That's Heavy, Man

Every year, the Earth becomes about twelve tons heavier because of meteorites landing.

Heavy World

The Earth weighs approx. 5.972 × 10²⁴ kg or about
6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.

New Moon

New Moon - the phase of the moon when it is in conjunction with the sun and invisible from earth, or shortly thereafter when it appears as a slender crescent.

There was a new moon last night (Sept 1) and  there will be another on Sept 30.

According to superstition, two new moons occurring in one month foretells bad weather.

Milky Way

If every star in the Milky Way was a grain of salt, they would fill an Olympic sized swimming pool.

(Click graphic for larger view - it's beautiful)

"Milky Way Arch" by Bruno Gilli/ESO
 http://www.eso.org/public/images/milkyway/
Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Commons

One Small Step

First moon landing July 20, 1969

Drifting Apart

The moon is moving an inch away from Earth every year. 

Speed Limits in Space?

There is no firm boundary where space begins. However the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping.

This means that, if you could drive your car straight up, you would arrive in space in an hour, more or less. (obeying all speed limits, of course and maybe stopping to stretch your legs)

You'd probably need a car much like this one:

It Would Take a Big Bathtub, Though

Because it's primarily composed of gas, if you were able to put Saturn in water it would float.

The Earth is Getting Heavier

Every year the Earth becomes about 12 tons (24,000 lbs.) heavier because of meteorites landing.

Venus Rotation

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

More fascinating facts about Venus

Space Sickness

Astronauts get sick so often in space that their toilets have a special setting for vomit.

The Moon Survival Challenge

From the site:

Imagine you are returning to the base ship on the sunlit side of the moon after carrying out a 72-hour exploration trip. Your small spacecraft has crash-landed about 200 miles from the base ship. You need to reach the base ship, in addition to your spacesuit, you were able to salvage the items listed below. Using what you know about the moon, rate each item in the list according to how important it would be in getting you back to the base ship.

58%

Guess there's a good chance I'm gonna die.

10 Incredible Facts About The Moon

Moon Phase Widget

Courtesy of Joe's Web Tools

An explanation of Lunar Phases

Countries in the different hemispheres see the Moon from a completely different vantage point from each other. In the northern hemisphere the first quarter looks like a growing D, while in the southern hemisphere it looks like a C. In the northern hemisphere the last quarter looks like a C, while in the southern hemisphere looks like a D. 

A handy memonic device to figure out if the moon is waxing or waning in the Northern Hemisphere is by thinking "DOC" as to the current "shape".
(D first quarter O full Moon C last quarter)

In the Southern Hemisphere it would be "C O D"
(C first quarter O full Moon D last quarter)

Massive Mass

Did you know?

All the planets in our solar system could fit inside Jupiter. The largest planet, composed mostly of gases, has two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined.

Halley's Comet Debris

I'm looking forward to Oct. 21st and the Orionid Meteor Shower.

Ride Sally Ride

On this date in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

Go For Launch!

Space shuttle Discovery gets prepped for flight—in just under four minutes.

Stellar Shrapnel

From NASA's Image of the Day Gallery

This composite image shows N49, the aftermath of a supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud. A new long observation from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals evidence for a bullet-shaped object being blown out of debris field left over from an exploded star.

In order to detect this bullet, researchers used Chandra to observe N49 for more than 30 hours. Using the new Chandra data, the age of N49 -- as it appears in the image -- is thought to be about 5,000 years and the energy of the explosion is estimated to be about twice that of an average supernova. These preliminary results suggest that the original explosion was caused by the collapse of a massive star.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S. Park et al.
Optical: NASA/STScI/UIUC/Y.H. Chu & R. Williams et al.

Earth's Moon

From the NASA website:

During its mission, the Galileo spacecraft returned a number of images of Earth's only natural satellite. Galileo surveyed the moon on Dec. 7, 1992, on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-1997.

This color mosaic was assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo's imaging system through a green filter. On the upperleft is the dark, lava-filled Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis (middle left), Mare Tranquillitatis (lower left), and Mare Crisium, the dark circular feature toward the bottom of the mosaic. Also visible in this view are the dark lava plains of the Marginis and Smythii Basins at the lower right. The Humboldtianum Basin, a 400-mile impact structure partly filled with dark volcanic deposits, is seen at the center of the image.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS