Mika McKinnon

Spacesuit #3005 Tries To Drown An Astronaut, Again

Astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore clambered outside the space station in the second spacewalk to reconfigure the station for the commercial crew transport program. The mission was totally successful, until they returned indoors and learned that for the second time, spacesuit #3005 started filing with water. Virts hard at work, unaware his spacesuit is…

A Possible Explanation For The Mysterious Bright Spots On Ceres

The discovery of a bright spot on Ceres has given rise to lots of speculation. And now we’ve learned something new: it has a friend. The second spot is not quite as bright, but still weirdly reflective compared to the rest of the dwarf planet. The geological mystery keeps getting more interesting! Top image: From…

This Paint-By-Numbers Drawing Was The Very First Image From Mars

On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 sent home the very first television pictures of Mars during its historic flyby. But instead of waiting for time-consuming image processing, impatient scientists created this awesome colour-by-numbers wall chart from the raw data. Top image: Close-up view of hand-coloured number tapes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Dan Goods Launched on November 28, 1964,…

An Interview With A Mars One Finalist, Sonia Van Meter

While the private Mars One colonization project targeted for 2025 is by no means a done deal, that hasn’t stopped people from signing up for it. This is an interview with Sonia Van Meter, one of the final 100 candidates. https://jezebel.com/a-chat-with-sonia-van-meter-woman-preparing-for-a-one-1687428464

This Beautiful Estuary Hides A Nasty Secret

This beautiful estuary holds a hidden secret: these dendritic tributaries carving through rock carry wastewater from the busiest industrial port in Iran and heavy metals from its petrochemical plants into the surrounding ecosystem. Musa Bay, Iran as seen by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s EO-1 satellite on January 20, 2015. Image credit: NASA Musa…

Astronauts Take 7-Hour Spacewalk To Prepare ISS For Space Taxis

What’s worse than fiddling with cables? Trying to do it in vacuum, wearing gloves, with the sun setting every hour. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Tery Virts spent nearly seven hours to run just over 100 meters of cable reconfiguring the space station for the commercial crew program. Astronaut Terry Virts running cabling on the outside…

The Himalayas Divide Lush Vegetation From Plants Struggling To Survive

The Himalayan Mountains are a seam on our world, marking a place where continental plates are slamming into a new land. But they’re more than that: they also mark the boundary between different climates. That is made explicitly clear in this false-colour satellite image. Taken on February 20, 2009 by the European Space Agency’s Envisat…

ESA’s Sentinel satellite is proving its worth by mapping fault displacement from the earthquake that hit Napa Valley, California late last year. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

Meet Nix And Hydra, The Tiny Moons Of Pluto

Eighty-five years ago today, Clyde Tombaugh found a small dot of light shifting position while hunting for the trans-Neptune planet predicted by Percival Lowell. Now, the New Horizons probe en route to Pluto has photographed its tiny moons, Nix and Hydra. https://gizmodo.com/new-horizons-historic-pluto-encounter-has-officially-be-1679719913 Top image: Pluto, Charon, Nix, and Hydra seen by the Hubble Space Telescope…

Watching Water Burst This Stressed Rocket Part Is Strangely Satisfying

Sometimes, all a day really needs is a nice video of rocket components exploding during stress-testing. Why, hello there Space Launch System! Did your booster composite case get over-pressurized with water to test how the materials would withstand launch-strain? Perfect! The video covers the same test in real-time from four camera angles. I must say,…

The Ultimate Answer: 42 Space Timelapses From Expedition 42

The six astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station diligently document the wonder of living in orbit around our fragile planet. Are you ready to indulge in beauty from above? Between cracking references to the Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy, Expedition 42 recorded 42 timelapses for your vicarious pleasure. At least, it was 42 timelapses…

This Is Our Entire Solar System And Its Tiny, Scattered Planets

A quarter of a century ago this weekend, the Voyager spacecraft took one last, long look back before shutting down its camera for its interstellar mission. The 60 photographs from 6 billion kilometers away comprise our first solar system portrait. This is our solar system from 6 billion kilometers away. Voyager 1 snapped this first-ever…

A Cargo Tug Breakup Is A Perfect Antidote To Excessive Sentimentality

Need an antidote to the saccharine nature of today? We have a breakup dramatic enough to be visible across Europe to sooth your curmudgeonly soul. The very last of the European Space Agency’s ATV cargo space tugs in on course for a fiery breakup perfect for the most dramatic of Valentine’s Day traditions. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-last-journey-for-esas-cargo-carrying-space-1619720572 The…

Love From The Dawn Of Time And The Depths Of The Earth

Forget physics: love makes the world go ’round. This is a gallery of our favourite images of love from the natural world, from rocks to landscapes to the far reaches of space. If the natural universe of love is calling out for you to print a photo as your Valentine’s Day card, click on the…

How You Can Track Every Spy Satellite In Orbit

Nobody should be surprised that spy satellites are kept secret. But it’s actually more complicated. The launches are aired, but with scheduled media blackouts. We get mission patches, but no details on the nature of the payload. But the weirdest thing is how easy it is to track these satellites. https://gizmodo.com/decoding-hidden-messages-in-those-geeky-spy-satellite-m-1671164600 Top image: The National…

SpaceX Launch Looks Good, But Rough Seas Cancel Barge Landing Attempt

SpaceX is once again counting down to launching the Deep Space Climate Observatory, but this time with a twist: rough seas in the Atlantic mean the company will not be attempting to soft land the Falcon 9 rocket on a barge. If the launch is scrubbed again, moon will block further launch attempts until February…

Shaking Off Scrubbed Launch, SpaceX Celebrates A Dragon Splashdown

Despite yet another delay in the launch of their first-ever deep space mission, SpaceX still had reason to celebrate today. After a month attached to the International Space Station, the SpaceX Dragon capsule returned to Earth, splashing down with a load of scientific supplies. Top image: The Dragon in position for release. Credit: NASA/ESA/Sam Cristoforetti…

Will SpaceX Launch And Make Its Historic Barge-Landing Today?

After tracking issues scrubbed the Sunday launch and bad weather blocked the Monday attempty, SpaceX is counting down to its first deep-space mission and second attempt at landing their Falcon 9 rocket on a barge. Watch it live here! Update: The Tuesday launch attempt is a NO-GO due to strong winds in the upper atmosphere.…

Isostatic Rebound Is Why Local Sea Level Drops As Global Sea Level Rises

Geology is usually so intuitive, it’s rare to find something that goes against your instincts. But isostatic rebound creates a moment of exactly that: the more landlocked glaciers melt, the lower the local sea levels drop. Here’s how. Jacobsen Glacier is one of the few remaining chunks of ice from the vast Cordilleran ice fields…

Why Are Sea Levels Dropping In Places Closest To The Melting Glaciers?

Our dynamic planet has an apparent paradox: the more ice melts from landlocked glaciers, the lower the sea level gets in nearby areas. How does this happen? Through the physics of isostatic rebound, when the surface of the planet acts as an elastic sheet dimpling and rebounding under changing loads. Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina…