WISE Snug in Its Nose Cone

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has been wrapped in the outer nose cone, or "fairing," that will protect it during its scheduled Dec. 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.The fairing will split open like a clamshell about five minutes after launch. The spacecraft will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months. The mission will

Shadow and Spokes

A moon's shadow strikes Saturn's rings near bright spokes on the B ring near the center of this Cassini image taken about one month after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Mimas, the moon casting the shadow, is not shown. To learn more about the ghostly radial markings called spokes, see PIA11144 and PIA08288. Spokes appear bright when they are viewed at phase, or Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, angles

Bright Sun and Crescent Earth from the Space Station

This was just one more breathtaking view from the International Space Station. The Sun, a crescent Earth, and the long arm of a solar panel were all visible outside a window when the Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the orbiting outpost last week. Reflections from the window and hexagonal lens flares from the camera are superposed. The space shuttle landed Friday after a successful 10 day

Tour NASA's New Climate Reel

We’re less than two weeks away from the United Nation’s long awaited Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. In anticipation of the event, NASA has compiled a climate resource reel that highlights ten of its most compelling climate videos and visualizations.Video topics range from a 3-D tour of the Earth’s rapidly changing cryosphere, and the unexpected role that honey bees can play as climate data

Winter Frosted Mars Dunes : Big Pic

NASA's High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has changed our view of the Red Planet. With mind-blowing clarity, this hi-tech instrument can even keep an eye on the Mars rovers as they roll across the regolith.The HiRISE image gallery has become one of the most comprehensive and visually stunning chronicles of planetary exploration available

Ancient Layered Hills on Mars

Is this a picture of Mars or Earth? Oddly enough, it is a picture of Mars. What may appear to some as a terrestrial coastline is in fact a formation of ancient layered hills and wind-blown sand on Mars. The above-pictured region spans about three kilometers in Schiaparelli Crater. What created the layers of sediment is still a topic of research. Viable hypotheses include ancient

Annapurna Star Trails

In myth, Atlas holds up the heavens. But in this moonlit mountainscape, peaks of the Himalayan Annapurna Range appear to prop up the sky as seen from Ghandruk, Nepal. From left to right the three main peaks are Annapurna South (7,219 meters), Hiunchuli (6,441 metes), and Machapuchare (6,995 meters). Of course the mountains are moving not the stars, the Earth's rotation about its axis causing

Shadows Above and Below

The shadows of two moons appear on Saturn, above and below the plane of the planet's rings.North on Saturn is up in this image, and the shadow of Dione (1123 kilometers, 698 miles across) can be seen south of the planet's equator. The smaller shadow of Mimas (396 kilometers, 246 miles across) is north of the equator. Dione and Mimas both have orbits that are slightly inclined in relation to the

The Way Home

Seen over the Mediterranean Sea, near the Algerian coast, the space shuttle Atlantis is featured in this image photographed by the Expedition 21 crew on the International Space Station soon after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking separation. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 4:53 a.m. EST on Nov. 25, 2009.

New Report Provides Update on Recent Climate Changes

A new global scientific synthesis report prepared by 26 of the world's top climate scientists, including JPL research scientist Eric Rignot and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center researcher Robert Bindschadler, concludes that several important aspects of climate change are occurring at the high end of, or even beyond the expectations of just a few years ago. The report, "The Copenhagen Diagnosis:

Fermi Telescope Peers Deep into Microquasar

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has made the first unambiguous detection of high-energy gamma-rays from an enigmatic binary system known as Cygnus X-3. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a compact object -- either a neutron star or a black hole -- that blasts twin radio-emitting jets of matter into space at more than half the speed of light.Astronomers call these systems

Crew Given "Go" for Payload Bay Door Closing

At 5:52 a.m. EST, STS-129 entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney and his entry team of flight controllers gave space shuttle Atlantis Commander Charles Hobaugh a "go" to close the payload bay doors. Shortly, Atlantis will transition to the entry software program. The crew members will begin suiting up in their launch and entry suits at 7:14 a.m. and strap into their seats at 7:37 a.m. A "go-no go"

The Jets of NGC 1097

Enigmatic spiral galaxy NGC 1097 lies about 45 million light-years away in the southern constellation Fornax. The small companion galaxy, just below and left of center, that seems to be wrapped in its spiral arms, is not NGC 1097's most peculiar feature though. Instead, This very deep exposure shows hints of faint, mysterious jets, most easily seen to extend well beyond the bright arms toward

Iapetus' Terrain

Iapetus shows off its puzzling light and dark terrain.Scientists continue to investigate the nature of this moon's surface. See PIA08384 to learn more. Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Iapetus (1471 kilometers, 914 miles across). North on Iapetus is up and rotated 8 degrees to the left. Scale in the original image was 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The image has been

Thin Blue Line

The thin line of Earth's atmosphere and the setting sun are featured in this image photographed by the crew of the International Space Station while space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-129 mission was docked with the station.

Streamer-Channels and Shadow

Saturn's moon Prometheus, orbiting near the streamer-channels it has created in the thin F ring, casts a shadow on the A ring in this image taken a little more than a week after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Potato-shaped Prometheus (86 kilometers, 53 miles across) periodically creates streamer-channels in the F ring, and the moon's handiwork can be seen on the left of the image. To learn more

M78 Wide Field

Interstellar dust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, is centered in this colorful, wide field view, covering an area north of Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish reflection nebula is around 5 light-years across. Its tint is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars.

Butterflies in Space Education Project - Update

NSBRI: Join us for daily updates of the STS-129 "Butterflies in Space" experiment, and study butterfly life cycles and behaviors in microgravity and on Earth. Images are downloaded from the International Space Station (ISS) in two batches each day. Payload Information belowNational Space Biomedical Research Institute: Students of all ages can follow the "butterflynauts" aboard the International

All-Sky Milky Way Panorama

If you could go far away from the Earth and look around the entire sky -- what would you see? Such was the goal of the All-Sky Milky Way Panorama 2.0 project of Axel Mellinger. Presented above is the result: a digital compilation of over 3,000 images comprising the highest resolution digital panorama of the entire night sky yet created. An interactive zoom version, featuring over 500

2009-10 NASA University Design Contest in Exploration Systems

Student Challenge: We have expanded the contest beyond rover exploration of the lunar surface. The new challenge is to design tools and instrumentation for human and robotic exploration on the moon.The NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and the Exploration Technology Development Program encourage college students to design tools and instruments needed for future human and robotic

Tweet of the Year

@Astro_Mike Nominated As One of Five Finalists for Tweet of the Year› Vote NOW for @Astro_MikeTwitter is a social media tool that offers a new vehicle for NASA to interact with non-traditional audiences in a dynamic, viral conversation about space, the merits of exploring the unknown, and its relevance to every day life here on our home planet. Twitter allows citizens of this planet to converse

A Different View STS-129 mission

On flight day four of the STS-129 mission, a member of the crew photographed the aft section of space shuttle Atlantis through a window from aboard the International Space Station. Reflections on the window are visible in this image. The 11-day shuttle mission continued maintenance and upgrades to the orbital outpost.

The Brightness of the Sun

The bright sun greets the International Space Station in this Nov. 22 image, taken from the Russian section of the orbital outpost and photographed by the STS-129 crew.The 11-day STS-129 mission installed a number of station upgrades and prepared the station for the installation of Node 3, which is slated for another mission.

NASA Satellites Detect Unexpected Ice Loss in East Antarctica

Using gravity measurement data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission, a team of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin has found that the East Antarctic ice sheet-home to about 90 percent of Earth's solid fresh water and previously considered stable-may have begun to lose ice.The team used Grace data to estimate Antarctica's ice

Northern Aurora in Motion

An aurora, shining high above the northern part of Saturn, moves from the night side to the day side of the planet in this movie recorded by Cassini.These observations, taken over four days, represent the first visible-light video of Saturn's auroras. They show tall auroral curtains, rapidly changing over time when viewed at the limb, or edge, of the planet's northern hemisphere. The sequence of

Roughed-up Rhea

Cassini looks toward the battered surface of the moon Rhea.See PIA09895 and PIA10464 to learn more about this moon. This view looks toward leading hemisphere of Rhea (1528 kilometers, 949 miles across). North on Rhea is up.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Oct. 13, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 44,000 kilometers (

Team Plans Uplink of Protective Files

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status ReportThe team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.Since the orbiter spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26, flight team engineers have been examining possible root causes and repercussions of that incident

Cassini Flyby Shows Enceladus Venting

What's happening on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus? Enormous ice jets are erupting. Giant plumes of ice have been photographed in dramatic fashion by the robotic Cassini spacecraft during this past weekend's flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Pictured above, numerous plumes are seen rising from long tiger-stripe canyons across Enceladus' craggy surface. Several ice jets are

Monster Waves on the Sun are Real

Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft are telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar tsunami."Years ago, when solar physicists first witnessed a towering wave of hot plasma racing along the sun's surface, they doubted their senses. The scale of the thing was staggering. It

Mike Foreman STS-129 mission

Astronaut Mike Foreman performed tasks on the exterior of the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission to the orbital outpost.Astronauts Foreman and Randy Bresnik were in the midst of the second of three scheduled spacewalks for this shuttle crew, working in cooperation with the five current crewmembers for the orbital outpost and with their five Atlantis

Randy Bresnik Space Shuttle Atlantis

Astronaut Randy Bresnik is pictured near the base of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System on the starboard side of the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis, docked with the International Space Station. Astronauts Bresnik and Mike Foreman were in the midst of the second of three scheduled spacewalks for the STS-129 mission, working in cooperation with the five current crewmembers for the orbital

Wise a Bit Closer to the Sky

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is now perched atop its rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara, Calif. The mission, which will scan the whole sky in infrared light, is scheduled to blast off on Dec. 9. It was hoisted to the top of its United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket on Friday, Nov. 20. JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for

Inventors Answer Call for New Glove Designs

Two independent inventors answered NASA's call for innovative new designs for the next generation of astronaut gloves. Today's spacewalkers have to contend with bulky gloves that stiffen when pressurized, making it tough to grip and flex while completing tasks in the vacuum of space.Peter Homer and Ted Southern put their prototypes to the test during NASA's 2009 Astronaut Glove Challenge, held

Spitzer Telescope Observes Baby Brown Dwarf

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has contributed to the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf ever observed -- a finding that, if confirmed, may solve an astronomical mystery about how these cosmic misfits are formed.Brown dwarfs are misfits because they fall somewhere between planets and stars in terms of their temperature and mass. They are cooler and more lightweight than stars and more massive

Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft

Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA's interplanetary Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. Pictured above, Earth showed a bright crescent phase featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. Launched from Earth in 2004, Rosetta used the gravity of the Earth to help propel it out past Mars and toward a 2014 rendezvous with Comet

Slanting Shadows Cassini:

Long shadows stretch away from the towering edge waves created by the gravity of the moon Daphnis in this image taken a little more than a week before Saturn's August 2009 equinox.Tiny Daphnis (8 kilometers, 5 miles across) appears as a bright dot in the Keeler Gap near the tall edge waves it has created in the A ring. The moon has an inclined orbit and its gravitational pull perturbs the orbits

Educate to Innovate

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Light Echoes from V838 Mon

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this has never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash

NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe

Shiny NGC 253 Galaxy, is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor. First swept up in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #9

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from Enceladus. Image scale is approximately 55 meters (182 feet) per pixel.The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #8

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2,000 kilometers (1000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 116 meters (381 feet) per pixel.The

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #7

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 15 meters (50 feet) per

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #6

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2,000 kilometers (1000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 12 meters (38 feet) per pixel.The

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #5

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2,000 kilometers (1000 miles) from Enceladus. Image scale is approximately 12 meters (41 feet) per pixel.The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #4

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase angle. Image scale is approximately 60 meters (197 feet) per

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #3

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 9,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 53 meters (174 feet) per

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #2

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 20, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 20, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 543,000 kilometers (337,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) per

Enceladus "Rev 121" Flyby Raw Preview #1

This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken by Cassini on Nov. 21, 2009.The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 21, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 17,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a high Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle. Image scale is approximately 974 meters (3,195 feet) per

Scene Seen in the Near-Infrared

Cassini's camera looks in near-infrared light at a dramatic view of Saturn, its ringplane and the shadows of a couple of its moons.The large shadow south of the equator is that of the moon Tethys (1062 kilometers, 660 miles across). The small shadow near the limb of the planet, north of the equator, is the shadow of the moon Mimas (396 kilometers, 246 miles across).Saturn's northern and southern

Twice-lit Janus

Janus, Saturn's small moon named after the two-faced god, here displays two illuminated hemispheres.Janus (179 kilometers, 111 miles across) orbits beyond the thin F ring in the top left of the image. The moon is lit by sunlight on the left and light reflected off Saturn on the right.This image, taken a little more than a week after Saturn's August 2009 equinox, also shows vertical structures in

Meteor between the Clouds

This bright meteor streaked through dark night skies over Sutherland, South Africa on November 15. Potentially part of the annual Leonid meteor shower, its sudden, brilliant appearance, likened to a camera's flash, was captured by chance as it passed between two clouds. Of course, the two clouds are also visible to the eye in dark southern skies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds -

NASA’s Newest Map of the World

In June 2009, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey put the finishing touches on a new collection of mapped images covering the entire land surface of the Earth and made them available to anyone, anywhere in the world, absolutely free. The result of a collaboration between NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. National Geospatial Agency, the Global Land Survey 2005 features around

The Sorting Problem Earth Observatory

The Sorting Problem“Normally when a person wants a Landsat scene,” says Dwyer, “they go to a website, they start a geographic search, they restrict it to a certain time of year, and the system returns a bunch of browse images [small versions of the full image]. The user then looks through them all and decides which one is optimal for their purpose.” For a global picture circa 2005, an analyst

The Distortion Problem Earth Observatory

Anyone who has stood before a spectacular vista and taken a series of overlapping photos in the hopes of turning them into a panoramic image has probably experienced the frustration of trying to get the resulting photos to line up. You line up the mountains in the background, for example, and see that a road running through the foreground no longer overlaps. These small distortions occur

Nouvelle saveur : Twitter en Français!

Avec l'ajout de la version espagnole du site le mois dernier, de nombreuses personnes ont rejoint les conversations sur Twitter. De plus en plus de personnes twittent en dehors des États-Unis et nous sommes à présent en mesure d'accueillir les utilisateurs de près de 30 pays francophones. Il est maintenant possible de changer les paramètres de langue en français grâce à la participation des

Atlas V Intelsat-14 Launch Information

Rocket/Payload: Atlas V launching the commercial Intelsat-14 satellite on behalf of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services. Date/Launch Time/Site: Nov. 23, with a launch window of 12:50-2:20 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. If the launch scrubs, the launch

Atlas V Intelsat-14 Launch

The Atlas V Intelsat-14 launch is now rescheduled for Nov. 23, 12:50 a.m. EST. United Launch Alliance is providing the launch services on behalf of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services.

Titan's Northern Lake

In the top right of this Cassini image, the southern end of Titan's huge lake of liquid hydrocarbons called Kraken Mare is visible near the moon's north pole.See PIA11146 to learn more about Titan's lake districts and to see a map. Near the moon's equator are the albedo features Senkyo on the right and Aztlan on the left. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (5150 kilometers,

Radar Strip Showing Crater Bessel

Mini-RF S-band zoom synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image strip through central Mare Serenitatis on the near side of the Moon (approximate longitude of strip ~ 18° E; center latitude ~ 20° N). The radar strip runs through the crater Bessel (inset; 15 km (9 mile) diameter; center at 21.8° N, 17.9° E) and covers the highlands of the Haemus Mts. (rim of Serenitatis basin) in its southern (bottom)

Leonid over Mono Lake

Eerie spires of rock rise from shore of Mono Lake in the foreground of this early morning skyscape. The salty, mineral-laden lake is located in California's eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range and the spindly rock formations are naturally formed limestone towers called tufa. In the scene, recorded near the peak of the annual Leonid meteor shower (now subsiding) on November 17th, a meteor

The Aerospace Innovation Competition

Do you have what it takes to win the $2,000 Grand Prize?!?!? 6 Teams - 3 Tasks - 1 Grand Prize! Put your innovation and entrepreneurship skills to the test by completing an array of diverse tasks while having fun and competing for a Grand Prize of $2,000. Success will depend on your ability to quickly learn about

Space Shuttle Pilot Set to Talk With Tennessee Students from Orbit

Congressman Bart Gordon and Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville will host a live conversation between more than 120 students and NASA astronaut Barry E. Wilmore on Sunday, Nov. 22. Wilmore is the pilot of space shuttle Atlantis, which launched Nov. 16 on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. Members of Wilmore's family also will attend the event.The live call from

NASA's Wise Gets Ready to Survey the Whole Sky

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is chilled out, sporting a sunshade and getting ready to roll. NASA's newest spacecraft is scheduled to roll to the pad on Friday, Nov. 20, its last stop before launching into space to survey the entire sky in infrared light.Wise is scheduled to launch no earlier than 6:09 a.m. PST (9:09 a.m. EST) on Dec. 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in

STS129 Monitoring the Launch

NASA mission managers monitor the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Firing Room Four of the NASA Kennedy Space Center, Monday, Nov. 16, 2009. Shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew are on an 11-day STS-129 mission to the International Space Station to transport spare hardware to the outpost and return a station crew member who spent more than two months in space.

COBE Satellite Marks 20th Anniversary

NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite rocketed into Earth orbit on Nov. 18, 1989, and quickly revolutionized our understanding of the early cosmos. Developed and built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., COBE precisely measured and mapped the oldest light in the universe — the cosmic microwave background. COBE showed that the radiation's spectrum agrees exactly with

AIRS Image Shows Global Carbon Dioxide Transport

This image was created with data acquired by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite during July 2009. The image shows large-scale patterns of carbon dioxide concentrations that are transported around Earth by the general circulation of the atmosphere. Dark blue corresponds to a concentration of 382 parts per million and dark red corresponds to a concentration

Pan's Short Shadow

The small moon Pan casts a short shadow on Saturn's A ring in this image taken as the planet approached its August 2009 equinox.Pan (28 kilometers, 17 miles across) orbits in the Encke Gap of the A ring. The novel illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ringplane, significantly darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to look anomalously bright

Water Discovered in Moon Shadow

Why is there water on the Moon? Last month, the LCROSS mission crashed a large impactor into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's South Pole. A plume of dust rose that was visible to the satellite, although hard to discern from Earth. The plume is shown above in visible light. Last week, the results of a preliminary chemical analysis gave a clear indication that the dust

NASA and Microsoft Allow Earthlings to Become Martians

NASA and Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., have collaborated to create a Web site where Internet users can have fun while advancing their knowledge of Mars. Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, the "Be a Martian" Web site will enable the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Martian maps, take part in research tasks, and assist Mars science teams studying data

Ticking Stellar Time Bomb Identified

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and its ability to obtain images as sharp as if taken from space, astronomers have made the first time-lapse movie of a rather unusual shell ejected by a “vampire star”, which in November 2000 underwent an outburst after gulping down part of its companion’s matter. This enabled astronomers to determine the distance and intrinsic brightness of the outbursting

NASA EDGE Nominated for Best Video Podcast

NASA EDGE Nominated for ‘Best Video Podcast’ in the 5th Annual Podcast Awards!›› Vote Now for NASA EDGE!NASA EDGE continues their unprecedented, unscripted journey through the world of video podcasting with their very first award nomination. This is no small accomplishment considering that only two and half years ago, they weren’t sure that they would find an audience.Well, they have. Almost

All 'SMILES' Aboard International Space Station in Wake of New Experiment

There's a new way to look at environmental issues on Earth -- from 210 miles up aboard the International Space Station -- and investigators are all "SMILES" with early results.The SMILES experiment, more properly known as the Superconducting Submillimeter-wave Limb-emission Sounder, is investigating issues such as ozone depletion and air quality problems.The experiment launched on the Japanese

Sunrise at KSC while STS129 in orbit preps for ISS docking

Launch of Atlantis on STS-129

Posted on: November 16, 2009Posted in: Atlantis, Featured, Launch Events, STS-129, Shuttle Launches, Space Shuttles, VideoComment on This VideoSee the launch itself at 9:00 in to the video. Space Shuttle Atlantis on a beautiful fall day. From T-9 to MECO

Dawn Before Nova

Will this dawn bring another nova? Such dilemmas might be pondered one day by future humans living on a planet orbiting a cataclysmic variable binary star system. Cataclysmic variables involve gas falling from a large star onto an accretion disk surrounding a massive but compact white dwarf star. Explosive cataclysmic events such as a dwarf nova can occur when a clump of gas in the interior

Glenn Helps Ares I-X Soar

The future of new rocket design was successfully tested when the Ares I-X blasted off on October 28, 2009. The test vehicle launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and travelled for six minutes until it splashed down 150 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. Ares I-X, at 327 feet tall and 1.8 million pounds, was comprised of components fabricated at several NASA centers. The Upper Stage Simulator (

Spotlight on Penelope

Cassini spies the large Penelope crater on Saturn's moon Tethys.Penelope crater lies near the center of the image. See PIA11495 to learn more about the prominent features on Tethys. This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Tethys (1062 kilometers, 660 miles across). North on Tethys is up.The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 14, 2009 using a spectral

Anticyclone over the South Pacific by Rosetta

Cloud structures over the South Pacific, seen with the OSIRIS Imaging System’s narrow-angle camera on 13 November at 06:48 CET.This false-colour composite was generated from the orange, green and blue optical colour filters of the anticyclone visible close to the centre of the image below. This filter triplet depicts a portion of the scene below with five times the resolution.Taken three minutes

Geeky 'tweeters' to report on space shuttle launch

Fingers will be flying when space shuttle Atlantis blasts off Monday: About 100 of NASA's geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets.They plan to let loose with electronic messages — provided they aren't so swept away by the afternoon liftoff that they fall uncharacteristically silent for a moment or two."I'll be uploading stuff as it

STS-129 - time lapse video

STS-129 - time lapse video: Rotating Service Structure retraction at Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, courtesy of NASA TV

M83s Center from Refurbished Hubble

What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83? Just about everything, from the looks of it. M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy and from a distance of 15 million light-years, appears to be relatively normal. Zooming in on M83's nucleus with the latest telescopes, however, shows the center to be an energetic and busy place. Visible in the

Hosting Destruction

This artist's concept illustrates the two types of spiral galaxies that populate our universe: those with plump middles, or central bulges (upper left), and those lacking the bulge (foreground).New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope provide strong evidence that the slender, bulgeless galaxies can, like their chubbier counterparts, harbor supermassive black holes at their cores.

Skirting an Obstacle

This view from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows tracks left by backing out of a wind-formed ripple after the rover's wheels had started to dig too deeply into the dust and sand of the ripple.The frames combined into this view were taken on the 1,867th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (April 25, 2009). The scene spans 120 degrees, from

STS-129 Atlantis on Pad 39a

The space shuttle Atlantis is seen on launch pad 39a of the NASA Kennedy Space Center shortly after the rotating service structure was rolled back, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009, Cape Canaveral, FL. Atlantis is scheduled to launch at 2:28p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 16, 2009.

Atlantis unveiled on eve of launch

The rotating service structure retracts away from the shuttle Atlantis, revealing the spaceplane during a spectacular sunset the day before its scheduled launch to the International Space Station.

RSS Rollback

The rotating service structure was rolled back Sunday evening revealing space shuttle Atlantis poised for launch. The STS-129 countdown is proceeding smoothly and on schedule. The astronauts will go to sleep around 9 p.m. and awaken at 4:30 a.m. EST.Also, at 4:30 a.m. Monday morning, the Mission Management Team will meet to give the “go” for tanking of space shuttle Atlantis. Tanking is scheduled

M57: The Ring Nebula

It looks like a ring on the sky. Hundreds of years ago astronomers noticed a nebula with a most unusual shape. Now known as M57 or NGC 6720, the gas cloud became popularly known as the Ring Nebula. It is now known to be a planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted at the end of a Sun-like star's existence. As one of the brightest planetary nebula on the sky, the Ring Nebula can be seen with a

Bright Spokes, Dark Rings

Spokes, those ghostly radial markings on Saturn's B ring, appear bright compared to the rings in this image taken a little more than a month after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Spokes appear bright when they are viewed at phase, or Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, angles higher than about 45 degrees. The phase angle in this image is 64 degrees. Also, the contrast is even greater in this image since the

Titan's Halo

Saturn's moon Titan displays a detached, high-altitude global haze layer which is often its most prominent feature in ultraviolet views such as this one.See PIA07774 to learn more.In this image, Cassini looks down on the north pole of Titan, and, although this view is centered on the leading hemisphere of the moon, the lit terrain seen here is mostly on the opposite, trailing hemisphere of the

DIA Sunrise

What's 93 million miles away and still hurts your eyes when you look at it? The answer is not the Denver International Airport, known to some travelers as DIA. But DIA does appear in dramatic silhouette in the foreground of this telephoto image. The view looks east toward the airport terminal's characteristic multi-peaked roof and the rising October Sun. The roof's appearance suggests the

Rosetta Completes Final Earth Flyby

On its way to a 2014 rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with JPL instruments on board, flew past Earth today to pick up energy. This is the third and final Earth flyby for Rosetta. It will provide exactly the boost Rosetta needs to continue into the outer solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled for a close encounter with asteroid 21

Dawn Enters Asteroid Belt -- For Good

NASA's Dawn spacecraft re-entered our solar system's asteroid belt today, Nov. 13, and this time it will stay there. Dawn first entered the belt (whose lower boundary may be defined as the greatest distance Mars gets from the sun (249,230,000 kilometers, or 154,864,000 miles) in June 2008. It remained within the belt for 40 days before its carefully planned orbital path brought it below the

New Moon Sets Stage for Brilliant Leonids Meteor Shower

This year's Leonids meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the moon will be new -- setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years."We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas,

Earhart's Scarf to Fly Again

A scarf belonging to famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart will circle the Earth repeatedly as part of the personal cargo being carried into space by the astronauts of space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission.Albert Bresnick was a personal photographer to Earhart, and now, astronaut Randy Bresnick is rekindling the family connection. The Marine aviator and first-time space flier received the white, green

The View From Space: Two New Experiments Take Fresh Looks at Earth's Coast, Atmosphere

They've only been on orbit a couple of months, but two new sensors examining our upper atmosphere and oceans already are demonstrating the International Space Station's value as an Earth science observing platform.The experiments -- the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean, or HICO, and the Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric Detection System, or RAIDS -- work in tandem as the HICO and RAIDS

Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud

Cosmic dust clouds and embedded newborn stars glow at infrared wavelengths in this tantalizing false-color view from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Pictured is of one of the closest star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400 light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The view spans about 5 light-years at that estimated

New Russian Module “Poisk” Docks to Station

The new Russian Mini-Research Module 2, also known as Poisk, docked to the space-facing port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 10:41 a.m. EST. It began its trip to the station when it was launched aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 10.Poisk is a Russian term that translates to search, seek and explore. It

Science at the intersection of air quality and climate change

The atmosphere is a stew of gases and particles. Some affect climate.Others degrade air quality and threaten human health. Some do both. Some do neither. Many of them interact with and affect one other. Ozone, for example, causes respiratory problems near the surface, but also functions as a greenhouse gas. Black carbon aerosol particles do the same, and also contribute to heart disease. Other

Creating the Future: One Giant Leap at a time

Last month the Advanced Planning Office pulled together a team to look at possible vision statements for the agency. I know a rather tall order, but it is always great to see the energy and creativity found within our JSC when it is unleashed. You can browse some of the ideas at the Open NASA post, NASA Vision and Mission. I know it isn't really a vision statement, but the one phrase that has

Shadow Between the Shepherds

Saturn's moon Prometheus casts a shadow near a streamer-channel created by the moon in the thin F ring in this image taken about a month after the planet's August 2009 equinox.Pandora (81 kilometers, 50 miles across) can also be seen on the right of the image. Pandora orbits outside the F ring and, with the inner shepherd moon Prometheus, helps to keep the narrow lanes of the F ring in check. The

Art and Science in NGC 981

This beautiful telescopic skyscape features spiral galaxy NGC 981. The island universe is about 50,000 light-years across and lies some 60 million light-years away toward the constellation Aries. An artistic presentation, the image shows spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and convoluted dust clouds that hang above our galactic plane, dimly reflecting starlight. It also captures

2012: The end of sanity?

Posted on: November 12, 2009Posted in: Daily, Featured, VideoComment on This VideoNASA’s Sr. Scientist David Morrison is a breath of sane air in all of this 2012 madness. As the person who sees and answers all inquiries to NASA’s “Ask an Astrobiologist” he is having a rebuttal published. He points out the absurdity in thinking a fictional planet, made up mind you by a scifi writer, will make it

The turbulent heart of the Milky Way

In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, NASA is releasing a never-before-seen vista of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way Galaxy to planetaria, museums, libraries, nature centres and schools across America. These sites will unveil a giant six foot by three foot print that combines near infrared views from the Hubble Space Telescope, an infrared view from the Spitzer Space

Rosetta comet chaser picks up speed

At 08:45 CET, Rosetta will streak past Earth just south of the Indonesian island of Java, passing within 2,500 kilometres of the planet and in the process being accelerated by almost 13,000 km/h to a speed of approximately 61,000 km/h. By then, the scientific spacecraft will have travelled 4.5 billion kilometres since its launch on 2 March 2004. Its next scientific target is asteroid 21-Lutetia,

A Stormy Day Over Brazil

The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 20 crew looked toward the Earth's limb (the hazy blue line on the horizon) and snapped this impressive photograph of stormy weather over Brazil. A huge amount of detail has been captured by the station's Nikon D2Xs digital camera as a part of the ongoing ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment.Cumulonimbus clouds in various stages of development can

The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

This year's Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the Moon will be new, setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years."We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and

STS-129 ready to support Dragon communication demo with ISS

When STS-129 launches next week, Atlantis will have one eye on the future, as she carries the CRS UHF Communication Unit (CUCU), a key element for the upcoming demonstration of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, ahead of its debut arrival at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2010. STS-129’s Dragon Payload:The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Ultra High Frequency (UHF)

Great Observatories Explore Galactic Center

Where can a telescope take you? Four hundred years ago, a telescope took Galileo to the Moon to discover craters, to Saturn to discover rings, to Jupiter to discover moons, to Venus to discover phases, and to the Sun to discover spots. Today, in celebration of Galileo's telescopic achievements and as part of the International Year of Astronomy, NASA has used its entire fleet of Great

A Slice of Iapetus

A crescent Iapetus shows, at the top right of this image, some of the dark terrain characterizing this unusual Saturnian moon.Scientists continue to investigate the nature of the moon's surface. See PIA08384 to learn more.Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Iapetus (1471 kilometers, 914 miles across). North on Iapetus is up and rotated 5 degrees to the left.Scale in the original

Saturn After Equinox

The other side of Saturn's ring plane is now directly illuminated by the Sun. For the previous 15 years, the southern side of Saturn and its rings were directly illuminated, but since Saturn's equinox in August, the orientation has reversed. Pictured above last month, the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn has captured the giant planet and its majestic rings soon after equinox. Imaged

Greetings From Palmer Station, Antarctica

Residents of Palmer Station, Antarctica, used their bright red United States Antarctic Program parkas to send ground-to-air greeting to scientists and flight crew aboard NASA's DC-8 flying science laboratory as it flew over the station during Operation Ice Bridge. Operation Ice Bridge is a study of Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice and glacial recession. One of three U.S. environmental research

Test Stand A-2 Peering Out from the Fog

At Stennis Space Center, three large engine test stands were built the early 1960s to test the first and second stages of the Apollo Saturn V rocket that carried Americans to the moon. Since 1975, the test stands have supported testing of the Space Shuttle main engines. The last planned test was conducted in July of 2009.In this photo, the A-2 Test Stand peered out from a thick blanket of fog

Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume

The Cassini spacecraft has weathered the Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in good health and has been sending images and data of the encounter back to Earth. Cassini had approached Enceladus more closely before, but this passage took the spacecraft on its deepest plunge yet through the heart of the plume shooting out from the south polar region. Scientists are eagerly

NASA's GOES Project Offers Real-Time Hurricane Alley Movies

People love to get the big picture of hurricane alleys, and thanks to the GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., they can now get real-time satellite animations of the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Project is offering real-time HDTV movies of the east- and west-coast "hurricane alley" regions.

A Late-Season Ida Eyes the Northern U.S. Gulf Coast

Ida, currently a strong tropical storm with maximum sustained winds just below hurricane strength at 61 knots (70 miles per hour), is shown in these side-by-side images from NASA's QuikScat satellite and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite.In the QuikScat image (top right), acquired Nov. 9 at 3:23 a.m. PST (11:23 UTC), the white barbs show the direction of

2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?

Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common

The Birth of Stars

Nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel, M83 is undergoing more rapid star formation than our own Milky Way galaxy, especially in its nucleus. The sharp ‘eye’ of the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) has captured hundreds of young star clusters, ancient swarms of globular star clusters, and hundreds of thousands of individual stars, mostly blue supergiants and red supergiants.WFC3’s broad wavelength range, from

Nibiru and Doomsday 2012

Stories about the fictional planet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012 have blossomed on the Internet. There are now (June 2009) more than 175 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. As this hoax spreads, many more disaster scenarios are being suggested. “Ask an Astrobiologist” has received nearly a thousand questions about Nibiru and 2012, with more than 200

The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare

This guest article on 2012 was written by E. C. Krupp, Director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and is reprinted with permission from Sky & Telescope Magazine. The publisher and the author reserve all rights. All opinions are the author's own. The year 2012 is acting like a badly behaved celebrity. Frightful rumors and gossip are spreading. Already more than a half dozen books are

NGC 2623: Galaxy Merger from Hubble

Where do stars form when galaxies collide? To help find out, astronomers imaged the nearby galaxy merger NGC 2623 in high resolution with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007. Analysis of this Hubble image and images of NGC 2623 in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope, in X-ray light by XMM-Newton, and in ultraviolet light by GALEX, indicate that two originally spiral galaxies appear now

M7: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius

M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars, can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). M7 contains about 100 stars in total, is about 200 million years old, spans 25 light-years across, and lies about 1000 light-years away. The above deep exposure was taken

Issues on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – 09.11.09

Posted on: November 9, 2009Posted in: Daily, Featured, VideoComment on This VideoThe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or MRO seems to be having a few issues. The $720 million dollar mission is on hold while scientists try and determine why the system keeps rebooting. In fact the MRO has had 4 computer resets this year before NASA scientists put the spacecraft in to safe mode. While in safe mode the

Stickney Crater

Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon.

Hubble image showcases star birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel

The spectacular new camera installed on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during Servicing Mission 4 in May has delivered the most detailed view of star birth in the graceful, curving arms of the nearby spiral galaxy M83. Nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel, M83 is undergoing more rapid star formation than our own Milky Way galaxy, especially in its nucleus. The sharp "eye" of the Wide Field Camera 3

Take Me Out to the Ballpark - On Mars

Students in fourth through seventh grade will work to create the ultimate baseball experience "on Mars," even designing the rules for how to play a game on the Red Planet. NASA and JPL have partnered with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to host a workshop for kids on Sat., Nov. 7, in Cooperstown, N.Y.At the Imagine Mars workshop, kids will learn about the Martian environment and

A Splendid Day for Flying Glaciers

A last-minute change in flight plans made for another great science flight on Nov. 4. Initial plans were to make a high-altitude flight, according to program director Jim Yungel of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. But a forecaster in the Punta Arenas airport weather office advised crew of the potential for weather to interfere with the high-altitude measurements for the mission’s LVIS

Carbon Atmosphere Discovered on Neutron Star

Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object."The compact star at the center of this famous supernova remnant has been an enigma since its discovery," said Wynn Ho of the University of Southampton and lead author of a paper

Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images

Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.The HiRISE camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, captured one image of the Phoenix lander on July 30, 2009, and the other on Aug. 22, 2009. That's when the sun

Ring Nebula Deep Field

A familiar sight to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope, the Ring Nebula (M57) is some 2,000 light-years away in the musical constellation Lyra. The central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula's

NASA Sets STS-129 Prelaunch Events and Countdown Details

News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are set for the upcoming launch of space shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle's STS-129 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off at 2:28 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 16.A NASA blog will update the countdown beginning Nov. 16 at 9:30 a.m. Originating from Kennedy, the blog is the

Kepler Mission Manager Update

Kepler completed another science data download over October 18-19. In this download, a month’s worth of science data was transmitted through the NASA Deep Space Network and into the Science Operations Center at Ames Research Center. After the download was complete, the Kepler spacecraft was returned to its science collection attitude and another cycle of science data collection began.While the

Poisk Poised for Live NASA TV Space Station Docking

NASA Television will air the docking of the newest Russian module to the International Space Station starting at 9 a.m. CST Nov. 12.The Mini Research Module-2, known as "Poisk," which means "explore" in Russian, will deliver 1,800 pounds of cargo to the station. Poisk is scheduled to automatically dock to the station's Zvezda Service Module at 9:44 a.m.The 8-ton module is scheduled to launch at 8

Spring Bloom in New Zealand Waters

Off the east coast of New Zealand, cold rivers of water that have branched off from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow north past the South Island and converge with warmer waters flowing south past the North Island. The surface waters of this meeting place are New Zealand's most biologically productive. This image of the area on October 25, 2009, from the MODIS sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite

Halloween's Moon

Illuminating the landscape all through the night of November 2nd, this week's bright Full Moon was known in the northern hemisphere as a Hunter's Moon. But this dramatic view of the shining lunar orb, from Sobreda, Portugal, was captured just a few nights earlier, on Halloween. In the spirit of the season, the image plays a little trick. The picture is actually two digital photos - one short

Unsettled Youth: Spitzer Observes a Chaotic Planetary System

Before our planets found their way to the stable orbits they circle in today, they wiggled and jostled about like unsettled children. Now, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a young star with evidence for the same kind of orbital hyperactivity. Young planets circling the star are thought to be disturbing smaller comet-like bodies, causing them to collide and kick up a huge halo of dust.The

Next Rocket Launch WISE

WISE is a NASA-funded Explorer mission that will provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the Universe. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies. WISE is an unmanned satellite carrying an infrared-sensitive

More to KSC Runway Than Shuttle Ops

NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, was built for the space shuttle, but it also has hosted an international assortment of gigantic transport aircraft, fighter jets, race cars and even off-course skydivers.Someone watching from the control tower might in one day see astronauts diving at the runway in a Shuttle Training Aircraft, NASA security helicopters sweeping the area, or a mosquito

X-38 Crew Return Vehicle Finds New Home

One of NASA's three X-38 Crew Return Vehicle technology demonstrators that flew at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., a decade ago has found a new home in America's heartland.In this image from test flights in 1999, the X-38 research vehicle drops away from NASA's B-52 mothership immediately after being released from the B-52's wing pylon. More than 30 years

Operation Ice Bridge Studies Antarctic Sea Ice

An iceberg is seen out the window of NASA's DC-8 research aircraft as it flies 2,000 feet above the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica on Wednesday, Oct., 21, 2009. This was taken on the fourth science flight of NASA's Operation Ice Bridge airborne Earth science mission to study Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice, and ice shelves.At the mid-point of this field campaign, seven flights over Antarctica have

NASA eClips Educators Traveling in November and December

NASA eClips™ educators may be coming to your town in November and December. Check the schedule below and come join us if you can! Date/Time Event/Presentation Location November 6 --12:30 p.m. NCTM Regional Conference NASA eClips™ for Elementary Students: Effective Ways to Engage Students in Science and Mathematics Minneapolis, MN November 9 -- 2:15 p.m. Great Lakes 1:1 Computing

Not to shoot down aircraft in the name of science

Astronomers and air travel maintained a peaceful coexistence for over a century. That is, until astronomers started firing powerful lasers into the atmosphere -sky dwellers, human or otherwise, are no big fan of those. Bodies like the Federal Aviation Administration and US Space Command have imposed restrictions on the use of the high-powered lasers astronomers now routinely fire into the

STS-129: countdown test completed

Mission: STS-129 Orbiter: Atlantis Launch Pad: 39A Launch Date: NET Nov 16, 2009, 2:28 pm EST (18:48 UT) Landing: NET Nov 27, 9:57 am EST (13:57 UT) Orbital Altitude: 122 nautical miles (140 miles) Orbital Insertion: 191 nautical miles (220 miles) Orbital Inclination: 51.6 degreesPrimary Payload: ExPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carriers ELC1 and

Blue Sun Bristling

Explanation: Our Sun may look like all soft and fluffy, but it's not. Our Sun is an extremely large ball of bubbling hot gas, mostly hydrogen gas. The above picture of our Sun was taken last month in a specific red color of light emitted by hydrogen gas called Hydrogen-alpha and then color inverted to appear blue. In this light, details of the Sun's chromosphere are particularly visible

SMOS forms three-pointed star in the sky

Following the launch of ESA’s SMOS satellite on 2 November, the French space agency CNES, which is responsible for operating the satellite, has confirmed that the instrument’s three antenna arms have deployed as planned, and that the instrument is in good health.During launch and the first few orbits around Earth, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) instrument’s antenna arms remained

Darwinian evolutionary theory will help find alien life

In a talk marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, a Nasa scientist said that Darwinian evolution will be the driving force of life anywhere in the universe, and we should use its predictions to decide where to look. Dr John Baross, a researcher at the Nasa Astrobiology Institute, said: "I really feel that Darwinian evolution is a defining

Astronauts Wrap Up Countdown Rehearsal

The STS-129 astronauts concluded their countdown dress rehearsal Tuesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and headed back to Johnson Space Center in Houston aboard NASA aircraft. The crew will return to Kennedy when the real countdown begins in about two weeks to launch space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the International Space Station. Tuesday's dress rehearsal is a standard

A Challenging Glacier Flight Operation Ice Bridge

From: Seelye Martin, Chief Scientist, Operation Ice BridgeUsing the first potentially clear day on the Antarctic Peninsula since we began flights in mid-October, we decided to fly on to targets there on Saturday, Oct. 31.The DC-8 flight path took us over ice elevation lines surveyed by the ATM laser instrument in October 2008. The path included tracks over the Fleming Glacier, one to the George V

Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume

The Cassini spacecraft has weathered the Monday, Nov. 2, flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus in good health and has been sending images and data of the encounter back to Earth. Cassini had approached Enceladus more closely before, but this passage took the spacecraft on its deepest plunge yet through the heart of the plume shooting out from the south polar region. Scientists are eagerly sifting

Hometown Heroes 2009: West Point Welcomes Home One of Their Heroes

On the morning of Oct. 2, as he had done so many times before, Bill McArthur arrived early for his mechanical engineering class at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. But this time he wasn’t a student, he was the teacher and he wasn’t wearing the black and gray uniform of a cadet, he was wearing the iconic blue flight suit of an astronaut. Almost four decades after graduating from West

New Science Findings From Messenger's Third Mercury Flyby

Presenter #1 - Sean Solomon , MESSENGER Principal Investigator, The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.A MESSENGER color observation of Mercury obtained as the spacecraft approached the planet for its third and final flyby on 29 September 2009. The 1000, 700, and 430 nm filters were combined in red, green, and blue to create this color image (approximately 5 km/pixel resolution),

Planets 'spotted' outside our own galaxy for first time

Discoveries of exoplanets within the Milky Way have been happening regularly for some years now, with 403 found since the first one was spotted in 1995. However, scientists studying remote galaxies, some up to 10 billion light years away, believe they have seen signs of planetary formation within them – the first such evidence found. Erin Mentuch and a team at the University of Toronto

Seven Sisters Versus California

On the upper right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection nebula made of fine dust. A common legend is that

Flying Low Over Pine Island Glacier

From: Michael Studinger, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, co-principal investigator, gravimeter teamAfter flying for several hours over a windswept Southern Ocean on Tuesday, Oct. 27, the mission director announces that we will be slowly descending towards Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier. Just below are the Hudson Mountains, a small group of extinct volcanoes poking through the ice.As we

The Ice Bridge Team Group Photo

From: Steve Cole, Public Affairs Specialist, NASA Headquarters A tradition with our airborne science missions: the group photo. Everyone gathered in front of the DC-8 at the airport just before another flight over Antarctica.

Taking the Plunge: Cassini Soars by Enceladus

Bonnie J. Buratti, Cassini scientist on the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer Team After so many close flybys of Enceladus, we're starting to feel as if this little moon of Saturn is an old friend. But during the encounter planned for Nov. 2, 2009, we are going to get up-close and personal. Cassini is going to take its deepest dive yet into the plumes spewing out from the moon's south

JSC Advanced Planning Challenge Everything

There is an interesting experiment happening at the Johnson Space Center. The basic question being addressed by this experiment is “what would happen if we could tap into the expertise of the 15,000 employees at JSC to solve any one of the difficult challenges that we are wrestling with?” Actually the experiment is also tapping the expertise at the other NASA Centers. The idea was a

Spirit Embedded in Soft Soil on Mars as Engineers Devise Methods to 'Free Spirit'

This view from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the terrain surrounding the location called "Troy," where Spirit became embedded in soft soil during the spring of 2009. The hundreds of images combined into this view were taken beginning on the 1,906th Martian day (or sol) of Spirit's mission on Mars (May 14, 2009) and ending on Sol 1943 (June 20, 2009).Near the

Aerial View of Ares I-X Flight Test Live Video

Aerial View of Ares I-X Flight TestComment on this video and your suggestions

NASA's Fermi Telescope Detects Gamma-Ray From "Star Factories" in Other Galaxies

Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called "starburst" galaxies, plus a satellite of our own Milky Way galaxy, represent a new category of gamma-ray-emitting objects detected both by Fermi and ground-based observatories."Starburst galaxies have not been accessible in gamma

Shuttle Program managers outline mission priorities for STS-129

With Space Shuttle Atlantis now officially targeting a launch on November 16, Space Shuttle Program (SSP) managers have – via Flight Readiness Review (FRR) documentation – reviewed and approved all flight plans and mission operations that will be undertaken during Atlantis’ 12-day flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Mission Overview:After nearly two years,

Ares 1-X Rocket Lifts Off

Last week, NASA test fired a new rocket. The Ares 1-X was the first non-shuttle rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center since the Saturn launched humans to Earth orbit and the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. NASA is testing Ares as a prelude to replacing the aging space shuttle fleet. The tremendous thrust of the Ares 1-X can bring the massive rocket from a standing start to a vertical speed

Happy Halloween

The Cassini team sends "bats wishes" for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

Japanese Cargo Craft Leaves Station

Image above: International Space Station cameras monitor the H-II Transfer Vehicle before the Canadarm2 releases it. Credit: NASA TVJapan’s first cargo vehicle, the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), has left the International Space Station. Flight Engineer and robotic arm operator Nicole Stott released the HTV from the grip of Canadarm2 at 1:32 p.m. EDT on Friday. The HTV’s thrusters fired about five

The Average Color of the Universe

What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted above, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of the largest