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What does an aurora look like to a frog? "Awesome!" is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth's geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog's perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera's lens on top. The "diamonds" in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the "lake" is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory. via NASA ift.tt/2zVkPG3
Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every day at the same time? No. A more visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at 4 pm near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this an all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. At the solstices, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. Equinoxes, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point. Today at 1:54 am (UT) is the equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox. via NASA ift.tt/2xwcFCm
How about a little something green for St. Patrick's Day?
"St. Patrick's Aurora" was taken at Donnelly Creek, Alaska at 1:30 am, March 17, 2015 by a NASA friend.
Greatest light show on Earth!!
View "Auroras Over Earth" Flickr album:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157645507761848/
________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
LCROSS and LRO are heading back to the moon, but this picture offers some nice historical perspective.
Date of original image: April 14, 1970
This bright-rayed crater on the lunar farside was photographed from the Apollo 13 spacecraft during its pass around the Moon. This area is northeast of Mare Marginus. The bright-rayed crater is located at about 105 degrees east longitude and 45 degrees north latitude. The crater Joliot-Curie is located between Mare Marginus and the rayed crater. This view is looking generally toward the northeast.
Image credit: NASA
There are plenty of amazing photos on NASA's Image Exchange site:
Learn more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) :
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html
Learn more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS):
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
Follow the "New Moon Missions" blog from NASA:
This is a composite shot covering four minutes of NASA's OCO-2 satellite's journey into space after its launch on a Delta II rocket.
You can see the solid rocket boosters separating and falling towards the right side of the rocket's trail.
2:58 a.m. local (5:58 a.m. EDT; 0958 GMT)
T+plus 1 minute, 50 seconds. "The ATK-made solid rocket boosters have jettisoned from the first stage. They remained attached until the rocket cleared off-shore oil rigs."
You can also clearly see where the second stage ignites towards the left:
3:01 a.m.
T+plus 4 minutes, 39 seconds. MECO. The first stage main engine cutoff is confirmed and the spent stage has been jettisoned.
T+plus 4 minutes, 44 seconds. The Delta's second stage has ignited! The engine is up and running.
T+plus 4 minutes, 51 seconds. The rocket's nose cone enclosing the satellite payload has been jettisoned.
I started capturing thirty-second exposures at 10:32 pm and had it continue during and past the launch, to 4:10 am. I was shooting a time-lapse sequence on a star-tracking mount, having the camera follow the Milky Way across the sky to where the satellite would launch at 3 am.
This composite image uses nine of those photos, to capture the foreground well lit during the initial liftoff, The sky and Milky Way in the image with the rocket and solid boosters falling away, plus seven more flight segments. The pieces were assembled in the free StarStaX software.
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I took this photo earlier this year (January).
Last week, NASA released an incredible video showing the Moon’s motion and phases over the whole year of 2013, where each frame of the video is one hour of time! It’s mesmerizing. You can see the video, and read all about their useful, "Dial-A-Moon" tool from my Into the Night Photography blog.
This week in 1992, space shuttle Columbia and STS-50 launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, carrying the first United States Microgravity Laboratory. The Spacelab long module included an Extended Duration Orbiter pallet and consisted of 31 experiments ranging from the manufacture of crystals for possible semiconductor use to the study of behavior of weightless fluids. USML-1 was a national effort to advance microgravity research in a broad number of disciplines. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center managed the Spacelab program for NASA. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall serves as "science central" for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory's scientific experiments. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA's remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA's activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA's history, visit the Marshall History Program's webpage. (NASA)
Image credit: NASA
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an immense cloud of hydrogen dubbed “The Behemoth” bleeding from a planet orbiting a nearby star. The enormous, comet-like feature is about 50 times the size of the parent star. The hydrogen is evaporating from a warm, Neptune-sized planet, due to extreme radiation from the star.
This phenomenon has never been seen around an exoplanet so small. It may offer clues to how other planets with hydrogen-enveloped atmospheres could have their outer layers evaporated by their parent star, leaving behind solid, rocky cores. Hot, rocky planets such as these that roughly the size of Earth are known as Hot-Super Earths.
“This cloud is very spectacular, though the evaporation rate does not threaten the planet right now,” explains the study’s leader, David Ehrenreich of the Observatory of the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “But we know that in the past, the star, which is a faint red dwarf, was more active. This means that the planet evaporated faster during its first billion years of existence because of the strong radiation from the young star. Overall, we estimate that it may have lost up to 10 percent of its atmosphere over the past several billion years.”
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/hubble-sees-a-behemoth-bleed...
Caption: This artist's concept shows "The Behemoth," an enormous comet-like cloud of hydrogen bleeding off of a warm, Neptune-sized planet just 30 light-years from Earth. Also depicted is the parent star, which is a faint red dwarf named GJ 436. The hydrogen is evaporating from the planet due to extreme radiation from the star. A phenomenon this large has never before been seen around any exoplanet.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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What does an aurora look like to a frog? "Awesome!" is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth's geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog's perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera's lens on top. The "diamonds" in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the "lake" is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory. via NASA ift.tt/2zVkPG3
The International Space Station deployed this small satellite for the NanoRacks-Remove Debris investigation, designed to demonstrate an approach to reduce the risks presented by orbital debris or "space junk." via NASA ift.tt/2PStm1w
Flying high over Antarctica, a NASA long duration balloon has broken the record for longest flight by a balloon of its size.
The record-breaking balloon, carrying the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) experiment, has been afloat for 46 days and is on its third orbit around the South Pole.
"This is an outstanding achievement for NASA's Astrophysics balloon team," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Keeping these huge balloons aloft for such long periods lets us do forefront science that would be difficult to do otherwise."
Super-TIGER is flying a new instrument for measuring the rare heavy elements among the flux of high-energy cosmic rays bombarding the Earth from elsewhere in our Milky Way Galaxy. The information retrieved from this mission will be used to develop an understanding where these energetic atomic nuclei are produced and how they achieve their very high energies.
Super-TIGER launched Dec. 8, 2012, from the long duration balloon site near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The massive 39-million cubic foot scientific balloon carries the 6,000 pound Super-TIGER payload -- equivalent to a large sports utility vehicle -- at a float altitude of 127,000 feet, more than four times the altitude of most commercial airliners. Size-wise, more than 200 blimps could fit inside the balloon.
To read more go to: 1.usa.gov/WqO6ei
Credit: NASA/Wallops
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This week in 1981, space shuttle Columbia and STS-1 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, marking the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Columbia's 36-orbit flight tested the vehicle's performance as a reusable spacecraft. The orbiter successfully returned to Earth April 14, 1981, and for the next 30 years the program’s five spacecraft carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the largest structure in space -- the International Space Station. Today, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Payload Operations Integration Center serves as "science central" for the space station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory's scientific experiments.
For more fun throwbacks, check out Marshall's History Album by clicking here.
This week in 1994, the space shuttle Columbia launched on mission STS-62 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Primary payloads consisted of the U.S. Microgravity Payload-2 -- USMP-2 -- and the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-2 payload, better known as OAST-2. USMP-2 was a package of microgravity experiments for Spacelab, a reusable laboratory that flew in the shuttle cargo bay, and included five experiments investigating materials processing and crystal growth in microgravity. OAST-2 featured six experiments focusing on space technology and spaceflight. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center developed and managed Spacelab and USMP-2, while Marshall’s Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center commanded and monitored the instruments and analyzed the data. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall serves as "science central" for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory's scientific experiments. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving the agency's remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA
Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every day at the same time? No. A more visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at 4 pm near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this an all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. At the solstices, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. Equinoxes, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point. Today at 1:54 am (UT) is the equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox. via NASA ift.tt/2xwcFCm
The International Space Station deployed this small satellite for the NanoRacks-Remove Debris investigation, designed to demonstrate an approach to reduce the risks presented by orbital debris or "space junk." via NASA ift.tt/2PStm1w
As NASA's Cassini spacecraft spends its last few weeks in orbit around Saturn before making a controlled impact with the planet in what NASA dubbed Cassini's "Grand Finale," some of those who helped launch the mission 20 years ago are thrilled with the success of the massive probe they helped dispatch to one of the solar system's most intriguing worlds.
Image credit: NASA
This week in 1998, space shuttle Discovery and STS-91 launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on the ninth and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission. Between March 1995 and May 1998, NASA and Russian scientists conducted experiments on the Russian space station designed to answer vital questions about how humans function in space and how to build future space stations. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center serves as "science central" for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory's scientific experiments. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA's remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA's activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect toNASA's history, visit the Marshall History Program's webpage.
Image credit: NASA
Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every day at the same time? No. A more visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at 4 pm near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this an all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. At the solstices, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. Equinoxes, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point. Today at 1:54 am (UT) is the equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox. via NASA ift.tt/2xwcFCm
Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every day at the same time? No. A more visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at 4 pm near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this an all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. At the solstices, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. Equinoxes, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point. Today at 1:54 am (UT) is the equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox. via NASA ift.tt/2xwcFCm
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
Editor's Note: This image from 2007 shows Chandra X-ray & VLA Radio Images of G11.2-0.3.
G11.2-0.3 is a circularly symmetric supernova remnant that contains a dense, rotating dead star at its center, representing a textbook case of what the remnant of an exploding star should look like after a couple thousand years. When a massive star collapses, the outer layers of the star are blown away in an extremely energetic explosion. Depending on the mass of the original star, a dense object such as a neutron star or a black hole, can form and be left behind at the explosion's center. Such a neutron star, known as a "pulsar" when it rapidly rotates, can be kicked by the thermonuclear shock wave created when the star exploded, causing it to race through space at millions of miles per hour.
By combining X-ray and radio observations, astronomers have evidence that G11.2-0.3 is likely the result of the explosive death of such a massive star, perhaps witnessed in 386 A.D. Radio observations measure the remnant's expansion rate, which, in turn, can be used to calculate how long ago the star exploded. The radio data is consistent with association of the supernova remnant with the "guest star" reported by Chinese astronomers nearly 2,000 years ago. Chandra's ability to pinpoint the pulsar at nearly the very center of G11.2-0.3 also supports the idea that this debris field could have been created around the time of the Chinese observations. Surprisingly, the age of the pulsar determined from the X-ray and radio data differs from the standard pulsar age estimate, usually determined from how fast it is spinning. In this case, the so-called spin parameters suggest the G11.2-0.3 is 10 times older than the remnant age. This argues strongly that young pulsar spin ages can be very misleading and should be considered with caution.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/g11/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Eureka Scientific/M.Roberts et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
You can also get Twitter updates whenever there's a new image:
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
Hi all! A little piece of unfolding history. How awesome is this? The glorious MOON!
The LCROSS spacecraft has successfully completed its swing-by of the Moon and is being steered back into normal cruise mode. This swing-by has provided a gravity assist into the LCROSS cruise orbit. During this cruise phase, the operations team will evaluate the spacecraft's health and status. The LCROSS spacecraft won't be "up close and personal" with the moon again until the day of impact on October 9, 2009!
This image was captured from live streaming on June 23, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. CDT.
Image credit: NASA
Learn more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) :
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html
Learn more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS):
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
Follow the "New Moon Missions" blog from NASA:
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
Editor's note: Happy Friday, everyone! Today is National Umbrella Day, I've just learned, so I posted this image from pre-storm skies last week. Stay dry and warm, Flickr friends! :)
Mixed clouds and sun in the skies over Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This was a view looking south, taken mid-morning before a strong line of storms moved through the area.
Credit: NASA/MSFC/Brooke Boen
Part of the "Views Around Marshall" photoset:
Editor's Note: This is part of a larger Flickr set, "NASA Views Earth at
Night," located here: www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157625188331491/
A southerly looking night view of the upper two thirds of the Florida peninsula was recorded by one of the Expedition 26 crew members aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 28, 2010. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are very well lighted on the left (Atlantic Ocean) side of the peninsula. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is seen on the Gulf of Mexico or right side of the frame. At bottom or in the north areas of the picture are portions of the state's panhandle as well as cities and communities in southern Georgia.
Image credit: NASA
View original image/caption:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-26/html/...
More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
There's a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/
The first six of 18 segments that will form NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror for space observations will begin final round-the-clock cryogenic testing this week. These tests will confirm the mirrors will respond as expected to the extreme temperatures of space prior to integration into the telescope's permanent housing structure.
The X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. will provide the space-like environment to help engineers measure how well the telescope will image infrared sources once in orbit.
Each mirror segment measures approximately 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) in diameter to form the 21.3 foot (6.5 meters), hexagonal telescope mirror assembly critical for infrared observations. Each of the 18 hexagonal-shaped mirror assemblies weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). The mirrors are made of a light and strong metal called beryllium, and coated with a microscopically thin coat of gold to enabling the mirror to efficiently collect light.
"The six flight mirrors sitting ready for cryogenic acceptance tests have been carefully polished to their exact prescriptions," said Helen Cole, project manager for Webb activities at Marshall. "It's taken the entire mirror development team, including all the partners, over eight years of fabrication, polishing and cryogenic testing to get to this point."
During cryogenic testing, the mirrors are subjected to extreme temperatures dipping to minus 415 degrees Fahrenheit (-248C) in a 7,600 cubic-foot (approximately 215 cubic meter) helium-cooled vacuum chamber. This permits engineers to measure in extreme detail how the shape of the mirror changes as it cools. This simulates the actual processes each mirror will undergo as it changes shape over a range of operational temperatures in space.
"This final cryotest is expected to confirm the exacting processes that have resulted in flight mirrors manufactured to tolerances as tight as 20 nanometers, or less than one millionth of an inch," said Scott Texter, Webb Optical Telescope element manager at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, Calif.
A second set of six mirror assemblies will arrive at Marshall in July to begin testing, and the final set of six will arrive during the fall.
Read full news release:
www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2011/H11...
Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham
Editor's note: So why are we re-posting this photo from 2011? Aside from being one of our very favorite eye-catching images, the caption also describes how the segments were tested in a helium-cooled vacuum chamber at Marshall. When I saw that today was the wacky 'Create a Vaccum Day' holiday, this image came to mind. Enjoy your day, Flickr friends!
The first six of 18 segments that will form NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror for space observations will begin final round-the-clock cryogenic testing this week. These tests will confirm the mirrors will respond as expected to the extreme temperatures of space prior to integration into the telescope's permanent housing structure.
The X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. will provide the space-like environment to help engineers measure how well the telescope will image infrared sources once in orbit.
Each mirror segment measures approximately 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) in diameter to form the 21.3 foot (6.5 meters), hexagonal telescope mirror assembly critical for infrared observations. Each of the 18 hexagonal-shaped mirror assemblies weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). The mirrors are made of a light and strong metal called beryllium, and coated with a microscopically thin coat of gold to enabling the mirror to efficiently collect light.
"The six flight mirrors sitting ready for cryogenic acceptance tests have been carefully polished to their exact prescriptions," said Helen Cole, project manager for Webb activities at Marshall. "It's taken the entire mirror development team, including all the partners, over eight years of fabrication, polishing and cryogenic testing to get to this point."
During cryogenic testing, the mirrors are subjected to extreme temperatures dipping to minus 415 degrees Fahrenheit (-248C) in a 7,600 cubic-foot (approximately 215 cubic meter) helium-cooled vacuum chamber. This permits engineers to measure in extreme detail how the shape of the mirror changes as it cools. This simulates the actual processes each mirror will undergo as it changes shape over a range of operational temperatures in space.
"This final cryotest is expected to confirm the exacting processes that have resulted in flight mirrors manufactured to tolerances as tight as 20 nanometers, or less than one millionth of an inch," said Scott Texter, Webb Optical Telescope element manager at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, Calif.
A second set of six mirror assemblies will arrive at Marshall in July to begin testing, and the final set of six will arrive during the fall.
More about the James Webb Space Telescope:
Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Editor's note: I love this factoid from the write-up: "Because this gas is about six million degrees, it only glows in X-ray light." Wow. :)
Observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed a massive cloud of multimillion-degree gas in a galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. The hot gas cloud is likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much larger galaxy called NGC 1232. If confirmed, this discovery would mark the first time such a collision has been detected only in X-rays, and could have implications for understanding how galaxies grow through similar collisions.
An image combining X-rays and optical light shows the scene of this collision. The impact between the dwarf galaxy and the spiral galaxy caused a shock wave − akin to a sonic boom on Earth – that generated hot gas with a temperature of about six million degrees. Chandra X-ray data, in purple, show the hot gas has a comet-like appearance, caused by the motion of the dwarf galaxy. Optical data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope reveal the spiral galaxy in blue and white. X-ray point sources have been removed from this image to emphasize the diffuse emission.
Near the head of the comet-shaped X-ray emission (mouse over the image for the location) is a region containing several very optically bright stars and enhanced X-ray emission. Star formation may have been triggered by the shock wave, producing bright, massive stars. In that case X-ray emission would be generated by massive star winds and by the remains of supernova explosions as massive stars evolve.
The mass of the entire gas cloud is uncertain because it cannot be determined from the two-dimensional image whether the hot gas is concentrated in a thin pancake or distributed over a large, spherical region. If the gas is a pancake, the mass is equivalent to forty thousand Suns. If it is spread out uniformly, the mass could be much larger, about three million times as massive as the Sun. This range agrees with values for dwarf galaxies in the Local Group containing the Milky Way.
The hot gas should continue to glow in X-rays for tens to hundreds of millions of years, depending on the geometry of the collision. The collision itself should last for about 50 million years. Therefore, searching for large regions of hot gas in galaxies might be a way to estimate the frequency of collisions with dwarf galaxies and to understand how important such events are to galaxy growth.
An alternative explanation of the X-ray emission is that the hot gas cloud could have been produced by supernovas and hot winds from large numbers of massive stars, all located on one side of the galaxy. The lack of evidence of expected radio, infrared, or optical features argues against this possibility.
A paper by Gordon Garmire of the Huntingdon Institute for X-ray Astronomy in Huntingdon, PA describing these results is available online and was published in the June 10th, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc1232/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Huntingdon Inst. for X-ray Astronomy/G.Garmire, Optical: ESO/VLT
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
There are now two active tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and NASA is generating satellite imagery to monitor their march westward. Tropical Storm Issac is already bringing rainfall to the Lesser Antilles today, Aug. 22, Tropical Depression 10 formed in the eastern Atlantic, and another low fizzled in the western Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Isaac formed late on Aug. 21 from Tropical Depression 9 and immediately caused warnings and watches. Tropical Depression 10 formed during the morning hours on Aug. 22 in the central Atlantic, east of Isaac and appears to be following the tropical storm on NOAA's GOES-13 satellite imagery. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Isaac over the Lesser Antilles, and newborn Tropical Depression 10 trailing behind on Aug. 22 at 1445 UTC (10:45 a.m. EDT). The image was created by the NASA GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Both storms are showing good circulation.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Isaac on Aug. 22 at 2:05 a.m. EDT, as it was bringing heavy rainfall to the Lesser Antilles. Strong thunderstorms appeared in a band of thunderstorms in Isaac's western quadrant that had cloud top temperatures as cold as -63F (-52C).
Watches and Warnings in Effect
The National Hurricane Center has posted Warnings and Watches for Tropical Storm Issac. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe and the surrounding islands, and St. Martin, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, and Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
There are also hurricane and tropical storm watches in effect. A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands; the south coast of the Dominican Republic from Isla Saona westward to the Haiti-Domenican Republic southern border. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the north coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti-Dominican Republic northern border eastward to north of Isla Saona.
Tropical Storm Isaac
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Aug. 22, Tropical Storm Isaac had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kmh), and the NHC said that strengthening is forecast. Isaac could become a hurricane by Thursday or Thursday night, Aug. 23. The center of Isaac was about 140 miles (230 km) east of Guadaloupe, near latitude 15.9 north and longitude 59.3 west. Isaac is moving westward near 21 mph (33 kmh) is expected to stay on this track over the next couple of days.
The NHC said, "On the forecast track the center of Isaac should move through the Leeward Islands this evening and pass near or south of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Thursday (Aug. 23) and approach the Dominican Republic Thursday night and Friday (Aug. 24).
Tropical Depression 10 Forms
The tenth tropical depression seemed to take a cue from Issac, because soon after tropical depression 9 strengthened into Isaac, Tropical Depression 10 (TD10) was born.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the western half of Tropical Depression 10 on Aug. 22 at 12:23 a.m. EDT, hours before it was named a depression. Scattered strong thunderstorms appeared in the western and northern quadrants of the storm, indicating strong uplift in the storm, that would later lead to its consolidation and strengthening into a depression.
TD10 came into being on Aug. 22 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It was located about 860 miles (1,385 km) west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, near 12.4 North latitude and 36.3 West longitude. TD10 is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph (26 kmh) and this general motion is expected to continue during the next couple of days. TD10 has maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 kmh), and the National Hurricane Center expects TD10 to become a tropical storm Joyce.
System 95L Fizzles Out
The third low pressure area that forecasters had been watching for possible development has fizzled out, now that it moved inland in northeastern Mexico. The NHC gives it a "near zero percent" chance of development now.
Rob Gutro
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project
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The International Space Station deployed this small satellite for the NanoRacks-Remove Debris investigation, designed to demonstrate an approach to reduce the risks presented by orbital debris or "space junk." via NASA ift.tt/2PStm1w
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
Editor's note: This is an archive image from 2003. I was looking for something pretty to evoke a feeling of "Nature's fireworks." Happy 2011 to all of our Flickr friends!
This is a composite image of Chandra X-ray (blue) and VLA radio (red) observations showing the inner 4,000 light years of a magnetized jet in Centaurus A. Purple regions are bright in both radio and X-ray. The jet originates from the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy (lower right hand corner of the image).
The radio observations, taken between 1991 and 2002, showed that the inner portion of the jet is moving away from the center of the galaxy at speeds of about half the speed of light. Most of the X-rays from the jet are produced farther out where the jet stalls as it plows through the gas in the galaxy. The collision of the jet with the galactic gas generates a powerful shock wave that produces the extremely high-energy particles responsible for the X-rays.
Because Centaurus A Jet is relatively nearby at a distance of 11 million light years, this image offers one of the most detailed looks yet at the interaction of a jet with gas in its galaxy. Jets such as the one in Centaurus A Jet are widespread phenomena in the cosmos, and represent one of the primary means for extracting energy from the vicinity of a black hole. Some jets extend over distances of a million light years. They represent a major energy source for the galaxy and are thought to affect the evolution of the host galaxy and its surroundings. The Centaurus A Jet image will help scientists to understand the effects of jets on their environment.
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Bristol U./M. Hardcastle et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/Bristol U./M. Hardcastle
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/cenajet/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
What does an aurora look like to a frog? "Awesome!" is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth's geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog's perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera's lens on top. The "diamonds" in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the "lake" is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory. via NASA ift.tt/2zVkPG3
What's wrong with this picture? If you figure it out, you may then realize where the image was taken. The oddity lies actually in one of the buildings -- it leans. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been an iconic legend since shortly after its construction began in the year 1173. Now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, folklore holds that Galileo used the leaning tower to dramatically demonstrate the gravitational principle that objects of different mass fall the same. Between the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right and Pisa Cathedral and the Pisa Baptistery on the left, a full "Thunder" moon was visible last week when the image was taken. Using modern analyses, the tower has been successfully stabilized and, barring the unexpected, should hold its present tilt for the next 200 years. via NASA ift.tt/2vtTvJQ
One of the crew members aboard the International Space Station photographed this night view of storm clouds over Southern California. Early morning lightning can be seen as a white blotch just to the right of center. The yellow colored area, beneath the grey clouds, which almost shines because of night lights, is part of the highly populated area of Los Angeles and San Diego.
Image credit: NASA
Original image:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-36/html/...
More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
View more photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/
________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.
“We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating,” said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey.”
Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, entering Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. The findings from the first data-collection pass, which flew within about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of Jupiter's swirling cloud tops on Aug. 27, are being published this week in two papers in the journal Science, as well as 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
What does an aurora look like to a frog? "Awesome!" is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth's geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog's perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera's lens on top. The "diamonds" in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the "lake" is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory. via NASA ift.tt/2zVkPG3
The Earth is a dynamic "big blue marble" and NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captures "full-disk" images of it many times over each day. On October 25, 2011 there was a lot of activity happening in North and South America from Hurricane Rina in the Caribbean to powerful frontal systems.
This full disk visible image was taken from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-13 at 1745 UTC (1:45 p.m. EDT). NOAA manages the GOES-13 satellite, but the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created the image.
In the northern hemisphere the biggest weather story is Hurricane Rina, seen in the western Caribbean Sea. Hurricane Rina is a Category two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and is expected to strengthen further before making landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. To the southeast of Rina is another tropical low pressure area that is trying to organize, but currently has a low chance of becoming a tropical depression.
Further north in the U.S. and Canada is a low pressure area situated over the province of Quebec. Clouds associated with the attached cold front are over the western Atlantic Ocean. Snow and rain are also falling over the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba today.
Meanwhile clouds associated with another low pressure area over eastern Nebraska and its warm front are bringing clouds and showers to the Ohio Valley today. On the western side of that low in the central U.S, the trailing cold front that links that low to another low pressure area over Colorado is bringing heavy snowfall to the Colorado Rockies.
In South America clouds associated with a low pressure system can be seen off the coasts of Argentina and Uruguay, in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, fair weather cumulus clouds populate the skies over Brazil. The Amazon River is also visible in Brazil between the cumulus clouds.
Image: NASA/NOAA GOES Project
Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The International Space Station deployed this small satellite for the NanoRacks-Remove Debris investigation, designed to demonstrate an approach to reduce the risks presented by orbital debris or "space junk." via NASA ift.tt/2PStm1w
The majestic Lagoon Nebula is filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebula is so big and bright that it can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the left of the open cluster's center. The featured image was taken in three colors with details are brought out by light emitted by Hydrogen Star formation continues in the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many dark dust-laden globules that exist there. via NASA ift.tt/2FkNYz9
How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable universe. In visible light, the farthest we can see comes from the cosmic microwave background, a time 13.8 billion years ago when the universe was opaque like thick fog. Some neutrinos and gravitational waves that surround us come from even farther out, but humanity does not yet have the technology to detect them. The featured image illustrates the observable universe on an increasingly compact scale, with the Earth and Sun at the center surrounded by our Solar System, nearby stars, nearby galaxies, distant galaxies, filaments of early matter, and the cosmic microwave background. Cosmologists typically assume that our observable universe is just the nearby part of a greater entity known as "the universe" where the same physics applies. However, there are several lines of popular but speculative reasoning that assert that even our universe is part of a greater multiverse where either different physical constants occur, different physical laws apply, higher dimensions operate, or slightly different-by-chance versions of our standard universe exist. via NASA ift.tt/2rtiX1F
One of the Expedition 31 crew members working in the Cupola aboard the International Space Station, flying about 240 miles above Earth, recorded this frame featuring a non-tropical cyclone located over northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Lake Manitoba (lower center) and Lake Winnipeg (lower right) are visible. The structure on the upper right is part of the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility (JEF). The hardware at top includes part of the port truss structure (solar arrays and radiators, and part of one of the ExPRESS Logistics Carriers).
Image credit: NASA/JSC
Original image:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/html/...
More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
There's a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/
View more than 400 photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
This illustration shows a hypothetical planet covered in water around the binary star system of Kepler-35A and B. With two suns in its sky, Luke Skywalker's home planet Tatooine in "Star Wars" looks like a parched, sandy desert world. In real life, we know that two-star systems can indeed support planets. via NASA ift.tt/2p9yXmD
A witch appears to be screaming out into space in this new image from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, named after its resemblance to the profile of a wicked witch. Astronomers say the billowy clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE's detectors.
The Witch Head nebula is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, just off the famous hunter's knee.
WISE was recently "awakened" to hunt for asteroids in a program called NEOWISE. The reactivation came after the spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011, when it completed two full scans of the sky, as planned.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA image captured August 2, 2011
This "full disk" image of the eastern Pacific Ocean from the GOES-11 satellite shows Hurricane Eugene (right) off the western Mexican coast on August 2, 2011 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT).
Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project
Hurricane Eugene has become a large hurricane in size and strength, and when the GOES-11 satellite captured an image of the eastern Pacific on August 2, Hurricane Eugene was very obvious because of its size.
The GOES-11 satellite, operated by NOAA, captured a "full disk" image of the eastern Pacific Ocean and showed Hurricane Eugene off the western Mexican coast on August 2, 2011 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT). Although an eye was not visible in the image, Eugene is a category 2 hurricane. Eugene's tropical storm force winds extend out to 140 miles, putting the diameter of the storm at about 280 miles.
The NASA GOES Project created the full-disk image from GOES-11, that gives a great perspective of how large a hurricane can be on the face of the earth. The NASA GOES Project is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
At 11 a.m. EDT on August 2, Eugene's maximum sustained winds were near 100 mph and it could strengthen more. Eugene continues to remain off the western Mexican coast, stirring up rough surf along the western facing beaches. It was located near 14.0 North and 109.6 West, and moving to the west-northwest near 15 mph.
Eugene is expected to continue tracking in a west-northwest direction and not affect any land areas.
Text credit:Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Cơn bão bụi khổng lồ đang bao phủ toàn bộ bề mặt sao Hỏa khiến hình ảnh vệ tinh chụp về hành tinh Đỏ hoàn toàn bị thay đổi. Dự kiến cơn bão bụi này có thể kéo dài tới cuối tháng Chín.
Cứ 6-8 năm, bão bụi quy mô lớn lại xuất hiện và bao trùm toàn bộ bề mặt sao Hỏa. Và năm nay, tàu thăm dò sao Hỏa của NASA đã phát hiện thấy những sự thay đổi bất thường trên bề mặt sao Hỏa đúng theo chu kỳ trên.
Giới khoa học lần đầu chứng kiến những trận bão bụi quy mô nhỏ xảy ra từ cuối tháng 5/2018, nhưng tính đến ngày 20/6, bão bụi đã xâm chiếm toàn bộ hành tinh Đỏ.
Trong ảnh vệ tinh mới nhất của NASA có thể thấy, bề mặt sao Hỏa hiện tại gần như bị bao trùm bởi một màu nâu đất đặc quánh. Như đã từng được phân tích, hiện tượng bão bụi trên bề mặt sao Hỏa có thể gây ảnh hưởng rất lớn tới robot thăm dò Opportunity, bởi bụi sẽ che khuất và giảm khả năng tiếp nhận năng lượng từ ánh sáng Mặt Trời.
Hình ảnh do robot thăm dò Curiosity của NASA ghi lại về cơn bão bụi đang hoành hành trên sao Hỏa
Hiện các nhà khoa học đã cho robot thăm dò Opportunity chuyển sang trạng thái ngủ đông để bảo vệ pin. Theo dự đoán, trận bão bụi khủng khiếp này sẽ kéo dài tới ít nhất là hết tháng 9/2018.
Michael Smith, một nhà khoa học tại Trung tâm Vũ trụ Goddard của NASA cho biết: "Đây là một trong những sự kiện thời tiết lớn nhất mà chúng ta từng quan sát được trên sao Hỏa kể từ khi bắt đầu tìm hiểu vũ trụ vào những năm 1960".
Hiện Smith và các nhà khoa học khác đang cố gắng tìm hiểu cơ chế nào đã khiến các cơn bão bụi nhỏ lan rộng khắp cả hành tinh. Ngoài ra, họ cũng tìm cách ghi lại dữ liệu nhiệt độ không khí của sao Hỏa. Đây có thể là nguyên nhân hàng đầu dẫn tới sự thay đổi hướng gió, từ đó khuếch đại cơn bão bụi di chuyển xa hơn khắp bề mặt hành tinh.
Hình ảnh do tàu vũ trụ Mars Express của ESA ghi lại về những đám mây bụi đang di chuyển và dần lấp hết bề mặt đất trên sao Hỏa (bên phải)
Trong lúc này, mẫu robot thăm dò sao Hỏa Curiosity của NASA vẫn tiếp tục nhiệm vụ thu thập các mẫu đá và đang nghiên cứu cơn bão từ bề mặt sao Hỏa. Thêm vào đó, các tàu vũ trụ bay theo quỹ đạo sao Hỏa đang tích cực nghiên cứu bầu không khí của sao Hỏa từ độ cao hơn 100km so với bề mặt đất.
Những thay đổi mới nhất về hành tinh Đỏ sẽ liên tục được NASA cập nhật tới tất cả mọi người trên khắp thế giới.
Tiến Thanh