NASA News

2022-01-02 08:11:20 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Quadruple Lunar Halo Over Winter Road " Sometimes falling ice crystals make the atmosphere into a giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the Sun or Moon. One Saturday night in 2012 was just such a time near Madrid, Spain, where a winter sky displayed not only a bright Moon but four rare lunar halos. The brightest object, near the top of the featured image, is the Moon. Light from the Moon refracts through tumbling hexagonal ice crystals into a somewhat rare 22-degree halo seen surrounding the Moon. Elongating the 22-degree arc horizontally is a more rare circumscribed halo caused by column ice crystals. Even more rare, some moonlight refracts through more distant tumbling ice crystals to form a (third) rainbow-like arc 46 degrees from the Moon and appearing here just above a picturesque winter landscape. Furthermore, part of a whole 46-degree circular halo is also visible, so that an extremely rare -- especially for the Moon -- quadruple halo was captured. Far in the background is a famous winter skyscape that includes Sirius, the belt of Orion, and Betelgeuse -- visible between the inner and outer arcs. Halos and arcs typically last for minutes to hours, so if you do see one there should be time to invite family, friends or neighbors to share your unusual lensed vista of the sky. [January 02, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2201/lunararcs_caxete_960.jpg Open / Comment

2022-01-01 08:11:48 #NewImage from #Nasa: "The Full Moon of 2021" Every Full Moon of 2021 shines in this year-spanning astrophoto project, a composite portrait of the familiar lunar nearside at each brightest lunar phase. Arranged by moonth, the year progresses in stripes beginning at the top. Taken with the same camera and lens the stripes are from Full Moon images all combined at the same pixel scale. The stripes still looked mismatched, but they show that the Full Moon's angular size changes throughout the year depending on its distance from Kolkata, India, planet Earth. The calendar month, a full moon name, distance in kilometers, and angular size is indicated for each stripe. Angular size is given in minutes of arc corresponding to 1/60th of a degree. The largest Full Moon is near a perigee or closest approach in May. The smallest is near an apogee, the most distant Full Moon in December. Of course the full moons of May and November also slid into Earth's shadow during 2021's two lunar eclipses. [January 01, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2201/MoonstripsAnnotatedIG_crop1024.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-31 08:11:39 #NewImage from #Nasa: "JWST on the Road to L2" This timelapse gif tracks the James Webb Space Telescope as it streaks across the stars of Orion on its journey to a destination beyond the Moon. Recorded on December 28, 12 consecutive exposures each 10 minutes long were aligned and combined with a subsequent color image of the background stars to create the animation. About 2.5 days after its December 25 launch, JWST cruised past the altitude of the Moon's orbit as it climbed up the gravity ridge from Earth to reach a halo orbit around L2, an Earth-Sun Lagrange point. Lagrange points are convenient locations in space where the combined gravitational attraction of one massive body (Earth) orbiting another massive body (Sun) is in balance with the centripetal force needed to move along with them. So much smaller masses, like spacecraft, will tend to stay there. One of 5 Lagrange points, L2 is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth directly along the Earth-Sun line. JWST will arrive at L2 on January 23, 29 days after launch. While relaxing in Earth's surface gravity you can follow the James Webb Space Telescope's progress and complicated deployment online. [December 31, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/JWSTcrop1024.gif Open / Comment

2021-12-31 01:36:49 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Update: NASA Plans Coverage of Webb Space Telescope Deployments" Over about the next two weeks, NASA will provide broadcast coverage, media briefings, and other updates on major deployment milestones for the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful space science telescope. [December 30, 2021] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/update-nasa-plans-coverage-of-webb-space-telescope-deployments Open / Comment

2021-12-30 20:23:04 #NewReport from #ISS : "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/29/2021" Payloads: Ring Sheared Drop:  Ring Sheared Drop hardware was removed and stowed.  The Ring Sheared Drop investigation examines the formation and flow of amyloids without the complications associated with the solid walls of a container, because in microgravity, surface tension provides containment of the liquid.  Amyloids Open / Comment

2021-12-30 19:51:05 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Plans Coverage of Webb Space Telescope Deployments" Over about the next two weeks, NASA will provide broadcast coverage, a media briefing, and other updates on major deployment milestones for the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful space science telescope. [December 30, 2021] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-plans-coverage-of-webb-space-telescope-deployments Open / Comment

2021-12-30 18:54:03 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Images of 2021: International Space Station Transits the Sun" This composite image made from seven frames shows the International Space Station, with a crew of seven onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun. [December 30, 2021] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/51271450910_2301dffc91_o.jpeg Open / Comment

2021-12-30 08:11:37 #NewImage from #Nasa: "The Further Tail of Comet Leonard" Comet Leonard, brightest comet of 2021, is at the lower left of these two panels captured on December 29 in dark Atacama desert skies. Heading for its perihelion on January 3 Comet Leonard's visible tail has grown. Stacked exposures with a wide angle lens (also displayed in a reversed B/W scheme for contrast), trace the complicated ion tail for an amazing 60 degrees, with bright Jupiter shining near the horizon at lower right. Material vaporizing from Comet Leonard's nucleus, a mass of dust, rock, and ices about 1 kilometer across, has produced the long tail of ionized gas fluorescing in the sunlight. Likely flares on the comet's nucleus and buffeting by magnetic fields and the solar wind in recent weeks have resulted in the tail's irregular pinched and twisted appearance. Still days from its closest approach to the Sun, Comet Leonard's activity should continue. The comet is south of the Solar System's ecliptic plane as it sweeps through the southern constellation Microscopium. [December 30, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/tail_gasparri_web1024.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-29 18:48:36 #NewReport from #ISS : "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/28/2021" Payloads: Advanced Plant EXperiment-07 (APEX-07):  The crew configured both Veggie Facilities for initial APEX-07 operations, preparation, and insertion of thirty Petri Plates per Veggie facility.  APEX-07 examines how changes in gravity and other environmental factors associated with spaceflight affect plants at the level of gene expression.  Previous research shows that microgravity conditions during spaceflight affects Open / Comment

2021-12-29 08:11:11 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter " What and where are these large ovals? They are rotating storm clouds on Jupiter imaged last month by NASA's Juno spacecraft. In general, higher clouds are lighter in color, and the lightest clouds visible are the relatively small clouds that dot the lower oval. At 50 kilometers across, however, even these light clouds are not small. They are so high up that they cast shadows on the swirling oval below. The featured image has been processed to enhance color and contrast. Large ovals are usually regions of high pressure that span over 1000 kilometers and can last for years. The largest oval on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot (not pictured), which has lasted for at least hundreds of years. Studying cloud dynamics on Jupiter with Juno images enables a better understanding of dangerous typhoons and hurricanes on Earth. [December 29, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/JupiterStorms_JunoGill_1024.jpg Open / Comment