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The Big Chill - Blistering cold air from the Arctic plunged southward this winter, breaking U.S. temperature records. A persistent pattern of winds spins high above the Arctic in winter. The winds, known as the polar vortex, typically blow in a fairly tight circular formation. But in late December 2013 and early January 2014, the winds loosened and frigid Arctic air spilled farther south than usual, deep into the continental United States. On Jan. 6, 2014, alone, approximately 50 daily record low temperatures were set, from Colorado to Alabama to New York, according to the National Weather Service. In some places temperatures were 40 degrees Fahrenheit colder than average. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA #weather #nasa #temperature #climate #polarvortex #arctic #winter #cold #earth #science; -
Aboard the International Space Station, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata tweeted this image from @Astro_Wakata. His post read, "Flying over US east coast.” The six-member Expedition 38 crew wrapped up last week with more biomedical work. The international space residents also continued ongoing microgravity research, inventoried gear from a new space freighter and trained for the upcoming Cygnus release. Flight Engineers Mike Hopkins and Wakata are also getting ready for Tuesday’s farewell to Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus commercial cargo craft berthed to the Harmony node. The pair teamed up again to train for the robotics work necessary for Cygnus’ grapple then release with the Canadarm2. Cygnus is planned to be released Tuesday at 6:40 a.m. EST. Hopkins and Wakata will be in the cupola grappling then releasing the Cygnus with the Canadarm2. Watch the activities on NASA TV beginning at 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. CREDIT: NASA #nasa #space #iss #spacestation #jaxa #science #orbital #orb1 #cygnus; -
This globular cluster is a densely packed ball of stars bound together by gravity. It lies just over 75,000 light-years away from us on the other side of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is a peculiar cluster, quite unlike others we observe, making it an intriguing object of study for astronomers. Evidence shows that Terzan 7 used to belong to a small galaxy called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, a mini-galaxy discovered in 1994. This galaxy is currently colliding with, and being absorbed by, the Milky Way, which is a monster in size when compared to this tiny one. It seems that this cluster has already been kidnapped from its former home and now is part of our own galaxy.All the stars in Terzan 7 were born at around the same time, and are about eight billion years old. This is unusually young for such a cluster. The shared birthday is another uncommon property; a large number of globular clusters, both in the Milky Way and in other galaxies, seem to have at least two clearly differentiated generations of stars that were born at different times. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Sarajedini (University of Florida) #nasa #hubble #hst #galaxy #milkyway #space #science; -
It looked like someone had installed the wings on backwards, and it was so unstable in flight that no pilot could fly it without the help of a computer, but the X-29A was a marvel in its day and provided research information useful for many aircraft designs still to come. A pair of the Grumman-built X-29A experimental aircraft flew 436 times between December 1984 and August 1992, with all but 14 of those trips into the air serving as research flights – a record for X-planes at that time. One of the strangest looking airplanes ever flown in modern times, its extraordinary story is told in "Sweeping Forward: Developing and Flight Testing the Grumman X-29A Forward Swept Wing Research Aircraft," a publication in NASA's aeronautics book series. The 328-page book was written by Frederick Johnsen, a former NASA public affairs director of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and recently retired director of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. Download your copy of this and other e-Books at http://www.nasa.gov/ebooks Image credit: NASA #nasaaero #areonautics #flying #planes #x29a #xplanes #aircraft #flight; -
One year ago, on Feb. 15, 2013, the world was witness to the dangers presented by near-Earth Objects (NEOs) when a relatively small asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere, exploding over Chelyabinsk, Russia, and releasing more energy than a large atomic bomb. Tracking near-Earth asteroids has been a significant endeavor for NASA and the broader astronomical community, which has discovered 10,713 known near-Earth objects to date. NASA is now pursuing new partnerships and collaborations in an Asteroid Grand Challenge to accelerate NASA’s existing planetary defense work, which will help find all asteroid threats to human population and know what to do about them. In parallel, NASA is developing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) -- a first-ever mission to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid to a safe orbit of Earth's moon for future exploration by astronauts in the 2020s. This concept image shows an astronaut preparing to take samples from the captured asteroid after it has been relocated to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system. Hundreds of rings are affixed to the asteroid capture bag, helping the astronaut carefully navigate the surface. Image credit: NASA #RussianMeteor #Meteor #Asteroid #Asteroids #Meteors #nasa #space #astronauts;
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#NASALove from the Red Planet: Mars is red, so don't be blue. Hearts abound from us to you! From the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) team, this collection of images acquired over 3 Mars years shows some of the heart-shaped features found on Mars by the team: The heart in E04-01788 is a low mesa located near 46.7°N, 29.0°W, and is about 636 m (2,086 ft) wide. The heart in R10-03259 is a depression located near 22.7°N, 56.6°W, and is about 378 m (1,240 ft) wide. The heart in R09-02121 is a small mesa on a crater floor located near 37.2°S, 324.7°W, and is about 120 m (395 ft) wide. The heart in R09-00918 is a depression located near 35.8°N, 220.5°W, and is about 525 m (1,722 ft) wide. The heart in R04-00395 is a depression in which occurs a low mesa located near 57.5°N, 135.0°W, and is about 1 km (~0.62 mi) wide. The heart in E11-00090 is a depression located near 0.2°N, 119.3°W, and is about 485 m (1,591 ft) wide. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems #nasa #mars #hearts #valentines #valentinesday #valentine #love #space; -
Happy Valentine's Day! Here's more #NASALove -- We're always over the moon for you with our Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. Earlier this month, LADEE successfully downlinked images of the moon and stars taken by onboard camera systems, known as star trackers. This is the first time the LADEE team commanded the spacecraft to send these pictures back to Earth. The main job of a star tracker is to snap images of the surrounding star field so that the spacecraft can internally calculate its orientation in space. It completes this task many times per minute. The accuracy of each of LADEE's instruments' measurements depends on the star tracker calculating the precise orientation of the spacecraft. Given the critical nature of its assignment, a star tracker doesn't use ordinary cameras. Star trackers' lenses have a wide-angle field of view in order to capture the night sky in a single frame. The images shown here were acquired on Feb. 8, 2014, around 23:45 UTC, while LADEE was carrying out atmospheric measurements. The series of five images were taken at one-minute intervals, and caught features in the northern western hemisphere of the moon. LADEE was traveling approximately 60 miles (100 km) per minute along its orbit. All images were taken during lunar night, but with Earthshine illuminating the surface. Image credit: NASA #nasa #moon #ladee #space #firstpics #moonpics #moonpix #lunar; -
A Valentine’s Day Mystery! Our Chandra Observatory sees a heart in the darkness - This young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region. Evidence from radio, optical and ultraviolet telescopes suggests that the hot cloud, which is about 100 light years across, is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred thousands of years ago. The progenitor could have been a companion of the massive young star that is responsible for the bright X-ray source at the top center of the image. This young star, HD 5980, one of the most massive known, has been observed to undergo dramatic eruptions during the last decade. An alternative model for the origin of the hot cloud is that eruptions of HD 5980 long ago produced the cloud of hot gas, in a manner similar to the gas cloud observed around the massive star Eta Carinae. Future observations will be needed to decide between the alternatives. Until then, the nature of the heart in the darkness will remain mysterious. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Liege/Y.Nazé et al. #nasa #nasalove #space #heart #valentines #valentinesday #valentine #love #chandra #supernova #xray #star #cloud; -
Happy Valentine's Day! Here's #NASALove to celebrate -- like this cosmic rose from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer captured in 2004 with its infrared eyes a pink and green rose-like picture of a cluster of newborn stars known as a nebula. "The picture is more than just pretty," said Dr. Thomas Megeath, principal investigator for the latest observations and an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. "It helps us understand how stars form in the crowded environments of stellar nurseries." Located 3,330 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus and spanning 10 light-years across, the rosebud-shaped nebula, numbered NGC 7129, is home to some 130 young stars. Our own Sun is believed to have grown up in a similar family setting. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA #valentines #valentinesday #valentine #rose #cosmicrose #love #spitzer #nebula #nasa #space; -
Understanding the region of interstellar space through which the solar system travels is no easy task. Interstellar space begins beyond the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets. Voyager 1 has crossed into this space, but it’s difficult to gain a complete global picture from measurements in only one direction. Spacecraft data in the past five years from near Earth and cosmic ray observations have painted a better picture of the magnetic system that surrounds us, while at the same time raising new questions. Scientists are challenging our current understanding in a new study that combines observations of massively energetic cosmic ray particles streaming in from elsewhere in the Milky Way. The data sets show a magnetic field that is nearly perpendicular to the motion of our solar system through the galaxy. In addition to shedding light on our cosmic neighborhood, the results offer an explanation for a decades-old mystery on why we measure more incoming high-energy cosmic rays on one side of the sun than on the other. This image is a model of the interstellar magnetic fields – which would otherwise be straight -- warping around the outside of our heliosphere, based on data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer. The red arrow shows the direction in which the solar system moves through the galaxy. Image Credit: NASA/IBEX/UNH #nasa #planets #solarsystem #spacecraft #ibex #voyager #magneticfield #interstellar #milkyway #galaxy #space #particles;
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No, this isn’t used for clearing snow. The crawler-transporter that will carry NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B for launch on Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 recently passed the first phase of an important milestone test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Testing of new traction roller bearings on crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) was completed in late January. Engineers and technicians performed visual inspections of the roller bearing pumps, valves and lines to ensure they were working properly. For more than 45 years the crawler-transporters were used to transport the mobile launcher platform and the Apollo-Saturn V rockets and, later, space shuttles to Launch Pads 39A and B. Upgrades to CT-2 are necessary in order to increase the lifted-load capacity from 12 million to 18 million pounds to support the weight of the mobile launcher and future launch vehicles, including the SLS and Orion. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett #nasa #orion #sls #space #rocket #kennedy #launchpad; -
A new NASA video of NOAA's GOES satellite imagery shows three days of movement of the massive winter storm that stretches from the southern U.S. to the northeast. Visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-East or GOES-13 satellite from Feb. 10 at 1815 UTC/1:15 p.m. EST to Feb. 12 to 1845 UTC/1:45 p.m. EST were compiled into a video made by NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. In the video, viewers can see the development and movement of the clouds associated with the progression of the frontal system and related low pressure areas that make up the massive storm. The video also shows the snow covered ground over the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley that stretches to northern New England. The clouds and fallen snow data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite were overlaid on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites. On February 12 at 10 a.m. EST, @NOAA's National Weather Service or NWS continued to issue watches and warnings from Texas to New England. Specifically, NWS cited Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories were in effect from eastern Texas eastward across the interior section of southeastern U.S. states and across much of the eastern seaboard including the Appalachians. Winter storm watches are in effect for portions of northern New England as well as along the western slopes of northern and central Appalachians. For updates on local forecasts, watches and warnings, visit NOAA's www.weather.gov webpage. Video credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project #goes #winterstorm #weather #satellites #nasa #noaa #weathersat #wx #snow #ice #clouds; -
Floating off into space… a set of NanoRacks CubeSats are deployed from International Space Station - The Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD), in the grasp of the Kibo laboratory robotic arm, is photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member on the space station as it deploys a set of NanoRacks CubeSats. The CubeSats program contains a variety of experiments such as Earth observations and advanced electronics testing. Station solar array panels, Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #satellite #space #nasa #iss #spacestation #cubesat #exp38; -
Movie of Curiosity's View Backwards While Crossing Dune - The series of nine images making up this animation were taken by the rear Hazard-Avoidance Camera (rear Hazcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover drove over a dune spanning "Dingo Gap" on Mars. The Hazcam, mounted low on the vehicle's chassis, provides a wide-angle view. Curiosity made this 23-foot (7 meter) drive during the 535th Martian day, or sol, of its work on Mars (Feb. 6, 2014). At the start of the drive, the rover's right-front wheel was already at the crest of the 3-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) dune, with the rover still pointed uphill. By the last three images in the series, the rover was headed downhill. The light-toned dome on the right side of the horizon is part of Mount Sharp. This drive was westward. The rover's long-term destination on the lower slope of Mount Sharp is still farther west and south from the rover's current location. Dingo Gap provided an entryway into a valley to the west. The valley appealed to the rover team as a driving route because its terrain includes fewer sharp rocks than alternative routes considered. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech #mars #nasa #space #spaceimages #msl #curiosity #marscuriosity #marsrovers #planets #redplanet #solarsystem #nofilter; -
Sochi Olympic Park Viewed From the International Space Station - An Expedition 38 crew member aboard the #ISS took this photograph of Sochi Olympic Park at night. Fisht Olympic Stadium and the flame are visible. The station continues the NASA tradition of Earth observation from human-tended spacecraft. Operational since November 2000, the ISS is well suited for documenting Earth features and provides an excellent stage for observing most populated areas of the world. Images coming down from the International Space Station are processed on a daily basis and include over 1.2 million images through Nov. 1, 2013. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #olympics #sochi2014 #sochi #olympic #spacestation #space #earthobs #earthpix #earth #fisht;
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