Lanzamiento del Skylab (NASA).

(Source: astroperlas, via space-pics)

Zombie Worms Mate Inside of Whale Bones

by Carrie Arnold

When it comes to the creepy factor, Osedax worms—nicknamed “zombie worms”—beat out even the goriest movies.

A recent study reveals that these faceless, mouthless worms enjoy making sweet, sweet love inside decomposing whale skeletons that have fallen to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Originally discovered off the coast of California in 2002, Osedax—whose name is derived from the Latin for “bone eating”—got its name for its peculiar living quarters: the bones of a decomposing gray whale. These deep-dwelling worms secrete acid to bore through the hard outer bones of whales and other large vertebrate skeletons to reach the nutritious oils within.

The weirdness doesn’t stop there. Unlike many species of animals, female Osedax worms are much larger than the males—so much larger, in fact, that 50 to 100 males can live inside the female in one of nature’s most bizarre harems…

(read more: National Geo)                     

(photo: Norio Miyamoto/Naturwissenschaften)

(Source: rhamphotheca)

Our Earth ‘Michael Jackson’
via The Film Artist

My wonderful niece asked me to make this version of my last Earthlapse film to appeal to her generation a litle more. Compiled from 20k+ photographs, I have added a few more timelapses and re-edited it to make this full screen version. Michael Jackson was truly an enlightened and good soul, enjoy! :) Please join our new Nasa Timelapse Club

(Source: facebook.com)

Chris Hadfield and Don Pettit are instrumental in saving the space programme…

(Source: asonlynasacan, via for-all-mankind)

Skylab: America’s Humanity’s First Home in Space Launched 40 Years Ago Today

With all the futuristic talk today about missions to Mars, lunar bases and asteroid mining, it’s easy to forget that man has already been living off of the planet on and off for decades. Forty years ago today, Skylab — America’s Humanity’s first outpost in space — was launched. The three-man orbiting laboratory was designed to conduct scientific experiments in space, such as studies of the effects of weightlessness on man and other living organisms, and observations of the sun.

Here’s a look back at the pioneering Skylab mission, including mechanical failures, an aborted rescue mission, a crew mutiny and an unplanned crash landing on Earth.

View Wired Skylab Gallery

video: NASA, space.com
article: wired.com

In honor of Skylab’s anniversary, here is a documentary worth every second of your time. Educate yourself on the space race and private industry as it concerns us today.

Orphans of Apollo is (description provided by mirforpeace) …the extraordinary true story of a rebel group of entrepreneurs who seized command of the Russian Mir Space Station. It was the pioneering efforts of these brave, free marketeer buinessmen who launched the New Space Revolution, and kick-started the privatization of outer space as we know it today. This is the greatest story never told, and one film you are not supposed to see…

“Orphans of Apollo” is the award winning documentary that has been called the “greatest space story never told.” The film tells the extraordinary true story of a small group of entrepreneurs who felt, ‘orphaned’ by President Nixon’s decision to end the NASA Apollo Moon program and the subsequent years of nominal space activity. This band of brothers took matters into their own hands, and commandeered the Russian Mir Space Station, behind the backs of NASA and the US government. The rebellious, yet pioneering efforts has been credited with launching the new commercial Space Revolution. This is the remarkable untold story of the greatest secret in the new space race.

This dramatic tale chronicles the adventure of the boldest business plan the Earth has ever seen. ‘MirCorp’, the entrepreneurial company ’s vision to transform the Russian space station into an outpost for what was intended to be the first phase of a trillion dollar business. The project was to include mining of asteroids, gravity free laboratories, a space ‘hotel’, and a research facility. MirCorp was the ultimate start-up company, and unlike anything the universe had ever seen.

Join this band of rebels out to change the course of history in space, as they board a private jet, fly to Russia, negotiate one of the most remarkable business deals of the final frontier. Follow this diverse group as they pioneer their way through this new business of space. Listen to the management team as they struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology, and engage in the ultimate slugfest with the most powerful governments and bureaucrats.

Orphans of Apollo is an intimate and compelling epic which eloquently communicates the real origins of the private commercial new space revolution. Now for the first, and possibly the last, time, “Orphans of Apollo” combines archival material from original NASA film footage, Russian archival footage, personal footage, IMAX footage, with interviews and or footage with key players including Tom Clancy, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Rick Tumlinson, Walt Anderson, Gus Gardellini, Jeff Manber, and others. Available via Google, Amazon, Amazon Instant Video

website | blog

Virgin Galactic Hires Former NASA Astronaut as Spaceship Pilot

Just a week after Virgin Galactic made history with its first rocket-powered test flight, the commercial spaceflight company announced that it is hiring two veteran pilots, including a former NASA astronaut, who will help bring space tourists to new heights above Earth.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael “Sooch” Masucci and former NASA space shuttle commander Frederick “CJ” Sturckow will work out of Virgin Galactic’s Mojave, Calif., location to conduct flight training and testing with the suborbital SpaceShipTwo and its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, the company said in a statement.

Sturckow is the first astronaut to be plucked from NASA’s ranks by Virgin Galactic. He logged more than 1,200 hours in space over four shuttle missions, including STS-88, the first U.S. launch to the International Space Station in 1998. A retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, Sturckow also has 26 years of military flight experience under his belt. [Photos: Virgin Galactic’s 1st SpaceShipTwo Powered Flight Test]

“CJ will certainly be missed by the Astronaut Office,” said Bob Behnken, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “He was a role model for leadership, and his expertise as an aviator and shuttle commander led to the success of the shuttle and station missions. His experience in spaceflight and ground operations will be difficult to replace within our organization. We look forward to his continued contributions to the future of spaceflight as he moves on to the next phase of his career.”

Masucci, meanwhile, is an experienced test and combat pilot who has logged more than 9,000 flying hours in 70 different types of airplanes and gliders.

A suborbital trip aboard SpaceShipTwo promises to bring passengers to the edge of space and back for $200,000 a ride. The flights would not make a full orbit of Earth, but they would allow passengers to experience brief periods of weightlessness and glimpse the planet from space.

“Viewing the Earth from space is such a unique and unforgettable experience,” Sturckow said in a May 8 statement. “I’m excited to be a part of the Virgin Galactic team that is revolutionizing access to space, making this opportunity a possibility for all.”

Virgin Galactic, founded by the British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, held its latest, and 26th, test flight of SpaceShipTwo on April 29 at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port.

The vehicle was brought into the air by the carrier WhiteKnightTwo. After it was released, SpaceShipTwo went on to reach a maximum altitude of 56,000 feet (17,000 meters) before it flew back to Earth. In a first, the space plane also fired its rocket engines during the flight, which propelled the vehicle to a supersonic speed of Mach 1.2. (Mach 1, the speed of sound, is about 762 mph, or 1,226 km/h, at sea level.)

Virgin Galactic officials have said that SpaceShipTwo could carry passengers as soon as this year or 2014. More than 500 people have signed up for the flights, which will be run out of Spaceport America in New Mexico once the testing phase is complete.

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Stay Curious! Watch Black Sky : The Race For Space about Space Ship One, and how a small team backed by Paul Allen achieved human suborbital spaceflight and win the Ansari X Prize. The documentary provides insight about how the rocketplane was built, the challenge they faced when they flew it, the vision of Burt Rutan about the future of this technology (tier two and three), and his thoughts about NASA and government. [x]

(Source: facebook.com)

Galaxy Collisions: Simulation vs Observations

The folks over at NASA apod just put up an awesome galaxy collisions, simulations and observations video for the public. I made a little gif set to go along with the video which can be found here.

What happens when two galaxies collide? Although it may take over a billion years, such titanic clashes are quite common.

Images Credit: NASA, ESA; Visualization: Frank Summers (STScI);

Simulation: Chris Mihos (CWRU) & Lars Hernquist (Harvard).

Since galaxies are mostly empty space, no internal stars are likely to themselves collide. Rather the gravitation of each galaxy will distort or destroy the other galaxy, and the galaxies may eventually merge to form a single larger galaxy.

Expansive das and dust clouds collide and trigger waves of star formation that complete even during the interaction process. Pictured above is a computer simulation of two large spiral galaxies colliding, interspersed with real still images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Our own Milky Way Galaxy has absorbed several smaller galaxies during its existence and is even projected to merge with the larger neighboring Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years.

(Source: ikenbot)

The Guardian has a multi-part, video heavy media set on climate refugees in America. I’d argue that the title “first” is a misnomer and would point to the coastal communities in Texas, New Orleans, and the Carolinas who’ve been retreating from the coasts for several years.  But, the point is made - that sea-level rise and coastal erosion is much more aggressive than at anytime in history. Thus, tens of thousands of people are at immediate risk, especially the poor.

The above is one minute.

The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska and about 400 miles south of the Bering Strait that separates the state from Russia, are living a slow-motion disaster that will end, very possibly within the next five years, with the entire village being washed away.

The Ninglick River coils around Newtok on three sides before emptying into the Bering Sea. It has steadily been eating away at the land, carrying off 100ft or more some years, in a process moving at unusual speed because of climate change. Eventually all of the villagers will have to leave, becoming America’s first climate change refugees.

(Source: climateadaptation, via climateadaptation)

Bonnie Bassler | How Bacteria “Talk” | TED

Bonnie Bassler studies how bacteria can communicate with one another, through chemical signals, to act as a unit. Her work could pave the way for new, more potent medicine.

Why You Should Listen To Her:
In 2002, bearing her microscope on a microbe that lives in the gut of fish, Bonnie Bassler isolated an elusive molecule called AI-2, and uncovered the mechanism behind mysterious behavior called quorum sensing — or bacterial communication. She showed that bacterial chatter is hardly exceptional or anomolous behavior, as was once thought — and in fact, most bacteria do it, and most do it all the time. (She calls the signaling molecules “bacterial Esperanto.”)

The discovery shows how cell populations use chemical powwows to stage attacks, evade immune systems and forge slimy defenses called biofilms. For that, she’s won a MacArthur “genius” grant — and is giving new hope to frustrated pharmacos seeking new weapons against drug-resistant superbugs.

Bassler teaches molecular biology at Princeton, where she continues her years-long study of V. harveyi, one such social microbe that is mainly responsible for glow-in-the-dark sushi. She also teaches aerobics at the YMCA.

“You think of yourselves as human beings, but I think of you as 99 percent bacterial.” - Bonnie Bassler

(Source: youtube.com)

Sequester forces cuts in volcano monitoring

The budget to monitor volcanoes in Alaska has been halved by recent cuts.

The logic of politics, religious fanaticism and science illiteracy:

(via mothernaturenetwork)

Skylab: America’s First Home in Space Launched 40 Years Ago Today

With all the futuristic talk today about missions to Mars, lunar bases and asteroid mining, it’s easy to forget that man has already been living off of the planet on and off for decades. Forty years ago today, Skylab — America’s first outpost in space — was launched. The three-man orbiting laboratory was designed to conduct scientific experiments in space, such as studies of the effects of weightlessness on man and other living organisms, and observations of the sun.

Full Article

(Source: spaceplasma, via spaceplasma)

The sky is /not/ the limit - Col. Chris Hadfield

(Source: quotesfield, via asonlynasacan)