Spacing out this weekend:
- Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the NY Times offers a nice, brief interactive tour of that first human-made spacecraft, as well as a timeline of space exploration.
- Evidently the moon wobbles during a lunar cycle, as this timelapse animation shows. [Via]
- Speaking of our satellite, Adobe’s resident Academy Award-winner Mike Kanfer enthusiastically recommends the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. I get chills watching the trailer.
- What if we had no moon? In Astrobiology Magazine scientist Bernard Foing charts the moon’s influences on the history of earth, from the formation of solid land to the development of our eyes. [Via]
- CNET shows images from a Japanese space probe in lunar orbit. They report, “China is expected to launch its first lunar exploration satellite later this month; India has plans for a moon launch in April 2008; the next U.S. moon mission is slated for 2008; and Russia could be flying private citizens around the moon and back as early as 2009.”
- Meanwhile Google is offering a $30 million prize to a private team that can land a robot on the moon.
- And speaking of Google, hide your crops, Cheech: law enforcement uses Google Earth.
- Fast networking technology has enabled researchers to assemble an Earth-sized telescope. [Via]
- Nerding out on Wikipedia, I happened across a cool shot of a Delta IV rocket lift-off.
[File under Scientific & Technical Imaging]
John,
That movie, The Shadow of the Moon looks awesome. Too bad that you did not find out about it earlier – it is now out of all the theaters except for one more week in a few in Wyoming. A few weeks earlier and I could have caught it in a bunch of places in MA, CT and NH. Oh well.
[Ah crap! The irony here is that I see so many more good links to share than I have time to post (at least without just slapping ’em up in a stream of consciousness). Thus I’ve been hanging onto this one. Ah well; I’m sure it’ll look great on DVD. –J.]