View allAll Photos Tagged NASA,
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
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
In this photo, engineers and technicians are installing flight thermal blankets on the structure that supports the James Webb Space Telescope's secondary mirror in a clean room at Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach, California. The strings, which are shown hanging down from the strut in this image, are called lacing cords, and they are used to tie the blankets to the struts. Why are the blankets tied on with lacing cords? Tying the blankets on allows them to be securely attached, while allowing enough room for them to shrink and move as Webb goes through the movements and temperature changes that will occur during its trip from Earth to its home in space, a million miles away. This technique also makes certain that the blankets are secure without using exposed adhesive for attaching the blankets. It’s cleaner for the telescope optics to not use a sticky adhesive nearby their pristine surfaces.
Because the blankets are tied (and also sewn on), team members working on the thermal blankets are one of the most unique groups of people working on Webb. They often have backgrounds that have included tailoring and costume making, prior to work in the aerospace industry.
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
What do Hi-C, COOL-AID, and CAPRI-SUN have in common? They like to bask in the sun...or solar flares! ☀️
Low-noise cameras – built at #NASAMarshall - took to the skies on board a sounding rocket for a never-before-seen view of a solar flare.
In this image, from left, Austin Bumbalough, Ken Kobayashi, Harlan Haight, Sabrina Savage, William Hogue, Jim Cecil, and Adam Kobelski, members of the Hi-C Flare team, gather after the payload was recovered and brought to Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Hi-C Flare, equipped with Hi-C 3, COOL-AID, CAPRI-SUN, and SSAXI, launched into a solar flare as part of the first-ever solar flare sounding rocket campaign.
Image credit: NASA
#nasa #NASAMarshall #soundingrocket #heliophysics #corona #HighResolutionCoronalImager #HiC #Hi-C #Sun #solarflare
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
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
This 747SP started life as Clipper Lindbergh in 1977 with PanAm, sold to United in 1986, retired from service in 1994, and in 1997 purchased by NASA as the next generation airborne telescope platform. Reconfigured at L3 Waco, and after ten years of major reconfiguration, flew as SOFIA for the first time in 2007. "Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy", SOFIA, 'NASA747' departs Palmdale on flight number 8 of observing cycle 9Q.
What's that over Paris? Cirrus. Typically, cirrus clouds appear white or gray when reflecting sunlight, can appear dark at sunset (or sunrise) against a better lit sky. Cirrus are among the highest types of clouds and are usually thin enough to see stars through. Cirrus clouds may form from moisture released above storm clouds and so may herald the arrival of a significant change in weather. Conversely, cirrus clouds have also been seen on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. The featured image was taken two days ago from a window in District 15, Paris, France, Earth. The brightly lit object on the lower right is, of course, the Eiffel Tower. via NASA ift.tt/28TrH7T
I thought this was a great way to see how we get some of those great images taken from space...
Using a still camera at a window on the aft flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, STS-128 mission specialist, photographs the International Space Station (visible through the window) after the undocking of the two spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA
Original image/caption:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-20/html/...
The P-3 arriving at Thule from Fairbanks and taxiing on the ramp.
Credit: NASA/Kyle Krabill
To read more about IceBridge - Arctic 2012 go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html
-----
IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.
Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- in orbit since 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.
IceBridge will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year. IceBridge flights are conducted in March-May over Greenland and in October-November over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System. Arching across the top is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous stars and nebula are also visible in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed last September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise. via NASA ift.tt/1Sy9BuV
What's in the Water?
Robert Foster, of the City College of New York, filters seawater on July 23, 2414, for chlorophyll analysis in a lab on the R/V Endeavor.
NASA's Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research (SABOR) experiment is a coordinated ship and aircraft observation campaign off the Atlantic coast of the United States, an effort to advance space-based capabilities for monitoring microscopic plants that form the base of the marine food chain.
Read more: 1.usa.gov/WWRVzj
Credit: NASA/SABOR/Wayne Slade, Sequoia Scientific..NASA image use policy.
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
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
A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reported the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto on this day in 2012. The discovery increased the number of known moons orbiting Pluto to five.
The team was using Hubble’s powerful vision to scour the Pluto system to uncover potential hazards to the New Horizons spacecraft. Moving past the dwarf planet at a speed of 30,000 miles per hour, New Horizons could have been destroyed in a collision with even a BB-shot-size piece of orbital debris.
Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978 in observations made at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Hubble observations in 2006 uncovered two additional small moons, Nix and Hydra. In 2011 another moon, P4, was found in Hubble data.
Provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1, the latest moon was detected in nine separate sets of images taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on June 26, 27, 29, and July 7 and 9.
Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Showalter (SETI Institute)
Image Number: ID 2012-32
Date: July 11, 2012
The New Horizons spacecraft took some stunning images of Jupiter on its way out to Pluto. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible through even modest sized telescopes. The featured image, horizontally compressed, was taken in 2007 near Jupiter's terminator and shows the Jovian giant's wide diversity of cloud patterns. On the far left are clouds closest to Jupiter's South Pole. Here turbulent whirlpools and swirls are seen in a dark region, dubbed a belt, that rings the planet. Even light colored regions, called zones, show tremendous structure, complete with complex wave patterns. The energy that drives these waves surely comes from below. New Horizons is the fastest space probe ever launched, has successfully complete its main flyby of Pluto in 2015, and is now heading further out and on track to flyby Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 in 2019. In the near term, many space enthusiasts excitedly await Juno's arrival at Jupiter next Monday. via NASA ift.tt/291jPFi
This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a peculiar galaxy known as NGC 1487, lying about 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Eridanus. via NASA ift.tt/1nLNNyI
Chill Test, Warm Success
NASA engineers at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., took a major step Dec. 11 towards hotfire testing of RS-25 rocket engines that will help power the new Space Launch System (SLS) on mis-sions to deep-space destinations. A-1 Test Stand operators at Stennis completed a chill test of developmental engine No. 0525, clearing the way for hotfire testing to begin in 2015. A chill test is a full-dress rehearsal for hotfire testing. During the test super-cold rocket propellants are flowed through stand and engine piping to ensure there are no problems with delivery. RS-25 engines are fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which flow at temperatures reaching less than -400 degrees Fahrenheit. During the chill test, engineers monitor such things as temperatures, pressures, and flow rates of the propellants. They also seek to verify the steps of the chill procedure and accurately gauge the amount of time needed to chill the pumps and engine for hotfire tests. Such data is studied to make any needed adjustments and to prepare the hotfire test sequence and requirements. A similar test was conducted earlier in the year without an engine installed. Liquid nitrogen was flowed through newly installed piping as a preliminary test of its design. Modification of the A-1 Test Stand for RS-25 testing has been under way for more than a year. Various stand components and configurations had to be changed to enable RS-25 testing. RS-25 engines are remaining space shuttle main engines, which have been modified for the SLS vehicle. A configuration of four RS-25 engines will power the SLS core stage. In addition to conducting development and acceptance testing of individual RS-25 engines on the A-1 stand, NASA engineers are making preparations to test the SLS core stage configuration with four RS-25 engines on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis.
Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the remarkable composite image from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope show that dust clouds fill this neighboring dwarf galaxy, much like dust along the plane of the Milky Way itself. The dust temperatures tend to trace star forming activity. Spitzer data in blue hues indicate warm dust heated by young stars. Herschel's instruments contributed the image data shown in red and green, revealing dust emission from cooler and intermediate regions where star formation is just beginning or has stopped. Dominated by dust emission, the Large Magellanic Cloud's infrared appearance is different from views in optical images. But this galaxy's well-known Tarantula Nebula still stands out, easily seen here as the brightest region to the left of center. A mere 160,000 light-years distant, the Large Cloud of Magellan is about 30,000 light-years across. via NASA ift.tt/1SQ3gtN
An artist's concept of STEREO surrounding the sun.
Credit: NASA
To read more about STEREO go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/entire-sun.html
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows Messier 96, a spiral galaxy just over 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). It is the nearest group containing both bright spirals and a bright elliptical galaxy (Messier 105). via NASA ift.tt/1i0WuDh
Chaotic in appearance, these filaments of shocked, glowing gas break across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus, as part of the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago. Blasted out in the cataclysmic event, the interstellar shock waves plow through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. The glowing filaments are really more like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into the glow of ionized hydrogen and sulfur atoms shown in red and green, and oxygen in blue hues. Also known as the Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula now spans nearly 3 degrees or about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. While that translates to over 70 light-years at its estimated distance of 1,500 light-years, this field of view spans less than one third that distance. Identified as Pickering's Triangle for a director of Harvard College Observatory and cataloged as NGC 6979, the complex of filaments might be more appropriately known as Williamina Fleming's Triangular Wisp. via NASA ift.tt/1FOtV0X
NASA satellite data reveals how this year's minimum sea ice extent, reached on Sept. 9 as depicted here, declined to a level far smaller than the 30-year average (in yellow) and opened up Northwest Passage shipping lanes (in red).
Credit: Scientific Visualization Studio
To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-ice-min.html
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070, the official designation, is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican, however, receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The featured picture was produced in three specific colors -- light emitted by sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen -- that can help us to better understand these interactions. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the right. Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different. via NASA go.nasa.gov/1O1iTwM
Sometimes, a total eclipse is a good time to eye the Sun. Taking advantage of an unusual juxtaposition of Earth, Moon and Sun, the featured image depicts the total solar eclipse that occurred last month as it appeared -- nearly simultaneously -- from both Earth and space. The innermost image shows the total eclipse from the ground, with the central pupil created by the bright Sun covered by a comparatively dark Moon. Surrounding the blocked solar disk is the tenuous corona of Sun imaged in white light, easily visible from the ground only during an eclipse. Normally, this corona is hard to track far from the Sun, but the featured montage matches it to false-colored observations of the Sun from NASA and ESA's space-based, Sun-orbiting, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Observations like this allow the study of the constantly changing magnetic activity both near and far from the Sun, the same activity that ultimately drives Earth's auroras. via NASA ift.tt/1N6evht
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
CubeSats fly free after leaving the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer on the International Space Station on May 17, 2016. Seen here are two Dove satellites. The satellites are part of a constellation designed, built and operated by Planet Labs Inc. to take images of Earth from space. via NASA ift.tt/27I2gi7
NASA satellites have watched as wind shear has torn Cyclone Iggy apart over the last day. NASA infrared satellite imagery showed that Iggy's strongest thunderstorms have been pushed away from the storm's center and visible imagery shows the storm is being stretched out. Iggy is weakening and heading for a landfall between Geraldton and Perth.
When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Iggy on Feb. 1 at 1805 UTC (1:05 p.m. EST), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard captured an infrared look at the cyclone. AIRS data showed that the strongest thunderstorms (with the coldest cloud top temperatures) had been pushed to the southeast of Iggy's center. That convection was pushed by vertical wind shear from the northwest. Once convection is pushed away from a tropical cyclone's center, the storm begins to fall apart. Tropical cyclones must be stacked in the atmosphere like a haystack. If the middle (convection in this case) gets pushed out, then the storm collapses.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a true color image of Iggy when it passed overhead on Feb. 2, 2012 at 0615 UTC (1:15 a.m. EST). The MODIS image clearly shows how the wind shear is affecting the tropical depression because Iggy appears elongated from northwest to southeast, which is the direction of the wind shear.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM) issued severe weather warnings for residents from Kalbarri to Morawa, and from Morawa to Wongan Hills; and Wongan to Narrogin and Harvey. The ABM website noted that the warning includes people in, near or between the following towns: Geraldton, Jurien Bay, Perth, Mandurah, York and Narrogin. Those areas can expect thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, and gusty winds as Iggy continues moving east. Flash flooding is also a possibility from the heavy rainfall.
On February 2, 2012, Tropical Depression Iggy had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (~35 mph/~56 kph). It was located about 170 nautical miles (~196 miles/~315 km) northwest of Perth, Western Australia, and its center was near 29.9 South latitude and 114.2 East longitude. Iggy was moving to the east at 14 knots (16 mph/~26 kph) and is expected to continue in that direction making landfall before 0300 UTC on February 3, 2012 (or before 10 p.m. EST, Feb. 3). Iggy is expected to quickly weaken to a remnant low as it moves further inland in Western Australia.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
Text Credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
The Henbury craters in the Northern Territory, Australia, planet Earth, are the scars of an impact over 4,000 years old. When an ancient meteorite fragmented into dozens of pieces, the largest made the 180 meter diameter crater whose weathered walls and floor are lit in the foreground of this southern hemisphere nightscape. The vertical panoramic view follows our magnificent Milky Way galaxy stretching above horizon, its rich central starfields cut by obscuring dust clouds. A glance along the galactic plane also reveals Alpha and Beta Centauri and the stars of the Southern Cross. Captured in the region's spectacular, dark skies, the Small Magellanic Cloud, satellite of the Milky Way, is the bright galaxy to the left. Not the lights of a nearby town, the visible glow on the horizon below it is the Large Magellanic Cloud rising. via NASA ift.tt/1OrZQgI
The majestic Lagoon Nebula is filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebula is so big and bright that it can be seen without a telescope toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the right of the open cluster's center. The featured image was taken in the light emitted by Hydrogen (shown in brown), Sulfur (red), and Oxygen (blue) and displayed in enhanced color. The featured picture is a newly processed panorama of M8, capturing twice the diameter of the Full Moon. Star formation continues in the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many globules that exist there. via NASA ift.tt/1S1LYdR
This unusual looking plane was spotted at the airport.
377SGT-F Super Guppy
El Paso International Airport
February 2, 2012
The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.
The CERES results help scientists to determine the Earth's energy balance, providing a long-term record of this crucial environmental parameter that will be consistent with those of its predecessors.
In the longwave image, heat energy radiated from Earth (in watts per square meter) is shown in shades of yellow, red, blue and white. The brightest-yellow areas are the hottest and are emitting the most energy out to space, while the dark blue areas and the bright white clouds are much colder, emitting the least energy. Increasing temperature, decreasing water vapor, and decreasing clouds will all tend to increase the ability of Earth to shed heat out to space.
To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/npp-ceres-firstlight....
Credit: NASA/NOAA/CERES Team
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.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram