What does it look like to orbit around the Earth?

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Being an Astronomy Major, I've always wondered what this looks like, but could never find a good movie about it... Until now.

Maybe some of you have seen this, I just found it a couple days ago, but thought I would post it here.

Youtube link

Personally, I've watched this 2-3 times already and am in Aw every time I watch it.

So whats your thoughts on this, space, the Worlds Space Programs (NASA, Euro's Space, India, Japan, Russia, etc)? (or questions, I could probably answer them)
 

TheKieranator

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 6, 2011
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Wow that looks awesome! I've got the sudden urge to go to space...
SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE :O
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Until we land man on Mars the most exciting things that happen in space are near asteroid collisions and perhaps the robots sent to one of Jupitor's moons which features methane rivers in frozen oxygen or some such similar atmosphere conditions involving similar to earth scenarios at sub-zero temperatures. At least in our local vicinity.

My personal partiality is an interest in stars. Such as the fact that Binary systems actually have more stable orbits for planetary bodies than systems with a single star, like our own.
 
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Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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The sun has been a little overactive lately, as in, its been ejecting a lot of high energy particles into space towards the earth. A lot of people know them as Solar Flares, but these are different, they are things called "Coronal Mass ejections" .. which are much larger and more powerful. The ejected particle "waves" (best way to put it I guess) have very strong electromagnetic forces, which in space, can cause a lot of damage to the satellites in orbit (if they are not properly prepared) or cause a lot of disruption. The recent activity of the sun hasn't done too much damage, but its been very active lately, so scientists are expecting something big within the week.

When a solar flare enters the electromagnet fields around the earth (you know, the thing that causes a compass to point north?), the particles interact and create this familiar sight. The recent activity of the sun has allowed a lot of the high northern hemisphere to see these things: This is what it looks like.... from the ISS

The Northern Lights, from space

EDIT: Fun fact. The sun spot causing this can be seen from the naked eye
sunset.jpg

** WARNING DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. YOU WILL GET BLINDED... Instead, find a proper filter, and take a picture.**


I may be starting a astro/science/tech blog soon (not sure if I will or not. Don't know what to blog about) ... So watch for that.
 
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Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
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I now have a twitter!

This twittier is basically just going to be posting all the cool, interesting, weird, wacky, zany, creepy, scary, mildly disturbing, awesome, epic, and fantastic things going on in the word of Astronomy and Science.

I'll also try and answer questions... if I can... If not, I'll find someone who can, and get the answer for you.
 

WastedMeerkat

L3: Member
Aug 15, 2009
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So whats your thoughts on this, space, the Worlds Space Programs (NASA, Euro's Space, India, Japan, Russia, etc)? (or questions, I could probably answer them)

The Kerbal Space Program is pretty interesting. If you want to know what it looks like to orbit Earth, you can just open up Kerbal and look try to orbit around Kearth. It's pretty much the same thing.