Sunday, December 22, 2024

Virgin Galactic: Top 10 Highlights of 2024

Virgin Galactic: Top 10 Highlights of 2024

"Reaching new heights—Countdown with us as we revisit our top 10 highlights of 2024 with Mike Moses, President of Spaceline."

"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."

Register for updates and learn more at: https://www.virgingalactic.com


Video Credit: Virgin Galactic
Duration: 1 minute, 32 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #CommercialSpaceflight #VirginGalactic #Year2024 #DeltaSpaceship #SuborbitalFlight #Astronauts #SpaceTourism #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceportAmerica #NewMexico #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Rocket Lab: The Year 2024 in Review: Our Biggest Year Yet

Rocket Lab: The Year 2024 in Review: Our Biggest Year Yet


Rocket Lab's Electron

Electron is the "only reusable orbital-class small rocket". Electron’s first stage design provides higher launch frequency and lower launch costs. Rocket Lab's Rutherford Engine is the "world’s first 3D-printed, electric-pump-fed rocket engine." Rocket Lab was founded in New Zealand in 2006. Rocket Lab currently launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, USA, and from the Māhia Peninsula on New Zealand's North Island.

Learn more about the Electron:

Overview

Height: 18 m/59 ft
Diameter: 1.2 m/3.9 ft
Stages: 2 + Kick Stage
Wet Mass: 13,000 kg/28,660 lb Payload to Low-Earth Obit (LEO): 300 kg/661 lb
Structure: Carbon Composite
Propellant: Liquid Oxygen (LOX)/Kerosene

Video Credit: Rocket Lab
Duration: 3 minutes, 36 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 22, 2024

#NASA #Space #Aerospace #Earth #Satellites #LEO #RocketLab #Year2024 #ElectronRocket #RocketLaunches #MahiaPeninsula #NewZealand #WallopsIsland #Virginia #CommercialSpace #PeterBeck #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Lenticular Galaxy NGC 5084 (with 'sideways' black hole) | Schulman Telescope

Lenticular Galaxy NGC 5084 (with 'sideways' black hole) | Schulman Telescope

NGC 5084 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. It is located at a distance of about 80 million light years from Earth. Given its apparent dimensions, this means that NGC 5084 is at least 200,000 light years across. It is one of the largest and most massive galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster.

NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to be “tipped over,” rotating in an unexpected direction relative to the galaxy surrounding it. The galaxy NGC 5084 has been known for years, but the sideways secret of its central black hole lay hidden in old data archives. The discovery was made possible by new image analysis techniques developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to take a fresh look at archival data from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Using the new methods, astronomers at Ames unexpectedly found four long plumes of plasma—hot, charged gas—emanating from NGC 5084. One pair of plumes extends above and below the plane of the galaxy. A surprising second pair, forming an “X” shape with the first, lies in the galaxy plane itself. Hot gas plumes are not often spotted in galaxies, and typically only one or two are present.


Credit Line & Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Image Date: May 1, 2015


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #NASAChandra #Galaxies #BlackHole #Galaxy #NGC5084 #LenticularGalaxy #VirgoSupercluster #Virgo #Constellation #Universe #SchulmanTelescope #MountLemmon #MLO #Astrophotography #AdamBlock #UA #Arizona #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Starship: "Wishing you a warm holiday season and a lit New Year!"

SpaceX Starship: "Wishing you a warm holiday season and a lit New Year!"

FriendsofNASA.org: Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Update: During mid-December 2024, SpaceX performed a single engine static fire demonstrating a flight-like startup for an in-space burn of the Starship that will be used for Flight Test#7 at SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.

Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 121m/397ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100 – 150t (fully reusable)

"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."

Learn more about Starship:
Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):


Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Dec. 22, 2024

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #MerryChristmas2024 #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #Spacecraft #Starship7 #TestFlight7 #HeavyBooster #SuperHeavyRocket #ElonMusk #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #Starbase #BocaChica #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

‘Sideways’ Black Hole Detected via New Techniques/Legacy Data | NASA Chandra

‘Sideways’ Black Hole Detected via New Techniques/Legacy Data | NASA Chandra

Image showing the structure of galaxy NGC 5084, with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory overlaid on a visible-light image of the galaxy. Chandra’s data, shown in purple, revealed four plumes of hot gas emanating from a supermassive black hole rotating “tipped over” at the galaxy’s core.

NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to be “tipped over,” rotating in an unexpected direction relative to the galaxy surrounding it. That galaxy, called NGC 5084, has been known for years, but the sideways secret of its central black hole lay hidden in old data archives. The discovery was made possible by new image analysis techniques developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to take a fresh look at archival data from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Using the new methods, astronomers at Ames unexpectedly found four long plumes of plasma—hot, charged gas—emanating from NGC 5084. One pair of plumes extends above and below the plane of the galaxy. A surprising second pair, forming an “X” shape with the first, lies in the galaxy plane itself. Hot gas plumes are not often spotted in galaxies, and typically only one or two are present.

NGC 5084 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. It is located at a distance of about 80 million light years from Earth. Given its apparent dimensions, this means that NGC 5084 is at least 200,000 light years across. It is one of the largest and most massive galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster.

The method revealing such unexpected characteristics for galaxy NGC 5084 was developed by Ames research scientist Alejandro Serrano Borlaff and colleagues to detect low-brightness X-ray emissions in data from the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope. What they saw in the Chandra data seemed so strange that they immediately looked to confirm it, digging into the data archives of other telescopes and requesting new observations from two powerful ground-based observatories.

The surprising second set of plumes was a strong clue this galaxy housed a supermassive black hole, but there could have been other explanations. Archived data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile then revealed another quirk of NGC 5084: a small, dusty, inner disk turning about the center of the galaxy. This, too, suggested the presence of a black hole there, and, surprisingly, it rotates at a 90-degree angle to the rotation of the galaxy overall; the disk and black hole are, in a sense, lying on their sides.

The follow-up analyses of NGC 5084 allowed the researchers to examine the same galaxy using a broad swath of the electromagnetic spectrum—from visible light, seen by Hubble, to longer wavelengths observed by ALMA and the Expanded Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory near Socorro, New Mexico.

“It was like seeing a crime scene with multiple types of light,” said Borlaff, who is also the first author on the paper reporting the discovery. “Putting all the pictures together revealed that NGC 5084 has changed a lot in its recent past.”

“Detecting two pairs of X-ray plumes in one galaxy is exceptional,” added Pamela Marcum, an astrophysicist at Ames and co-author on the discovery. “The combination of their unusual, cross-shaped structure and the ‘tipped-over,’ dusty disk gives us unique insights into this galaxy’s history.”

Typically, astronomers expect the X-ray energy emitted from large galaxies to be distributed evenly in a generally sphere-like shape. When it is not, such as when concentrated into a set of X-ray plumes, they know a major event has disturbed the galaxy.

Possible dramatic moments in its history that could explain NGC 5084’s toppled black hole and double set of plumes include a collision with another galaxy and the formation of a chimney of superheated gas breaking out of the top and bottom of the galactic plane.

More studies will be needed to determine what event or events led to the current strange structure of this galaxy. However, it is already clear that the never-before-seen architecture of NGC 5084 was only discovered thanks to archival data—nearly three decades old—combined with novel analysis techniques.

The paper presenting this research was published Dec. 18, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad7c4b
The image analysis method developed by the team—called Selective Amplification of Ultra Noisy Astronomical Signal, or SAUNAS—was described in The Astrophysical Journal in May 2024.


Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC, A. S. Borlaff, P. Marcum et al.; Optical full image: M. Pugh, B. Diaz; Image Processing: NASA/USRA/L. Proudfit
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #NASAChandra #Galaxies #BlackHole #Galaxy #NGC5084 #LenticularGalaxy #VirgoSupercluster #Virgo #Constellation #Universe #SpaceTelescope #XrayAstronomy #HST #ALMA #NASAAmes #MSFC #CXC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Happy Holidays from The European Southern Observatory!

Happy Holidays from The European Southern Observatory!


As the Year 2024 comes to an end, we want to send you astronomically good wishes for the holidays and the best for the upcoming new year!

Spectacular images of stars inside and outside our galaxy, new insights into black holes, new exoplanets . . . 2024 was full of amazing discoveries. In the past year, the European Southern Observatory’s largest project, the Extremely Large Telescope, surpassed 60% of its total completion. Many of its components have been finished this year, including the M5 mirror cell and the blanks for the main mirror’s segments, sensors, actuators and laser sources, among other important developments in its instrumentation.  

A new year also means new resolutions. We are opening the door to innovative ideas for the European Southern Observatory’s next ground-based project through our Expanding Horizons program. These ideas will shape the future of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and astronomy in the upcoming decades.

We wish you happy holidays and a great start to 2025!

Learn more about the European Southern Observatory:
https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Duration: 32 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 16, 2024

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Christmas2024 #MerryChristmas #HappyHolidays2024 #HappyHolidays #Stars #Galaxies #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ELT #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Saturday, December 21, 2024

NASA Glenn Research Center Year 2024 in Review

NASA Glenn Research Center Year 2024 in Review

2024 was bright at NASA Glenn.✨ We "pushed innovations forward, brought the excitement of STEM to more communities, and paved the way for new discoveries." Revisit examples of the center’s biggest achievements from this year.

NASA Glenn Research Center: 
https://www.nasa.gov/glenn/

Located near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Glenn's main campus, Lewis Field, has world-class facilities including wind tunnels, drop towers, vacuum chambers, and a research aircraft hangar.


Video Credit: NASA's Glenn Research Center
Duration: 2 minutes, 34 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #SolarEclipse #ArtemisII #ISS #CommercialCargo #SierraSpace #DreamChaser #DreamChaserSpacecraft #Tenacity #ULA #Spaceflight #X59Aircraft #Science #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #CommercialSpace #NASAGlennn #Cleveland #Ohio #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

China's 67th Rocket Launch in 2024: Telecom Satellite#12 | Xichang Launch Center

China's 67th Rocket Launch in 2024: Telecom Satellite#12 Xichang Launch Center


A Long March 3B carrier rocket lifted off at 11:12 p.m. Beijing Time (BJT) on Dec. 20, 2024, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's southwestern Sichuan Province, sending a test satellite for communication technology into orbit. This communication technology test satellite will be used for satellite communications, radio and television, data transmission, and other services. It will also carry out tests and verification of related technologies. This marked the 554th mission of the Long March series of rockets and the 101st launch of the Long March 3B.

Video Credit: CNSA
Duration: 14 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2024

#NASA #Space #Earth #Satellite #LEO #Telecommunications #LongMarch3B #China #中国 #XichangSatelliteLaunchCenter #SichuanProvince #RocketLaunch #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Rocket Lab Electron Launches (2017-2024)

Rocket Lab Electron Launches (2017-2024)


Rocket Lab's Electron

Electron is the "only reusable orbital-class small rocket". Electron’s first stage design provides higher launch frequency and lower launch costs. Rocket Lab's Rutherford Engine is the "world’s first 3D-printed, electric-pump-fed rocket engine." Rocket Lab was founded in New Zealand in 2006. Rocket Lab currently launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, USA, and from the Māhia Peninsula on New Zealand's North Island.

Learn more about the Electron:

Overview

Height: 18 m/59 ft
Diameter: 1.2 m/3.9 ft
Stages: 2 + Kick Stage
Wet Mass: 13,000 kg/28,660 lb Payload to Low-Earth Obit (LEO): 300 kg/661 lb
Structure: Carbon Composite
Propellant: Liquid Oxygen (LOX)/Kerosene

Image Credit: Rocket Lab
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2024

#NASA #Space #Aerospace #Earth #Satellites #LEO #RocketLab #ElectronRocket #RocketLaunches #MahiaPeninsula #NewZealand #WallopsIsland #Virginia #CommercialSpace #PeterBeck #Infographic #History #STEM #Education

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) from Kitt Peak in Arizona

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) from Kitt Peak in Arizona


A view of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from Kitt Peak National Observatory. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the solar system's Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory east of Nanjing, China, on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. ATLAS is funded by NASA's planetary defense office, and developed and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. C/2023 A3 passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million miles) on September 27, 2024.

The Oort cloud is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years).


Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Lockridge
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #Comets #CometTsuchinshanATLAS #C2023A3 #OortCloud #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #KPNO #Tucson #Arizona #UnitedStates #China #中国 #SouthAfrica #STEM #Education

Globular Star Cluster Messier 2 in Aquarius: Largest of its Kind | Hubble

Globular Star Cluster Messier 2 in Aquarius: Largest of its Kind | Hubble

Star clusters are commonly featured in cosmic photoshoots, and are also well-loved by the keen eye of the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. These large gatherings of celestial gems are striking sights—and the subject of this picture, Messier 2, is certainly no exception.

Messier 2 is located in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water-Bearer), about 55,000 light-years away. It is a globular cluster, a spherical group of stars all tightly bound together by gravity. With a diameter of roughly 175 light-years, a population of 150,000 stars, and an age of 13 billion years, Messier 2 is one of the largest clusters of its kind and one of the oldest associated with the Milky Way.

Most of the cluster’s mass is concentrated at its center with shimmering streams of stars extending outwards into space. It is bright enough that it can even be seen with the naked eye when observing conditions are extremely good.


Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.
Release Date: April 1, 2019


#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarClusters #Messier2 #M2 #Aquarius #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Frosty Martian Dunes | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Frosty Martian Dunes | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

These dunes in Mars' northern hemisphere were captured from above by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Scientists use such images to track the amount of frost that settles on the landforms and then disappears as the weather warms in spring.

Martian dunes migrate just like dunes on Earth, with wind blowing away sand on one side of the dune and building up on another. Recent research has shown that winter frost stops the movement of sand grains, locking the dunes in place until the spring thaw.

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. 

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by BAE Systems in 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 more information on MRO, visit:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Image Date: Sept. 8, 2022
Release Date: 
Dec. 20, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #Planet #RedPlanet #Geology #Landscape #Terrain #NothernHemisphere #SandDunes #Frost #Geoscience #MRO #MarsOrbiter #MarsSpacecraft #HiRISECamera #JPL #Caltech #BallAerospace #MSSS #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Rare Celestial Solar Halo Graces China's Northernmost Village | Earth Science

Rare Celestial Solar Halo Graces China's Northernmost Village | Earth Science

In the crystalline air of China's northernmost edge, where darkness claims 17 hours of each winter day, an extraordinary natural phenomenon has virtually transformed the sky into a canvas of ethereal beauty.

Beiji Village in Heilongjiang province's Mohe City, aptly named "China's North Pole," has become nature's theater for a rare double feature: a magnificent sun halo dancing in partnership with diamond dust.

Solar halos are generally created by randomly oriented ice crystals in thin, high cirrus clouds. Circular 22 degree halos like this one are visible much more often than rainbows.

Against the pristine arctic blue sky, a perfect ring of light encircles the winter sun like a celestial crown. Below, stretching toward the snow-blanketed earth, a brilliant white pillar of light pierces the frigid air, while rainbow-hued parhelia—commonly known as sundogs—shimmer on either side, creating nature's own abstract masterpiece.

Sundogs are one of the most common types of ice halo. They occur when light rays enter the side of an ice crystal and leave through another side inclined about 60 degrees to the first. Sundogs are most easily seen when the Sun is low in the sky; the halos occurring on either side of it at about 22 degrees. The part of a sundog closest to the Sun always forms a layer of red, while greens and blues form beyond that. Sundogs are visible all over the world and at any time of year, regardless of the temperature at the surface.

This rare convergence of optical phenomena arrives just as Beiji Village braces for the Dongzhi, the traditional Chinese winter solstice festival which falls on Saturday this year.

With the opening event featuring "boiling water instantly turning to ice in mid-air" amid the freezing temperatures, the Mohe Dongzhi Festival is now underway. Thousands of locals and tourists have gathered in the village to celebrate the annual festivities.

The celebration blends traditional customs, such as drinking lamb soup and eating dumplings, with lively performances and modern ice and snow attractions. The brief seven hours of daylight make such displays all the more precious.

As winter tourism continues to flourish in northern China, Beiji Village has become an increasingly popular destination for travelers.

Winter Solstice, also known as "Dongzhi" in Chinese, is the 22nd of the 24 Solar Terms on the Chinese lunar calendar. It has the shortest day and longest night of the year.

On this day, the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, making the short daylight and long nights particularly noticeable for people living in the Northern Hemisphere.


Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2024

#NASA #Science #Star #Sun #SolarSystem #Planet #Earth #EarthScience #Atmosphere #SolarHalo #Sunlight #CirrusClouds #AtmosphericOptics #Sundogs #MoheCity #BeijiVillage #Heilongjiang #黑龙江 #China #中国 #Photography #Astrophotography #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network Welcomes New 34-Meter Antenna | JPL

NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network Welcomes New 34-Meter Antenna | JPL

A time-lapse video of construction operations for a new antenna at the NASA Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, on Dec. 18, 2024. 

Called Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23), the new antenna joins others at three Deep Space Network complexes around the world that communicate with spacecraft at the Moon and beyond. During construction operations on Dec. 18, the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) steel parabolic reflector framework was lowered into position by crane before a crew bolted it into place. Shortly after, engineers placed what’s called a quadripod onto the center of the dish framework. A four-legged support structure, the quadripod weighs 16 ½ tons and features a curved subreflector that will direct radio frequency signals from deep space to bounce off the main reflector into the antenna’s pedestal, where the antenna’s receiver is housed. 

DSS-23 is a multi-frequency beam waveguide antenna that will boost the DSN’s capacity and enhance NASA’s deep space communications capabilities for decades to come. Once online in 2026, DSS-23 will be the fifth of six new beam waveguide antennas to be added to the network, following DSS-53 that was added at the DSN’s Madrid complex in 2022. 

The DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. It is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which is located at NASA Headquarters within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. 


Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #VoyagerSpacecraft #Voyager1 #Voyager2 #Planets #Jupiter #Europa #EuropaClipper #JunoSpacecraft #SolarSystem #InterstellarSpace #MilkyWayGalaxy #SpaceExploration #RadioTelescopes #Antennas #DSS23 #DSN #Goldstone #SCaNProgram #JPL #Caltech #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

Northern Lights from Kitt Peak, Arizona

Northern Lights from Kitt Peak, Arizona


The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, as seen from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA. Auroras occur in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, but they typically originate with activity on the Sun. Occasionally, during explosions called coronal mass ejections, the Sun releases charged particles that speed across the solar system. 

Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]

Solid Colored Aurora
Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.

Element Emission Colors
Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.

Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.

Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.

Aurora Colors According to Altitude
Above 150 miles: red, oxygen
Up to 150 miles: green, oxygen
Above 60 miles: purple or violet, nitrogen
Up to 60 miles: blue, nitrogen

The Colors of the Aurora (National Park Service)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Lockridge
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Heliophysics #KPNO #KittPeak #Arizona #UnitedStates #Photography #Astrophotography #STEM #Education

Friday, December 20, 2024

NASA’s Mars Chopper Concept Animation | JPL

NASA’s Mars Chopper Concept Animation | JPL

This short animation depicts a concept for a potential follow-on to NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter called Mars Chopper. It remains in early conceptual and design stages. In addition to scouting, such a helicopter could carry science instruments to study terrain rovers cannot reach. The concept was discussed by Chopper project manager Teddy Tzanetos of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, during a Dec. 11, 2024, briefing at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington.

Learn about the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (previous generation): https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/ingenuity-mars-helicopter/


Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Duration: 37 seconds
Releaase Date: Dec. 11, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mars #RedPlanet #MarsSampleReturn #MSR #Geology #IngenuityMarsHelicopter #MarsChopper #MarsHelicopters #Concept #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video