NASA News

2022-06-14 17:29:59 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "It's Flag Day" Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 each year and commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. [June 14, 2022] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/apollo_11_flag_on_the_moon_w_aldrin_as11-40-5874.jpg Open / Comment

2022-06-14 07:41:20 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Satellites Behind Pinnacles " What are all those streaks across the background? Satellite trails. First, the foreground features picturesque rock mounds known as Pinnacles. Found in the Nambung National Park in Western Australia, these human-sized spires are made by unknown processes from ancient sea shells (limestone). Perhaps more eye-catching, though, is the sky behind. Created by low-Earth orbit satellites reflecting sunlight, all of these streaks were captured in less than two hours and digitally combined onto the single featured image, with the foreground taken consecutively by the same camera and from the same location. Most of the streaks were made by the developing Starlink constellation of communication satellites, but some are not. In general, the streaks are indicative of an increasing number of satellites nearly continuously visible above the Earth after dusk and before dawn. Understanding and removing the effects of satellite trails on images from Earth's ground-based cameras and telescopes is now important not only for elegant astrophotography, but for humanity's scientific understanding of the distant universe. [June 14, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2206/StarTrailsPinnacles_Rozells_960.jpg Open / Comment

2022-06-13 17:44:32 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide Speaks With Students" JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide speaks with students during a visit to Arlington Science Focus Elementary School [June 13, 2022] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/52136727833_e4c62ae77c_o.jpeg Open / Comment

2022-06-13 17:21:42 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Discoveries Highlighted at American Astronomical Society Meeting" Scientists will discuss new research from NASA missions – on topics ranging from exoplanets to citizen science discoveries – at the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). [June 13, 2022] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-discoveries-highlighted-at-american-astronomical-society-meeting Open / Comment

2022-06-13 07:16:29 #NewImage from #Nasa: "M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy from Hubble " The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured image is a digital combination of images taken in different colors by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, highlighting many sharp features. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51's spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with the smaller galaxy on the image left. [June 13, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2206/M51_HubbleMiller_1080.jpg Open / Comment

2022-06-12 07:16:48 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Find the Man in the Moon " Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The textured surface of Earth's full Moon is home to numerous identifications of iconic objects, not only in modern western culture but in world folklore throughout history. Examples, typically dependent on the Moon's perceived orientation, include the Woman in the Moon and the Rabbit in the Moon. One facial outline commonly identified as the Man in the Moon starts by imagining the two dark circular areas -- lunar maria -- here just above the Moon's center, to be the eyes. Surprisingly, there actually is a man in this Moon image -- a close look will reveal a real person -- with a telescope -- silhouetted against the Moon. This featured well-planned image was taken in 2016 in Cadalso de los Vidrios in Madrid, Spain. Do you have a favorite object that you see in the Moon? [June 12, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/1602/ManInMoon_Caxete_1080.jpg Open / Comment

2022-06-11 07:11:13 #NewImage from #Nasa: "The Road and the Milky Way" At night you can follow this road as it passes through the Dark Sky Alqueva reserve not too far from Alentejo, Portugal. Or you could stop, look up, and follow the Milky Way through the sky. Both stretch from horizon to horizon in this 180 degree panorama recorded on June 3. Our galaxy's name, the Milky Way, does refer to its appearance as a milky path in the sky. The word galaxy itself derives from the Greek for milk. From our fair planet the arc of the Milky Way is most easily visible on moonless nights from dark sky areas, though not quite so bright or colorful as in this image. The glowing celestial band is due to the collective light of myriad stars along the galactic plane too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is cut by dark swaths of the galaxy's obscuring interstellar dust clouds. Standing above the Milky Way arc near the top of this panoramic nightscape is bright star Vega, with the galaxy's central bulge near the horizon at the right. [June 11, 2022] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2206/MilkyWayArchCumeada-fb1200.jpg Open / Comment

2022-06-11 00:46:23 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA to Discuss, Conduct Test to Prepare for Artemis I Moon Mission" NASA is targeting Saturday, June 18, for the beginning of the next wet dress rehearsal test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with tanking operations on Monday, June 20. [June 10, 2022] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-discuss-conduct-test-to-prepare-for-artemis-i-moon-mission Open / Comment

2022-06-10 18:31:31 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Student Business Competition Gets Boost by White House Initiative" NASA’s Minority University Education and Research Program (MUREP) Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition (MITTIC), a Shark Tank-style competition for students at minority-serving institutions, is officially included in the 2022 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) Scholar Recognition Program. [June 10, 2022] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-student-business-competition-gets-boost-by-white-house-initiative Open / Comment

2022-06-10 16:54:43 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Hubble Investigates an Enigmatic Star Cluster" Unlike most globular clusters, Ruprecht 106 may be what astronomers call a single population globular cluster. [June 10, 2022] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/hubble_ruprecht106_potw2223a.jpg Open / Comment