Looking for Comets in a Sea of Stars: On a July night this summer, a 5,200-pound balloon gondola hangs from a crane and moves toward the open doors of a building at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md. The telescopes and instruments carried by the gondola, which are part of our Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS), are calibrated by taking a long look at the stars and other objects in the sky. This photo was created from 100 separate 30-second-exposure photos, composited together to make the star trail that "spins" around Polaris, the North Star. BOPPS is a high-altitude, stratospheric balloon mission, which will spend up to 24 hours aloft to study a number of objects in our solar system, including an Oort cloud comet. Two comets that may be visible during the flight include Pan STARRS and Siding Spring, which will pass very close to Mars on Oct. 19. The mission may also survey a potential array of other targets including asteroids Ceres and Vesta, Earth’s moon, and Neptune and Uranus. BOPPS is scheduled to launch on Sept. 25 from the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Research Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL #nasa #balloon #comet #solarsystyem #planets #apl #johnshopkins #oortcloud #earth science Instagram ดารา @nasa 14,367
On July 23, 2012, a massive cloud of solar material erupted off the sun's right side, zooming out into space. It soon passed one of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft, which clocked the CME as traveling between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per second as it left the sun. This was the fastest CME ever observed by STEREO. Two other observatories – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- witnessed the eruption as well. The July 2012 CME didn't move toward Earth, but watching an unusually strong CME like this gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these events originate and travel through space. STEREO's unique viewpoint from the sides of the sun combined with the other two observatories watching from closer to Earth. Together they helped scientists create models of the entire July 2012 event. They learned that an earlier, smaller CME helped clear the path for the larger event, thus contributing to its unusual speed. Such data helps advance our understanding of what causes CMEs and improves modeling of similar CMEs that could be Earth-directed. Image Credit: NASA/SDO/STEREO/ESA/SOHO/Wiessinger #CMEWeek #CME #NASA #Sun #Heliophysics Instagram ดารา @nasa 15,329
King Fire in California, False-Color Infrared On Sept. 19, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured these images of the King fire in Eldorado National Forest. In the false-color image, burned forest appears red; unaffected forests are green; cleared forest is beige; and smoke is blue. As of Sept. 23, the blaze had charred 36,320 hectares (89,571 acres). Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey #NASA #Landsat #Wildfire #KingFire #fire #forest #burn Instagram ดารา @nasa 15,546
Sunrise at the Soyuz Launch Pad: The sun rises as the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sept. 23, 2014. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for Sept. 25 at 4:25 p.m. EDT (Sept. 26 at 2:25 a.m. Kazakh time) and will carry Expedition 41 Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Flight Engineer Elena Serova of Roscosmos into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky #nasa #space #spacestation #iss #soyuz #astronauts #exp41 Instagram ดารา @nasa 2,030
An Odd Trio: The Cassini spacecraft captures a rare family photo of three of Saturn's moons that couldn't be more different from each other! As the largest of the three, Tethys (image center) is round and has a variety of terrains across its surface. Meanwhile, Hyperion (to the upper-left of Tethys) is the "wild one" with a chaotic spin and Prometheus (lower-left) is a tiny moon that busies itself sculpting the F ring. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 1 degree above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2014. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 22 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute #nasa #space #cassini #saturn #moon #astronomy #planets #science C54CC064-ED65-454C-9C72-E8EC206FA02D Instagram ดารา @nasa 7,806
Now Orbiting Mars! After a 10-month, 442 million mile journey, our Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) arrived in Mars orbit late Sunday. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars, answering important questions about the planet's history and climate. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #maven #mars #space #planets #journeytomars #climate #atmosphere #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 4,539
In case you missed it, here's a Hyper-Lapse video of SpaceX Falcon9 Dragon cargo ship launch as seen from the NASA Causeway at @NASAKennedy. Launch occurred Sunday, Sept. 21, at 1:52 a.m. EDT. The Dragon spacecraft will deliver, and later return, new technology, biology, biotechnology and Earth and space science research. Credit: NASA #space #spacex4 #falcon9 #iss #isscargo #nasasocial #nasa Instagram ดารา @nasa 16,111
We arrive at Mars today! After a 10-month, 442 million mile journey, our Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) is set to enter Martian orbit at approximately 9:50 p.m. EDT tonight. NASA TV coverage begins at 9:30 p.m. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars, answering important questions about the planet's history and climate. Image Credit: NASA (This Viking 1 orbiter) #nasa #maven #mars #space #planets #journeytomars #climate #atmosphere #science 180B7B29-C1D6-4BEA-AF6B-79795237393B Instagram ดารา @nasa 20,908
And we have liftoff! SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 1:52 a.m. EDT on a journey to the International Space Station! The Dragon spacecraft will deliver, and later return, new technology, biology, biotechnology and Earth and space science research. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #isscargo #spacex #iss #spacestation #exp41 #space #321liftoff #launch Instagram ดารา @nasa 20,408
Preparing to Lift Off: Bad weather conditions delayed Saturday's launch attempt of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The next attempt will occur at 1:52 a.m. EDT Sunday, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 12:45 a.m. The mission will deliver, and later return, new technology, biology, biotechnology and Earth and space science research. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #isscargo #spacex #iss #spacestation #exp41 #space #321liftoff #launch Instagram ดารา @nasa 18,341
Ready to Launch: SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station at 2:14 a.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 20. It will deliver, and later return, new technology, biology, biotechnology and Earth and space science research. NASA TV coverage is airing now. You can watch by visiting http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv Image Credit: NASA #nasa #isscargo #spacex #iss #spacestation #exp41 #space #321liftoff #launch Instagram ดารา @nasa 6,412
Starry, Starry Sky from the Space Station: An Expedition 41 crew member aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station on Sept. 13, 2014, captured this image of a starry sky. The white panel at left belonging to the ATV-5 spacecraft, which is docked with the orbital outpost, obstructs the view of Scorpius. The red star Antares is directly to the left of the bottom of the second ATV panel from the top. The two stars that are close together and on the lower left of the photo comprise Shaula, the tip of the scorpionâ€s tail. The open cluster close to Shaula is M7. The hardware at bottom right is part of one of the station's solar panels. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #esa #atv #iss #spacestation #exp41 #earth #stars #space #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 4,594
Hubble Feathers the Peacock: This picture, taken by our Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), shows a galaxy known as NGC 6872 in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). Its unusual shape is caused by its interactions with the smaller galaxy that can be seen just above NGC 6872, called IC 4970. They both lie roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. From tip to tip, NGC 6872 measures over 500,000 light-years across, making it the second largest spiral galaxy discovered to date. In terms of size it is beaten only by NGC 262, a galaxy that measures a mind-boggling 1.3 million light-years in diameter! To put that into perspective, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, measures between 100,000 and 120,000 light-years across, making NGC 6872 about five times its size. Credit: Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA / Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt #nasa #space #hubble #hst #galaxy #stars #science #astronomy E1280167-734E-4D71-845B-1317880919D0 Instagram ดารา @nasa 30,390
Space station's Expedition 41 crew focused on eye exams and scientific research aboard the orbiting complex Thursday while continuing preparations for the arrival of the other half of their crew next week. Photographed with a mounted automated camera, this is one of a number of images featuring the European Space Agency's fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle docked with the station. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #iss #spacestation #atv #esa #science #exp41 CE695915-EF6F-45CC-B8A5-5A44943B4C93 Instagram ดารา @nasa 9,803
Our Airborne Campaigns Focus on Climate Impacts in the Arctic: This red plane is a DHC-3 Otter, the plane flown in our Operation IceBridge-Alaska surveys of mountain glaciers in Alaska. Over the past few decades, average global temperatures have been on the rise, and this warming is happening two to three times faster in the Arctic. As the region's summer comes to a close, We're hard at work studying how rising temperatures are affecting the Arctic. Our researchers this summer and fall are carrying out three Alaska-based airborne research campaigns aimed at measuring greenhouse gas concentrations near Earth's surface, monitoring Alaskan glaciers, and collecting data on Arctic sea ice and clouds. Observations from these campaigns will give researchers a better understanding of how the Arctic is responding to rising temperatures. Image Credit: NASA/Chris Larsen, University of Alaska-Fairbanks #nasa #climate #earth #arctic #ice #earthrightnow #science A50196FB-3C54-4FE4-BAFF-05D0CEF7B9EF Instagram ดารา @nasa 24,564
Our Hubble Space Telescope finds big surprise in teeny tiny galaxy: A supermassive black hole with a mass 21 million times our sun. The black hole is five times the mass of the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is inside one of the densest galaxies known to date -- the M60-UCD1 dwarf galaxy that crams 140 million stars within a diameter of about 300 light-years, which is only 1/500th of our galaxy’s diameter. If you lived inside this dwarf galaxy, the night sky would dazzle with at least 1 million stars visible to the naked eye. Our nighttime sky as seen from Earth’s surface shows 4,000 stars. This is an artist's view of M60-UCD1 black hole. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI-RCC14-41a #nasa #space #galaxy #milkyway #blackhole #astronomy #stars #hubble #hst #telescope #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 29,903
Powerful, Pulsating Core of Star: Our Milky Way galaxy is littered with the still-sizzling remains of exploded stars. The blue dot in this image marks the spot of an energetic pulsar -- the magnetic, spinning core of star that blew up in a supernova explosion. We discovered the pulsar by identifying its telltale pulse -- a rotating beam of X-rays, that like a cosmic lighthouse, intersects Earth every 0.2 seconds. The pulsar lies in our inner Milky Way galaxy about 42,000 light-years away. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAO #nustar #nasa #space #astronomy #galaxy #star #xray #milkyway #science Instagram ดารา @nasa 2,034
Florida to Louisiana Viewed From the International Space Station: NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman captured this image of Florida to Louisiana just before dawn, taken from the space station, and posted it to social media on Friday, Sept. 12. Wiseman, Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst began their first full workweek Monday as a three-person crew aboard the station, while the three additional flight engineers who will round out the Expedition 41 crew spent the day training for next week’s launch to the orbiting complex. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #astronauts #iss #space #spacetstation #exp41 Instagram ดารา @nasa 26,840
We're poised to announce the final phase of development and certification to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the U.S. on American systems. We will make a major announcement today at 4 p.m. EDT regarding the return of human spaceflight launches to the United States. Whoever is chosen will have the goal to achieve certification of the system – including a test flight to the International Space Station with a NASA astronaut -- in 2017, returning a critical capability to America and greatly expanding the scientific research potential of the orbiting laboratory. Watch the announcement live on NASA TV. Image Credit: NASA #launchamerica #journeytomars #nasa #iss #spacestation #astronauts Instagram ดารา @nasa 6,537
Aboard the space station (@ISS), astronaut Reid Wiseman snapped this photo Sunday, Sept. 14. and wrote, "Nothing like a view of the #MilkyWay first thing on Sunday morning. Beautiful." The crew began their first full workweek Monday as a three-person crew aboard the space station, while the three additional flight engineers who will round out the Expedition 41 crew spent the day training for next week's launch to the orbiting complex. Image Credit: NASA #iss #spacestation #nasa #science #earth #space #exp41 Instagram ดารา @nasa 3,717
