“Signal To Noise” is a motion graphics-enhanced time-lapse of the Very Large Array observatory in New Mexico. The time-lapse is by Douglas Koke.

via Nerdcore

Toronto high school students Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad tethered a LEGO figurine to a weather balloon and sent it 80,000 feet above the Earth (to be fair, still within Earth’s atmosphere). The cameras in their homebuilt craft captured the remarkable view from the stratosphere.

via Geekosystem & The Gaurdian

“Astronomical” is a representation of the Solar System across 6000 pages of a 12 volume set (video). Each page represents one million kilometers of distance from the Sun—for example, Earth shows up on page 155 of volume 1. The “Astronomical” set is by UK-based artist Mishka Henner. It can be ordered from his website.

via io9 & NewScientist CultureLab

This beautiful high resolution composite image of Earth was taken on January 4 by NASA’s recently launched Suomi NPP Earth-observing satellite.

via Flickr Blog

photo via NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

Lightning storms flash across Africa while the Milky Way is visible beyond Earth’s horizon in this beautiful time-lapse video recorded by the crew of the International Space Station on December 29, 2011. See more info over at Lights in the Dark.

via Rob Sheridan

video via the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center

The trailer has been released for Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott, a prequel to his 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien.

Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.

Prometheus scheduled for release on June 8, 2012.

Minnesota-based post-production company Splice Here created the humorous Splice Holiday Video 2011 as their sci-fi holiday video greeting. Shannon Pettini acted as the creative director for this short that tells a humorous tale of Santa trying to deliver gifts to surprised space station workers.

via Kuriositas

YouTuber crysknife007 has isolated the ambient engine hum of the Starship Enterprise as heard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The sound is looped repeatedly into a 24 hour long YouTube movie.

One of my favorite things about the Star Trek franchise are all the great ambient sounds that represent the engine noise on the various ships. My favorite ambient noise from the whole series is the engine idling noise in TNG. I have cleaned up a sample from the show and then looped it for 24 hours. Great for ambiance and imagining that you’re in deep space.

via io9

“Mars in a Minute: How Do You Get to Mars?” by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a brief animation that explains three key issues to consider before planning your next Mars mission.

via Coudal Partners

“Countdown” by UK-based artist Celine Desrumaux is a beautiful short animation of a rocket launch sequence set to “Granular Bastard” by German electronic group Apparat.

via Geeks Are Sexy

Yesterday the Arizona State University-based research team for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project released the highest resolution topographic map of the moon yet created. The GLD100 map covers 98.2% of the moon’s surface and is composed of 69,000 stereo images captured by the orbiter’s Wide Angle Camera. The orbiter will continue to capture images of the lunar surface for another year in order to improve the quality of the map (it covers the entire lunar surface once a month). The improved imaging will be used to plan future moon exploration missions.

via Geekosystem

Michael König has edited a beautiful time-lapse video of the International Space Station’s view from space.

Previously: The Aurora Seen From The International Space Station

via Colossal

Russian cosmonaut and first man in space Yuri Gagarin is commemorated in epic superhero style by a 40 foot tall titanium statue on Leninsky Avenue in Moscow. Designed by Pavel Bondarenko and architect Yakov Belopolskiy and erected in 1980, the statue stands atop a towering 90 foot pedestal. Travel photographer David Coleman (Have Camera Will Travel) has posted more info on the statue.

via Super Punch

photo 1 by James Vaughan, photo 2 by Babak Fakhamzadeh

Earlier today, six astronauts emerged from 520 days of voluntary isolation aboard a simulated spacecraft, marking the end of Mars500, the first full-length simulation of a mission to Mars. The mission began on June 3, 2010, when the astronauts closed the hatch to the simulation complex at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The hermetically sealed complex included spacecraft and Mars lander mockups, as well as a simulated Mars surface for a landing on Mars (which occurred February 12, 2011).

The astronauts lived with one another in near complete isolation from the outside world. Their only links to Earth were Internet and a phone link that included simulated communication delays of up to 25 minutes. The mission was a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems. The ESA has posted a 15 minute video compilation from videos shot by astronauts during the course of the 17 month mission.

via The Verge

Spaceport America in New Mexico, the world’s first private commercial spaceport, officially opened on October 18, 2011. The spaceport features a massive 120,000 square foot, partially underground combined terminal/hanger structure and a 10,000 foot runway. Once fully operational (a second construction phase is currently underway) Spaceport America will be the home of Virgin Galactic and will support up to two WhiteKnightTwo and five SpaceShipTwo vehicles. GigaPica has posted a photo gallery of the spaceport and opening ceremony.

via Doobybrain.com

photos via Spaceport America

“Beyond Earth” by Canadian designer Stephen Di Donato is a beautiful minimalist poster series featuring the planets of the Solar System. The posters are available for purchase as digital wallpapers.

via Flavorwire

David Bowie Enters the Andromeda Galaxy, the latest video by the San Francisco sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster, who by the way are looking for help raising money for a new home in San Francisco.

Killing My Lobster has finally found the perfect location to build a premier theater space. A project which brings to an end 15 years of wandering from theater rental to theater rental. The space resides in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district on 24th and Mission St.

The new venue would be a creative hub to hundreds of artists including actors, writers, choreographers, musicians, stand-up comedians and whoever else requires a theater for their production. Killing My Lobster also needs a versatile work space to allow them to expand the classes they make available to the community.

On September 20, rocket enthusiast Derek Deville and his team launched the 14 foot long Qu8k rocket from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to an altitude of 121,000 feet. The breathtaking view from the rocket as it soared to its maximum altitude in just 92 seconds was captured by onboard cameras (see the video of the launch including the onboard footage).

The launch was an attempt at the Carmack Prize, a challenge by John Carmack (creator of Doom and Quake and founder of Armadillo Aerospace) to hobbyist rocketeers to launch a rocket past 100,000 feet, log the feat with GPS, and recover the rocket intact after reentry. As the GPS devices on Qu8k failed to log readings above 100,000 feet, the attempt is likely disqualified.

via Make

William Shatner covers a variety of classic rock favorites in his new 2-disc “space-themed concept” album titled Seeking Major Tom. It features “distinctive interpretations of classic, intergalactic anthems by David Bowie, Queen, Deep Purple, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and more”. We recently posted a video of Shatner recording the vocals for the cover of the Black Sabbath song Iron Man for the new album. The album was released today and is available on CD, vinyl and for iTunes download.

Includes guest appearances by Zakk Wylde, Sheryl Crow, Ritchie Blackmore, Lyle Lovett, Steve Miller and Peter Frampton PLUS members of The Strokes, The Kinks, Tangerine Dream, Alice In Chains, Deep Purple, Yes, MC5 and more!

images via Laszlo Szabo

After the Apollo 11 astronauts returned from their historic visit to the Moon in 1969, they were asked to fill out a tongue-in-cheek customs declaration form.

via reddit & Space.com

image via NASA & U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

The night sky is incredibly clear in these beautiful time-lapses by José Francisco Salgado of the ALMA observatory on the 5000 meter Chajnantor Plateau in Chile (see 1 and 2). The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an international partnership to build “the world’s largest astronomical project” and will be tasked with studying the origins of the universe. It is projected to be fully operational in 2012 with a total of 66 radio antennas (four of the antennas are seen undergoing testing in the video).

The Aurora (Northern/Southern Lights) as seen from The International Space Station orbiting the Earth.

See Previously: Time-Lapse Video Orbiting Earth From The International Space Station

via NASA, reddit & Geekosystem

A beautiful time-lapse video taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth.

via Rob Sheridan

“Welcome to Planet Earth” by Michael Livingston is a short documentary about South Carolina eccentric Jody Pendarvis and the UFO Welcome Center he built in his backyard. Pendarvis began construction of the ramshackle flying saucer-shaped structure in 1994. The center is equipped with an air mattress, mission control room, and quite a few cats.

Welcome to Planet Earth is the story of the extremely unique Jody Pendarvis and his 30 foot UFO he built in his front yard in the small town of Bowman, SC. After a sighting of alien life forms, Jody built the giant UFO as a place to welcome aliens when they return. All though visitors are welcomed to check out this unique and slightly odd landmark, Jody hopes that he will one day see the return of his friends from the sky. This is his story.

via io9

photo by Keitha McCall

NASA recently featured a beautiful photo of Saturn taken by the Cassini Spacecraft as their Astronomy Picture of the Day.

In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in giant planet’s shadow for about 12 hours in 2006 and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn, slightly scattering sunlight, in this exaggerated color image. Saturn’s rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the image. Seen in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn’s E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, at the left, just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

via NASA & Geekologie