Alan Boyle writes
2011 has been a fantastic year for imagery of Earth from the International Space Station, including glowing auroral displays, the final space shuttle descent and jaw-dropping night flyovers. Here's one of the latest pictures in the series, showing a fast-moving panorama of our planet's city lights at night ? plus one extra little streak of a spaceship.
The photograph was captured by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, current commander of the orbital outpost, who was watching the atmospheric re-entry of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that day. Aboard the Soyuz were NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Russia's Sergei Volkov and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa. The trio was heading home for the holidays after spending nearly six months in orbit.
"Here's a shot of our crewmates ... blazing a trail to home," Burbank wrote last week when he posted the picture to his Twitpic page. "Their Soyuz is the small bright streak in the middle of the image."
Burbank and two Russian crewmates, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, are holding down the fort on the space station for the time being, but they're due to be joined by another threesome blasting off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 21. NASA's Don Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and the European Space Agency's Andre Kuipers should show up at the station's door on Dec. 23 ? just in time for Christmas Eve. What holiday goodies will they bring? Stay tuned ...
The shining Soyuz streak serves as today's treat from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features views of Earth from outer space every day from now until Christmas. Check back on Wednesday for the next satellite view, and check out these links for previous entries as well as other space-themed Advent calendars:
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
when does ios 5 come out when does ios 5 come out christopher columbus trina the green mile the green mile james whitey bulger
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.