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Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

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Education

You may not know Gladys West, but her calculations revolutionized navigation.

She couldn't have imagined how much her calculations would affect the world.

US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Gladys West is inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame, 2018.

This article originally appeared on 02.08.18


If you've never driven your car into a lake, thank Gladys West.

She is one of the mathematicians responsible for developing the global positioning system, better known as GPS.

Like many of the black women responsible for American achievements in math and science, West isn't exactly a household name. But after she mentioned her contribution in a biography she wrote for a sorority function, her community turned their attention to this local "hidden figure."

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Joy

'Moon bloopers' from NASA is the space footage we didn't know we needed

Apparently, walking on the moon is harder than it looks.

Astronauts falling on the moon is some stellar entertainment.

When Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, the story of life on Earth was dramatically and forever changed. No longer were we bound to the land on our own planet. We had set foot on another orb in space, broken a new frontier, literally going where no man had gone before.

The words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," spoke to the technological advances that had catapulted the human race from the first sustained, powered human flight to landing a man on the moon in less than 70 years. It was truly an incredible feat.

That "one small step," that people around the world watched on their television sets was seriously momentous. But the steps the world didn't see were genuinely hilarious.

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Webb telescope images come with wonderfully detailed alt text descriptions.

When the first images of space came back from the high-powered James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022, it felt like the whole world stopped for a moment to marvel. Never before have we seen such an intricate look at what's out there, and the detail was stunning. Since then, we've seen a steady stream of visual wonders far beyond our solar system, delighting our eyes and tickling our imaginations.

But what about those who aren't able to see them? Do people who are visually impaired simply miss out on the joy of "seeing" these gorgeous glimpses of our universe?

Nope. NASA has made sure that these images are accessible to all and has done a stellar job of it. The alt text descriptions of the Webb telescope images are truly wonderful, giving not only visual descriptions but additional details that all of us can benefit from.

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