Space & Spaceflight

Right in the center, you’re looking at Mars’s Atlantis basin—now 4 billion years old—and the delightfully named Chaos that surrounds it. The Chaos is in fact hundreds of flat-topped hills, stretching 170 kilometers away from the flat basin. [ESA]

Space Whiskey Safely Returned To Earth

Back in 2011, a group of alcoholics masquerading as scientists managed to somehow persuade their bosses that sending (very small) vials of whiskey to space was a viable ‘experiment’. Four years on, the whiskey has eluded the clutches of the ISS astronauts, and has landed safely back on Earth. The idea behind the experiment, a…

What a Comet Smells Like (Spoiler: Real Bad)

Now we’ve gotten closer than ever to a comet in space, we can start answering serous scientific questions, like… err, what such a thing smells like? https://gizmodo.com/this-is-where-rosettas-lander-may-touch-down-on-its-com-1626836506 Since August, Rosetta’s two mass spectrometers have been sniffing out what 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko smells of. Scientifically speaking, that means detecting the most volatile molecules released via sublimation. But really,…

“Starquakes” May Be the Reason Behind Massive Solar Eruptions 

In early 2009, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observed an unprecedented solar storm emanating from a distant neutron star with gigantic columns of magnetized flares stretching thousands of miles into space—only the third time such an eruption had been observed. Five years later, NASA boffins think they’ve figured out what’s triggered it. Neutron stars are…

Listen to the Historic Sounds of Space Travel on NASA’s SoundCloud

In space, perhaps nobody can hear your scream—but that doesn’t mean that stellar travel is a silent pursuit. Now, NASA has started compiling mountains of historic space-related audio clips for us all to listen to. And there are some belters. There’s Sputnik’s lit-tle beep; Apollo 8’s charming Christmas greeting; the Space Shuttle launch countdown; and,…

These Insanely Detailed Star Wars Models Are Truly Works of Art

As the next wave of leaks from the next Star Wars are oh-so-slow to trickle in, hopefully this will tide you over: A colossal collection of 140 photographs featuring Industrial Light & Magic’s model-building process from 1977 to 1983. It’s simply incredible. These photos can tell you everything you need to know about great filmmaking.…

A Look at How NASA Tests Its Craft For the Deep Freeze of Space

You’re looking at the James Webb Space Telescope as it’s lowered into NASA’s Goddard Thermal Vacuum Chamber. Inside the dark cavern, it is subjected to the same hostile environments as it will experience in space. How do they do that? Well, the 40-foot-tall, 27-foot-diameter cylindrical chamber is evacuated of air using vacuum pumps, then uses…

How NASA Deals With Odor Inside the International Space Station

Space may be a vacuum, but at least aboard the International Space Station, smells still have plenty of room to waft. And considering the ISS has 6 living, breathing, excreting human beings living in such close proximity, some of those smells could get to be a major problem. Fortunately, NASA’s accounted for that. NASA engineer…

Deals: Hard to get Lego Exo-Suit now available at Target

Target is now stocking the Lego Exo-Suit (21109) in their online store for $39.99. While this price is five bucks more than RPP, if you have a REDcard, you can get 5% off and free shipping on your order. At Target the limit is 3 per household, unlike Amazon’s two or the one per household…

These Lego Classic Space builds make me want a new official Space line

When someone builds in the classic Lego space palette, that mix of blue, grey and yellow, I am instantly transported back to my childhood. Builder SweStar has shared a diorama of various Mecha, ships and vignettes that show what could have been if the Lego Space theme continued another 30 years. You’re reading Leg Godt,…

First Up-Close Images of Mars’s Near-Miss Comet

It may not look much, but these are the first images of Comet C/2013 A1, known as Siding Spring, as it passed by Mars on Sunday. The images were captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. https://gizmodo.com/comet-c-2013-a1-known-as-siding-spring-passes-mars-j-1648349372 The comet passed closer to Mars than any comet has ever passed by Earth in recorded history—so scientists are…

The View From the ISS Is Surprisingly Colorful

At night, the view from the International Space Station is surprisingly colorful. Earth’s many types of artificial lights create a bright mosaic, with the different hues revealing different lightbulbs and even different countries. Take this photo, which an ISS member took of a narrow strait between South Korea and Japan. On the left is South…

Scattering Your Ashes Into The Stratosphere Is A Very Final Sendoff

Short of having your body shipped off on a flaming longboat, there aren’t many more spectacular ways to be sent off than having your ashes scattered into the edge of the atmosphere. At least, that’s the thinking behind Mesoloft, a company that will do exactly that, and provide a GoPro video to immortalize the moment.…

One of Saturn’s Moons Could Have a Subterranean Sea

NASA scientists have been taking a closer look at Saturn’s moon Mimas thanks to Cassini’s roving eyes, and they’ve made an interesting discovery: it could have an ocean of water beneath its surface. The researchers have noticed that the moon has a more pronounced wobble than they thought as it orbits Saturn. Comparing the observed…

Not quite the Moon on a stick, but not far off. This is Tethys, one of Saturn’s icy moons, from a perspective that makes it look like it’s stuck to the A and F rings of the planet. [NASA]

Your Phone Could Become Part of the World’s Largest Telescope

If you could enlist your smartphone to become part of an earth-sized telescope searching for the source of cosmic rays, would you? Researchers at University of California are hoping you’d say yes—they’ve developed an app that will leverage the power of one million smartphone cameras to answer one of the great questions about our universe.…

The Air Force’s Mysterious Spy Plane Is Landing After 2 Years in Space

For nearly two years, the Air Force’s X-37B autonomous space plane has been circling around the Earth doing who knows what. Now it’s finally coming back to Earth, carrying all its secrets with it. The X-37B has been the subject of intense speculation ever since it was launched on its very first mission in April…

This desert outpost is the most cheery place in space

Rod Gillies knows a thing or two about non-standard Lego construction techniques. I have really enjoyed some of his ultra micro-scale builds from the past, but his latest creation is not only super cute and happy, but building with very few exposed studs really hits home with me. You’re reading Leg Godt, the blog with…

Fireballs and Wolves: The Horrifying Story of the First Spacewalk

Almost 60 years ago, we took our first steps into the big, black nothingness of space. Or more specifically, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had the honor of taking the very first space-dip. But this was a rush job—a means for the Soviet Union to shame the US and win the space race once and for…

MIT Study Says Mars One Colonists Would Starve (Among Other Things)

Mars One may have taken us by surprise when the non-profit organization boldly announced that it would put colonists on Mars in the 2020s. We were even more amazed when legions of amateur astronauts signed up for a one-way ticket to the red rock. However, MIT students believe the effort, in its current form, is…