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Tatooine? No, it's Kepler-16b. The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. Our Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet - a planet orbiting two stars - 200 light-years from Earth. Unlike Star Wars' Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #kepler #space #astronomy #maythe4thbewithyou #happystarwarsday #science; -
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The unusual spiral galaxy, Messier 66, is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo. Together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, Messier 66 is the member of the Leo Triplet, a trio of interacting spiral galaxies, part of the larger Messier 66 group. Messier 66 wins in size over its fellow triplets - it is about 100 000 light-years across. Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler #nasa #hubble #space #astronomy #maythe4thbewithyou #happystarwarsday science #hst #galaxy; -
We have flying robots, too! Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) are bowling-ball sized spherical satellites. They are used inside the space station to test a set of well-defined instructions for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Three free-flying spheres fly within the cabin of the station, performing flight formations. Each satellite is self-contained with power, propulsion, computers and navigation equipment. The results are important for satellite servicing, vehicle assembly and formation flying spacecraft configurations. SPHERES also test a diverse range of hardware and software from scientist all over America. May the 4th Be With You! Image Credit: NASA #nasa #spacestation #space #iss #maythe4thbewithyou #happystarwarsday science; -
Flying by the "Death Star" Moon! In this view captured by our Cassini spacecraft on its closest-ever flyby of Saturn's moon Mimas, large Herschel Crater dominates Mimas, making the moon look like the Death Star in the movie "Star Wars." May the 4th Be With You! Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #saturn ##maythe4thbewithyou #happystarwarsday #moon; -
"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;
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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; -
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;
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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; -
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;
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