Titan and Tethys at Saturn | NASA Cassini

Saturn’s moon Tethys disappears behind Titan as observed by the Cassini spacecraft on Nov. 26, 2009. Tethys is about 660 miles (1,070 kilometers) across. At about 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) wide, Titan is larger than the planet Mercury, and was much closer to Cassini than Tethys at the time of this image. Titan is planet-like in another way: it’s wrapped in a thick atmosphere, which can be clearly seen here where it overlaps icy Tethys in the distance beyond.

Cassini captured this natural-color image at a distance of approximately 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers) from Titan.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and https://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.​

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini-Huygens mission was a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, managed the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center was based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Image Date: November 26, 2009
Release Date: August 20, 2018
#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Moons #Titan #Tethys #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #History #STEM #Education

Near Two Million Acres on Fire in the United States | NASA

Image: Satellite image of fires on the U.S. West Coast
Actively burning areas are outlined in red.
Aug. 20, 2018: The West Coast of the United States is shrouded in smoke from the 110 large fires (this does not include smaller fires within each complex of fires) that have erupted across the region during this fire season. Over 1.9 million acres are or have been ablaze. Six new large fires were reported in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon over the weekend and eight large fires have been contained including the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park in California.

The weather concerns in the area include warmer than average temperatures that will continue in the west with diurnal winds and marginal overnight humidity recoveries. Isolated storms will be possible along and west of the Continental Divide in Montana and Wyoming. These storms could also bring more lightning strikes and more blazes to areas with increasingly dry conditions. A breezy easterly flow will blow across the western half of Montana and possibly northern Idaho that could possibly allow fires to spread farther. With the center of the high pressure area located mostly over southern California, the normal wind flow will be suppressed and the rain that might come to this area will be contained mainly in areas near the Mexican Border which will not help firefighting efforts. Further north, low pressure will bring cooler temperatures and possibly isolated storms to the Pacific Northwest.

National Preparedness Level is at the highest level of 5. This level includes national mobilization heavily committed to fighting active fires and taking measure to support these geographic areas that are on fire; taking emergency measures to sustain incident operations on active fires; providing ongoing full commitment of national resources; filling resource orders at the National Interagency Coordination Center by coordinating requests with Geographic Area Coordination Centers as resources become available; and recognizing that the potential for emerging significant wildland fires is high and expected to remain high in multiple geographic areas.

Smoke from these fires has traveled along the west to east jet stream and that stream is bringing the smoke across the country as far as the East Coast. NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh-Smoke (HRRR-Smoke) air quality modeling system is a web-based system that runs in real time and also is predictive of where the smoke may travel taking into account the movements the atmosphere normally takes following the laws of science. Those movements can be calculated mathematically which produces a forecast. The HRRR-Smoke processes data from numerous sources, such as weather balloons, surface observations, aircraft, satellites and other atmospheric monitoring resources to approximate the physics, chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere but at high resolutions on some of the most powerful computers in existence

Smoke from any type of wildfire is dangerous. The smoke released by any type of fire is a mixture of particles and chemicals produced by incomplete burning of carbon-containing materials. All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot). Smoke can contain many different chemicals, including aldehydes, acid gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, styrene, metals and dioxins. The type and amount of particles and chemicals in smoke varies depending on what is burning, how much oxygen is available, and the burn temperature. Exposure to high levels of smoke should be avoided. Individuals are advised to limit their physical exertion if exposure to high levels of smoke cannot be avoided. Individuals with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions (e.g., asthma), fetuses, infants, young children, and the elderly may be more vulnerable to the health effects of smoke exposure.

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides the capability to interactively browse over 600 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks "right now".

This natural-color satellite image was collected on August 19, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by thermal bands, are outlined in red.
Learn more about NASA's EOSDIS https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about

Article Credit: NASA Goddard/ Lynn Jenner with information from the National Interagency Fire Center and from NOAA
Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project
Image Date: August 19, 2018
Release Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #NOAA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Science #Planet #UnitedStates #Environment #ForestFires #Wildfires #Smoke #AirQuality #Forests #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #GlobalHeating #Weather #Meteorology #Infographic #WestCoast #STEM #Education

July 2018 was 4th warmest July on record for the globe

Polar sea ice coverage remains smaller than normal

NOAA | August 20, 2018: Scorching temperatures broke heat records around the world last month, which ranked as the fourth warmest July on record. Excessive warmth during the first seven months of 2018 made it the fourth warmest year to date for the planet.

July 2018
The average global temperature in July was 1.35 degrees F above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees. This was the fourth highest for July in the 139-year record (1880–2018). Last month was also the 42nd consecutive July and the 403rd consecutive month with temperatures above average.

Record warmth spanned continents and oceans

The globally averaged land-surface temperature was fifth highest on record for July and the fourth highest for the YTD (January–July) period.

The globally averaged sea-surface temperature was sixth highest on record for July and the fourth highest for the year to date.

Areas around the world experienced record warmth, including Scandinavia and the surrounding Arctic Ocean, northwest Africa, parts of southern Asia and southwest United States. Europe had its second-warmest July on record.

Record warm YTD temperatures prevailed across parts of the world’s oceans and Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, as well as smaller areas of North and South America and Asia. Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania had TYD temperatures that ranked in the sixth highest on record.

Polar sea ice coverage remains smaller than normal

The average Arctic sea ice coverage (extent) in July was 13.2 percent below the 1981–2010 average, making it the ninth-smallest extent for July on record.

The Antarctic sea ice extent last month was 1.9 percent below average, the eighth smallest on record for July. Antarctic sea ice coverage did expand at a rate faster than average during the first half of July, but slowed later in the month.

Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Release Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #NOAA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Science #Planet #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #GlobalHeating #Weather #Records #Anomalies #Meteorology #Temperature #Arctic #Antarctica #Polar #Ice #Sea #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

World of clouds | International Space Station

Follow European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Alexander Gerst and his Horizons mission:

http://bit.ly/AlexanderGerstESA and on http://bit.ly/HorizonsBlogESA

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: July 23, 2018

#NASA #ESA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Clouds #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #DLR #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

One Minute over Australia | International Space Station

Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev gives us views of northern Australia, the Northern Territory (NT) and Queensland, from the International Space Station before it passes over Papua New Guinea. You can also see the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometers (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.
(Source: Wikipedia)

The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos (Russian: Роскосмос), is a state corporation responsible for the space flight and cosmonautics program of the Russian Federation.

Credit: Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev/Roscomos
Duration: 1 minute, 14 seconds
Release Date: August 9, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Australia #NorthernTerritory #Queensland #GreatBarrierReef #Oceania #CoralSea #Pacific #Ocean #Cosmonaut #OlegArtemyev #Flight #Engineers #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #STEM #Education #International #Video

Soyuz Tribute | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "I bet every explorer who ever lived was convinced that their ship was the most beautiful of all. I still sometimes can't believe she's the ship that we sailed in, from Earth to space."

"Ich wette, jeder Entdecker der jemals gelebt hat war der Meinung, dass sein Schiff das schönste von allen ist! Ich kann es manchmal immer noch nicht glauben, dass sie das Schiff ist, auf dem wir von der Erde bis in den Weltraum gesegelt sind."

Follow Alexander and the Horizons mission:
http://bit.ly/AlexanderGerstESA and on bit.ly/HorizonsBlogESA

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: June 29, 2018
Release Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Soyuz #SoyuzMS09 #Союз #Astronaut #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #SerenaAuñónChancellor #UnitedStates #SergeiProkopyev #Cosmonaut #Russia #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective

NASA Mars Report for August 20, 2018 | JPL

What’s the latest news from Mars? A global dust storm is starting to settle, but still obscures the Martian surface; the Curiosity rover turns six and drills a new rock sample; the InSight lander is more than halfway to Mars and has tested its instruments and cameras.

For more about all of NASA's Mars missions, visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov

Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Duration: 1 minute, 27 seconds
Release Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #DustStorm #Global #Weather #Curiosity #Rover #MSL #Robotics #Insight #Lander #Spacecraft #Technology #Engineers #Spacecraft #SolarSystem #Exploration #JourneyToMars #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Earth & Moon with Saturn's Rings | NASA Cassini

A Tribute to Carl Sagan

Processed using calibrated red, green, and blue filtered images of Earth and Saturn's Rings taken by the Cassini spacecraft on April 13, 2017. Earth's Moon is also visible above Earth. Though processed using red, green, and blue filters, this should not be taken as fully true color.

Carl Edward Sagan (1934–1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences.
Watch: https://youtu.be/oY59wZdCDo0

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

The Cassini-Huygens mission was a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, managed the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center was based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: April 13, 2017
Release Date: August 14, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Rings #Earth #Moon #PaleBlueDot #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #Human #History #CarlSagan #Cosmos #Universe #STEM #Education

Typhoon Soulik | International Space Station

U.S. Astronaut Ricky Arnold: "Typhoon Soulik barrels toward southern Japan. Stay safe!"

Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
http://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html

Global Disaster Alerting Coordination System (GDACS) http://gdacs.org

Credit: NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold/JSC
Release Date: August 20, 2018
#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Typhoon #Soulik #Storm #Pacific #Ocean #Japan #日本 #Astronaut #RickyArnold #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

New Arctic Lakes Could Soon Be a Major Source of Atmospheric Methane

NASA Goddard | For centuries, a massive store of carbon has been locked underground in the Arctic's permanently frozen soil known as permafrost. As Earth's climate continues to warm, that carbon has begun to leach into the atmosphere, the result of microbes waking up and digesting once-frozen organic materials. 

A new NASA-funded study focuses on a mechanism that could accelerate the release of this atmospheric carbon, the result of thermokarst lakes. These lakes form when thawing permafrost causes the ground to slump, creating a depression that collects rain and snowmelt and perpetuates a cycle of further permafrost thaw.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Katy Mersmann
Duration: 1 minute, 22 seconds
Release Date: August 17, 2018

#NASA #Earth #Space #Science #Planet #Atmosphere #Arctic #Lakes #Thermokarst #Methane #CarbonDioxide #Climate #Cycle #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #GlobalHeating #Permafrost #Melting #Canada #UnitedStates #Russia #Россия #Goddard #GSFC #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Painting a picture of the evolving Universe | Hubble

The Hubble Deep Field from 1995 allowed astronomers a first glimpse into the early Universe. This first picture was followed later by an even deeper observation, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 2004. Both images were observed in visible light, the same form of light human eyes can see. But astronomers are also interested in the many forms of invisible light out in the Universe. Therefore, the Ultra Deep Field was later observed in the infrared and the ultraviolet as well, allowing scientists to learn even more about the Universe and to look back even further into its history.

It is less known that the famous deep field observations were not the only images the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took of the distant Universe. Hubble is also an essential part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) programme, which unites extremely deep observations from several space telescopes: NASA’s Spitzer and Chandra; ESA's Herschel and XMM-Newton; and Hubble.

Together these observatories observe two patches of the sky, the GOODS North and the GOODS South fields, with the aim of studying it in as many different wavelengths as possible. The new image here shows part of the GOODS North Field; it includes new Hubble data at ultraviolet wavelengths in addition to the existing data. Because Earth’s atmosphere filters out most ultraviolet light, these observations can only be accomplished from space.

The observation program, called the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Survey, harnessed the ultraviolet vision of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. This study extends and builds on the previous Hubble multi-wavelength data in the CANDELS-Deep (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) fields within the central part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) fields. This mosaic is 14 times the area of the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #UrsaMajor #Cosmos #Universe #Cosmology #Telescope #Ultraviolet #DeepField #HDUV #GOODS #NorthFIeld #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Under the celestial arch | ESO

In this spectacular image, taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek, we see the bright arc of the Milky Way stretching across the sky above ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. On the ground are the dome of ESO’s 3.6-meter optical telescope (on the right) and the silvery dish of the Swedish-ESO submillimeter telescope (on the left). Even though it was decommissioned in 2003 to make way for the more advanced APEX and ALMA instruments, the Swedish-ESO dish still seems to be gazing longingly at the sky, perhaps hoping for another chance to explore the mysteries of the heavens.

The Milky Way dominates this image, showing clearly why La Silla is one of the best astronomical sites in the world, famed for its dark skies and clear air. From the peak of the bright arc hangs a striking red feature known as Gum Nebula. This, like similar regions along the band of the Milky Way, is an emission nebula, where gas is made to glow by radiation emitted from nearby bright stars. The bright band of the Milky Way is broken up by dark filaments of dust, wherein stars are forming, stars that will add to the spectacle in the millennia to come.

Sitting under the arc is one of the Milky Way’s companion dwarf galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud; below it, just to the right of the Swedish-ESO dish, is the second such companion, known unsurprisingly as the Small Magellanic Cloud. Over to the right of the image is the planet Jupiter, glowing brightly against the faint glow of the gegenschein, a phenomenon only seen in the darkest skies. A rare sight for most, this magical celestial display is commonplace at astronomical observing sites like La Silla.

Credit: P. Horálek/ESO
Release Date: August 20, 2018
#ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planet #Jupiter #Gegenschein #SolarSystem #Stars #Gum #Nebula #Emission #MilkyWay #Galaxy #SmallMagellanicCloud #SMC #Telescopes #LaSilla #Observatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #Astrophotography #Photography #STEM #Education

Sunrise over Gulf of Saint Lawrence

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a camera lens on the Sun’s reflection point, roughly 1700 kilometers (1050 miles) to the northeast of the spacecraft’s position over Massachusetts at the time this image was taken. This oblique photograph shows the horizon and coastline of the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, with Quebec further inland. 

There was only a narrow window of opportunity for this sunglint photograph. The Sun’s reflection was moving across the narrows (separating the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador) and in a break between two cloud banks. Clouds are so common in this part of the world that images of the region are not often acquired from the ISS.

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait of Belle Isle is a waterway in eastern Canada that separates the Labrador Peninsula from the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
(Source: Wikipedia)

From their altitude in the space station, the astronauts were seeing an early sunrise, which was timed at 4:41 a.m. at Goose Bay in Labrador on the day this photograph was taken. The Sun would only rise at 5:20 a.m. for people on the ground in Massachusetts directly below the spacecraft.

Three airplane condensation trails appear in the left half of the image, and another is visible on the right margin. All of them are oriented along the shortest air route to Europe (over eastern Canada), which is one of the most densely travelled air routes between North America and Europe.

Astronaut photograph ISS056-E-77502 was acquired on July 5, 2018, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 145 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public.

Image Credit: NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
Caption Credit: M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC
Instrument: ISS — Digital Camera
Image Date: July 5, 2018
Release Date: August 19, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Sun #Summer #Sunrise #Sunglint #Canada #Quebec #Newfoundland #Labrador #Gulf #SaintLawrence #Golfe #SaintLaurent #Strait #BelleIsle #Détroit #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #Infographic #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Earth Aurora | International Space Station

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev: "Is there nothing more beautiful than to view the Aurora from the height of the International Space Station?"

Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Credit: Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev/Roscomos
Release Date: August 18, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Aurora #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Cosmonaut #космонавт #OlegArtemyev #Flight #Engineers #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #STEM #Education #International

Inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center | Week of Aug. 17, 2018

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is beginning its mission to the Sun after a successful launch Aug. 12 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The mission was first proposed in 1958 by heliophysics pioneer Dr. Eugene Parker, who viewed the launch from Kennedy and anticipates new discoveries from his namesake spacecraft.

Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center
Duration: 1 minute, 46 seconds
Release Date: August 17, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #SpaceWeather #Sun #Solar #Corona #Star #Astrophysics #Spacecraft #Probe #SolarProbe #Parker #EugeneParker #ULA #JHUAPL #Goddard #CapeCanaveral #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #Spaceport #UnitedStates #Mission #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Moon as seen by Humans in Space

This video was taken by crews on board the International Space Station (ISS). This video is comprised of several time-lapse frames taken by astronauts over the past 10 years. Astronauts aboard the ISS view the same Moon phases as we do on Earth, only they experience Moon rises and Moon sets 16 times a day as the ISS orbits Earth.

Credit:
Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Duration: 1 minute, 34 seconds
Release Date: August 8, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Moon #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #JSC #Houston #Texas #UnitedStates #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect #Timelapse #STEM #Education #HD #Video