Aurora Ring

NASA's IMAGE spacecraft captured some amazing "big picture" images and video of the aurora australis back in September. The video has been enhanced (overlaid on detailed Earth) and released.

Here is a small (1.2 MB) QuickTime video.
Here is a large (4.9 MB) QuickTime video.
Here is more info.

Sand Art

Top Men have never heard of Perfomance Sand Art like this before, but here it is. The idea of performance art - adding a temporal aspect to artistic expression is sometimes mezmorizing (and sometimes not.) See what you think.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Watch Me Paint

Stardust Re-entry

Blazing back through Earth's atmosphere at almost 30,000 miles per hour (the fastest atmostpheric man-made object ever) the Stardust spacecraft created quite a light show. Here is an amazing video of the re-entry recorded from a DC-8.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Cometchunk
Real Stardust

Follow Me

Here is a video illusion - watch the dragon watch you. And then go here and make your own.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Moving Illusions
Grand Illusions

Doodle in 3D

If you're ready to get back down to earth you can try some 3D Doodle-ing.

(Note the keyboard controls at the bottom before you start - particularly "r" to reset.)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Take a Spin
Draw Toys

Stardust Cometchunk

Here it is, from this morning's press conference - a pristine chunk of comet, returned to Earth for our perusal.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Stardust

Celestial Travel

Okay kids, time to explore the universe without having to move your lazy butt out of your chair. Celestia is amazing! And it's free! And it's on Mac, Windows, and Linux. And if 100,000 stars isn't enough, it's expandable. Explore through our lowly solar sytem or branch outward to our galaxy and beyond. And you can move through space... and time.

How good is it? Top Men will let you decide. We found a couple recent Cassini images, entered the date they were taken into Celestia, set the location as Cassini and the target as Saturn. You have to decide which is the Celestia image and which is the real one from the pairs above.

Clicking on the pair will link to the actual Cassini image.

Eclipse Planning

Back on Saturday, March 7th, 1970 Top Men flew our Learjet to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun. (The song is about us.) If you want a song about you, you'll need this handy Google Map mashup that charts every solar eclipse through 2030.

(Via Google Maps Mania)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Don't Look Up
Weather Power

Real Stardust

(Space Probe Returns to Earth - Take Two)

Stardust is on final approach for a return to Earth early Sunday morning (January 15, 2:12 am PST). Here are some interesting facts...

- Launched 7 years ago (Feb 7, 1999)
- 2.88 billion miles traveled (6,000 round trips to moon)
- Travelled to within 150 miles of comet Wild 2
- 28,860 mph re-entry (fastest man-made object)
- Re-entry visible from BC to Bakersfield (Link)
- Minute samples of cometary/galactic... uh... stuff was collected
- You can help search for the... stuff (Link)

NASA TV coverage of the landing starts Sunday at 1:30 am PST.

UPDATE (1/15): Successful touchdown!
UPDATE (1/18): The contents "...exceeds all expectations" - lots of samples!
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Previous related Wohba links:
Genesis Crash

Orion

Close on the heels of the Spitzer shot of the Milky Way we have an amazing Hubble shot of Orion. (Nothin' like a little healthy, nerdy, competion.) And not just any Hubble shot - one of the most detailed deep space images ever taken. This huge 18,000 x 18,000 pixel (that's a third of a billion pixels) image was released today by NASA and shows thousands of stars never before seen in visible light.

Here are links to choose from...

18,000 x 18,000 (24 MB)
6,000 x 6,000 (3 MB)
1280 x 1024
Zoomable
HubbleSite Info

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Previous related Wohba links:
Milky Way Galaxy
Andromeda Galaxy

There's No Place Like Home

Here is one of the most detailed images ever taken of our cozy little neck of the woods - The Milky Way Galaxy. This 7000 x 5000 pixel image was snapped by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The center of our galaxy is a black hole (inside the bright white spot - go figure) about 26,000 light years away in the middle of the gazilion stars and space crap (technical term). Here is more info to read all about it.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Andromeda Galaxy

Mayan Mural Media

Archaeologists working in the jungles near San Bartolo, Guatemala have uncovered some amazing Mayan murals - over 2000 years old - deep inside an ancient pyramid. Top Men at Wohba provide a couple cool links for you...

Here is a hi-res image of the mural.
Here is a great video of the mural and the dig.
This link has more information.

A detailed account is in the January issue of National Geographic.

Sketchy Results

Keywords are workable for finding photos, but drawing is more fun. Top Men draw (npi) your attention to retrievr. Draw a little, and see what flickr photos it finds.

Note: 1) It's a work in progress. 2) You may stumble on some inappropriate flickr photos.

Space Time

2005 was an amazing year in space. Here's a photo review by MSNBC. Make sure you see them all - and don't forget to vote.