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"Space is dark and dangerous," tweeted astronaut Rick Mastracchio on April 26. He also wrote, "Here we are exiting airlock. Helmet lights work well at short distance." Mastracchio and his crewmate Steve Swanson completed a short spacewalk April 23 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 continued to operate flawlessly NASA managers ordered the spacewalk repair to ensure redundancy on critical systems. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #spacestation #astronauts #iss; -
A Hungry Starburst Galaxy! Messier 61 is a type of galaxy known as a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies experience an incredibly high rate of star formation, hungrily using up their reservoir of gas in a very short period of time (in astronomical terms). But this is not the only activity going on within the galaxy; deep at its heart there is thought to be a supermassive black hole that is violently spewing out radiation. This new Hubble picture is the sharpest ever image of the core of spiral galaxy Messier 61, roughly 100,000 light-years across, comparable in size to our galaxy, the Milky Way. Both Messier 61 and our home galaxy belong to a group of galaxies known as the Virgo Supercluster in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) — a group of galaxy clusters containing up to 2,000 spiral and elliptical galaxies in total. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NAS, Acknowledgement: Det58 #nasa #hubble #astronomy #galaxy #space #blackhole #science #hst; -
Windy Changes for Active Dune Field on Mars - Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on the planet. By monitoring the sand dune changes, we can determine how winds vary seasonally and year-to-year. This observation is one of the more recent Nili images, acquired on March 1, 2014. Compared to an image acquired on Nov. 22, 2012, changes are obvious. The ripples on the dunes have moved, as well some of the dune boundaries, such as the one at upper left. New landslides on the central dune's lee face are apparent. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona #mars #nasa #hirise #uarizona #geology #space #planets #science; -
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured its first-ever image of the pale blue ice-giant planet Uranus in the distance beyond Saturn’s rings. The robotic spacecraft briefly turned its gaze away from the ringed beauty of Saturn on April 11, 2014, to observe the distant planet, which is the seventh planet from the sun. The planets Uranus and Neptune are sometimes referred to as “ice giants” to distinguish them from their larger siblings, Jupiter and Saturn, the classic "gas giants." The moniker derives from the fact that a comparatively large part of the planets’ composition consists of water, ammonia and methane, which are typically frozen as ices in the cold depths of the outer solar system. Jupiter and Saturn are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with smaller percentages of these ices. When this view was obtained, Uranus was nearly on the opposite side of the sun as seen from Saturn, at a distance of approximately 28.6 astronomical units from Cassini and Saturn. An astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun, equal to 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). At their closest – once during each Saturn orbit of nearly 30 years – the two planets approach to within about 10 astronomical units of each other. In addition to its aesthetic appeal, Cassini’s view of Uranus also serves a practical purpose. Scientists working on several of Cassini’s science investigations expect that they will be able to use images and spectra from these observations to help calibrate their own instruments. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #space #planets #saturn #uranus #solarsystems; -
A Bright Galaxy! 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. Cen A is an active galaxy about 12 million light years from Earth. This image is part of a "quartet of galaxies" collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers that combines optical data from amateur telescopes with data from the archives of our missions. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Rolf Olsen; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech #galaxy #space #nasa #astronomy #chandra #blackhole #science;
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Drill Test! Our Curiosity Mars rover completed a shallow "mini drill" activity on April 29, 2014, as part of evaluating a rock target called "Windjana" for possible full-depth drilling to collect powdered sample material from the rock's interior. This image from Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument shows the hole and tailings resulting from the mini drill test. The hole is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and about 0.8 inch (2 centimeters) deep. When collecting sample material, the rover's hammering drill bores as deep as 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters). This preparatory activity enables the rover team to evaluate interaction between the drill and this particular rock and to view the potential sample-collection target's interior and tailings. Both the mini drill activity and acquisition of this image occurred during the 615th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (April 29, 2014). Image Credit: NASA #mars #nasa #msl #geology #curiosity; -
Groundbreaking technology may add years to Earth orbiting satellites! Kyle Norman from the Goddard Space Flight Center, foreground, adjusts a typical client satellite fill drain valve on a mockup interface for the Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test, or RROxiTT, test in February 2014. Assisting, from the left, are Greg Coll of Goddard, Erik Tormoen from the Kennedy Space Center, and Mark Behnke of Goddard. They are preparing the client satellite mockup valve panel for the planned remote robot connection via nozzle tool connected to the robot arm in foreground. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #robots #satellites #ksc #technology #gsfc; -
Here's what happens when galaxies collide - as seen by our Chandra X-Ray Observatory: M51 is a spiral galaxy, about 30 million light years away, that is in the process of merging with a smaller galaxy seen to its upper left. This image is part of a "quartet of galaxies" collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers that combines optical data from amateur telescopes with data from the archives of NASA missions. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Detlef Hartmann; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech #nasa #chandra #space #universe #galaxy #galaxies; -
Dust off before the drill down. Our Curiosity rover prepares to drill this sandstone. Follow @NASAJPL for more great Mars images! This two-step animation shows before and after views of a patch of sandstone scrubbed with the Dust Removal Tool, a wire-bristle brush, on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Both images were taken April 26, 2014, by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Curiosity's arm. The target rock is called "Windjana." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS #mars #space #nasa #msl #curiosityrover #planets #geology; -
Saturn's rings cast shadows on the planet, but the shadows appear to be inside out! The edge of Saturn's outermost A ring can be seen at the top left corner of the image. Moving towards the bottom of the page, one can see the faint Cassini Division, the opaque B ring and the innermost C ring, which contains several ringlets that appear dark against Saturn in this geometry. The bottom half of the image features the shadows of these rings in reverse order superposed against the disk of the planet: the C ring, the B ring, the Cassini Division and the inner half of the A ring. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 28 degrees below the ringplane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 2, 2013, using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 57 degrees. Image scale is 45 miles (72 kilometers) per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #space #cassini #saturn #solarsystem #planets;
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U.S. Tornado Outbreak from Space: This Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-East satellite image from Monday, April 28, 2014, at 13:01 UTC/9:01 a.m. EDT shows the same storm system that generated the severe weather outbreak yesterday, has moved to the east. This storm system generated reports of tornadoes from Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Coupled with local weather observations, soundings, and computer models, data from satellites like GOES-East gives forecasters information about developing weather situations. Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project #weather #tornadoes #goes #noaa #satellite #earth #science #storm; -
Astronaut Koichi Wakata shared this image of him peering outside one of the windows of the Cupola on the International Space Station saying "we enjoy the magnificent view of our home planet looking out of this module." The Cupola is a panoramic control tower for the International Space Station, a dome-shaped module with windows through which operations on the outside of the station can be observed and guided. It is a pressurized observation and work area that accommodates command and control workstations and other hardware. Through the robotics workstation, astronauts are able to control the space station’s robotic arm, which helps with the attachment and assembly of various station elements, very much like the operator of a building crane perched in a control cabin. At any time, crew members in the Cupola can communicate with other crew members, either in another part of the station or outside during spacewalk activities. Spacewalking activities can be observed from the Cupola along with visiting spacecraft and external areas of the station with the Cupola offering a viewing spectrum of 360 degrees. Image credit: NASA #nasa #iss #exp39 #space #spacestation #cupola #jaxa #astro_wakata; -
As seen on Cosmos: Carina Nebula of 14,000+ Stars! The Carina Nebula is a star-forming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way that is 7,500 light years from Earth and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has detected more than 14,000 stars in the region. The detection of six possible neutron stars, the dense cores often left behind after stars explode in supernovas, provides additional evidence that supernova activity is increasing up in Carina. Previous observations had only detected one neutron star in Carina. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L. Townsley et al. #nasa #cosmos #nebula #science #astronomy #galaxy; -
As seen on Cosmos: Eta Carinae! At the turn of the 19th century, the binary star system Eta Carinae was faint and undistinguished. In the first decades of the century, it became brighter and brighter, until, by April 1843, it was the second brightest star in the sky, outshone only by Sirius (which is almost a thousand times closer to Earth). In the years that followed, it gradually dimmed again and by the 20th century was totally invisible to the naked eye. The star has continued to vary in brightness ever since, and while it is once again visible to the naked eye on a dark night, it has never again come close to its peak of 1843. Eta Carinae is not only interesting because of its past, but also because of its future. It is one of the closest stars to Earth that is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future (though in astronomical timescales the "near future" could still be a million years away). When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst. SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type, though from a galaxy over 200 million light-years away. This image consists of ultraviolet and visible light images from the High Resolution Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Credit: ESA/NASA #cosmos #nasa #star #space #astronomy #earth #science; -
As seen on Cosmos:: The Life of Stars! Our Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning true-color picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603 on March 5, 1999, with its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. This single view nicely illustrates the entire stellar life cycle of stars, starting with the Bok globules and giant gaseous pillars, followed by circumstellar disks, and progressing to evolved massive stars in the young starburst cluster. The blue supergiant with its ring and bipolar outflow marks the end of the life cycle. Image Credit: NASA, Wolfgang Brandner (JPL/IPAC), Eva K. Grebel (Univ. Washington), You-Hua Chu (Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign) #cosmos #nasa #science #astronomy #hst #hubble #stars;
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