Watch The Exploding Antares Rocket From The Launch Pad

Incredible footage. One of the most expensive fireworks ever launched, probably. Read more from IFL Science.

HT to Robbie Know for sharing

The Beginning of Everything -- The Big Bang Explained

Yeah, still don't get it.

If The Moon Orbited The Earth At The Same Distance As The ISS..

the world's Surfers would be in paradise, imagine the height of the daily tides, sadly missing from this film.

The Solar System - Our Home In Space

Lovely minimalistic look at the solar system, not sure how accurate it is, but simple is best. Warning: It gets a bit grim after about 6mins, not wishing to ruin the ending, but everyone dies..

Found on i09.com

Amazing Footage Of Russian Meteorite

Footage here, not to be confused with the DA14 that's coming nearby tonight. NASA's Asteroid fast facts here (what is the difference between a Meteor, Meteorite and an Asteroid I hear you ask)

**Update** Over 250 people injured which I didn't realise at time of posting :(

Sound here:

Volume warning at around 30secs!!!!!

Prof Brian Cox's "Wonder Of The Bonerverse"

Childish, but still amusing.

John Culshaw's impression of Brian Cox is superb. Warning: Contains Gervais and his irritating laugh

Pale Blue Dot

Nasa's Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object ever sent from Earth. Launched in 1977, it is now 11 billion miles away and has entered the 'magnetic highway'- the point at which it leaves our solar system. Shame Sir Patrick Moore (RIP) will not be around to discover what lies beyond.

In 1990, Voyager turned around to look back towards us, and took a photo of the Earth, a shot where our planet is so small it appears as a Pale Blue Dot. (Have a look below, that's not dust on your screen in that light brown sun beam)

This became the title of a bestselling book by Carl Sagan, and this stunning animation uses his words.

Pale Blue Dot from ORDER on Vimeo.

How many light years is 11 billion miles? Only 0.00187122571. In September, Nasa discovered a tiny galaxy 13.2 billion light years away. Blimey.

Earth At Night - The Black Marble

An animation of cloud free photographs taken by a satellite on Earth's dark side, knitted together to reveal our globe radiating its fragile light into the darkness of space.

Found on io9.com

Mars Rover Curiosity

Mars Rover Curiosity from Mutant Jukebox - Music & Sound on Vimeo.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

We were lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time to see a total eclipse of the sun back in August 1999 - we were near Lizard Point in Cornwall and the forecast was bobbins - I vividly remember sitting in a field, above cliffs looking at a grey and over cast sky thinking I should have stayed in London and being generally grumpy, as well as cross for dragging so many people down to the South West for this when, with moments to go, the sky in our area cleared slightly and we all saw this natural wonder - the speed at which it went dark was incredible, the temperature dropped massively, yes, the birds did stop singing - but the moment the sun popped out from behind the moon and blasted us with light and heat once again was simply breathtaking - its power is something we all take for granted. Got it on VHS somewhere, need to convert it to share the experience, but for this, here's Professor Brian Cox talking about it for his fantastic Wonders Of The Solar System for the BBC;


Anyway, those that know me (Ritch) well, will know how much I look forward to the lighter nights / clocks going to BST - and to celebrate this in 2010, we had a lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice. It's not as spectacular or as rare as a total eclipse of the sun, but a fascinating display all the same - we weren't so lucky with the cloud cover last night, so here's a stunning time lapse from Florida.

Photographic Documentation Of A Space Shuttle Launch

The noisiest noise that man has made other than a nuke I guess - quite a long film, but has some stunning shots of a shuttle launch

Incredible Pics From The International Space Station

On September 22, 2010, with the departure of the Expedition 23 crew, Colonel Douglas H. Wheelock assumed command of the International Space Station and the Expedition 25 crew. He is also known as @Astro_Wheels on twitter, where he has been tweeting pictures to his followers since he arrived at the space station.

Simply stunning photos from the ISS. Click here to see them all and read more from Astronaut Wheelock. Thanks also to J McNamara from Retrofuzz for posting them on Facebook.