First Moon landing images released
Earlier than I had hoped, the first LROC images of the moon landing sites have been released by NASA. These images were captured before the LRO reached its final mapping orbit, and are at about of a third the resolution of future LROC images. Click on the image below to see the original uncropped image of Eagle sitting in its landing site.
This image of the Apollo 14 landing site is a lot more interesting showing the astronauts actual foot marks.
I think it was marvellous of NASA to release these images before the 40th anniversary of the first landing by Apollo 11.
However, even though these images were taken within the last week, I doubt that the conspiracy theorists will accept this evidence either.
The Earth is warming rapidly
2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. I can just see the climate change deniers rubbing their hands in glee at that. Not so fast, dumbasses: 2008 was also the ninth warmest year since 1880 when instrumental measurements began. 2005 is the hottest year on record, and 2007 is tied with 1998 for second place. And if there is any doubt about global warming, Earth is “experiencing the warmest level of the current interglacial period, or interval between ice ages, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years”.
This video is an animation of five-year global temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2008. What is really alarming is to see the hot and cold spots flip-flopping around up until about 30 years ago. And then a rapid warming trend ensues. The animation shows a colour-coded map displaying a long term progression of changing global surface temperatures for the period. Dark red indicates the greatest warming and dark blue indicates the greatest cooling.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Data provided by Robert B. Schmunk (NASA/GSFC GISS)
This data corresponds closely with that used by Sir David Attenborough, in this video:
Volcanic eruption filmed from space
More space-based stuff – this time an amazing video of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. It was filmed from the International Space Station.
It’s breathtaking. The speed of the Space Station gives it a full 3-D look. You can see the a pyroclastic flow descending and a vigorously rising eruption plume.
You can find high-resolution images of the same event at NASA’s Earth Observatory site.
First hi-res images of the moon
The first high-resolution images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have been have been released. The LRO reached the moon on June 23 and the two cameras on board, collectively known as LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera), were activated on June 30.
The images were taken over the region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).
This image shows a region 1,400 metres wide and features as small as 3 metres wide are discernible. What makes this exciting to me is that this is a very human scale. You can actually imagine yourself walking the short distance, through a museum of craters. The smaller craters would be no bigger than a suburban swimming pool.
I also can’t wait for images from the original landing sites – presumably the tracks left in the sand by the lunar buggy would be visible.
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