Friends of NASA: March 2025

Monday, March 31, 2025

Meet The Framonauts | Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles | SpaceX

Meet The Framonauts | Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles | SpaceX

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 9:46 p.m. Eastern Time [ET], March 31, 2025, sending Fram2's Crew Dragon spacecraft towards a polar orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will become the first humans to view the Earth’s polar regions from space, participate in a Ham Radio contest, and record the sounds of Dragon, among other activities. Crew member Rabea Rogge will become the first female German astronaut. Moreover, crew member Jannicke Mikkelsen will become the first Norwegian astronaut and the first European astronaut to command a spacecraft.

A replay of the live webcast is available here:

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station, Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, and Polaris Dawn, the first commercial mission to conduct an extravehicular activity from Dragon. This will be the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission. It previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mission Objectives
During their multi-day mission, Dragon and the crew will explore Earth from a polar orbit and fly over Earth’s polar regions for the first time. They will also conduct 22 research studies designed to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration and understanding of human health in space. Throughout Fram2’s time on-orbit, the crew are planning to take the first x-ray in space, perform exercise studies to maintain muscle and skeletal mass, and grow mushrooms in microgravity. Additionally, after safely returning to Earth, the crew plans to exit from the Dragon spacecraft without additional medical and operational assistance, helping researchers characterize the ability of astronauts to perform unassisted functional tasks after short and long durations in space.

The Crew
This will be the first human spaceflight for Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta), Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway), Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge (Germany), plus Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia).

Learn more about the Fram2 Mission and its crew:

https://f2.com

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Duration: 2 minutes, 35 seconds

Release Date: March 31, 2025

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Science #Planet #Earth #Fram2 #Arctic #Antarctica #PolarOrbit #CrewDragonSpacecraft #SpaceTechnology #Astronauts #ChunWang #JannickeMikkelsen #RabeaRogge #EricPhilips #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #Germany #Deutschland #Norway #Norge #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Liftoff: Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles | SpaceX Falcon 9 | NASA Kennedy

Liftoff: Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles | SpaceX Falcon 9 | NASA Kennedy

A live webcast of this mission is underway.

Watch here:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2

Learn more about the Fram2 Mission and its crew:

https://f2.com

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Duration: 40 seconds

Release Date: March 31, 2025

Fram2 Crew Watch SpaceX Starlink Launch on Way to Their Falcon 9 Rocket

Fram2 Crew Watch SpaceX Starlink Launch on Way to Their Falcon 9 Rocket

Fram2 Mission Commander Chun Wang: "We’re gonna watch a rocket launch while on our way to a rocket launch.🚀"

Wang shared this video of his crew seeing a SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink mission launch as they are being driven to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for their own Falcon 9 launch scheduled for tonight, March 31, 2025, at 9:46 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), weather permitting.

The Fram2 Mission is the first human spaceflight to Earth's polar regions. Crew member Rabea Rogge will become the first female German astronaut. Moreover, crew member Jannicke Mikkelsen will become the first Norwegian astronaut and the first European astronaut to command a spacecraft. SpaceX is targeting March 31, 2025, for Falcon 9’s launch of Fram2 to a polar orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are three additional launch opportunities within the approximate 4.5-hour window: 11:20 p.m. ET followed by 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m. on Tuesday, April 1.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour before liftoff. Watch here:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station, Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, and Polaris Dawn, the first commercial mission to conduct an extravehicular activity from Dragon. This will be the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission. It previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Crew
This will be the first human spaceflight for Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips.

Learn more about the Fram2 Mission and its crew:

https://f2.com

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Release Date: March 31, 2025

Planet Mars Images: March 30-31, 2025 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Planet Mars Images: March 30-31, 2025 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

MSL - sol 4493

Mars 2020 - sol 1460

Mars 2020 - sol 1461

MSL - sol 4495

Support FriendsofNASA.org

Celebrating 12+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life.

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

Celebrating 4+ Years on Mars

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Processing: Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Dates: March 30-31, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #PerseveranceRover #Mars2020 #JezeroCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education

The Solar System from Near The Sun | NASA's Parker Solar Probe

The Solar System from Near The Sun | NASA's Parker Solar Probe

If you watch long enough, a comet will appear. Before then, you will see our Solar System from inside the orbit of Mercury as recorded by NASA's Parker Solar Probe looping around the Sun. The video captures coronal streamers into the solar wind, a small Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), and planets including, in order of appearance, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Between the emergence of Earth and Mars, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS appears with a distinctive tail. The continuous fleeting streaks are high energy particles from the Sun impacting Parker's sideways looking camera.

This time-lapse video was taken last year during Encounter 21, Parker's 21st close approach to the Sun. Studying data and images from Parker are delivering a better understanding of the dynamic Sun's effects on Earth's space weather as well as humanity's power grids, spacecraft, and space-faring astronauts.

On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA's Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona—the Sun’s upper atmosphere—in 2021. With every orbit bringing it closer, the probe faces brutal heat and radiation to provide humanity with unprecedented observations, visiting the only star we can study up close.

Learn more about the Parker Solar Probe:
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

Journey to Spiral Galaxy NGC 4945 in Centaurus | ESO

Journey to Spiral Galaxy NGC 4945 in Centaurus | ESO

This video zooms in on the spiral galaxy NGC 4945, starting with a wide-angle view made with an amateur telescope, then to an image from Digitized Sky Survey 2, and finishing with an image made with the 2.2-meter MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla.

This little corner of space, near the constellation of Centaurus and over 12 million light-years away, may seem peaceful at first—but NGC 4945 is locked in a violent struggle.

This is part of a new study that measured how winds move in several nearby galaxies. The MUSE observations show that these incredibly fast winds demonstrate a strange behavior: they actually speed up far away from the central black hole, accelerating even more on their journey to the galactic outskirts.

This process ejects potential star-forming material from a galaxy, suggesting that black holes control the fates of their host galaxies by dampening the stellar birth rate. It also shows that the more powerful black holes impede their own growth by removing the gas and dust they feed on, driving the whole system closer towards a sort of galactic equilibrium. Now, with these new results, we are one step closer to understanding the acceleration mechanism of the winds responsible for shaping the evolution of galaxies, and the history of the universe.

Credit: ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2, A. Fujii.

Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Sept. 2, 2009

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #EarlyUniverse #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4945 #Caldwell83 #Seyfert2Galaxy #Centaurus #Constellation #BlackHoles #Cosmology #Astrophysics #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #MUSE #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Supermassive Black Hole "Caught Playing with its Food" | ESO

Supermassive Black Hole "Caught Playing with its Food" | ESO

This picture shows a stunning spiral galaxy known as NGC 4945. This little corner of space, near the constellation of Centaurus and over 12 million light-years away, may seem peaceful at first—but NGC 4945 is locked in a violent struggle.

This image gives us a close-up view of the galaxy NGC 4945’s active core—clouds of dust and gas obscuring its supermassive black hole. We can also see a clear shot of the great galactic winds flowing out from this black hole, shown here in the bright, cone-shaped jets of material at the centre of the picture. These observations, taken with the MUSE instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), are helping astronomers understand how these winds move and shape their host galaxies.

The first image shows a stunning spiral galaxy known as NGC 4945. This little corner of space, near the constellation of Centaurus and over 12 million light-years away, may seem peaceful at first—but NGC 4945 is locked in a violent struggle.

At the very center of nearly every galaxy is a supermassive black hole. Like the one at the center of our own Milky Way, it is not particularly "hungry". However, NGC 4945’s supermassive black hole is ravenous, consuming huge amounts of matter—and the MUSE instrument at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has caught it "playing with its food." This "messy eater", contrary to a black hole’s typical all-consuming reputation, is blowing out powerful winds of material. This cone-shaped wind is shown in red in the inset, overlaid on a wider image captured with the MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla. In fact, this wind is moving so fast that it will end up escaping the galaxy altogether, lost to the void of intergalactic space.

Image Description: The first image shows a lone spiral galaxy, spinning on its side against a backdrop of distant stars. This thin disc of gas and dust contains many bright spots of reds and blues, stars faintly glowing, partially obscured by a dark flowing cloud of grey and brown. A small inset image zooms in on the galaxy’s bright center, revealing a wealth of hidden activity in a whole new wavelength of light. Artificially colored with shades of red, this inset image shows a cone of bright material exploding from within the flowing dust and gas like a volcanic eruption.

Credit: ESO/C. Marconcini et al.
Release Date: March 31, 2025

A Glittering Infrared View of Nebula Sh2-284 in Monoceros | Hubble

A Glittering Infrared View of Nebula Sh2-284 in Monoceros | Hubble

Hubble’s infrared view of emission nebula Sh2-284 provides a glimpse of the brilliant young stars hidden within clouds of gas and dust.

The Reddish-colored ground-based image (top) of M24 shows the location of the Hubble view (bottom). The European Southern Observatory’s visible-light image shows prominent clouds of gas and dust, while the Hubble image’s infrared vision highlights the stars within and behind the clouds.

Ground-based image: ESO/VPHAS+ Team; Hubble image: NASA, ESA, and M. Andersen (European Southern Observatory - Germany); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

A tiny fraction of the stellar nursery known as Sh2-284 is visible in this glittering, star-filled image. This immense region of gas and dust is the birthing place of stars that shine among the clouds. Bright clusters of newborn stars glow pink in infrared light, and clouds of gas and dust, resembling puffy cumulus clouds, are dotted with dark knots of denser dust.

This image shows an infrared view from Hubble, giving an excellent view of the stars that might otherwise be obscured by Sh2-284’s clouds. Unlike visible light, infrared wavelengths can travel through clouds of gas and dust, providing a glimpse of the stars forming within the obscuring clouds.

The nebula is shaped by a young central star cluster, Dolidze 25 (not visible in the Hubble image). Its stars range from 1.5 to 13 million years old (our Sun, in contrast, is 4.6 billion years old). The cluster blasts out ionizing winds and radiation, pushing at the gas and dust of the nebula and carving out intricate shapes and pillars, as seen in detail here. This ionizing radiation gives Sh2-284 its classification as an HII region, an emission nebula consisting primarily of ionized hydrogen. An emission nebula like Sh2-284 glows with its own light as stars within or nearby energize its gas with a flood of intense ultraviolet radiation.

Sh2-284 is also a low-metallicity region, which means it is poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. These conditions mimic the early universe, when matter was mostly helium and hydrogen and heavier elements were just beginning to form via nuclear fusion within massive stars. Hubble took these images as part of an effort to examine how low metallicity influences stellar formation and how this would apply to the early universe.

Sh2-284 resides 15,000 light-years away at the end of an outer spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellation Monoceros.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Andersen (European Southern Observatory - Germany)

Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
Release Date: March 8, 2025

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Nebulae #Nebula #Sh2284 #EmissionNebula #HIIRegion #Stars #Dolidze25 #Monoceros #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #InfraredAstronomy #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Exploring Iceland's Geology for NASA Artemis Moon Missions | NASA Kennedy

Exploring Iceland's Geology for NASA Artemis Moon Missions | NASA Kennedy

Check out this NASA Artemis update! It features how the Artemis crew study geology in Iceland to train for their mission around the Moon—as explained by Canadian Space Agency astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Jeremy Hansen!

The Artemis II test flight will be sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a ten-day journey around the Moon and back.

Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026.

Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Learn more about NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket: nasa.gov/sls

Follow updates on the Artemis blog:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

Credit: NASA
Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds
Release Date: March 28, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisII #CrewedMission #Earth #Geology #Iceland #Ísland #Astronauts #NASASLS #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #Science #SpaceEngineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Spiral Galaxy NGC 4941 in Virgo: A Galaxy with Great Stellar Feedback | Hubble

Spiral Galaxy NGC 4941 in Virgo: A Galaxy with Great Stellar Feedback | Hubble

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941. It lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick out exquisite details, such as individual star clusters and filamentary clouds of gas and dust.

The data used to construct this image were collected as part of an observing program that investigates the star formation and stellar feedback cycle in nearby galaxies. As stars form in dense, cold clumps of gas, they begin to influence their surroundings. Stars heat and stir up the gas clouds where they are born through winds, starlight, and—eventually, for massive stars—by exploding as supernovae. These processes are collectively called stellar feedback, and they impact the rate that a galaxy can form new stars.

As it turns out, stars are not the only entities providing feedback in NGC 4941. At the heart of this galaxy lies an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole feasting on gas. As the black hole amasses gas from its surroundings, the gas swirls into a superheated disc that glows brightly at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. Similar to stars—but on a much, much larger scale— active galactic nuclei shape their surroundings through winds, radiation, and powerful jets, altering not only star formation but also the evolution of the galaxy as a whole.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen at a diagonal angle. Its very center is a bright white glowing orb, surrounded by an inner disc of golden light. This is wrapped in a broad outer disc that glows more dimly with patchy, broken spiral arms swirling around it, filled with small blue and pink star clusters. Dark reddish threads of dust also spiral through the disc with strands reaching into the core.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
Release Date: March 31, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4941 #StellarFeedback #AGN #BlackHole #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Spectrum Rocket First Launch in Norway: "Launch, Learn, Repeat" | Isar Aerospace

Spectrum Rocket First Launch in Norway: "Launch, Learn, Repeat" | Isar Aerospace

On March 30, 2025, German-based Isar Aerospace became the first European commercial space company to launch an orbital rocket from continental Europe. In the first test flight of the company’s Spectrum LV from Andøya Spaceport in Norway, Isar Aerospace "met its set goals."

European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher stated "Success to get off the pad, and lots of data already obtained. I am sure Isar Aerospace will learn a lot. Rocket launch is hard. Never give up, move forward with even more energy!"

Isar Aerospace "develops next generation rockets for sustainable access to space for small and medium satellites and satellite constellations."

Spectrum capabilities:
Payload capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO): 1,000kg
Payload capability to Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO): 700kg
Vehicle length: 28m
Vehicle diameter: 2m

Learn more about the Spectrum launch vehicle: https://www.isaraerospace.com/spectrum

Andøya Spaceport:
https://andoyaspace.no/spaceport/

Video Credit: Isar Aerospace/Andøya Spaceport

Duration: 37 seconds
Release Date: March 30, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Science #Earth #Satellites #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #IsarAerospace #SpectrumRocket #LaunchVehicle #AndøyaSpaceport #Spaceport #Norway #Norge #Germany #Ottobrunn #Bavaria #Deutschland #Europe #Europa #Spaceflight #CommercialSpace #SatelliteIndustry #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles: Crew Prepares for Launch | NASA Kennedy

Fram2 Mission to Earth's Poles: Crew Prepares for Launch | NASA Kennedy

From left to right: Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta), Mission Specialist Rabea Rogge (Germany), Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway), Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia)

From left to right: Mission Specialist Rabea Rogge (Germany), Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta), Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway), and Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia)

From left to right: Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia), Mission Specialist Rabea Rogge (Germany), Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway), Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta)

Fram2 Mission Emblem

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket static fire test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rollout at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rollout

The Fram2 Mission is the first human spaceflight to Earth's polar regions. Crew member Rabea Rogge will become the first female German astronaut. Moreover, crew member Jannicke Mikkelsen will become the first Norwegian astronaut and the first European astronaut to command a spacecraft. SpaceX is targeting Monday, March 31, 2025, at 9:46 p.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Fram2 to a polar orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are three additional launch opportunities within the approximate 4.5-hour window: 11:20 p.m. ET followed by 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m. on Tuesday, April 1.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour before liftoff. Watch here:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station, Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, and Polaris Dawn, the first commercial mission to conduct an extravehicular activity from Dragon. This will be the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission. It previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Learn more about the Fram2 Mission and its crew:

https://f2.com

Image Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Release Dates: March 29-30, 2025

Fram2 Earth Polar Crewed Mission Pre-Launch: SpaceX Falcon 9 | NASA Kennedy

Fram2 Earth Polar Crewed Mission Pre-Launch: SpaceX Falcon 9 | NASA Kennedy

Fram2 Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Portrait of Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta/Saint Kitts and Nevis)

Portrait of Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway)

Portrait of Mission Specialist Rabea Rogge (Germany)

Portrait of Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia)

Fram2 SpaceX Falcon 9 & Crew Dragon Launch, Landing & Deployment

The Fram2 Mission is the first human spaceflight to Earth's polar regions. Crew member Rabea Rogge will become the first female German astronaut. Moreover, crew member Jannicke Mikkelsen will become the first Norwegian astronaut and the first European astronaut to command a spacecraft. SpaceX is targeting Monday, March 31, 2025, at 9:46 p.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Fram2 to a polar orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are three additional launch opportunities within the approximate 4.5-hour window: 11:20 p.m. ET followed by 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m. on Tuesday, April 1. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Tuesday, April 1 starting at the same time.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour prior to liftoff. Watch here:
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station, Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit, and Polaris Dawn, the first commercial mission to conduct an extravehicular activity from Dragon. This will be the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Learn more about the Fram2 Mission and its crew:

https://f2.com

Image Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Release Date: March 29, 2025

The Gaia Mission: Rewriting The Milky Way's Story | European Space Agency

The Gaia Mission: Rewriting The Milky Way's Story | European Space Agency

For over a decade, the European Space Agency's Gaia Mission has mapped our galaxy with stunning precision—rewriting the story of the Milky Way. As its mission enters a new phase, we look back at its most groundbreaking discoveries.

Chapters:

00:23 – Mapping the Milky Way and beyond

00:58 – Structure of the Milky Way

01:40 - Galactic family tree

02:27 – Mapping star-forming regions

03:00 – Ancient star streams

03:19 – Cosmic encounters

04:07 - Black holes and hidden giants

Learn more about ESA's Gaia Mission:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia_overview

Video Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Duration: 5 minutes
Release Date: March 30, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #GaiaMission #GaiaSpaceTelescope #Stars #Exoplanets #BlackHoles #Nebulae #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Europe #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

NASA Near-Earth Object Surveyor Planetary Defense Mission Update | JPL

NASA Near-Earth Object Surveyor Planetary Defense Mission Update | JPL

The instrument enclosure of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024. Wrapped in silver thermal blanketing, the 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) angular structure was subjected to the frigid, airless conditions that the spacecraft will experience when in deep space. The cavernous thermal-vacuum test facility is famous for testing the Apollo spacecraft that traveled to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

The instrument enclosure for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for environmental testing inside the historic Chamber A in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024. Mounted to its articulating platform, on which it was securely positioned during assembly, the 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) angular structure was inspected by technicians before being placed inside the testing chamber.

A mirror set to be installed inside the telescope for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) is seen during an inspection of the mirror's surface at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on July 17, 2024. Being built in a JPL clean room, the infrared telescope is the spacecraft's only instrument and it will be used to seek out a portion of the hardest-to-find near-Earth objects that may pose a hazard to our planet.

The reflection of principal optical engineer Brian Monacelli can be seen in the mirror.

Known as a "three-mirror anastigmat telescope," the instrument will rely on a set of curved mirrors to focus light onto its infrared detectors in a way that minimizes optical aberrations.

In this illustration showing NEO Surveyor, NASA's next-generation near-Earth object hunter, the spacecraft floats in an infrared starfield containing stars, star clusters, gas, and dust. More than 100 asteroids can be seen as red dots, with a number of them visible in a track that shows how they were captured at different times as they marched across the sky. This starfield was observed by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.

The infrared Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) is designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs.

NEO Surveyor will launch no earlier than September 2027.

NEO Surveyor consists of a single scientific instrument: a 50 centimeter (nearly 20 inch) diameter telescope that operates in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids—the most difficult type to find.

After launch, NEO Surveyor will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 feet). These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact. By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, NEO Surveyor can make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits.

NEO Surveyor employs an innovative observation strategy to independently discover new asteroids and comets and determine their orbits with enough accuracy to allow them to be found again. In five years of survey operation, NEO Surveyor is designed to make significant progress toward meeting the U.S. Congress's mandate to NASA to find more than 90 percent of all NEOs larger than 140 meters in diameter.

NASA's NEO Surveyor will build upon the successes of NEOWISE as the first space mission built specifically to find large numbers of hazardous asteroids and comets. The space telescope will launch to a region of gravitational stability between the Earth and the Sun called the L1 Lagrange point, where the spacecraft will orbit during its five-year primary mission. From this location, the space telescope will view the solar system in infrared wavelengths and light that is invisible to the human eye. Because those wavelengths are mostly blocked by Earth's atmosphere, larger ground-based observatories may miss near-Earth objects that NEO Surveyor will be able to spot from space by using its modest light-collecting aperture of nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters).

NEO Surveyor's cutting-edge detectors are designed to observe two heat-sensitive infrared bands that were chosen specifically so the spacecraft can track the most challenging-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that do not reflect much visible light. In the infrared wavelengths that NEO Surveyor is sensitive to, these objects glow as they are heated by sunlight. In addition, NEO Surveyor will be able to find asteroids that approach Earth from the direction of the Sun, as well as those that lead and trail our planet's orbit, where they are typically obscured by the glare of sunlight—objects known as Earth Trojans.

The mission is tasked by NASA's Planetary Science Division within the Science Mission Directorate; program oversight is provided by the PDCO, which was established in 2016 to manage the agency's ongoing efforts in planetary defense. NASA's Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center provides program management for NEO Surveyor.

The project is being developed by JPL and is led by survey director Amy Mainzer at the University of Arizona. Established aerospace and engineering companies have been contracted to build the spacecraft and its instrumentation, including Ball Aerospace, Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Teledyne. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder will support operations, and IPAC-Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for processing survey data and producing the mission's data products. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

NEO Surveyor Mission:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neo-surveyor/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/near-earth-object-surveyor/

JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS): https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/

Planetary Defense at NASA:
https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

Image Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Image Dates: Dec. 2022-March 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Planet #PlanetaryDefense #Asteroids #EarthTrojans #AsteroidBelt #Comets #NEO #NEA #SolarSystem #SpaceTechnology #NEOSurveyorMission #WISE #NEOWISE #InfraredAstronomy #InfraredTelescopes #JPL #Caltech #Houston #Texas #JSC #MSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Partial Solar Eclipse: Northern Hemisphere | Europe's Meteosat-12 Earth Satellite

Partial Solar Eclipse: Northern Hemisphere | Europe's Meteosat-12 Earth Satellite

A stunning view of the partial solar eclipse in Earth's northern hemisphere on March 29, 2025 from space! 🌒 Unlike a total eclipse, part of the Sun remained visible. Did you catch it from the ground?👀

The image was captured by EUMETSAT's Meteosat-12 satellite. You can see the Moon’s shadow sweeping across Earth between 06:00 - 12:30 UTC.

On March 29, 2025, the Moon passed in front of and partially blocked the Sun, casting a shadow on parts of the Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The central part of the Moon’s shadow, where the Sun appears completely blocked, missed Earth, so no one was able to see a total solar eclipse this time.

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organization created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States.

EUMETSAT's primary objective is to establish, maintain and exploit European systems of operational meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT is responsible for the launch and operation of the satellites and for delivering satellite data to end-users as well as contributing to the operational monitoring of climate and the detection of global climate changes.

EUMETSAT website: eumetsat.int

Image Credit: EUMETSAT
Image Date: March 29, 2025

#NASA #EUMETSAT #Space #Science #Satellites #Earth #Planet #Moon #Sun #SolarEclipse #PartialSolarEclipse #PartialSolarEclipse2025 #NorthernHemisphere #Atmosphere #Environment #Weather #Meteorology #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalHeating #Meteosat12Satellite #Europe #InternationalCooperation #STEM #Education

Earth Cloud Collection | International Space Station

Earth Cloud Collection | International Space Station

A Southeast Asian sunrise casts long shadows behind clouds in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above the Bismarck Sea.

Sunrise above Earth's horizon begins illuminating a cloudy Indian Ocean and reveals the terminator, the dividing line between night and day, in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above.

Clouds swirl over the Gulf of Alaska and underneath the aurora borealis blanketing Earth's horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above.

Here are examples of beautiful Earth cloud formations captured by astronauts of Expedition#72 aboard the International Space Station.

Expedition 72 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew

Station Commander: Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Ivan Vagner, Kirill Peskov
NASA Flight Engineers: Don Pettit, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers

JAXA Flight Engineer: Takuya Onishi

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Dates: March 10-26, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planet #Earth #Aurora #Atmosphere #Clouds #IndianOcean #PacificOcean #Astronauts #AstronautPhotography #Japan #日本 #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #MicrogravityResearch #InternationalCooperation #Expedition72 #UnitedStates #Canada #STEM #Education

Pages

Monday, March 31, 2025

Sunday, March 30, 2025