NASA Wishes Katherine Johnson a Happy 100th Birthday

Aug. 26, 2018: In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Katherine Johnson was called upon to hand check the computer’s orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission, from blast off to splashdown.

“If she says they’re good,’” Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space.

NASA wishes Katherine Johnson a very Happy 100th Birthday!

To learn more about Katherine and other trailblazing ‘human computers,’ visit: https://www.nasa.gov/modernfigures
www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count

Credit: NASA
Duration: 20 seconds
Release Date: August 26, 2018
#NASA #Space #KatherineJohnson #Mercury #Gemini #Apollo #Shuttle #Human #Spaceflight #Orbital #Trajectory #Moon #Lunar #Earth #Mathematics #Math #STEM #Education #Careers #Professional #Women #Physicist #Scientist #Mathematician #Pioneer #Langley #UnitedStates #HD #Video

The Sun: Twisting Outburst | NASA SDO

This close-up of the Sun from a two-hour period on Aug. 13, 2018 shows a minor eruption of charged particles rising up and twisting about before falling back into the Sun. Imaged in extreme ultraviolet light, these kinds of events are difficult to see except when they occur along the sun's edge, also known as the limb. At its peak the plasma rises several times the diameter of Earth.

Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA
Capture Date: August 13, 2018
Release Date: August 22, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Sun #Solar #Eruption #Outburst #Plasma #Corona #Physics #Astrophysics #Ultraviolet #SDO #GSFC #Goddard #STEM #Education

"Happy Friday!" | International Space Station

The Expedition 56 Crew: Commander Drew Feustel, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Ricky Arnold of NASA, Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA), plus Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia).

Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: August 24, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Crew #Cupola #Cosmonauts #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Astronauts #ESA #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Russia #Россия #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Hurricane Lane | International Space Station

Hurricane Lane was pictured by an Expedition 56 crew member as the International Space Station orbited nearly 250 miles above the Central Pacific Ocean on Aug. 22, 2018.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: August 22, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Hurricane #HurricaneLane #Hawaii #PacificOcean #Astronaut #RickyArnold #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Saturn Close-up | NASA Cassini

Processed using calibrated red, green, and ultraviolet (UV3) filtered images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft on July 16, 2017.

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

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

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.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: July 16, 2017
Release Date: August 22, 2018

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

Mount Kilimanjaro in Cloud | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "Can you spot Kilimanjaro sticking out of the clouds over Kenya and Tanzania, in a mountain glow just before nightfall?"

"Kilimandscharo, wie er aus den Wolken über Kenia und Tansania herausschaut. Sein Gipfel glüht noch im Sonnenuntergang."

Mount Kilimanjaro, or just Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, "Kibo", "Mawenzi", and "Shira", is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa, about 4,900 meters (16,100 ft) from its base, and 5,895 meters (19,341 ft) above sea level. (Source: Wikipedia)

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

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: July 22, 2018

#NASA #ESA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Clouds #Kilimanjaro #Mountain #Volcano #Tanzania #Kenya #Africa #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #DLR #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

Asteroid Ryugu | Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft

This big space diamond has an estimated value of over 80 billion dollars. It's only diamond in shape, though—asteroid 162173 Ryugu is thought to be composed of mostly nickel and iron. Asteroids like Ryugu are interesting for several reasons, perhaps foremost because they are near the Earth and might, one day in the far future, pose an impact threat. In the nearer term, Ryugu is interesting because it may be possible to send future spacecraft there to mine it, thus providing humanity with a new source of valuable metals. Scientifically, Ryugu is interesting because it carries information about how our Solar System formed billions of years ago, and why its orbit takes it so close to Earth. Japan's robotic spacecraft Hayabusa2 just arrived at this one-kilometer wide asteroid in late June. The featured image shows surface structures unknown before spacecraft Hayabusa2's arrival, including rock fields and craters. Within the next three months, Hayabusa2 is scheduled to unleash several probes, some that will land on Ryugu and hop around, while Hayabusa2 itself will mine just a little bit of the asteroid for return to Earth.

162173 Ryugu, provisional designation 1999 JU3, is a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group. It measures approximately 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) in diameter and is a dark object of the rare spectral type Cg, with qualities of both a C-type asteroid and a G-type asteroid.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Image Credit & Copyright: ISAS, JAXA
Release Date: August 22, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Asteroid #Ryugu #162173Ryugu #NEO #Hayabusa2 #Spacecraft #JAXA #Japan #日本 #SolarSystem #Exploration #STEM #Education #APoD

Typhoon Soulik | NASA Terra Satellite

At 10:50 a.m. Japan/Korea Standard Time (01:50 Universal Time) on August 20, 2018, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image of Typhoon Soulik as it neared Japan.

The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour (100 knots)—the equivalent of a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. Forecasts called for Soulik’s track to move over Japan’s Amami Islands and then curve north toward the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Typhoon Cimaron is strengthening in the Northwest Pacific Basin. Forecasts indicate it could hit Japan later in the week.

Update: On Aug. 21 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC noted Typhoon Soulik was located approximately 194 nautical miles north-northeast of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, tracking northwestward at 15 mph (13 knots/24 kph). Maximum sustained winds were near 109 mph (95 knots/176 kph).

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

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

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Kathryn Hansen, using MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response
Caption Credit: Kathryn Hansen
Image Date: August 20, 2018

#NASA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Planet #Atmosphere #Typhoon #Soulik #Storm #Weather #Japan #日本 #Pacific #Ocean #Terra #MODIS #STEM #Education

Enceladus at Saturn | NASA Cassini

Processed using calibrated red, green, and violet filtered images of Saturn's moon Enceladus taken by the Cassini spacecraft on August 18, 2015.

Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. It is about 500 kilometers (310 mi) in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most reflective bodies of the Solar System. Consequently, its surface temperature at noon only reaches −198 °C (−324 °F), far colder than a light-absorbing body would be. Despite its small size, Enceladus has a wide range of surface features, ranging from old, heavily cratered regions to young, tectonically deformed terrains that formed as recently as 100 million years ago.
(Source: Wikipedia)

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

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

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

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.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: August 18, 2015
Release Date: August 20, 2018

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

Saturn and Three Moons | NASA Cassini

Processed using calibrated red, green, and blue filtered images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft on September 2, 2015. Visible moons are, from the left, Dione, Rhea, and Epimetheus.

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

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini


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.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: September 2, 2015
Release Date: August 21, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Moons #Dione #Rhea #Epimetheus #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #History #STEM #Education

Titan at Saturn: Close-up | NASA Cassini

Processed using calibrated red, green, and blue filtered images of Saturn's moon Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft on December 17, 2015.

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object in space, other than Earth, where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.

The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane and ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog. The climate—including wind and rain—creates surface features similar to those of Earth, such as dunes, rivers, lakes, seas (probably of liquid methane and ethane), and deltas, and is dominated by seasonal weather patterns as on Earth. With its liquids (both surface and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan's methane cycle is analogous to Earth's water cycle, at the much lower temperature of about 94 K (−179.2 °C; −290.5 °F).

Titan is the sixth gravitationally rounded moon from Saturn. Frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger than Earth's Moon, and it is 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury, but only 40% as massive. (Source: Wikipedia)

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

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

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.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: December 17, 2015
Release Date: August 21, 2018

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

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