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How we build a space laser: To build a satellite that will measure all the bumps and dips of our dynamic Earth, engineers started with a black box, built of a composite honeycomb material to make it as light as possible. The structure was precisely manufactured with an opening to allow lasers to beam to Earth, and other windows sized for a telescope that will capture photons that bounce off our planet and return to the satellite. The box was measured and marked to denote where the assembly of aligned mirrors, electronics, lasers and photon detectors would be attached. ICESat-2’s Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS, will measure the elevation of Earth’s surfaces, from ice sheets to forests to oceans. Its six laser beams will generate a more detailed elevation portrait than single beam of original ICESat, which flew from 2003 to 2009. And with the beams paired, scientists will be able to measure surface slope and better calculate height changes. To measure elevation, ATLAS beams light with a green laser that pulses 10,000 times a second. Only a few photons will bounce off the surface and return to the satellite, but an incredibly sensitive detector counts those that do come back. Using the time of the photons’ return trip, the speed of light and some geometry, scientists can determine the distance the photons traveled and, therefore, the height of Earth below the satellite’s orbit. This image is an artist's concept shows a representation of ICESat-2 and its six-beam scanning pattern. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center #EarthRightNow #TechTuesday #321TechOff @nasagoddard #nasa #space #icesat; -
Astronomers Confounded By Massive Rocky World - Astronomers have discovered a rocky planet that weighs 17 times as much as Earth and is more than twice as large in size. This discovery has planet formation theorists challenged to explain how such a world could have formed. Worlds such as this were not thought possible to exist. The enormous gravitational force of such a massive body would accrete a gas envelope during formation, ballooning the planet to a gas giant the size of Neptune or even Jupiter. However, this planet is thought to be solid, composed primarily of rock. This image is an artist concept that shows the Kepler-10 system, home to two rocky planets. In the foreground is Kepler-10c, a planet that weighs 17 times as much as Earth and is more than twice as large in size. Image Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/David Aguilar #planets #nasa #kepler #astronomy #science #exoplanet #earth; -
Venice Lagoon - A narrow barrier island protects the Lagoon of Venice from storm waves in the northern Adriatic Sea, and breakwaters protect inlets to the lagoon. Red tiles on the roofs of Venice contrast with the grays of the sister city of Mestre, and the cities are joined by a prominent causeway. What appears to be another causeway joining the island to the airport (top right) is actually the combined wakes of many boats and water taxis shuttling between them. Small, bright agricultural fields on well-drained soils (top left) contrast with the darker vegetation of back-bay swamps, where fishing is a popular pastime. The image was taken by the space station's Expedition 39 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #iss #italy #venice #spacestation #space #adriatic #exp39; -
As seen on #Cosmos: The Apollo 8 mission, first time humans left Earth orbit. This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn. Earth is about five degrees above the horizon in the photo. The unnamed surface features in the foreground are near the eastern limb of the Moon as viewed from Earth. The lunar horizon is approximately 780 kilometers from the spacecraft. Width of the photographed area at the horizon is about 175 kilometers. On the Earth 240,000 miles away, the sunset terminator bisects Africa. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #cosmos #earth #earthrightnow #apollo8 #watching cosmos #moon; -
As seen on Cosmos: Solar energy - The Sun’s surface temperature is 5,500° C, and its peak radiation is in visible wavelengths of light. Earth’s effective temperature—the temperature it appears when viewed from space—is -20° C, and it radiates energy that peaks in thermal infrared wavelengths. (Illustration adapted from Robert Rohde.) Incandescent light bulbs radiate 40 to 100 watts. The Sun delivers 1,360 watts per square meter. An astronaut facing the Sun has a surface area of about 0.85 square meters, so he or she receives energy equivalent to 19 60-watt light bulbs. Image Credit: NASA #earth #nasa #earthrightnow #sun #solarenergy #energy #cosmos #watchingcosmos;
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As seen on Cosmos: Volcanoes! Although volcanoes are active around the world, and continue to emit carbon dioxide as they did in the past, the amount of carbon dioxide they release is extremely small compared to human emissions. On average, volcanoes emit between 130 and 230 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. By burning fossil fuels, people release in excess of 100 times more, about 26 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere every year (as of 2005). This image shot by astronauts aboard the International Space Station is a striking view of Sarychev volcano (Russia's Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain and is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #earthrightnow #earth #iss #spacestation #volcano #science #cosmos #watchingcosmos; -
As seen on #Cosmos: Earth’s atmosphere, an extremely thin sheet of air from Earth's surface to the edge of space. The Earth is a sphere with a roughly 8000 mile diameter; the thickness of the atmosphere is about 60 miles. In this picture, taken from a spacecraft orbiting at 200 miles above the surface, we can see the atmosphere as the thin blue band between the surface and the blackness of space. If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the thickness of the atmosphere could be modeled by a thin sheet of plastic wrapped around the ball. Gravity holds the atmosphere to the Earth's surface. Within the atmosphere, very complex chemical, thermodynamic, and fluid dynamics effects occur. The atmosphere is not uniform; fluid properties are constantly changing with time and location. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #climate #earth #earthrightnow #cosmos #watchingcosmos; -
As seen on Cosmos: Venus! The forecast for Venus is cloudy, cloudy, cloudy. The dense carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus shrouds the planet in a thick layer of clouds—and heats the surface to a scorching 460° C (860° F). Although similar to the Earth in size and mass, Venus' slightly closer orbit to the sun create for it a much thicker atmosphere and a much hotter surface. The thick atmosphere was photographed above in ultraviolet light in 1979 by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. Venus's extremely uncomfortable climate was likely caused by a runaway greenhouse effect. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #venus #planets #climate #cosmos #watchingcosmos; -
“Red and Dead Galaxies” - Our Chandra X-ray Observatory is shedding new light on the mystery of why giant elliptical galaxies have few, if any, young stars. This new evidence highlights the important role that supermassive black holes play in the evolution of their host galaxies. Because star-forming activity in many giant elliptical galaxies has shut down to very low levels, these galaxies mostly house long-lived stars with low masses and red optical colors. Astronomers have therefore called these galaxies "red and dead”. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ/N.Werner et al; Optical: DSS #nasa #chandra #space #galaxy #telescope #astronomy #science; -
Observing a Gigantic Eruption of Solar Material - A coronal mass ejection, or CME, surged off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014, and NASA's newest solar observatory caught it in extraordinary detail. This was the first CME observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, which launched in June 2013 to peer into the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere with better resolution than ever before. A video of the IRIS imagery shows how a curtain of solar material erupts outward at speeds of 1.5 million miles per hour. Image Credit: NASA #sun #solar #nasa #sdo #iris #science;
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IceBridge Concludes Arctic Field Campaign - Researchers with our Operation IceBridge have completed another successful Arctic field campaign. On May 23, NASA's P-3 research aircraft left Thule Air Base, Greenland, and returned to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia marking the end of 11 weeks of polar research. During this campaign, researchers collected data on Arctic sea and land ice - both repeating measurements on rapidly changing areas and expanding coverage into new, unsurveyed regions. The mission also released two sea ice data products and provided a professional development opportunity for three science teachers. This image is a view of mountains and sea ice near Thule Air Base, Greenland, from the NASA P-3 on May 6, 2014. Image Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger #nasa #ice #icebridge #arctic #earth #earthrightnow; -
Orion Heat Shield Attached! The world's largest heat shield, measuring 16.5 feet in diameter, has been successfully attached to the Orion spacecraft. The heat shield is made from a single seamless piece of Avcoat ablator. It will be tested on Orion's first flight in December 2014 as it protects the spacecraft from temperatures reaching 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. The uncrewed flight, dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1(EFT-1), will test the spacecraft for eventual missions that will send astronauts to an asteroid and eventually Mars. EFT-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion capsule 3,600 miles into space for a four-hour mission to test several of its most critical systems. After making two orbits, Orion will return to Earth at almost 20,000 miles per hour, before its parachutes slow it down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #orion #spacecraft #space #eft1 #path2mars; -
Violent Birth Announcement from an Infant Star - This Hubble image shows IRAS 14568-6304, a young star that is cloaked in a haze of golden gas and dust. It appears to be embedded within an intriguing swoosh of dark sky, which curves through the image and obscures the sky behind. This dark region is known as the Circinus molecular cloud. This cloud has a mass around 250 000 times that of the sun, and it is filled with gas, dust and young stars. Within this cloud lie two prominent and enormous regions known colloquially to astronomers as Circinus-West and Circinus-East. Each of these clumps has a mass of around 5000 times that of the sun, making them the most prominent star-forming sites in the Circinus cloud. The clumps are associated with a number of young stellar objects, and IRAS 14568-6304, featured here under a blurry fog of gas within Circinus-West, is one of them. ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgements: R. Sahai, NASA JPL/ Serge Meunier #nasa #star #hst #hubble #esa #galaxy #cloud #science; -
We demonstrated that we can land an unmanned spacecraft on a rugged planetary surface in the pitch dark in a free-flight test Wednesday of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT. The 98-second test began at 10:02 p.m. EDT, with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending more than 800 feet (244 m) into the dark Florida sky at Kennedy Space Center using only ALHAT's Hazard Detection System for guidance. The Hazard Detection System, assisted by three light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors, located obstacles -- such as rocks and craters -- and safely landed on the lunar-like hazard field a quarter mile away from the NASA Center. These new capabilities could be used in future efforts to deliver cargo to planetary surfaces. Image Credit: NASA/Mike Chambers #nasa #morpheus #ksc #spacecraft; -
Coming together - At the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center, the Orion crew module and heat shield are being moved into position for the mating operation. The heat shield will be tested on Orion's first flight in December, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed flight that will put to the test the spacecraft that will send astronauts to an asteroid and eventually Mars on future missions. EFT-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion capsule 3,600 miles into space for a four-hour mission to test several of its most critical systems. After making two orbits, Orion will return to Earth at almost 20,000 miles per hour and endure temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before its parachutes slow it down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #eft1 #space #orion #asteroid #mars;
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