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Nature, Space

Mercury’s Transit Across the Sun

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NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory tracked Mercury making a rare transit across the face of the Sun [on May 9th]. The last time this event happened was in 2006, and NASA predicts it will happen again in 2019. Via CNN @ YouTube.

Space

360 View of SpaceX Rocket Landing

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Using the direction pad in the upper left corner of the video, viewers can watch a SpaceX rocket landing from multiple angles, including watching from below as the rocket descends —

Space, Technology

SpaceX Tests a Capsule’s Ability to Hover

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Eight SuperDraco thrusters, positioned around the perimeter of the vehicle in pairs called “jet packs”, fired up simultaneously to raise the Crew Dragon spacecraft for a five-second hover, generating approximately 33,000 lbs of thrust before returning the vehicle to its resting position. This test was the second of a two-part milestone under NASA’s Commercial Crew…

Nature, Space

When Galaxies Collide

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It’s so far in the future, it scarcely matters, but if one were to speculate from present conditions, the collision billions of years from now between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies would not disturb Earth, but would change the night’s sky (in a lovely way):

Science/Nature, Space

A Ninth Planet Once Again?

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There are always new things to learn, and discover – There might be a ninth planet in the solar system after all — and it is not Pluto. Two astronomers reported on Wednesday that they had compelling signs of something bigger and farther away — something that would definitely satisfy the current definition of a…

Science/Nature, Space

Five Planets, Visible at Once

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Morning skywatchers will get a special treat over the next few weeks as five of the solar system’s other eight planets will all be visible at once with the naked eye in the chilly, pre-dawn sky, weather permitting. The five bright planets that will be lined up in a diagonal line, from left to right,…

Good Ideas, Space, Technology

NASA Adds Dream Chaser to Transportation Roster

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For those hoping that America would re-introduce a space plane to her roster of civilian transportation options, there’s good news: The Dream Chaser space plane that lands on a runway like an aeroplane and launches with the help of a rocket will join the duo of privately operated space capsules – SpaceX’s reusable Dragon and…