Beautiful images from the International Space Station. Even better in HD.
Deep Discount on Space Shuttles
In the market for a space shuttle? NASA has a deal for you.
Here is a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships to $28.8 million apiece from $42 million.
The shuttles are for sale once their flying days are over, which is scheduled to be this fall.
I bet they’re full of wood paneling and orange carpet.
570-Megapixel, Intergalactic Camera
A giant digital camera is being built by an international team of scientists at Fermilab in an attempt to solve the mystery of dark energy.
Of course, we don’t really know whether dark energy even exists. What we do know is that the universe has been expanding since the big bang. But rather than slowing down like everything else fighting gravity’s pull, this expansion seems to be speeding up. Something must be causing this, and astronomers call that something dark energy. The hope is that scientists can use detailed photos to chart the light from galaxies and supernovas, which will show the growth of the cosmos and at least give them more evidence for the existence and effect of dark energy.
Space Agencies
French photographer Vincent Fournier has produced some wonderful images of the Chinese, Russian and US space agencies, including their earthly training grounds.
More of Fournier’s work can be found at his website.
(via snarkmarket)
The Known Universe
The Known Universe is a new film created by the American Museum of Natural History that begins over Mount Everest and pulls back through space to the edge of what we have been able to observe and map of the universe. Every detail of scale and location is accurate, as it’s based on data from the Digital Universe Atlas, a continually updated four-dimensional map of the universe.