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Montebello, CA
The yard looks really clean right now with all the construction done. Some odd and unique sightings include the GMC RL, 2 ex-Ontario Amreps with fire damage, and county trucks. Also didn't know they had 2 WXLL RLs.
At The HSV airport in Huntsville, Alabama. The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft that is used for hauling outsize cargo components and is used by NASA to transport large parts of rockets and other space related items. www.nasa.gov/specials/jsc-aircraft-ops/guppy.html
The expansion of massive salt evaporation projects on the Dead Sea are clearly visible in this time series of images taken by Landsat satellites operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
This false-color image was captured by the Landsat 1, 4 & 7 satellites.
Jutting out into the sea from the right in all three images is the Lisan Peninsula. In 1989, the expansion of pools to harvest salt resulted in that white-colored peninsula cutting the sea in half and forming a land bridge across the sea.
The intensity of the blue colors within the sea shows the depth of the water. Deep water in the north part of the sea is dark blue. Lighter colored blue is where the water is channeled into pools for harvesting salt. The straight white lines are dams built to break up the sea into 'fields' of salty water.
Over time, these salt evaporation projects sliced the Dead Sea into more and more of these pools. In 2011 the deeper-looking water in the southern part of the sea is due to weekly variations in the amount of water filling the pools, ongoing changes that depend on the current stage of salt harvesting.
On land, the pale pink and sand-colored regions are desert with denser vegetation appearing bright red.
The Dead Sea is so named because its natural salinity discourages the growth of fish, plants and other wildlife. The sea exists because the land has been sinking for millennia due to the continents of Africa and Asia pulling away from each other. This depression makes the lake the lowest surface feature on Earth at about 1,300 feet (nearly 400 meters) below sea level. On a hot dry summer day, the surface of the Dead Sea can drop as much as one inch (two to three centimeters) because of evaporation.
The sea has attracted visitors for thousands of years. Between 1947 and 1956, a series of 972 ancient texts were discovered in caverns near the sea's northeastern shore. These Dead Sea Scrolls were written on papyrus and paper and contained details from the Hebrew Bible and other biblical documents.
The ancient Egyptians also used salts from the Dead Sea for mummification, fertilizers and potash (a potassium-based salt). In the modern age, the sodium chloride and potassium salts culled from the sea are also used in part for water conditioning, road de-icing and by the chemical industry for the manufacturing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics.
The Landsat 1, 4 and 7 satellites captured this false-color image using light from near-infrared, red and green wavelengths (MSS bands 4, 2, & 1 and TM and ETM+ bands 4, 3, & 2 respectively).
Landsat 1 launched in 1972 and provided scientific data until 1978. In 1982 NASA launched Landsat 4, which ran for 11 years until 1993. Landsat 7 is still up and running; it was launched in 1999. The data from these and other Landsat satellites has been instrumental in increasing our understanding of forest health, storm damage, agricultural trends, urban growth, and many other ongoing changes to our land.
NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images that is freely available data over the Internet. The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for launch in January 2013.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Landsat
Related Links
NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission
USGS's Landsat website
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Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Of course, the cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. This composite was recorded through narrow band filters that transmit the light from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms in the region. The resulting image highlights the bright swept-back ridges that outline pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas. Such embedded, dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within the obscuring cosmic dust. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. via NASA ift.tt/1Moutg5
If you climbed to the top of this 13th century stone tower, it looks like you could reach out and touch the North Celestial Pole, the point at the center of all the star trail arcs. The well-composed image with scattered meteor streaks was recorded over a period of five and half hours as a series of 45 second long exposures spanning the dark of the night on July 7/8. The exposures were made with a digital camera fixed to a tripod near Marathon, Greece, planet Earth. Of course, the graceful star trails reflect the Earth's daily rotation around its axis. By extension, the axis of rotation leads to the center of the concentric arcs in the night sky. Convenient for northern hemisphere night sky photographers and celestial navigators alike, the bright star Polaris is very close to the North Celestial Pole and so makes the short bright trail in the tower's central gap. via NASA ift.tt/2aii6rS
Crediti: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS - Processing: Elisabetta Bonora & Marco Faccin / aliveuniverse.today
The two remaining NASA switchers cross the FEC drawbridge in Jacksonville, Fl, before heading further north, no longer under NASA reporting marks or ownership. NASA terminated all rail operations because the railroad was so underused that it became unnecessary.
There are now two active tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and NASA is generating satellite imagery to monitor their march westward. Tropical Storm Issac is already bringing rainfall to the Lesser Antilles today, Aug. 22, Tropical Depression 10 formed in the eastern Atlantic, and another low fizzled in the western Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Isaac formed late on Aug. 21 from Tropical Depression 9 and immediately caused warnings and watches. Tropical Depression 10 formed during the morning hours on Aug. 22 in the central Atlantic, east of Isaac and appears to be following the tropical storm on NOAA's GOES-13 satellite imagery. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Isaac over the Lesser Antilles, and newborn Tropical Depression 10 trailing behind on Aug. 22 at 1445 UTC (10:45 a.m. EDT). The image was created by the NASA GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Both storms are showing good circulation.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Isaac on Aug. 22 at 2:05 a.m. EDT, as it was bringing heavy rainfall to the Lesser Antilles. Strong thunderstorms appeared in a band of thunderstorms in Isaac's western quadrant that had cloud top temperatures as cold as -63F (-52C).
Watches and Warnings in Effect
The National Hurricane Center has posted Warnings and Watches for Tropical Storm Issac. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe and the surrounding islands, and St. Martin, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, and Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
There are also hurricane and tropical storm watches in effect. A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands; the south coast of the Dominican Republic from Isla Saona westward to the Haiti-Domenican Republic southern border. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the north coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti-Dominican Republic northern border eastward to north of Isla Saona.
Tropical Storm Isaac
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Aug. 22, Tropical Storm Isaac had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kmh), and the NHC said that strengthening is forecast. Isaac could become a hurricane by Thursday or Thursday night, Aug. 23. The center of Isaac was about 140 miles (230 km) east of Guadaloupe, near latitude 15.9 north and longitude 59.3 west. Isaac is moving westward near 21 mph (33 kmh) is expected to stay on this track over the next couple of days.
The NHC said, "On the forecast track the center of Isaac should move through the Leeward Islands this evening and pass near or south of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Thursday (Aug. 23) and approach the Dominican Republic Thursday night and Friday (Aug. 24).
Tropical Depression 10 Forms
The tenth tropical depression seemed to take a cue from Issac, because soon after tropical depression 9 strengthened into Isaac, Tropical Depression 10 (TD10) was born.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the western half of Tropical Depression 10 on Aug. 22 at 12:23 a.m. EDT, hours before it was named a depression. Scattered strong thunderstorms appeared in the western and northern quadrants of the storm, indicating strong uplift in the storm, that would later lead to its consolidation and strengthening into a depression.
TD10 came into being on Aug. 22 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It was located about 860 miles (1,385 km) west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, near 12.4 North latitude and 36.3 West longitude. TD10 is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph (26 kmh) and this general motion is expected to continue during the next couple of days. TD10 has maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 kmh), and the National Hurricane Center expects TD10 to become a tropical storm Joyce.
System 95L Fizzles Out
The third low pressure area that forecasters had been watching for possible development has fizzled out, now that it moved inland in northeastern Mexico. The NHC gives it a "near zero percent" chance of development now.
Rob Gutro
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project
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Caption: The image behind NASA technologist Jacob Englander shows the trajectory to Odysseus, a Trojan asteroid. Englander used his new orbit-determination tool to create the design (not associated with any mission or mission proposal) because a colleague suggested Odysseus was a difficult-to-reach target.
Image
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Pat Izzo
Traveling to remote locations sometimes involves navigating through stop-and-go traffic, traversing long stretches of highway and maneuvering sharp turns and steep hills. The same can be said for guiding spacecraft to far-flung destinations in space. It isn’t always a straight shot.
A NASA technologist has developed a fully automated tool that gives mission planners a preliminary set of detailed directions for efficiently steering a spacecraft to hard-to-reach interplanetary destinations, such as Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and most comets and asteroids.
The tool, the Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator “offers a paradigm shift from what we normally do,” said Jacob Englander, a technologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who devised a concept for his computer-based tool while a doctorate student at the University of Illinois in Champaign. “EMTG will be used, and already is being used, to develop trajectories for proposed Goddard missions that cannot be designed using any other current tool.”
Read more: 1.usa.gov/16EhP9m
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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EPIC image captured from October 9, 2017 from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera on the DSCOVR satellite.
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As wildfires burn across California, NASA satellites help gather data about where the fires are and how smoke travels across the state.
The smoke from the fires is even visible a million miles away from Earth, captured by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). The Terra spacecraft can see fires in both daylight and at night, helping aid firefighters in tracking and stopping the blazes. NASA's unique vantage point in space helps better understand our home planet.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Currently on the opposite side of the pond spending sometime at the Jedi Transition and have been fortunate enough to catch this F-15D of NASA through the Canyon 2 days in a row,seems like this has been the first time this jet has been photographed in the Jedi.
Is there anything interesting to see in the direction opposite the Sun? One night last month, there were quite a few things. First, the red-glowing orb on the lower right of the featured image is the full moon, darkened and reddened because it has entered Earth's shadow. Beyond Earth's cone of darkness are backscattering dust particles orbiting the Sun that standout with a diffuse glow called the gegenschein, visible as a faint band rising from the central horizon and passing behind the Moon. A nearly horizontal stripe of green airglow is also discernable just above the horizon, partly blocked by blowing orange sand. Visible in the distant sky as the blue dot near the top of the image is the star Sirius, while the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches up on the image left and down again on the right. The fuzzy light patches just left of center are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Red emission nebulas too numerous to mention are scattered about the sky, but are labelled in a companion annotated image. In the image foreground is the desolate Deadvlei region of the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia, featuring the astrophotographer himself surveying a land and sky so amazing that he described it as one of the top experiences of his life. via NASA ift.tt/1jod2FX
The Milky Way is massively bright on this cold, clear, altiplano night. At 4,500 meters its reflection in a river, a volcanic peak on the distant horizon, is captured in this stitched panorama under naturally dark skies of the northern Chilean highlands near San Pedro de Atacama. Along the Solar System's ecliptic plane, the band of Zodiacal light also stands out, extending above the Milky Way toward the upper left. In the scene from late April, brilliant Mars, Saturn, and Antares form a bright celestial triangle where ecliptic meets the center of the Milky Way. Left of the triangle, the large purple-red emission nebula Sharpless 2-27, more than twenty Moon diameters wide is centered around star Zeta Ophiuchi. via NASA ift.tt/29n4bzm
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, played a critical role in the test flight of the #Orion spacecraft on Dec. 5, 2014. Goddard's Networks Integration Center, pictured here, coordinated the communications support for both the Orion vehicle and the Delta IV rocket, ensuring complete communications coverage through NASA's Space Network and Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.
The Orion spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 in Florida at 7:05 a.m. EST. The Orion capsule splashed down about four and a half hours later, at 11:29 a.m. EST, about 600 miles off the coast of San Diego, California. While no humans were aboard Orion for this test flight, in the future, Orion will allow humans to travel deeper in to space than ever before, including an asteroid and Mars.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Amber Jacobson
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Amber Jacobson
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Is there anything interesting to see in the direction opposite the Sun? One night last month, there were quite a few things. First, the red-glowing orb on the lower right of the featured image is the full moon, darkened and reddened because it has entered Earth's shadow. Beyond Earth's cone of darkness are backscattering dust particles orbiting the Sun that standout with a diffuse glow called the gegenschein, visible as a faint band rising from the central horizon and passing behind the Moon. A nearly horizontal stripe of green airglow is also discernable just above the horizon, partly blocked by blowing orange sand. Visible in the distant sky as the blue dot near the top of the image is the star Sirius, while the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches up on the image left and down again on the right. The fuzzy light patches just left of center are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Red emission nebulas too numerous to mention are scattered about the sky, but are labelled in a companion annotated image. In the image foreground is the desolate Deadvlei region of the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia, featuring the astrophotographer himself surveying a land and sky so amazing that he described it as one of the top experiences of his life. via NASA ift.tt/1jod2FX
NASA image release March 20, 2012
Studies using X-ray and ultraviolet observations from NASA's Swift satellite provide new insights into the elusive origins of an important class of exploding star called Type Ia supernovae.
Three types of systems, illustrated here, may host Type Ia supernovae. The first two panels depict a white dwarf in a binary system accumulating matter transferred from a red supergiant companion many times the sun's mass (left) or similar to the sun (middle). The transferred matter is thought to accumulate on the white dwarf and ultimately cause it to explode. Swift data on dozens of supernovae essentially eliminate the first model. Mounting evidence suggests that some Type Ia supernovae occur when binary white dwarfs (right) merge and collide.
Credit: NASA/Swift/ Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State Univ.
To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/supernova-narrowi...
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Description: The crewmembers of Skylab 3: astronaut Alan L. Bean, foreground, commander; scientist-astronaut Owen K. Garriott, left, science pilot; and astronaut Jack R. Lousma, pilot. This crew spent 59 days and 11 hours in orbit.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 72-HC-90
Date: February 2, 1972
A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake). via NASA ift.tt/1OEGdzJ
A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake). via NASA ift.tt/1OEGdzJ
You don't have to be at Monument Valley to see the Milky Way arch across the sky like this -- but it helps. Only at Monument Valley USA would you see a picturesque foreground that includes these iconic rock peaks called buttes. Buttes are composed of hard rock left behind after water has eroded away the surrounding soft rock. In the featured image taken in 2012, the closest butte on the left and the butte to its right are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte can be seen just further to the right. High overhead stretches a band of diffuse light that is the central disk of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy. The band of the Milky Way can be spotted by almost anyone on almost any clear night when far enough from a city and surrounding bright lights. via NASA ift.tt/1RH0yUk
NASA image release November 16, 2011
The science team that oversees the imaging system on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created.
This new topographic map, from Arizona State University in Tempe, shows the surface shape and features over nearly the entire moon with a pixel scale close to 100 meters (328 feet). A single measure of elevation (one pixel) is about the size of two football fields placed side-by-side.
To read more on this image go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/lro-topo.html
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/DLR/ASU
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V. via NASA ift.tt/1DOoofc
You don't have to be at Monument Valley to see the Milky Way arch across the sky like this -- but it helps. Only at Monument Valley USA would you see a picturesque foreground that includes these iconic rock peaks called buttes. Buttes are composed of hard rock left behind after water has eroded away the surrounding soft rock. In the featured image taken in 2012, the closest butte on the left and the butte to its right are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte can be seen just further to the right. High overhead stretches a band of diffuse light that is the central disk of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy. The band of the Milky Way can be spotted by almost anyone on almost any clear night when far enough from a city and surrounding bright lights. via NASA ift.tt/1RH0yUk
NASA, Lockheed Corp, F-104N (F-104G type), construction number: 683C-4045 4045, model 683-10-19
F-104N officially delivered to the NASA on July 19, 1963; flown to NASA FRC August 19, 1963 (by Joe Walker) for high speed chase coded NASA 011. From the beginning it flew with code "011" and very bright NASA color scheme. In 1970 it was resprayed into the well known white-dark blue-light blue scheme which lateron changed into white-blue-white. It got also recoded into N811NA. On October 23, 1987 it made the last official NASA research flight with Bill Dana at the controls; operational storage until at least 1990 Then it was officially phased out with a total of 4370 fights accomplished. In October 1992 it was seen at Edwards Air Base completely cocooned to protect the airframe from the outside environment. Preserved at Prescott, Arizona, with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; first noted in 1997;
A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic close-up reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The field of view is over 50 light-years across. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the stars of open cluster Trumpler 14 (below and right of center) and the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star, seen here just above the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory. via NASA ift.tt/1ORra3a
Here lie familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations. On the left is an emission nebula cataloged as NGC 7000, famous partly because it resembles our fair planet's continent of North America. The emission region to the right of the North America Nebula is IC 5070, also known for its suggestive outlines as the Pelican Nebula. Separated by a dark cloud of obscuring dust, the two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, the 4 degree wide field of view spans 100 light-years. This spectacular cosmic portrait combines narrow band images to highlight bright ionization fronts with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette. Emission from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen is captured in the narrow band image in scientifically assigned colors. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. via NASA ift.tt/1UxhPiV
Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the center of a beautiful island universe. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region, it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, making it about the size of our own Milky Way. M96, also known as NGC 3368, is known to be about 35 million light-years distant and a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group. The featured image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The reason for M96's asymmetry is unclear -- it could have arisen from gravitational interactions with other Leo I group galaxies, but the lack of an intra-group diffuse glow seems to indicate few recent interactions. Galaxies far in the background can be found by examining the edges of the picture. via NASA ift.tt/1NNvVhP
Asteroid 2005 YU55 whisks through the field of view of Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) on Nov. 9, 2011, just hours after the space rock made its closest approach to Earth. The video plays on a background image from the Digital Sky Survey that shows the same region, which lies within the Great Square asterism of the constellation Pegasus (times UT).
Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler and DSS
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The 1970s are sometimes ignored by astronomers, like this beautiful grouping of reflection nebulae in Orion - NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973 - usually overlooked in favor of the substantial glow from the nearby stellar nursery better known as the Orion Nebula. Found along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulae are also associated with Orion's giant molecular cloud about 1,500 light-years away, but are dominated by the characteristic blue color of interstellar dust reflecting light from hot young stars. In this sharp color image a portion of the Orion Nebula appears along the bottom border with the cluster of reflection nebulae at picture center. NGC 1977 stretches across the field just below center, separated from NGC 1973 (above right) and NGC 1975 (above left) by dark regions laced with faint red emission from hydrogen atoms. Taken together, the dark regions suggest to many the shape of a running man. via NASA ift.tt/1Q54iRX
NASA test pilot Joe Walker beside an X-15, following 169,000-foot altitude flight on March 30, 1961. The X-15 flew 199 times from 1959 to 1968 and was an extremely successful aeronautics research program that laid the hypersonics basis for later spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 60-x-45
Date: March 30, 1961