Time Lapse Views of the Earth

Another great video compilation of the Earth from the International Space Station. The photos were taken by Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa and the crew of Expeditions 28 & 29 from August to October, 2011. Below is a list of the different sequences and the ground they cover:

1. Aurora Borealis pass over the United States at night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to central South America at night
6. Aurora Australis from the southern to the northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night pass over central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and central United States at night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at night
13. Pass over eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Middle East at night
15. Night pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia at night

Images credit: NASA; Editing: Michael König; Music: Jan Jelinek | Do Dekor, faitiche back

Hurricane Irene

NASA's Terra spacecraft passed over Hurricane Irene while it was just north of the Bahamas on August 25, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. EDT. At the time, Irene was a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), and a minimum central pressure of 951 hPa, according to NOAA's National Hurricane Center. The storm made landfall in North Carolina on the morning of August 27 as a category one hurricane.

This set of images, acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on Terra on August 25, highlights geophysical parameters important to scientists studying these storms.

MISR uses nine cameras to capture images of the hurricane from different angles. The leftmost image is taken from an angle of 46 degrees. The storm is visible to the north of Cuba, which is located in the lower left of the image. Irene's eye is covered with clouds. Strong storms in the eyewall and the outer rain bands appear as bright, textured regions.

The multiple angles of MISR's cameras provide a stereographic view of Hurricane Irene. This information can be used to determine the height of the storm's cloud tops. As shown in the center image, these heights exceed 11 miles (18 kilometers) in the center of the storm, and in the outer rain bands, where the vertical motion is strongest. Lower clouds, at an altitude of about 5 miles (8 kilometers), are visible along the storm's northern edge.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument also flies on Terra and measures cloud top temperatures. Higher clouds are colder, and the highest clouds in Hurricane Irene on August 25 had temperatures less than minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 degrees Celsius).

While there is good correspondence between the MISR cloud top heights and the MODIS cloud top temperatures, these two observations provide different insights into the behavior of clouds near the core of the storm. Researchers are studying how the two measurements can be used in combination to estimate hurricane intensity.

These images cover more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) in the north-south direction, and are centered near 27 degrees North latitude, 75.5 degrees West longitude.

Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

The Solar System

This is a very nice info-graphic that Space.com has prepared about the solar system. Enjoy!


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Singapore (Home)

The Republic of Singapore is a city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. An island country made up of 63 islands, the country is largely urbanized with very little rain forest left. Part of various local empires since the 2nd century AD, Singapore declared independence in 1965. Since then it has had a massive increase in wealth: Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial center, and its port is one of the five busiest in the world. About 5 million people live in Singapore, of whom almost 3 million were born locally. The image was acquired 22 June 2001, covers an area of 42.3 x 34.8 km, and is located at 1.2 degrees north latitude, 103.9 degrees east longitude.

Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

NASA Mission "Movie" Posters

NASA, through its Space Flight Awareness division, is now making cute posters and images for its space shuttle missions and expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS). Many of the posters have a movie poster-quality to them, some more blatantly obvious than others. :) As you can see, the above image for the STS-124 mission, which flew to the ISS in May-June 2008, is patterned after the Harry Potter movie posters. My only complaint about the images available from the website is that the majority of downloads come in the form of PDF files; I prefer jpg images myself.

Check it out!

Experimental Rocket Ares I-X Lifts Off

Kaguya's Last Orbit of the Moon

All good things must come to an end. Occasionally, I've blogged about the Japanese spacecraft Selene, aka Kaguya, this being my fifth post to date. However, as planned, Kaguya crashed into the Moon very recently, on June 11th. The below video is a very clear movie from Kaguya's last orbit of the Moon. Although it's difficult to gauge the distance between the Moon and Kaguya, obviously Kaguya very narrowly misses plowing into some hilly terrain on its way down.

The last photographs taken by Kaguya can be found here

Miscellaneous Links (11 June 2009)

Astronomy and Science:
Spirit Encounters Soft Ground on Mars

Spokes Reappear on Saturn's Rings

One Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725 (Of all the recent APOD pictures I liked this one the best.)

A Dusty Iris Nebula

High population density triggers cultural explosions

We Knew Black Holes Were Massive. Now Double That.


Comics:
Dilbert ("Is there some sort of rule against collecting money for your own birthday?" Why didn't I think of that? ;) )

Luann (Typical American fair food: "Chocolate-dipped deep-fried donuts on a stick!")

One Big Happy


Others:
IZ Reloaded: The 40 Second Electric Toothbrush (And Ladies, Father's Day is right around the corner! ;) )

Photoshop Disasters: Hugo Boss: All This And No Brains Too (Low-brow modeling. ;) )

Kennedy International: Mobiusbiking! (Who's first?)

Strange Maps: 391 – Ireland As 100 People

Strange Maps: 389 – America’s Mean Streak

Strange Maps: 388 – US States As Countries of Equal Population (Singapore = Colorado!)


Science Fiction:
MIND MELD: New SF/F Recommendations for the Golden Age Reader (The post is a little long, and science fiction lends itself to subjective differences in tastes; however, the mind map at the bottom of the post, giving suggestions to different themes within SF/F was rather interesting - and with some good choices.)

Science Fiction And Interest In Space Exploration ("Does the predominance of Harry Potter over science fiction bode well or ill for the future of public spaceflight support? What science fiction and non-fiction books would you give to a child or teenager to inspire them about space exploration?")

1,001 Science Fiction Story Ideas

Ten of the Most Classic Science Fiction Movie Scenes

Star Trek ("How plausible does SF have to be? Not in terms of "ideas," but in terms of human behavior.")

Mary Robinette Kowal - The Worst-Dressed Women Warriors in Fantasy

The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi (Characters, not writers - unfortunately.)

Links for 17 May 2009

Rather slim pickings today.

Politics:
Al Gore: I Waited 2 Years To Make Statements That Were Critical

Governor Huntsman to Resign and Join Obama Administration as Ambassador to China (An interesting choice.)

Under Rumsfeld, Pentagon published Bible verses on top-secret intell reports. (Update: You can see the actual cover sheets with the Biblical quotations at GQ.)


Miscellaneous:
Atlantis and Hubble Side by Side (A very impressive photo considering that the photographer had to be within a five-kilometer-wide strip of land, know the shutter speed needed to take a clear photo (1/8000th of a second), and catch the transit within a mere 0.8 of a second.)

Links for 14 May 2009

Politics:
What Obama Means when he says "the troops" ("People keep telling me that America is a better place since 20 January 2009. As with the claims of economic recovery 'right around the corner,' there is precious little evidence.")

Countdown's Worst Person: Your Not So Grass Roots Are Showing

RNC having special session to brand the Democratic Party 'Socialists' (I'll accept the "socialist" moniker as long as we can call the Republicans "Nazis.")

C&L's Late Night Music Club with Yusuf Islam (The website Crooks & Liars does a nightly music video, with tonight's video being Yusuf Islam's Peace Train.)

Daily Show's Jason Jones explores ASU's pristine academic environment (As an alumnus of Arizona State twice over (Bachelors and Masters), I find Jones' humor lame. As anyone remotely affiliated with the university would know, that's not the library. And the students he interviewed strike me as fraternity/sorority types; you know, not exactly the brightest bulbs on campus. BTW, Jason, what university did you graduate from? Ryerson University? Where's that?)

Did You Have Your Bowl of Cholesterol Drugs This Morning? (An interesting story developing between the FDA and General Mills: the way in which Cheerios, the breakfast cereal, is being marketed has caused the FDA to declare the cereal a drug. "General Mills may not legally market Cheerios unless it applies for approval as a new drug or changes the way it labels the small, doughnut-shaped cereal, the FDA said.")

GOP icon declares his party "brain dead" (The rest of us already knew this...)


Economics:
The Renminbi as the Reserve Currency? (There's an interesting thought! Not that it would happen anytime soon...)

China Expands Global Role


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Of Life and Star Trek and Sex Education (Rozas' take on a conversation between some teenage Malay girls is rather interesting.)

The BNP is a threat to every Muslim

Just one in eight terror arrests ends with guilty verdict, admits Home Office


Miscellaneous:
A Space Shuttle Before Dawn (The space shuttle Atlantis, sitting on Launch Pad 39A, back in April, as it was being prepared for its launch a few days ago. Cool pic.)

INTERVIEW: C.J. Cherryh (CJ Cherryh is one of my favorite SF authors; she recently gave a brief interview in connection with her new novel, Regenesis, which is a sequel to her 1988 novel, Cyteen. Good news!)

382 – Two Eggs and a Kidney: Regional World Cities (Strange Maps is a blog I've been reading for quite a while now; check it out if you're unfamiliar with it. With respect to this map, I'm a little surprised LA isn't considered at least a major regional center, as Singapore and Hong Kong are. These latter two cities (S'pore and HK) do seem to be mirror images of each other in terms of being major regional centers, but I would expect people from Sydney might argue about whether they or S'pore has more influence in the southern half of the Asia and Oceania map.)

Flying Around the International Space Station

An interesting video from NASA. The recent space shuttle mission STS-119 (Discovery) did a fly around of the International Space Station (ISS) after departure. The shuttle flies in an arc 180° around the ISS giving a unique view to both the space station and planet Earth. The video, which has been sped up, is a good reminder that in space there is no up or down. Also, if you watch carefully, you'll see two of the solar panels spin around on their axis by about 180°.

Remember folks, if you have a spare $20 million lying around, you too can fly up to the ISS for an out-of-this-world vacation (not sorry for the pun ;) ). NASA can surely use the money, so start saving your pennies today! ;)

MESSENGER's Second Flyby of Mercury

Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Yesterday [6 October 2008], at 4:40 am EDT, MESSENGER successfully completed its second flyby of Mercury. ... The spectacular image shown here is one of the first to be returned and shows a WAC [Wide Angle Camera] image of the departing planet taken about 90 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach to Mercury. The bright crater just south of the center of the image is Kuiper, identified on images from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s. For most of the terrain east of Kuiper, toward the limb (edge) of the planet, the departing images are the first spacecraft views of that portion of Mercury’s surface. A striking characteristic of this newly imaged area is the large pattern of rays that extend from the northern region of Mercury to regions south of Kuiper. This extensive ray system appears to emanate from a relatively young crater newly imaged by MESSENGER, providing a view of the planet distinctly unique from that obtained during MESSENGER’s first flyby. This young, extensively rayed crater, along with the prominent rayed crater to the southeast of Kuiper, near the limb of the planet, were both seen in Earth-based radar images of Mercury but not previously imaged by spacecraft. ...

Mars Phoenix Lander Lands on Mars

Photos credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

I'm happy to say that the Mars Phoenix Lander has landed safely on Mars. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral last August, and successfully set down in the part of Mars known as the Vastitas Borealis (literally, northern vastness or widespread lowlands). The Vastitas Borealis lies 3-4 km below the mean radius of the planet (the Martian equivalent of sea level), that completely encircles the northern hemisphere of Mars from about 50°-60° North to about 80° North, where it meets the Planum Boreum, the northern polar plain where the ice cap is located. It is believed that the Vastitas Borealis may have been an ocean in Mars' ancient past, and that the Phoenix Lander may discover ice beneath a thin layer of dirt.

Unlike the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which are both mobile and have been operational for a number of years, the Phoenix Lander will remain in one place, where it landed, and is expected to survive for about three months or so, when the weather will freeze the spacecraft. In the meantime, the Phoenix Lander has an arm that will scoop soil and ice samples and place them into several chemistry laboratories inside the spacecraft, which will try to determine the soil chemistry, the amount of water and water vapor in the soil, and the soil's level of conductivity. The goal is to determine whether the Martian environment has ever been favorable to microbial life. In addition to the above-mentioned equipment, there's also several cameras on board plus a meteorological station, all of which are standard equipment for Martian vehicles today.

The two photos here are some of the first images taken by the Phoenix Lander. Both photos, which are approximate-color images, show a landscape that is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. The polygonal cracking is believed to have resulted from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice.

For more information on the Mars Phoenix Lander, check out another of my blogs, Areology.

Earth, by Kaguya

The other day I posted several high-definition TV pictures of the Earth and Moon by the Japanese satellite Kaguya ("Selene"). That post has been fairly popular so far, and so I've decided to add a second post.

Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

This photo, also taken by the HDTV camera, shows the Earth from 110,000 kilometers on September 29th. (The photo was released to the public on October 1st.) Both Greenland and the western half of South America are easily seen in this image. North America is not as easy to make out, although I believe I can see landmarks such as Florida and the Chesapeake Bay region in the photo.

Alan Parsons - Apollo

This is from an album, On Air, that I have back home in storage, but haven't been able to buy just yet here in S'pore. As a result, I just heard this instrumental, "Apollo," for the first time in a number of years. The song was written by Stuart Elliott, who wrote several songs for On Air and The Time Machine. After one of Alan's concerts in Tempe, Arizona, I met Stuart after the show and told him that I liked the techno instrumentals that he was creating, and he said (paraphrasing), "Someone has to drag the band into the 20th century." :)



This video has been dedicated to all the astronauts and cosmonauts who have lost their lives exploring space.