U.S. Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft Release

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus cargo spacecraft at 8:37 a.m. EDT on July 15, 2018. At the time of release, the station was flying 253 miles above the southeastern border of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers used the robotic arm to unberth Cygnus.

The departing spacecraft moved a safe distance away from the space station before deploying a series of CubeSats. Cygnus will remain in orbit for two more weeks to allow a flight control team to conduct engineering tests.

Cynus is scheduled to deorbit with thousands of pounds of trash on Monday, July 30, as it burns up harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean while entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

The spacecraft arrived on station May 24 delivering cargo for Orbital ATK’s (now Northrop Grumman’s) ninth contracted mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: www.nasa.gov/station.

Credit: Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev/Roscosmos
Release Date: July 15, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #NorthropGrumman #OrbitalATK #Cygnus #Cargo #Canada #CSA #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Robotics #Cosmonaut #OlegArtemyev #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education

U.S. Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft Release

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus cargo spacecraft at 8:37 a.m. EDT on July 15, 2018. At the time of release, the station was flying 253 miles above the southeastern border of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers used the robotic arm to unberth Cygnus.

The departing spacecraft moved a safe distance away from the space station before deploying a series of CubeSats. Cygnus will remain in orbit for two more weeks to allow a flight control team to conduct engineering tests.

Cynus is scheduled to deorbit with thousands of pounds of trash on Monday, July 30, as it burns up harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean while entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

The spacecraft arrived on station May 24 delivering cargo for Orbital ATK’s (now Northrop Grumman’s) ninth contracted mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: www.nasa.gov/station.

Credit: Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev/Roscosmos
Release Date: July 15, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #NorthropGrumman #OrbitalATK #Cygnus #Cargo #Canada #CSA #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Robotics #Cosmonaut #OlegArtemyev #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education

Eagle Nebula: A Quick Look | NASA Chandra

July 16, 2018: New stars form in clusters containing large amounts of dust and gas, including structures like the Pillars of Creation. A newly forming star is located near the tip of the largest Pillar.

The atmospheres of young stars produce X-ray emission, and disks of dust and gas surrounding many of them produce infrared light. Astronomers combine X-ray and infrared data to study the behavior of young stars.

X-ray activity in young stars with disks is, on average, a few times less intense that in young stars without disks.

Credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Duration: 1 minute, 8 seconds
Release Date: July 16, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Nebula #Eagle #M16 #NGC6611 #PillarsOfCreation #Star #Cluster #Stars #Serpens #Cosmos #Universe #MSFC #Chandra #Xray #Observatory #ESA #XMMNewton #Marshall #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA ScienceCasts: An Intersection of Art and Science on the Station

July 16, 2018: The WORF and the optical quality window on the International Space Station are a perfect blend of art and science, allowing for Earth science research and amazing high-resolution photos.

ISS Science: http://nasa.gov/iss-science
NASA Science: http://science.nasa.gov/

Credit: NASA
Duration: 3 minutes, 35 seconds
Release Date: July 16, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Art #Earth #WORF #Photography #OpticalQualityWindow #EarthObservation #Destiny #Module #Research #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #STEM #Education #StarTrek #TV #ScienceFiction #HD #Video

Mars: Close Approach to Earth in 2018 | NASA

Mars & Earth come close every 26 months. Between July 27-31 Mars will be at its brightest in the night sky and it will be closest to Earth on early July 31. That is the point in Mars' orbit when it comes closest to Earth. Mars will be at a distance of 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers). Mars reaches its highest point around midnight—about 35 degrees above the southern horizon, or one third of the distance between the horizon and overhead. Mars will be visible for much of the night. By mid-August, Mars will become fainter as Mars and Earth travel farther away from each other in their orbits around the Sun.

Throw a star party, simply go outside and look up, contact your local planetarium, or look for a star party near you.

What is Mars Close Approach?
Close Approach is when Mars and Earth come nearest to each other in their orbits around the sun. Close is a relative term. The minimum distance from the Earth to Mars is about 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers). However, that does not happen very often.

If Earth and Mars had perfectly circular orbits, their minimum distance would always be the same. However, they have elliptical (egg-shaped) paths.

In addition, gravitational tugging by planets constantly changes the shape of their orbits a little bit. Giant Jupiter especially influences the orbit of Mars.

The orbits of Mars and Earth are also slightly tilted with respect to each other.

All of these factors mean that not all close encounters are equal. In 2003, Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years! It won't be that close again until the year 2287.

When Mars and Earth are close to each other, Mars appears very bright in our sky. It also makes it easier to see with telescopes or the naked eye. The Red Planet comes close enough for exceptional viewing only once or twice every 15 or 17 years.

The next Mars close approach is October 6, 2020.

Credit: NASA/JPL
Release Date: July 13, 2018

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Major Galactic Mergers | Hubble

At first glance, it may seem as though this image was taken through a faulty lens, but the mind-bending distortions visible in this Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 impressive image are actually caused by a cosmic phenomenon.

The bright object at the center of the frame is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1336-0331. The enormous gravitational influence of the cluster warps the very shape and fabric of its environment (the spacetime around it) creating an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Through this the light from background galaxies in the line of sight to the observer are bent into fantastic arcs. This effect is very useful for studying distant background galaxies.

Moreover SDSS J1336-0331 is interesting in itself: the cluster was part of a study of star formation within 42 of the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs — the brightest galaxies within their host clusters, as the name would suggest). Typically located in the centers of their clusters, BCGs are among the most massive and luminous galaxies in the Universe. They are generally huge elliptical galaxies and are likely to host active galactic nuclei (AGN) in their cores. The study found evidence to suggest that BCGs are fueled by cold gas from the galaxy. It also showed that star formation in older BCGs no longer significantly contributes to the galaxy’s growth; instead, the stellar growth occurs through mergers, the collision of two galaxies. Violent, gas-rich major mergers can trigger intense bursts of star formation in their aftermath.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: July 16, 2018

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Cluster #ClusterSDSSJ13360331 #Gravitational #Lensing #AGN #BCG #Mergers #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #STScI #STEM #Education

Shanghai, China | Earth from Space | ESA

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over eastern China in this episode of "Earth from Space"—presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web TV virtual studios.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Duration: 2 minutes, 54 seconds
Capture Date: April 29, 2017
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#ESA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Shanghai #上海市 #Port #Yangtze #长江 #River #Taihu #Lake #Beijing #北京市 #Hebei #河北省 #Dalian #大连市 #Liaoning #辽宁省 #Shandong #山东省 #Jiangsu #江苏省 #Zhejiang #浙江省 #China #中国 #PRC #NorthKorea #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #Copernicus #Sentinel3A #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Shanghai, China | ESA Satellite

The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over Shanghai, China. One of the most populous cities in the world and home to over 24 million people, the city is visible in the lower right of the image just above the Yangtze River mouth. As a significant global financial center it is also the site of the world’s busiest container ports because of its strategic location on the Yangtze River delta.

The image covers an area of over 1200 km, showing Beijing at the center-top, the salt flats close to the Mongolian border in the top left, and North Korea, with its capital, Pyongyang, just visible in the top right of the image. A large number of urban settlements represented as grey flecks are interspersed with agricultural fields, dominating the central part of the image.

This true color image taken using Sentinel-3A’s Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI) shows the huge amount of sediment carried into the ocean along the coast.

Meanwhile, Taihu Lake is shown in green in the lower right part of the image. In 2007, an algal bloom on the lake caused major problems with water supplies in the neighboring city of Wuxi. Such algal blooms may well be linked to the discharge of phosphates found in fertilizers used in industry and agriculture into the water.

Steps have been taken to limit the use of such fertilizers in a bid to reduce algal blooms, which can significantly alter the ecology of the environment below the surface and pose a threat to various forms of water life.

Sentinel-3 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring program. Since 2016, Sentinel-3A has been measuring our oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics and to provide critical information for marine operations, and more.

This image which was captured on April 29, 2017, is also featured on the "Earth from Space" video program.

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Image Date: April 29, 2017
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#ESA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Shanghai #上海市 #Port #Yangtze #长江 #River #Taihu #Lake #Beijing #北京市 #Hebei #河北省 #Dalian #大连市 #Liaoning #辽宁省 #Shandong #山东省 #Jiangsu #江苏省 #Zhejiang #浙江省 #China #中国 #PRC #NorthKorea #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #Copernicus #Sentinel3A #STEM #Education

How Big is the International Space Station?

The International Space Station is HOW big? As big as the World Cup field!

Credit: NASA 360
Duration: 38 seconds

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #WorldCup2018 #WorldCup #Football #Soccer #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #STEM #Education #International #HD #Video

Inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center | Week of July 13, 2018

This week in space news, NASA continues preparations to launch the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft is undergoing preflight checkouts, and the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket's solid motors and upper stage are now in place.

Credit: Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration 1 minute, 33 seconds
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#NASA #Space #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #ICESat2 #Satellite #Climate #ClimateChange #Environment #Rocket #DeltaII #ULA #Vandenberg #AirForce #California #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #Spaceport #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tracing The Source of a Cosmic Phenomenon | This Week@NASA

July 13, 2018: Tracing the source of a cosmic phenomenon, the sound of plasma waves in space, and X-ray exploration of the Eagle Nebula . . . a few of the stories to tell you about–This Week at NASA!

Credit: NASA
Duration: 3 minutes, 16 seconds
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #ISS #Science #Galaxies #Blazars #Blazar #BlazarTXS0506056 #BlackHole #Fermi #GammaRays #Neutrino #Multimessenger #IceCube #Observatory #SouthPole #Antarctica #AmundsenScott #IceCube170922A #Plasma #Nebula #Eagle #Chandra #Astrophysics #Cosmos #Universe #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tropical Storm Chris, Atlantic Ocean | NOAA

Tropical Storm Chris, Beryl's Remnants, and More Saharan Dust over the Atlantic
Several interesting atmospheric features appear in this GOES East satellite image of the western Atlantic Ocean, captured July 9, 2018. The small eye of Tropical Storm Chris is visible off the coast of the Carolinas, while in the eastern Caribbean Sea, we can see the remnants of former Hurricane Beryl, around which a thick plume of Saharan dust is wrapping north and east of the storm. Chris, which formed on July 8, is the third named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season. In its latest update, the National Hurricane Center reported the storm had sustained winds near 60 mph and remains stalled a few hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina. The storm is expected to strengthen to a hurricane before weakening again as it tracks northeastward toward Newfoundland later this week.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the disorganized remnants of Beryl can be seen east of the island of Hispaniola. The storm is currently bringing heavy rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and has a 40 percent chance of re-strengthening to a tropical storm or depression over the next five days. North and east of the storm, a hazy cloud of Saharan dust is visible in the lower-right portion of this image. Known as the Saharan Air Layer, this dry, dusty air mass has been a persistent feature over the tropical Atlantic Ocean in recent weeks.

This geocolor enhanced imagery was created by NOAA's partners at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. The GOES East geostationary satellite, also known as GOES-16, provides coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The satellite's high-resolution imagery provides optimal viewing of severe weather, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as atmospheric aerosols, such as dust and sand.

Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#NASA #NOAA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #TropicalStorm #Chris #Hurricane #Beryl #Hispaniola #PuertoRico #VirginIslands #AtlanticOcean #NorthAmerica #Caribbean #Sea #Sahara #Desert #Dust #Africa #GOESEast #GOES15 #Geocolor #CIRA #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Same Day Delivery

July 13, 2018: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

Cancer research is taking place aboard the International Space Station possibly leading to safer, more effective therapies. Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor contributed to that research by examining endothelial cells through a microscope for the AngieX Cancer Therapy study. AngieX is seeking a better model in space to test a treatment that targets tumor cells and blood vessels.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 2 minutes, 13 seconds
Release Date: July 13, 2018

#NASA #ISS #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Space #Progress70 #Progress #ProgressMS06 #Spacecraft #Cargo #Supplies #Soyuz #Rocket #Launch #Россия #Baikonur #Kazakhstan #Қазақстан #AngieX #Cancer #JSC #Houston #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Soyuz Spacecraft | International Space Station

The Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft is pictured docked to the Rassvet module of the International Space Station's Russian segment. The Soyuz MS-09 launched Expedition 56-57 crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Alexander Gerst and Sergey Prokopyev to the station on June 6, 2018 and docked on June 8.

Image Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: June 29, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Soyuz #Союз #SoyuzMS09 #Astronauts #AlexanderGerst #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #SerenaAuñónChancellor #RickyArnold #UnitedStates #SergeiProkopyev #Cosmonaut #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International

Beijing, China | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "A relatively clear day over Beijing. What a gigantic and impressive city. I travelled there once from Moscow by train." 🚆

Beijing, formerly romanized as Peking, is the capital of the People's Republic of China, the world's second most populous city proper, and most populous capital city. The city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast; together the three divisions form the Jingjinji metropolitan region and the national capital region of China. (Source: Wikipedia)

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

Credit: Alexander Gerst/European Space Agency (ESA)
Release Date: July 9, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Beijing #北京市 #Peking #Capital #China #中国 #PRC #Astronaut #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Your Home Planet, as Seen From Mars | NASA

West coast of South America is visible

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.

On the Earth image we can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right, although the clouds are the dominant features. These clouds are so bright, compared with the moon, that they are saturated in the HiRISE images. In fact the red-filter image was almost completely saturated, the Blue-Green image had significant saturation, and the brightest clouds were saturated in the infrared image. This color image required a fair amount of processing to make a nice-looking release. The moon image is unsaturated, but brightened relative to Earth for this composite. The lunar images are useful for calibration of the camera.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colorado.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Date: October 3, 2007

Release Date: March 3, 2008

#NASA #Earth #Moon #Mars #Space #Astronomy #Science #SouthAmerica #RedPlanet #MRO #Reconnaissance #Orbiter #Spacecraft #HiRISE #Camera #JPL #Caltech #STEM #Education