Astro-Porn of the Day: First full-HD VIDEO OF MARS! Also, cats falling.

[mckitterick]

Last night, a friend of mine showed me a 360-degree panaoramic HD video of Mars as taken by the Curiosity rover. AMAZING AND GORGEOUS! Apparently, NASA didn't release it, but others (using stitching software) created this video from HD photos. Did I mention this is FROM MARS! (Note: Turn on full HD quality and turn off sound. Egad, who picks these soundtracks?)

And in other falling-toward-planets news, here's a video that examines the physics of falling cats. Ever wondered how they always land on their feet... without continuing to spin after they rotate feet-down? This is GREAT!

Science = LOVE

Chris

Comments

[nottygypsy.livejournal.com]

MARS!!! AND CATS!!!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

What I learned from the second video: I could watch clips of cats in parabolic flight for hours.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Two great things that go great together!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I need to get a high-altitude airplane.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I love the flipping cats!

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

It's not the tail! Very surprised at that.

Rovering

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear, the video is dated 2009--so this isn't from Curiosity; this is from Spirit/Oppy, especially clear from the bounce footprints pointed out as the video progresses. People seem to forget that we've been on Mars for a while now. Curiosity is awesome, but Spirit and Oppy got there first, and Oppy continues to do awesome work on the red planet.

And that cat video is AWESOME! :-)

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

WOW! on the link to the 360 degree panorama. That is so amazing!!

poor kittehs!! I know I was supposed to be watching the body-torcs, but it was more interesting watching their faces and what happened to their bodies when they landed. Looks like they have gigantic shock absorbers in thre somewhere.

Also, super nice tunes in the top vid. LOL!!