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This could be the international flag of planet Earth
Designed by Oskar Pernefeldt, this proposal for a flag that represents our entire planet could have a future on Mars.
Centered in the flag, seven rings form a flower – a symbol of the life on Earth. The rings are linked to each other, which represents how everything on our planet, directly or indirectly, are linked. The blue field represents water which is essential for life – also as the oceans cover most of our planet’s surface. The flower’s outer rings form a circle which could be seen as a symbol of Earth as a planet and the blue surface could represent the universe.
i support this 100%
space
Comparing Terran and Martian sunsets
The two photos here have been scaled to depict the same angular width, so that the sinking solar orb and the dance of its light in the atmospheres of two worlds could be viewed side by side. The most obvious difference is the colour, an eerie bluish grey on Mars contrasted with the deep multicolour palette of a wordly evening.
There are several reasons for this, one being the layered nature of our atmosphere, and the contrasts in dust and aerosol content between the layers. Another may be the nature of the dust: scientists don’t understand as yet why the Martian examples have a bluish tint, but speculate that something in the nature of Martian dust and its interaction with light is probably the cause. The Arean orb also appears slightly smaller than ours due to the greater distance of Mars’ orbit around the sun.
Loz
Image credit: Damia Bouic/NASA/CURIOSITY
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured an exoplanet’s true color. HD 189733b has an azure color that’s similar to Earth’s, but there is no chance the planet holds life as it orbits extremely close to its host star.
HD 189733b is a gas giant with an atmospheric temperature exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), and some rather cruel weather. As NASA notes, HD 189733b is dominated by high winds that can reach speeds of 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) per hour, and it rains glass (!), based on previous data collected by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The azure planet is one of the closes exoplanets to Earth, just 63 light-years away, which makes it a prime candidate for research using Hubble or other telescopes.
The human race put a robotic lander on the nucleus of a comet and not only did it successfully land but it tweeted victoriously back to all of us mortal assholes on Planet Earth and if you don’t think that’s the coolest shit then get the fuck out my face
Today I learned that the Curiosity sang itself ‘Happy Birthday’ on its year anniversary of being on Mars.
All alone.
Hundreds of thousands of miles from anyone or anything.
Guys I am depressed over robots now.
Guys, shhh. No, this isn’t sad.
Curiosity isn’t hundreds of thousands of miles from anyone or anything. Curiosity has Spirit, Opportunity, Mars 3, Sojourner, Viking 1, and Viking 2 to keep him company on the red planet.
Opportunity is still exploring; Spirit, while still functional, is stuck in a crater, so cannot move around very much. The rest of them are quiet, asleep; old and beautiful and dignified in their silence
Curiosity sang Happy Birthday to himself and he had Spirit and Opportunity with him–and he had an entire planet down below to celebrate his life, his achievements, his brilliance
Curiosity sang Happy Birthday to celebrate an entire year of doing what he was designed to do; an entire year of exploring a planet on which he was not born, an entire year of roving and collecting information
an entire year of Mars becoming his home to share with his precursors, several of which are miraculously still doing their jobs (Opportunity was only expected to last 90 days; he’s lasted TEN YEARS)
it was a song of absolute euphoric joy, not one of loneliness
Curiosity is the exact opposite of lonely; he has hundreds of thousands of people down below who adore him, family at ground control to communicate with him constantly; and plenty of kin on the red planet’s surface to keep him company.
This is the exact opposite of sad.
This just plain blows my mind, because I’m LISTENING TO OUTER SPACE. Except I’m not listening to outer space, I’m listening to things inside my laptop reproduce sounds of outer space. Actually I’m listening to things inside my laptop reproduce sounds of something else that reproduced sounds of outer space. But still. What a time to be alive.