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Seen here is the moon setting behind the Earth's atmosphere last week. These images were shared via Twitter by Astronaut Terry Virts on the International Space Station. Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years. Beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s, astronauts have taken more than 700,000 photographs of the Earth. Today, the International Space Station continues the NASA tradition of Earth observation from human-tended spacecraft. Image credit: NASA #iss @iss; -
Saturn’s main rings, seen here on their ''lit'' face, appear much darker than normal. That’s because they tend to scatter light back toward its source — in this case, the Sun. Usually, when taking images of the rings in geometries like this, exposures times are increased to make the rings more visible. Here, the requirement to not over-expose Saturn's lit crescent reveals just how dark the rings actually become. Scientists are interested in images in this sunward-facing ("high phase") geometry because the way that the rings scatter sunlight can tell us much about the ring particles' physical make-up. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 6 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 12, 2014. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 152 degrees. Image scale is 86 miles (138 kilometers) per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute; -
Sun Sizzles in High-Energy X-Rays: For the first time, a mission designed to set its eyes on black holes and other objects far from our solar system has turned its gaze back closer to home, capturing images of our sun. Our Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has taken its first picture of the sun, producing the most sensitive solar portrait ever taken in high-energy X-rays. The NuSTAR data, seen in green and blue, reveal solar high-energy emission (green shows energies between 2 and 3 kiloelectron volts, and blue shows energies between 3 and 5 kiloelectron volts). The high-energy X-rays come from gas heated to above 3 million degrees. The red channel represents ultraviolet light captured by SDO at wavelengths of 171 angstroms, and shows the presence of lower-temperature material in the solar atmosphere at 1 million degrees. This image shows that some of the hotter emission tracked by NuSTAR is coming from different locations in the active regions and the coronal loops than the cooler emission shown in the SDO image. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC #nasa #space #nustar #sdo #sun #solar #solarsystem #science; -
As the Christmas holiday approaches this Thursday, December 25, NOAA's GOES-East and GOES-West satellites are keeping a weather eye out for storms that may affect early travelers. In a wide-field image created from GOES-East imagery, two-thirds of the U.S. appeared blanketed in clouds that are bringing areas of rain and snow across the country. NOAA's GOES-East satellite provides visible and infrared images over the eastern U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean, while NOAA's GOES-West satellite covers the western U.S. and Pacific Ocean from their fixed orbits in space. The image was created at NASA's GOES Project on Dec. 22 at 14:45 UTC (9:45 a.m. EST). Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project; -
Holiday Lights on the Sun: The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:28 p.m. EST on Dec. 19, 2014. Our Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This flare is classified as an X1.8-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. Image Credit: NASA/SDO #nasa #sun #sdo #solarflare #space #solarsystem #science;
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Tethys the Spy: Saturn's moon Tethys appears to be peeking out from behind Rhea, watching the watcher. Scientists believe that Tethys' surprisingly high albedo is due to the water ice jets emerging from its neighbor, Enceladus. The fresh water ice becomes the E ring and can eventually arrive at Tethys, giving it a fresh surface layer of clean ice. Lit terrain seen here is on the anti-Saturn side of moon Rhea. North on Rhea is up. The image was taken in red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 20, 2012. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #saturn #space #cassini #rhea #tethys #solarsystem #moon #science; -
75th Anniversary of NASA Ames December 20, 2014 marks NASA Ames Research Center's 75th Anniversary. The center was established in 1939 as the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and was named for the chair of the NACA, Joseph S. Ames. It was located at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California, now at the heart of Silicon Valley. The Laboratory was renamed the NASA Ames Research Center with the formation of NASA in 1958. This June 2, 1943 photograph shows the construction of the Ames full-scale 40- by 80-foot wind tunnel, with a side view of the entrance cone and a blimp in the background. Image Credit: NASA; -
The sun emitted a mid-level flare on Dec. 18, 2014, at 4:58 p.m. EST. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured this image showing the bright spot near the center of the sun. SDO observes light in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that can highlight the intense heat present in a solar flare. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This flare is classified as an M6.9-class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, an M3 is three times as intense, etc. Image Credit: NASA/SDO; -
Sweeping a Messy Star Factory: This sprinkle of cosmic glitter is a blue compact dwarf galaxy known as Markarian 209. Galaxies of this type are blue-hued, compact in size, gas-rich, and low in heavy elements. They are often used by astronomers to study star formation, as their conditions are similar to those thought to exist in the early Universe. Markarian 209 in particular has been studied extensively. It is filled with diffuse gas and peppered with star-forming regions towards its core. This image captures it undergoing a particularly dramatic burst of star formation, visible as the lighter blue cloudy region towards the top right of the galaxy. This clump is filled with very young and hot newborn stars. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Nick Rose #nasa #hst #hubble #space #astronomy #galaxy #science; -
A Pioneer: Richard T. Whitcomb, an aerodynamicist at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is most famous for his development of the "area rule." Shown here in the Langley 8 foot High-Speed Wind Tunnel in April 1955, he revolutionized how engineers looked at high-speed drag and impacted the design of virtually every transonic and supersonic aircraft ever built. Just 11 years after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he was presented the prestigious Collier Trophy on Dec.18, 1954, in recognition of the far-reaching impact of his "area rule" work. Whitcomb had an incredibly prolific career at NACA and NASA; designing the supercritical airfoil in the 1960s and creating winglets in the 1970s. #ThrowbackThursday #nasa #tbt #history #aeronautics #nasaaero #langley;
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Massive Galaxy Cluster in Distant Universe: A newly discovered galaxy cluster is the most massive one ever detected with an age of 800 million years or younger. Using data from our Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have accurately determined the mass and other properties of this cluster. This is an important step in understanding how galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, have evolved over time. This Chandra composite image shows the distant and massive galaxy cluster that is officially known as XDCP J0044.0-2033. Researchers, however, have nicknamed it "Gioiello", which is Italian for "jewel". Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/P. Tozzi, et al; Optical: NAOJ/Subaru a #nasa #space #astronomy #chandra #xray #galaxy #universe #science; -
Aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Terry Virts posted this image and wrote, "One of the most amazing sites on Earth #AmazonRiver delta." The station crew has been working on a variety of robotics activities this week. On Wednesday, they tested a humanoid robot and explored how bowling ball-sized satellites, known as SPHERES, can navigate around objects. Crew members trained earlier in the week for the planned Sunday capture of the Dragon spacecraft using the 57.7 foot Canadarm2. Image Credit: NASA #iss #isscargo #space #nasa #exp41 #earth #astronauts #spacestation; -
City Lights Shine Brighter During the Holidays: City lights shine brighter during the holidays when compared with the rest of the year, as shown using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during December. This new analysis of holiday lights uses an advanced algorithm that filters out moonlight, clouds and airborne particles in order to isolate city lights on a daily basis. The data from this algorithm provide high-quality satellite information on light output across the globe, allowing scientists to track when - and how brightly - people illuminate the night. A daily global dynamic dataset of nighttime lights is a new way for researchers to understand the broad societal forces impacting energy decisions and to look at how people use cities, from an energy perspective. Image Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen #nasa #space #satellite #holiday #holidaylights #earth #earthrightnow #science; -
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill. Researchers used Curiosity’s onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion. Before and after that, readings averaged only one-tenth that level. Curiosity also detected different Martian organic chemicals in powder drilled from a rock dubbed Cumberland, the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These Martian organics could either have formed on Mars or been delivered to Mars by meteorites. Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity's findings from analyzing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on ancient Mars. Pictured here is the drilling into Curiosity's rock target, "Cumberland," during the 279th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 19, 2013). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; -
Astronaut Terry Virts shared this image from the vantage point of the International Space Station on Sunday, Dec. 14. He tweeted that it shows "#sunset over the Gulf of Mexico and American gulf coast." Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years. Beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s, astronauts have taken more than 700,000 photographs of the Earth. Today, the International Space Station continues the NASA tradition of Earth observation from human-tended spacecraft. Image credit: NASA #iss @iss;
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