Chasing Sprites in Electric Skies
Paul Smith is a night-sky fanatic and photographer. His obsession is sprites: immense jolts of light that flicker high above thunderstorms. Last October, he guided NASA scientist Dr. Burcu Kosar through the backroads of Oklahoma to catch one herself. Although she’d studied sprites for more than 15 years, she hadn’t yet chased one.
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Gravitational Waves: Ripples In Space-Time
Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in the fabric of space-time. They are caused by some of the most violent and energetic events in the universe.
These include colliding black holes, collapsing stellar cores, merging neutron stars or white dwarf stars, the wobble of neutron stars that are not perfect spheres and possibly even the remnants of gravitational radiation created by the birth of the universe.
In this video, Dr. Padi Boyd explains gravitational waves and how important Hubble is to exploring the mysteries of the universe.
Video Credit:
Hubble Space Telescope Animation
Credit: M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)
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Moon Phases 2022 – Northern Hemisphere – 4K
This 4K visualization shows the Moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2022, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the Moon's orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, and distance from the Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Data visualization by Ernie Wright (USRA)
Producer & Editor - David Ladd (AIMM)
Music provided by Universal Production Music: “Build the Future” – Alexander Hitchens
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