Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Shielding the Extremely Large Telescope from the Atacama Desert | ESO

Shielding the Extremely Large Telescope from Chile's Atacama Desert | ESO


The European Southern Observatory is building our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in the Atacama Desert. It is among the darkest skies on Earth, although it is a very harsh environment.

This is why we are currently covering the ELT steel dome with special cladding. It includes insulating layers and sheets of aluminum. This will protect the ELT and its delicate optics from the external environment.

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

Altitude: 3046 meters

Planned year of technical first light: 2027


Video Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Directing, Editing & Writing by: Angelos Tsaousis

Written by: Bárbara Ferreira

Footage and photos: ESO, Angelos Tsaousis, Martin Wallner

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: Aug. 7, 2024


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

Dark Nebula LDN 810 in Vulpecula | Mayall Telescope

Dark Nebula LDN 810 in Vulpecula | Mayall Telescope


This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. LDN 810 is a dark nebula that was first cataloged by B.T. Lynds in 1962. The dark region at the center contains gas and dust where new stars are forming. A bipolar outflow of gas from one of these stars has also been detected. A faint trail of dust and gas extends from the center of the image to the upper-left corner. The image was generated with observations in the Us (violet), B (blue), V (green) and I (red) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.

The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after the American observational astronomer of the same name. The telescope saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest in the world at that time.


Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

Release Date: June 30, 2020


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #LDN810 #Vulpecula #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #MayallTelescope #KPNO #Arizona #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Virgin Galactic Introduces Design for New Delta Spaceship

Virgin Galactic Introduces Design for New Delta Spaceship

"Welcome to Virgin Galactic - The Spaceline for Earth."
"Virgin Galactic is an aerospace and space travel company, pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers with its advanced air and space vehicles. Scale and profitability are driven by next generation vehicles capable of bringing humans to space at an unprecedented frequency with an industry-leading cost structure."

Learn more at: https://www.virgingalactic.com


Video Credit: Virgin Galactic

Duration: 2 minutes, 23 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 7, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #CommercialSpaceflight #VirginGalactic #DeltaSpaceship #SuborbitalFlight #Astronauts #SpaceTourism #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceportAmerica #NewMexico #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

Hurricane Debby Strikes Florida | NASA Earth Observatory

Hurricane Debby Strikes Florida | NASA Earth Observatory

Hurricane Debby made landfall near the town of Steinhatchee, Florida, at 7 a.m. Eastern Time on August 5, 2024, as a Category 1 storm. As it moves northeast, the storm is forecast to stall over the U.S. Southeast and deliver torrential rainfall.

This GeoColor image was captured by the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16 (GOES-16) at 3 a.m. Eastern Time, four hours before Debby made landfall. The satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and includes the National Weather Service (NWS). NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites. They observe Earth from about 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator.

Debby developed into a tropical storm on August 3, 2024, in the Gulf of Mexico, becoming the fourth named storm of the 2024 hurricane season. Bands of intense rainfall soon began to lash western Florida, dumping over a foot (30 centimeters) of rain near Sarasota between August 3 and 4.

By August 5, Debby had grown into a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of around 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour at the time of landfall. As of 11 a.m. Eastern Time that day, over 207,000 homes were without power, according to PowerOutage.us. NWS forecasts called for the storm to bring 10 to 20 inches of rain and “life-threatening” storm surge of up to 10 feet to parts of the Big Bend region, where Florida’s panhandle curves to meet the peninsula.

“There’s a lot of warm water and low vertical wind shear in the Gulf of Mexico right now, which are two key ingredients for storm intensification,” said Patrick Duran, a hurricane expert at NASA’s Short-Term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) project, based at Marshall Space Flight Center. Vertical wind shear is the difference in the speed and direction of lower-level and upper-level winds. High shear rips the tops off of developing hurricanes and weakens them, while low shear allows storms to build.

NASA’s SPoRT team focuses on improving weather forecasts using satellite data from NASA and NOAA. Duran uses the ABI instrument on GOES satellites in his work to look at fine-scale structures in clouds and find the center of a storm’s circulation. ABI’s infrared bands are used during the day and night to look at the depth of a storm’s convection and how it is developing.

Debby hit the same stretch of sparsely populated land as Idalia. It came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane in August 2023. Though Debby is weaker than Idalia, its slower pace means it could unleash “potentially historic” rain across the Southeast, according to the NWS. Forecasts indicate that from August 5 to 10, parts of southeast Georgia, coastal South Carolina, and southeast North Carolina could see 10 to 20 inches of rain, with up to 30 inches possible in some places.


Image Credit: GOES 16 imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), Lauren Dauphin

Story Credit: Emily Cassidy

Image Date: August 5, 2024

Release Date: August 6, 2024


#NASA #NOAA #NESDIS #Space #Science #Satellite  #GOESEast #GOES16 #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Florida #UnitedStates #Canada #NorthAmerica #GulfOfMexico #AtlanticOcean #Hurricanes #Storms #HurricaneDebby #Weather #Meteorology #RemoteSensing #EarthObservation #STEM #Education

SpaceX Falcon 9 1st Stage Booster Landing+Sonic Boom | International Space Station

SpaceX Falcon 9 1st Stage Booster Landing+Sonic Boom | International Space Station


Watch tracking footage of Falcon 9’s reusable first stage booster landing and hear its sonic boom at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Aug. 4, 2024, after launching Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. 

Falcon 9’s first stage (B1080) previously supported nine missions: Ax-2, ESA Euclid, Ax-3, CRS-30, ASTRA 1P and 4 Starlink missions. 

Aboard the Cygnus spacecraft were tests of water recovery technology, a process to produce stem cells in microgravity, studies of the effects of spaceflight on microorganism DNA, liver tissue growth, and live science demonstrations for students.

This was Northrop Grumman’s 21st commercial resupply mission for NASA.

Learn about NASA's Commercial Resupply Services Program (CRS):

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
Duration: 37 seconds
Capture Date: Aug. 4, 2024

#NASA #Space #ISS #NorthropGrumman #CygnusSpacecraft #CommercialCargo #CRS21 #NG21 #SSDickScobee #SpaceX #Falcon9Rocket #RocketFirstStage #CommercialResupply #CRS #CommercialSpace #Expedition71 #HumanSpaceflight #NASAKennedy #KSC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft Arrives at International Space Station

Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft Arrives at International Space Station

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft was successfully captured over the south Atlantic Ocean by NASA Astronaut Matthew Dominick on the International Space Station at 3:11am ET, Aug. 6, 2024. The Cygnus spacecraft was then installed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port on the International Space Station at 5:33 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft carried 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for Northrop Grumman’s 21st commercial resupply mission for NASA. 

The mission launched at 11:02 a.m. Aug. 4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Cygnus will remain at the space station until January 2025 when it departs the orbiting laboratory. It will then dispose of several thousand pounds of debris through its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere where it will burn up "harmlessly".

Expedition 71 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 71 Crew

Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)

NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore

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.


Video NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 2 minutes, 35 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 6, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Science #NorthropGrumman #SSDickScobee #CygnusCargoSpacecraft #Astronaut #MatthewDominick #UnitedStates #CSA #Canadarm2 #Canada #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Astronauts Dyson & Williams Talk with Society of Women Engineers

NASA Astronauts Dyson & Williams Talk with Society of Women Engineers

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Tracy Dyson and Suni Williams discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview August 6, 2024, with the Society of Women Engineers. Dyson and Williams are in the midst of missions aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration flights as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program. 

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson NASA Biography:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/tracy-caldwell-dyson

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/tracy-caldwell-dyson/biography

Astronaut Sunita Williams NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/sunita-l-williams/biography

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/williams-s.pdf

Society of Women Engineers

https://swe.org

Expedition 71 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 71 Crew

Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)

NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore

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.


Video NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 24 minutes

Release Date: Aug. 6, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Science #Astronauts #TracyDyson #SunitaWilliams #SWE #Engineers #Engineering #WomenInEngineering #WomenInTechnology #UnitedStates #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Starburst Galaxy IC 10 in Cassiopeia | Mayall Telescope

Starburst Galaxy IC 10 in Cassiopeia | Mayall Telescope

This striking image from NOIRLab’s Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) presents a portrait of the irregular galaxy IC 10, a disorderly starburst galaxy close to the Milky Way. As well as a population of bright young stars, this irregular galaxy harbors exotic Wolf-Rayet stars and a black hole. IC 10 lies around 2 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Cassiopeia. Though this distance seems huge, it puts IC 10 in the ever-growing Local Group of galaxies.

The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after the American observational astronomer of the same name. The telescope saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest in the world at that time.


Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Data Obtained and Processed by: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, & C. Smith (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

Image Processing: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin

Release Date: June 18, 2020


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #IC10 #StarburstGalaxy #IrregularGalaxy #WolfRayetStars #BlackHole #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #MayallTelescope #KPNO #Arizona #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Pan of Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble

Pan of Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble

The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 is the spotlight in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies. Arp-Madore 417-391 lies around 670 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is one such galactic collision. The two galaxies have been distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving the cores of the two galaxies nestled side by side.

Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to capture this scene—the instrument is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the ancient Universe. Hubble’s ACS has been contributing to scientific discovery for 20 years, and throughout its lifetime it has been involved in everything from mapping the distribution of dark matter to studying the evolution of galaxy clusters.

Image Description: Two galaxies right of center form a ring shape. The ring is narrow and blue, and the cores of the two galaxies form a bulge on the ring’s side. A bright, orange star lies above the ring. Two smaller spiral galaxies appear left of center, as well as a few stars. The background is black and speckled with very small stars and galaxies.


Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: Nov. 21, 2022


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #AM0417391 #GalacticMergers #Eridanus #Constellation #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble

Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble


The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 is the spotlight in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies. Arp-Madore 417-391 lies around 670 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is one such galactic collision. The two galaxies have been distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving the cores of the two galaxies nestled side by side.

Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to capture this scene—the instrument is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the ancient Universe. Hubble’s ACS has been contributing to scientific discovery for 20 years, and throughout its lifetime it has been involved in everything from mapping the distribution of dark matter to studying the evolution of galaxy clusters.

Image Description: Two galaxies right of center form a ring shape. The ring is narrow and blue, and the cores of the two galaxies form a bulge on the ring’s side. A bright, orange star lies above the ring. Two smaller spiral galaxies appear left of center, as well as a few stars. The background is black and speckled with very small stars and galaxies.


Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

Release Date: Nov. 21, 2022


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #AM0417391 #GalacticMergers #Eridanus #Constellation #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Monday, August 05, 2024

Sun Releases Second Strong Solar Flare on Same Day | NASA SDO

Sun Releases Second Strong Solar Flare on Same Day | NASA SDO



The Sun emitted a second strong solar flare, peaking at 11:27 a.m. ET on Aug. 5, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun constantly and it captured an image of the event.

The bright flash of a solar flare appears on the Sun's lower left in an ultraviolet view of the Sun. The Sun is dotted with darker and brighter regions and wispy loops of bright solar material.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare—seen as the bright flash on the lower left of the first image–on Aug. 5, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. It is colorized in gold. 

The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. CMEs are sometimes associated with flares but can occur independently.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. 

NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.


Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Release Date: Aug. 5, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlare #XFlare #Ultraviolet #Science #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellite #SDO #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA Pays Tribute to Hidden Figure Dorothy J. Vaughan: A Computing Pioneer

NASA Pays Tribute to Hidden Figure Dorothy J. Vaughan: A Computing Pioneer

This tribute is narrated by Octavia Spencer. She starred in the landmark 2016 film "Hidden Figures".

Dorothy J. Vaughan was a pioneer human computer and visionary. She was essential to the expansion of a diverse workforce across NASA. She began her career with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1943 as part of the segregated West Area Computing Unit—an all-black group of female mathematicians. Their ground-breaking work and remarkable contributions changed the NASA community.

Promoted to lead the West Area Computers in 1949, Vaughan was NACA’s first black supervisor and one of its few female supervisors. She was a steadfast advocate for the women that worked as human computers, and for all the people under her leadership.

Dorothy Vaughan helmed West Computing for nearly a decade. In 1958, when the NACA made the transition to NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished. Dorothy Vaughan and many of the former West Computers joined the new Analysis and Computation Division (ACD), a racially and gender-integrated group on the frontier of electronic computing. Dorothy Vaughan became an expert FORTRAN programmer, and she also contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program.

Through her exceptional leadership and dedication to the betterment of all individuals—particularly women of color, her legacy informed the agency’s current diverse workforce. 

Innovators like Vaughan laid the foundation for NASA to revisit the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, this time with the first woman and first person of color under the Artemis program.

Date of Birth: September 20, 1910

Hometown: Kansas City, MO

Education: B.A., Mathematics, Wilberforce University, 1929

Hired by NACA: December 1943

Retired from NASA: 1971

Date of Death: November 10, 2008

Learn more about Dorothy J. Vaughan:

https://www.nasa.gov/people/dorothy-vaughan/


Credit: NASA

Producer: Sonnet Apple

Duration: 2 minutes, 28 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 5, 2024


#NASA #NACA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Moon #Aerospace #Aviation #Pioneers #Leaders #DorothyJVaughan #Computing #Programming #Women #BlackWomen #AfricanAmericans #Segregation #CivilRights #HiddenFigures #NASALangley #Hampton #Virginia #UnitedStates #Technology #Engineering #History #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Astronaut Captures "Heavenly Views" | International Space Station

NASA Astronaut Captures "Heavenly Views" | International Space Station

NASA Astronaut Matthew Dominick: "Experimenting with time lapses out of different windows around the ISS. This is one of a few windows that face away from earth in a compartment in the service module called the ПхО. ISO is cranked high and the exposure is a possibly too long (1.6s) as you can see the stars starting to streak. Considering cranking ISO higher and dropping exposure for crisper stars but I don’t want to lose nebulosity. Thoughts?"

Video details: 1.6s exposure, f1.4, ISO 12800, 2s intervalometer.

Expedition 71 Updates: 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 71 Crew
Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore

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)


Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Astronaut Matthew Dominick

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: Aug. 4, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxies #Earth #ISS #SpaceXDragon #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

Strong X1.7 Solar Flare Erupts from Sun | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

Strong X1.7 Solar Flare Erupts from Sun | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory



The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 9:40 a.m. ET on Aug. 5, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun constantly and it captured an image of the event. Given the source location, an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), produced as a result, is unlikely. 

The Sun, shown in teal, against a black background. On the right side of the star, it a bright "X" shape—the solar flare. 
This flare is classified as an X1.7 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. CMEs are sometimes associated with flares but can occur independently.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare—seen as the bright flash on the right—on Aug. 5, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in teal.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. 

NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.


Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Release Date: Aug. 5, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlare #XFlare #Ultraviolet #Science #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellite #SDO #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Miranda Engine: 3+ Minute Hot Fire Test for Medium-lift Rocket | Firefly Aerospace

Miranda Engine: 3+ Minute Hot Fire Test for Medium-lift Rocket | Firefly Aerospace

On July 12, just 24 hours after completing a 60 second hot fire, the Firefly team completed mission duty cycle on its full-length Miranda engine with a 206 second hot fire, matching the longest engine burn during flight.

" . . . Miranda is building on the success of Lightning (15,759 lbf) and Reaver (45,000 lbf) with proven engine scalability. Miranda uses the same engine architecture, injector design, and patented tap-off cycle as the Reaver and Lightning engines that power Firefly’s orbital Alpha vehicle. Miranda also incorporates a scaled-up version of Reaver’s turbopump, fluid systems, and valve technology." 

Learn more: https://fireflyspace.com/news/firefly-aerospace-completes-risk-reduction-testing-for-critical-miranda-engine-components/


Video Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Duration: 3 minutes, 41 seconds

Release Date: July 24, 2024


#NASA #Space #Science #Satellites #FireflyAerospace #MirandaEngine #HotFire #RocketTest #MediumLift #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #CommercialSpace #Briggs #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pinwheel-shaped Galaxy NGC 1309 in Eridanus | Hubble

Pinwheel-shaped Galaxy NGC 1309 in Eridanus | Hubble


The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope captured details of this face-on spiral galaxy, cataloged as NGC 1309, in this color image. NGC 1309 was home to supernova SN 2002fk. Its light reached Earth in September 2002. NGC 1309 resides 100 million light-years (30 Megaparsecs) from Earth. It is one of about 200 galaxies that make up the Eridanus group of galaxies.


Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team, (STScI/AURA) and A. Riess (STScI)

Release Date: Feb. 7, 2006


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #NGC1309 #SpiralGalaxy #Supernovae #SN2002fk #Eridanus #Constellation #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education