Imagining what the iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin on the moon might look like if he weren’t wearing a space suit can be stomach churning when you think about all of the elements that the personal space ship protects against. Without the pressurised gas to maintain internal pressure, all of the gases in his body would expand at a rapid rate, causing his blood to boil, and he would have no oxygen to breathe. NASA has a great interactive that shows a friendlier cartoon version where Andy the Astronaut demonstrates what would happen to a human in space without protection, then you can take a virtual tour of the space suits that have made history. Enjoy watching the evolution of the space suit as you scroll through this collection. [Read more...]
A Peek Into the Control Room of Space Shuttles
Although many of us have fantasized about becoming an astronaut when we “grow up”, making rocket ships out of cardboard refrigerator boxes, very few people actually went through with it. But lucky for us common folk, photographer Ben Cooper gives us all a chance to relive our space fantasies. Cooper brings us an insider look at the Flight Decks of the Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis space shuttles. The fact that there are people who actually know how to operate all of these switches is pretty phenomenal. With this set, I see many photoshop opportunities for all of the digital artists out there. Larger versions of each picture are available for viewing or for sale on launchphotography.com. A poster size print would be the perfect addition to that refrigerator box space shuttle your nephew is building. [Read more...]
Rusty Fire Hydrants Become Imaginary Planets
When we look up at the sky we often see formations of earthly objects in the clouds or constellations in the stars at night, but Adam Kennedy looked down to find some rusted structures that look like they belong in the sky. On his daily commute to school at San Francisco State, where he studies Cinema, Kennedy noticed that the rusty knobs on top of the old fire hydrants he passed looked strangely like undiscovered planets in our vast universe. He photographed the knobs and with a little Photoshop manipulation he transformed the rust into continents and the paint into oceans to produce his first fake planet. He posted a picture of the before and after images on Reddit and made the top of the Front Page. Since his hobby was so well received, Kennedy decided to start an indiegogo to raise the funds he needs to make a book of his images.
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Mind-Blowing HD Photographs of the Sun
If you’re like most of us, your parents told you not to stare at the sun… but photographer and novice astronomer Alan Friedman didn’t listen to that advice and we’re happy about it. Captured from the less than ideal location of his backyard in Buffalo New York, Friedman photographs the bright objects in the sky – the moon, bright stars, planets and the sun. This last object, the sun, is one that we all witness the power of each day and yet rarely get a good look at. [Read more...]
Space Blogger: Chris Hadfield’s Photos from the ISS
It’s hard to imagine a blog published more remotely than Colonel Chris Hadfield’s… and yet he’s only about 200 miles away from many of us. That’s because he’s blogging from perhaps the most exclusive place around: the International Space Station (ISS). This Canadian astronaut is on his second trip to the massive station circling the earth, where he’s soon scheduled to take his and a Canadian’s first command of the ISS. Life is good. [Read more...]
Hubble’s Deepest Ever View of the Universe
The Hubble telescope has captured the deepest and most comprehensive view of the universe, known as eXtreme Deep Field (see above). XDF combined ten years of Hubble photos into one cumulative look at around 5,500 galaxies, including faint galaxies at one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see, that go as far back as 13.2 billion years. The video below explains how the picture was put together. This amazing technology is only a preview of what the future holds for exploring the universe. [Read more...]











