Videos

Videos

Meteor streaks over Northern Russian skies

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Last February we saw a large meteor streak over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Reports are now coming in that a similar, massive meteor was seen over the Murmansk region of Northern Russia late at night. The phenomenon is visible about 18 seconds into this video:

There haven’t been any indications of military tests planned for that area, which has borders with Finland and is home to the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet in Severomorsk. But there aren’t any astronomical details or news reports available either at this time on the nature of this celestial body. So we don’t know if it fully combusted in the atmosphere, landed in the sea or if any damage was done on the ground. Given Russia’s extremely large landmass, it would naturally see more than its share of meteors, meteorites and other similar natural phenomenon. Good thing so many Russians install dashcams and are able to provide these interesting videos.

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Videos

Measuring distances in the universe

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One of the common questions we always ask when dealing with cosmic topics, is the distance of an object or phenomenon from Earth. This Google hangout by the Space Telescope Science Institute should help shed some light on this topic.

This Hubble hangout was hosted by Tony Darnell of Space Telescope Science Institute with Dr. Mario Livio and winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics (for discovering that the universe is accelerating as it expands), Dr. Adam Riess. One of the concepts discussed was the “Hubble Concept” – which postulates how fast the distant galaxies of the universe are moving away from us.

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The untold story of Yuri Gagarin

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A documentary by Russia Today (RT) on the life and accomplishments of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the Cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first human to successfully travel to outer space.

The documentary covers his humble birth, the Gagarin family’s struggles and survival with German occupation during World War Two, Yuri’s love of music, fascination for flying and the many struggles in life. Many of Yuri Gagarin’s surviving friends, colleagues and family were interviewed to provide a personal touch to the film. It also provides a glimpse into (the harsh) life in the Soviet Union during peak of the Communist state and the Cold War.

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NASA talks exoplanets, Kepler, Hubble & more @SXSW

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Here is footage of a hangout done by NASA at the 2014 South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Their topics of discussion included:

  • exoplanets and the search for life in the rest of the universe;
  • demonstration of a new app for visualizing Kepler data which could help us find Earth like planets around other stars;
  • Hubble space telescope demo
  • James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Panel “First Signs: Finding Life on Other Planets.”

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Near-Earth Asteroid 2014 DX110 passes between Earth and Moon

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On Wednesday evening, a massive 100-foot wide Asteroid 2014 DX110 passed between Earth and the Moon, about 346,000 from Earth (0.9 lunar distance). DX110  was tracked by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program (Spaceguard) and several other organizations. Here is a time lapse video of the asteroid from the SLOOH community observatory.

The Catalina sky survey also tracked a smaller asteroid, 2014 EC, about 20 to 30 feet wide and 500 to 600 tons in weight. 2014 RC will fly by much closer (62,000 km) to Earth around 1:21PM (PST) on March 6, 2014. JPL picked up yet another asteroid, 2014 EF, which was a bit smaller and further out than 2014 EC and also passed by Earth yesterday evening. There were some speculative reports that 2014 EF may have entered Earth’s upper atmosphere and broken up over Venezuela, landing into the Pacific Ocean, but this has not been corroborated by NASA or any other organizations.  All in all, a very busy couple of days for asteroid hunters.

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