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Sunlit Side of the Planet Mercury: Another day, another beautiful view of Mercury's horizon. In this scene, which was acquired looking from the shadows toward the sunlit side of the planet, a 120-km (75 mi.) impact crater stands out near the center. Emanating from this unnamed crater are striking chains of secondary craters, which gouged linear tracks radially away from the crater. While this crater is not especially fresh (its rays have faded into the background), it does appear to have more prominent secondary crater chains than many of its peers. This image was acquired on Oct. 2, 2013 by the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, as part of the MDIS's limb imaging campaign. Once per week, MDIS captures images of Mercury's limb, with an emphasis on imaging the southern hemisphere limb. These limb images provide information about Mercury's shape and complement measurements of topography made by the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) of Mercury's northern hemisphere. The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the solar system's innermost planet. During the first two years of orbital operations, MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington #solarsystem #mercury #messenger #nasa #apl #space #planets #craters; -
Hubble Tracks a Monster in the Milky Way: This image shows the star-studded center of the Milky Way towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The crowded center of our galaxy contains numerous complex and mysterious objects that are usually hidden at optical wavelengths by clouds of dust — but many are visible here in these infrared observations from Hubble. However, the most famous cosmic object in this image still remains invisible: the monster at our galaxy’s heart called Sagittarius A*. Astronomers have observed stars spinning around this supermassive black hole (located right in the center of the image), and the black hole consuming clouds of dust as it affects its environment with its enormous gravitational pull. Infrared observations can pierce through thick obscuring material to reveal information that is usually hidden to the optical observer. This is the best infrared image of this region ever taken with Hubble, and uses infrared archive data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, taken in September 2011. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Brammer #hubble #nasa #space #stars #star #milkyway #universe #nofilter; -
Antarctic Ozone Hole Slightly Smaller than Average This Year: The ozone hole that forms each year in the stratosphere over Antarctica was slightly smaller in 2013 than average in recent decades, according to NASA satellite data. This video shows the latest false-color view of total ozone over the Antarctic pole. The purple and blue colors are where there is the least ozone, and the yellows and reds are where there is more ozone. The ozone hole is a seasonal phenomenon that starts to form during the Antarctic spring (August and September). The September-October 2013 average size of the hole was 8.1 million square miles (21 million square kilometers). For comparison, the average size measured since the mid-1990s when the annual maximum size stopped growing is 8.7 million square miles (22.5 million square kilometers). However, the size of the hole in any particular year is not enough information for scientists to determine whether a healing of the hole has begun. Video credit: NASA #ozone #ozonehole #antarctic #antarctica #science #nasa #earth #atmosphere; -
Solar Filament Eruption Creates 'Canyon of Fire': A magnetic filament of solar material erupted on the sun in late September, breaking the quiet conditions in a spectacular fashion. The 200,000 mile long filament ripped through the sun's atmosphere, the corona, leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire. The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the filament aloft before the explosion. In reality, the sun is not made of fire, but of something called plasma: particles so hot that their electrons have boiled off, creating a charged gas that is interwoven with magnetic fields. These images were captured on Sept. 29-30, 2013, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, which constantly observes the sun in a variety of wavelengths. Different wavelengths help capture different aspect of events in the corona. The red images shown in the movie help highlight plasma at temperatures of 90,000° F and are good for observing filaments as they form and erupt. The yellow images, showing temperatures at 1,000,000° F, are useful for observing material coursing along the sun's magnetic field lines, seen in the movie as an arcade of loops across the area of the eruption. The browner images at the beginning of the movie show material at temperatures of 1,800,000° F, and it is here where the canyon of fire imagery is most obvious. By comparing this with the other colors, one sees that the two swirling ribbons moving farther away from each other are, in fact, the footprints of the giant magnetic field loops, which are growing and expanding as the filament pulls them upward. Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory #solar #sdo #nasa #space #sunpix #sun; -
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Orion ground test vehicle has been lifted high in the air by crane in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The ground test vehicle is being used for pathfinding operations, including simulated manufacturing, assembly and stacking procedures. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of Orion, Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 is scheduled to launch in 2014. EFT-1 will be Orion's first mission, which will send an uncrewed spacecraft 3,600 miles into Earth's orbit. As part of the test flight, Orion will return to Earth at a speed of approximately 20,000 mph for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis #orion #nasa #nasakennedy #kennedyspacecenter #humansinspace #space;
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What's it like to fly along with the SOFIA mission? In this time-lapse, you see the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope during a scientific observation gathering mission. SOFIA is a heavily modified 747SP aircraft that carries a telescope with an effective diameter of 100 inches (2.5 meters) to altitudes above 39,000 feet (12 km), beyond the obscuring layer of water vapor in Earth's atmosphere. In this video, it appears SOFIA moves — but in reality, the telescope stays extremely stable and steady during observations. The motion seen in this video is actually the airplane moving around the telescope, which is steady. The telescope is designed this way to account for turbulence so that it is stable for accurate observations. SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) that is based at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. The SOFIA Science Center is located at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Cailf. Video credit: Dr. Daniel Angerhausen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute #sofia #telescope #space #sky #universe #747 #airplane #nasa; -
Are there salt flats on Titan? This false-color mosaic, made from infrared data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, reveals the differences in the composition of surface materials around hydrocarbon lakes at Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Titan is the only other place in the solar system that we know has stable liquid on its surface, though its lakes are made of liquid ethane and methane rather than liquid water. While there is one large lake and a few smaller ones near Titan's south pole, almost all of Titan's lakes appear near the moon's north pole. The orange areas are thought to be evaporite -- the Titan equivalent of salt flats on Earth. The evaporated material is thought to be organic chemicals originally from Titan's haze particles that once dissolved in liquid methane. They appear orange in this image against the greenish backdrop of Titan's typical bedrock of water ice. This image highlights a high-resolution strip and shows the north pole marked with a red cross. Other smaller lakes are also labeled. The data shown here were obtained by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer during a close flyby of Titan on Sept. 12, 2013. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/University of Idaho #cassini #saturn #titan #saturnmoon #solarsystem #salt #nasa #space #planets #moon #moons; -
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Expedition 37 flight engineer; Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin (center), commander; and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, flight engineer, pose for a photo in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has had crew members continuous on board since November 2000. In that time, it has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars. Image Credit: NASA #station #iss #spacestation #astronauts #space #nasa #esa #roscosmos #kibo; -
Cygnus Seen Leaving the International Space Station: Expedition 37 crew members aboard the International Space Station released Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft from the station's robotic arm at 7:31 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22. Orbital Sciences engineers now will conduct a series of planned burns and maneuvers to move Cygnus toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, Oct. 23. Cygnus had been attached to the space station's Harmony module for 23 days. The spacecraft delivered about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing and student experiments, on a demonstration cargo resupply mission to the station. Cygnus was launched on Orbital's Antares rocket on Sept. 18 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Image Credit: NASA/Karen Nyberg #cygnus #iss #spacestation #cargo #lowearthorbit #space #nasa #astronauts #lifeinspace #orbital #orbitalsciences; -
Cygnus Releases from International Space Station: Expedition 37 crew members aboard the International Space Station released Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft from the station's robotic arm at 7:31 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22. Orbital Sciences engineers now will conduct a series of planned burns and maneuvers to move Cygnus toward a destructive re-entry in Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, Oct. 23. Cygnus had been attached to the space station's Harmony module for 23 days. The spacecraft delivered about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing and student experiments, on a demonstration cargo resupply mission to the station. Cygnus was launched on Orbital's Antares rocket on Sept. 18 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Image Credit: NASA/Karen Nyberg #cygnus #iss #spacestation #cargo #lowearthorbit #space #nasa #astronauts #lifeinspace #orbital #orbitalsciences;
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Observing Hurricane Raymond Lashing Western Mexico: Low pressure System 96E developed quickly over the weekend of Oct. 19 and 20 and by Oct. 21 had grown into Hurricane Raymond. NOAA's GOES-West satellite took an infrared image of Hurricane Raymond this morning, Oct. 21 at 1200 UTC/8 a.m. EDT when it was a major hurricane and it was lashing western Mexico. The NASA GOES Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created this image using data from the NOAA satellite. On Oct. 21 Hurricane warnings and watches were in effect as Raymond brought heavy rains, gusty winds and rough seas to western Mexico. Image Credit: NASA GOES Project #raymond #hurricane #goes #nasa #noaa #space #earth #storms #severestorms #rainfall #heavyrain #weather; -
The first Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences is seen here attached to the International Space Station's Harmony node. This week, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft that was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Sept.18, will complete its successful maiden cargo mission on Tuesday when it un-berths from the International Space Station and burns up harmlessly in Earth’s atmosphere during re-entry the following day. Orbital Sciences Corp. joins SpaceX as NASA’s second American commercial partner capable of successful resupply missions to the ISS. Image credit: NASA #cygnus #iss #spacestation #cargo #lowearthorbit #space #nasa #astronauts #lifeinspace #orbital #orbitalsciences; -
Earth -- as seen by the Juno spacecraft flying by our home planet on October 9, 2013: In this image of Earth taken by JunoCam, you can see observations made during Juno’s Earth flyby gravity assist that was completed earlier this month. Several Juno science instruments made planned observations during the approach to Earth, including the Advanced Stellar Compass, JunoCam and Waves. These observations provided a useful opportunity to test the instruments during a close planetary encounter and ensure that they work as designed. The main goal of the flyby – to give the spacecraft the boost it needed in order to reach Jupiter – was accomplished successfully. The Juno spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on August 5, 2011 toward Jupiter. Juno’s rocket, the Atlas 551, was only capable of giving Juno enough energy or speed to reach the asteroid belt, at which point the Sun’s gravity pulled Juno back toward the inner solar system. The Earth flyby gravity assist was planned as part of Juno’s trajectory to increase the spacecraft’s speed relative to the Sun so that it is sufficient to reach Jupiter. (The spacecraft’s speed relative to Earth remains constant.) Because of the flyby, Juno’s velocity relative to the Sun increases from 78,000 miles (126,000 kilometers) per hour to 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) per hour. Juno is moving much faster than satellites that orbit the Earth because Juno is orbiting the Sun, not Earth. As of Oct. 17, Juno was approximately 4.4 million miles (7.1 million kilometers) from Earth. The one-way radio signal travel time between Earth and Juno is currently about 24 seconds. Juno has now traveled 1.01 billion miles (1.63 billion kilometers, or 10.9 AU) since launch. With the Earth flyby completed, Juno is now on course for arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems #nasa #space #earth #juno #earthflyby #flyby #homeplanet #solarsystem #planets #jupiter #junocam; -
Hubble Watched a Pulsating Stellar Relic: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the planetary nebula NGC 2452, located in the southern constellation of Puppis. The blue haze across the frame is what remains of a star like our sun after it has depleted all its fuel. When this happens, the core of the star becomes unstable and releases huge numbers of incredibly energetic particles that blow the star's atmosphere away into space. At the center of this blue cloud lies what remains of the nebula's progenitor star. This cool, dim, and extremely dense star is actually a pulsating white dwarf, meaning that its brightness varies over time as gravity causes waves that pulse throughout the small star's body. NGC 2452 was discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1847. He initially defined it as "an object whose nature I cannot make out. It is certainly not a star, nor a close double star [...] I should call it an oblong planetary nebula." To early observers like Herschel with their smaller telescopes, planetary nebulae resembled gaseous planets, and so were named accordingly. The name has stuck, although modern telescopes like Hubble have made it clear that these objects are not planets at all, but the outer layers of dying stars being thrown off into space. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgements: Luca Limatola, Budeanu Cosmin Mirel #hubble #space #nebula #universe #hubblespacetelescope #hst #nasa #esa #star #stars; -
High Above Saturn: This portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings was created from images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 10, 2013. It was made by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic. This image has not been geometrically corrected for shifts in the spacecraft perspective and still has some camera artifacts.The mosaic was created from 12 image footprints with red, blue and green filters from Cassini's imaging science subsystem. Ugarkovic used full color sets for 11 of the footprints and red and blue images for one footprint. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic #saturn #saturnrings #rings #nasa #space #planets #solarsystem #cassini;
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