LIFTOFF! A #Dragon 🐉 went soaring into the sky atop a @SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket! The Dragon cargo craft will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of research, equipment, cargo and supplies to the crew living aboard the International Space Station (@iss), including science that studies thunderstorms on Earth, space gardening, potential pathogens in space, new ways to patch up wounds and more. Liftoff was at 4:00 p.m. EDT. This was SpaceX’s 14th resupply mission to the orbiting laboratory.
Photo credit: NASA
#spacex #nasa #spacestation #internationalspacestation #research #dragoncargocraft #science #technology #falcon9 #rocket #launch #picofthday
Ready to find some planets? The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is getting ready for launch! TESS is the next step in our search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. This planet hunter will scan nearly the entire sky over two years to monitor 200,000 of the nearest and brightest stars in search of transits - periodic dips in a star’s brightness caused by planets passing in front of their stars.
Led out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TESS is expected to find thousands of new exoplanets. Powerful telescopes could then study these planets in more detail to help determine what they are made of, and what their atmospheres are like. Stay tuned for more about TESS as we get closer to launch, which is currently scheduled for no earlier than April 16!
Credit: NASA/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
We ran together three sequences of the Sun taken in three different extreme ultraviolet wavelengths by our Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) to better illustrate how features that appear in one sequence are difficult, if not impossible, to see in the others (Mar. 20-21, 2018). In the red sequence, we can see very small jets of solar material burst from the Sun’s surface and some small prominences, bright features extending outward, at the edge, which are not easily discerned in the other two sequences.
In the second clip, we can readily observe a coronal hole, the large and dark region where the Sun's magnetic field is open to interplanetary space, though it is difficult to distinguish in the others.
In the third clip, we can see strands of plasma waving above the surface, especially above the one small, but bright, active region near the right edge.
These are just three of the 10 extreme ultraviolet wavelengths in which SDO images the Sun every 12 seconds every day. That's a lot of data and a lot of science!
Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
#nasa #space #sun #solar #sdo #light #earth #solarsystem #science #video #ultraviolet #uv #uvlight #picoftheday
The March morning sky offers some dazzling views of Mars and Saturn all month long. Through a telescope, you can almost make out some of the surface features on the Red Planet.
Look a little farther into Mars’ future and circle May 5 on your calendars – that’s when our InSight lander will launch to the Red Planet on a 6 month journey. During that time, Mars will be easily visible in the sky.
Keep watching Mars as it travels closer to Earth. It will be closest in late July, when the Red Planet will appear larger in apparent diameter than it has since 2003.
Credit: NASA
#credit #nasa #space #astronomy #whatsup #nightsky #sky #stargazing #solarsystem #universe #planets #stars #moon #mars #insight #lander #journey
What’s up in the sky this month? You’re in for a real treat if you’re able to get away to a dark sky location on a Moonless night this month. The Zodiacal light and the Milky Way intersect!
The Zodiacal light is a faint triangular glow seen from a dark sky just after sunset in the spring or just before sunrise in the fall. The more familiar Milky Way is one of the spiral arms of our galaxy.
What we’re seeing is sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the Sun in the inner solar system. These dust grains journey across our sky in the ecliptic – the same plane as the Moon and the planets.
Credit: NASA
#credit #nasa #space #astronomy #whatsup #nightsky #sky #stargazing #solarsystem #universe #planets #stars #moon #zodiacal #light #milkyway #dust #galaxy #lookup
Curious about what objects you can spot in the night sky this month? We can help!
Both Venus and Mercury will be visible in the evening sky this month. At the beginning of this month, they appear low on the western horizon. The Moon itself joins the pair from March 18 – 20.
The Moon will then skim by the Pleiades star cluster and Taurus’ bright red star, named Aldebaran, on the next few evenings – March 21 – 23.
Jupiter – king of the planets – rises just before midnight this month, and earlier by month end. Even through the smallest telescope or average binoculars, you should see the four Galilean moons – Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede.
So get outside this month and look up!
Credit: NASA
#credit #nasa #space #astronomy #whatsup #nightsky #sky #stargazing #solarsystem #universe #planets #stars #moon #venus #mercury #jupiter #cluster #taurus #pleiades #aldebaran #lookup
LIFT OFF! The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (@noaa) next-generation weather satellite – GOES-S onboard, launched at 5:02 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
GOES-S is the second satellite in NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series. GOES-R, the first satellite in the series, launched in November 2016 and is now GOES-16. GOES-S will be designated GOES-17 upon reaching geostationary orbit. After a period of on-orbit test and checkout, GOES-17 will be operational as GOES-West, providing coverage of the western U.S., Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean. Together, GOES-16 and GOES-17 will observe Earth from the west coast of Africa all the way to Guam, providing researchers and meteorologists with valuable data on weather systems five times faster and at four times the image resolution than previous GOES spacecraft, offering more accurate, reliable forecasts and severe weather outlooks.
Credit: NASA
#space #rocket #goess #goes17 #noaa #weather #satellite #rocketlaunch #picoftheday #nasa #ula #atlasv #launch #liftoff #Earth #meteorology
As recently as 2010, only 3 percent of Cambodia’s domestically generated electricity came from hydropower. By 2016, hydropower was the source of 60 percent of it. Completion of the Lower Sesan II dam in Stung Treng province will give hydropower yet another boost. At full capacity, the project is designed to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, making it the biggest hydropower station in the country.
Our satellite captured these before and after natural-color images of the dam and reservoir. The first image was acquired on February 14, 2017; the second one shows the same area on February 1, 2018. The brown and light green areas in the first image, particularly those with straight edges, were likely cleared recently for timber; some of the smaller tan areas were crop fields near villages. Densely forested areas are green.
In a country where only 50 percent of rural communities have access to the electrical grid, the boost in generating capacity will help with a government-led effort to bring electricity to all Cambodians by 2022. The project is also expected to reduce the cost of electricity. However, the dam and its 75 square-kilometer (29 square-mile) reservoir will also have significant impacts on communities near the river. Though some communities have resisted moving, rising waters have forced thousands of people to leave their villages. Scientists have cautioned that the Mekong Basin could see a 9 percent drop in the availability of fish.
Credit: NASA /Joshua Stevens
#nasa #space #earth #water #renewableenergy #power #electricity #cambodia #reservoir #dam #sesan #suntreng #picoftheday #hydropower #science #sustainability
A magnetic power struggle of galactic proportions - new research highlights the role of the Sun's magnetic landscape in the development of solar eruptions that can trigger space weather events around Earth.
Using data from our Solar Dynamics Observatory, scientists examined an October 2014 Jupiter-sized sunspot group, an area of complex magnetic fields, often the site of solar activity. This was the biggest group in the past two solar cycles and a highly active region. Though conditions seemed ripe for an eruption, the region never produced a major coronal mass ejection (CME) – a massive, bubble-shaped eruption of solar material and magnetic field – on its journey across the Sun. It did, however, emit a powerful X-class flare, the most intense class of flares. What determines, the scientists wondered, whether a flare is associated with a CME?
The scientists found that a magnetic cage physically prevented a CME from erupting that day. Just hours before the flare, the sunspot’s natural rotation contorted the magnetic rope and it grew increasingly twisted and unstable, like a tightly coiled rubber band.
Credits: Tahar Amari et al./Center for Theoretical Physics/École Polytechnique/NASA Goddard/Joy Ng
#nasa #space #sun #solar #flare #solarsystem #solar #science #green #hot #fire #magnetic #eruption #gif
This animation blinks between two images of our Mars Phoenix Lander. The first – dark smudges on the planet’s surface. The second – the same Martian terrain nearly a decade later, covered in dust. Our Mars orbiter captured this shot as it surveyed the planet from orbit: the first in 2008. The second: late 2017.
In August 2008, Phoenix completed its three-month mission studying Martian ice, soil and atmosphere. The lander worked for two additional months before reduced sunlight caused energy to become insufficient to keep the lander functioning. The solar-powered robot was not designed to survive through the dark and cold conditions of a Martian arctic winter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
#nasa #space #mars #phoenix #lander #science #redplanet #martian #ice #soil #dust #gif #spacecraft #solarsystem
Sputters and spurts on the Sun’s only visible active region eventually unleashed this brief, bright flare on Feb. 7. The flare appears about mid-way through the half-day clip. Normally, we do not pay much attention to flares this small, but it was just about the only real solar activity over the week around Feb. 7 as the Sun is slowing approaching its quiet period of the 11-year solar cycle.
These images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
Credit: NASA/SDO
#nasa #space #solar #flare #sun #spurt #sputter #active #solarsystem #spacecraft #star #mission #observatory #science
It's eclipse season for our Sun-watching observatory. During this three-week period that comes twice a year near the equinoxes, Earth blocks the Solar Dynamic Observatory's view of the Sun for a short while each day. The eclipses are fairly short near the beginning and end of the season but ramp up to 72 minutes in the middle.
Seen here in extreme ultraviolet light is the eclipsed view on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018 when Earth crossed the observatory's view of the Sun. Also known as a transit, Earth’s passage was brief, lasting from 2:10 a.m. to 2:41 a.m. EST and covering the entire face of the Sun. Most spacecraft observing the Sun from an orbit around Earth have to contend with such eclipses. The mission's orbit is designed to maximize the amount of data the spacecraft can send back to Earth. This year, the spring eclipse season began on Feb. 10 with a partial eclipse and concludes March 5, 2018.
Darker, cooler areas on the Sun – known as sunspots – have been mostly absent for almost two weeks, as of Feb. 1. A single, tiny one appeared on Jan. 31, but even that is hard to see in this rotating view from our Solar Dynamics Observatory. The video shows a rotating sun in filtered light for the past week, but it is even hard to tell the sun is rotating since there are just about no features.
This spotless period is a prelude to the approaching period of solar minimum next year, when the Sun’s activity will be at the low end of its 11-year cycle.
Credit: NASA/SDO
#nasa #space #sun #solar #sunspots #solarsystem #universe #orange #rotate #spots #observatory #spacecraft
On Feb. 1, we fired up one of the four RS-25 engines that will power our Space Launch System rocket to destinations like the Moon and Mars. Did you see that start up!? Fun Fact: Hot gases exit the nozzle at 13X the speed of sound!
The full-duration, 365-second test helped verify that the flight controller – the engine’s “brain” – can properly communicate with the rocket. This test also used a 3D-printed component on the engine as an ongoing effort to use advanced manufacturing techniques as a means of reducing engine construction costs.
Credit: NASA
#nasa #space #rocket #rocketscience #engine #science #fire #smoke #steam #ignite #gas #brain #moon #mars #rocket #orion #spacecraft #video
What’s up in the night sky for February?
In honor of Valentine's Day, we look at celestial star pairs and constellation couples. A pair of star clusters will be visible throughout the month after sunset. The Perseus Double Cluster will be high in the sky near Andromeda’s parents: Cepheus and Cassiopeia.
Watch to see what else you’ll be able to spot in February!
Credit: NASA
#nasa #space #february #whatsup #nightsky #astronomy #solarsystem #valentinesday #valentines #celestial #star #constellation #couple #cluster #sunset #perseus #cepheus #cassiopeia
Much of the western United States began the morning with the view of a super blue blood moon total lunar eclipse. In this silent time lapse video, the complete eclipse is seen over our Jet Propulsion Laboratory (@NASAJPL), located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, California.
This Jan. 31 full moon was special for three reasons: it was the third in a series of “supermoons,” when the Moon is closer to Earth in its orbit – known as perigee – and about 14 percent brighter than usual. It was also the second full moon of the month, commonly known as a “blue moon.” The super blue moon will pass through Earth’s shadow to give viewers in the right location a total lunar eclipse. While the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow it will take on a reddish tint, known as a “blood moon.” Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
#superbluebloodmoon #supermoon #bluemoon #bloodmoon #moon #fullmoon #LunarEclipse #NASA #timelapse #video
