At a Launch Readiness Review Sunday, managers for Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia, and NASA gave a 'go' to proceed toward the Monday, Oct. 27 launch of the Orbital CRS-3 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Orbital is targeting a 6:45 p.m. EDT launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at 5:45 p.m. on Monday. There is a 98% chance of favorable weather at the time of launch. On Sunday afternoon, NASA TV will broadcast two news briefings from the Wallops Visitors Center. A prelaunch status briefing will be held at 1 p.m. EDT followed by a preview of the mission's science cargo at 2 p.m. EDT. The briefings will be carried live on NASA TV and the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. Seen here is the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, during sunrise, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky Instagram ดารา @nasa 23,150

Orbital Sciences' #Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is seen on launch Pad-0A during sunrise, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Antares will launch with the Cygnus spacecraft filled with over 5,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. The Orbital-3 mission is Orbital Sciences' third contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Launch is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27 at 6:45 p.m. EDT. Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky #orbital #orbitalsciences #iss @iss #spacestation #isscargo #antares #orb3 #nasa #space #rocket #sunrise #sun #rocketlaunch Instagram ดารา @nasa 32,685

Whirling Disk: This neat little galaxy is known as NGC 4526. Its dark lanes of dust and bright diffuse glow make the galaxy appear to hang like a halo in the emptiness of space in this image from the our Hubble Space Telescope. Although this image paints a picture of serenity, the galaxy is anything but. It is one of the brightest lenticular galaxies known, a category that lies somewhere between spirals and ellipticals. It has hosted two known supernova explosions, one in 1969 and another in 1994, and is known to have a colossal supermassive black hole at its center that has the mass of 450 million suns. Photo Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt #nasa #hst #hubble #space #astronomy #blackhole #supernova #galaxy #telescope #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 19,744

Mini Moons: Are the moons tiny or are the rings vast? Both, in a way! The moons visible in this image, Pandora and Atlas, are quite small by astronomical standards, but the rings are also enormous. From one side of the planet to the other, the A ring stretches over 170,000 miles (270,000 km), dwarfing these small moons of Saturn. For details, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1wvngob Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #space #cassini #saturn #moons #pandora #atlas #astronomy #planets #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 4,505

Our Aqua Satellite Sees Partial Solar Eclipse Effect in Western Canada: This image shows how a partial solar eclipse darkened clouds over the Yukon and British Columbia in western Canada. It was taken on Oct. 23 at 21:20 UTC (5:20 p.m. EDT) by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard our Aqua satellite. Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team #nasa #aqua #satellite #space #eclipse #solareclipse #canada #britishcolumbia #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 17,790

Hinode Spacecraft Captures Images of Partial Solar Eclipse: A partial solar eclipse was visible from much of North America before sundown on Thursday, Oct.23. A partial eclipse occurs when the moon blocks a portion of the sun from view. As viewed from Hinode's vantage point in space, this eclipse was annular instead of partial, which means that the entire moon moved in front of the sun but did not cover it completely. In this situation, a ring of the sun encircles the dark disk of the moon. The Hinode spacecraft captured images the eclipse as it passed over North America using its X-ray Telescope. During the eclipse, the new moon eased across the sun from right to left with the sun shining brilliantly in the background. And as a stroke of good luck, this solar cycle's largest active region, which has been the source of several large flares over the past week, was centered on the sun's disk as the moon transited! Led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Hinode mission is a collaboration between the space agencies of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #sun #solareclipse #eclipse #space #hinode #spacecraft #moon #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 4,636

Ice Cloud Above Cruising Altitude on Titan: Our scientists have identified an unexpected high-altitude methane ice cloud on Saturn's moon Titan that is similar to exotic clouds found far above Earth's poles. This lofty cloud, imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, was part of the winter cap of condensation over Titan's north pole. Now, eight years after spotting this mysterious bit of atmospheric fluff, researchers have determined that it contains methane ice, which produces a much denser cloud than the ethane ice previously identified there. This cloud in the stratosphere over Titan's north pole is similar to Earth's polar stratospheric clouds. Our scientists found that Titan's cloud contains methane ice, which was not previously thought to form in that part of the atmosphere. Our Cassini spacecraft first spotted the cloud in 2006. Image Credit: L. NASA/JPL/U. of Ariz./LPGNantes; R. NASA/GSFC/M. Schoeberl #nasa #cassini #titan #saturn #space #planets #moon #ice #methane #northpole #clouds #earth #science C14FCED8-6BB0-4353-90D4-AE9930EC6388 Instagram ดารา @nasa 3,960

Close Encounters: Comet Siding Spring Seen Next to Mars: This composite Hubble Space Telescope Image captures the positions of comet Siding Spring and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, which happened at 2:28 p.m. EDT Oct. 19, 2014. At that time, the comet and Mars were about 149 million miles from Earth. The Mars and comet images have been added together to create a single picture to illustrate the angular separation, or distance, between the comet and Mars at closest approach. The separation is approximately 1.5 arc minutes, or one-twentieth of the angular diameter of the full moon. The background star field in this composite image is synthesized from ground-based telescope data provided by the Palomar Digital Sky Survey, which has been reprocessed to approximate Hubble's resolution. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, PSI, JHU/APL, STScI/AURA #nasa #space #hst #hubble #sidingspring #marscomet #mars #comet #telescope #planets #science A08B1413-5F08-4FF2-8AF3-3C0748E0F7DC Instagram ดารา @nasa 28,383

Don't Stare! How to Safely Watch Today's Partial Solar Eclipse: During the late afternoon today, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from much of North America before sundown. Partial eclipses occur when the moon blocks part of the sun from view. However, it is NEVER safe to look at the sun with the naked eye. A partial solar eclipse occurs when the moon obscures only part of the sun from Earth's view. Image Credit: T. Ruen #eclipse #solareclipse #nasa #sun #moon #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 47,661

Throwback Thursday: Antares on the Fra Mauro Highlands A front view of the Apollo 14 Lunar Module "Antares", which reflects a circular flare caused by the brilliant sun. The unusual ball of light was said by the astronauts to have a jewel-like appearance. At extreme left, the lower slope of Cone Crater can be seen. Image Credit: NASA #TBT #NASA #History #MoonLanding #Apollo14 #ThrowbackThursday Instagram ดารา @nasa 27,751

Illusions in the Cosmic Clouds: Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon where people see recognizable shapes in clouds, rock formations, or otherwise unrelated objects or data. There are many examples of this phenomenon on Earth and in space. In a new image of the system, X-rays from our Chandra X-ray Observatory in gold are seen along with infrared data from our Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope in red, green and blue. Pareidolia may strike again as some people report seeing a shape of a face in WISE's infrared data. What do you see? Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech #nasa #space #astronomy #chandra #wise #xray #clouds #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 30,125

Galactic Wheel of Life Shines in Infrared: It might look like a spoked wheel or even a "Chakram" weapon wielded by warriors like "Xena," from the fictional TV show, but this ringed galaxy is actually a vast place of stellar life. A new image from our Spitzer Space Telescope, taken in infrared light, shows where the action is taking place in galaxy NGC 1291. The outer ring, colored red in this view, is filled with new stars that are igniting and heating up dust that glows with infrared light. Though the galaxy is quite old, roughly 12 billion years, it is marked by an unusual ring where newborn stars are igniting. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech #nasa #space #galaxy #spitzer #astronomy #infrared #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 21,487

Third Substantial Solar Flare in 2 Days Seen here is an active region on the sun erupting with a mid-level flare, an M8.7 class, on Oct. 21, 2014, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This image shows extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the hot solar material in the sun's atmosphere. The sun erupted with another significant flare today, peaking at 10:28 a.m. EDT on Oct. 22, 2014. SDO captured images of the event, which occurred in the lower half of the sun. Today's flare is classified as an X1.6 class flare. X-class flares denote the most extreme flares. This is the third substantial flare from the same region of the sun since Oct. 19. Image Credit: NASA/SDO #sun #solarflare #solar #flare #spaceweather #sunearth #nasa #sdo #space #nasasdo Instagram ดารา @nasa 1,389

Our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a rapid-fire "storm" of high-energy blasts from a highly magnetized neutron star, also called a magnetar, on Jan. 22, 2009. Now astronomers analyzing this data have discovered underlying signals related to seismic waves rippling throughout the magnetar. Such signals were first identified during the fadeout of rare giant flares produced by magnetars. Over the past 40 years, giant flares have been observed just three times -- in 1979, 1998 and 2004 -- and signals related to starquakes, which set the neutron stars ringing like a bell, were identified only in the two most recent events. Neutron stars are the densest, most magnetic and fastest-spinning objects in the universe that scientists can observe directly. Each one is the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel, collapsed under its own weight, and exploded as a supernova. A neutron star packs the equivalent mass of half-a-million Earths into a sphere about 12 miles across, roughly the length of Manhattan Island in New York City. While typical neutron stars possess magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's, the eruptive activity observed from magnetars requires fields 1,000 times stronger still. To date, astronomers have confirmed only 23 magnetars. Seen here is a rupture in the crust of a highly magnetized neutron star in an artist's rendering. It can trigger high-energy eruptions. Fermi observations of these blasts include information on how the star's surface twists and vibrates, providing new insights into what lies beneath. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger Instagram ดารา @nasa 32,538

Turquoise-Tinted Plumes in Large Magellanic Cloud: The brightly glowing plumes seen in this image are reminiscent of an underwater scene, with turquoise-tinted currents and nebulous strands reaching out into the surroundings. However, this is no ocean. This image actually shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small nearby galaxy that orbits our galaxy, the Milky Way, and appears as a blurred blob in our skies. The Hubble Space Telescope has peeked many times into this galaxy, releasing stunning images of the whirling clouds of gas and sparkling stars. This image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula's outskirts. This famously beautiful nebula, located within the LMC, is a frequent target for Hubble (heic1206, heic1402). In most images of the LMC the color is completely different to that seen here. This is because, in this new image, a different set of filters was used. The customary R filter, which selects the red light, was replaced by a filter letting through the near-infrared light. In traditional images, the hydrogen gas appears pink because it shines most brightly in the red. Here however, other less prominent emission lines dominate in the blue and green filters. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA: acknowledgement: Josh Barrington #nasa #hst #hubble #space #glaxy #cloud #esa #astronomy #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 40,643

A Rare Event Captured! These images were taken of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring by our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 19, 2014, during the comet's close flyby of Mars and the spacecraft. Comet Siding Spring is on its first trip this close to the sun from the Oort Cloud at the outer fringe of the solar system. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona #nasa #space #marscomet #comet #sidingspring #mars #science B0DA0052-9825-4887-918B-6A9CCB51F69F Instagram ดารา @nasa 1,258

X-Class Flare: The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 1:01 a.m. EDT on Oct. 19, 2014. Our Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is always observing the sun, 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 image was captured in extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 131 Angstroms – a wavelength that can see the intense heat of a flare and that is typically colorized in teal. Image Credit: NASA/SDO #nasa #sun #earth #space #solarflare #sdo #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 23,609

Mars Comet! Today, Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet -- less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Siding Spring's nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second). The images above show -- after filtering -- comet C/2013 A1, also known as Siding Spring, as captured by Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute) #nasa #space #comet #marscomet #sidingspring #mars #redplanet #planets #martian #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 25,772

Stuck on the Rings: Like a drop of dew hanging on a leaf, Saturn's moon Tethys appears to be stuck to the planet's A and F rings from this perspective. Tethys (660 miles, or 1,062 kilometers across), like the ring particles, is composed primarily of ice. The gap in the A ring through which Tethys is visible is the Keeler gap, which is kept clear by the small moon Daphnis (not visible here). This view looks toward the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Tethys. North on Tethys is up and rotated 43 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2014. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #space #cassini #rings #saturn #planets #solarsystem #ice #science 52E2B293-CABE-40D1-9ADB-EF86C9366490 Instagram ดารา @nasa 19,853

Which is it? A new study focused on the interior of Saturn's icy moon Mimas suggests its cratered surface hides one of two intriguing possibilities: Either the moon's frozen core is shaped something like a football, or the satellite contains a liquid water ocean. Researchers used numerous images of Mimas taken by NASA's Cassini mission to determine how much the moon wobbles as it orbits Saturn. They then evaluated several possible models for how its interior might be arranged, finding two possibilities that fit their data.The study is published in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Science. This mosaic of Saturn's moon Mimas was created from images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its closest flyby of the moon on Feb. 13, 2010. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #cassini #space #moon #mimas #saturn #planets #solarsystem #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 12,908