Eta Carina

Pluto’s twilight zone

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took this stunning image of Pluto only a few minutes after closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image was obtained at a high phase angle –that is, with the sun on the other side of Pluto, as viewed by New Horizons. Seen here, sunlight filters through and illuminates Pluto’s complex atmospheric haze layers. The southern portions of the nitrogen ice plains informally named Sputnik Planum, as well as mountains of the informally named Norgay Montes, can also be seen across Pluto’s crescent at the top of the image.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

SEMPER PARATUS ALWAYS READY The Coast Guard Marching Song (sheet music)

NASA vs Amtrak vs the National Park Service

Space tourism is still a ways off, but NASA, everybody’s favorite government agency, released some pretty sweet posters for destinations you’ll (hopefully!) be able to visit someday. 

Turns out, they’re not the only agency with some pretty rad graphic design. Here’s one of Amtrak’s iconic rail lines. 

And this poster for Yellowstone National Park, from 1938. 

Although NASA claims there might be a few more geysers to see on Enceladus

Or maybe take a trip closer to home.

Or go visit the histroic Sequoia National Park. This poster is from the early 40′s. 

For the history buff, see some of NASA’s historic sites, on Mars!

But even NASA knows, there’s only one Earth, “Your Oasis in Space.” 

See the full NASA collection over at their website. 

-Austin

✨ S T O P  D A Y  D R E A M I N G ✨

NASA’s laser propulsion system could send ships to Mars in just days

It might sound like science fiction, but we already know how to make objects move at near light speed. Physicists do it all the time inside particle accelerators, where they accelerate particles to relativistic speeds just a small fraction below the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second).

But when we try to reach these speeds on a macro scale, we run into all kinds of problems. Now researchers are saying a new kind of laser-based propulsion would eliminate the need for fuel and could accelerate spacecraft up to 26% of the speed of light. At that blistering pace, a tiny space probe could get to Mars in just 30 minutes. The technology to make it happen already exists.

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Adam Priester on Society6

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Alexandre Anaoff. L'Astronautique. 1950.