Tuesday, October 03, 2023

Home of NASA’s High-Risk Flight Research | Armstrong Research Center

Home of NASA’s High-Risk Flight Research | Armstrong Research Center

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, dates to 1946 when a 13-person detail from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics arrived at the Muroc Army Airfield in California’s Mojave Desert. Their quest: To fly faster than the speed of sound.

The X-1 was the first of many flight research efforts that would define our culture of research and discovery. Today, we continue those efforts, to advance NASA’s mission to explore the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all.

Learn more about NASA Armstrong, visit www.nasa.gov/armstrong


Credit: NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC)

Duration: 1 minute, 40 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023



#NASA #Space #Aerospace #Aviation #AretmisProgram #ApolloProgram #Aircraft #Supersonic #X1 #X59 #Sonicbooms #UAV #UAS #UAM #FlightControl #Science #Engineering #AeronauticalResearch #FlightTests #NASAArmstrong #AFRC #EdwardsAFB #California #UnitedStates #History #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Colorful Norwegian Skies: The Aurora Borealis

Colorful Norwegian Skies: The Aurora Borealis

Aurora Borealis over Alta, Norway
Aurora Borealis over Kautokeinoelva, Norway

Astrophotographer Role Bigler: "Even with strong light pollution, the polar light is very well visible . . ."

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.

Earth auroras have different names depending on which pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

Learn more:

The Colors of the Aurora (U.S. National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

NASA - About Aurora

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/aurora-news-stories/index.html

Image Technical Data:

Canon EOS R. 20mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 015

ƒ/1.4 20.0 mm 1 800 Flash (off, did not fire) Show EXIF


Image Credit: Role Bigler

Image Dates: Sept. 10 & 14, 2023

Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023


#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #Planet #LightPollution #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Astrophotography #Astrophotographer #Alta #Kautokeinoelva #Norway #Norge #STEM #Education

Monday, October 02, 2023

The 2023 American Rocketry Challenge

The 2023 American Rocketry Challenge

The 2023 American Rocketry Challenge featured more than 4,000 American middle and high school-aged students from 798 teams and 45 states. This year's finals (May 20, 2023) featured 100 finalists competing for the title of National Champion at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia.

Learn more: www.rocketcontest.org

Register for The 2024 American Rocketry Challenge (Deadline: December 1, 2023) here:

https://rocketcontest.smapply.io/prog/2024_american_rocketry_challenge/

Major Partners: 

The National Association of Rocketry: 

https://www.nar.org

Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA): 

https://www.aia-aerospace.org


Credit: American Rocketry Challenge

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023

#NASA #Space #Rockets #Rocketry #Students #Competition #RocketChallenge #Contest #Champions #HighSchool #MiddleSchool #Science #Physics #Technology #Engineering #Math #ThePlains #Virginia #UnitedStates #America #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Esto es lo que necesitas saber sobre Europa | NASA

Esto es lo que necesitas saber sobre Europa | NASA

En las profundidades de la luna congelada de Júpiter, Europa, se encuentra un océano gigante de agua líquida. Explorar este mundo oceánico, y lo que hay debajo de él, podría ofrecernos pistas en nuestra búsqueda de vida más allá de la Tierra.

Esto es lo que necesitas saber sobre Europa.

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/


Credit: NASA en Español

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Sept. 29, 2023

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

Red Sprite Lightning over Castelnaud Castle in France | Earth Science

Red Sprite Lightning over Castelnaud Castle in France | Earth Science


Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such lightning type is red sprite lightning. It has only been photographed and studied on Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why red sprite lightning occurs at all. 

Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. 

Featured here is an extraordinarily high-resolution image of a group of red sprites. This image is a single frame lasting only 1/25th of a second from a video taken above Castelnaud Castle in Dordogne, France, about three weeks ago. The sprites quickly vanished—no sprites were visible even on the very next video frame.

Red Sprites: These mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish. One unusual feature of sprites is that they are relatively cold. They operate more like long fluorescent light tubes than hot compact light bulbs. In general, red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Castelnaud Castle - Château de Castelnaud (France)

https://castelnaud.com


Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Escurat
Nicolas' Facebook Page: 
Caption Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023

#NASA #Science #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Storm #Lightning #RedSprites #CastelnaudCastle #Dordogne #France #Europe #Photography #NicolasEscurat #Photographer #CitizenScience #STEM #Education #APoD

Red Sprite Lightning in High Definition | Earth Science

Red Sprite Lightning in High Definition | Earth Science

Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such lightning type is red sprite lightning. It has only been photographed and studied on Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why red sprite lightning occurs at all. 

Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. 

Featured here is an extraordinarily high-resolution image of a group of red sprites. This image is a single frame lasting only 1/25th of a second from a video taken above Castelnaud Castle in Dordogne, France, about three weeks ago. The sprites quickly vanished—no sprites were visible even on the very next video frame.

Red Sprites: These mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish. One unusual feature of sprites is that they are relatively cold. They operate more like long fluorescent light tubes than hot compact light bulbs. In general, red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.


Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Escurat
Nicolas' Facebook Page: 
Caption Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023

#NASA #Science #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Storm #Lightning #RedSprites #CastelnaudCastle #Dordogne #France #Europe #Photography #NicolasEscurat #Photographer #CitizenScience #STEM #Education #APoD

The Orion Nebula: New Wide-angled Views | James Webb Space Telescope

The Orion Nebula: New Wide-angled Views | James Webb Space Telescope


Orion Nebula in NIRCam short-wavelength channel
An image of a young star-forming region filled with wispy blue, grey, green, and red nebulosity that is brightest towards the center and fainter towards the edges, especially in the top left corner and on the right side. Thousands of stars are seen sprinkled across the field, concentrated towards the center, and the brightest stars show the eight spikes due to diffraction that are characteristic of Webb images.

Orion Nebula in NIRCam long-wavelength channel
An image of a young star-forming region filled with with wispy purple, green, and red nebulosity. The purple ionized gas is seen mostly towards the center, with browns, greens, and reds behind, while the periphery is mostly bright green and darker brown to the left. There is a large spray of yellow, orange, red, and purple towards the top center, and the nebula fades to near black to the right. There are thousands of stars sprinkled across the field, concentrated towards the center, but they generally appear fainter at longer wavelengths, with exceptions. The brightest sources in the field have extensive diffraction spikes characteristic of Webb.

The Orion Nebula lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth in the so-called 'sword' of the constellation of Orion the Hunter, and the image shows a region that is 4 by 2.75-light years in size, smaller than the distance between Earth and our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri.

This young star-forming region is just a million years old and contains thousands of new stars spanning a range of masses from 40 down to less than 0.1 times the mass of the Sun. The region also contains many brown dwarfs, objects below seven percent of the mass of the Sun. They are too small to start nuclear fusion in their cores. And below that, starting at roughly 13 times the mass of Jupiter, lie planetary-mass objects. These new Webb data have revealed hundreds of such objects, floating freely in the nebula, not orbiting stars, the very smallest of which have just 60% the mass of Jupiter or two times the mass of Saturn.

One of the brightest nebulae in the night sky is Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, located south of Orion’s belt. At its core is the young Trapezium Cluster of stars, the most massive of which illuminate the surrounding gas and dust with their intense ultraviolet radiation fields, while protostars continue to form today in the OMC-1 molecular cloud behind.

The nebula is a treasure trove for astronomers studying the formation and early evolution of stars, with a rich diversity of phenomena and objects, including: outflows and planet-forming disks around young stars; embedded protostars; brown dwarfs; free-floating planetary mass objects; and photodissociation regions—the interface regions where the radiation from the massive stars heats, shapes and influences the chemistry of the gas.

The new imaging was obtained with Webb’s near-infrared camera, NIRCam, and has been made into two mosaics, one each from the short and long wavelength channels. The short-wavelength mosaic maximises Webb’s angular resolution to reveal beautiful details in discs and outflows, while the long-wavelength one showcases the intricate network of dust and organic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. 

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


Credits: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
Science Leads & Image Processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #StarClusters #TrapeziumCluster #Stars #Protostars #BrownDwarfs #PlanetaryMassObjects #Nebula #OrionNebula #StellarNursery #Orion #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #Infrared #NIRCam #SpaceTelescope #ESA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #CSA #STEM #Education

Star Forming Region G35.2-0.7N in Aquila: Leaving on a Jet | Hubble

Star Forming Region G35.2-0.7N in Aquila: Leaving on a Jet | Hubble


This spectacular image shows a region called, G35.2-0.7N. This is known as a hotbed of high-mass star formation. The kind of stars that form here are so massive that they will end their lives as destructive supernovae. However, even as they form they greatly impact their surroundings. At least one B-type star—the second most massive type—lurks within the region pictured here, and a powerful protostellar jet that it is launching towards us is the source of the spectacular light show.

The image was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is mounted on the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, and the region G35.2-0.7N lies around 7,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquila.

Image Description: A nebula with stars. Dense clouds of dust and gas cover the left-hand side and a filament crosses the center horizontally. Billowing streams of gas and dust in various colors emerge from around the center. The very center of the image is permeated with glowing orange regions. Many blue stars with cross-shaped spikes lie in the foreground, and small point-like stars are visible beyond the clouds.

This beautiful picture was assembled using data that were collected primarily for very specific research purposes. The research conducted using these data included measuring the extent of ionisation in the jets being blasted out of the protostar buried within G35.2-0.7N. Ionisation is a process by which atoms or molecules become charged, often because they are in such a high-energy environment that they have lost some of their electrons (the tiny negatively charged particles that orbit nuclei in atoms and molecules). Protostellar jets are enormous collimated beams of matter that are ejected from protostars. Collimated simply means that the matter is ejected in parallel (column-like) streams. This in turn means that the jets do not spread out much, but extend out very far in relatively straight lines.

The visual result of the ejected matter is the glorious display visible in this image. Much of the nebula is dark with light being blocked from Hubble’s view by the rich dust clouds that produce these massive stars. Near the very center can be seen the location of the star and the jet of material it is emitting. The small, bright orange streak there is a cavity in the dust carved out by the ferocity of the jet as it streams towards us. By breaking through its dusty cocoon, the jet reveals light from the protostar, but there is still so much dust that the light is “reddened” to a fiery orange. The massive protostar lies at the very lower-left tip of this cavity.


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, R. Fedriani, J. Tan

Release Date: October 2, 2023


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Protostars #Jets #StarClusters #Nebula #StellarNursery #G35207N #Aquila #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Sunday, October 01, 2023

3D Visualization of Arp 142: Interacting Galaxies in Hydra | Hubble

3D Visualization of Arp 142: Interacting Galaxies in Hydra | Hubble

This video shows a 3D visualization of merging galaxy duo Arp 142. It is made up of two interacting galaxies—spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and elliptical galaxy NGC 2937. These galaxies are located about 300 million light years away. In a billion years or so, the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger one. 


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

Duration: 24 seconds

Release Date: Feb. 17, 2016


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Arp142 #NGC2936 #NGC2937 #InteractingGalaxies #Hydra #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #Optical #Infrared #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

Zooming in on Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 in Hydra | Hubble

Zooming in on Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 in Hydra | Hubble

This video sequence begins with a zoom through the constellation of Hydra in the night sky, finishing with Hubble observations of Arp 142 made up of two interacting galaxies at the bottom—spiral galaxy NGC 2936 (above) and elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 (below). These galaxies are located about 300 million light years away. In a billion years or so, the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy. 


What does ARP 142 look like to you? 

"Is it like a hummingbird or a penguin?" 

What do you see?


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz 3D Team, STScI), Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Duration: 33 seconds

Release Date: Feb. 17, 2016


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Arp142 #NGC2936 #NGC2937 #InteractingGalaxies #Hydra #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #Optical #Infrared #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Interacting Galaxies Arp 142: "Hummingbird or Penguin?" | Hubble

Interacting Galaxies Arp 142: "Hummingbird or Penguin?" | Hubble

This image shows two galaxies interacting. NGC 2936, once a standard spiral galaxy, and NGC 2937, a smaller elliptical, bear a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its egg. Collectively called Arp 142, these galaxies are located about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy. 

This image is a combination of visible and infrared light, created from data gathered by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 (WFC3).


What is happening to this spiral galaxy? 
Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown at the bottom, was likely a normal spiral galaxy—spinning, creating stars—and minding its own business. However, then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, just below, and took a turn. Sometimes dubbed the Hummingbird Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is being deflected and distorted by this close gravitational interaction. 

Behind filaments of dark interstellar dust, bright blue stars form the nose of the hummingbird, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye.

Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like Porpoise or a penguin protecting an egg. This re-processed image by the Hubble Space Telescope shows Arp 142 in great detail.

Image Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Processing & Copyright: Basudeb Chakrabarti

Release Date: Sept. 25, 2023


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Arp142 #NGC2936 #NGC2937 #InteractingGalaxies #Hydra #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #Optical #Infrared #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Initial Curation of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample | Johnson Space Center

Initial Curation of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample | Johnson Space Center

NASA curation team members along with Lockheed Martin recovery specialists look on after the successful removal of the sample return canister lid.

Surrounded by technicians gowned in blue protective suits, Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialists, Levi Hanish and Michael Kaye, remove the lid of the sample return cannister inside a glovebox.

The new OSIRIS-REx sample clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The first U.S. asteroid sample, delivered by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, has arrived at its permanent home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, where it will be cared for, stored, and distributed to scientists worldwide. 

The sample arrived in Houston aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, which landed at Ellington Field. From there, it was transferred to NASA Johnson. 

The science team will spend the next few weeks in the clean room at Johnson built exclusively for Bennu samples. The clean room includes custom glove boxes built to fit the sample canister containing the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head inside. The TAGSAM head was on the end of a robotic arm that collected rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu’s surface on October 20, 2020.   

Updates: The initial curation process for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample of asteroid Bennu is moving slower than anticipated, but for the best reason: the sample runneth over. The abundance of material found when the science canister lid was removed earlier this week has meant that the process of disassembling the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head that holds the bulk of material from the asteroid is off to a methodical start.

After the collection event on Bennu three years ago, scientists expected they could find asteroid material in the canister outside the TAGSAM head when they saw particles slowly escaping the head before it was stowed. However, the actual amount of dark particles coating the inside of the canister lid and base that surrounds the TAGSAM is even more than they had anticipated.

“The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead Christopher Snead of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “There’s a lot of abundant material outside the TAGSAM head that’s interesting in its own right. It’s really spectacular to have all that material there.”

The first sample collected from outside the TAGSAM head, on the avionics deck, is now in the hands of scientists who are performing a quick-look analysis, which will provide an initial understanding of the Bennu material and what we can expect to find when the bulk sample is revealed.

“We have all the microanalytical techniques that we can throw at this to really, really tear it apart, almost down to the atomic scale,” said Lindsay Keller, OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team member from Johnson.

This quick-look research will utilize various instruments, including a scanning electron microscope (SEM), infrared measurements, and x-ray diffraction (XRD), to gain a better understanding of the sample.

The SEM will offer a chemical and morphological analysis, while the infrared measurements should provide information on whether the sample contains hydrated minerals and organic-rich particles. The x-ray diffraction is sensitive to the different minerals in a sample and will give an inventory of the minerals and perhaps an indication of their proportions.

“You’ve got really top-notch people and instruments and facilities that are going to be hitting these samples,” Keller said.

Over the coming weeks, the curation team will move the TAGSAM head into a different specialized glovebox where they will undertake the intricate process of disassembly to ultimately reveal the bulk sample within.

NASA plans to share these initial findings, plus first images of the sample, in a live broadcast on October 11, 2023.

Follow sample-delivery updates on NASA's OSIRIS-REx blog: 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/

OSIRIS-REx NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

University of Arizona's OSIRIS-REx Mission Page: http://www.asteroidmission.org


Image Credit: NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston/Rachel Barry/Robert Markowitz/James Blair

Release Dates: Sept. 25-29, 2023


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #OSIRISRExMission #OSIRISRExSpacecraft #Asteroids #AstreroidBennu #ToBennuAndBack #SampleReturn #SpaceTechnology #CSA #Canada #CNES #France #JSC #GSFC #UArizona #LockheedMartin #JSC #UnitedStates #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education

China's Shenzhou-16 Astronauts: 4-Months in Space | Tiangong Space Station

China's Shenzhou-16 Astronauts: 4-Months in Space | Tiangong Space Station

This video provides a quick overview of China's Shenzhou-16 astronauts' time aboard the Tiangong Space Station in celebration of China's National Day—the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Shenzhou-16 crew has been working and living in orbit for four months. Since settling in, they have carried out a number of extravehicular missions with onboard payloads, conducted scientific experiments in the fields of microgravity physics, ecology and other fields, and successfully completed many other important tasks, such as "space teaching".

Shenzhou-16 is the fifth long-duration spaceflight mission to the Tiangong Space Station. It will last about six months.


Shenzhou-16 China Space Station Crew: 

Jing Haipeng (Commander) 

Zhu Yangzhu

Gui Haichao


Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA) Watcher

Duration: 1 minute, 36 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 1, 2023


#NASA #Space #China #中国 #Earth #Shenzhou16 #ScienceExperiments #Students #Taikonauts #Astronauts #JingHaipeng #ZhuYangzhu #GuiHaichao #MicrogravityExperiments #SpaceResearch #SpaceLaboratory #CSS #Tiangong #ChinaSpaceStation #天和核心舱 #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

A Harvest Moon over Tuscany

A Harvest Moon over Tuscany


For northern hemisphere dwellers, September's Full Moon was the Harvest Moon. Reflecting warm hues at sunset, it rises behind cypress trees huddled on a hill top in Tuscany, Italy in this telephoto view from September 28, 2023. Famed in festival, story, and song, Harvest Moon is the traditional name of the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. According to lore, the name is a fitting one. Despite the diminishing daylight hours as the growing season drew to a close, farmers could harvest crops by the light of a full moon shining on from dusk to dawn. This Harvest Moon is also known as a supermoon, a term that became traditional for a full moon near perigee. It was the fourth and final supermoon for 2023.


Image Credit & Copyright: Antonio Tartarini

Release Date: Oct. 1, 2023


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Moon #Earth #Italy #Italia #Tuscany #Toscana #Europe #HarvestMoon #SuperMoon #NorthernHemisphere #Photography #STEM #Education #APoD

Saturday, September 30, 2023

NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Returns to Earth After Year-long Mission

NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Returns to Earth After Year-long Mission

Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holds a matryoshka doll he was gifted outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed with Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is seen outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is seen resting and talking with NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano, kneeling left, NASA Flight Surgeon Josef Schmid, red hat, and NASA Chief of the Astronaut Office Joe Acaba, outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed 

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is is seen inside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is helped out of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft just minutes after he landed

Russian Search and Rescue teams arrive at the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft shortly after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan


NASA astronaut Frank Rubio ended his record-breaking time in space with a parachute-assisted landing in the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, on Sept. 27, 2023.

Rubio arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 21, 2022, spending 371 days in low Earth orbit, and breaking the previous American record held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei by 16 days.
During his 371 days aboard the station, Rubio experienced:
- Approximately 5,936 orbits of Earth
- Approximately 157,412,306 statute miles traveled (equivalent of approximately 328 round trips to the Moon and back)
- Fifteen spacecraft visited the International Space Station, including four Roscosmos Progress cargo ships, two Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft, two Roscosmos Soyuz, four crewed SpaceX Dragons, and three uncrewed SpaceX Dragons.

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)

Release Date: Sept. 28, 2023


#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Earth #SoyuzMS23Spacecraft #SoyuzLanding #Astronaut #FrankRubio #Cosmonauts #SergeyProkopyev #DmitiriPetelin #LongDurationMission #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Russia #Россия #Роскосмос #Kazakhstan #Қазақстан #SpaceResearch #SpaceLaboratory #Expedition69 #STEM #Education

What's Up for October 2023? | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

What's Up for October 2023? | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

What are the skywatching highlights for the Earth's northern and southern hemispheres in October 2023? A "ring of fire" solar eclipse across the Americas on Oct. 14 is this month's top highlight! Plus the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus strike some lovely poses for stargazers and planet watchers to enjoy.

A map developed using data from a variety of NASA sources shows both eclipse paths as dark bands. Outside those paths, yellow and purple lines show how much of the Sun will become blocked by the Moon during the partial eclipses.

View and download the eclipse map here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5073

Not in the path of the eclipse? Watch with NASA from anywhere in the world. NASA will provide live broadcast coverage on Oct. 14, 2023, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. EDT (1530-1715 UTC) on NASA TV, NASA.gov and the NASA app.

Learn more about the upcoming annular solar eclipse: 

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2023/oct-14-annular/overview/

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/

0:00 Intro 

0:12 Moon & planet highlights

1:29 Psyche mission launch

2:17 Annular solar eclipse

3:41 October Moon phases


Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Narrator: Preston Dyches

Duration: 4 minutes

Release Date: Sept. 29, 2023


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #Moon #SolarEclipse #Planets #Venus #Jupiter #Saturn #PsycheMission #SolarSystem #Stars #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #JPL #Caltech #Skywatching #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #SouthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video