And now here is a comparison video of stars and planets in the known universe.
A seriously awesome video.
Water Detected at High Latitudes on the Moon (via NASA)
NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, an instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, took this image of Earth’s moon. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth.
Small amounts of water were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles.
Blue shows the signature of water, green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the sun and red shows an iron-bearing mineral called pyroxene.
Image Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS
Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean left NASA in 1981 to pursue his weekend hobby. Bean is the first astronaut-turned-artist to create artwork based on the otherworldly experiences of space exploration. His paintings are currently on display at the Air and Space Museum until January 2010. Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World features roughly 40 paintings, space artifacts, his spacesuit, and a video with interviews on his process.
Alan Bean’s Apollo paintings may not be for everyone, but the fact that the paintings exist as an artistic dialogue of human spaceflight is astounding. I hope that each viewer finds a small aspect of inspiration from his paintings because this is precisely why I am pursuing a degree in Arts Administration.
It was fascinating to see his acrylic studies in preparation for his final painting An Astronaut’s Journey. I was really drawn to the studies because of their series-like nature using different color combinations and slight adjustments, as if looking at an unseen page of his sketchbook. If he sells his studies, I desperately want to own one.
These studies for An Astronaut’s Journey show how Bean achieved his final results, with his varied approach to color combinations, different uses of light and shadow, and rearrangement of shapes in the overall composition. This series is a rare example of Bean’s work without the technical rendering of his finished paintings. (via)
Trails of Moon, Venus & Jupiter by miuvincent
Over the Nepean River, New South Wales, Australia. From Jason Kottke: Astronomy Photographer of the Year runner-up
Spectacular Liftoff to the Moon! (NASA, Moon, 6/18/09) (via nasa1fan/MSFC)
Atlas V rocket blasts off with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
“In Event of Moon Disaster”, a speech prepared for Nixon to read in the event that Appolo 11 would not be able to leave the moon, which would have marooned the astronauts via fancybrand
