Exploring Cosmic Origins with NASA’s SPHEREx | JPL

Exploring Cosmic Origins with NASA’s SPHEREx | JPL

About the size of a subcompact car, NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope will map the entire sky to study the rapid expansion of the universe after the big bang, the composition of young planetary systems, and the evolutionary history of galaxies. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will provide the first all-sky spectral survey. Over a two-year planned mission, the SPHEREx Observatory will collect data on more than 300 million galaxies along with more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way in order to explore the origins of the universe. Launch is scheduled for June 2024.

SPHEREx will survey hundreds of millions of galaxies near and far, some so distant their light has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth. In the Milky Way, the mission will search for water and organic molecules—essentials for life, as we know it—in stellar nurseries, regions where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming.

Every six months, SPHEREx will survey the entire sky using technologies adapted from Earth satellites and interplanetary spacecraft. The mission will create a map of the entire sky in 96 different color bands, far exceeding the color resolution of previous all-sky maps. It also will identify targets for more detailed study by future missions

SPHEREx Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Jamie Bock leads the investigation. The California Institute of Technology and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will develop the SPHEREx payload. The spacecraft will be supplied by Ball Aerospace. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will contribute the non-flight cryogenic test chamber. The data will be made publicly available through the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center. In addition to the Caltech/JPL and international scientists, the SPHEREx team includes scientists at institutions across the country, including UC Irvine, Ohio State University, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Rochester Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, and Johns Hopkins University.

Credit: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Duration: 3 minutes, 56 seconds

Release Date: March 24, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Telescope #Observatory #SPHEREx #Orbiter #Galaxies #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #Cosmos #Universe #Science #Engineering #BallAerospace #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #KASI #Korea #한국 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Spaceflight Astra-1 Mission Launch in Alaska | Astra

 Spaceflight Astra-1 Mission Launch-Alaska

On March 15, 2022, Astra delivered its first commercial customer payloads into a sun synchronous low Earth orbit (LEO) of 525 km for the Spaceflight Astra-1 mission. The launch location was the Pacific Spaceport on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in the United States operated by Alaska Spaceflight Inc. Customer payloads on this flight included NearSpace Launch and the Portland State Aerospace Society with OreSat0, the U.S. state of Oregon’s first satellite.

"Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers one of the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch service of any operational launch provider in the world. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on NASDAQ."

Astra: https://astra.com

Spaceflight Inc.: https://spaceflight.com

Portland State Aerospace Society https://www.pdxaerospace.org

Near Space Launch: https://www.nearspacelaunch.com

Pacific Spaceport: https://akaerospace.com/spaceports/

The Pacific Spaceport Complex—Alaska (PSCA) is a dual-use commercial and military launch facility for sub-orbital and orbital launch vehicles located on Kodiak Island, about 180 miles (290 km) southeast of King Salmon and 25.5 miles (41 km) south of Kodiak, Alaska. The facility is owned and operated by the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, a public corporation of the State of Alaska.

Credit: Astra

Image Credits: Brady Kenniston/Astra 

Release Date: March 16, 2022

#Space #Satellite #Rocket #Astra1 #Mission #Launch #Commercial #LEO #CubeSats #NearSpaceLaunch #OreSat0 #PSAS #Pacific #Spaceport #PSCA #KodiakIsland #Alaska #Portland #Oregon #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Spaceflight Astra-1 Mission Launch | Astra

Spaceflight Astra-1 Mission Launch in Alaska | Astra

On March 15, 2022, Astra delivered its first commercial customer payloads into a sun synchronous low Earth orbit (LEO) of 525 km for the Spaceflight Astra-1 mission. The launch location was the Pacific Spaceport on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in the United States operated by Alaska Spaceflight Inc. Customer payloads on this flight included NearSpace Launch and the Portland State Aerospace Society with OreSat0, the U.S. state of Oregon’s first satellite.

"Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers one of the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch service of any operational launch provider in the world. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on NASDAQ."

Astra: https://astra.com

Spaceflight Inc.: https://spaceflight.com

Portland State Aerospace Society

https://www.pdxaerospace.org

Near Space Launch:

https://www.nearspacelaunch.com

Pacific Spaceport: 

https://akaerospace.com/spaceports/

The Pacific Spaceport Complex—Alaska (PSCA) is a dual-use commercial and military launch facility for sub-orbital and orbital launch vehicles located on Kodiak Island, about 180 miles (290 km) southeast of King Salmon and 25.5 miles (41 km) south of Kodiak, Alaska. The facility is owned and operated by the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, a public corporation of the State of Alaska.

Video Credit: Spaceflight Inc.

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: March 17, 2022

#Space #Satellite #Rocket #Astra1 #Mission #Launch #Commercial #LEO #CubeSats #NearSpaceLaunch #OreSat0 #PSAS #Pacific #Spaceport #PSCA #KodiakIsland #Alaska #Portland #Oregon #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

2021: A Year of Weather via Earth Satellites | EUMETSAT

2021: A Year of Weather | EUMETSAT

Our annual year of weather visualization rounds up the planet’s weather in just under 10 minutes. With narration from EUMETSAT’s Training Manager, Mark Higgins, we have highlighted the major storms across the globe and provided detail on what you can see from space.

Major storms are labelled from light yellow to red depending on their intensity.

We could not produce this video without the help of our international partners. This high resolution visualization was produced by EUMETSAT’s digital media team and is composed of cloud imagery provided by Météo-France, which is superimposed over NASA's 'Blue Marble Next Generation' ground maps and changes with the seasons.

It also displays imagery from the geostationary satellites of EUMETSAT, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Merging our data, we are able to get these very comprehensive views of the entire planet.

For more information on the satellites we operate and what we measure from space, visit the EUMETSAT website at: eumetsat.int

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organization created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States.

EUMETSAT's primary objective is to establish, maintain and exploit European systems of operational meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT is responsible for the launch and operation of the satellites and for delivering satellite data to end-users as well as contributing to the operational monitoring of climate and the detection of global climate changes.

Credit: EUMETSAT

Duration: 9 minutes, 48 seconds

Release Date: March 18, 2022

#NASA #NOAA #EUMETSAT #Satellite #Space #Earth #Planet #Sun #BlueMarble #MétéoFrance #Atmosphere #Oceans #Clouds #Storms #Weather #Meteorology #Global #Climate #China #中国 #CMA #JMA #日本 #Japan #Europe #International #STEM #Education

Hubble Watches Spun-Up Asteroid Coming Apart

Hubble Watches Spun-Up Asteroid Coming Apart

Hubble image of asteroid (6478) Gault

A small asteroid has been caught in the process of spinning so fast it’s throwing off material, according to new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories.

Images from Hubble show two narrow, comet-like tails of dusty debris streaming from the asteroid (6478) Gault. Each tail represents an episode in which the asteroid gently shed its material—key evidence that Gault is beginning to come apart.

Discovered in 1988, the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer-wide) asteroid has been observed repeatedly, but the debris tails are the first evidence of disintegration. Gault is located 214 million miles (344 million kilometers) from the Sun. Of the roughly 800,000 known asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, astronomers estimate that this type of event in the asteroid belt is rare, occurring roughly once a year.

Watching an asteroid become unglued gives astronomers the opportunity to study the makeup of these space rocks without sending a spacecraft to sample them.

This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the gradual self-destruction of an asteroid, whose ejected dusty material has formed two long, thin, comet-like tails. The longer tail stretches more than 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) and is roughly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide. The shorter tail is about a quarter as long. The streamers will eventually disperse into space.

When sunlight heats an asteroid, infrared radiation escaping from its warmed surface carries off angular momentum as well as heat. This process creates a tiny torque that can cause the asteroid to continually spin faster. When the resulting centrifugal force starts to overcome gravity, the asteroid’s surface becomes unstable, and landslides may send dust and rubble drifting into space at a couple miles per hour, or the speed of a strolling human. The researchers estimate that Gault could have been slowly spinning up for more than 100 million years.

Piecing together Gault’s recent activity is an astronomical forensics investigation involving telescopes and astronomers around the world. All-sky surveys, ground-based telescopes, and space-based facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope pooled their efforts to make this discovery possible.

“Gault is the best ‘smoking gun’ example of a fast rotator right at the two-hour limit,” said team member Jan Kleyna of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

An analysis of the asteroid’s surrounding environment by Hubble revealed no signs of more widely distributed debris, which rules out the possibility of a collision with another asteroid causing the outbursts. 

The asteroid’s narrow streamers suggest that the dust was released in short bursts, lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days. These sudden events puffed away enough debris to make a “dirt ball” approximately 500 feet (150 meters) across if compacted together. The tails will begin fading away in a few months as the dust disperses into interplanetary space. 

Based on observations by the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, the astronomers estimate that the longer tail stretches over half a million miles (800,000 kilometers) and is roughly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide. The shorter tail is about a quarter as long.

Only a couple of dozen active asteroids have been found so far. Astronomers may now have the capability to detect many more of them because of the enhanced survey capabilities of observatories such as Pan-STARRS and ATLAS, which scan the entire sky. “Asteroids such as Gault cannot escape detection anymore,” Hainaut said. “That means that all these asteroids that start misbehaving get caught.”

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. 

For more information about 6478 Gault and Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-22

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Credits: NASA, ESA, K. Meech and J. Kleyna (University of Hawaii), and O. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory)

Release Date: March 28, 2019

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #SolarSystem #Asteroid #Asteroid6478 #Gault #Mars #Jupiter #Sun #Telescope #ESO #Observatory #Europe #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #Exploration #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Samantha’s Second Space Mission: Minerva | European Space Agency

Samantha’s Second Space Mission: Minerva | European Space Agency

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will return to the International Space Station in April 2022. Her second space mission is known as Minerva. 

Inspired by Roman mythology, Samantha says the Minerva mission name and patch pay homage to the competence and sophisticated craftmanship of all those who make human spaceflight possible. 

Samantha will travel to the Station alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob “Farmer” Hines, and Jessica Watkins. Collectively known as Crew-4, the astronauts will be launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. 

When Samantha arrives at the Station, her Minerva mission officially begins. This will see her live and work aboard the orbital outpost for approximately five months. During this time, she will support over 35 European and many more international experiments in orbit.  

Samantha will also hold the role of US Orbital Segment (USOS) lead, responsible for operations within the US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components of the Space Station.

As her launch draws closer, Samantha continues her training with International Space Station partners. 

ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Official Biography

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Samantha_Cristoforetti

Credit: European Space Agency

Duration: 4 minutes, 41 seconds 

Release Date: March 23, 2022

#NASA #Space #ESA #MissionMinerva #SamanthaCristoforetti #ISS #SpaceX #Crew4 #Astronaut #Italy #Italia #FlightEngineers #Science #Technology #Engineering #Research #Laboratory #Engineers #Minerva #Europe #UnitedStates #Expedition67 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

Massive stars can blow bubbles. This  image shows perhaps the most famous of all star-bubbles, NGC 7635, also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7-light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and some 45-times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp, tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is a reprocessed composite of previously acquired Hubble Space Telescope image data.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble

Processing & Copyright: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç

Release Date: March 23, 2022

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebula #Bubble #NGC7635 #Stars #Gas #Radiation #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

China's Second Livestream Student Lecture | Tiangong Space Station

China's Second Livestream Student Lecture | Tiangong Space Station

Speaking from outer space on a 6-month mission, Taikonauts Nie Haisheng, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu hosted their second space lecture for youngsters on Earth on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. The livestreamed lecture is part of China's efforts to take full advantage of its Tiangong Space Station, with an aim to inspire young minds to pursue science. 

Wang Yaping is China's second female astronaut or taikonaut. On November 7, 2021, Wang Yaping became China's first female spacewalker. Wang became China's second female spacefarer as a member of the Shenzhou 10 spaceship crew when it orbited the Earth in June 2013.

Tiangong is a space station being constructed by China in low Earth orbit between 340 and 450 km (210 and 280 mi) above the surface. Being China's first long-term space station, it is the goal of the "Third Step" of the China Manned Space Program. Once completed, Tiangong will have a mass between 80 and 100 t (180,000 and 220,000 lb), roughly one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station. It is hoped that the research conducted on the station will improve researchers' ability to conduct science experiments in space.

Credit: China's Manned Space Agency (CMSA)/China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Duration: 42 minutes, 49 seconds

Release Date: March 23, 2022

#Space #China #中国 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #NieHaisheng #YeGuangfu #Women #WangYaping #王亚平 #Pilot #Leadership #Tiangong #天宫 #SpaceStation #Shenzhou13 #UNOOSA #UnitedNations #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #Technology #Physics #Students #Lecture #STEM #Education #International #HD #Video

Astronauts Raja & Matthias on Spacewalk | International Space Station

Astronauts Raja & Matthias on Spacewalk | International Space Station 

Spacewalkers Raja Chari and Matthias Maurer have exited the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. NASA Television coverage of today’s spacewalk with NASA astronaut Raja Chari and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer is now underway and also is available on the NASA app, the Space Station blog and the agency’s website: nasa.gov/nasatv

Chari and Maurer will install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature. The crew members will also install a power and data cable on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the station’s truss, and conduct other upgrades to station hardware.

Chari will serve as extravehicular crewmember 1 (EV 1) and will wear a suit with red stripes. Maurer will serve as extravehicular crewmember 2 (EV 2) and will wear an unmarked suit. The spacewalk will be the second of Chari’s career and the first for Maurer. Astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits and monitor their external activities. Additionally, Barron and Marshburn will be on robotics duty commanding the Canadarm2 robotics arm to assist during the excursion.

ESA Astronaut Matthias Maurer Official Biography

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Matthias_Maurer

NASA Astronaut Raja Chari Official Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/content/astronaut-raja-chari/

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

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Expedition 66 Crew:

Commander: Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov, Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer (DLR/German Aerospace Center)

NASA (U.S.) Flight Engineers: Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Mark Vande Hei

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Capture Date: March 14, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Space #ISS #Astronauts #Astronaut #MatthiasMaurer #RajaChari #FlightEngineers #Science #Technology #Engineering #Spacewalk #EVA #Research #Laboratory #USAF #Engineers #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #CosmicKiss #UnitedStates #Expedition66 #STEM #Education

The Milky Way Galaxy SWEEPS Field | Hubble

The Milky Way Galaxy SWEEPS Field | Hubble

This Hubble image shows a dense collection of stars near our galaxy’s core, at a distance of about 26,000 light-years. The region surveyed is part of the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) field. The unusually dust-free location on the sky offers a keyhole view into the "downtown" bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys made the observations in 2004 and 2011-2013.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, A. Calamida and K. Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), and the SWEEPS Science Team; Ground-based Image: A. Fujii

Release Date: November 5, 2015

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Stars #SWEEPS #Sagittarius #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket | Kennedy Space Center

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket | Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket arrives at Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 18, 2022, for a wet dress rehearsal ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I launch. The rocket, with the Orion spacecraft atop, was carried from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad—a 4.2-mile journey that took nearly 11 hours to complete—by the agency’s crawler-transporter 2. Artemis I will test SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars. Artemis I launch is currently scheduled for spring 2022.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.  It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

Learn more about Artemis I at:

NASA's Artemis Program:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

Read the Artemis Plan (74-page PDF Free Download): 

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

NASA's Orion Spacecraft

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html

Caption & Image Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Image Date: March 18, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Space #Moon #Moonlight #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #Boeing #DeepSpace #LockheedMartin #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #LaunchComplex39B #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: Roll to Pad

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: Roll to Pad

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop arrived at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a final test before its Artemis I Moon mission. United Launch Alliance (ULA) under a collaborative partnership with Boeing, built the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) upper stage of the SLS rocket that will propel Orion to the Moon. 

Learn more about Artemis I at:

NASA's Artemis Program:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

NASA's Orion Spacecraft

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html

Caption & Image Credit: United Launch Alliance (ULA)

Image Date: March 17, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Space #Moon #Moonlight #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #Boeing #ULA #DeepSpace #LockheedMartin #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #LaunchComplex39B #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica

IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.

IceCube is the largest neutrino observatory in the world and consists of over five thousand optical detectors draped through a cubic kilometer of ice at the geographic South Pole. IceCube was built specifically to study cosmic neutrinos that come from outside our own solar system. Thanks to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, scientists have identified several types of cosmic structures that produce neutrinos. A new study estimates for the first time how likely a neutrino is to come from each source type, helping physicists understand more about these ghostly particles and how they are created in the universe.

Neutrinos are tiny, nearly massless elementary particles that travel through the universe at almost the speed of light. They were first made during the Big Bang and are produced today by fusion reactions inside stars (including our own Sun), by supernovae explosions when massive stars die, and by the violent transformations of matter and energy that happen around black holes.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, or IceCube as it is commonly called, has detected over 100 cosmic neutrinos since its first full science run in 2011, and scientists have figured out where a few of them came from: a flaring blazar, a nearby Seyfert galaxy, and a tidal disruption event, the term for when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and gets gobbled up by it.

IceCube is operated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and supported by the National Science Foundation.

Learn more: 

https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/4713

Story Credit: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Image Credit: Benjamin Eberhardt

Release Date: March 14, 2022

#NSF #Space #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Earth #IceCube #Neutrino #Observatory #SolarSystem #Stars #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Research #Science #Technology #Engineering #AmundsenScott #AuroraAustralis #SouthPole #Antarctica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

JPL and The Space Age: Destination Moon Documentary

JPL and The Space Age: Destination Moon Documentary

After the establishment of NASA in 1958, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s first major assignment was to explore the Moon, taking close up images before crash landing as part of a series of missions called Ranger. JPL, however, had grander plans.

The laboratory, having built and helped launch the first U.S. satellite into space, wanted to explore not only the Moon, but nearby planets. JPL would be humbled by a string of early failures that threatened the lab’s very future. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” one veteran JPL engineer confides in the program, “and there was no one around to tell us.”

Ironically, a successful (although barely so) flyby of Venus by Mariner 2 in 1962 would give the United States its first “first in space.” And after finally succeeding with its Ranger program, JPL would go on to manage the highly successful Surveyor missions that soft landed on the Moon, serving as pathfinders for the Apollo astronauts. Destination Moon relives JPL’s struggles and triumphs at the Moon and Venus.

Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Duration: 59 minutes

Release Date: March 15, 2022

#NASA #Space #JPL #History #Satellites #Spacecraft #Ranger #Moon #Venus #Mariner2 #Science #Physics #Engineering #Research #Caltech #Pasedena #California #UnitedStates #SolarSystem #Exploration #Documentary #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Confirms 5,000 Planets—and Counting!

NASA Confirms 5,000 Planets—and Counting!

Using powerful telescopes, in space and on the ground, astronomers have now confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets—planets beyond our solar system. However, it is just a fraction of the likely hundreds of billions of such planets in our Milky Way galaxy. 

As current and future telescopes continue to make discoveries, we may someday find potentially habitable planets—or even inhabited worlds. Many more discoveries await.

Learn more here: https://go.nasa.gov/3IptVLb

Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech

Duration: 1 minute, 35 seconds

Release Date: March 18, 2022

 

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Exoplanets #Planets #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Telescopes #JWST #JamesWebb #Hubble #Chandra #Spitzer #Kepler #TESS #Optical #Xray #Infrared #Stars #Galaxies #Cosmos #Universe #JPL #Caltech #Goddard #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Taming the Sky | European Southern Observatory

Taming the Sky | European Southern Observatory

Powerful laser beams leave Unit Telescope 4 at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Their destination? An upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, about 90 kilometers from the ground, rich in sodium atoms.

The color of the lasers is tuned to excite these atoms, making them shine brightly, like stars. Astronomers then use these artificial stars to calculate the blurring effect that Earth’s turbulent atmosphere creates on the light from astronomical objects. A deformable mirror uses this information to correct this blur in real time with a technique known as adaptive optics, which leads to much sharper observations.

This telescope, also known as Yepun, is the only one at the VLT equipped with a Laser Guide Star Facility. Each beam is 30 centimeters wide and packs 22 watts of power. For safety reasons, the system is equipped with cameras monitoring the part of the sky occupied by the lasers, so that when an airplane flying by is detected approaching this area, the lasers are promptly switched off. 

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com)

Release Date: March 21, 2022

#ESO #Astronomy #Space #Earth #Atmosphere #Laser #LaserGuideStar #Unit4 #VLT #Yepun #Telescope #Cosmos #Universe #Earth #LaSilla #Observatory #Atacama #Desert #Chile #Europe #Astrophotography #STEM #Education