Saturday, April 30, 2022

Orbital Sunset & Northrop Grumman Cygnus | International Space Station

Orbital Sunset & Northrop Grumman Cygnus | International Space Station


The Cygnus space freighter (left) from Northrop Grumman, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, is pictured as the International Space Station flies into an orbital sunset 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean. At upper right, is a portion of the Rassvet mini-research module's docking port.

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on the station: 

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on Station: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. 


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Centre (JSC)

Image Date: April 8, 2022


#NASA #ISS #Sun #Star #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Science #Sunset #PacificOcean #Pacific #Ocean #EarthObservation #Astronaut #Expedition67 #Technology #NorthropGrumman #Cygnus #Spacecraft #Cargo #Commercial #Photography #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education

NASA Artemis Space Exploration Suppliers | Northrop Grumman

NASA Artemis Space Exploration Suppliers | Northrop Grumman

"America’s return to the Moon and venture into deep space begins on factory floors across the nation. American supplier companies are working diligently to support NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, Exploration Ground Systems, and Gateway as the Artemis program prepares to send the first woman and person of color to the lunar surface."


Credit: Northrop Grumman

Duration: 2 minutes, 57 seconds

Release Date: April 22, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Space #NorthropGrumman #Astronauts #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #DeepSpace #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tonight's Sky: May 2022

Tonight's Sky: May 2022


In May 2022, we are looking away from the crowded, dusty plane of our own galaxy toward a region where the sky is brimming with distant galaxies. Locate Virgo to find a concentration of roughly 2,000 galaxies and search for Coma Berenices to identify many more. Keep watching for space-based views of galaxies like the Sombrero Galaxy, M87, and M64.


About this Series


“Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning.


Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Duration: 5 minute, 26 seconds

Release Date: April 29, 2022



#NASA #Astronomy #Hubble #Space #Science #Earth #Stars #UrsaMajor #BigDipper #Arcturus #Spica #Virgo #Sombrero #Cluster #M87 #ComaBernices #CanesVenatici #M64 #M51 #Whirlpool #Spiral #Galaxy #MilkyWay #Planets #SolarSystem #Skywatching #STEM #Education #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #HD #Video

What's Up for May 2022? | Skywatching Tips from NASA/JPL

What's Up for May 2022? | Skywatching Tips from NASA/JPL

What are some skywatching highlights in May 2022?

May provides some great planet spotting, including a close conjunction of Jupiter and Mars. At mid-month, a total eclipse of the Moon should delight skywatchers across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. And all month long, the Coma star cluster (aka, the Coma Berenices star cluster, or Melotte 111) is a great target for binoculars in the evening.

0:00 Intro

0:11 Planet-spotting opportunities

1:02 Lunar eclipse

2:27 The Coma star cluster

3:33 May Moon phases


Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Duration: 3 minutes, 54 seconds

Release Date: April 29, 2022


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #Moon #LunarEclipse #Planets #Jupiter #Mars #ComaBerenices #StarCluster #Stars #Constellations #MilkyWay #Galaxy #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Friday, April 29, 2022

Sunrise Above Pacific Ocean | International Space Station

Sunrise Above Pacific Ocean | International Space Station

The International Space Station orbits into a sunrise above the Pacific Ocean. The International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm (at left) and one of its main solar arrays (at right) are pictured while the spacecraft orbited into a sunrise 257 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

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.


Learn more about the important research being operated on the station: 

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on Station: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. 


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Centre (JSC)

Image Date: April 21, 2022


#NASA #ISS #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Science #PacificOcean #Pacific #Ocean #EarthObservation #Astronaut #Expedition67 #Technology #Robotics #Canadarm2 #CSA #MDA #Photography #JSC #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education

NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover: New April 28-29, 2022 Images | JPL

NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover: New April 28-29, 2022 Images | JPL

Mars20202 - Sol 422 - Mastcam-Z
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill

Mars2020 - Sol 422 - Mastcam-Z
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill

Mars2020 - Sol 422 - Mastcam-Z
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill

MSL - Sol 3456 - Mastcam 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

After collecting eight rock-core samples from its first science campaign and completing a record-breaking, 31-Martian-day (or sol) dash across about 3 miles (5 kilometers) of Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover arrived at the doorstep of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta April 13. Dubbed “Three Forks” by the Perseverance team (a reference to the spot where three route options to the delta merge), the location serves as the staging area for the rover’s second science expedition, the “Delta Front Campaign.”

“The delta at Jezero Crater promises to be a veritable geologic feast and one of the best locations on Mars to look for signs of past microscopic life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The answers are out there—and Team Perseverance is ready to find them.”

The delta, a massive fan-shaped collection of rocks and sediment at the western edge of Jezero Crater, formed at the convergence of a Martian river and a crater lake billions of years ago. Its exploration tops the Perseverance science team’s wish list because all the fine-grained sediment deposited at its base long ago is the mission’s best bet for finding the preserved remnants of ancient microbial life.


The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more about Perseverance: nasa.gov/perseverance

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov


Caption Credit: NASA/JPL

Image Dates: April 28-29, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #River #Delta #Astrobiology #Geology #Geoscience #Jezero #Crater #Perseverance #Rover #Robotics #Technology #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #STEM #Education

A New Crew Launches to the International Space Station | This Week @NASA

A New Crew Launches to the International Space Station | This Week @NASA 

Week of April 29, 2022: A new crew launches to the International Space Station, another crew wraps up a historic mission to the station, and more time to explore for some planetary science missions . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!


Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: April 29, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Space #SpaceX #Crew4 #Astronauts #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #DeepSpace #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Crew-4 Moon Rocket Dreams | Artemis I Launch Pad Tour

NASA Crew-4 Moon Rocket Dreams | Artemis I Launch Pad Tour


Prior to their launch to the International Space Station this week, NASA's Crew-4—NASA astronauts Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA)—visit the Space Launch System (SLS) with Orion and the European Service Module (ESM) atop it, on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States.

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


Image Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Image Date: April 19, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Space #SpaceX #Crew4 #Astronauts #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #DeepSpace #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

United Arab Emirates Astronaut Mission on International Space Station in 2023

United Arab Emirates Astronaut Mission on International Space Station in 2023





Axiom Space and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fly a UAE professional crew member to the International Space Station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew 6 for a long duration mission lasting six months, expected to occur in 2023. This is the first long-duration flight of an astronaut from an Arab nation.

Axiom Space is opening low Earth orbit to the broader international community. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) signed a new strategic cooperation in human spaceflight with Axiom Space Inc. in Washington D.C. on April 27 , and His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Chairman, MBRSC, and H.E. Yousuf Hamad AlShaibani, Deputy Chairman, MBRSC, along with astronauts Nora AlMatrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla all attended the signing ceremony. The agreement was signed in the Embassy of the United States by both parties: H.E Salem Al-Marri, Director General of the Centre, on behalf of the Centre, and Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space.

“It is our great pleasure to sign the agreement with the United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, marking the first time a commercial space company has made such a mission possible,” said Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space. “Axiom Space is proud to provide MBRSC with a fight opportunity for a UAE astronaut, enabling its first long-term mission to the ISS.”

While UAE has previously flown an astronaut to the ISS onboard the Soyuz MS15 spacecraft, this will be the first non-ISS partner professional astronaut flight facilitated by a U.S. commercial space company. In yet another first, the UAE crew member will serve as a member of two Expedition crews onboard the space station across the roughly six-month interval. 

The flight opportunity provided by Axiom has its origins in a no-funds contract signed between NASA and Axiom to fly a NASA astronaut onboard a Soyuz seat, previously purchased by Axiom, in order to ensure continuous U.S. presence onboard the ISS. In exchange, NASA provided Axiom the right to use a seat owned by NASA onboard a commercial U.S. spacecraft traveling to the ISS in the future. Since the seats were deemed of equal value, there will be no future exchange of funds between NASA and Axiom for the flight opportunity. Axiom’s agreement with MBRSC is between the company and the UAE space agency.

The agreement was signed at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, D.C. on April 27 by Salem Humaid AlMarri, Director-General of MBRSC and Michael Suffredini, and announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. 

About Axiom Space

"Axiom operates end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while privately building its successor, Axiom Station, the first permanent commercial destination in Earth's orbit that will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home." 

More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com


Story Credit: Axiom Space

Image Credit: Axiom Space/MBRSC

Release Date: April 29, 2022


#NASA #Space #SpaceX #Crew6 #Axiom #AxiomSpace #Astronauts #NoraAlMatrooshi #MohammadAlMulla #MBRSC #UAE #Emirates #UnitedStates #International #Cooperation #LongDuration #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Fantastic Four | Week of April 29, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground: Fantastic Four | Week of April 29, 2022 

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. NASA's SpaceX Cew-4 astronauts Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. Crew-4 joined the Expedition 67 crew of Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, all of NASA, Matthias Maurer of ESA, and cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsakov, and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Thursday, April 28, 2022, after 7 hours and 42 minutes. Artemyev and Matveev completed their major objectives during the spacewalk, which included monitoring the first commanded movements of the robotic arm from its grapple fixtures after removing thermal blankets and launch locks. The duo monitored the robotic arm as its end effectors translated one at a time to a new base points. The crew also installed more handrails on Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

This was the fifth spacewalk in Artemyev’s career, and the second for Matveev. It will be the fifth spacewalk at the station in 2022 and the 250th spacewalk for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: April 29, 2022


#NASA #ESA #SpaceX #CrewDragon #Freedom #ISS #Earth #Science #Cosmonauts #EVA #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #Astronauts #KjellLindgren #JessicaWatkins #RobertHines #SamanthaCristoforetti #Minerva #Italy #Italia #Europe #Human #Spaceflight #Crew4 #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Thursday, April 28, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope Completes Alignment Phase

The James Webb Space Telescope Completes Alignment Phase

It is official, alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. The alignment of the telescope across all of Webb’s instruments can be seen in a series of images that captures the observatory’s full field of view.

Featured in this video are engineering images demonstrating the sharp focus of each instrument. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The sizes and positions of the images shown depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). 

NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph. Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between the instrument sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process.


Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Producer

Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Editor

Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Videographer

Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Videographer

Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator

Music Credit: Cyclic Marimba by Eric Chevalier - Koka Media

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: April 28, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #JamesWebb #Webb #Telescope #JWST #Cosmos #Universe #Exoplanets #Atmospheres #Biosignatures #Astrobiology #Europe #CSA #Canada #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Going Up? NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 Launch Week "Outtakes"

Going Up? NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 Launch Week "Outtakes"

Crew-4 mission astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, at Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on April 27, 2022. A team of SpaceX suit technicians assisted the crew as they put on their custom-fitted spacesuits and checked the suits for leaks. The four astronauts launched aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, powered by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.


Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett


Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja


Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja


Image Credit: SpaceX


Image Credit: SpaceX

Image Dates: April 20-27, 2022

#NASA #ESA #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #CrewDragon #Freedom #ISS #Earth #Science #Astronaut #Astronauts #KjellLindgren #JessicaWatkins #RobertHines #SamanthaCristoforetti #Minerva #Italy #Italia #Human #Spaceflight #Crew4 #CCP #LaunchComplex39A #Kennedy #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education


Eyeing the Future: NASA Crew-4 Astronauts View Artemis I Moon Rocket

Eyeing the Future: NASA Crew-4 Astronauts View Artemis I Moon Rocket


NASA's Crew-4 astronauts, from left, Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti stand inside the crew access arm at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A during a dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. Reflected and lit up in the background is NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission at Launch Complex 39B. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti launched Wednesday, April 27, 2022, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost. The Crew-4 mission will carry the astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.


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


Image Credit: SpaceX

Image Date: April 19, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Space #SpaceX #Crew4 #Astronauts #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisI #Rocket #Orion #Spacecraft #SLS #DeepSpace #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Testing Success: The James Webb Space Telescope in Full Focus

Testing Success: The James Webb Space Telescope in Full Focus

Alignment of the James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After full review, the observatory has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful onboard science instruments.

Upon completing the seventh and final stage of telescope alignment, the team held a set of key decision meetings and unanimously agreed that Webb is ready to move forward into its next and final series of preparations, known as science instrument commissioning. This process of setting up and testing the instruments will take about two months before scientific operations begin in the summer.

The alignment of the telescope across all of Webb’s instruments can be seen in a series of images that captures the observatory’s full field of view.

Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the telescope is fully aligned and in focus. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors.

The sizes and positions of the images shown here depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another.

Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight).

ESA's NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph.

Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process.

The optical performance of the telescope continues to be better than the engineering team’s most optimistic predictions. Webb’s mirrors are now directing fully focused light collected from space down into each instrument, and each instrument is successfully capturing images with the light being delivered to them. The image quality delivered to all instruments is “diffraction-limited,” meaning that the fineness of detail that can be seen is as good as physically possible given the size of the telescope. From this point forward the only changes to the mirrors will be very small, periodic adjustments to the primary mirror segments.

Now, the Webb team will turn its attention to science instrument commissioning. Each instrument is a highly sophisticated set of detectors equipped with unique lenses, masks, filters, and customised equipment that helps it perform the science it was designed to achieve. The specialised characteristics of these instruments will be configured and operated in various combinations during the instrument commissioning phase to fully confirm their readiness for science. With the formal conclusion of telescope alignment, key personnel involved with the commissioning of each instrument have arrived at the Mission Operations Center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA, and some personnel involved with telescope alignment have concluded their duties.

Though telescope alignment is complete, some telescope calibration activities remain: As part of scientific instrument commissioning, the telescope will be commanded to point to different areas in the sky where the total amount of solar radiation hitting the observatory will vary to confirm thermal stability when changing targets. Furthermore, ongoing maintenance observations every two days will monitor the mirror alignment and, when needed, apply corrections to keep the mirrors in their aligned locations.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Learn more about Webb’s mission: http://webb.nasa.gov


Story Credit: European Space Agency

Release Date: April 28, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #JamesWebb #Webb #Telescope #JWST #Cosmos #Universe #Exoplanets #Atmospheres #Biosignatures #Astrobiology #Europe #CSA #Canada #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

Picturesque Clouds off Greenland | NASA Aqua Satellite

Picturesque Clouds off Greenland | NASA Aqua Satellite



A few times every spring, the skies over the Labrador Sea fill with row after row of long, parallel bands of cumulus clouds. The magnificent organization of these clouds, known as cloud streets, was on full display when this image was acquired on April 19, 2022.

Captured with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, the image shows cloud streets sweeping over the open water between Labrador, Canada, and southwest Greenland.

The appearance of cloud streets indicates that strong, cold winds were blowing toward the southeast over comparatively warmer water. In springtime, sea ice has already entered the melting season, but there is still plenty of ice over land and sea to produce very cold, dry air. There is also enough open water from which that air can draw moisture and form clouds.

The pattern is the result of the ice-chilled air being warmed by the ocean surface and forming strong currents of upward moving air, or thermals. The moist air rises until it hits a temperature inversion, which acts like a cap and causes the air to roll over and form parallel cylinders of rotating air. On the upper side of these cylinders (the rising air), clouds form. Along the downward side (descending air), skies are clear.

The wide view reveals even more compelling cloud patterns. Notice that the cloud streets are adjacent to an area of vortices off the southeast coast of Greenland. According to Gunilla Svensson, a meteorologist at Stockholm University, those clouds were likely related to a narrow band of high winds known as a “tip jet.” A tip jet is thought to be caused by winds that accelerate as they are forced to go around the steep topography of Cape Farewell on the southern tip of Greenland.


Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. 

Story Credit: Kathryn Hansen

Release Date: April 19, 2022


#NASA #Earth #Planet #Science #Satellite #Atmosphere #Clouds #Cumulus #CloudStreets #Greenland #Grønland #Denmark #Danmark #Labrador #Canada #LabradorSea #EarthObservation #EO #Aqua #MODIS #Goddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

Earth's Greenland Ice and Jupiter's Moon Europa Share Similar Feature

Earth's Greenland Ice and Jupiter's Moon Europa Share Similar Feature

The surface geology of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is on display in this view made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Parallel ice ridges, a common feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa, are found on Greenland’s ice sheet—and could bode well for Europa’s potential habitability. Parallel ice ridges in Greenland bear a striking resemblance to ridges on Jupiter’s ice-encased moon Europa, suggesting the moon’s icy shell could be riddled with pockets of water.

A double ridge cutting across the surface of Europa

A double ridge cutting across the surface of Europa is seen in this mosaic of two images taken by NASA’s Galileo during the spacecraft’s close flyby on Feb. 20, 1997. Analysis of a similar feature in Greenland suggests shallow liquid water may be ubiquitous across the Jovian moon’s icy shell. 

Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

This similarity could greatly improve the odds of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission detecting potentially habitable environments on the Jovian moon. The spacecraft’s ice-penetrating radar instrument REASON (short for Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface) will be ideal for conducting such a search.

“If there are pockets of water under the ridges, we have the right instruments to see them,” said Dustin Schroeder, a Stanford University associate professor and coauthor of a new study comparing Greenland’s “double ridges” with those of Europa.

Scientists say evidence gathered so far shows that Europa harbors a deep liquid ocean, hidden beneath an ice shell that could be 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick. Because the ice is so substantial, a big question about the moon is whether anything from the deep ocean makes contact with the surface—or if contact goes the other way, with surface material filtering down to the ocean water.

“It’s exciting, what it would mean if you have plenty of water within the ice shell,” said coauthor Gregor Steinbrügge, a former Stanford researcher who is now a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It would mean the ice shell on Europa is extremely dynamic. It could facilitate exchange processes between the surface and the subsurface ocean. It could go in both directions.”

Potential life-sustaining nutrients on Europa’s surface—perhaps deposited there by another Jupiter moon, volcanic Io—might find their way to the subsurface ocean, he said. And chemicals or other material from the subsurface indicating a habitable ocean environment could end up on the surface.


How Ridges May Have Formed

During a presentation on Europa’s ridges, the study’s lead author, Stanford graduate student Riley Culberg, said he noticed similar landforms in Greenland. Ice-penetrating radar data collected from 2015 to 2017 by NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an aerial observation campaign, showed not only the existence of a double ridge in northwestern Greenland, but also details of how it evolved.

The double ridges observed on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet formed when water from nearby surface lakes drained into a layer of impermeable ice within the ice sheet. Once there, the water pocket refroze and fractured the overlying ice, forcing peaks to rise on either side.

Something similar could be happening on Europa, but instead with water forced up toward the surface from the subsurface ocean. The ridge features on Europa, while similar to the Greenland ridges, are much larger and with taller peaks, perhaps due in part to lower gravity on Europa.

Europa Clipper’s REASON instrument is designed to make the same kind of measurements at Europa that the IceBridge radar made in Greenland. Both use radio waves that can penetrate deeply into ice. The same waves, however, cannot penetrate liquid water and are instead reflected back to the radar instrument. Water shows up as a bright patch in the radar images. These radargrams can therefore provide a vertical profile of water and ice deep below the surface.

“You get reflections that are a thousand times brighter for water as opposed to ice,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder, a co-investigator on REASON and part of a group that studies Europa’s interior, said the new study could help the Europa Clipper team design observations to determine whether the ridges on the moon and in Greenland arose from the same underlying causes—and whether water pockets are common within Europa’s icy shell.

The study also highlights the growing synergy between scientists who study our planetary neighbors in the solar system and those who focus on Earth.

“This research will help us either use Earth to understand what we will see on Europa or, when we get to Europa, help us interpret what we see when we get there,” Schroeder said.


More About the Mission

Missions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. 


More information about Europa can be found here:

https://europa.nasa.gov


Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Written by Pat Brennan

Release Date: April 25, 2022


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