NASA Honors Aretha Franklin

Asteroid Named for The Queen of Soul

NASA Statement: "We’re saddened by the loss of Aretha Franklin (1942-2018). Asteroid 249516 Aretha, found by our NEOWISE mission and named after the singer to commemorate the Queen of Soul, will keep orbiting beyond Mars."

The Principal Investigator for NEOWISE is Amy Mainzer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL manages NEOWISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, and carries out mission operations. The Space Dynamics Laboratory, Utah State University provided the science instrument. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. built the spacecraft. Science operations, data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology.

NEOWISE: The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a NASA infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope active from December 2009 to February 2011. It was launched on December 14, 2009, and decommissioned/hibernated on February 17, 2011 when its transmitter was turned off. It performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over 10 months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth-orbit. The initial mission length was limited by its hydrogen coolant, but a secondary post-cryogenic mission continued four more months with two of the four detectors remaining operational.

The NEOWISE project has delivered physical data on an enormous number of minor planets and efforts are underway to mine even more out of the dataset. To date, the project has resulted in the detection of ~158,000 asteroids at thermal infrared wavelengths, including ~700 NEOs, and has discovered ~34,000 new asteroids, 135 of which are NEOs. The project has detected more than 155 comets, including 21 discoveries. Preliminary physical properties such as diameter and visible albedo have been computed and published for nearly all of these objects to date, enabling a range of studies of the origins and evolution of the small bodies in our solar system. So far, NEOWISE data have been used to constrain the numbers, sizes, and orbital elements of NEOs, including potentially hazardous asteroids, as well as the Jovian Trojans, Hilda-group asteroids, and the physical properties and collisional history of Main Belt asteroid families. Efforts were undertaken to perform detailed analysis of the small body thermophysical properties, as well as the dust and gas properties of active bodies. Nucleus sizes have been computed for nearly the entire NEOWISE cometary sample to date in order to apply debiasing techniques to extrapolate the sample to the population writ large.

For more about NEOWISE, visit http://www.nasa.gov/neowise and http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/

Credit: NASA
Release Date: August 16, 2018

#NASA #Earth #Astronomy #Science #Space #ArethaFranklin #QueenOfSoul #Music #Artist #Singer #Songwriter #Pianist #Woman #AfricanAmerican #Asteroid249516Aretha #Mars #Asteroids #Comets #SolarSystem #Exploration #NEOWISE #Infrared #Telescope #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #Art #Illustration #STEM #Education

Earth Clouds | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "Unlimited airspace? Not quite. These photos show how little air surrounds our planet. Do we treat it accordingly?"

"Noch Luft nach oben? Auf diesen Bildern wird sichtbar, wie wenig davon auf unserem Planeten existiert. Behandeln wir sie auch so?"

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

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: July 23, 2018
Release Date: August 16, 2018
#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Clouds #Environment #Astronaut #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

A Multi-Wavelength Sea of Galaxies | Hubble

HDUV GOODS-South Field

This sea of approximately 15,000 galaxies—about 12,000 of which are forming stars—is one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the universe’s evolutionary history. The ultraviolet vision from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, combined with infrared and visible-light data from Hubble and other space and ground-based telescopes, opens a new window on the evolving universe. It tracks the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years back to the cosmos’ busiest star-forming period, which happened about 3 billion years after the big bang.

Ultraviolet light has been the missing piece to the cosmic puzzle. Because Earth’s atmosphere filters most ultraviolet light, Hubble can provide some of the most sensitive space-based ultraviolet observations possible.

This image straddles the gap between the very distant galaxies, which can only be viewed in infrared light due to the expansion of the universe, and closer galaxies, which can be seen across a broad spectrum. By comparing images of star formation in the distant and nearby universe, astronomers gain a better understanding of how nearby galaxies grew.

The program, called the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Survey, 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.

This image is a portion of the GOODS-South field, which is located in the southern constellation Fornax.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (University of Geneva), and M. Montes (University of New South Wales)
Release Date: August 16, 2018

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

Hubble Paints Picture of the Evolving Universe

Aug. 16, 2018: Astronomers using the ultraviolet vision of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured one of the largest panoramic views of the fire and fury of star birth in the distant universe. The field features approximately 15,000 galaxies, about 12,000 of which are forming stars. Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens a new window on the evolving universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years back to the cosmos’ busiest star-forming period, which happened about 3 billion years after the big bang.

Ultraviolet light has been the missing piece to the cosmic puzzle. Now, combined with infrared and visible-light data from Hubble and other space and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have assembled one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the universe’s evolutionary history.

The image straddles the gap between the very distant galaxies, which can only be viewed in infrared light, and closer galaxies, which can be seen across a broad spectrum. The light from distant star-forming regions in remote galaxies started out as ultraviolet. However, the expansion of the universe has shifted the light into infrared wavelengths. By comparing images of star formation in the distant and nearby universe, astronomers glean a better understanding of how nearby galaxies grew from small clumps of hot, young stars long ago.

Because Earth’s atmosphere filters most ultraviolet light, Hubble can provide some of the most sensitive space-based ultraviolet observations possible.

The program, called the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Survey, 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 Ultra Violet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

This image is a portion of the GOODS-North field, which is located in the northern constellation Ursa Major.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (University of Geneva), and M. Montes (University of New South Wales)
Release Date: August 16, 2018

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

Cosmonauts at work | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "The ultimate workplace. Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev successfully installed the Icarus experiment antenna on the outside hull of the International Space Station during 7 hour 46 minute-long spacewalk—RS-EVA-45."

"Der abgelegenste Arbeitsplatz"
"Der abgelegenste Arbeitsplatz der Welt. Meine Freunde Oleg und Sergey haben eben erfolgreich die Antenne des Icarus Experiments auf der Außenhülle der ISS installiert."

Icarus is a collaborative environmental experiment between Germany and Russia that studies the migratory patterns of small animals on Earth. It consists of an antenna and GPS hardware to track the movements of animals that have been tagged with small GPS receivers. The experiment may provide data about how animals move from one location to another, how animal population density shifts over time, and how diseases spread.

Expedition 56 Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have completed a spacewalk lasting 7 hours and 46 minutes.

The two cosmonauts opened the hatch to the Pirs docking compartment to begin the spacewalk at 12:17 p.m. EDT on August 15, 2018. They re-entered the airlock and closed the hatch at 8:03 p.m. EDT.

During the spacewalk, the duo manually launched four small technology satellites and installed an experiment called Icarus onto the Russian segment of the space station.

It was the 212th spacewalk in support of International Space Station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, the third in Artemyev’s career and the first for Prokopyev.

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

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: August 15, 2018
Release Date: August 16, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #EVA #Spacewalk #Cosmonauts #космонавт #OlegArtemyev #SergeyProkopyev #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Icarus #Animal #Experiment #Astronaut #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

What Does the Discovery of #MorePlanetsThanStars Mean to You? | NASA

The Kepler space telescope has had a profound impact on our understanding of the number of worlds that exist beyond our solar system. Through its survey, we’ve discovered there are more planets than stars in our galaxy! After nine amazing years in space, Kepler’s journey is coming to an end. Before we say farewell to the spacecraft, NASA invites you to celebrate its legacy by sharing something about what the finding of “more planets than stars” means to you. Tag your posts on social media with the hashtag #MorePlanetsThanStars.

Learn more: go.nasa.gov/MorePlanetsThanStars

NASA's Ames Research Center is located in California's Silicon Valley.

Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center
Duration: 47 seconds
Release Date: August 1, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Exoplanets #Planets #Stars #Earth #Cosmos #Universe #Kepler #Telescope #Spacecraft #Ames #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Saturn's Translucent Arcs | NASA Cassini Mission

Saturn’s rings are perhaps the most recognized feature of any world in our solar system. Cassini spent more than a decade examining them more closely than any spacecraft before it. The rings are made mostly of particles of water ice that range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to as large as mountains. The ring system extends up to 175,000 miles (282,000 kilometers) from the planet, but for all their immense width, the rings are razor-thin, about 30 feet (10 meters) thick in most places.

From the right angle you can see straight through the rings, as in this natural-color view that looks from south to north. Cassini obtained the images that comprise this mosaic on April 25, 2007, at a distance of approximately 450,000 miles (725,000 kilometers) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017.

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

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.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Image Date: April 25, 2007
Release Date: August 13, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Rings #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #History #STEM #Education

Goodnight, Earth! ☀🌍 | International Space Station

Credit: Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev/Roscosmos
Release Date: August 13, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Sun #Expedition56 #Cosmonaut #OlegArtemyev #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

The Moon, Argentina & Chile | International Space Station

U.S. Astronaut Ricky Arnold: "A curious moon peeks over the horizon at Tierra del Feugo, Argentina and Chile."

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago at South America’s southernmost tip, shared by Chile and Argentina. It is known for its dramatic landscape of snowy mountains, glaciers, tundra and wind-sculpted trees. Its main island, Isla Grande, is home to the Argentine resort town of Ushuaia. Sometimes called “the End of the World,” Ushuaia is a gateway to the region and Antarctica to the south.
(Source: Google)

Credit: Ricky Arnold
Release Date: August 13, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Moon #Argentina #Chile #TierraDelFeugo #Archipelago #SouthAmerica #Astronaut #RickyArnold #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Earth's Moon | International Space Station

Photo captured by European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Alexander Gerst of Germany.

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

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA/A.Gerst
Image Date: July 28, 2018

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

A fulldome family portrait | ESO

This fulldome view of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, shows almost all of the telescope’s constituent units in one family photograph!

ESO's VLT comprises four large 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes (UTs), all of which can be seen here and are recognised by their boxy appearance, and four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), two of which are seen here flanking their bigger relatives (both with their rounded domes open). Alongside their standard designations—UT1, UT2, and so on—each of the four giant UTs has its own name in the local Chilean Mapuche language: Antu (The Sun), Kueyen (The Moon), Melipal (The Southern Cross), and Yepun (Venus).

The yellow laser streaking up into the night sky, launched by one of the UTs, creates an artificial star high in the atmosphere, fittingly known as a Laser Guide Star (LGS). This ‘star’ is part of the telescope’s adaptive optics system, which allows astronomers to compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence and achieve far clearer images.

The image was created by ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek, and is a puzzle made up of numerous different pictures stitched together to form this high resolution panorama.

Credit: P. Horálek/ESO
Release Date: August 13, 2018

#ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #LaserGuideStar #LGS #Telescopes #VLT #Paranal #Observatory #Atacama #Desert #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

Galactic treasure chest | Hubble

Galaxies abound in this spectacular Hubble image; spiral arms swirl in all colors and orientations, and fuzzy ellipticals can be seen speckled across the frame as softly glowing smudges on the sky. Each visible speck of a galaxy is home to countless stars. A few stars closer to home shine brightly in the foreground, while a massive galaxy cluster nestles at the very center of the image; an immense collection of maybe thousands of galaxies, all held together by the relentless force of gravity.

Galaxy clusters are some of the most interesting objects in the cosmos. They are the nodes of the cosmic web that permeates the entire Universe—to study them is to study the organisation of matter on the grandest of scales. Not only are galaxy clusters ideal subjects for the study of dark matter and dark energy, but they also allow the study of farther-flung galaxies. Their immense gravitational influence means they distort the spacetime around them, causing them to act like giant zoom lenses. The light of background galaxies is warped and magnified as it passes through the galaxy cluster, allowing astronomers insight into the distant—and therefore early—Universe.

This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field Camera 3 as part of an observing programme called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey). RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters with the aim of finding the brightest distant galaxies for the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS
Release Date: August 13, 2018

#NASA #Hubble #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #Clusters #Stars #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #RELICS #ESA #STScI #Goddard #GSFC #STEM #Education

Dr. Eugene Parker Watches NASA Parker Solar Probe Launch

First NASA Mission Named for a Living Person

In 1958, Dr. Parker published the first paper theorizing the solar wind, the Sun's constant outflow of material. Now, the Parker Solar Probe is on its way to the Sun to make novel measurements of the solar wind and help us uncover its secrets. 

Image: Dr. Eugene Parker, a pioneer in heliophysics at the University of Chicago, watches the launch of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. This is the first agency mission named for a living person. The liftoff took place at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. The spacecraft was built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

Learn more about NASA's Parker Solar Probe:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe

Image Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
Release Date: August 12, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #ULA #DeltaIV #Rocket #Heavy #Launch #Probe #Parker #SolarProbe #Spacecraft #EugeneParker #Pioneer #Astrophysicist #SolarWind #Heliophysics #University #Chicago #SpaceWeather #Sun #Solar #Corona #Star #JHUAPL #Goddard #CapeCanaveral #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Liftoff of NASA's Parker Solar Probe

Aug. 12, 2018: A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket lifts off at 3:31 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying NASA's Parker Solar Probe on a mission to the Sun. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center
Duration: 4 minutes, 18 seconds
Release Date: August 12, 2018

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

Parker Solar Probe Liftoff | NASA

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first-ever mission into a part of the Sun’s atmosphere called the corona. Here it will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Release Date: August 12, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #ULA #DeltaIV #Rocket #Heavy #Launch #Probe #Parker #SolarProbe #Spacecraft #SpaceWeather #Sun #Solar #Corona #Star #Astrophysics #JHUAPL #Goddard #CapeCanaveral #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #Mission #Photography #STEM #Education

Parker Solar Probe Liftoff | NASA

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first-ever mission into a part of the Sun’s atmosphere called the corona. Here it will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Release Date: August 12, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #ULA #DeltaIV #Rocket #Heavy #Launch #Probe #Parker #SolarProbe #Spacecraft #SpaceWeather #Sun #Solar #Corona #Star #Astrophysics #JHUAPL #Goddard #CapeCanaveral #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #Mission #Photography #STEM #Education