Reach High | International Space Station

Reach High | International Space Station

Christina: "To all those reaching to new heights: yes you can."

Oct. 18, 2019: NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is pictured during a spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch (out of frame). They ventured into the vacuum of space for seven hours and 17 minutes to swap a failed battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU) with a spare during the first all-woman spacewalk. The BCDU regulates the charge to the batteries that collect and distribute solar power to the orbiting lab’s systems.

It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984.

It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: October 18, 2019

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #AllWomanSpacewalk #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #AndrewMorgan #ESA #LucaParmitano #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

A Fleeting Moment in Time: A Dying Star | ESO

A Fleeting Moment in Time: A Dying Star | ESO

The faint, ephemeral glow emanating from the planetary nebula ESO 577-24 persists for only a short time—around 10,000 years, a blink of an eye in astronomical terms. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope captured this shell of glowing ionized gas—the last breath of the dying star whose simmering remains are visible at the heart of this image. As the gaseous shell of this planetary nebula expands and grows dimmer, it will slowly disappear from sight.


This stunning planetary nebula was imaged by one of the VLT’s most versatile instruments, FORS2. The instrument captured the bright, central star, Abell 36, as well as the surrounding planetary nebula. The red and blue portions of this image correspond to optical emission at red and blue wavelengths, respectively.

An object much closer to home is also visible in this image—an asteroid wandering across the field of view has left a faint track below and to the left of the central star. And in the far distance behind the nebula a glittering host of background galaxies can be seen.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: January 22, 2019

#ESO #NASA #Astronomy #Space #Nebula #Planetary #ESO57724 #Star #Abell36 #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #FORS2 #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Starshine in Canis Major | ESO

Starshine in Canis Major | ESO

Distance: 5000 light years

It is impossible to miss the star in this European Southern Observatory (ESO) Picture of the Week—beaming proudly from the center of the frame is the massive multiple star system Tau Canis Majoris, the brightest member of the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster (NGC 2362) in the eponymous constellation of Canis Major (The Great Dog). Tau Canis Majoris aside, the cluster is populated by many young and less attention-seeking stars that are only four or five million years old, all just beginning their cosmic lifetimes.

The Tau Canis Majoris Cluster is an open cluster—a group of stars born from the same molecular cloud. This means that all of the cluster’s inhabitants share a common chemical composition and are loosely bound together by gravity. Having been born together, they make an ideal stellar laboratory to test theories of stellar evolution, the chain of events that leads from a star’s birth in a cool, dense cloud of gas through to its eventual death.

Though the stars in this image were all created at the same time, their various different masses mean they will lead very different lives. As Tau Canis Majoris is one of the most massive and short-lived types of star, it will burn through its nuclear fuel long before its smaller companions, which will keep on shining for billions of years.

This image was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: March 18, 2019

#ESO #NASA #Astronomy #Space #Stars #NGC2362 #TauCanisMajoris #Cluster #CanisMajor #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #ALMA #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Towers under the Milky Way | ESO

Towers under the Milky Way | ESO

This picture shows in the foreground some of the towers supporting the telescopes that compose BlackGEM. In the background, the magnificent southern Milky Way shines in the sky.

BlackGEM is a wide-field array of optical telescopes located at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert.

BlackGEM’s scientific goals are to detect and characterize optical counterparts to gravitational wave detections. To enable this, it will conduct an all-sky survey of the southern sky, perform a bi-weekly scan of the southern sky, and characterize intra-night transients, new stars that appear or disappear within a single night.

Events that produce detectable gravitational waves are expected to occur within approximately 650 million light-years of Earth. Many will therefore be located in or near resolved galaxies and will be faint. It is essential for BlackGEM to have high spatial resolution in order to resolve and accurately locate these sources against the background of the night-sky, making La Silla—with its excellent weather and thin atmosphere—an ideal observing site.

Credit: ESO/P. Horálek
Release Date: October 14, 2019

#ESO #Earth #Astronomy #Space #Science #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Stars #ZodiacalLight #BlackGEM #Telescopes #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #LaSilla #Observatory #Chile #Atacama #Desert #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

Inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center! | Week of Oct. 18, 2019

Inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center! | Week of Oct. 18, 2019

Practice makes perfect! Exploration Ground Systems and its contractor, Jacobs, rehearsed lifting procedures of the Space Launch System core stage using a full-scale mock-up, called pathfinder, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Kennedy employees recently assembled the flight hardware for NASA's Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, inside a laboratory at the center. OSCAR will be used to study technology that converts trash and human waste into useful gasses such as methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Credit: Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration: 3 minutes
Release Date: October 18, 2019


#NASA #Space #Science #Astronomy #SLS #Rocket #Orion #Artemis #Moon #Mars #JourneyToMars #SolarSystem #Exploration #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Kennedy #KSC #Spaceport #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Video

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

History Makers Jessica and Christina Suit Up

Oct. 18, 2019: The International Space Station Expedition 61 crew pauses for a photo as NASA Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch prepare to exit the International Space Station to begin the first all female spacewalk in history on Oct. 18, 2019.

The astronauts replaced a faulty battery charge discharge unit (BCDU) that failed to activate following the Oct. 11 installation of new lithium ion batteries on the space station's exterior structure. The BCDUs regulate the amount of charge put into the batteries that collect energy from the station's solar arrays to power station systems during periods when the station orbits during nighttime passes around Earth. Though the BCDU failure has not impacted station operations or crew safety, it does prevent the new batteries from providing increased station power.

Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan assisted the spacewalkers. Parmitano operated the Canadarm2 robotics arm and Morgan provided airlock and spacesuit support.

It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan spacewalked in October.

It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: October 18, 2019


#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #AndrewMorgan #ESA #LucaParmitano #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

History Makers Jessica and Christina Suit Up

Oct. 18, 2019: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch (right) prepare to leave the hatch of the International Space Station and begin the historic first-ever all-female spacewalk.

The astronauts replaced a faulty battery charge discharge unit (BCDU) that failed to activate following the Oct. 11 installation of new lithium ion batteries on the space station's exterior structure. The BCDUs regulate the amount of charge put into the batteries that collect energy from the station's solar arrays to power station systems during periods when the station orbits during nighttime passes around Earth. Though the BCDU failure has not impacted station operations or crew safety, it does prevent the new batteries from providing increased station power.


It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan spacewalked in October.

It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: October 18, 2019


#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

The First All Woman Spacewalking Team | NASA

History Makers Jessica and Christina Suit Up

Oct. 18, 2019: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch (right) prepare to leave the hatch of the International Space Station and begin the historic first-ever all-female spacewalk.

The astronauts replaced a faulty battery charge discharge unit (BCDU) that failed to activate following the Oct. 11 installation of new lithium ion batteries on the space station's exterior structure. The BCDUs regulate the amount of charge put into the batteries that collect energy from the station's solar arrays to power station systems during periods when the station orbits during nighttime passes around Earth. Though the BCDU failure has not impacted station operations or crew safety, it does prevent the new batteries from providing increased station power.


It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan spacewalked in October.

It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: October 18, 2019

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

The First All Woman Spacewalk | This Week @NASA

The First All Woman Spacewalk | This Week @NASA

Week of October 18, 2019: A first aboard the International Space Station, some gear well-suited for the Artemis generation, and ensuring astronaut safety . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Duration: 4 minutes, 43 seconds
Release Date: October 18, 2019



#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education #HD

First All-Woman Spacewalk: History Made | NASA's Space to Ground

First All-Woman Spacewalk: History Made 

NASA's Space to Ground

Week of Oct. 18, 2019: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

At 2:55 p.m. EDT, Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir of NASA concluded their spacewalk, the first with only women. During the 7-hour, 17-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts completed the replacement a failed power charging component, also known as a battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). The BCDU regulates the charge to the batteries that collect and distribute solar power to the orbiting lab’s systems. Mission control activated the newly installed BCDU and reported it is operating properly.

The astronauts were also able to accomplish some get-ahead tasks including installation of a stanchion on the Columbus module for support of a new external ESA (European Space Agency) payload platform called Bartolomeo scheduled for launch to the station in 2020.

Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan assisted the spacewalkers. Parmitano operated the Canadarm2 robotics arm and Morgan provided airlock and spacesuit support.

It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan spacewalked in October.

The faulty BCDU is due to return to Earth on the next SpaceX Dragon resupply ship for inspection. Station managers will reschedule the three battery replacement spacewalks for a future date. In the meantime, the five planned spacewalks to repair a cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, are still on the calendar for November and December.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 2 minutes, 14 seconds
Release Date: October 18, 2019

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #Houston #Texas #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education #HD #Video

First All-Woman Spacewalk on October 18 | NASA

Watch Live on NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are set to conduct the first spacewalk to be performed by two women on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019.

They will be replacing a faulty battery charge/discharge unit that failed to activate after a spacewalk Oct. 11. The faulty unit is preventing a set of recently installed batteries from providing increased power. It must be replaced before continuing a series of spacewalks to install new batteries.

Watch live coverage here on NASA TV and nasa.gov/live Friday beginning at 6:30 a.m. Eastern. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 7:50 a.m.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Duration: 1 minute, 12 seconds
Release Date: October 17, 2019


#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #History #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education #HD #Video

First Quarter Moon | International Space Station

First Quarter Moon | International Space Station

A first quarter Moon is pictured from the International Space Station just above the Earth's limb.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Date: October 5, 2019

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Moon #Artemis #Astronauts #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

Spacewalkers Jessica & Christina | NASA

Spacewalkers Jessica & Christina | NASA

Upcoming spacewalking duo Jessica Meir and Christina Koch

Oct. 15, 2019: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch are inside the Quest airlock of the International Space Station preparing the U.S. spacesuits and tools they will use on their first spacewalk together. The Expedition 61 flight engineers are holding the pistol grip tools they will use to swap out a failed power controller, also known as a battery charge-discharge unit, that regulates the charge to batteries that collect and distribute power to the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: Oct. 15, 2019


#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #EVA #Spacewalk #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #ChristinaKoch #Batteries #Tools #Expedition61 #Human #Spaceflight #Women #Spacecraft #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov: Animation | Hubble

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov: Animation | Hubble

On October 12, 2019, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of approximately 420 million kilometers from Earth. The comet is believed to have arrived here from another planetary system elsewhere in our galaxy.

This is a time-lapse sequence compressing Hubble Space Telescope observations of comet 2I/Borisov, spanning a seven-hour period. As the first confirmed interstellar comet to enter our solar system, comet 2I/Borisov is moving along at a breakneck speed of 110,000 miles per hour. To photograph the comet Hubble has to track it, like a photographer tracking a racetrack horse. Therefore, background stars are streaked in the exposure frames. An artificial satellite also crosses the field of view. Hubble reveals a central concentration of dust around an unseen nucleus. Comet 2I/Borisov is only the second such interstellar object known to have passed through the solar system. In 2017, the first identified interstellar visitor, an object formally named 'Oumuamua, swung within 24 million miles of the Sun before racing out of the solar system.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. DePasquale (STScI)
Duration: 11 seconds
Release Date: October 16, 2019

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #Comet2IBorisov #Interstellar #Planets #SolarSystem #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education #Timelapse #Animation #HD #Video

Space is Hard | NASA

Space is Hard | NASA

Space travel is hard and unforgiving, but we have never been more ready to meet the unknown.

Team members from NASA’s Artemis program share the risks and rewards of this next era of exploration. Artemis will push the boundaries of human exploration and send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, preparing for missions to Mars and beyond.


#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #Artemis #SLS #Rocket #Orion #ISS #CommercialCrew #Mars #JourneyToMars #Moon #Astronauts #Human #Spaceflight #UnitedStates #Future #SolarSystem #Exploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Orbital Path of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Orbital Path of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Deep Space Visitor Provides Clues to Birth of Planetary Systems

This illustration shows the path of comet 21/Borisov through our Solar System. This visitor came from interstellar space along a hyperbolic trajectory. It is only the second known intruder to zoom through our Solar System (the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua was detected in 2017).

As the graphic shows, the comet’s straight path across interstellar space is slightly deflected by the gravitational pull of our Sun. The comet is travelling so fast, at over 155 000 kilometers per hour, it will eventually leave the Solar System.

The panel on the right shows the comet’s position relative to Earth when the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed it on October 12, 2019, when it was 420 million kilometers from Earth.

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Olmsted, F. Summers (STScI)

Release Date: October 16, 2019

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #Comet2IBorisov #Interstellar #Planets #SolarSystem #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #Illustration #Art #STEAM #STEM #Education