We perceive light–we see it—but what we see and what it means are not the same. Without context, detail means nothing.

Oh, there are so many factors at play here: what wavelengths of light can we see, how well can our brains take what we see and turn it into something we understand?

And also, how do we compare ourselves to the thing we’re observing? What tools do we use to help us capture information? How do we turn light into data, data into pixels, pixels into meaning? Start with a planet.

For example, Earth. And as long as we’re at it, let’s tip the Earth to spin properly on its axis. Now, recall our original points of light. Our idea.

These are satellites in orbit. Satellites collect data as the Earth rotates beneath them.

Think of satellites as paint brushes working in reverse: instead of painting planets with light, satellites collect light reflected from planets below. With enough data we can paint a world.

Data that make this image come from instruments on two NASA satellites called AQUA and TERRA. These instruments see the Earth in what we might regard as “natural color.”

They can also see certain events as they happen. There, splattered like white paint on a blue canvas, something important: Hurricane Katrina.

These satellites are only two of many that can see hurricanes. The stripes you see building up come from a unique spacecraft called TRMM. Among the many remarkable things TRMM can do, it can look inside hurricanes like nothing else in the world.

See for yourself. TRMM sees the actual body of the beast in three dimensions. Orange and red zones indicate higher rainfall rates. Cloud spires called hot towers drive the storm’s greedy grab for energy.

The Earth changes. It breathes. And it surprises. Though we live on a planet largely covered by water, we often forget that huge tracts are frozen solid. Let’s change the perspective.

Ice covers much of the world. The eternally frozen parts are called the Cryosphere. It’s the planet’s thermostat, and a hydrological warehouse, and in terms of a changing climate, it’s the canary in a coalmine.

You may live your whole life and never visit these places, but these places will affect your life nonetheless.

You know this place. The Moon. Earth’s closest neighbor is little more than a beautiful stranger across an airless room. There are mysteries here and answers. And, like love, perhaps, destiny.

Back on Earth, day and night change like moods, with points of light pricking the darkness like vaguely remembered dreams. City lights shine into space at night, like ancient campfires, like candles of civilization.

No other place beyond the Earth shows signs of life like this, or shows signs of life at all. But we’re looking.

Before we can find life elsewhere, we need to be good at reading its signs at home first. And on Earth, life is everywhere.

This is the living Earth: the biosphere. Phytoplankton bloom in vast oceanic fields. Land plants pulse rhythmically with seasonal growth. Together, these sound the global heartbeat, the pulse of life powered by the sun.

The Sun. All energy on Earth comes from the sun.

The Moon…the Earth…the Sun: celestial spheres we see and feel everyday. But in our solar neighborhood, there are other places, too. Fabulous places. Mysterious places.

As a tourist destination, Mars has an impressive brochure. The longest, deepest canyon in the solar system. A volcano so high it’s peak climbs above most of the Martian atmosphere. Nothing like these places exists on Earth. Nothing.

This is from a NASA mission called WMAP. If the whole universe were a person, this would be its first baby picture. There are no stars here, no galaxies, certainly no planets. But there is energy. The rest came soon enough, once the new kid could collect herself.

This is the universe we see today. It’s a lively place. That’s a gamma ray burst, spotted by NASA’s “SWIFT” satellite. These cosmic blasts have long puzzled scientists. They may be stars collapsing in upon themselves, or two densely packed remnants of stars merging together.

But in either case, scientists believe they herald the births of black holes. They’re the most powerful explosions in the universe after the Big Bang. And they seem to happen all the time, as often as once a day.

We look outwards as much as we look inwards, for if there is any certainty in the journey of knowledge it’s that travel in any direction can lead to the same destination.

We see only what we look for, and in space and on Earth we seek the wisdom to ask the right questions.

Duration : 0:13:13

Technorati Tags: astronomy, Black, burst, einstein, Gamma, grb, Hole, hubble, hurricane, Jupiter, katrina, Light, Mars, Moon, NASA, planets, ray, Saturn, solar, space, Sun, supernova, swift, System, telescopes, universe, wmap

In this episode, we take a brief trip through the Solar System and beyond to see the size of the universe.

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Learn about the International Year of Astronomy 2009:

http://www.astronomy2009.org

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Duration : 0:11:0

Technorati Tags: Adams, Andromeda's, AndromedasWake, astronomy, Astrophysics, Bang, Big, Cluster, Cosmology, cosmos, Documentary, Douglas, Education, ESA, Galaxy, international, IYA2009, NASA, Nebula, Of, planet, Science, solar, space, Star, Supercluster, System, Th1sWasATriumph, The, to, universe, Wake, Welcome, Year

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The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility, which is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by 2011. The station will remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020.

With a greater mass than that of any previous space station, the ISS can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, and, as of 2010, is the largest artificial satellite orbiting the Earth.

The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology.

The station has a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS is operated by Expedition crews, and has been continuously staffed since November 2000—an uninterrupted human presence in space for the past nine years.

The ISS is a synthesis of several space station projects that includes the American Freedom, the Soviet/Russian Mir-2, the European Columbus and the Japanese Kibō. Budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi-national programme.

The ISS project began in 1994 with the Shuttle-Mir programme, and the first module of the station, Zarya, was launched in 1998 by Russia. Assembly continues, as pressurised modules, external trusses and other components are launched by American space shuttles, Russian Proton rockets and Russian Soyuz rockets.

As of November 2009, the station consisted of 11 pressurised modules and an extensive integrated truss structure (ITS). Power is provided by 16 solar arrays mounted on the external truss, in addition to four smaller arrays on the Russian modules.

The station is maintained at an orbit between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) altitude, and travels at an average speed of 27,724 km/h (17,227 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.

Operated as a joint project between the five participant space agencies, the station’s sections are controlled by mission control centres on the ground operated by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The ownership and use of the space station is established in intergovernmental treaties and agreements that allow the Russian Federation to retain full ownership of its own modules, with the remainder of the station allocated between the other international partners.

The cost of the station has been estimated by ESA as €100 billion over 30 years, and, although estimates range from 35 billion dollars to 160 billion dollars, the ISS is believed to be the most expensive object ever constructed. The financing, research capabilities and technical design of the ISS programme have been criticised because of the high cost.

The station is serviced by Soyuz spacecraft, Progress spacecraft, space shuttles, the Automated Transfer Vehicle and the H-II Transfer Vehicle, and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station
• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
• http://www.esa.int/esaHS/iss.html
.

Duration : 0:6:53

Technorati Tags: astronomy, ESA, fly, international, ISS, Mars, missions, modules, Moon, NASA, proton, satellites, shuttles, soyuz, space, Station, through, Tour

Timelapse ice flows over the Arctic, billowing storm clouds over the Caribbean and beautiful blooming algae off the west coast of Southern Africa.

BDH’s meticulous work involved stitching many high resolution photographs from NASA, to create these real images within our computers. Other work involved the planning and steadying of many timelapse sequences and the sensitive matching of atmospheric effects.
Planet Earth is an 11 part series and the world’s first television series produced nearly entirely on HD. BDH worked in collaboration with the production team for over 4 years on these breathtaking hi-resolution images.

http://www.bdh.net

http://www.myspace.com/burrelldurranthifle

Duration : 0:6:57

Technorati Tags: 3d, animation, BBC, BDH, Burrell, Definition, Durrant, Earth, Graphics, Hifle, high, Landscapes, NASA, Photographs, planet, space

1 of 3 music videos we made for the Science Channel’s BRINK. http://science.discovery.com/brink/brink.html

Art and animation by Billy Reid. Check out his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/verytasteful

FREE mp3: http://rhettandlink.com/music/

Chords: Verse: F Bbm Bridge: Am-sus Dm Gm; Am Dm C

Lyrics:
Weve got the greatest job on earth
and were not even on earth
were orbiting the world, you see
collecting space debris
expended rockets, expired satellites
circling the globe, endangering space flight.
were the guys cleaning up the mess
putting astronauts familys fears to rest.

you wouldnt believe the premium on my life insurance policy
even a paint chip would take off my arm travelling at orbital velocity

Collectin space junk, space waste, space stuff
We make it safe for shuttles to fly
Were trash men, weightless trash men!
Cleaning up the crap you left behind

verse2
We got hit by Soviet trash last year
from the cosmonauts on MIR
- but our worst memory was when we
were sprayed by frozen pee
Heres some old bag of toiletries
whats in it? sunscreen and hydrocortisone cream
and the ashes of gene roddenberry
Ah! Tom Hanks script from Apollo 13!

you wouldnt believe the premium on my life insurance policy
even a toenail would cut off my head travelling at orbital velocity

Collectin space junk, space waste, space stuff
Living the cosmic custodian life.
Were trash men, weightless trash men!
scouring space…while trying not to die!

Follow us on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/rhettmc

http://twitter.com/linklamont Distributed by Tubemogul.

Duration : 0:2:28

Technorati Tags: 80s, astronaut, brink, channel, cosmonaut, junk, NASA, rhettandlink, Science, Shuttle, song, space

This is the Hidden universe of the Spitzer Space Telescope, exploring the mysteries of infrared astronomy with your host Dr. Robert Hurt.

On the morning of December 14th, 2009, NASA launched its latest infrared telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

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The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, will scan the entire sky in infrared light, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. The mission will uncover objects never seen before, including the coolest stars, the universe’s most luminous galaxies and some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets.

Its vast catalogs will help answer fundamental questions about the origins of planets, stars and galaxies, and provide a feast of data for astronomers to munch on for decades to come.

Thanks to next-generation technology, WISE’s sensitivity is hundreds of times greater than its predecessor, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which operated in 1983.

WISE will join two other infrared missions in space — NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation.

WISE is different from these missions in that it will survey the entire sky. It is designed to cast a wide net to catch all sorts of unseen cosmic treasures, including rare oddities.

The closest of WISE’s finds will be near-Earth objects, both asteroids and comets, with orbits that come close to crossing Earth’s path. The mission is expected to find hundreds of these bodies, and hundreds of thousands of additional asteroids in our solar system’s main asteroid belt.

By measuring the objects’ infrared light, astronomers will get the first good estimate of the size distribution of the asteroid population. This information will tell us approximately how often Earth can expect an encounter with a potentially hazardous asteroid.

WISE data will also reveal new information about the composition of near-Earth objects and asteroids — are they fluffy like snow or hard like rocks, or both?

• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/mission/index.html
• http://spitzer.caltech.edu/
.

Duration : 0:2:48

Technorati Tags: astronomy, ESA, explorer, Field, Herschel, hubble, infrared, NASA, observatories, space, Spitzer, survey, telescopes, wide, wise

Duration : 0:2:26

Technorati Tags: 112, atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, KSC, launch, NASA, Orbitor, Shuttle, space, STS

Duration : 0:9:44

Technorati Tags: ISS, NASA

Duration : 0:20:13

Technorati Tags: alan, asteroids, black holes, cern, Cobe, Comets, cosmic, cosmos, Earth, galaxies, guth, hubble, inflationary, lhc, Mars, Moon, NASA, planets, solar, space, Stars, Sun, supernova, System, Theory, universe, wmap

For nineteen years, NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy but it has also helped scientists learn more about our own Solar System. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble has studied every planet in our Solar System except Mercury where light from the Sun would damage its instruments.

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Hubble has captured the impact of a comet on Jupiter, immense storms on Neptune and even tiny dwarf planets at the edge of our Solar System. The veteran telescope keeps a watchful eye on our solar backyard.

Regarded by many as the most valuable astronomical tool, the Hubble Space Telescope is approaching its 19th anniversary in space. Hubble sees into the far reaches of the universe but its powerful instruments have also surveyed our planetary neighbours. In this episode, well see what Hubble has revealed to us in our own solar backyard.

Even those who, for some strange reason, arent astronomy enthusiasts are likely to recognise some of Hubbles most famous images, like the “Pillars of Creation”in the Eagle Nebula or the Hubble Deep, and Ultra Deep, Fields which have shown us some of the most distant galaxies ever observed. The Hubble Space Telescope has really fundamentally changed our understanding of the Universe at large, but with its high resolution images of planets and moons in our own Solar System, it has also taught us a lot about our own cosmic neighbourhood.

Hubble cannot observe our Sun, or the closest planet, Mercury, because its instruments are light-sensitive and would be damaged. However, the telescope has examined every other planet in the solar system, including dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres and Eris. But, of course, Hubble does not just produce pretty pictures, it provides planetary scientists with vital information about our neighbours that may help us better understand our own home planet, Earth.

More (PDF): http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/scripts/hubblecast27a.pdf

Credits:
• ESA/Hubble (Martin Kornmesser, Colleen Sharkey & Lars Lindberg Christensen)
• Visual design & Editing: Martin Kornmesser
• Animations: Martin Kornmesser
• Host: Dr. J
• Narration: Robert Fosbury
• Cinematography: Peter Rixner
• Music: movetwo
• Web Hosting: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ)
• Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi Shida
• Written by: Lars Lindberg Christensen
• Directed by: Colleen Sharkey
• Additional photos and footage: United States Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang, NASA-JPL/ESA, NASA/JHU/APL,

Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J’s real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in astronomy.

Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
• http://www.eso.org
• http://www.spacetelescope.org
• http://hubblesite.org
.

Duration : 0:6:44

Technorati Tags: 27, About, Astro, Astronomers, astronomy, Background, Bang, Big, Black, Cast, Clusters, Cobe, Comets, cosmic, Dark, Deep, energy, ESA, ESO, Exoplanets, Field, galaxies, Gamma, hawking, HD, Herschel, Holes, hubble, Hubblecast, Images, ISS, JPL, Kepler, Large, Light, Mars, Matter, Meteorites, Microwave, milky, Mission, Moons, NASA, Physics, Planck, planets, Rays, Sagan, Science, Shuttle, solar, space, Speed, Spitzer, Stars, Station, Stellar, Sun, supernova, System, Taught, telescopes, The, UFOs, Ultra, universe, Us, Very, Videos, VLT, way, What