NASA's Hubble has captured a stellar explosion 20,000 light years away. The incredible time-lapse animation you're about to see spans four years and documents a massive explosion from V838 Monocerotis, a red star located in the constellation Monoceros. Right up to the explosion, V838 had grown to become one of the largest stars ever observed by astronomers, producing 600,000 times more light than our own sun. Continue reading for the clip and more information.
A research paper by physicist Juan Maldacena theorizes that our universe is a hologram - a three-dimensional image coded onto a two-dimensional surface - with the higher dimensional part coded onto a flatter, lower dimensional part. The holographic illusion merely looks three-dimensional, and you can't touch it with your fingers, meaning there is no end or beginning. Continue reading for two videos and more information.
You've probably seen, or even visited, some of these places before, but Daily Overview aims to provide a whole new perspective on beautiful places all over the world. It's basically a new project that collects and shares satellite photos from Digital Globes. It was inspired by the Overview Effect experience, "which is a cognitive shift of perspective and worldview experienced by the astronauts when they get to see the planet Earth from space for the first time," according to Bored Panda. Continue reading to see more.
NASA researcher Dr. Harold White says interstellar travel will become possible using an Alcubierre drive, named after a Mexican theoretical physicist of the same name, that bends space-time, enabling humans to cover large distances almost instantly. This, in essence, would allow a spaceship to travel almost anywhere in a tiny fraction of the time it would take a conventional spacecraft. Continue reading for more information.
Could mysterious radio bursts messages originating from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy be from aliens? Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) occur for a few milliseconds, and the first was detected in 2007, but only a handful have been seen since. In April 2014, the latest discovery was made, but there still is no explanation. Theories range from colliding neutron stars to alien signals. Continue reading for more unsolved space mysteries in the Milky Way Galaxy.
These mind-blowing images were not captured by astronauts, just a homemade weather balloon by father and son duo Barry Fraser, 38, and his son Cameron, 12. The helium balloon rose 19 miles (31km) above the Earth in just an hour and 48 minutes before it burst, having expanded too much. Fortunately, all of the equipment was secured to a parachute and floated back, landing in a thick forest west of Brora, in the Highlands. Continue for the video and more information.
While it was one of the most watched moments in television history, with more than half billion viewers, Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the Moon July 20, 1969 were accidentally taped over. That's right, NASA admits that it erased its only high resolution images of the first moonwalk to make room for electronic data from a satellite. Officials from the agency have concluded that the data that could have produced high resolution images of those already seen was in fact inadvertently erased. Continue reading for more.
Researchers have discovered a new kind of "Godzilla" planet due to its massive size that's 560 light years from Earth. It's called Kepler-10c and the planet is 17 times more massive than our planet, and has been named a 'mega-Earth'. This is a notable discovery because astronomers previously didn't believe such a world could exist because they believed anything so large would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a gaseous 'mini-Neptune'. Continue reading for a video and more information.
When humans start visiting Mars regularly, they'll probably be using one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon V2 capsules. Unlike its predecessor, the V2 capsule has eight SuperDraco engines, which are 200 times more powerful than previous models, that output 16,400 lb of thrust each, enabling the craft to return to its spaceport and make a powered landing. Continue reading for a video and more information.
NASA has just uploaded an amazing photo series titled "Cosmos: NASA Images of a Space-Time Odyssey" to celebrate the relaunch of the Cosmos television series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Here are some of the most mind-boggling pictures from the set. Click here to view the first image in this week's WINS gallery. Continue reading for a viral video of Morgan Freeman on helium.
