Good news for astronomy buffs! Stargazers may be able to tune in to the skies on their televisions soon — in ultra high definition.
NASA announced in a press release on September 11 that they will be partnering with Harmonic Inc. to deliver ultra HD video content of NASA missions TVs around the nation. The channel will also be available for viewing online, though stargazers will need to have a fast internet connection to view the stream in its intended high quality — 13 MBps access connectivity will be required.
If you didn’t know already, NASA TV already exists, but this new high definition channel will have four times the resolution of traditional HD.
NASA has received a lot of positive feedback from the space imagery they have released from their recent endeavors. Flying 250 miles above us, the International Space Station has been an incredible source of pictures, while the New Horizons spacecraft just recently soared past Pluto, showing us parts of our galaxy we’ve never seen before. And let’s not forget the Curiosity rover that’s literally crawling around on Mars, which caught a blue sunset on video back in May.
NASA truly is pioneering space.
Several NASA related Instagram accounts have become immensely popular over the past few months. Over 834,000 people are following @ISS right now, while astronaut Scott Kelly, who is currently in the middle of his year in space aboard the International Space Station, has his own account @stationcdrkelly with 259,000 followers and counting.
These accounts and others have been posting incredible pictures that show perspectives of our world no one has never seen before, until now.
The new channel will give even more people access to the stunning imagery, and as NASA puts it in their press release, “the channel will showcase the breathtaking beauty and grandeur of space.”
Leveraging the 8-megapixel resolution of UHD, the channel will showcase the breathtaking beauty and grandeur of space.
The Verge discussed the press release by NASA, noting that their planned 4K video will run at 60 frames per second at 2160p. Some of the UHD footage NASA plans on showing include time lapses, though The Verge pointed out that some of this content is already available on the NASA YouTube channel.
Though the goal is to make all of this content available to everyone with a television, Harmonic is still discussing the idea with cable and satellite operators. Nothing has been confirmed, as of yet.
Harmonic’s Chief Marketing Officer Peter Alexander released a statement saying “As NASA reaches new heights and reveals the unknown, the NASA TV UHD channel can bring that journey to life in every home.”
If this quote is any indication of what’s to come, we may be seeing NASA’s ultra high definition channel on our TVs as early as November 1, which is the current projected launch for NASA TV.
But as Engadget astutely points out, if this is something you are interested in, you may want to make sure you have a 4K TV that supports this type of quality.
