Space stuff thread

That would be fantastic if they land something like that on Mars with people shortly after in our lifetime.

I saw they had a problem with the main decent chute, it didn't fully deploy, news conference (audio only) at 1pm edt today 6-9-15

Fly Over Dwarf Planet Ceres

A new video animation of dwarf planet Ceres, based on images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, provides dramatic flyover views of this heavily cratered, mysterious world. The images come from Dawn's first mapping orbit at Ceres, at an altitude of 8,400 mile (13,600 kilometers), as well as navigational images taken from 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) away. The images provided information for a three-dimensional terrain model. The vertical dimension has been exaggerated by a factor of two, and a star field has been added in the background.

Source

June 11, 2015: If you love stargazing, there's a date you need to mark on your calendar. It's June.

That's right, the whole month!

Throughout the month of June 2015, the two brightest planets in the night sky, Venus and Jupiter, are going to converge for a jaw-dropping close encounter. You don’t want to miss any of the action. When the sun goes down, step outside and look west. You don't have to wait until the sky fades to black. Venus and Jupiter are so bright, you can see then shining through the twilight. In fact, some people say the planets are especially beautiful when they are surrounded by the cobalt hue of the early evening sky--so don't wait.

During the first two weeks of June, Venus and Jupiter converge until they are only about 10 degrees apart. For reference, this means they would just fit together inside the bowl of the Big Dipper. You could hide them both, simultaneously, behind the palm of your outstretched hand.

This is pretty close, but by the end of the month this distance will shrink by a factor of 30.

In fact, every night in June, the separation between Venus and Jupiter will visibly shrink.

Source: NASA Science News for June 11, 2015

Anak said:

June 11, 2015: If you love stargazing, there's a date you need to mark on your calendar. It's June.

Been watching them every nigh. Here they are 10 minutes ago, just after 10:30 PM CEST as seen from my balcony:



That creepy looking thing, like a Buddhist monk or something at the bottom is not a photo bomber, it's part of the wall decoration :).

Rocket exploded 3:28 into launch in this video from the SpaceX channel the second stage starts at 23:43, explosion at 23:52. The time discrepancy in time stamps is due to extended pre-launch coverage.

Investigation Under Way for CRS-7

SpaceX’s Hans Koenigsmann will lead the investigation into the CRS-7 launch anomaly. For updates on the progress of the investigation and to keep track of the International Space Station’s research and crew, go to www.nasa.gov/spacex and www.nasa.gov/station. We will update the SpaceX blog here as events warrant. If you find debris, please call 321-867-2121.

Source, first link in quote

Some great pictures of Pluto 11 days out from contact. Looks like we have detected methane (organic compound capable of supporting lifeforms) and 3 distinct surface features. Volcanism? Exciting times!

New Horizons

Ah crap........
New Horizons