Die NASA hat einen extrem coolen, neuen Service namens “Spot the Station“. Gebt einfach eure E-Mail oder Handynummer ein und ihr werdet benachrichtigt, wenn die Interationale Raumstation ISS über eure Gegend fliegt. Die NASA verspricht auch nur bei guter Sicht die Nachricht zu verschicken und man kann einstellen, ob man nur bei Tag oder Nacht alarmiert werden möchte. Tolle Sache.

Did you know you can see the International Space Station from your house? As the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it.

NASA’s Spot the Station service sends you an email or text message a few hours before the space station passes over your house. The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, though one with people living and working aboard it more than 200 miles above the ground. It is best viewed on clear nights.

Heute vor 55 Jahren flog das erste von der Menschheit entsandte Lebewesen, die Hündin Laika, ins Weltall. Laika starb bereits wenige Stunden nach dem Start an Stress und Überhitzung. Eine Rückkehr war jedoch ohnehin nie vorgesehen. Ihr Opfer war jedoch nicht umsonst. Die Sputnik 2 Mission lieferte wichtige Informationen und ebnete Yuri Gagarin den Weg ins Weltall.
Gutes Mädchen, Laika. Gutes Mädchen.

Paläontologen am Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana haben herausgefunden, wie man als Tyrannosaurus Rex einen Triceratops am besten frisst, sodass man an das leckere und reichhaltige Nackenmuskelfleisch herankommt. The more you know!

As Fowler and his colleagues examined the various types of bite mark on the skulls, they were intrigued by the extensive puncture and pull marks on the neck frills on some of the specimens. At first, this seemed to make no sense. “The frill would have been mostly bone and keratin,” says Fowler. “Not much to eat there.” The pulling action and the presence of deep parallel grooves led the team to realise that these marks were probably not indicative of actual eating, but repositioning of the prey. The scientists suggest that the frills were in the way of Tyrannosaurus as it was trying to get at the nutrient-rich neck muscles.

“It’s gruesome, but the easiest way to do this was to pull the head off,” explains Fowler with a grin. The researchers found further evidence to support this idea when they examined the Triceratops occipital condyles — the ball-socket head–neck joint — and found tooth marks there too. Such marks could only have been made if the animal had been decapitated.

How to eat a Triceratops: Tyrannosaurus tore the head off armoured prey to reach the tender neck meat.

The image, which was posted online by ESO on Wednesday, depicts 173 million different celestial objects, 84 million of which have been determined to be stars, according to ESO scientists. Altogether, the image is one of the largest ever produced in astronomical history and is so far the largest and most detailed of this region of the central Milky Way. via TPM

Die Europäische Südsternwarte hat ihr Paranal Observatorium in Chile auf die Zentralregion der Milchstraße gerichtet und obiges Bild geschossen. Atemberaubend. Das Besondere bei diesen Aufnahmen ist, dass man auch Infrarotaufnahmen gemacht hat, weil man auf diesen mehr erkennt, denn wir haben ziemlich viel Staub am rumfliegen, der uns sonst die Sicht verdeckt.

Das Bild gibt es in Hi-Res und auf TPM kann man die Infrarotaufnahmen und eingezeichnete Sternbilder sehen.

So unglaublich spektakulär und interessant die Landung vom NASA-Marsroboter Curiosity auch gewesen sein mag, die wirkliche Sensation beginnt jetzt, da der Roboter seine eigentliche Mission beginnt und bereits erste Erfolge vermelden kann. So ließen die Wissenschaftler bei NASA Curiosity durch ein vermutlich ehemaliges Flußbett fahren und stießen auf Kiesel, die von fließendem Wasser geformt worden sein sollen.

“NASA’s Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named “Hottah” after Hottah Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories. It may look like a broken sidewalk, but this geological feature on Mars is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted in the past, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites.

The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock. Hottah has pieces of gravel embedded in it, called clasts, up to a couple inches (few centimeters) in size and located within a matrix of sand-sized material. Some of the clasts are round in shape, leading the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.

A close-up view of Hottah reveals more details of the outcrop. Broken surfaces of the outcrop have rounded, gravel clasts, such as the one circled in white, which is about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) across. Erosion of the outcrop results in gravel clasts that protrude from the outcrop and ultimately fall onto the ground, creating the gravel pile at left.

This image mosaic was taken by Curiosity’s 100-millimeter Mastcam telephoto lens on its 39th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Sept. 14, 2012 PDT/Sept. 15 GMT). “

via TPM

SpOn hat ein Video und weiß, wohin das Space Shuttle fliegt.

Treffende Worte vom Schöpfer der Sagan Series, die genau das aussagen, was ich momentan in tiefer Trauer nicht in Worte fassen kann:

He will be mourned by his families and friends; he will be mourned by his nation; he will be mourned by the people of the world; he will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send one of her sons into the unknown.

In his exploration, he stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in his death, he binds more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their
heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But he was the first, and he will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

Neil deGrasse Tyson fasst zusammen, weshalb ein lautes “Nein!” nach dem Lesen der Schlagzeile aus mir herausbrach:

Neil Armstrong was not entirely human. He was the spiritual repository of our spacefaring dreams & ambitions. In death, a little bit of us all dies with him. Farewell my friend. And now, perhaps more than ever, I bid you godspeed.

Die Familie von Armstrong hat nur eine Bitte an alle Trauernden, die ihm Ehre erweisen wollen:

„For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.“

Der Mars Curiosity Rover sicher auf dem Mars gelandet und hat mit seiner Arbeit begonnen. Er sendete bereits sogar erste Bilder. Klar, wisst ihr alle schon und habt ihr alles schon gesehen, aber 1) ich bin hier in Montana mit meinem datenbegrenzten Satelliteninternet eben ein wenig langsamer als alle anderen und 2) fuck you! Mein Blog und ich muss es hier drin haben. Außerdem gibt es nichts Besseres als feiernde Nerds. Yes!