Moon Set from Space: Astronaut Terry Virts posted this video and wrote, 'Full #moon setting over Hokkaido and Vladivostok.' Virts and #ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti were in the U.S. Quest airlock yesterday conducting airflow monitor tests, measurements and calibrations. The tests were part of the Airway Monitoring experiment that is looking for possible indicators of airway inflammation in astronauts during spaceflight. Credit: NASA #nasa #space #iss #spacestation #moon #exp42 #astronauts Instagram ดารา @nasa 29,996

Hubble Sees a Young Star Take Center Stage With its helical appearance resembling a snail’s shell, this reflection nebula seems to spiral out from a luminous central star in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The star in the center, known as V1331 Cyg and located in the dark cloud LDN 981 — or, more commonly, Lynds 981 — had previously been defined as a T Tauri star. A T Tauri is a young star — or Young Stellar Object — that is starting to contract to become a main sequence star similar to the sun. What makes V1331Cyg special is the fact that we look almost exactly at one of its poles. Usually, the view of a young star is obscured by the dust from the circumstellar disc and the envelope that surround it. However, with V1331Cyg we are actually looking in the exact direction of a jet driven by the star that is clearing the dust and giving us this magnificent view. This view provides an almost undisturbed view of the star and its immediate surroundings allowing astronomers to study it in greater detail and look for features that might suggest the formation of a very low-mass object in the outer circumstellar disk. Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA. Acknowledgement: Karl Stapelfeldt (GSFC), B. Stecklum and A. Choudhary (Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany) Instagram ดารา @nasa 25,789

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet. The spacecraft was approximately 38,000 miles (61,000) kilometers from Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planet’s gravity at about 4:39 a.m. PST (7:39 a.m. EST) Friday. Mission controllers at our Jet Propulsion Laboratory received a signal from the spacecraft at 5:36 a.m. PST (8:36 a.m. EST) that Dawn was healthy and thrusting with its ion engine, the indicator Dawn had entered orbit as planned. Ceres is seen here from Dawn on March 1, just a few days before the mission achieved orbit around the previously unexplored dwarf planet. The image was taken at a distance of about 30,000 miles (about 48,000 kilometers). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Instagram ดารา @nasa 66,739

Three seconds. That’s all it took for the attitude control motor of NASA’s Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) to prove that its material can survive not only the intense temperatures, pressures, noise and vibrations experienced during a launch emergency but also 40 percent beyond. The LAS is being designed to bring a crew to safety should there be a problem in the launch pad or during ascent. Video of a March 4 test of Orion’s LAS attitude control motor . Image Credit: Orbital ATK #nasa #orbital #atk #lockheedmartine #orbitalatk #orion #journeytomars #test #launch Instagram ดารา @nasa 8,243

Astronaut Scott Kelly is seen inside a Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), Wednesday, March 4, 2105 in Star City, Russia. Kelly, along with Expedition 43 Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos were at GCTC for the second day of qualification exams in preparation for their launch to the International Space Station onboard a Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 p.m. EST on March 27. As the one-year crew, Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-18M in March 2016. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) #nasa #iss #yearinspace #iss1years #spacestation #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 10,839

Using our Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found that the growth of galaxies, including Abell 2597 shown here, containing supermassive black holes can be slowed down by a phenomenon referred to as cosmic precipitation. Cosmic precipitation is not a weather event, as we commonly associate the word -- rain, sleet, or snow. Rather, it is a mechanism that allows hot gas to produce showers of cool gas clouds that fall into a galaxy. Researchers have analyzed X-rays from more than 200 galaxy clusters, and believe that this gaseous precipitation is key to understanding how giant black holes affect the growth of galaxies. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/DSS/Magellan #nasa #chandra #xray #telescope #galaxy #astronomy #space #blackhole #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 25,390

Hawaii from Space! From the International Space Station, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph of the island of Hawaii and posted it to social media on Feb. 28, 2015. Cristoforetti tweeted, "And suddenly as we flew over the Pacific... the island of #Hawaii with its volcanoes! #HelloEarth" Crew members on the space station photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles above the surface as part of the Crew Earth Observations program. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s. The ISS maintains an altitude between 220 - 286 miles (354 - 460 km) above the Earth, and an orbital inclination of 51.6˚, providing an excellent stage for observing most populated areas of the world. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti #nasa #esa #space #iss #spacestation Instagram ดารา @nasa 23,366

Today, NASA celebrates 100 years since the founding of its predecessor -- the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. With a small budget and no paid staff, the NACA began developing the capabilities our nation needed to gain leadership in aeronautics. Throughout and beyond World War II, the NACA developed or helped develop many aeronautical breakthroughs that are still used today. The NACA Spirit Captured, 1945: In this 1945 photo, test pilots (from left) Mel Gough, Herb Hoover, Jack Reeder, Steve Cavallo and Bill Gray stand in front of a P-47 Thunderbolt. The photo was taken at the then-named Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, which was a research facility for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or the NACA. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #naca #naca100 #anniversary #birthday #space #aeronautics #science #technology #flynasa Instagram ดารา @nasa 18,646

This artist's concept illustrates the Milky Way galaxy. Living on the Edge: Stars Found Far from Galaxy Center: Astronomers using data from our Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, have found a cluster of stars forming at the very edge of our Milky Way galaxy. The newfound young star clusters lie thousands of light-years below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, a flat spiral disk seen in this artist's conception. If alien lifeforms were to develop on planets orbiting these stars, they would have views of a portion, or all, of the galactic disk. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (artist concept) #nasa #galaxy #space #wise #astronomy #milkyway #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 6,203

Spacewalk Trilogy Complete! NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Barry Wilmore (in this photo) ended their spacewalk at 12:30 p.m. EST today. Virts and Wilmore completed installing 400 feet of cable and several antennas associated with the Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles system known as C2V2. Boeing's Crew Transportation System (CST)-100 and the SpaceX Crew Dragon will use the system in the coming years to rendezvous with the orbital laboratory and deliver crews to the space station. They completed one additional task to retrieve a bag to cover equipment on the outside of the station. Photo Credit: NASA #nasa #astrobutch #nasajsc #spacestation #internationalspacestation #explore #exploration #photography #ISS #Exp42 #USEVA31 #spectacular #aweinspiring #space 5A9E4083-7546-4995-97F1-67F09C0F9E25 Instagram ดารา @nasa 19,162

Astronaut Terry Virts captured this photo from the International Space Station flying over Boston, where Leonard Nimoy was born. Image Credit: NASA #RIPLeonardNimoy #startrek #leonardnimoy #space #nasa #iss #astronauts #spacestation #boston Instagram ดารา @nasa 43,833

Dusty Galaxy, Home to an Exploding Star: The galaxy pictured here is NGC 4424, located in the constellation of Virgo, about 50 million light years from Earth. It is not visible with the naked eye but has been captured here with the Hubble Space Telescope. Although it may not be obvious from this image, NGC 4424 is in fact a spiral galaxy. In this image it is seen more or less edge on, but from above, you would be able to see the arms of the galaxy wrapping around its center to give the characteristic spiral form. In 2012, astronomers observed a supernova in NGC 4424 - a violent explosion marking the end of a star's life. During a supernova explosion, a single star can often outshine an entire galaxy. However, the supernova in NGC 4424, dubbed SN 2012cg, cannot be seen here as the image was taken ten years prior to the explosion. Along the central region of the galaxy, clouds of dust block the light from distant stars and create dark patches. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine #hubble #nasa #astronomy #space #hst #hubble25 #galaxy #star #supernova #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 25,803

An Intriguing Member of Black Hole Family Tree: A newly discovered cosmic object may help provide answers to some long-standing questions about how black holes evolve and influence their surroundings, according to a new study using our Chandra X-ray Observatory. Astronomers have been looking very hard for these medium-sized black holes. This object, NGC2276-3c, has traits similar to both stellar-mass black holes and supermassive black holes. In other words, this object helps tie the whole black hole family together. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Mezcua et al & NASA/CXC/INAF/A.Wolter #nasa #space #chandra #astronomy #xray #blackhole #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 4,395

Selfie on Mars! A sweeping view of the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop on Mars, where our Curiosity rover has been working for five months, surrounds the rover in Curiosity's latest self-portrait. The selfie scene is assembled from dozens of images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's robotic arm. Pahrump Hills is an outcrop of the bedrock that forms the basal layer of Mount Sharp, at the center of Mars' Gale Crater.Curiosity's drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. Darker ground at upper right and lower left holds ripples of wind-blown sand and dust. The view does not include the rover's robotic arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rock Nest" Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS #nasa #space #mars #curiosity #rover #selfie #science @NASAJPL Instagram ดารา @nasa 14,365

'Walking' in the vacuum of space, astronaut Terry Virts on the International Space Station (@ISS) is seen working to complete a cable routing task while the sun begins to peak over the Earth's horizon on Feb. 21, 2015. Virts and fellow astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore completed a 6-hour, 41-minute spacewalk routing more than 300 feet of cable as part of a reconfiguration of the station to enable U.S. commercial crew vehicles under development to dock to the space station in the coming years. Virts and Wilmore will start their second spacewalk at 7:10 a.m. EST on Wednesday. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #iss #space #spacestation #astrobutch #exp42 #launchamerica Instagram ดารา @nasa 33,556

Selfie from space! This is an image of astronaut Barry (Butch) Wilmore from today's spacewalk. His spacewalking partner, Terry Virts, can be seen in the reflection of Wilmore's visor. The duo rigged a series of power and data and routed 340 of 360 feet of cable, which is part of a reconfiguration of station systems and modules to accommodate the delivery of new docking adapters that commercial crew vehicles will use later this decade to deliver astronauts to the orbital laboratory. The duo will venture outside the space station again on Wednesday, Feb. 25, to deploy two more cables and lubricate the end of the space station's robotic arm. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #spacestation #iss #launchamerica #isscrew #astrobutch #spacewalk #selfie #USEVA29 #exp42 Instagram ดารา @nasa 14,932

Sparkling Stars: Some cosmic objects move a little further than others - take the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, a globular cluster of stars known as Palomar 12. Although it currently lies on the outskirts of the Milky Way's halo, Palomar 12 was not born here. When astronomers first studied this cluster, they were puzzled by its strangely young age when compared to the other clusters in the galaxy. It appeared to be around 30 percent younger than other Milky Way globulars. Surely if it had been born within our galaxy, it would have sprung to life at a similar time to its cluster companions? A bit more digging revealed that Palomar 12 was actually ripped from its initial home, the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical galaxy, around 1.7 billion years ago via tidal interactions between its former home and our galaxy. The dwarf galaxy that Palomar 12 once called home is a satellite galaxy to ours, and closely orbits around us - even occasionally passing through the plane of our galaxy. In fact, it is being slowly torn apart and consumed by the Milky Way. Credit: ESA/NASA #nasa #hst #hubble #hubble25 #space #astronomy #galaxy #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 10,549

Our Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now. This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy’s ability to make new stars. Supermassive black holes blast matter into their host galaxies, with X-ray-emitting winds traveling at up to one-third the speed of light. In the new study, astronomers determined PDS 456, an extremely bright black hole known as a quasar more than 2 billion light-years away, sustains winds that carry more energy every second than is emitted by more than a trillion suns. Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast out radiation and ultra-fast winds, as illustrated in this artist's conception. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Instagram ดารา @nasa 22,131

Traveling about 257 miles above the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Puerto Rico, the unpiloted Progress 58 Russian cargo ship docked at 11:57 a.m. EST on Feb. 17 to the rear port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. The craft is delivering three tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory. Progress 58 is scheduled to remain docked to the space station until August. This image was snapped by Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, on Feb. 17 from the space station. She wrote, "Here she comes! Progress #ISScargo craft a few meters from #ISS, she took the parking spot that #ATV5 freed up on Sat." Image Credit: NASA/ESA #nasa #esa #isscargo #space #spacestation #progress #exp42 #roscosmos #rsa #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 12,581

Happy President's Day! Here's an International Space Station photo of the eastern (Atlantic) coast of the United States, which includes Virginia, where George Washington, the first U.S. president, was born. The image was taken in February 2012 by an Expedition 30 astronaut. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area spanning almost to Rhode Island are visible in the scene. Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the Greater Metropolitan area of New York City are visible in the lower right quadrant. Large cities in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) are near center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #iss #spacestation #washington #gerogewashington #presidentsday #virginia #space Instagram ดารา @nasa 37,881