Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
James Webb Space Telescope Mission Trailer: First Images on July 12, 2022
Listen to Carl Sagan narrate the trailer for NASA's upcoming broadcast of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and data. Watch each of the images get revealed one by one on the broadcast, starting at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) on July 12, 2022. Catch the show on NASA TV:
This image was taken with the KPNO/WIYN 0.9m telescope on May 24, 2002. It shows the “ionization front” in the Pelican nebula, a giant nearby star-formation region. The Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) is located in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. Its pillars are being sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation from massive stars which have recently formed within the nebula.
The image was produced Oxygen [OIII] (blue), Hydrogen-Alpha (green) and Sulphur [SII] (red) narrowband filters. 7x6min in H-alpha, 4x6min in [OIII], 5x6min in [SII]. The image is rotated 135 degrees CW from North is up, East to the left.
Credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Portrait: NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim in High Altitude Pressure Suit
Award-winning photo of NASA astronaut Jonny Kim wearing a high-altitude pressure suit worn in NASA's WB-57 aircraft, which is capable of flying at altitudes over 60,000 feet. Kim is a U.S. Navy SEAL, naval officer, and a veteran of over 100 combat operations. He is the recipient of the Silver Star and Bronze Star.
New Shepard: Human Spaceflight History | Blue Origin
"This month marks the one-year anniversary of our First Human Flight. Each mission gets us closer to our vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Re-live some of the highlights."
NASA Astronauts Answer Florida Student Questions | International Space Station
Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins of NASA answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbital laboratory during an in-flight event July 6, 2022, with students at the Gifford Youth Achievement Center in Vero Beach, Florida.
Hines and Watkins are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)
NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)
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.
This time-lapse video was taken by the Expedition 61 crew on board the International Space Station (ISS). The sequence of shots were taken on December 30, 2019 from 22:40:00 to 23:10:15 GMT, on a night pass over Africa. The ISS passes over yellow-hued city lights while bright bursts of lightening fill the sky. The star of this time-lapse video is the star field above the Earth glow around the atmospheric limb.
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.
Stratovolcanoes of South America | International Space Station
The Parinacota and Pomerape stratovolcanoes (top to bottom) are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above the South American nation of Chile. Parinacota is a dormant volcano on the Chile-Bolivia border and its peak is about 20,800 feet. Pomerape, last active over 100,000 years ago, is also on the Chile- Bolivia border with an elevation of about 20,600 feet. At top left, is Chungará Lake in northern Chile which rests about 14,800 feet above sea level.
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions, although some have collapsed summit craters called calderas.
Gemini North image of the planetary nebula M97, also known as the Owl Nebula, imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS). The approximately 6,000 year-old nebula is located about 2,600 light-years away, and has a diameter of about three light-years across. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Major (which contains the Big Dipper).
Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Émilie Storer (Collège Charlemagne, Quebec) / André-Nicolas Chené (HIA/NRC of Canada) / T. Rector (U. Alaska, Anchorage).
Mars: Flooded Impact Craters in Hebrus Valles | NASA MRO
Hebrus Valles are a complex set of channels in the northern lowlands of Mars just to the west of the Elysium volcanic region.
Black and white images are 5 km across; enhanced color images are 1 km.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey. It has been studying the Red Planet since March 2006. The spacecraft collects and relays daily science and weather data. It also scouts for landing locations for Mars landers and serves as a critical relay station for science beamed back from the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
Atlas V USSF-12 Launch Highlights | United Launch Alliance
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the USSF-12 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command lifted off on July 1, 2022, at 7:15 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Atlas V rocket uses Russian RD-180 engines.
First launched in 2002, the expendable Atlas V launcher was the centerpiece vehicle that helped cement ULA’s work on national security satellite missions and some of NASA’s biggest space exploration initiatives, including all of the agency’s robotic missions to Mars. To date ULA has launched 151 times with 100 percent mission success.
New NASA Spacesuits for Artemis: Moon Dust and Mobility | JSC
Exploration is dirty work! Advanced spacesuits will protect the first woman and person of color on the Moon from the harsh lunar environment. Lunar soil is not simple dust like what we have on Earth. It is irregular, sharp, and fine and it creates challenges for spacesuit engineers. Find out how NASA research and development are shaping spacesuits for the Artemis generation.
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Informally known as the 'star funnel', this dark nebula is yellowish in color because it is being illuminated by several bright stars nearby. The funnel is embedded in a larger nebula of warm hydrogen gas that is glowing red. The image was generated with observations in B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.
Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN Observatory)/National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Northern Lights Take Center Stage Over Central Alaska
John Chumak: "These are photos of auroras I captured while teaching my annual Aurora Workshop in Alaska earlier this year. After a two-year shutdown due to pandemic concerns, we finally received clearance to go north again. It was worth the wait! I have to say that these were some of the best auroras I’ve seen in 32-years of observing them."
Northern lights or auroras occur whenever the energized particles that makeup the solar wind interact with oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere (at least 50 miles or 80 km above the surface). The key is that the Sun has to be sufficiently active to generate solar wind streams that reach the Earth’s orbit.
Mars: A Complex Geologic History of Aram Chaos | NASA MRO
This 280-kilometer diameter crater center has experienced a long history of water activity. Within the crater is a heavily faulted and fractured terrain called Aram Chaos that consists of darker volcanic rocks that were disrupted as a result of water and/or magma withdrawal in the subsurface.
Black and white images are 5 km across; enhanced color images are 1 km. For full images including scale bars, visit the source link.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey. It has been studying the Red Planet since March 2006. The spacecraft collects and relays daily science and weather data. It also scouts for landing locations for Mars landers and serves as a critical relay station for science beamed back from the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
Video Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/University of Arizona
Through Artemis, NASA aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, heralding a new era for space exploration and utilization. The Artemis missions are increasingly complex endeavours that will lay the foundation for sustainable human and robotic exploration of Earth's only natural satellite, the Moon.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observation has captured the galaxy CGCG 396-2, an unusual multi-armed galaxy merger which lies around 520 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion.
This observation is a gem from the Galaxy Zoo project, a citizen science project in which hundreds of thousands of volunteers classified galaxies to help scientists solve a problem of astronomical proportions—how to sort through the vast amounts of data generated by robotic telescopes. Following a public vote, a selection of the most astronomically intriguing objects from the Galaxy Zoo were selected for follow-up observations with Hubble. CGCG 396-2 is one such object, and was captured in this image by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The Galaxy Zoo project originated when an astronomer was set an impossibly mind-numbing task; classifying more than 900,000 galaxies by eye. By making a web interface and inviting citizen scientists to contribute to the challenge, the Galaxy Zoo team was able to crowdsource the analysis, and within six months a legion of 100,000 volunteer citizen astronomers had contributed more than 40 million galaxy classifications.
Since its initial success, the Galaxy Zoo project and its successor projects have contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and led to a rich variety of intriguing astronomical discoveries above and beyond their initial goals. The success of the project also inspired more than 100 citizen science projects on the Zooniverse portal, ranging from analyzing data from the ESA Rosetta spacecraft's visit to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko to counting killer whales around remote Alaskan islands!
JSC.jpg)
.jpg)
V1.jpg)
V2.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
