The Space Stuff thread

Cliff S said:

Beautiful world we live on.

Scientists just got their first glimpse into the space between Saturn and its rings. And it's pretty stunning!

See first ever images

Video posted by the Air Force from a runway camera showed the winged craft whiz overhead, touch down on wheels on the runway's north end and race down the three-mile, concrete strip before rolling to a stop in daylight. Official landing time: 7:47 a.m.

Source: Air Force's X-37B space plane lands at KSC with a boom

Longer version of video at above link: X37B landing

Close up of landing:

   Note

John, did you stop youtube videos from being posted? [youtube]IoailiPGTZQ[/youtube]

Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.

Parker Solar Probe is an extraordinary and historic mission exploring arguably the last and most important region of the solar system to be visited by a spacecraft to finally answer top-priority science goals for over five decades.

But we don't do this just for the basic science.

One recent study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that without advance warning a huge solar event could cause two trillion dollars in damage in the US alone, and the eastern seaboard of the US could be without power for a year.

In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the sun.

Source: http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

Related: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...n-to-touch-sun