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space porn

This Is The World The Machines Made

A satellite image shows a totally machine-made world, which looks like a cubist painting. But it's not a giant set for the new Terminator movie, it's the remains of the Bolivian rainforest, after massive clear-cutting. The red areas are the places where vegetation still exists. This is just one of 30 amazing satellite images of the Earth which resemble abstract art, as posted over at Environmental Graffiti. Others include natural phenomena, such as the gorgeous Richat Structure in Mauritania, a huge bulls-eye impact crater in the Sahara. Click through to see a few more of our favorites. More »

4:00 PM on Tue Jul 22 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,926 views, 9 comments

Latest by n/a: Yet another sign of the apocalypse: cubism viewable from space. more »

moon base porn

Instant Moon Base to Be Delivered by Ares Rocket

When the Ares V rocket lands on the moon next decade, part of its payload will be a full-functioning, instant moon base that will be ready for a several-month long habitation. At least, if experimental architecture firm Architecture and Vision has anything to say about it. The firm's design, called Moon Base Two, was a hot topic at the recent Gravity Free conference in Chicago, and could actually work. More pictures, plus the beta version, below. More »

7:00 AM on Tue Jul 22 2008
By Annalee Newitz
8,089 views, 33 comments

Latest by n/a: @designguybrown: Catapillar has a NASA contract for building a lunar bulldozer (OBSCURE SF REFERENCE: I suppose calling it Killdozer is out of the question?), and I think that Googling their website will find you the page. I can't remember more »

space porn

The New Hottest Spot in the Milky Way

Two days ago, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope revealed an image of what could be the brightest star in our galaxy: Wolf-Rayet star WR 102ka or, more fondly, the "Peony nebula" star. Astronomers say that it burns with the light intensity of 3.2 million suns — but that's a rough estimate, and one that might even stretch to 4 or 5 million suns. More »

2:39 PM on Thu Jul 17 2008
By Nivair H. Gabriel
977 views, 10 comments

Latest by travelina: I hate to disappoint y'all, but I believe that photo was actually taken by the Hubble Space Kaleidoscope: [www.theonion.com] more »

mars porn

The Frozen Waterfalls of Mars

This deep gorge known as the Echus Chasma was ripped into the Martian soil by gushing water, and scientists speculate that it may once have boasted giant, 4000-meter-high waterfalls. This image, by the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite, was released this week along with a few others. We've got an even more gorgeous one for you below. More »

11:25 AM on Wed Jul 16 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,320 views, 27 comments

Latest by CMG: @Calraigh: exactly more »

space porn

Brightest Supernova In History Has Turned To Velvety Goodness

This supernova dominated our skies for weeks, a thousand years ago. It was brighter than Venus and visible during the day, and observers documented it in China, Japan, Europe and the Arab world. We now know that the brightest supernova on record, SN 1006c, was caused by a white dwarf star that gained mass from a companion star until it gorged itself and exploded. Click through for some more mind-blowing images of SN1006c, including some super-colorful X-ray images. More »

11:52 AM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,223 views, 24 comments

Latest by SuperCollider: Just because we can't see those colors, with our eyes, doesn't mean it isn't "real." more »

robot underlords

Welcome Your New Robot Over... Oh, Never Mind

The robot uprising has been delayed slightly, thanks to German engineers. The new Care-O-bot home robot faces several disadvantages if it decides to slaughter us all: First, it only has one highly flexible arm. Secondly, the arm automatically deactivates if a human comes into its radius, thanks to color cameras, 3-D sensors and laser scanners. It "read" human gestures, such as "put down that knife." (Unfortunately, it's also programmed to recognize household objects, such as electric carving knives.) The Care-O-bot is developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart. Click to enlarge. [Science Daily]

4:22 PM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
872 views, 20 comments

Latest by Gann: @gfburke: The cupcake is a lie. more »

space porn

The Moon Rocket Project NASA Doesn't Want You to Know About

A group of secretive rocket designers have defected from NASA's rocket-building team to spearhead their own forbidden project. They spend their evenings designing Jupiter (pictured), a moon rocket they think will work far better for less money then NASA's current moon rocket, Ares, set to bring some people to the moon in 2020. With all its plans available on a site called Direct 2.0, and nearly 100 engineers working, its possible Jupiter could zoom to the moon before Ares — if it can get some funding. More »

3:28 PM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Annalee Newitz
4,022 views, 36 comments

Latest by szielins: @Sihanouk-s-Poodle: "Solar panels", eh? Well, that answers one out of three. Not bad! Now: who will it sell its products to, and at what price? Those aren't mere details, here. Without a market and a price point, more »

space porn

Murdered Galaxy Gets A Double-Halo Memorial

See that cool pattern around this edge-on spiral galaxy, NGC 5907? The one that sort of looks like two halos? Those are the only remains of another galaxy, which NGC 5907 slaughtered in cold blood. (Or maybe cold dark matter?) We've shown you galaxies colliding before, but here's an arresting look at the aftermath of one of those galactic hit-and-runs, courtesy of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. These "stellar fossils," or "ghost galaxies," result from the spiral galaxy's collision with a dwarf galaxy, which it mostly absorbed. Click through to see a bigger image, plus a look at NGC 4013's "ghost trail." More »

4:00 PM on Tue Jul 8 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,543 views, 11 comments

Latest by phoenix: @cafu: Also - the Magellanic clouds are irregular dwarves, and by irregular I mean geometrically - they're somewhat spherical, but they're not of any particular size or shape. more »

space porn

Does the New Shape of the Solar System Prove Vernor Vinge is Right About the Galaxy?

By now you've probably heard the news about our solar system not quite being the shape that everybody thought. A study in Nature today shows results gathered from the two Voyager space probes launched in the 1970s, which are both nearing the edge of the heliosphere, the region where the solar winds end and deep space begins. Based on data the probes beamed back, it would appear that the heliosphere isn't a sphere — it's more of an egg shape (pictured). And the boundary between heliosphere and deep space is shifting all the time. It sounds very similar to the way scifi author Vernor Vinge describes the Milky Way's galactic sphere in A Fire Upon the Deep. If Vinge is right about what happens when you leave a gravitational sphere for deep space, the Voyager probes are in for an interesting ride. More »

3:00 PM on Wed Jul 2 2008
By Annalee Newitz
5,405 views, 29 comments

Latest by Smeagol92055: The Death Star will be in range in 60 seconds. more »

mars porn

Flying Into The Gaping Maw Of Mars

This is one of NASA's proposed landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, which looks like a set of giant gaping jaws of evil. Do those look like teeth to anybody else? Actually, they're sand deposits resulting from wind activity, with the lighter parts being bedrock. The green and blue areas are full of iron- and magnesium- rich minerals like pyroxene and possibly olivine. And the reddish stuff is mineral-heavy clay. Okay, it's really just the Martian jaws of evil. Click through for a pretty pic from NASA's moon-rocket briefing. More »

4:40 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,425 views, 9 comments

Latest by Randomeis: I could have sworn that last pic was a clip from a Cinematic Titanic movie. It looks like Frank "TV's Frank" Conniff. more »

chart porn

The Measure of a Robot

With lovable brain-in-a-box robot Wall-E enchanting us in theaters, and hot-bod Cylons seducing us in Battlestar Galactica re-runs, it's clear that we've come a long way since the robot evil/human good days of Metropolis and HAL. Today's pop culture robots are all over the map when it comes to their good or evil natures — we practically need a chart to figure out which bots are nasty, which are friendly, and which are floating in an ambivalent in between. Just to help you figure it out, we've actually made that chart. We've plotted where 27 of the most intriguing bots of the past century fall using a Cartesian coordinate system to map where they fall on a scale of good to evil, and a scale of being humanoid-shaped to being AIs-in-a-box. More »

4:01 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By Annalee Newitz
16,802 views, 63 comments

Latest by n/a: Wall-E is way more of a box than Eve -Wall-E has a box shape all the time. Eve is just a freak can. But that chart itself is ultimatly very pleasing. more »

space porn

Our Future Galactic Overlords Glow Red With Power Lust

Do you notice anything funny about this picture of NGC 6946, the "Fireworks Galaxy"? Like that lurid wealth of red splotches, for example? The bright red areas represent regions in the galaxy that are actively forming new stars, and there do seem to be an awful lot of them. Could we be facing a star-formation gap with this malevolent galaxy, which is a mere 100 million light years away from us? Could all those bonus stars be the breeding ground for the invaders who will subjugate our descendants in a mere billion years or so? We'd better start preparing for the worst. To help you prepare, here's a rogues gallery of the many faces of the Fireworks Galaxy. (Even its name is violent!) More »

4:16 PM on Mon Jun 23 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,232 views, 6 comments

Latest by maliciousfallacy: That looks a lot like the God Person Galaxy Thing from that really good episode of Futurama! more »

chart porn

10 Scariest Asteroid Attacks on Earth: The Near Hits and Approaching Terrors

When it comes to comet impacts, the denizens of Earth may be living on borrowed time. Of course, comets are only about half the problem — there are plenty of asteroids whizzing around the inner solar system too — so we decided to have a look and see just how close modern society has come to destruction since 1900, and how close we're going to come over the next 100 years. The answers, provided in our nifty infographic, aren't reassuring. More »

12:20 PM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By Michael Reilly
7,984 views, 32 comments

Latest by phoghat: I only have one thing to say: " 12/21/2012" more »

mars porn

Robot Finds Melting Ice on Mars

Remember that mystery white substance that the Phoenix Lander uncovered beneath Martian soil with its robot arms? Scientists were speculating that it might be salt or it might be ice. Now, a few days later, it's looking very much like ice. Why? It's melting, as you can see in these pictures. More »

7:00 AM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,189 views, 40 comments

mars porn

Mystery White Substance, But No Water Yet at Martian Pole

The Phoenix Lander, our favorite robot chemistry lab on Mars, has successfully cooked up some soil in its oven to see if water evaporates from it when heated. So far, no dice. Though the Martian rovers Opportunity and Spirit have found evidence of evaporated water at the equator of the planet, Phoenix hasn't yet found similar evidence at the pole. What it has found, however, is fascinating. There is an unknown white substance right beneath the surface of the soil next to it (pictured), which could be ice or salt. And the Martian soil has turned out to be chunky, rather than sandy, which surprised scientists. More »

2:26 PM on Tue Jun 17 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,221 views, 33 comments

Latest by Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege: D@phoenix: @Final: DAmn, you all really take jokes pretty seriously. I thought the sound effects and talk of desk donuts implied polite joshing. anyways. more »

space shuttle porn

Our Endangered Space Shuttle Glides, As Seen From Space

Look how kick-ass the Space Shuttle Discovery looks, gliding over the clouds. It's hard to believe the U.S. government wants to pull the plug on the shuttle program, just as nerd hipsters like Sergey Brin are paying tons to get into space. Where are we going to get our space shuttle porn when NASA rolls up its launchpad and goes home? Click through for some more cool shuttle (and European rocket) pics from the last couple of days. More »

4:00 PM on Fri Jun 13 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,118 views, 29 comments

Latest by Silver_Back: @corpore-metal: True. I can't wait to see how NASA deals with the competition once other nations start getting their Space Program into gear. Like China for instance. more »

science art

Space Madness Strikes Security Guard

A painting of space, based on satellite imagery, freaked out a museum security guard so much, he slashed it and ruined it. Vija Celmins' painting may be called "Night Sky #2," but it depicts empty space, with no view of the ground or any other reference point, and it's based on images from space. Carnegie Museum security guard Timur Serebrykov hated the $1.2 million painting so much he "snapped" (says his laywer) and used a sharp implement to slash it and ruin it. More »

4:00 PM on Wed Jun 11 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,787 views, 40 comments

Latest by cloudhunter: Um...has the man ever looked up before? What would he do then, I wonder? more »

space porn

A View of Thunderheads Brewing from Space

These thunderheads are brewing over the midwestern United States, a region where thunderstorms can whip up pretty damn fast. Courtesy of NASA, this image is one of a series running on the Boston Globe's website to celebrate the work done by the International Space Station. Want to see what this kind of cloud looks like a little closer? More »

3:30 PM on Tue Jun 10 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,661 views, 20 comments

Latest by n/a: Earth is a beautiful place. more »

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