Eruption from space

The Earth never fails to amaze me and it's always a place of beauty and wonder. But every now and then you see something from a different and special perspective.

This photo was taken from the International Space Station of the Sarychev Peak volcano in Japan/Russia.

For the photo geeks among us this was taken with a Nikon D2XS with a 400mm Lens.

Source: The Register

The volcano, which lies in the Kuril Island chain northeast of Japan, blew its top on 12 June, an event captured during a "fortuitous orbit" of the ISS. NASA explains that the picture is of particular interest to vulcanologists because it show "several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption".

These include the main plume, which "appears to be a combination of brown ash and white steam" and a clear circle in the "cloud deck" - either caused by "the shockwave from the eruption or from sinking air around the eruption plume"

Amazing Zoom - a bit of perspective

Source: FunForever.net

I love it when you can get some perspective on life and this is a brilliant way to look at it.

10 million light years from the Milky Way
1 million light years from the Milky Way
The Milky Way
Stars Near the Milky WayStars In the Milky Way
100 light years from Earth
10 light years from Earth

The SunOur solar systemFollow it through to it's rather mind boggling end here: Funforever

China in Space

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7639498.stm

China has launched a manned spacecraft, had him complete a 15 minute space walk and returned the three astronauts to Earth safely. Ultimately they will be creating their own space station and using that as a base to get first to the Moon and then to Mars.


I think this is an awesome thing to have done and it's great to see that there is still some countries out there who are pushing the limits. My only hope is that this motivates other countries into a space race again. A huge number of technologies that we take for granted now are either directly related to or resulting from technology developed by NASA for use in space and on the Moon.

Here is a list of many of these items including most cordless equipment like drills, toothpaste, smoke detectors and various medical scanners.

The Jules Verne burns up on re-entry.

Europe's first ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) cargo ship, The Jules Verne burns up during a planned reentry after completing it's ISS (international space station mission). Quite a beautiful thing to watch I think. Being an automated ship there is no need for crew.
Image from the ESA (European Space Agency)

Video Credit: ESA