NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover: More Views of A Large & Unique Boulder | JPL

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover: More Views of A Large & Unique Boulder | JPL 

MSL - sol 3537 - Mastcam

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

MSL - sol 3537 - Mastcam

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

MSL - sol 3537 - Mastcam

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

MSL - sol 3537 - Mastcam

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

MSL - sol 3539 - MAHLI - Focus Merged

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

MSL - sol 3539 - MAHLI - Focus Merged

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

MSL - sol 3541 - MAHLI - Focus Merge

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

MSL - sol 3541 - MAHLI - Focus Merge

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

Curiosity Rover Update for July 13, 2022: Sols 3532-3533

A Rover-Sized Boulder

Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center

"Curiosity is back on the road, but some interesting boulders caught our attention and led to a short detour. The team was already planning to divert to the southwest to get some imaging of nearby cliffs, but the large boulders that have tumbled down provide a tantalizing glimpse of what’s to come. Boulders like the large one shown in the above Navcam image (now named “Ilha Novo Destino”) can help inform our understanding of the upcoming stratigraphy, so we thought it was worth a trip to this “new island destination” for the weekend."

"But first, there’s plenty of science to be done in our workspace before we get to the boulders. Today’s two-sol plan focused on DRT, MAHLI, and APXS on the bedrock right in front of the rover, including the interesting vein and fracture patterns shown in the foreground of the above Navcam image. Today we planned 3 MAHLI imaging targets and 2 APXS targets to assess the sedimentary textures and composition of bedrock and veins. We also planned ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam multispectral observations to further characterize this outcrop. Mastcam will also be used to document the field of boulders to help plan weekend activities, and ChemCam will acquire a long distance RMI mosaic to characterize the stratigraphy. The ENV theme group planned several environmental monitoring activities to search for dust devils and monitor dust and clouds in the atmosphere. On the second sol, Curiosity will drive to a parking spot right in front of these boulders to prepare for the weekend plan. Can’t wait to see this rover-sized boulder up close!"

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

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

Image Release Dates: July 21-24, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #Boulder #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Curiosity #Rover #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 24, 2022

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 24, 2022

On Sunday, July 24, 2022, at 9:38 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This was the eighth flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, and now three Starlink missions.

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

Image Date: July 22, 2022

#NASA #Space #Earth #Orbit #LEO #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #Satellites #Starlink #Broadband #Internet #ElonMusk #GwynneShotwell #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #CommercialSpace  #KSC #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Bubble Nebula: Ground-based View & Hubble Comparison

The Bubble Nebula: Ground-based Wide View & Hubble Comparison

This graphic shows the wider context of the Bubble Nebula. The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) image (left) by Travis Rector has been rotated and cropped to be north-up and closer to the orientation of the Hubble Space Telescope image (right). In addition to the inner bubble seen in the Hubble image, the wider view shows a large cloud complex, including two larger shells surrounding the massive star near the center.

Credits: T. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF, NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Release Date: April 21, 2016

#NASA #ESA #NOAO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #BubbleNebula #NGC7635 #Star #Cassiopeia #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #Infographic #STEM #Education

The Bubble Nebula: Winds & Radiation from a Massive Star [3D View] | Hubble

The Bubble Nebula: Winds & Radiation from a Massive Star [3D View] | Hubble

This visualization [no audio] of the Bubble Nebula begins with a ground-based view that encompasses the glowing cloud. The high-energy light from the massive O star, BD +60°2522, is responsible for ionizing the entire region. The virtual camera flies through the foreground stars and approaches the central bubble imaged by Hubble. The massive star continuously sheds some of its outer layers in a mass-loss wind, which has blown a bubble of gas seven light-years across. 

The video's three-dimensional perspective emphasizes the extended nature of the structure and the fact that BD +60°2522 is not located at the center. The pressure inside the bubble is able to expand more rapidly in the directions away from the surrounding nebula. The computer model incorporates both scientific and artistic interpretation of the data. In particular, distances are significantly compressed.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare [Viz 3D Team, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)]

Acknowledgment: T. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF, NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Duration: 48 seconds

Release Date: April 21, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #BubbleNebula #NGC7635 #Star #Cassiopeia #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #3D #Visualization #HD #Video

Pan across The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

Pan across The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

This video pans over NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Bubble Nebula, which were made to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Hubble in 2016. The delicate layers of the glowing nebula, the nearby interstellar cloud and the cometary knots surrounding the central star are all clearly visible.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble; Music: Johan B. Monell

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: April 21, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #BubbleNebula #NGC7635 #Cassiopeia #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zoom into The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

Zoom into The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

This video begins with a ground-based view of the night sky, before zooming in on the almost perfectly spherical Bubble Nebula as the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope sees it.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2, Nick Risinger 

Music: Johan B. Monell

Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Release Date: April 21, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #BubbleNebula #NGC7635 #Cassiopeia #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

The Bubble Nebula | Hubble

The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8,000 light-years away. It is also referred to as Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11. It is an H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575 (BD+60°2522).

The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. This stunning new image was observed by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope to celebrate its 26th year in space in 2016.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Hubble Heritage Team

Release Date: April 21, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #BubbleNebula #NGC7635 #Cassiopeia #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Planetary Nebula: Misnamed but Not Misunderstood | NASA Chandra

Planetary Nebula: Misnamed but Not Misunderstood | NASA Chandra

Sometimes the names of objects are deeply misleading. For example, starfish are not actually fish. They are, in fact, echinoderms. And guinea pigs are not related to pigs in any way—they are rodents. Similarly, planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. They were misnamed when scientists looked through small telescopes in the 19th century and thought these objects looked like planets.

Today, astronomers know that a planetary nebula actually represents a phase that stars like our Sun experience when they use up much of their fuel. After the star cools and expands, it sheds its outer layers. The core of the star left behind at the center is a dense and smaller star called a white dwarf. The shells of gas linger around the white dwarf for a relatively short time in cosmic terms—tens of thousands of years—before dissipating into space. During that time, the white dwarf can illuminate and energize these jettisoned layers.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory contributes to the understanding of planetary nebulas by studying the hottest and most energetic processes still at work in these beautiful objects. X-ray data from Chandra reveal winds being driven away from the white dwarf at millions of miles per hour that create shock waves during collisions with slower-moving material previously ejected by the star. Chandra’s exceptional vision in X-rays contributes to the understanding of this brief, yet important, stage of stars’ lives.

This gallery contains half a dozen planetary nebulas that have been observed both by Chandra and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. While all six nebulas originated from similar physical conditions and evolved by similar processes, they currently appear somewhat different from others. The differences in the shapes and structures of these planetary nebulas may be due to the complexities of a slew of physical properties including how much of the star’s winds flow from its poles, whether the star wobbles as it spins, if the star has a companion or not, and other factors.

Credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Duration: 2 minutes, 42 seconds

Release Date: December 6, 2021

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Chandra #Xray #PlanetaryNebula #PlaentaryNebulae #Nebulae #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #History #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sculpture Garden of Gas and Dust: Core of The Lagoon Nebula

Sculpture Garden of Gas and Dust: Core of The Lagoon Nebula

This video zooms into the core of a rich star-birth region called the Lagoon Nebula, located in the constellation Sagittarius in the direction of our Milky Way galaxy’s central bulge. The sequence then dissolves to a series of imagined three-dimensional flights past striking structures of this gaseous landscape. Viewers examine dark, dusty clouds silhouetted against a colorful background of luminous gas that has been heated by a massive star. Pillars of dense gas and bow shocks around newborn stars are shaped by the strong winds from the brightest stars. The intense high-energy emission from these same stars creates the glowing ridges of gas in ionization fronts. These features are some of the highlights of this vibrant region where new stars and planets are born.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and G. Bacon, D. Player, J. DePasquale, F. Summers, and Z. Levay/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Music: J. DePasquale

Acknowledgement: A. Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey, European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VPHAS, and R. Crisp

Duration: 2 minutes, 15 seconds

Release Date: April 19, 2018

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #LagoonNebula #NGC6523 #Sagittarius #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Veil Nebula (Ground-based View)

The Veil Nebula (Ground-based View)

This image shows the Veil supernova remnant and the surrounding sky. Due to the size of the Nebula the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope was able to only observe a small part of it in detail.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Digitized Sky Survey 2

Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

Release Date: September 24, 2015

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Nebula #VeilNebula #SupernovaRemnant #Cygnus #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Astrophotography #STEM #Education

The Veil Nebula: Wide-field Ground-based Astrophoto

The Veil Nebula: Wide-field Ground-based Astrophoto

A wide-field image of the Veil Nebula, made as a color composite from individual exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is 4.2 x 4.4 degrees.

Distance: 1,500 light years

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: J. Hester (Arizona State University) and Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Release Date: July 31, 2007

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Nebula #VeilNebula #SupernovaRemnant #Cygnus #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #Telescope #STEM #Education

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 22, 2022

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 22, 2022

    

On Friday, July 22, 2022, at 10:39 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 launched 46 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

This was the fourth flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NROL-87, NROL-87 and SARah-1.

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

Image Date: July 22, 2022

#NASA #Space #Earth #Orbit #LEO #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #Satellites #Starlink #Broadband #Internet #ElonMusk #GwynneShotwell #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #CommercialSpace #Spaceport #SpaceForce #VandenburgSFB #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Cargo Spacecraft Arrives at International Space Station | This Week @NASA

SpaceX Cargo Spacecraft Arrives at International Space Station | This Week @NASA

Week of July 22, 202: A commercial cargo spacecraft safely arrives at the space station, space station crewmembers conduct a spacewalk, and an update on plans to launch our Artemis I mission … a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Duration: 4 minutes, 31 seconds

Release Date: July 23, 2022

#NASA #Space #Artemis #ArtemisI #ISS #SpaceX #Dragon #Spacecraft #CommercialResupply #CRS25 #Astronauts #Spacewalk #LaunchAmerica #Research #Science #Technology #HumanSpaceflight #Europe #Russia #Japan #Canada #UnitedStates #International #Expedition67 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Uncovering The Veil Nebula | Hubble

Uncovering The Veil Nebula | Hubble

Hubblecast 07: The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered magnificent sections of the Veil Nebula—the shattered remains of a supernova that exploded some 5-10,000 years ago. These Hubble images provide beautiful views of the delicate, wispy structure resulting from this cosmic explosion.

Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

Presented by: Dr Joe Liske (Dr J)  

Narration: Dr. Robert Fosbury  

Design: Martin Kornmesser  

Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen, Raquel Yumi Shida  

Cinematographer: Peter Rixner

Script: Lars Lindberg Christensen, Ana Margarida Lopes  

Director: Lars Lindberg Christensen

Duration: 6 minutes, 17 seconds

Release Date: June 22, 2010

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #VeilNebula #SupernovaRemnant #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #WFC3 #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Vibrant Gaseous Ribbons: The Veil Supernova Remnant (3D View) | Hubble

Vibrant Gaseous Ribbons: The Veil Supernova Remnant (3D View) | Hubble

This 3-D visualization flies across a small portion of the Veil Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is a small part of a huge expanding remnant from a star that exploded many thousands of years ago. Hubble resolves tangled rope-like filaments of glowing gases. They have been shocked and heated by colliding with cooler, denser interstellar gas. 

The 3-D model has been created for illustrative purposes and shows that the giant bubble of gas has a thin, rippled surface. It also highlights that the emission from different chemical elements arises from different layers of gas within the nebula. In the imagery, emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen are shown in red, green, and blue, respectively.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare (Viz 3D Team, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Duration: 58 seconds

Release Date: September 24, 2015

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #VeilNebula #SupernovaRemnant #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #WFC3 #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

Panning across The Veil Nebula | Hubble

Panning across The Veil Nebula | Hubble

This video pans over NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Veil Nebula. The features of the nebula, shown in different colors, are caused by the shockwave of the dying star and the interstellar gas it was surrounded by.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, Hubble Heritage Team

Music: Johan Monell

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: Sept. 24, 2015

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #VeilNebula #SupernovaRemnant #Cygnus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #WFC3 #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video