While they are viewed by the public these days as routine, there can hardly be a more dangerous – or thrilling – task for an astronaut to perform than a spacewalk. The imagery captured by these modern day explorers is nothing short of amazing as seen in a photo of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams seemingly touching the sun during a spacewalk last week.
During an extravehicular activity (EVA) aboard the International Space Station, Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide performed much-needed maintenance and repairs to the orbiting platform. During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk Hoshide captured an image of Williams appearing to reach for the sun at one point during the EVA.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity (EVA) on Sept. 5, 2012. (NASA) Click the image for a larger view.
NASA’s Earth Observatory releases some of the most stunning views of the planet taken by satellites and astronauts. It’s ‘Image of the Day’ today is a stunning one showing the Earth’s atmosphere with a crescent moon hovering above.
Taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on July 31, 2011, the image clearly shows the layers of our life giving atmosphere. The moon appears extraordinarily close thanks to the camera’s perspective.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this stunning image of the atmosphere and the moon. (NASA)
From NASA:
The limb of the Earth is a work of awesome beauty and a gift to science. When observed from space, the palette of gaseous layers of atmosphere reminds us of the fragility and tenuousness of the cocoon that shelters life from cold, harsh space. That same view also allows scientists to detect the gases and particles that make up our the different layers of our atmosphere. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured a bit of both in this digital photograph from July 31, 2011. They threw in the Moon as an extra gift.
Closest to Earth’s surface, the orange-red glow reveals Earth’s troposphere—the lowest, densest layer of the atmosphere, and the one we live within. A brown transitional layer is the upper edge of the troposphere, known as the tropopause. A milky white and gray layer sits above that, likely a slice of the stratosphere with perhaps some noctilucent clouds thrown in. The upper reaches of the atmosphere—the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere—fade from shades of blue to the blackness of space.
The different colors occur because the dominant gases and particles in each layer act like prisms filtering out certain colors of light. Instruments carried on satellites and on craft such as the space shuttle have allowed scientists to decipher characteristics of the ozone layer and the climate-altering effects of aerosols.
A thin crescent of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun below the horizon of the Earth. Though the Moon is more than 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away, the perspective from the camera makes it appear to be a part of our atmosphere.
Astronaut photograph ISS028-E-020072 was acquired on July 31, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 28 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
Screen capture from a time lapse video of images from the International Space Station. Watch the video below. (NASA)
Speeding above the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and an altitude of 250 miles, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have arguably one of the best views of our planet. A German videographer has compiled many images taken by the orbiting outpost into an extraordinary video.
Scroll down to watch this amazing video
Among the highlights of the video are views of the aurora borealis over the United States, the aurora australis on the other side of the globe near Australia, as well as various nighttime and daytime views of other continents. One pass covers the United States from southern California to the Hudson Bay and overflies Colorado and the Mile High City in the blink of an eye.
Shooting locations in order of appearance:
1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night
From their perch 250 miles above the Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) capture some amazing imagery. The latest from them is of a Progress supply craft as it burns up in the atmosphere upon reentry.
NASA explains:
Have you ever wondered how the astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) take out the trash? Several times a year, robotic spacecraft carrying a variety of items—including food, water, fuel, oxygen, medical supplies, replacement parts, and research materials—are launched from Earth to dock with the ISS. These spacecraft are built and launched by ISS international partners in Russia,Japan, and the Europe. After the cargo has been transferred to the ISS, the spacecraft is refilled with refuse, and then undocked and de-orbited—essentially using the Earth’s atmosphere as an incinerator for both the spent spacecraft and the refuse.
This astronaut photograph highlights the reentry plasma trail of one such spacecraft, the ISS Progress 42P supply vehicle (Russian designation M-10M). The Progress is based on the Soyuz design, and can fly autonomously or under remote control from the space station. Progress 42P docked at the ISS on April 29, 2011, and was undocked and de-orbited on October 29, 2011. Astronauts on the ISS took a time-lapse sequence of the event; the image above is part of that sequence.
The ISS was located over the southern Pacific Ocean when this image was taken. Light from the rising sun illuminates the curvature of the Earth limb (horizon line) at image top, but does not completely overwhelm the airglow visible at image top left. Airglow is the emission of light by atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere when they are excited by ultraviolet radiation.
Image of the Progress 42P as it burns up in the atmosphere on October 29, 2011. (NASA)
City lights and thunderstorms are seen in this screen capture taken from an video - watch it below. (YouTube / yesterday2221)
There is no doubt the views from space are awe-inspiring as we have seen many times. A new video pieced together from imagery taken aboard the International Space Station shows amazing imagery of the planet as the station passes above.
The description doesn’t do the video justice but provides highlights of what can be seen:
A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy.
Once a year the nighttime sky is lit up with fragments of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseid meteor shower peaked last week and while a bright full moon limited viewing on Earth, astronauts on the International Space Station captured stunning imagery of the event.
Every 133 years Comet Swift-Tuttle makes a pass through the inner solar system spewing dust and gravel behind it. According to NASA, the debris zone is so wide that the Earth spends weeks inside of it.
The fragments from the comet slam into our atmosphere at an astounding 144,000 miles per hour and light up the night sky as they burn up. Most of these meteoroids are the size of grains of sand but some can be as large as marbles.
Called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus in the northeast August sky, the end result is a bevy of shooting stars across the night sky. This past Saturday, the ISS crew was able to grab an image of a meteoroid shooting into the atmosphere as the station passed over China.
Image taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on August 13, 2011. (NASA)
From NASA:
Many people have spent time outdoors under a dark sky, watching for “shooting stars” to streak across the firmament. In some cultures, this event is an occasion to make a wish; in others it is viewed as a herald of important events, such as the birth of a future ruler. While not actual stars, “shooting stars” do come from outer space, in the form of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteoroids are small objects moving through the solar system that are attracted to the Earth by its gravitational pull. These small objects—typically fragments of asteroids or comets, though they can also originate from the Moon or Mars—begin to heat and burn up as they collide with air molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, creating a bright vapor trail or streak. At this point, the object is known as a meteor. If any remnant of the object survives to impact the Earth’s surface, it becomes known as a meteorite. While most meteorites are natural in origin, on occasion manmade space debris can reenter the atmosphere and also become a meteor or even a meteorite!
This astronaut photograph, taken from the International Space Station while over China (approximately 400 kilometers to the northwest of Beijing), provides the unusual perspective of looking down on a meteor as it passes through the atmosphere. The image was taken on August 13, 2011, during the Perseid Meteor Shower that occurs every August. The Perseid meteors are particles that originate from Comet Swift-Tuttle; the comet’s orbit is close enough for these particles to be swept up by the Earth’s gravitational field every year—leading to one of the most dependable meteor shower displays.
Green and yellow airglow appears in thin layers above the limb of the Earth, extending from image left to the upper right. Atoms and molecules above 50 kilometers in the atmosphere are excited by sunlight during the day, and then release this energy at night, producing primarily green light that is observable from orbit. Part of a space station solar panel is visible at image upper right; behind the panel, a bright region indicates the Sun low on the horizon.
Astronaut photograph ISS028-E-24847 was acquired on August 13, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 22 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 28 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.
When the Space Shuttle Atlantis came to a slow stop on the runway at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, it was the end of an era of spaceflight. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured amazing imagery of Atlantis’ last descent through the atmosphere.
It was a sad day for many Americans when the space shuttle era came to a close with the last shuttle mission. Shifting priorities, lack of direction and leadership and politics have all wreaked havoc with the United States’ space program.
As Atlantis is prepared for retirement as a museum piece along with her sister ships, NASA is left without a way of its own to put a human in space. Meanwhile, cash-strapped Russia manages to forge ahead with its Soyuz program and an emerging space power in China threatens our nation’s leadership in space.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this image of Space Shuttle Atlantis as it returned to the Earth on July 21, 2011. (NASA)
From NASA:
Like a comet streaking across the atmosphere, the Space ShuttleAtlantis left space for the final time on July 21, 2011, descending to a smooth landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This astronaut photograph, taken from the vantage of the International Space Station (ISS), shows the streak of an ionized plasma plume created by the shuttle’s descent through the atmosphere.
At the time of the image, the ISS was positioned northwest of the Galapagos Islands, while Atlantis was roughly 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) to the northeast, off the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The maximum angle of the shuttle’s descent was roughly 20 degrees, though it appears much steeper in the photo because of the oblique viewing angle from ISS. Parts of the space station are visible in the upper right corner of the image.
In the background of the image, airglow hovers over the limb of the Earth. Airglow occurs as atoms and molecules high in the atmosphere (above 80 kilometers, or 50 miles altitude) release energy at night after being excited by sunlight (particularly ultraviolet) during the day. Much of the green glow can be attributed to oxygen molecules.
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