Fuck Yeah Solar System!
"This kind of abundance can't be produced by anything but a supernova."

This blog is all about our celestial neighborhood.
I hope our solar system inspires you the way it continually inspires me.
  • therecipe
latimes: Brace yourself for another asteroid flyby To quote science reporter Deborah Netburn: It’s 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby. At approximately 1:59 p.m. PDT May 31, Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make a close (by galactic standards) pass by our home planet. Coming within just 3.6 million miles of Earth, the asteroid will be so close that many of its features will be visible on radar. For more details on the asteroid, including its possible origin, at Science Now. Photo: NASA / JPL / Caltech

latimes:

Brace yourself for another asteroid flyby

To quote science reporter Deborah Netburn:

It’s 1.7 miles long. Its surface is covered in a sticky black substance similar to the gunk at the bottom of a barbecue. If it impacted Earth it would probably result in global extinction. Good thing it is just making a flyby.

At approximately 1:59 p.m. PDT May 31, Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make a close (by galactic standards) pass by our home planet. Coming within just 3.6 million miles of Earth, the asteroid will be so close that many of its features will be visible on radar.

For more details on the asteroid, including its possible origin, at Science Now.

Photo: NASA / JPL / Caltech

jtotheizzoe:

You guys like Saturn, right? Here’s a whole gallery of Saturn GIFs, from rings to moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They’re part modern art and part science.

Next to the Voyager twins, I think Cassini might be the best satellite NASA ever launched. Certainly takes the best pictures. Tumblr’s own staceythinx  has an iPad app called Cassini HD that features even more photos, plus color, plus science.

(GIFs by framesandflames)

NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Essential Ingredients for Life in Ancient Rock Sample

by Ryan Grenoble, Huffington Post

This, of course, is a developing story.

The asteroid packed a huge punch, the power of 20 Hiroshima bombs. It was a “city buster,” capable of flattening a modern metropolis and reducing it to rubble. It was a miracle that the asteroid exploded roughly 10 to 15 miles above ground: had there been a ground burst, it would have caused tens of thousands of casualties. If that asteroid had hit just a few seconds later, it would have created a tragedy on Earth.
Michio Kaku - Asteroid Apocalypse? Why Scientists Worry About 2036’s ‘Planet Buster’

I was unaware of the fact that it was so large and that it would have been such a problem if it would have struck ground. Fascinating. (via therecipe)
It was an amazing spectacle, a rapid succession of giant asteroids blazing across the sky. First, on February 15, Russia was hit with the biggest asteroid in 100 years. Barely a few hours later, an even bigger one made the closest approach to Earth ever recorded for an asteroid of its size. Then the residents of San Francisco, Cuba, and south Florida looked up and saw meteors streak across the sky, rattling their nerves.
Michio Kaku - Asteroid Apocalypse? Why Scientists Worry About 2036’s ‘Planet Buster’

Updates on Russian Meteor Shower

thepoliticalfreakshow:

At least 400 people have been injured after a meteor shower over central Russia blew out windows, interior ministry sources say. Brightly burning rocks could be seen for hundreds of kilometres as they crashed into the Ural region - BBC News

voodoo-acid-zombie:

polarbearsarebrilliant:

Russian Meteor Strike, February 2013

[x] [x]

(Source: joan-watsoned)

in

Mars Curiosity Rover Panorama!

vurtual:

The Moon (by Mario Moreno)

is that photo ohl of our galaxy to scale? because the size of the sun left me flabbergasted! i had always imagined the sun as waaaaay bigger than all the planets.
Asked by kikkacat

The scale looks to be waaaaay off. The Sun is larger than all of the other mass in our solar system combined. In fact, the Sun is almost ALL of the mass of our solar system: approx 99%!