Chris-z-2135-46-blog - Space Travel

Took these pictures in astronomy lab tonight!

Sputnik 1 was the very FIRST satellite humans successfully launched and placed in orbit around Earth. It launched out of the Soviet Union on Oct. 4, 1957. Sputnik was an incredible technological advancement at the time, and its launched fueled the fears brought on by the Cold War. The Russian word “Sputnik” means “companion.” (📷 : NASA)

One of 7 ways a trip to Mars could kill you

1) Your rocket could blow up before leaving Earth

Elon Musk’s plan to go to Mars involves strapping a giant spaceship atop the biggest rocket that humanity has ever built. Because any rocket launch basically involves a long, controlled explosion, it’s inherently precarious — no matter how many safety tests are done beforehand. If anything goes wrong, if the explosion gets out of control, the people strapped to that big container of fuel don’t stand a chance.

For context, NASA’s space shuttle program carried 833 passengers between 1981 and 2011. Of those, 14 people died in explosions on two high-profile accidents (Challenger and Columbia), a fatality rate of 1.6 percent. That’s vastly more dangerous than driving and a bit riskier than climbing Mount Everest. (The fatality rate for the Apollo program to the moon was even higher, at 9 percent.)

But, of course, SpaceX would be using newer, more complex, and yet-untested rockets to get to Mars. So it’s tough to say what the actual odds of death would be. Possibly much higher! Note that a couple of SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets have either exploded on the launchpad or blown up mid-flight. Engineers and rocket scientists can improve that, but it’s unlikely that the risk will be zero.

Trillions and Trillions

As far as astronomers know, this universe of ours is nearly 14 billion years old and 93 billion light-years across. Only objects between 10 to 12 billion light-years distant will ever be visible due to the expansion of the universe.

Recently, a new survey upped the believed galactic population from around 100 billion to TWO TRILLION.

Images: Left: NGC 1365     Credit: Jason Jennings Right: Hubble Deep Field added to the background of NGC 1365     Credit: NASA/ESA

Atacama Desert

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John Young

Pepacton Reservoir is one of the darkest areas of the tri-state area. By contrast the city is serves is one of the brightest; New York.

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