Photo reblogged from PopTech with 4,447 notes
The Highest Resolution Image of Earth Ever
This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012.
Photo courtesy of NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Ed note: Perfect for your desktop background. Click the photo for the 8000x8000 image
h/t Gizmodo
Source: Flickr / gsfc
Photo reblogged from It's Full of Stars with 435 notes
China plans manned moon mission
Nearly 40 years after humans last set foot on the moon, China has announced formal plans to develop a return mission. The most striking part of this announcement is not that they want to go back, but that they plan to do it by developing their own technology and support systems, essentially recreating a half century of NASA’s achievements by themselves.
And all this while the U.S. still has no vessel of its own to get people to space. Will this be the sign of a shift in space power? Or a call to arms to get our manned space program back on track to lead?
(via The Guardian, above: Chinese character for “moon” along with artist’s interpretations)
Source: Guardian
Photo reblogged from DiscoveryNews with 16,574 notes
Newly Found Alien Planet Could Host Life
The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, orbits smack in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our own.
Previous research had hinted at the existence of such Earth-like planets, where liquid water could exist, but this is the first time such a life-friendly alien planet has been confirmed.
The planet is about 2.4 times wider around than Earth. It’s still unknown whether Kepler-22b has a rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a milestone to finding Earth-like planets.
“This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin,” Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington said
Source: news.discovery.com
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