wired:

A new private company called Deep Space Industries announced today that it intends to send a fleet of small spacecraft to near-Earth asteroids with the aim of mining resources and turning them into products using space-based 3-D printers.

Last year was thick with audacious private spaceflight company unveilings, including the announcement from Planetary Resources, Inc. of their plans to mine relatively valuable platinum group metals from asteroids. With the formation of Deep Space Industries, it seems that 2013 could see a new crop of private space companies with lofty goals.

colchrishadfield:

Tucson, Arizona from orbit.

colchrishadfield:

Undoubtedly one of the coolest space sights on Earth, the Richat Structure of Mauritania.

mothernaturenetwork:

Hubble Space Telescope could last until 2018, NASA says

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990, and has since been upgraded five times by astronauts in orbit.

mothernaturenetwork:

‘Planetary parks’ could protect space wilderness

Parks on planets like Mars would also allow for maximum preservation of scientific heritage, both geologically and — perhaps — biologically.

mothernaturenetwork:

NASA unveils last moon video by doomed spacecraft

A spacecraft recorded a flyover video of the moon’s far side shortly before intentionally slamming into a lunar mountain last month.

mothernaturenetwork:

Small sun activity changes still affect Earth’s climate

In addition to scientific data, tree rings and ice cores can help link sun’s behavior to earth’s change in climate.

thisistheverge:

Australia’s devastating wildfires, as seen from space

NASA astronaut captures breathtaking photos that are equal parts beautiful and terrifying

mothernaturenetwork:

Monster black hole burp surprises scientists

Scientists had been studying the far-flung galaxy for years, and found that it went from ‘being placid and quiescent’ to having a ‘hugely energetic outburst at the end.’

photojojo:

This 340-million-pixel beauty is a peek inside our very own Milky Way galaxy! This amazing image is actually a mosaic of over 1200 individual frames with a combined exposure time of 200 hours! 

340 Million-Pixel Vista of Milky Way Galaxy

via Reddit

discoverynews:

Blue, Not Red: Did Ancient Mars Look Like This? Is that Earth? Nope! That’s Mars… well, it might’ve been Mars a couple of billion years ago when it had a thick atmosphere and oceans (yes, oceans). Although the inclusion of a Martian biosphere (the green bits) is a little, well, fanciful, software engineer Kevin Gill used real elevation data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Obiter (MRO) to render the planet and then added water and an atmosphere (and a touch of green for some hypothetical Martian vegetation). 

“I am a software engineer by trade and certainly not a planetary scientist, so most of my assumptions were based on simply comparing the Mars terrain to similar features here on Earth (e.g. elevation, proximity to bodies of water, physical features, geographical position, etc) and then using the corresponding textures from the Blue Marble images,” Gill told Discovery News.

To be honest Kevin, we think you did an awesome job.

mothernaturenetwork:

Most earth-like planet possibly found
With a radius that is just 1.5 times that of Earth, the potential planet is what a so-called ‘super-Earth,’ meaning it is just slightly larger than the Earth. The candidate planet orbits a star similar to the sun at a distance that falls within the ‘habitable zone’ — the region where liquid water could exist on the planet’s surface. Scientists say the planet, if confirmed, could be a prime candidate to host alien life.

mothernaturenetwork:

Moon may outshine Quadrantid meteor shower tonight

NASA will provide a live webcast of the 2013 Quadrantid meteor shower each night this week through Jan. 4.