Blue sky? | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said one does not need to travel around the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere. I'm not so sure..."

Blauer Himmel?
"Um zu begreifen, daß der Himmel überall blau ist, braucht man nicht um die Welt zu reisen. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). Vielleicht doch...?"

Why is Earth's sky blue?
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/

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

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA–A. Gerst
Image Date: June 24, 2018

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Hazy dust in Ursa Major | Hubble

This week’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the galaxy NGC 4036: a lenticular galaxy some 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

This galaxy is known for its irregular lanes of dust, which form a swirling spiral pattern around the center of the galaxy. This core is surrounded by an extended, hazy aura of gas and dust that stretches further out into space and causes the warm, fuzzy glow that can be seen here. The center itself is also intriguing; it is something known as a LINER-type (Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-line Region) galactic nucleus, meaning that it displays particular emission lines within its spectrum. The particularly bright star visible slightly to the right of the galactic center is not within the galaxy itself; it sits between us and NGC 4036, adding a burst of brightness to the scene.

Due to its relative brightness, this galaxy can be seen using an amateur telescope, making it a favorite among backyard astronomers and astrophotography aficionados.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Release Date: September 3, 2018

+Hubble Space Telescope
+NASA Goddard
+European Space Agency, ESA
+Space Telescope Science Institute

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Lenticular #NGC4036 #UrsaMajor #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center | Week of Aug. 31, 2018

The Orion pressure vessel for Exploration Mission-2 arrived at Kennedy Space Center. The mobile launcher for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was transported to Launch Pad 39B atop crawler-transporter-2 for system checkouts. Teams from various NASA centers supporting the Commercial Crew Program met at Kennedy to review launch and landing operations as Boeing and SpaceX gear up for their flight tests.

Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration: 1 minute, 28 seconds
Release Date: August 31, 2018

#NASA #Space #Science #Kennedy #Orion #SLS #Rocket #Transporter #Launch #EM2 #SpaceX #CrewDragon #Boeing #Starliner #CommercialCrew #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Commercial Crew: The Flight Tests | NASA Kennedy

Learn about the first flights of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon with and without astronauts on board, and what they will accomplish for NASA and its commercial partners.

Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration: 2 minutes, 6 seconds
Release Date: August 31, 2018
#NASA #Earth #Space #ISS #SpaceX #ElonMusk #CrewDragon #Falcon9 #Rocket #Boeing #Spacecraft #Starliner #CST100 #Crew #Commercial #CommercialCrew #ULA #Atlas5 #Test #Mission #Human #Spaceflight #Science #Technology #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #Florida #LaunchAmerica #UnitedStates #History #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Denmark, Sweden & Norway | International Space Station

U.S. Astronaut Ricky Arnold: "Good day Denmark, Sweden & Norway!"

Credit: NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold/JSC
Release Date: August 30, 2018

#NASA #Earth #Space #ISS #Science #Planet #Denmark #Danmark #Sweden #Sverige #Norway #Norge #Scandinavia #Europe #Astronaut #RickyArnold #UnitedStates #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

New Horizons Spacecraft Detects Next Flyby Target | This Week @NASA

Aug. 31, 2018: New Horizons spots its next flyby target, Administrator Bridenstine visits our west coast facilities, and using data from space to fight a life-threatening disease…a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!

Learn more about the NASA New Horizons mission:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

Credit: NASA
Duration: 3 minutes, 37 seconds
Release Date: August 31, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Satellites #Earth #Yemen #ٱلْيَمَن‎ #Cholera #UltimaThule #KBO #KuiperBelt #SolarSystem #Exploration #NewHorizons #Spacecraft #JohnHopkins #JHUAPL #SwRI #SouthwestResearchInstitute #Ames #JPL #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's Space to Ground: Potential Game Changer

Aug. 31, 2018: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. 

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

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Duration: 2 minutes, 6 seconds
Release Date: August 31, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Biology #RNA #Sequencing #Research #Experiments #Astronauts #DrewFeustel #RickyArnold #SerenaAuñónChancellor #UnitedStates #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #JSC #Houston #Texas #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Jupiter's Swirling Cloudscape | NASA Juno

Intricate swirls in Jupiter's volatile northern hemisphere are captured in this color-enhanced image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Bursts of bright-white "pop-up" clouds appear scattered throughout the scene, with some visibly casting shadows on the neighboring cloud layers beneath them. Juno scientists are using shadows to determine the distances between cloud layers in Jupiter's atmosphere, which provide clues to their composition and origin.

This image was taken at 10:27 p.m. PDT on May 23, 2018 (1:27 a.m. EDT on May 24) as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 7,050 miles (11,350 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops, above a northern latitude of approximately 49 degrees.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

JunoCam's raw images are available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam for the public to peruse and process into image products.

More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Image Date: May 23, 2018
Release Date: August 30, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Jupiter #Planet #Atmosphere #Clouds #Weather #Meteorology #NorthernHemisphere #Perijove13 #Juno #Spacecraft #JunoCam #Malin #SwRI #JPL #Caltech #STEM #Education #CitizenScience

Tonight's Sky: September 2018 | HubbleSite

In September, your binoculars will reveal the rusty surface of Mars, iconic rings of Saturn, the waxing Moon—and Comet Giacobini-Zinner, which passes through the constellation of Auriga.

“Tonight’s Sky” is produced by HubbleSite.org, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit: http://HubbleSite.org
Duration: 5 minutes, 22 seconds
Release Date: August 27, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #Planets #Mars #Saturn #Rings #Venus #Jupiter #Stars #Comet #GiacobiniZinner #Auriga #SolarSystem #Skywatching #STEM #Education #UnitedStates #Canada #NorthernHemisphere #HD #Video

Mighty Saturn | NASA Cassini

Processed using calibrated red, green, and blue filtered images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft on March 29, 2016.

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 (SSI) in Boulder, Colorado.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: March 29, 2016
Release Date: August 30, 2018

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

Skywatching: What's Up for September 2018 | NASA/JPL

What's up in the night sky for September? Outstanding views of the planets. Spot Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the naked eye. Then, set your sights beyond the solar system and take a late summertime road-trip of the constellations along the Milky Way. 

For star parties and astronomy events near you, visit: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Duration: 2 minutes, 30 seconds
Release Date: August 30, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Moon #Mercury #Venus #Mars #Jupiter #Saturn #Neptune #Uranus #Planets #ZodiacalLight #SolarSystem #Stars #Constellations #MilkyWay #Galaxy #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Carina Nebula | ESO

This spectacular European Southern Observatory (ESO) image of the Carina nebula in infrared light reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before. The massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow. By contrast, other regions of the nebula contain dark pillars of dust cloaking newborn stars.

Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/M. Irwin/J. Lewis
Release Date: August 29, 2018

#ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebula #Carina #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Infrared #Atacama #Desert #Chile #SouthAmerica #STEM #Education

Energetic lightshow at Saturn’s north pole | Hubble

August 30, 2018: Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space telescope have taken a series of spectacular images featuring the fluttering auroras at the north pole of Saturn. The observations were taken in ultraviolet light and the resulting images provide astronomers with the most comprehensive picture so far of Saturn’s northern aurora.

In 2017, over a period of seven months, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took images of auroras above Saturn’s north pole region using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The observations were taken before and after the Saturnian northern summer solstice. These conditions provided the best achievable viewing of the northern auroral region for Hubble.

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere —the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth [1].

However, these auroras are not unique to Earth. Other planets in our Solar System have been found to have similar auroras. Among them are the four gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Because the atmosphere of each of the four outer planets in the Solar System is—unlike the Earth—dominated by hydrogen, Saturn’s auroras can only be seen in ultraviolet wavelengths; a part of the electromagnetic spectrum which can only be studied from space.

Hubble allowed researchers to monitor the behaviour of the auroras at Saturn's north pole over an extended period of time. The Hubble observations were coordinated with the “Grand Finale” of the Cassini spacecraft, when the spacecraft simultaneously probed the auroral regions of Saturn [2]. The Hubble data allowed astronomers to learn more about Saturn’s magnetosphere, which is the largest of any planet in the Solar System other than Jupiter.

The images show a rich variety of emissions with highly variable localized features. The variability of the auroras is influenced by both the solar wind and the rapid rotation of Saturn, which lasts only about 11 hours. On top of this, the northern aurora displays two distinct peaks in brightness—at dawn and just before midnight. The latter peak, unreported before, seems specific to the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere at Saturn’s solstice.

The main image presented here is a composite of observations made of Saturn in early 2018 in the optical and of the auroras on Saturn’s north pole region, made in 2017, demonstrating the size of the auroras along with the beautiful colors of Saturn.

Hubble has studied Saturn's auroras in the past. In 2004, it studied the southern auroras shortly after the southern solstice and in 2009 it took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings were edge-on. This allowed Hubble to observe both poles and their auroras simultaneously.

Notes
[1] The auroras here on Earth have different names depending on which pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

[2] Cassini was a collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. It spent 13 years orbiting Saturn, gathering information and giving astronomers a great insight into the inner workings of Saturn. Cassini took more risks at the end of its mission, travelling through the gap between Saturn and its rings. No spacecraft had previously done this, and Cassini gathered spectacular images of Saturn as well as new data for scientists to work with. On September 15, 2017 Cassini was sent on a controlled crash into Saturn.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Credit: NASA, ESA & L. Lamy
Release Date: August 30, 2018

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Planet #Saturn #NorthPole #Aurora #Ultraviolet #MagneticField #Sun #SolarSystem #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Russian segment | International Space Station

A portion of the International Space Station's Russian segment is pictured before the Progress 69 cargo craft undocked from the aft end of the Zvezda service module. Also attached to the forward end of Zvezda are the Poisk and Pirs modules. The Poisk module hosts the docked Soyuz MS-08 crew ship that brought three Expedition 55/56 crew members to the station in March 2018. The Pirs docking compartment hosts the Progress 70 resupply ship which delivered several tons of food, fuel and supplies to the Expedition 56 crew in July 2018.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: August 23, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Soyuz #Союз #SoyuzMS09 #Progress70 #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #Cooperation

Andes Mountain Range | International Space Station

Two docked Russian spacecraft on the International Space Station, the Soyuz MS-09 crew ship and the Progress 70 resupply ship, were pictured as the orbital complex flew 253 miles above the Andes mountain range and the South American continent.

The Andes or Andean Mountains are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. This range is about 7,000 km (4,300 mi) long, about 200 to 700 km (120 to 430 mi) wide (widest between 18° south and 20° south latitude), and of an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The Andes extend from north to south through seven South American countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. (Source: Wikipedia)

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: August 15, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #Andes #Mountains #SouthAmerica #Soyuz #Союз #SoyuzMS09 #Progress70 #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education #International #OrbitalPerspective #OverviewEffect

How Did Mars Get Such Enormous Mountains? | NASA/JPL

Mars in a Minute | Aug. 28, 2018: Why are the tallest peaks in the solar system found on one of its smallest worlds? Like any planet, how Mars looks outside is tied to what goes on inside.

Dig into planetary formation in this 60-second video and by visiting: mars.nasa.gov/insight

Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: August 28, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Mars #Earth #Planets #RedPlanet #Insight #Lander #Spacecraft #Geoscience #Geology #Mountains #Volcanoes #OlympusMons #SolarSystem #Exploration #JPL #Caltech #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video