Mark 🐶

@ChrisAlvino 💯 But it is nice to at least have the best of humanity tweets to help keep our sanity... and give us some hope.

The juxtaposition of seeing the absolute BEST of humanity on the timeline, going further than any human being has ever gone before, next to the absolute WORST of humanity threatening genocide and worse, is giving me psychic whiplash

NASA's Artemis II just released the first photo of the far side

The term “dark side of the Moon” is one of those persistent misnomers: nothing on the Moon is permanently dark. The hemisphere we don’t see from Earth, the far side, receives sunlight just as regularly as the near side, with roughly two weeks of daylight followed by two weeks of night at any given location. The reason we never see that far side is not about lighting, but dynamics. The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, which means its rotational period and orbital period are the same. In practical terms, it rotates exactly once on its axis in the same time it takes to orbit Earth once, so the same hemisphere always faces us. It’s not perfectly fixed, libration lets us glimpse about 18% beyond the edge over time, but the bulk of the far side remains permanently out of direct view. Geologically, the far side really is a different world. It is much more heavily cratered and has far fewer maria, the large, dark basaltic plains formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. On the near side, those maria cover about a third of the surface; on the far side, barely about 1%. The underlying reason is still an active research topic, but the dominant explanation involves asymmetries in crust thickness and heat-producing elements early in lunar history. The near side had conditions that favored widespread basalt flooding, while the far side remained more rigid and preserved its impact scars. That’s why, visually, the far side looks brighter, rougher, and more “primordial.” For decades, this hemisphere was effectively invisible to human eyes. Even during the Apollo missions, astronauts only saw it briefly and under limited lighting conditions. That has just changed in a meaningful way with the Artemis II mission. Now, for the first time since Apollo, humans traveled back to lunar distance and executed a flyby that carried them around the far side. During that phase, the Moon physically blocked all radio communication, producing a ~40-minute blackout, an immediate, practical demonstration of what “far side” really means. While behind the Moon, the crew observed terrain that is rarely described from direct human perception: a landscape dominated by dense cratering, subtle color variations, and large basins like Orientale. They were also farther from Earth than any humans in history, following a free-return trajectory that loops around the Moon and naturally brings the spacecraft back home. When they emerged from behind the Moon, they witnessed Earthrise, one of those moments that tends to reframe the entire Earth–Moon system in a single image. So the “dark side” is not dark, and not mysterious in the literal sense anymore, but it remains scientifically distinct and observationally special. It is the hemisphere shaped by a different thermal and geological history, hidden from Earth not by shadow but by orbital mechanics, and now, thanks to missions like #Artemis II, finally being seen again not just by instruments, but directly by human eyes. © @NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (November 2009 & February 2011)

It’s not a coincidence that the astronauts who’ve traveled further than any human don’t talk like they know everything. They talk like students and explorers. Their wonder and curiosity are on full display. That’s what science does to you. It dissolves your ego and forces you to confront the vastness of the unknown. It makes you more careful with your words, more open to being wrong and more in awe of the questions than obsessed with the answers. It softens you in the best way possible.

A private space company just can't engender the goodwill and sentimental vibe of the public the same way NASA can.

This might be the first time in history that a question asked by a dictionary has been answered in zero gravity. Thank you and Godspeed to @NASA and the @NASAArtemis crew!

@Praveengour669 Unless they have cloaking devices.

@NASA @AJamesMcCarthy If this is a very close-up image, then there are no aliens currently present on the Moon.

Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back. Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-mul…

@NWSL Not to mention Gigi's reaction at seeing mom.

Sophia Wilson's reaction to seeing baby Gigi 🥹

@astrasdoctor This is awesome. I really hope @Astro_Christina sees this.

Christina Koch vs Rise The Plushie

@kunjTalky @astrasdoctor His name is Rise. He's the official zero gravity indicator for the mission. Designed by an 8 year old as part of a competition, with the crew selecting the final winner. nytimes.com/2026/04/01/sci…

@astrasdoctor What's actually the deal with that plushie? Was wondering throughout why she keeps on playing with it.

@iambri_97 Slower reading speeds can be an indication of higher reading comprehension. You read more slowly as your brain interprets, correlates, and expands upon the information, and forms mental images of what you are reading.

why is there actually, legitimately, discourse around reading speed right now “8 hours to read a book is slow” “you should be able to read a book in 3-5 hours” bro we are in a literacy CRISIS, i do not care how fast or slow you read a book, just pick one up and read it

Ahora sí hablemos en serio de la foto. Este es un trino para interesados en fotografía, astrofotografía y el que quiera ¿Por qué esta foto es increíble? Algún conspiranóico, dándoselas de suspicaz, preguntó que por qué esta foto tomada por el comandante del Artemis II se veía más opaca que la foto tomada por la tripulación del Apolo 17 en 1972. Bueno. Acá viene lo emocionante. Esta fotografía hubiera sido imposible tomarla con una cámara análoga; y no cualquier cámara digital puede tomarla. El archivo original de esta foto está disponible para su descarga en la página de la NASA. En las propiedades del archivo se puede ver con qué cámara fue tomada y los ajustes de exposición que se usaron. Hasta el serial de la cámara. Esto, primero que todo, garantiza que la foto que estamos viendo no fue creada digitalmente, ni con IA, sino capturada por una cámara real por un humano. Sé que no es suficiente argumento para los conspiranóicos, pero ni modos. Esa que está ahí es la Tierra. Ahora sí lo interesante. ¿Por qué se ve como más opaca que la del 72? porque resulta que en la cara de la tierra que vemos en esa foto, está de noche; si hacen zoom pueden ver el brillo de la iluminación nocturna. Pero ¿cómo, si es de noche, puede verse como si fuera de día? Porque la foto se hizo con un altísimo ISO de 51200! El ISO es la sensibilidad del sensor a la luz. Con la mayoría de cámaras digitales, con ISOs de más de 6400, el ruido es tanto que la foto se ve prácticamente ilegible. Pero la cámara que tiene el comandante Reid Wiseman es una NIKON D5, que no es una cámara muy nueva; tiene 10 años de haber sido lanzada. Pero su sensor es reconocido por garantizar una calidad decente de imagen con ISOs altos. Y eso, para los que siempre preguntan cómo se hace una buena foto del cielo, es fundamental ¿Por qué? Pues para poder tomar fotos de los astros sin tener que bajar mucho la velocidad de exposición. Porque si bajas mucho la exposición apra que entre más luz, queda capturado el movimiento de los astros y de la rotación de la Tierra, cuando estás en la Tierra. Así que un iSO tan alto hizo posible que Wiserman pudiera disparar a una velocidad de 1/4 de segundo. Que es baja, pero no tanto. Es digamos, el límite para la astrofotografía. Por eso esta foto tiene ruido, porque de todas formas es un ISO altísimo. Pero lo que más me emociona a mí, es que la tomó con un lente 14 -24mm F2.8. Es decir, en terminos coloquiales, que esta foto no tiene zoom. Para que lo dimensionen: cuando uno quiere tomar una foto de la Luna desde la Tierra que salga así de "cerca" tiene que usar un lente de unos 400mm de distancia focal. Wiserman usó un ¡gran angular de 22mm! Es decir que él estaba viendo la Tierra asi de grande frente a sus ojos. Porque la foto no fue recortada en edición y eso lo sabemos porque en las propiedades del archivo siempre aparece cuando una foto fue editada. El archivo está limpio, tiene la resolución original de la cámara. La tierra era inmensa frente a su mirada. Hermoso. Pero para mí lo más mágico de esta foto, incluso más que las auroras boreales, es que se ve como la luz de sol, que está del otro lado de la tierra, ilumina nuestra atmosfera. Y eso es magia pura, porque esa atmosfera tiene una composición milimétricamente perfecta para permitir que la vida, tal y como la conocemos, sea posible. Esta foto, es un regalo precioso para la humanidad. Les dejo al link para que descarguen la foto en alta resolución y el pantallazo de las propuedades del archivo.

ARTEMIS II AS SEEN BY THE OFFICIAL NASA CESSNA THIS IS THE BEST LAUNCH VIDEO AND IT ISN'T CLOSE

Now that Artemis II has launched we have 10 days to get everyone on Earth a Planet of the Apes costume so we can do something hilarious when the astronauts return 😁

Visual representation of the distance between Earth and the Moon

Something last night reminded me what the old America felt like. PBS coverage of Artemis II. Young families from across the country gathered to watch a launch. An American flag next to the Artemis flag on the pad. A diverse crew of experts from across the world who spent their lives preparing for this. No Trump. No Vance. No Mike Johnson. No demagogues calling the astronauts DEI hires or blaming the other party for something. Just people being patriotic, happy, together, inspired. Gathered to watch America do something historic yet again. It reminded me of America before this moment. A snapshot of America at its best. And it reminded me that despite the moral ugliness we wade through every day, we're still that country underneath it all. We're just being led by people who want us to forget it.

The gently sloping line at the bottom is our world 252 million years ago, when temperatures increased by 8C across 60,000 years killing 90% of all species. It is a period known as The Great Dying. That vertical red line is the world our children live in.

@elmo Okay Elmo, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news: Today, we’re launching to fly around the Moon! The bad news: The Moon is absolutely covered in rocks.

Elmo heard that @NASA’s Artemis II crew is going to space! 🚀 Tell Mr. Moon that Elmo says hi! 🌕❤️