likely COSMOS 2228.”

This image is a single frame where you can see the two trails, of the ISS and of Endeavour, more clearly as separate.

Source: spaceweather.com