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Explore the universe and discover our home planet with the official NASA Instagram account
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What happens when the work of amateur astronomers and astrophotographers is combined with the data from some of the world's most sophisticated space telescopes? Collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers reveal the possibilities and are intended to raise interest and awareness among the community of the wealth of data publicly available in NASA's various mission archives. This effort is particularly appropriate for this month because April marks Global Astronomy Month, the world's largest global celebration of astronomy. The images in this quartet of galaxies represent a sample of composites created with X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and optical data collected by an amateur astronomer. In these images, the X-rays from Chandra are shown in pink, infrared emission from Spitzer is red, and the optical data are in red, green, and blue. The two astrophotographers who donated their images for these four images -- Detlef Hartmann and Rolf Olsen -- used their personal telescopes of 17.5 inches and 10 inches in diameter respectively. More details on how these images were made can be found in this blog post. Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise, the galaxies are M101 (the "Pinwheel Galaxy"), M81, Centaurus A, and M51 (the "Whirlpool Galaxy"). M101 is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way, but about 70% bigger. It is located about 21 million light years from Earth. M81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light years away that is both relatively large in the sky and bright, making it a frequent target for both amateur and professional astronomers. Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky -- making it an ideal target for amateur astronomers -- and is famous for the dust lane across its middle and a giant jet blasting away from the supermassive black hole at its center. Finally, M51 is another spiral galaxy, about 30 million light years away, that is in the process of merging with a smaller galaxy seen to its upper left. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Detlef Hartmann; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech #chandra #nasa #universe #galaxy #space #xray #chandraxray; -
NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Rick Mastracchio completed a short spacewalk from the International Space Station this morning to replace a failed Multiplexer/Demultiplexer back up computer. The backup computer failed April 11 after a routine health check by the Mission Control team in Houston. While the primary computer continues operating flawlessly NASA managers ordered Wednesday’s spacewalk repair to ensure redundancy on critical systems. The computer outage did not pose a risk to the six crew members aboard the space station. While out for the spacewalk, Mastracchio snapped this image of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft attached to the ISS and shared it on Twitter following the conclusion of today's spacewalk. Image credit: NASA #spacex #iss #exp39 #nasa #space #spacestation #station; -
Our radar imaging mission got underway in early April to collect data over targets in the Gulf Coast area of the southeastern United States. Our C-20A aircraft, a modified Gulfstream III, is carrying the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument in a specialized pod. Research during the deployment is covering a variety of topics, including volcanoes, glaciers, forest structure, levees, and subsidence. It is also providing vegetation data sets for satellite algorithm development. The volcanoes of Central and South America are of interest because of the hazard they pose to nearby population centers. A majority of the research will focus on gathering volcano deformation measurements. Surface deformation often precedes other signs of renewed volcanic activity. This photo of volcanoes in Guatemala was taken over Central and South America. The conical volcano in the center is "Volcan de Agua." The two volcanoes behind it are, right to left, "Volcan de Fuego" and "Acatenango." "Volcan de Pacaya" is in the foreground. Image Credit: NASA/Stu Broce #nasa #volcano #science #earth #earthrightnow #guatemala; -
This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on December 7, 1972. The original caption is reprinted below: View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap. This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap. Note the heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere. Almost the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the coast of Africa is the Malagasy Republic. The Asian mainland is on the horizon toward the northeast. Image credit: NASA #nasa #earthday #earthrightnow #apollo #earth #apollo17; -
Today, April 22, 2014 is Earth Day, and what better way to celebrate than taking a look at our home planet from space. NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured this stunning view of the Americas on Earth Day, April 22, 2014 at 11:45 UTC/7:45 a.m. EDT. The data from GOES-East was made into an image by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. GOES satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. Geostationary describes an orbit in which a satellite is always in the same position with respect to the rotating Earth. This allows GOES to hover continuously over one position on Earth's surface, appearing stationary. As a result, GOES provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes. Image credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project #nasa @noaa #goes #earth #earthrightnow #earthday;
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For the first time in more than a decade, five NASA Earth-observing missions will be launched into space in a single year. To celebrate this milestone, NASA is inviting people all around the world to step outside on Earth Day, April 22, take a "selfie," and share it with the world on social media. Designed to encourage environmental awareness and recognize the agency's ongoing work to protect our home planet, NASA's "Global Selfie" event asks people everywhere to take a picture of themselves in their local environment. On Earth Day, NASA will monitor photos posted to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr. Photos posted to Twitter, Instagram or Google+ using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie, or to the #GlobalSelfie Facebook event page and the #GlobalSelfie Flickr group will be used to create a crowd-sourced mosaic image of Earth – a new “Blue Marble” built bit-by-bit with #GlobalSelfie photos. NASA’s 17 Earth science missions now in orbit help scientists piece together a detailed "global selfie" of our planet day after day. Insights from these space-based views help answer some of the critical challenges facing our planet today and in the future: climate change, sea level rise, freshwater resources, and extreme weather events. NASA Earth research also yields many down-to-earth benefits, such as improved environmental prediction and natural hazard and climate change preparedness. For more information on getting involved in the #GlobalSelfie Earth Day event, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/globalselfie #selfie #nasa #space #earthday #earthrightnow; -
Earth Day is tomorrow, April 22! We invite you -- and everyone else on the planet -- to take part in a worldwide celebration of Earth Day this year with the agency's #GlobalSelfie event. Five of our missions are designed to gather critical data about our home planet are launching to space this year. We're marking this big year for Earth science with a campaign called Earth Right Now, and as part of this campaign the agency is asking for your help this Earth Day. While our satellites constantly look at Earth from space, on Earth Day we're asking you to step outside and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth. Then post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on Oct. 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail. This color image required a fair amount of processing to make a nice-looking release. The moon image is unsaturated but brightened relative to Earth for this composite. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona #nasa #earth #earthrightnow #globalselfie #earthday #moon #mars #hirise #uarizona; -
SpaceX Dragon Caputered by Robotic Arm! On Sunday, April 20, the Expedition 39 crew aboard the International Space Station welcomed nearly two-and-a-half tons of supplies and scientific payloads to the station with the arrival of the third SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo spacecraft. This image of SpaceX Dragon grappled by Canadarm2 was sent down by Flight Engineer Steve Swanson to Instagram with the message, "We have a Dragon. All is good." With Dragon securely in the grasp of Canadarm2, the robotics officer at Mission Control remotely operated the arm to install the capsule to its port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module. Once Dragon was in place, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio monitored the Common Berthing Mechanism operations for first and second stage capture of the cargo ship, assuring that the vehicle was securely attached to the station with a hard mate. Second stage capture was completed at 10:06 a.m. EDT as the station flew 260 miles above Brazil. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #spacex3 #dragon #astronauts #science #space #spacestation #iss; -
As seen on #Cosmos: Meteors Shooting stars, or meteors, are bits of interplanetary material falling through Earth's atmosphere and heated to incandescence by friction. These objects are called meteoroids as they are hurtling through space, becoming meteors for the few seconds they streak across the sky and create glowing trails. Scientists estimate that 44 tonnes (44,000 kilograms, about 48.5 tons) of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day. Several meteors per hour can usually be seen on any given night. Sometimes the number increases dramatically - these events are termed meteor showers. Some occur annually or at regular intervals as the Earth passes through the trail of dusty debris left by a comet. Meteor showers are usually named after a star or constellation that is close to where the meteors appear in the sky. Perhaps the most famous are the Perseids, which peak around 12 August every year. Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which swings by the Sun every 135 years. Other meteor showers and their associated comets are the Leonids (Tempel-Tuttle), the Aquarids and Orionids (Halley), and the Taurids (Encke). Most comet dust in meteor showers burns up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground; some dust is captured by high-altitude aircraft and analyzed in NASA laboratories. Chunks of rock and metal from asteroids and other planetary bodies that survive their journey through the atmosphere and fall to the ground are called meteorites. Most meteorites found on Earth are pebble to fist size, but some are larger than a build-ing. Early Earth experienced many large meteorite impacts that caused extensive destruction. Image credit: NASA/JPL #meteor #meteorite #nasa #space; -
Researchers were greatly surprised to discover 3-million-year-old landscape beneath Greenland Ice Sheet! The finding provides strong evidence that the Greenland Ice Sheet has persisted much longer than previously known, enduring through many past periods of global warming. The new discovery indicates that even during the warmest periods since the ice sheet formed, the center of Greenland remained stable. "It’s likely that it did not fully melt at any time," said University of Vermont geologist and lead author Paul Bierman. This allowed a tundra landscape to be locked away, unmodified, under ice through millions of years of global warming and cooling. Image Credit: Joshua Brown, University of Vermont #ice #green;and #nasa #science #climate #climatechange #greenlandicesheet;
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And liftoff! SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 3:25 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. and is on its way to the International Space Station. Dragon's twin solar arrays deployed on schedule less than 15 minutes after launch. They will allow the spacecraft to recharge its batteries on its way to the space station. The scientific payloads on Dragon include investigations that focus on efficient ways to grow plants in space, demonstrating laser optics to communicate with Earth, human immune system function in microgravity and Earth observation. Also being delivered is a set of high-tech legs for Robonaut 2, which can provide the humanoid robot torso already aboard the orbiting laboratory with the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside the space station. Image Credit: NASA #spacex #spacex3 #nasa #science #dragon #falcon9 #launch #321liftoff #iss #space #spacestation; -
Today's Launch Site From Space! Astronaut Steve Swanson captured this view of Cape Canaveral, Florida, from the International Space Station. At Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SpaceX is preparing to launch its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft at 3:25 p.m. EDT today on its third commercial resupply mission to the space station. The Dragon is loaded with nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiment hardware. The U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 40 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time. A launch today will send Dragon on a course to rendezvous with the station Sunday morning. The backup launch opportunity for the launch of SpaceX-3 is Saturday, April 19 at 3:02 p.m. Image Credit: NASA #spacex #nasa #science #space #launch #321liftoff #dragon #falcon9 #astronauts #iss #earth #spacex3; -
Astronauts gear up for spacewalk and launch to the space station - As work continues at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for Friday's 3:25 p.m. EDT launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon cargo craft, the crew geared up Thursday for a contingency spacewalk to replace a failed backup computer relay box on the station's truss. The 2 ½-hour spacewalk is set for Wednesday, April 23, unless SpaceX scrubs its launch attempt Friday, in which case the excursion will move up earlier to Sunday, April 20. Flight Engineers Steve Swanson (left) and Rick Mastracchio work with spacesuits in the station's Quest airlock. Swanson downlinked this photo to @ISS on Instragram. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #launch #spacex #eva #spacewalk #astronauts #iss #spacestation; -
Mars Rover Selfie! This self-portrait of our Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows effects of wind events that had cleaned much of the accumulated dust off the rover's solar panels. It combines multiple frames taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) through three different color filters March 22 through March 24, 2014, the 3,611th through 3,613th Martian days, or sols, of Opportunity's work on Mars. This image is presented in false color to make differences in surface materials more easily visible, and as a vertical projection. The mast on which the Pancam is mounted does not appear in the image, though its shadow does. Cleaning effects of wind events in March boosted the amount of electricity available for the rover's work. With the cleaner arrays and lengthening winter days, Opportunity's solar arrays are generating more than 620 watt-hours per day in mid-April 2014, compared to less than 375 watt-hours per day in January 2014. In its sixth Martian winter, Opportunity now has cleaner solar arrays than in any Martian winter since its first on the Red Planet in 2005. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ. #mars #opportunity #rovers #mer #selfie #power #redplanet #nasa #planets #science; -
An Earth-like planet? Our Kepler spacecraft discovered first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star! The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f , the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone-a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step closer to finding a world similar to Earth. The size of Kepler-186f is known to be less than ten percent larger than Earth, but its mass, density and composition are not known. Previous research suggests it's likely rocky. Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130 days and receives one-third the energy that Earth does from the sun, placing it near the outer edge of the habitable zone. If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon would appear as bright as our sun is about an hour before sunset on Earth. Kepler-186f is about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four inner planets, seen lined up in orbit around a host star that is half the size and mass of the sun. Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech #kepler #exoplanet #star #earth #space #astronomy #science #nasa;
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