Awesome Space

It’s not been officially revealed as of yet, but an eagle-eyed shopper in Taipei spotted this box for LEGO ICONS set 10341, based on NASA’s Artemis Space Launch System. If the box art is to be believed, the 3601-piece set will let you build a detailed model of the rocket’s various components and its launch tower. Rumor has it the set will drop 5.15.24 for $259.99.

This beautifully customized wristwatch from IFL Watches started as a stock Citizen Tsuyosa Automatic with a stainless steel case and link band. What makes it special is the enamel dotting its face, evoking tiny stars and planets. The watch has a 40mm, 21-jewel movement, and a 40-hour power reserve. Just 100 of these hand-painted pieces will be made.

Movies and TV shows about space travel usually have a big budget for visual effects. Not so with this short film by Caroline Klidonas, who shot an entire short film about a doomed space mission without leaving her apartment. It’s the low-budget, low-gravity effects and Caroline’s commitment to the performance that really sell it. (Thanks, Rob!)

The 2024 solar eclipse is a big deal here on Earth – especially if you’re in the path of totality. But are there better places to observe an eclipse? Well, if you leave our planet, things might get better… or worse. MinutePhysics takes us on a journey through our solar system to see what a solar eclipse might look like on other planets, non-planets, and asteroids.

Solo developer Dan Govier is promising both scale and detail in this ambitious sandbox game. He claims that he’s designing the spaceships as if they were real-world naval vessels, including having full wiring and plumbing. To top it off, the game is set in a 1:1 scale adaptation of the Milky Way, filled with other systems and life forms. A demo is out now on Steam.

Varda Space Industries shared this POV footage of its space capsule returning to Earth at speeds up to Mach 25. At first, we see the blackness of space, then the Earth appears, and the capsule generates sparks as it re-enters the atmosphere. The launch and reentry was a joint effort between Varda, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and the FAA.

Astrophysicists estimate that our universe came into existence roughly 14 billion years ago, and it’s been expanding ever since. Kurzgesagt ponders the question whether the universe is truly infinite if it keeps growing, or if it has an edge somewhere that we just can’t see.

Moon Mystery is an ambitious FPS that started as a solo effort and has grown to a 15-person project. The game’s creator says they took inspiration from Interstellar, Half-Life 2, and Firewatch to create its diverse environments and sci-fi story about a mysterious black hole. It’s still a work in progress, but you can add it to your Steam wishlist here.

The universe is made up of countless galaxies, planets, stars, and moons. But do you know how those all relate to each other in terms of size? In this man-on-the-street video from Veritasium, he asked people to sort them in order of size. Not everyone got it right, but instead of making fun of their misunderstandings, Derek helps educate his audience.

Instead of telling time, Digital Horology’s LunaKron 2.1 clock displays the current moon phase. It uses GPS data to calculate the date and which phase to show. It’s made from acrylic and fiberboard, and the photographic moon is backlit by 256 LEDs. They also make the LunaKron 1, which has backlit cutouts representing each of the moon’s eight phases.

OVD Watches celebrates NASA’s planned Artemis lunar missions with a unique timepiece. At the heart of the Full Moon M1 watch is a 3D model of the moon that rotates as its second hand. The sphere glows brightly in the dark thanks to its Swiss Superluminova coating and is printed to resemble the lunar surface.

MetaBallStudios is usually comparing the sizes of things, but in this wild video, they created a CG simulation of what might happen if the moon took aim at Earth, affected its gravity, and eventually collided with it. The destruction isn’t based on scientifically-accurate calculations, but it sure looks terrifying.

Like many of you, we find solar eclipses fascinating. They’re already quite rare, but did you know that someday, there won’t be any more eclipses? Minutephysics explains how eclipses have changed over the eons and how total solar eclipses continue to get less likely. Fortunately, we still get to enjoy one on April 8, 2024.

Have you ever wondered how the gravity on different planets might affect your ability to throw a ball? Dr. James O’Donoghue created this infographic that explores how far and high you could toss a ball, assuming no air resistance. Basically, on Mars, Mercury, and Pluto, you could hit a home run without a baseball bat.

We still don’t know if there’s extraterrestrial life out there, but if there is, there’s a chance that they won’t like us Earthlings and will want to get rid of us. Kurzgesagt takes the aliens’ side in this theoretical conflict and offers strategies to help them wipe out humanity forever. Though they assume our enemies are more technologically advanced than us.

Digital artist Erik Wernquist welcomes us to a planetary orbiter that rotates at 1 RPM to generate artificial gravity for its occupants. The luxurious environment inside looks like it could be a home away from home for über-rich visitors. However, devoid of people and bathed only in natural light, it takes on a haunting quality.

If you thought that each of the moons in our solar system were similar in size, you’d be very wrong. Like they did before with stars, MetaBallStudios compares the relative sizes of the natural satellites orbiting around planets, from the tiny rocks zooming around Saturn, to Jupiter’s massive Titan and Ganymede.

Imagine, if you will, that the entire 4.5 billion year history of the Earth was collapsed down to a 24-hour single day. Bright Side’s educational video does just that, taking significant events in the development of our world and giving us a relative sense of how closely together they played out.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket can land back on Earth after lifting payloads into space. Project Horizon has now replicated this impressive engineering feat on a much smaller scale. It’s hard enough to keep a model rocket balanced as it launches, let alone being capable of a controlled descent like this. It took 32 test flights to get it right. Onboard footage here.

This new 360º version of The Known Universe takes us on a journey from the Himalayas, out of the Milky Way, and into the darkness of space. The immersive view lets you look around as you travel, and is now available in razor-sharp 4K resolution. Created by Deion Desir and Lee Stevens for the American Museum of Natural History using OpenSpace.

Have you ever wondered where our moon came from? Melodysheep’s captivating short film explores some of most noteworthy theories of its origin, each hypothesized because of similarities between lunar rocks and elements found here on Earth. Narrated by planetary scientist Dr. Sarah T. Stewart.

The Life Art channel shows how to put the moon on your wall by sculpting a cement relief of the lunar surface. The artist starts by filling a circular area with a sand-cement mixture, building up an outer ring for depth, and then using a trowel to create a rough texture and add craters with its handle. The addition of LED lights makes the shadows pop.

Blast off every time you sit down to doodle with this astronaut and rocket eraser set from Suck UK. The package includes a monochrome astronaut holding onto a silver pencil while on a spacewalk from their bright red rocketship — a great little gift for anyone into space exploration.