Rocket | Science

In May 1950, PM ran a cover story on man’s journey to the moon being “no longer a fantastic dream.” Now, 44 years after the end of the Apollo program, NASA has plans to go back. 

“Astronomer by Candlelight”

Gerrit Dou (Dutch, 1613 - 1675)

Oil on panel, 32 × 21.2 cm (12 5/8 × 8 3/8 in.)

Sage at ARIA Las Vegas’ cocktail “Smoke Missing Mirrors” gives dinner & a show an entirely new meaning. (21+)

Cinemagraph by Tumblr Creatr Daria Khoroshavina

Eclipse at Moonset  Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)

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From Centuries Past by Abi Ashra (Tumblr)

1973 NASA concept art takes us inside the Skylab space station’s orbital workshop.

John Glenn, astronaut and U.S. senator, dies at 95

His long career in public service was spotlighted by two trips to space.

By DAVID COHEN

John Glenn, who earned worldwide acclaim by orbiting the Earth in 1962 and then parlayed his achievements into a notable career in the U.S. Senate, has died.

Glenn died Thursday at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, according to The Associated Press. The former astronaut, whose space flight earned him comparisons to aviator Charles Lindbergh, was 95.

The Ohio Democrat had some setbacks in the 1980s — a failed presidential bid in 1984, followed by the Keating Five scandal — but served four terms in the Senate and then bookended his career by returning to space in 1998.

President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

“The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn became a hero in every sense of the word, but he didn’t stop there serving his country. As a senator, he found new ways to make a difference. And on his second trip into space at age 77, he defied the odds once again,” Obama said at the ceremony.

In November 2011, Glenn joined fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in being presented with Congressional Gold Medals. As he honored two fellow Ohioans (Glenn and Armstrong), House Speaker John Boehner cried.

Read more here

The first American to orbit the Earth has died. John Glenn was the last surviving member of the original Mercury astronauts. He would later have a long political career as a U.S. senator, but that didn’t stop his pioneering ways.

Glenn made history a second time in 1998, when he flew aboard the shuttle Discovery to become the oldest person to fly in space. Glenn was 95; he had been hospitalized in Columbus, Ohio, since last week.

Glenn had been battling health issues since a stroke a few years ago. His death was confirmed Thursday by This was confirmed to NPR by Hank Wilson, communications director of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University.

John Glenn, First American To Orbit The Earth, Dies At 95

Photo: NASA/Getty Images

“To me, there is no greater calling … If I can inspire young people to dedicate themselves to the good of mankind, I’ve accomplished something.” RIP John Glenn

Fuck you, 2016.

Godspeed John Glenn. 

Total eclipse less than two years away

As space.com reports, a total solar eclipse will be visible from the homes of around 12 million people, although perhaps 200 million will be within a days drive of the event, which will take place on August 21, 2017.

Ask Ethan #102: Is Everything In The Universe The Same Age?

It’s been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang for us, and when we look out at a distant object in the Universe, we’re seeing it as it was in the past. Its age — as it appears — is determined only by how long the light took for it to travel from that object to our eyes, but to someone living there, it will also appear that the Universe is 13.8 billion years old. But it is actually possible for an observer living on another planet, star or galaxy to perceive that significantly less time has passed since the Big Bang, so long as they were moving close to the speed of light relative to the CMB. Paradoxically, if they slowed their speed, they’d find that they themselves were very young, but living in a 13.8 billion year-old Universe.

First (Fully) Warm-blooded Fish Found

by Stephanie Pappas

The car-tire-size opah is striking enough thanks to its rotund, silver body. But now, researchers have discovered something surprising about this deep-sea dweller: It’s got warm blood.

That makes the opah (Lampris guttatus) the first warm-blooded fish every discovered. Most fish are exotherms, meaning they require heat from the environment to stay toasty. The opah, as an endotherm, keeps its own temperature elevated even as it dives to chilly depths of 1,300 feet (396 meters) in temperate and tropical oceans around the world.

“Increased temperature speeds up physiological processes within the body,” study leader Nicholas Wegner, a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, told Live Science. “As a result, the muscles can contract faster, the temporal resolution of the eye is increased, and neurological transmissions are sped up. This results in faster swimming speeds, better vision and faster response times.”…

(read more: Live Science)

photograph by NOAA Fisheries, SW Fisheries Science Center

50 YEARS AGO TODAY – On August 23, 1965, Gemini 6 astronaut Tom Stafford trains for space in Galveston, Texas. (NASA)

Can you climb to the top? You can move to an adjacent face but you must preserve regular periodic sequence of four colors. The example route fails at 27 because blue tries to continue blue-red-yellow.