New Type of Massive Magnetic Helium Stars Gives Clues to Magnetars’ Origins | ESO

New Type of Massive Magnetic Helium Stars Gives Clues to Magnetars’ Origins | ESO

ESOcast 264 Light: Using multiple telescopes around the world, including European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, researchers have uncovered a living star that is likely to become a magnetar, an ultra-magnetic dead star that is a variant of neutron stars. This video summarizes the discovery. Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the Universe. These super-dense dead stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields can be found all over our galaxy but astronomers do not know exactly how they form. This finding marks the discovery of a new type of astronomical object—massive magnetic helium stars—and sheds light on the origin of magnetars.

Despite having been observed for over 100 years, the enigmatic nature of the star HD 45166 could not be easily explained by conventional models, and little was known about it beyond the fact that it is one of a pair of stars, is rich in helium and is a few times more massive than our Sun. HD 45166 is located about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn). This star was discovered to have an incredibly strong magnetic field, of 43,000 gauss, making HD 45166 the most magnetic massive helium star found to date.

In a few million years, HD 45166 will explode as a very bright, but not particularly energetic, supernova. During this explosion, its core will contract, trapping and concentrating the star’s already daunting magnetic field lines. The result will be a neutron star with a magnetic field of around 100 trillion gauss—the most powerful type of magnet in the Universe.

Neutron stars, the compact remains of a massive star following a supernova explosion, are the densest matter in the Universe. Some neutron stars, known as magnetars, also claim the record for the strongest magnetic fields of any object. How magnetars, which are a mere 15 kilometers across, form and produce such colossal magnetic fields remains a mystery.

Video & Caption Credits: ESO/NOIRLab

Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner

Editing: Angelos Tsaousis

Web and technical support: Gurvan Bazin and Raquel Yumi Shida

Written by: Claudia Sciarma and Tom Howarth

Footage and photos:  ESO / L. Calçada, Angelos Tsaousis, B. Tafreshi, P. Horálek, Zdeněk Bardon, José Francisco Salgado

Scientific consultant: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova

Duration: 1 minute, 38 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 17, 2023

#NASA #ESO #NOIRLab #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #NeutronStars #Magnetars #Star #HD45166 #Magnetic #HeliumStar #Supernova #Monoceros #Constellation #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Universe #Telescopes #Chile #Europe #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Russia's Luna-25 South Pole Lander: First Close-up Moon Image

Russia's Luna-25 South Pole Lander: First Close-up Moon Image

[No Audio] Russia's Luna-25 lunar lander mission captured an image of the Zeeman crater located on the Moon's far side, near its south pole, on August 17, 2023. Zeeman crater is not directly visible from the Earth. Russia launched an uncrewed spacecraft, called Luna-25, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, designed to land on the south pole of the Moon—the country's first robotic lunar mission since 1976. Russia seeks to become the first nation to make a soft landing on the Moon’s icy south pole. 

Luna-25 will attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface, north of the Boguslawsky crater, on Aug. 21, 2023, according to Roscosmos. Boguslawsky is a lunar impact crater that is located near the Moon's southern lunar limb.

This timetable puts Russia in a race with India, which launched a similar mission—the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander—last month and is aiming to soft-land on the Moon's south pole by Aug. 23. “We hope to be first,” Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov reportedly said at Luna-25's launch.

Borisov, director general of Roscosmos, hailed the Aug. 21 launch as a “new page” for Russian space exploration. “All the results of the research will be transferred to Earth,” he said on state television. “We are interested in the presence of water, as well as many other experiments related to the study of the soil, the site.” He noted that the mission is bound to face some “obstacles” along the way.

Video Credit: ИКИ РАН/Роскосмос

Acknowledgement: SciNews

Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 17, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Роскосмос #Roscosmos #Russia #Россия #Earth #Moon #SoyuzRocket #Luna25 #Луна25 #MoonLander #Spacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Planet Neptune’s Disappearing Clouds Linked to the Solar Cycle | Hubble

Planet Neptune’s Disappearing Clouds Linked to the Solar Cycle | Hubble

Recent observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show that Neptune's clouds are almost completely disappearing! Astronomers report that their continual monitoring of Neptune’s weather uncovered a link between its shifting cloud abundance and the 11-year solar cycle, where the Sun’s activity waxes and wanes under the driving force of its entangled magnetic field. 

At present, the cloud coverage seen on Neptune is extremely low, with the exception of some clouds hovering over the giant planet’s south pole. A team of astronomers discovered that the abundance of clouds normally seen at the icy giant’s mid-latitudes started to fade in 2019.

For more information, visit: https://nasa.gov/hubble

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 

Paul Morris: Lead Producer 

Image Credit: Image of Lick Observatory from UC Santa Cruz

Duration: 1 minute, 36 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 17, 2023

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Sun #SolarCycle #UltravioletRadiation #Planet #Neptune #Atmosphere #Photochemistry #Clouds #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Voyager2Spacecraft #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Planet Neptune's Cloud Cover over Three Decades: Linked to Solar Cycle | Hubble

Planet Neptune's Cloud Cover over Three Decades: Linked to Solar Cycle | Hubble

This sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. This long set of observations shows that the number of clouds grows increasingly following a peak in the solar cycle—where the Sun's level of activity rhythmically rises and falls over an 11-year period. The chemical changes are caused by photochemistry, which happens high in Neptune's upper atmosphere and takes time to form clouds.

The images reveal an intriguing pattern between seasonal changes in Neptune’s cloud cover and the solar cycle—the period when the Sun's magnetic field flips every 11 years as it becomes more tangled like a ball of yarn. This is evident in the increasing number of sunspots and increasing solar flare activity. As the cycle progresses, the Sun’s tempestuous behavior builds to a maximum, until the magnetic field beaks down and reverses polarity. Then the Sun settles back down to a minimum, only to start another cycle.

When it is stormy weather on the Sun, more intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation floods the solar system. The team found that two years after the solar cycle's peak, an increasing number of clouds appear on Neptune. The team further found a positive correlation between the number of clouds and the ice giant's brightness from the sunlight reflecting off it.

The link between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system's farthest major planet and receives sunlight with about 0.1% of the intensity Earth receives. Yet Neptune's global cloudy weather seems to be driven by solar activity, and not the planet's four seasons, which each last approximately 40 years.

In 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft provided the first close-up images of linear, bright clouds, reminiscent of cirrus clouds on Earth, seen high in Neptune's atmosphere. They form above most of the methane in Neptune's atmosphere and reflect all colors of sunlight, which makes them white. Hubble picks up where the brief Voyager flyby left off by continually keeping an eye on the planet yearly.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

Credits: NASA, European Space Agency, Erandi Chavez (UC Berkeley), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley)

Release Date: Aug. 17, 2023

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Sun #SolarCycle #UltravioletRadiation #Planet #Neptune #Atmosphere #Photochemistry #Clouds #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #VoyagerSpacecraft #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

NASA's SpaceX Crew-7: Preparing for Launch | International Space Station

NASA's SpaceX Crew-7: Preparing for Launch | International Space Station

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli: Spacecraft Commander

Roscosmos Konstantin Borisov (Russia): Mission Specialist

European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark: Spacecraft Pilot

JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa (Japan): Mission Specialist

NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 Mission Patch

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 are preparing to start their mission to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli will join European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Russia and astronaut Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to launch Crew-7 no earlier than 3:49 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli will be the spacecraft commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 —the agency’s seventh rotational mission to the International Space Station. This will be the first spaceflight for Moghbeli, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017.

Mogensen will be the spacecraft pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission—the first non-US astronaut assigned in this capacity.

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.

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Image Date: June 21, 2023

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #SpaceX #SpaceXCrew7 #CrewDragonSpacecraft #Astronauts #JasminMoghbeli #Commander #ESA #AndreasMogensen #Pilot #Denmark #Danmark #Europe #Cosmonaut #KonstantinBorisov #Russia #Россия #Роскосмос #SatoshiFurukawa #Japan #日本 #JAXA #HumanSpaceflight #NASAKennedy #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

A Giant in Moonlight: The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under Construction

A Giant in Moonlight: The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under Construction

This image shows the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) construction site in the Atacama desert of Chile in South America, kissed by the white moonlight that fills the air. Although the Moon itself is not in the frame, you can feel its presence nearby. The night sky is a deep blue, becoming slightly whiter as it meets the brown horizon of the desert. Dominating the center of the image is the giant ELT structure under construction, with its circular concrete base at the bottom and its magnificent steel-framed dome on top. The criss-cross steel frame now has two complete arches at the top. On the right and left of the ELT are two cranes leaning in towards the telescope.

It is now close to 80 meters high—the mammoth steel structure of the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) dome is taking shape in this image, taken on August 2, 2023, under the light of the full Moon. Right now, engineers and construction workers are assembling the structure of the telescope dome in the Chilean Atacama Desert, with progress visible almost every day. When completed, the ELT will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky for visible and infrared observations.

Overall, the ELT project is now more than 50 percent complete. The dome structure visible here will house a pioneering five-mirror optical design, which includes a giant main mirror (M1), 39 meters wide and made up of 798 hexagonal segments. The telescope mirrors and other components are being built by companies in Europe, where work is progressing well too. All of the other systems needed to complete the ELT, including the control system and the equipment needed to assemble and test the telescope, are also coming along nicely.

When finished, the dome will weigh in at 6100 tonnes, and it will need a mind-boggling 30 million bolts to be held together. This huge structure will shelter the telescope during observations, protecting it from the elements. The entire behemoth will rotate on 36 stationary trolleys, allowing astronomers to observe the southern sky from just about any direction they fancy.

The current largest optical telescopes have diameters of up to ten meters, and the ELT's diameter will thus be four times greater. This diameter was chosen because it is the minimum diameter needed to achieve some of the driving science cases. For example, the ELT will be able to image rocky exoplanets and to characterize their atmospheres, while the existing ESO Very Large Telecope (VLT) can only indirectly detect such Earth-like planets. Moreover, the ELT will be able to directly measure the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. Adaptive optics systems are fully incorporated into the design of the telescope to compensate for the fuzziness in the stellar images introduced by atmospheric turbulence. The ELT will have more than 5,000 actuators that can change the shape of its mirrors a thousand times per second.

Altitude: 3046 meters

Planned year of technical first light: 2027

Learn more about ESO’s ELT at: https://elt.eso.org

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: Aug. 7, 2023

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #ExtremelyLargeTelescope #ELT #Nebulae #Stars #Exoplanets #Galaxies #Cosmos #Universe #CerroArmazones #AtacamaDesert #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

"It’s full of stars!" | Globular Star Cluster NGC 6723 in Sagittarius | ESO

"It’s full of stars!" | Globular Star Cluster NGC 6723 in Sagittarius | ESO

A dark background is dotted with countless white and yellow stars in this image, almost like snow falling on a winter’s night. At the center, the density of these dots increases, forming a circular bright white region where the background is almost completely obscured. This dense region is the globular cluster.

This image taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA) at Paranal Observatory in Chile—might look like a scene from a snowy winter's night, but it’s not. It is an infrared image of NGC 6723, a globular cluster located about 28,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Globular clusters are spherical-shaped groups of stars, tightly bound together by gravity. Their name is derived from the Latin word globulus, meaning small sphere—somewhat misleading given that NGC 6723, as most globular clusters, contains hundred of thousands to millions of stars.

So far, astronomers have found more than 150 globular clusters in our galaxy, the Milky Way, with most of them estimated to be at least 10 billion years old and hosting some of the oldest stars in the galaxy.

Globular clusters were key to pinpointing our own location within the Milky Way in the early 20th century. American astronomer Harlow Shapley measured the distances to several globular clusters, and noticed that they were arranged in a roughly spherical distribution, but the Sun was not at its center. He correctly inferred that the heart of the Milky Way lays at the center of this distribution of globular clusters, placing the Sun in the suburbs of the galaxy.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/S. Meingast et al.

Release Date: Aug. 14, 2023

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC6723 #GlobularStarCluster #Sagittarius #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VISTATelescope #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

NASA's "Espacio a Tierra" | Tu paquete ha llegado: 11 de agosto de 2023

NASA's "Espacio a Tierra" | Tu paquete ha llegado: 11 de agosto de 2023

Para obtener más información sobre la ciencia de la NASA, suscríbete al boletín semanal: https://www.nasa.gov/suscribete

Ciencia de la NASA: https://ciencia.nasa.gov/

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft docking at the International Space Station was completed on Friday, August 4, 2023. Cygnus, carrying over 8,200 pounds of cargo and science experiments, launched atop the company’s Antares rocket at 8:31 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. At 5:52 a.m., Aug. 4, NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, along with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio as backup, captured Cygnus using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Follow Expedition 69 updates here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 69 Crew (August 2023)

Station Commander: Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin & Andrey Fedyaev

Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

NASA: Flight Engineers Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg

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 Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 3 minutes, 40 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 16, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #NASAenespañol #español #ISS #NorthropGrumman #CygnusSpacecraft #CRS19 #Astronauts #StephenBowen #FrankRubio #WoodyHoburg #SultanAlneyadi #UAE #Cosmonauts #Russia  #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #MicrogravityResearch #SpaceLaboratory #Expedition69 #STEM #Education

Do Robots Help Humans in Space? We Asked a NASA Technologist

Do Robots Help Humans in Space? We Asked a NASA Technologist

When it comes to space, humans and robots go way back. We rely heavily on our mechanical friends to perform tasks that are too dangerous, difficult, or out of reach for us humans. We are even working on a new generation of robots that will help us explore in advanced and novel ways.

Learn more about the CADRE—Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration—project and how this new network of mini rovers could enable future self-guided robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond:

https://go.nasa.gov/3k5EuZx

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde

Editor: James Lucas

Duration: 1 minute, 36 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 16, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ISS #Spacecraft #Robotics #Moon #CADRE #Planets #Moons #MSL #Planet #Mars #CuriosityRover #PerseveranceRover #Mars2020 #IngenuityHelicopter #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Mars: Slipping & Sliding in Echus Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars: Slipping & Sliding in Echus Chaos | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Echus Chaos is a region of low hills located between Lunae Planum (to the right of this image) and Echus Palus (to the left of this image). This chaos terrain may have formed as the rocks that make up Lunae Planum slowly slid downhill into Echus Palus.

As these rocks slid downhill, they broke up into large pieces that formed the hills that we see today. What caused this landslide is not well known, but it could have been due to large floods of water moving through Echus Palus, causing the edge of Lunae Planum to become soaked and fall apart. Ground shaking from movement along nearby faults or meteorite impacts may have also helped to make the edge of Lunae Planum unstable and collapse.

Black and white images are less than 5 km across; enhanced color is less than 1 km. 

This image was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

Image Date: May 18, 2012

Latitude (centered): 8.838°

Longitude (East): 285.140°

Spacecraft altitude: 271.3 km (168.6 miles)

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

“For 17 years, MRO has been revealing Mars to us as no one had seen it before,” said the mission’s project scientist, Rich Zurek of JPL.

Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Narration: Tre Gibbs

Caption Credit: Chris Okubo

Duration: 1 minute, 7 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 9, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #Planet #RedPlanet #Geology #Landscape #Terrain #Geoscience #EchusChaos #ChaosTerrain #LunaePlanum #MRO #Orbiter #Spacecraft #HiRISE #HiRISECamera #JPL #Caltech #UniversityOfArizona #BallAerospace #STEM #Education #HD #Video

July 2023: The Hottest Month on Record | NASA Goddard

July 2023: The Hottest Month on Record | NASA Goddard

July 1 - 31, 2023

Earth in July 2023 was 1.18°C (2.12°F) warmer than the average for the month, and warmer than any other month in the 143-year record. 

July 2023 was hotter than any other month in the global temperature record, according to an analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

“This July was massively warmer than any previous July and any previous month on record, which goes back to 1880,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “This continues the long-term trend in dramatic warming that we have seen over the past four decades.”

This map depicts global temperature anomalies for July 2023. It shows how much warmer or cooler the Earth was compared to the baseline average from 1951 to 1980. Note that the deepest reds are at least 4° Celsius (7° Fahrenheit) above the monthly mean.

Parts of South America, North Africa, North America, and the Antarctic Peninsula were especially hot and experienced temperature anomalies around 4°C. However, it was not unusually warm everywhere. Parts of the U.S. Midwest and northern Europe saw closer to average temperatures. Overall, July 2023 was 1.18°C (2.12°F) warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980.

The warmer-than-usual July continues a long-term trend of warming, driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. July 2023 was 0.24°C (0.43°F) warmer than any previous July in NASA’s record. And according to GISS temperature anomaly data, the top-five hottest Julys since 1880 have all happened in the past five years.

Extreme heat contributed to devastating wildfires and blistering heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere. “These changes that we’re seeing in global temperatures are being reflected in real heat extremes that people are experiencing locally,” Schmidt said. “We can say with some confidence now that the heat waves we are seeing in North Africa, the Middle East, the U.S. Southwest, China, and southern Europe are being directly impacted by the fact that the whole planet is warming.”

The GISS team assembles its temperature analysis from surface air temperature data from tens of thousands of metrological stations and sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments. This raw data is analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.

High sea surface temperatures contributed to July’s record warmth. The map shows especially warm ocean temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific, evidence of the El Niño that began developing in May 2023. Phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña, which warm or cool the tropical Pacific Ocean, can contribute a small amount of year-to-year variability in global temperatures. Nevertheless, these contributions are not typically felt when El Niño starts developing during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer.

“One of the reasons this record is concerning is that the effects of El Niño on global temperatures normally have a several month lag and are felt in the winter and spring,” said Schmidt. “Even though we have an El Niño developing now, the record warmth we are seeing is not yet related to that in a significant way. We expect to see the biggest impacts of the developing El Niño in February, March, and April 2024.”

NASA’s full temperature data set and the complete methodology used for the temperature calculation and its uncertainties are available here:

https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, based on data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 

Story Credit: Emily Cassidy

Release Date: Aug. 15, 2023

#NASA #Space #Satellites #Science #Planet #Earth #July2023 #GlobalTemperatureRecords #Weather #Meteorology #Model #ClimateChange #GlobalHeating #Climate #Environment #InSituMeasurements #GlobalTemperatureMap #GreenhouseGases #GHG #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #NASAGISS #GISS #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft’s High-Gain Antenna Installed | JPL

NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft’s High-Gain Antenna Installed | JPL

[No Sound] On Aug. 14, 2023, the Europa Clipper spacecraft received a piece of hardware central to its quest—the massive dish-shaped high-gain antenna. Engineers and technicians can be seen installing ’s high-gain antenna in the main clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The addition of a high-gain antenna will enable the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft—set to launch in October 2024—to communicate with mission controllers hundreds of millions of miles away. NASA’s Europa Clipper is designed to seek out conditions suitable for life on an ice-covered moon of Jupiter. 

Stretching 10 feet (3 meters) across the spacecraft’s body, the high-gain antenna is the largest and most prominent of a suite of antennas on Europa Clipper. The spacecraft will need it as it investigates the ice-cloaked moon that it is named after, Europa, some 444 million miles (715 million kilometers) from Earth. A major mission goal is to learn more about the moon’s subsurface ocean, which might harbor a habitable environment.

Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, the antenna’s radio beam will be narrowly directed toward Earth. Creating that narrow, concentrated beam is what high-gain antennas are all about. The name refers to the antenna’s ability to focus power, allowing the spacecraft to transmit high-powered signals back to NASA’s Deep Space Network on Earth. This will mean a torrent of science data at a high rate of transmission.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft will train nine science instruments on Europa, all producing large amounts of rich data: high-resolution color and stereo images to study its geology and surface; thermal images in infrared light to find warmer areas where water could be near the surface; reflected infrared light to map ices, salts, and organics; and ultraviolet light readings to help determine the makeup of atmospheric gases and surface materials. Clipper will bounce ice-penetrating radar off the subsurface ocean to determine its depth, as well as the thickness of the ice crust above it. A magnetometer will measure the moon’s magnetic field to confirm the deep ocean’s existence and the thickness of the ice.

When it is fully assembled, NASA’s Europa Clipper will be as large as an SUV with solar arrays long enough to span a basketball court—all the better to help power the spacecraft during its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

The main body of the spacecraft is a giant 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) propulsion module, designed and constructed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, with help from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and JPL. Once all the components have been integrated to form the large flight system, Europa Clipper will move to JPL’s enormous thermal vacuum chamber for testing that simulates the harsh environment of deep space. There also will be intense vibration testing to ensure Europa Clipper can withstand the jostling of launch. Then it is off to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for an October 2024 launch.

Jupiter's moon Europa, which scientists are confident harbors an internal ocean with twice the amount of water in Earth’s oceans combined, may currently have conditions suitable for supporting life. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct multiple close flybys of Europa to gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior. Its sophisticated payload will investigate everything from the depth and salinity of the ocean to the thickness of the ice crust to the characteristics of potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.

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.

Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.”

More information about Europa can be found here:

europa.nasa.gov

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Duration: 38 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 15, 2023

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Europa #Moon #Ocean #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #Habitability #Radiation #EuropaClipper #EuropaClipperSpacecraft #HighGainAntenna #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JHUAPL #GSFC #MSFC #JPL #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

Expedition 69 Space Station Crew Answers Galveston, Texas, Student Questions

Expedition 69 Space Station Crew Answers Galveston, Texas, Student Questions

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 69 Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Steve Bowen of NASA answered questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Aug. 14, 2023, with students at the Odyssey Academy in Galveston Texas. 

Rubio and Bowen are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars. 

Follow Expedition 69 updates here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 69 Crew (August 2023)

Station Commander: Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin & Andrey Fedyaev

Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

NASA: Flight Engineers Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg

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.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 25 minutes

Release Date: Aug. 14, 2023

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #Students #OdysseyAcademy #Galveston #Texas #ISS #Astronauts #StephenBowen #FrankRubio #UAE #Cosmonauts #Cosmonaut #Russia #Россия #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition69 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pacific Typhoon Khanun & Storm | International Space Station & NASA Suomi NPP

Pacific Typhoon Khanun & Storm | International Space Station & NASA Suomi NPP

Typhoon Khanun is pictured south of Nagoya, Japan, from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 13, 2023.

Typhoon Khanun is pictured south of Nagoya, Japan, from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 12, 2023.

Typhoon Khanun image from the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite on Aug. 8, 2023. The storm’s wandering path was the result of high-pressure systems near China and southern Japan that blocked the storm and caused it to make two sharp turns.

A storm in the southeast Pacific Ocean near the central coast of Chile is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 268 miles above on July 24, 2023.

A storm in the southeast Pacific Ocean near the central coast of Chile is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 268 miles above on July 24, 2023.

Typhoon Khanun is pictured south of Nagoya, Japan, from the International Space Station in Images 1& 2 as it orbited above the Pacific Ocean in early August 2023. A storm in the southeast Pacific Ocean, near the central coast of Chile, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited above the southeast Pacific Ocean in late July 2023.

After charting a zigzagging path that delivered damaging winds and rain to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, Tropical Cyclone Khanun brushed Kyushu and headed toward the Korean Peninsula. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite acquired the third image of Khanun in this series on August 8, 2023. At the time, the storm was moving to the north-northwest and had maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour. The storm’s wandering path was the result of high-pressure systems near China and southern Japan that blocked the storm and caused it to make two sharp turns.

Khanun is the sixth tropical storm of the 2023 typhoon season in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Colorado State University meteorologists tracking Khanun’s accumulated cyclone energy (ACE)—a metric that incorporates both intensity and duration—report that the total ACE for Northwest Pacific storms was 122 as of August 7, 2023; the average at this point in the season over the past three decades is 88. With an ACE of 25, Khanun accounts for one-fifth of the total for Northwest Pacific storms in 2023.

Images 1&2/4&5 Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Image 3 Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Storm track data from Weather Underground

Caption Credit: Adam Voiland

#NASA #NOAA #Earth #Space #ISS #Satellite #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Typhoon #TyphoonKhanun #Storm #Weather #Japan #日本 #Korea #한국 #PacificOcean #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalHeating #GreenhouseGases #GHG #SuomiNPPSatellite #VIIRS #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

NASA's Near Space Network | Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Near Space Network | Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's Near Space Network delivers critical communications and navigation services to missions observing the Earth, studying the Sun, and exploring the Moon and beyond. Through our network, spacecraft can send different types of data back to Earth, anything from an astronaut talking to mission control, a science image of a neutron star, and so much more.

This Earth-space connection, known as Space Communications and Navigation, connects missions out to 2,000,000 kilometers away with scientists.

Learn more about NASA's Near Space Network: https://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/projects/NSN

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Producer: David Ryan

Writers: Katherine Schauer and Mariah Pulver

Voice Over: Heidi Leach

Duration: 2 minutes, 20 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 15, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #Stars #Planets #Moons #Spacecraft #SpaceEngineering #SpaceTechnology #NearSpaceNetwork #SpaceCommunications #SpaceNavigation #RadioCommunications #DopplerEffect #NSN #NASAGoddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

The Science of Spectroscopy in Astronomy Explained | NASA Goddard

The Science of Spectroscopy in Astronomy Explained | NASA Goddard

Video producer Sophia Roberts explains the basic principles behind spectroscopy—the science of reading light to determine the size, distance, spin and chemical composition of distant objects in space. Spectroscopy is a key analytical method used to investigate material composition and related processes through study of the interaction of light with matter. Determining composition remotely, without physical contact, is one of the most valuable capabilities of spectroscopy.

Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Science writer: Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland College Park)

Editor: Sophia Roberts (AIMM)

Producer: Sophia Roberts (AIMM) [Lead]

Videographers: Rob Andreoli (AIMM) [Lead]

John D. Philyaw (AIMM)

Technical Support: Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET)

Duration: 7 minutes, 52 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 15, 2023

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Nebulae #Stars #Starlight #Planets #Exoplanets #Light #Electromagnetism #ElectromagneticSpectrum #Spectroscopy #Physics #Chemistry #NASAGoddard #GSFC #Students #Learning #STEM #Education #HD #Video