The Deadliest Place In the Solar System Is Beautiful [Space]

This is the deadliest place in the solar system, photographed as never before by NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory. It's one of the first humbling, terrifying, and beautiful images returned by the spacecraft. The video is equally impressive in HD:



SDO was launched on February in a five year mission to study the sun's magnetic field. Its image quality is ten times better that 1080p television, four times the resolution of the previous king of the Sun observers, the STEREO spacecraft.

The most spectacular sun view isn't the most spectacular anymore.

[Gizmodo via NASA]

California Approves Orbiting Solar Panel Deal, Aims for 2016 Launch [Solar Power]

Remember Solaren, the company that's trying to launch those space-based solar panels, the one that signed a deal with California's biggest power utility company? The whole plan got even closer to reality today, after getting approval from California legislators.
And, like we said, there's no reason Californians would reject the deal between Solaren and PG&E—the utility company isn't investing or putting up any money at all, it's just saying "sure, we'll buy energy from you if and when this thing ever works." Which, you know, duh. The 15-year contract starts in 2016, by which time hopefully we won't have already devolved into a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic desert state.
[Gizmodo via CPUC via CNET]

Solar collectors in space could finally solve Earth's energy problem

The Japan Space Agency, along with Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp., are getting even closer to next big thing: harnessing the power of the sun with a solar collector in geostationary orbit. Now there's cold hard cash involved. The plan is to drop $21 billion into a solar power generator that beams electricity to Earth via microwaves. The 1-gigawatt solar station will gather sunlight with a gigantic array of solar panels that is 4 square kilometers big.

While such an idea might be ahead of its time, Japan confidently predicts this first solar power space station will be online within three decades. Leave it to Japan to take our entire civilization ever closer to the day when we'll finally be a Type 1 civilization on the Kardashev scale. By the way, a type I civilization is able to harness all the power available on a single planet.

Actually, these Japanese innovators will be moving us closer to being a Type 2 civilization, which is able to harness all the power available in a single star. We would probably need to surround the Sun with solar panels to do such a thing, but Japan is off to a good start. Meanwhile, those innovators need to calm down the fearmongers, chattering about how those death rays of from space could kill us all.

[DVICE via Treehugger]

National Geographic: 50 Years of Space Exploration

Ready to lose 20 minutes of your day?
Check out this huge infograph that displays the last 50 years of space exploration. It’s awesome although it does kind of indicate that Venus is closer to earth than the Moon. The “50 Years of Space Exploration” graphic was created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic. I must say though, skip the interactive edition on NationalGeographic.com and check out the full size version on Flickr.
[CrunchGear via OhGizmo]