Commander Chris Hadfield’s tweets are literally out of this world. Nearly every day the astronaut tweets out photos and observations from space to his 500,000 plus Twitter followers and gives them a glimpse at his life in orbit.
A meteor streaking through the sky Friday morning exploded over Russia’s Ural mountains, injuring nearly 1,000 people and damaging homes and businesses in the Chelyabinsk region.
Watch this incredible footage of the meteor entering the atmosphere, and the aftermath of its entry. Learn more here.
At the American Astronomical Society meeting, scientists presented the first reliable tally of the number of Earth-sized exoplanets in our Milky Way. And the number is a staggering 17 billion. That’s one in six stars hosting an Earth-sized planet in a tight orbit, NASA reports. More
"If you put all the viruses in the ocean on a scale, they would equal the weight of 75 million blue whales. And if you lined up all those viruses end to end, “they would stretch out past the nearest 60 galaxies."
— Carl Zimmer, A Planet of Viruses
Where have all the stars gone?
In many cities, light pollution is making the night sky harder and harder to spot. In fact, many kids are growing up never having seen the Milky Way:
“We’d be a very different people if could never see the stars,” says Debra Elmegreen, president of the American Astronomical Society
Listen to this track while watching this simulation of the murder of a black star at the hands of a supermassive black hole, lurking in the center of a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away, snatched a passing star into its orbit, ripped it to shreds and devoured its remains before belching gas into the universe.
Black Hole Rips Star To Shreds, Then Swallows It
Delicious. ^KC
(Source: Spotify)
Infrared Camera Sees Through Stardust to the Edge of the Universe
A look at what the Spitzer Space Telescope has captured since its 2003 launch — including the edge of the universe, the Milky Way’s “mountains of creation” and the Sombrero Galaxy.
Space Shuttle Discovery’s Final Flight
Discovery’s age shows in the black stains and rubbed out paint along its frame. The workhorse of the shuttle fleet, Discovery has carried more crew members to orbit and flown more missions than any other shuttle. It has traveled 142 million miles. It launched the Hubble Space Telescope, three communications satellites and former Utah Senator Jake Garn.
(Photo by Getty Images)
