Category: Research

Moon’scapes

~ mehopper

There’s no denying that it’s been a rough week for many Earthlings.

On the other hand, it’s been a great week for anyone who spends their time more preoccupied with the Moon than with more earthly concerns.

That’s because there’s a treasure trove of news about our lunar realm.

For example, NASA’s Goddard Media Studios released this stunning 4K video that used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to generate a visualization of what the Apollo 13 astronauts would have seen between the time that they came around from the dark side of the Moon and when they reestablished radio contact with Mission Control.

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)

If you have ever seen the movie Apollo 13, then you appreciate why this particular time frame was so poignant. If you have never seen it, then I highly recommend that you do!

Of course, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is no longer our only source of imagery from the far side of the Moon because China landed their Chang’e-4 spacecraft and Yutu-2 rover there last year, and they’re still there working away. The Chang’e-4’s mission team celebrated the anniversary of their success by releasing some data and images to the public.

You can find out more about Chang’e-4’s moonscapes in this article.

The Most Detailed Photos Yet of the Far Side of the Moon (Neel V. Patel, Technology Review)

In addition, hot off the press, the Yutu-2 rover’s radar scanned up to 40 meters below the surface of the Moon, and those findings were just published this week as well.

China’s Moon Rover Takes a Deeper Look at the Far Side (Jonathan O’Callaghan, Scientific American)
Digging into the Far Side of the Moon: Chang’E-4 Probes 40 Meters into Lunar Surface (Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters, AAAS EurekAlert)
The Moon’s Farside Shallow Subsurface Structure Unveiled by Chang’E-4 Lunar Penetrating Radar (Chunlai Li, et al. Science Advances)

So, what a great week for Moon lovers!

Finally, it’s Friday, so a bit of fun is in order — check out this 360° video that shows a “different” way of seeing a (fictional) moonscape.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

VR 360 TV (YouTube Channel)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief stint as a “Moonling.”

If you want more Moon’scapes, then head on over to NASA and Google.

If you want to learn more about space and space travel, explore Space Depot!

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

You can also see it directly on Kuula.

Happy Friday, Stay Healthy & Have a Great Leap Day!

Find out more about the Moon@Cosma …

Touch the Sun

~ mehopper

Remember how Icarus wanted to touch the Sun, but met his demise instead?

Well, scientists at NASA wanted to touch the Sun too, but unlike Icarus, they succeeded!

Better yet, they are beginning to share what they learned by doing it!

Before we get into all of that, let’s go back and start at the beginning.

NASA launched a robotic spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) in 2018, and this video describes the probe’s audacious mission to “touch the Sun.”

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)

Then NASA posted this 360° video about the probe’s launch that was narrated by Nicola Fox (Project Scientist at that time and now Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division).

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

NASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)

Since its launch, the probe has done a spectacular job of starting to achieve its scientific goals, and some of the first results were just released this week.

Here’s a quick teaser that NASA posted ahead of a press conference on Wednesday.

ScienceAtNASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA Science (Official Website)

This video summarizes the key discoveries that NASA shared at the press conference.

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)

Four articles about the results were also posted by the journal Nature ahead of their publication in the print edition on December 12th. This article introduces those articles and has links to them.

A Step Closer to the Sun’s Secrets (Daniel Verscharen, Nature)

It’s awesome to know more about what makes that great glowing ball in the sky tick, but I also found myself a bit sad because the mission’s goals do not include sending back imagery for us Earthlings to enjoy. That means we still don’t know what it looks like to “touch the Sun.”

Perhaps it would look a bit like this 360° video of a simulation of the Sun that was posted by a hearty YouTuber way back in 2016.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Zproxy (YouTube Channel)

That was cathartic to watch, but of course it wouldn’t sound like that because there is no “sound” in space. The actual experience would also be way, way more visually stunning.

We can be certain of that because, while the Parker Solar Probe doesn’t capture imagery, there’s another NASA mission called the Solar Dynamics Observatory that does. It doesn’t capture 360° videos, but what it does capture is far more dynamic than the simulation.

Here’s a video that the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on June 18, 2015. This isn’t exactly how it would look because it’s been colorized in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, but it still gives you a sense of the unbelievable majesty of the activity that you would see on the surface of our favorite star if you were able to go there in person.

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)

How beautiful was that?!?!

Kudos to the scientists and engineers at NASA for having the audacity to find ways to go where no one has gone before and for communicating to us what it’s like there, too!

If you want to learn more about the the rest of the Solar System, explore this Toy World!

Click the 360° image below to explore it, click the menu in the upper right for controls and click “i” buttons on/off for links to experiences. Use “portals” to visit otherToy Worlds.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

You can also choose your own adventure by clicking on the links below.

“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon

Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid

Find out more about the Sun@Cosma …

Exoplanet Junket

~ mehopper

This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau.

The core of the project consists of a set of interactive 360° images that show “imagined” surfaces of five exoplanets (TRAPPIST-1e, Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, PSO J318.5-22 and HD 40307 g). Here are three articles about the experience.

This Brilliant Interactive From NASA Lets You Virtually Explore Planets Far, Far Away (Jacinta Bowler, Science Alert)
Visit Exotic Exoplanets with NASA Visualization Tool (Mike Wall, Space.com)
NASA’s New VR Demo Puts You on Distant Exoplanets (Ryan Whitwam, Extreme Tech)

NASA’s new experience includes a feature that let’s you download snazzy travel posters for each of the planets, and those posters have a backstory of their own. Here’s a Buzz 60 story about three of the posters in the new project.

Buzz60 (YouTube Channel)
Buzz60 (Facebook Page)

Here’s a Slate article with some more background on the Work Projects Administration (WPA) See America poster series that inspired the style of NASA’s travel posters.

See America Through a Nostalgic Lens With These Neo-Vintage Travel Posters (Kristin Hohenadel, Slate)

This isn’t the first time that NASA has dabbled in publishing travel posters. The three exoplanet posters featured in the video are actually a subset of fifteen posters that NASA released in 2016 as a series entitled Visions of the Future.

Here are some links about the posters and where you can still download them for yourself.
Exotic Cosmic Locales Available as Space Tourism Posters (NASA/JPL)
Space Tourism Posters (NASA)
Visions of the Future Posters (NASA/JPL)

NASA also published this special page about the inspiration for the posters.
About Visions of the Future Posters (NASA/JPL)

Of course, the timing of the release of the Exoplanet Travel Bureau is no coincidence — it’s neatly timed to coincide with last month’s launch of NASA’s planet hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Here’s a short one minute explanation from NASA Goddard about what TESS will be doing.

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Find out more about planetary systems and planets near and far …

TRAPPIST-1

~ mehopper

You’ve probably heard that NASA has found a trove of “Earth-like” planets circling the TRAPPIST-1 system roughly 40 light years away, but just in case you haven’t, here’s a short video from NASA/JPL about the discovery.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website)

Most entertainingly, here’s a 360° YouTube video published by NASA/JPL that let’s you experience an artist’s conception of the view from the 4th planet in the system.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website)

Here’s the text posted with the video as context.

This 360-degree panorama depicts the surface of a newly detected planet, TRAPPIST-1d, part of a seven planet system some 40 light years away. You can explore this artist’s rendering of an alien world by moving the view using your mouse or your mobile device. The depiction is based on the latest scientific data about this planetary system, and this world’s sister planets can be seen as bright points of light in a dark sky. Each world is roughly in Earth’s size range, in terms of both mass and diameter. Further observations will be needed to determine whether any or all of these worlds might be habitable.

Find out more about TRAPPIST 1 …

TRAPPIST 1 (NASA Exoplanets)
TRAPPIST 1 (Wikipedia)

Find out more about planetary systems, planets and astronomical instruments …

Animal Vision

~ mehopper

What if you could see like an animal? Well, now you can!

Here’s a link to a 360° video that shows what it’s like to see as a cat, dog, insect, rat and snake.

How Animals See (BuzzFeed, YouTube)

There are even some augmented reality apps out there that go a step further and let you experience your own world “through the eyes” of animals (Android, iOS).

Is “animal vision” a killer app for AR? Probably not, but still, it’s pretty cool!

If you really get into this stuff, there’s a ton of “traditional” media about it.

For example, here’s a link to a video that covers the science behind how we know how animals like bees, reptiles, cats, fish and insects see the world.

9 Ways Animals See The World Differently (SciShow, YouTube)

Find out more about animals …

Smart Crows

~ mehopper

Note This content is not very elaborate as well as a bit dated, but it is important for historical purposes. It was the first adventure (a.k.a. Post) on this iteration of the Cosma website way back in September 15, 2016.

Sometimes news just catches your eye.

Here’s a video got me today — enjoy!

Nature (YouTube Channel)
Nature (Official Website)

Here are some related news stories I found afterward.

Tool-Using Crow: Rare Bird Joins Clever Animal Elite (Victoria Gill, BBC News)
Scientists Have Found Another Crow That Uses Tools (Ed Yong, The Atlantic)
Discovery of Species-Wide Tool Use in the Hawaiian Crow (Nature)

Find out more about Crows@Cosma …