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Explore the universe and discover our home planet with the official NASA Instagram account
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As seen on #Cosmos: The Van Allen Belts Named for their discoverer, James Van Allen, these two concentric, donut-shaped rings are filled with high-energy particles that gyrate, bounce, and drift through the region, sometimes shooting down to Earth's atmosphere, sometimes escaping out into space. The radiation belts swell and shrink over time as part of a much larger space weather system driven by energy and material that erupt off the sun's surface and fill the entire solar system. NASA currently has two Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)) studying the two extreme and dynamic regions of space known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts that surround Earth. This image shows an artist's depiction with cutaway section of the two giant donuts of radiation, called the Van Allen Belts, that surround Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio #space #vanallen #earth #radiation #science #nasa #rbsp; -
Researchers with NASA's Operation IceBridge added three more flights to the books, continuing the campaign's data collection with surveys of major outlet glaciers and elevation across the northern Greenland Ice Sheet. In two weeks the IceBridge Arctic campaign will come to a close with the P-3 carrying the research team back from Thule Air Base. NASA’s Operation IceBridge images Earth's polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand processes that connect the polar regions with the global climate system. IceBridge utilizes a highly specialized fleet of research aircraft and the most sophisticated suite of innovative science instruments ever assembled to characterize annual changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. In addition, IceBridge collects critical data used to predict the response of earth’s polar ice to climate change and resulting sea-level rise. IceBridge also helps bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's ICESat satellite missions. Seen here is a view of mountains and sea ice near Thule Air Base, Greenland, from the NASA P-3 on May 6, 2014. Credit: NASA / Michael Studinger #operationicebridge #icebridge #nasa #nasaice #greenland #thule #earth #polarcap; -
Ever had an out-of-this-world haircut? Here's Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency getting a trim from Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin of Russia's Federal Space Agency in the Unity node of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station. Image credit: NASA #nasa #haircut #iss #exp39 #space; -
How does your garden grow? The new Vegetable Production System ("Veggie") experiment is seen installed and setup on the International Space Station. Veggie is a new investigation with "edible results" on the space station. Veggie is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with appetizing, nutritious and safe fresh food and support crew relaxation and recreation. It serves as a new space station facility as well and will provide a venue for future plant growth research. Image credit: NASA #nasa #veggie #vegetables #plants #garden #iss #space; -
Spacewalk Training in the Pool! In November 2012, astronaut Reid Wiseman attired in training versions of their spacesuits, submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near Johnson Space Center in Houston. Divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist in spacewalk rehearsal. Wiseman, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on May 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are scheduled to return to Earth in November. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #spacestation #nbl #astronauts #iss #spacewalk #esa #roscosmos;
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This bundle of bright stars and dark dust is a dwarf spiral galaxy known as NGC 4605, located around 16 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This galaxy’s spiral structure is not obvious from this image, but NGC 4605 is classified as an SBc type galaxy — meaning that it has sprawling, loosely wound arms and a bright bar of stars cutting through its center. NGC 4605 is a member of the Messier 81 group of galaxies, a gathering of bright galaxies including its namesake Messier 81 (heic0710), and the well-known Messier 82 (heic0604a). Galaxy groups like this usually contain around 50 galaxies, all loosely bound together by gravity. This group is famous for its unusual members, many of which formed from collisions between galaxies. With its somewhat unusual form, NGC 4605 fits in well with the family of perturbed galaxies in the M81 group, although the origin of its abnormal features is not yet clear. With so many galaxies swarming around, NGC 4605 may seem unremarkable. However, astronomers are using this galaxy to test our knowledge of stellar evolution. The newly-formed stars in NGC 4605 are being used to investigate how interactions between galaxies affect the formation, evolution, and behavior of the stars within, how bright stellar nurseries come together to form stellar clusters and stellar associations, and how these stars evolve over time. And that's not all — NGC 4605 is also proving to be a good testing ground for dark matter. Theories on this hypothetical type of matter.have had good success at describing how the Universe looks and behaves on a large scale — for example at the galaxy supercluster level — but when looking at individual galaxies, they have run into problems. Observations of NGC 4605 show that the way in which dark matter is spread throughout its halo is not quite as these models predict. While intriguing, observations in this area are still inconclusive, leaving astronomers to ponder over the contents of the Universe. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA #nasa #esa #hubble #hst #space #universe #galaxy; -
It's a small world! The phrase "encircling the Earth" has a double entendre flavor to it in this picture showing all six Expedition 39 crew members in the Kibo module around a globe while actually orbiting the "real thing" aboard the International Space Station. Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is at bottom center. Clockwise from his position are Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Tyurin of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Steve Swanson and Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #spacestation #astronauts #exp39 #jaxa #roscosmos #space #iss; -
An adult osprey guards its young in a nest built on a platform in a parking lot at our Kennedy Space Center. In the background is the 12,300-square-foot NASA logo painted on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The VAB is adjacent to the Turn Basin in Launch Complex 39, making it an ideal osprey nesting place. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge overlaps with Kennedy Space Center property and provides a habitat for many types of wildlife, including the osprey, and 330 species of birds. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley #nasa #usfws #osprey #wildlife #nature #earth #motherearth #nasakennedy #kennedyspacecenter; -
Beautiful colors in space! This image of Saturn's rings, taken on June 30, 2004, during our Cassini spacecraft's orbital insertion at Saturn, shows, from left to right, the outer portion of the C ring and inner portion of the B ring. The B ring begins a little more than halfway across the image. The general pattern is from "dirty" particles indicated by red to cleaner ice particles shown in turquoise in the outer parts of the rings. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado #tbt #throwbackthursday #cassini #saturn #nasa #space #science #planets; -
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) experiences 12 "earthrises" every day, however LROC (short for LRO Camera) is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that LROC can capture a view of Earth. On Feb. 1, 2014, LRO pitched forward while approaching the moon's north pole allowing the LROC Wide Angle Camera to capture Earth rising above Rozhdestvenskiy crater (112 miles, or 180 km, in diameter). This image, captured Feb. 1, 2014, shows a colorized view of Earth from the moon-based perspective of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University #nasa #lro #lunar #moon #earthrise #earth #solarsystem #space;
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On March 29, 2014, an X-class flare erupted from the right side of the sun... and vaulted into history as the best-observed flare of all time. The flare was witnessed by four different NASA spacecraft and one ground-based observatory – three of which had been fortuitously focused in on the correct spot as programmed into their viewing schedule a full day in advance. To have a record of such an intense flare from so many observatories is unprecedented. Such research can help scientists better understand what catalyst sets off these large explosions on the sun. Perhaps we may even some day be able to predict their onset and forewarn of the radio blackouts solar flares can cause near Earth – blackouts that can interfere with airplane, ship and military communications. Images and data from the various observations can be seen here. The telescopes involved were: NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS; NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO; NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, or RHESSI; the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hinode; and the National Solar Observatory's Dunn Solar Telescope located at Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. Numerous other spacecraft provided additional data about what was happening on the sun during the event and what the effects were at Earth. Image credits: NASA or NASA/SDO/AIA or Kevin Reardon (National Solar Observatory), Lucia Kleint (BAER Institute) #nasa #sun #solarflare #solar #sdo #space #solarsystem #flare; -
New Insight Into Formation of Star Clusters - Stars are often born in clusters, in giant clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have studied two star clusters and the results show that the simplest ideas for the birth of these clusters cannot work. A study of NGC 2024 and the Orion Nebula Cluster, another region where many stars are forming, suggest that the stars on the outskirts of these clusters are older than those in the central regions. This is different from what the simplest idea of star formation predicts, where stars are born first in the center of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust when the density is large enough. For more information, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1lYyNsN This composite image shows one of the clusters, NGC 2024, which is found in the center of the so-called Flame Nebula about 1,400 light years from Earth. In this image, X-rays from Chandra are seen as purple, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red, green, and blue. #nasa #astronomy #chandra #spitzer #space #stars #nebula #science; -
NASA’s role in studying and protecting our home planet has never been stronger. Climate change is a problem we must deal with right now, and our Earth science satellite missions have become ever more vital to documenting and understanding our home planet, predicting the ramifications of this change, and sharing information across the globe for everyone’s benefit. Today, the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment was released. The report is the most authoritative and comprehensive source of scientific information ever generated about climate-change impacts on all major regions of the United States and critical sectors of society and the national economy. It presents an influential body of practical, useable knowledge that decision-makers will use to anticipate and prepare for the impacts of climate change. The assessment reports on a broad range of topics that illuminate the interconnectedness of everything tied to climate. The focused approaches used to conduct the analyses in this report will help us build the capability to do better and more regular climate assessments in the future. NASA data and NASA scientists contributed to the research reported in many of the Assessment’s chapters. Seen here is NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich showing meteorologists a model of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory during a media event for the release of the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment held on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls #nasa #usclimatereport #earthrightnow #space #earth #earthscience #climatechange #whitehouse #actonclimate; -
In support of the Mars Science Laboratory Program (MSL), a set of the same wheels currently on the Mars Curiosity Rover were sent to NASA Glenn recently for performance evaluation by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. The goal is to understand the effects of wheel damage on traction performance. NASA Glenn technician Ariana Miller checks the wheel mount and drive hardware assembly on a Curiosity wheel for tests at the Traction and Excavation Capabilities Lab. Researchers are using a newly built single-wheel tester to simulate a variety of terrain conditions similar to Mars including loose granular soil, dense high shear strength soil and a bedrock-like material. The pace of holes appearing in Curiosity's aluminum wheels increased unexpectedly in late last year, compared with the first 12 months of the rover's mission on Mars. Curiosity was crossing terrain studded with sharp, embedded rocks. By early 2014, changes in route planning and driving methods slowed the pace of wheel damage. The tests at NASA Glenn are part of the rover project's efforts to understand how the damage occurs, to develop methods for further reducing the pace of damage and to anticipate how accumulation of damage to the wheels could affect performance. Image Credit: NASA/Michelle M. Murphy (Wyle Information Systems, LLC) #nasa #mars #msl #marscuriosity #curiosity #marsrover #solarsystem #space; -
Earth's Atmospheric Layers - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this photo of Earth's atmospheric layers on July 31, 2011, revealing the troposphere (orange-red), stratosphere and above. Satellite instruments allow scientists to better understand the chemistry and dynamics occurring within and between these layers. Image Credit: NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth #Earth #NASA #USClimateReport, #EarthRightNow, #ActOnClimate #ISS #Space #SpaceStation #Astronauts;
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