Have a Space Valentine's Day with These Cosmic e-Cards
Send a Valentine's Day card to your spacey sweetheart this year courtesy of the European Space Agency.
ESA has created a series of Valentine's Day cards with a special space theme and romantic taglines. The space agency also offered this Valentine's Day treat last year, but they have some new photo options for 2015. For example, you can digitally send your significant other a picture of the sun shining in blue with the text: "You are the sunshine of my life." Another e-card reads "smiles from space" and features a Hubble Space Telescope photo that looks like a cosmic smiley face.
Sending the card is simple. Just pick your favorite image, enter your name, message and the email address of your valentine. Pick your favorite valentine via ESA directly through the space agency's website here: http://ecard.esa.int/Valentine/
Six people will spend their Valentine's Day in orbit this year. European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA's Terry Virts and Barry "Butch" Wilmore, and Russian cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov will all be aboard the International Space Station for the holiday.
Wilmore snapped a photo of some pink lights on the station in honor of the holiday as well.
"The #pink light is a mixture of red, blue, and green LED's. #HeartsInOrbit #ValentinesDay," Wilmore said in a caption on the International Space Station's Instagram page. The pink light comes from a plant growth study being conducted on the space station.
Space station crewmembers will be able to call their loved ones on Earth from space for the holiday. People on the orbiting outpost are able to video chat and use the Internet from their posts in space.
You can also communicate with astronauts during their time in space. Many astronauts have social media accounts through Twitter or other websites, and people around the world send them messages daily. NASA and ESA provide social media information for astronauts currently on the space station.
If a simple e-card isn't enough to share your love of space with your Valentine, you could also aim higher and name a Mars crater for your beloved with Uwingu, a company that seeks to raise funds and public engagement for space exploration.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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