Space Missions in the Last 50 Years

Amaryllis Place — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:29:00 GMT

National Geograhic has mapped close to 200 space explorations missions in the picture below. Most have been to our closest neighbors, Venus and Mars and our Moon.

Click image to view full size.

Interesting Facts about the Moon

Amaryllis Place — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Diameter is 1/4 the size of Earth's diameter.
Gravity is about 1/6 of Earth's gravity. This is too weak to maintain an atmosphere.
The Moon's gravity is still enough to affect the tides on the Earth.
The same side of the Moon is always facing Earth because the Moon's rotation is synchonous with its revolution around Earth.
The Moon is slowing moving away from Earth about 4 centimeters a year.
The footprints left on the surface by astronauts will last at least 10 million years.
Temperatures can range from +300° F to -270 F./li>

Earthshine can be used to find another habitable planet

Amaryllis Place — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Earthshine is sunlight that bounces off of the earth and onto other objects in space. A study was performed to measure the difference of the amount of earthshine coming from the continents on Earth as compared to the amount of earthshine coming from the oceans. It was found that the shine from the oceans was quite intense compared to the dimmer shine from the land masses. They determined this by taking pictures of the dark side of the moon (where light from our sun never hits) at various times over a three-year period. As a result, they could measure the amount of earthshine from the continents hitting the moon and the amount of earthshine from the oceans.

This certainly sounds reasonable. Anyone that has been out on the water found out that it is easy to get sunburnt even when staying under a cover. The water will reflect light at you from below despite being shaded from the sun above.

Scientists may be able to use this information when looking for another habitable planet around other stars in the universe. Any planet we will be looking at will be too far away for us to get a good look at its surface. However, we might be able to view the amount of shine generated from the planet onto other objects nearby. It could provide clues to the physical make up of the planet.

Once we humans have made this planet uninhabitable for ourselves, we'll need to move somewhere else to survive. Unfortunately, I don't think our space traveling abilities will advance fast enough to allow us to move some place else, even if we are lucky enough to locate a destination.

Resource: University of Melbourne (2009, April 8). Earthshine Reflects Earth's Oceans And Continents From The Dark Side Of The Moon. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/04/090407105156.htm.

Gimme Some Space : Moon

Space Missions in the Last 50 Years

Interesting Facts about the Moon

Earthshine can be used to find another habitable planet