Merry Christmas! Here is a composite image and video of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” that shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. According to NASA: NGC 2264 is, in … Continue reading
Tag Archives: NASA
For several years, we have followed the Planetary Society‘s efforts to launch a solar sail that would be propelled by the light radiating from the Sun. In July 2019, the society’s LightSail 2 deployed a 32-square-meter solar sail, about the … Continue reading
We recently sailed to Block Island, a picturesque windswept island, roughly a dozen miles off the coast of Rhode Island. A haven for vacationers, Block Island also features the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. Five 6MW … Continue reading
The moon is wobbling. This is nothing new. First observed in 1728, the wobble is a cyclical shifting of the moon’s orbit around the earth that takes 18.6 years to complete. In half of this lunar cycle, Earth’s regular daily … Continue reading
We have been following the careers of the “starship sailors” Mark and Scott Kelly for several years now. The twin brothers from New Jersey are both graduates of merchant maritime academies, both became Captains in the Navy, and both subsequently became NASA astronauts … Continue reading
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: Today the solstice occurs at 23:03 Universal Time, the Sun reaching its southernmost declination in planet Earth’s sky. Of course, the December solstice marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer … Continue reading
While oceans in Northern latitudes are feeling the icy blast of winter, the antipodes are in the middle of a very hot summer. Indeed, for Australia, there maybe too much of summer’s sun, as the continent suffers under a brutal … Continue reading
Ships are the most energy efficient means of moving good across the surface of the earth. Goods moved by ship have the lowest carbon foot-print of goods moved by any other means. At the same time, modern ships are significant … Continue reading
If you haven’t seen this yet, it is definitely worth watching. It is a visualization developed by NASA/JPL of ocean surface currents around the world between 2005 and 2007. Fascinating. NASA | Perpetual Ocean … Continue reading