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One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy, how stars blow up in supernova explosions, is unraveling thanks to new data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. In this image of Cassiopeia A, NuSTAR data, which show high-energy X-rays from radioactive material, are colored blue. Lower-energy X-rays from non-radioactive material are shown in red, yellow and green. Cassiopeia A is the remains of a star that blew up in a supernova event whose light reached Earth about 350 years ago, when it could have appeared to observers as a star that suddenly brightened. The remnant is located 11,000 light-years away from Earth. When massive star explode, they create many elements: non-radioactive ones like iron and calcium found in your blood and bones; and radioactive elements like titanium-44, the decay of which sends out high-energy X-ray light that NuSTAR can see. By mapping titanium-44 in Cassiopeia A, astronomers get a direct look at what happened in the core of the star when it was blasted to smithereens. The fact that the titanium -- which is a direct tracer of the supernova blast -- is concentrated in clumps at the core supports a theory referred to as "mild asymmetries." In this scenario, material sloshes about at the heart of the supernova, reinvigorating a shock wave and allowing it to blow out the star's outer layers. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CXC/SAO #nasa #star #supernova #nustar #space #science #titanium #cassiopeia; -
Martian Dunes Flying in Formation - Migratory birds and military aircraft often fly in a V-shaped formation. The “V” formation greatly boosts the efficiency and range of flying birds, because all except the first fly in the upward motion of air -- called upwash -- from the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead. In this image of a dune field on Mars in a large crater near Mawrth Vallis, some of the dunes appear to be in a V-shaped formation. For dune fields, the spacing of individual dunes is a function of sand supply, wind speed, and topography. This image was acquired by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec. 30, 2013. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona #mars #nasa #space #planets #mro #hirise #solarsystem #science #geology; -
Coronal Loops in an Active Region of the Sun! An active region of the sun just rotating into the view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory gives a profile view of coronal loops over about a two-day period, from Feb. 8-10, 2014. Coronal loops are found around sunspots and in active regions. These structures are associated with the closed magnetic field lines that connect magnetic regions on the solar surface. Many coronal loops last for days or weeks, but most change quite rapidly. This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet light. Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory #sdo #sun #solar #solarsystem #nasa #science #coronal; -
No, it's not our moon. It's Saturn's moon Dione. And although the crack-like features seen here on Dione's surface appear wispy and faded, they are in reality a series of geologically fresh fractures! Lit terrain seen here is on the trailing hemisphere of Dione. North on Dione (698 miles, or 1,123 kilometers across) is up and rotated 29 degrees to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2013. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 554,000 miles (892,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is three miles (five kilometers) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #saturn #dione #moon #space #science #geology #planets #solarsystem; -
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has seen a fast-moving pulsar escaping from a supernova remnant while spewing out a record-breaking jet – the longest of any object in the Milky Way galaxy -- of high-energy particles. The pulsar, a type of neutron star, is known as IGR J11014-6103. IGR J11014-6103's peculiar behavior can likely be traced back to its birth in the collapse and subsequent explosion of a massive star. Originally discovered with the European Space Agency satellite INTEGRAL, the pulsar is located about 60 light-years away from the center of the supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A in the constellation of Carina. Its implied speed is between 2.5 million and 5 million mph, making it one of the fastest pulsars ever observed. The X-ray jet in IGR J11014-6103 is the longest known in the Milky Way galaxy. In addition to its impressive span, it has a distinct corkscrew pattern that suggests the pulsar is wobbling like a spinning top. This composite image shows the extraordinary jet trailing behind a runaway pulsar. It contains data from Chandra (purple), radio data from the ACTA (green), and optical data from the 2MASS survey (red, green, and blue). The pulsar and its tail are found in the lower right of this image. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/ISDC #nasa #space #chandra #xray #milkyway #galaxy;
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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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