tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31885802202767567702024-03-12T16:23:18.150-07:00Nasa International Space StationNasaspaceinfo.com provides you latest nasa international space information,images,videos,pictures,satellites to Stars,astronomy,The Sun and the Planets and we have your information here.David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.comBlogger525125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-39085600976994205052013-01-10T01:04:00.003-08:002013-01-10T01:04:32.458-08:00 NASA contract May Put Inflatable secretive Module on Space Station<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>NASA</b> and Bigelow Aerospace have reached a contract that could cover the method for attaching a Bigelow-built inflatable space habitat to the International Space Station, a NASA spokes man said.<br /><br />The $17.8 million agreement was signed in late December, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto told Space News Monday. Perrotto declined to offer other conditions of the accord, except to speak that it centers on the Bigelow extended Aerospace Module. He said an official statement is in the works.<br /><br />The contract signed in December follows a nonpaying NASA agreement Bigelow got in <b>2011</b>, under which the North Las Vegas, Nev., company worked up a catalog of rules and protocols for totaling BEAM to the space station. Bigelow got that agreement, which did not call for any flight hardware, in response to a 2010 NASA Broad Agency Announcement seeking thoughts for support equipment and services meant to help the U.S. part of the International Space Station live up to its billing as a countrywide laboratory.<br /><br /><b>SpaceX </b>and Orbital are below agreement for space station cargo deliveries through 2016. So far, only SpaceX has flown to the location. The company, which flies Dragon cargo capsules atop Falcon 9 rockets, finished its initial contracted run in October. Orbital, which is raising a cargo freighter called Cygnus for begin aboard its new Antares rocket, is now listed to start a demonstration cargo run in February from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.</div>
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David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-34269981055503660662013-01-07T05:36:00.000-08:002013-01-07T05:37:50.395-08:00NASA Eyes Wild Plan to haul Asteroid close to the Moon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Capturing a near-Earth asteroid and dragging it into path around the moon could aid humanity put boots on Mars sometime, proponents of the design say.<br />
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NASA is allowing for a <b>$2.6 billion</b> asteroid-retrieval assignment that could transport a space rock to tall lunar orbit by 2025 or so, New Scientist reported last week. The plan could help jump-start manned examination of deep space, carving out a pathway to the Red Planet and maybe even more far-flung destinations, its developers keep.<br />
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"Experience gained via human expeditions to the little returned NEA would move straight to follow-on global expeditions beyond the Earth-moon system: to other near-Earth asteroids, Phobos and Deimos, Mars and potentially sometime to the main asteroid strap," the mission idea team, which is based at the Keck organization for Space Studies in California, wrote in a viability learn of the map last year.<br />
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<b>Space</b> organization officials verify that <b>NASA</b> is indeed looking at the Keck suggestion as a way to help extend humanity's footprint out into the solar system. But the appraisal is still in its early stages, with nothing determined yet.<br />
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Up-close test of a captured asteroid would also yield insights into the financial value of space rock capital and hut light on the top ways to deflect potentially unsafe asteroids away from Earth.</div>
David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-23353456957133431232013-01-04T01:51:00.001-08:002013-01-04T01:53:23.536-08:00NASA could revolve space waste into radiation shields<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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NASA researchers are testing strips made of trash — including plastic water bottles; clothing scraps, canal tape and foil drink pouches — in a try to twist astronauts' garbage into a space mission’s treasure.<br />
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Like their earthbound counterparts, astronauts make junk in their day-to-day lives, but different us; they can’t just bag it and abscond it on the curb.<br />
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"If <b>NASA </b>doesn't do something about it, then the spacecraft will become like a landfill, with the astronauts totaling waste to it all day."<br />
Each tile is just over a centimeter broad, roughly 20 cm in diameter — which is a bit bigger than a normal compact disk — and made from about a day’s worth of rubbish.<br />
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<b>Mary Hummerick</b>, another microbiologist working on the project, sees possible in all the plastic packaging the astronauts discard.<br />
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If the plastic content of the disks is high enough, "they could really shield radiation," she said. <b>NASA’s </b>website explains that the strips could be arranged to shield the astronaut’s sleeping region or strengthen the spacecraft’s "storm shelter."<br />
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If all goes as intended, the end product could be particularly significant for crews living in space for up to two years — which is, NASA points out, the anticipated period of a Mars mission.<br />
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"If the instance and temperature tests seem to be achieving what we want, we'll go to long-range storage space testing," said Hummerick. </div>
David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-90719573951311922872012-12-05T05:26:00.001-08:002012-12-05T05:26:11.010-08:00NASA Voyager 1 Encounters ‘magnetic highway’ in Deep Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the remote reaches of our solar system that scientists refer to as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our Sun’s magnetic field outlines are linked to interstellar magnetic field lines.<br /><br />Scientists feel this new region is the last area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space. This link allows lower-energy charged particles that start from within our heliosphere, or the bubble of charged particles the Sun blows around itself, to zoom out and allows higher-energy particles from outer to stream in.<br /><br /> Although Voyager 1 still is within the Sun’s atmosphere, we now can taste what it’s like on the exterior because the particles are zipping in and out on this attractive highway, said Edward Stone<br /><br /> We consider this is the last support of our trip to interstellar space. Our top guess is its probable just a few months to a duo years away. The new region isn’t what we expected, but we’ve come to expect the unexpected from Voyager, he stated.<br /><br />Since December 2004 when Voyager 1 crossed a tip in space called the termination shock, the spacecraft has explored the heliosphere’s outer layer, called the heliosheath.<br /><br />In this area, the stream of charged particles from the Sun known as the solar wind suddenly slowed down from supersonic speeds and became turbulent. Voyager 1’s atmosphere was consistent for about five and a half years. The spacecraft then detected that the external speed of the solar wind slowed to zero.</div>
David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-87832693600953912982012-11-17T05:24:00.000-08:002012-11-17T05:24:07.099-08:00 Hubble space telescope helps discover most remote galaxy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Astronomers have revealed what is probably the most remote galaxy yet seen in the Universe by combining the power of the <b>NASA/ESA</b> Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and one of nature’s zoom lenses. The object offers a glance back into a time when the world was only 3% of its present age of 13.7 billion years.<br /><br />We see the recently discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, as it was 420 million years after the Big Bang. Its light has travelled for 13.3 billion years to reach Earth, which corresponds to a redshift of around 11.<br /><br />This is the newest discovery from the Cluster Lensing and Supernova review with Hubble, which uses enormous galaxy clusters as cosmic telescopes to enlarge remote galaxies behind them, an effect called gravitational lensing<br /><br />Along the way, 8 billion years into its trip, the galaxy’s light took a detour along many paths around the enormous galaxy cluster <b>MACS J0647.7+7015</b>. Due to the gravitational lensing, the team observed three magnified images of MACS0647-JD with Hubble.<br /><br />The cluster’s gravity boosted the light from the distant galaxy, making the images show far brighter than they otherwise would, although they motionless appear as tiny dots in Hubble’s portrait.<br /><br />The estimated mass of this baby galaxy is roughly equal to 100 million or a billion suns, or 0.1-1% the mass of our Milky Way’s stars. “This object may be one of many building blocks of a galaxy,” Dan Coe, lead author of the study said.<br /><br />The object is so little it may be in the first stages of galaxy formation, with analysis showing the galaxy is less than 600 light-years across. For contrast the Milky Way is <b>150 000</b> light-years across.<br /></div>
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David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-86728032218566948122012-10-17T03:28:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:28:58.749-07:00 NASA's Cassini Space Probe at Saturn celebrates 15 years in space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>NASA’s Cassini spacecraft </b>marked 15 years in space Monday (Oct. 15), and the well-traveled probe won’t prevent studying Saturn and its many moons anytime soon.<br /><br />Cassini has logged more than 3.8 billion miles since its launch on Oct. 15, 1997, researchers said. The spacecraft has made many contributions since arriving at Saturn in July 2004, including discovering water-ice geysers on the moon Escalades and snapping the primary views of the hydrocarbon lakes on Saturn’s biggest moon Titan.<br /><br />During its time in space, the Cassini probe has sent home about 444 gigabytes of systematic data, including more than 300,000 images. Researchers have published more than 2,500 documents based on Cassini data so far, NASA officials said.<br /><br />Cassini’s operators have sent it to call more than a dozen of Saturn’s 60-plus moons in the last eight years, and they sometimes ask the probe to find shots of the planet’s poles. Planning out such a pushy flight path is difficult, particularly given the gravitational influences of Saturn’s moons and Cassini’s incomplete fuel supply, mission managers said.<br /><br />In <b>November 2016</b>, the probe will embark on a sequence of orbits that take it ever faster to Saturn. These orbits will begin just exterior Saturn's F ring, the outermost of the major rings, researchers said.<br /><br />In <b>April 2017</b>, a close meet with Titan will throw Cassini on a pathway that will take it in Saturn’s innermost ring, just a hair away from the top of the huge planet’s atmosphere. Cassini will build 22 such close passes, and then a gravitational tug from a last, distant flyby of Titan will seal the spacecraft’s fate. It will crash into Saturn on <b>Sept. 15, 2017</b>.<br /><br />The $3.2 billion Cassini-Huygens task is a collaboration involving NASA, the <b>European Space Agency</b> and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini spacecraft ferried a probe called Huygens, which landed on Titan in January 2005. Huygens survived its thrust through the enormous moon’s broad atmosphere and sent information back to Earth for about 90 minutes after moving down.<br /></div>
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David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-17854994898333886052012-09-14T06:05:00.000-07:002012-09-14T06:05:42.863-07:00NASA's Space Launch System rejoice: Powering Forward<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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NASA is powering ahead toward a brand new destinations in the solar system. This week marks one year of development since the formation of the Space Launch System (SLS), the nation's next pace in human examination efforts.<br /><br />On <b>Sept. 14</b>, 2011, <b>NASA</b> announced a new ability for America's space program: a heavy-lift rocket planned to take the Orion spacecraft and send astronauts beyond into space than still before. <br /><br />And now, one year afterward, NASA has made swift development improving on existing hardware, testing and developing new mechanism, and paving the method for a new launch vehicle. The SLS will build human examination of deep space an actuality and make new possibilities for systematic detection.<br /><br />The SLS is a national ability and will be the biggest rocket ever built, providing the authority we want to really explore beyond our present limits," said Todd May, <b>Space Launch System</b> program manager. "Not only will it take us beyond small Earth orbit, but it will get us there faster."<br /><br />"Our aim was to become a leaner and more proficient program, based on lessons learned from earlier successes by the agency," May said. "But even more significant is to build a secure vehicle for our astronauts and one that can keep up exploration for years to come.<br /><br />When Orion flies for the first time, SLS also will trial the spacecraft payload integration adapter ring. Engineers and machinists at Marshall are building this part of the rocket, which will mate the spacecraft to the Delta IV stand-in for SLS during Orion's trial flight in 2014 and the rest of the Space Launch System in 2017.<br /><br />The adapter ring was future for both applications as a model of NASA's obligation to affordable solutions for the human examination of space.</div>
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David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-83065546252418277472012-09-05T02:22:00.000-07:002012-09-05T02:23:24.881-07:00NASA's traveler 'dancing on edge' of outer space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In a lecture marking the approaching 35th centenary of the Voyager project, Ed Stone said it could be "days, months or years" before it lastly breaks into interstellar space.Earlier this year a surge in a key pointer fueled hopes that the craft was nearing the so-called heliopause, which inscription the limit between our solar system and external space. <br />
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Scientists were intrigued in May by an enlarge in cosmic waves hitting the spacecraft, which for decades has snapped images of the Earth and other planets in the solar system as it has made its long trip into external space.But measurements since then have fluctuated up and down, signifying that, while the ability is near to the edge, it may tranquil not get there for some time.<br />
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"Crossing into interstellar space -- that will be a significant instant when the first object launched from Earth finally leaves the fizz," he said. Before May's rush in space rays researchers had said they projected Voyager 1 would leave the solar system and enter interstellar space -- between the end of the Sun's pressure and the next star system -- within two years. <br />
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NASA has described Voyager 1 -- today 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the Sun -- and its cohort Voyager 2 as "the two most far-away active representatives of civilization and its wish to discover."<br />
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The scientists scheming Voyager 1 -- whose 1970s technology means it has only a 100,000th of the computer recollection of an 8 gigabyte iPod Nano -- determined to turn off its cameras after it approved Neptune in 1989, to protect control.</div>
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David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-59859235137108555842012-07-23T05:18:00.001-07:002012-07-23T05:18:07.409-07:00Shuttle Update for July 17<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Shuttle Atlantis:<br /><br />Shuttle Atlantis is being temporarily stored in
the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in
Florida. Atlantis is scheduled to return to Orbiter Processing
Facility-2 in August to complete transition and retirement processing.
Atlantis is being prepared for public display at the Kennedy Space
Center Visitor Complex and is scheduled to roll over to the complex in
November. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is targeting a July
2013 grand opening for Atlantis’ new home.<br /><br />Shuttle Endeavour:<br /><br />On
July 11-13, technicians in Orbiter Processing Facility-2, installed
Endeavour’s replica shuttle main engines. Endeavour is being prepared
for permanent public display at the California Science Center in Los
Angeles. Its ferry flight to California is targeted for mid-September.</div>
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NASA's space shuttle fleet began setting records with its first launch
on April 12, 1981 and continued to set high marks of achievement and
endurance through 30 years of missions. Starting with Columbia and
continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the
spacecraft has carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered
and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the
largest structure in space, the International Space Station. The final
space shuttle mission, STS-135, ended July 21, 2011 when Atlantis rolled
to a stop at its home port, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<br /><br />
As humanity's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle pushed the
bounds of discovery ever farther, requiring not only advanced
technologies but the tremendous effort of a vast workforce. Thousands of
civil servants and contractors throughout NASA's field centers and
across the nation have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to mission
success and the greater goal of space exploration. </div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-76755542307622658272012-07-09T23:45:00.000-07:002012-07-09T23:48:06.062-07:00Tips to be Followed during Property Auction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
you find a </span><a href="http://www.propertyauctionzone.com/loan-payment-calculator.html"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">property
at auction</span></b></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, you will immediately think about
the loss that the owner of the property must have gone through for the property
to come for public auction. Auctions have become very common these days due to
the financial crunch that came forth in the recent past leaving a lot of home
owners to take this bitter decision. We can see auctions as one of the methods
that are in practice for selling and buying properties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mostly
auctions are considered as loss for the property owner and a big gain for the
ones who take the property in auction for the best bid. But the actual truth is
that there are equal possibilities for the seller and the buyer to enjoy profit
if they follow a few points while managing a property auction. But the saddest
point is that in many cases neither the buyer nor the seller gets profit but
the agent who makes the best use of the situation gets the best revenue. It is
a real blunder if you let the third party to earn money without any actual work
done over the whole process. You will have to be well informed about a few
points and tips to follow even before you plan to place your bid at a </span><a href="http://www.propertyauctionzone.com/aboutus.htm"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Property auction</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Before
the Auction you will have to keep yourself informed about the actual rate of a
similar property at the same location. Do a proper property valuation check
before you buy or sell your property. Don't let people to under estimate the
property value if you are the seller or the brokers to over value the property
in case you are the buyer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you are going to buy a property, study about
the property and find if it's useful for your and if it is your kind before
going for a property auction to place your bid. When you want to buy a property
you will have to find out about the repair works that needs to be done for the
property after buying it. Do a rough calculation of the estimated amount that
you will have to spend on the property after you buy it in the auction. See if
the total amount falls within your budget, this will avoid any financial
scarcity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you are planning to earn some money out of the rent that you might
get from the building, do check with people about the area value and the
possible amount of rent that you can expect from the property after you repair
it. Check if there is any major local development that might affect the
property that you are going to place the bid for. During the auction, always
try to make note of the other auctioneers moves so that you can place your bid
effectively and never turn emotional. Keep yourself calm and plan thing well
before you place your bid.</span></div>
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The Writer has written about <b><a href="http://www.propertyauctionzone.com/">Investment Houses </a></b>and UK auction list. He has written many articles in various topics like <b><a href="http://www.propertyauctionzone.com/fauction.php">Residential Home
</a></b>, and UK property auctions.</div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-45906792680113523582012-07-09T02:31:00.000-07:002012-07-09T02:31:01.130-07:00NASA Satellites Examine a Powerful Summer Storm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As a powerful summertime storm, known as a derecho, moved from Illinois to the Mid-Atlantic states on June 29, expanding and bringing destruction with it, NASA and other satellites provided a look at various factors involved in the event, its progression and its aftermath.<br /><br />According to <b>NOAA's Storm Prediction Center</b> web site, a derecho (pronounced "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Damage from a derecho is usually in one direction along a relatively straight track. By definition an event is classified a derecho if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length.<br /><br />These storms are most common in the <b>United States</b> during the late spring and summer, with more than three quarters occurring between April and August. They either extend from the upper Mississippi Valley southeast into the Ohio Valley, or from the southern Plains northeast into the <b>mid-Mississippi Valley</b>.<br /><br />The movie begins on June 28 at 1515 UTC (11:15 a.m. EDT) and ends on June 30, 2012 at 1601 UTC (12:01 p.m. EDT). In the animation, the derecho's clouds appear as a line in the upper Midwest on June 29 at 1432. By 1602 UTC, they appear as a rounded area south of Lake Michigan. By 2132, the area of the derecho's clouds were near Lake Erie and over Ohio expanding as the system track southeast. By 0630 UTC, the size appears to have almost doubled as the derecho moves over West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. At 0232 UTC on June 30 (10:32 p.m. EDT), the Derecho was over the mid-Atlantic bringing a 100 mile line of severe storms and wind gusts as high as 90 mph to the region.<br /><br />The process of a derecho can become self-sustaining as hot and humid air is forced upward by the gust front and develops more (reinforcing) towering clouds. When one adds in a rear low level jet stream, there is nothing to stop the repeating process.<br /><br /><b>NASA's Aqua satellite</b> flew over the derecho on June 29 and June 30, using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument (AIRS) onboard to capture infrared imagery of the event.<br /><br />The AIRS images for June 29, shows the crescent shape of the initial stage of the derecho as it gathered strength on the Michigan-Indiana-Ohio border and began its rapid eastward movement. "The AIRS infrared image shows the high near-surface atmospheric temperatures blanketing the South and Midwestern U.S., approaching 98 degrees Fahrenheit," said Ed Olsen of the AIRS Team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-27759036506692422712012-06-26T06:48:00.000-07:002012-06-26T06:48:07.768-07:00Cassini Shows Why Jet Streams Cross-Cut Saturn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Turbulent jet streams, regions where winds blow faster than in other places, churn east and west across Saturn. Scientists have been trying to understand for years the mechanism that drives these wavy structures in Saturn's atmosphere and the source from which the jets derive their energy.<br /><br />In a new study appearing in the June edition of the journal Icarus, scientists used images collected over several years by NASA's Cassini spacecraft to discover that the heat from within the planet powers the jet streams. Condensation of water from Saturn's internal heating led to temperature differences in the atmosphere. The temperature differences created eddies, or disturbances that move air back and forth at the same latitude, and those eddies, in turn, accelerated the jet streams like rotating gears driving a conveyor belt.<br /><br />A competing theory had assumed that the energy for the temperature differences came from the sun. That is how it works in the Earth's atmosphere.<br /><br />"We know the atmospheres of planets such as Saturn and Jupiter can get their energy from only two places: the sun or the internal heating. The challenge has been coming up with ways to use the data so that we can tell the difference," said Tony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, N.Y., the lead author of the paper and a member of the Cassini imaging team.<br /><br />The new study was possible in part because Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn long enough to obtain the large number of observations required to see subtle patterns emerge from the day-to-day variations in weather. "Understanding what drives the meteorology on Saturn, and in general on gaseous planets, has been one of our cardinal goals since the inception of the Cassini mission," said Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead, based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. </div>
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The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two on board
cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team
is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo </div>
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</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-67145735690524541462012-06-09T04:29:00.000-07:002012-06-09T04:29:37.475-07:00NASA readies to Hunt Black Holes with New Space Telescope<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The U.S. space group is set to launch a telescope into space <b>June 13</b> to seek out and learn black holes -- those still-mysterious space bodies that scientists consider lie at the spirit of every massive galaxy, including our own Milky Way.<br />
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Black holes have a gravitational pull so intense that not even light can flee from them. As gas, dust and stars are sucked in; the fabric accelerates and heats up, generating powerful X-ray beam emissions.<br />
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<b>NASA</b> is setting out to conduct a survey of the black holes in the universe. <br />
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The U.S. space organization is launching a black hole seeker, a new telescope called NuSTAR, but properly known as Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. <br />
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Paul Hertz is the director of NASA's astrophysics division. "Stars, nebulae and black holes emit X-rays of the type that we use in medical X-rays, and these cannot be detected from the outside of the Earth," explained Hertz. <br />
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Current telescopes offer images that show a universal glow from hundreds of massive black holes. NASA expects NuSTAR will be able to offer far improved images of black holes and other high-energy events when it surveys the extra-galactic sky.<br />
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NuSTAR launches, it will organize a 10-meter pole that will divide its mirrors from its detectors. That pole provides the distance required to focus the X-ray light into sharp images. <br />
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</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-22675351153628000712012-06-04T00:18:00.002-07:002012-06-04T00:19:07.351-07:00SpaceX journey should get NASA moving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A space capsule known as the <b>Dragon</b> touched down in the <b>Pacific Ocean</b> on Thursday.</div>
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After launching into orbit May 22, the capsule had performed a sequence of complicated exercises, docked with the International Space Station, dropped off more than 1,000 pounds of provisions and returned home bearing a load of science experiments.</div>
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It was the first profitable spacecraft to complete such an achievement. And the company that developed it, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, was satisfied with a U.S. government agreement of $1.6 billion to fly 12 more supply missions.</div>
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Optimists saw a quick private company leveraging public investment, reducing prospect taxpayer burdens and heralding a new age of profitable space flight.</div>
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SpaceX’s accomplishment is inspiring, and private venture seems likely to transport much-needed competence to the government’s space program. The problem is that, even if this new company delivers all its promised benefits, U.S. space policy will still have no clear objective. In spite of many setbacks, SpaceX looks like a comparatively good deal for taxpayers.</div>
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Elon Musk, the company’s billionaire founder, says its missions will charge one-eighth what space ferry flights did, and a study last year by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration set up that SpaceX spent far less than what NASA would have to expand the rocket that launched the Dragon capsule. Ambitiously, the company aims to take humans into space by <b>2015</b>.</div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-58058864768330007992012-06-03T23:21:00.001-07:002012-06-03T23:21:46.754-07:00ISS Transit of Venus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In 1768, when James Cook sailed out of Plymouth harbor to observe the
Transit of Venus in Tahiti, the trip was tantamount to a voyage through
space. The remote island had just been "discovered" a year earlier, and
by all accounts it was as strange and alien to Europeans as the stars
themselves. Cook's pinpoint navigation to Tahiti and his subsequent
observations of Venus crossing the South Pacific sun in 1769 have
inspired explorers for centuries.<br />
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One of those explorers is about to beat Cook at his own game.<br />
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High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is preparing to photograph the June 5th Transit of Venus from space itself.<br />
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Because transits of Venus come in pairs that occur once every 100 years
or so, humans have rarely had the chance to photograph the apparition
from Earth, much less from Earth orbit.<br />
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"The Expedition 31 crew will be the first people in history to see a
Venus transit from space, and Pettit will be the first to photograph
one," says Mario Runco, Jr. of the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Runco,
an astronaut himself who flew aboard three shuttle missions, is an
expert in the optics of spacecraft windows. Along with his wife Susan
Runco, who is the coordinator for astronaut photography at JSC, Mario is
helping Pettit gather the best possible images of the transit.<br />
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Pettit will be pointing his camera through the side windows of the space
station's cupola, an ESA-built observatory module that provides a
wide-angle view of Earth and the cosmos. Its seven windows are used by
the crew to operate the station's robotic arm, coordinate space
dockings, and take science-grade photos of the Earth and sky. It's also a
favorite "hangout" for off-duty astronauts who find the view
exhilarating.<br />
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Pettit describes the camera system: "I'll be using a high-end Nikon D2Xs
camera and an 800mm lens with a full-aperture white light solar
filter."<br />
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This month's transit is the bookend of a 2004-2012 pair. Astronauts
were onboard the ISS in 2004, but they did not see the transit, mainly
because they had no solar filters onboard. Tiny Venus covers a small
fraction of the solar disk, so the sun is still painfully bright to the
human eye even at mid-transit. Pettit's foresight to bring a solar
filter with him makes all the difference. </div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-40024120753339866692012-05-22T03:18:00.002-07:002012-05-22T03:21:00.335-07:00SpaceX launches historic Trip to space station<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The US Company SpaceX on Tuesday became the first marketable outfit to send its own spacecraft toward the International Station with the launch of the cargo-bearing Dragon capsule.<br />
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Three, two, one and launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as <b>NASA </b>turns to the confidential sector to resupply the International Space Station," said <b>NASA commentator George Diller,</b> as the spaceship blasted off at 3.44 am .<br />
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The trial flight -- which should include a fly by and berthing with the station in the coming days -- aims to show that industry can reinstate US access to the ISS after NASA retired its space transport fleet last year.<br />
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The task was delayed on Saturday due to a defective engine valve in the rocket's main engine, but was repaired the same day.<br />
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California-based SpaceX, owned by billionaire Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, is the primary of several US competitors to attempt sending spacecraft to the ISS with the aim of restoring US access to space for human travelers by 2015.<br />
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The company effectively test-launched its Falcon 9 rocket in June 2010, then made history with its Dragon launch in December of that year, becoming the first marketable outfit to send a spaceship into orbit and back.<br />
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Until now, only the space agency’s of Russia, Japan and Europe have been able to send deliver ships to the ISS.</div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-74758336975830607332012-05-15T22:18:00.002-07:002012-05-15T22:18:34.593-07:00NASA is Training up an Astronaut for asteroid mission<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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NASA is presently teaching astronauts to land on <b>asteroids</b> and hopes to send humans to one of the distant space rocks in about a decade, The Telegraph reported over the weekend. As in the picture Armageddon, one inspiration for the attempt is to figure out a way to obliterate or deflect a huge asteroid that could be on a collision course with Earth.<br /><br />In June, a group of astronauts will start learning how to activate vehicles and move about on asteroids.<br /><br />Major Tim Peake, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, told The Telegraph that a manned mission to intercept a received asteroid would be a last option but could prove necessary because even huge space objects can be hard to notice.<br /><br />Peake, before a test helicopter pilot, told the newspaper that "an asteroid mission of up to a year is absolutely achievable" with technology that's now available or being developed.<br /><br />Asteroids are primarily placed in a belt beyond the orbit of Mars, but some "near-Earth" substance swing closer to our planet—sometimes even within 100,000 miles or nearer, clearly, when they strike us.<br /><br /> Still, The Telegraph renowned that a mission to call an asteroid would probably takes space explorers further from Earth than the <b>239,000</b> miles traversed by NASA's Apollo astronauts when they visited the Moon.<br /><br />Aside from receiving about securely on the near-zero gravity conditions on an asteroid, landing on such little, fast-moving substance could show thorny.<br /><br /></div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-81367997142435100522012-05-14T06:35:00.001-07:002012-05-14T06:35:41.453-07:00NASA Telescope Sees the Light from an Alien Super- Earth’ 55 Cancri e<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" past our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the recognition is a notable step toward the greatest search for signs of life on other planets.<br /><br />"Spitzer has astonished us yet again," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA head office in Washington. The planet, called <b>55 Cancri e</b>, falls into a group of planets termed wonderful Earths, which are more enormous than our residence world but lighter than massive planets like Neptune.<br /><br />The planet is about twice as large and eight times as huge as Earth. It orbits an intense star, called <b>55 Cancri</b>, in a mere 18 hours.<br />
<br />Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to learn the planet by analyzing how the glow from 55 Cancri distorted as the planet accepted in front of the star.<br /><br />In the new study, Spitzer calculated how much infrared light comes from the planet itself. The 55 Cancri systems are comparatively close to Earth, at 41 light-years away. It has five planets, with 55 Cancri e the closest to the star and tidally protected, so one surface always faces the star.<br /><br />Spitzer exposed the sun-facing surface is tremendously hot, indicating the planet probably does not have an extensive atmosphere to take the sun's warmth to the unlit side.<br /><br />The telescope might be able to use a similar infrared technique to Spitzer to search extra potentially habitable planets for signs of molecules perhaps associated to life.</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-12090545054360302762012-05-08T22:50:00.000-07:002012-05-08T23:05:14.491-07:00Private Company reschedules 1st Launch to Space Station to May 19<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The private spaceflight corporation <b>SpaceX</b> has once again delayed the launch of its first commercial Dragon space capsule bound for the global Space Station, this time to <b>May 19</b>, to permit more time to complete final checks on the spacecraft's rocket.<br />
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The new launch date, announced now (May 4), and is the newest delay for SpaceX, which originally hoped to loft the Dragon capsule on its debut journey to the space station on April 30.<br />
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Last week, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based Corporation postponed the launch to May 7 to permit more time for flight software checks. Yesterday, SpaceX officials said the May 7 date was improbable, but kept open a choice for a May 10 takeoff.<br />
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"SpaceX is requesting a May 19th launch goal with a endorsement on May 22 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station," SpaceX officials announced in a Twitter update today.<br />
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The newest setback pushes the Dragon launch well into May, meaning it will launch on the heels of a Russian Soyuz spaceship transport three new crewmembers to the International Space Station. <br />
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That Soyuz spacecraft will discharge off from Kazakhstan on May 14 and arrive at the space station on May 17.<br />
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NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin travel the Soyuz to the station to connect three other crewmates already aboard. </div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-3552487006933741762012-05-07T05:44:00.002-07:002012-05-07T05:44:52.982-07:00Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most
violent-looking places on our moon. Astronomers didn't aim NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in
preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the sun's face on
June 5-6.<br /><br />
Hubble cannot look at the sun directly, so astronomers are planning to
point the telescope at the Earth's moon, using it as a mirror to capture
reflected sunlight and isolate the small fraction of the light that
passes through Venus's atmosphere. Imprinted on that small amount of
light are the fingerprints of the planet’s atmospheric makeup.<br /><br />
These observations will mimic a technique that is already being used to
sample the atmospheres of giant planets outside our solar system passing
in front of their stars. In the case of the Venus transit observations,
astronomers already know the chemical makeup of Venus's atmosphere, and
that it does not show signs of life on the planet. But the Venus
transit will be used to test whether this technique will have a chance
of detecting the very faint fingerprints of an Earth-like planet, even
one that might be habitable for life, outside our solar system that
similarly transits its own star. , Venus is an excellent proxy because
it is similar in size and mass to our planet.<br /><br />
The astronomers will use an arsenal of Hubble instruments, the Advanced
Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3, and Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph, to view the transit in a range of wavelengths, from
ultraviolet to near-infrared light. During the transit, Hubble will snap
images and perform spectroscopy, dividing the sunlight into its
constituent colors, which could yield information about the makeup of
Venus's atmosphere.<br /><br />
Hubble will observe the moon for seven hours, before, during, and after
the transit so the astronomers can compare the data. Astronomers need
the long observation because they are looking for extremely faint
spectral signatures. Only 1/100,000th of the sunlight will filter
through Venus's atmosphere and be reflected off the moon.<br /><br />
This image, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveals
lunar features as small as roughly 560 feet (170 meters) across. The
large "bulls-eye" near the top of the picture is the impact crater,
caused by an asteroid strike about 100 million years ago. The bright
trails radiating from the crater were formed by material ejected from
the impact area during the asteroid collision. Tycho is about 50 miles
(80 kilometers) wide and is circled by a rim of material rising almost 3
miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The image measures 430
miles (700 kilometers) across, which is slightly larger than New Mexico.<br /><br />
Because the astronomers only have one shot at observing the transit,
they had to carefully plan how the study would be carried out. Part of
their planning included the test observations of the moon, made on Jan.
11, 2012, as shown in the release image.<br /><br />
Hubble will need to be locked onto the same location on the moon for
more than seven hours, the transit's duration. For roughly 40 minutes of
each 96-minute orbit of Hubble around the Earth, the Earth occults
Hubble's view of the moon. So, during the test observations, the
astronomers wanted to make sure they could point Hubble to precisely the
same target area.</div>
</div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-85049727363385514472012-04-20T00:17:00.002-07:002012-04-20T00:28:39.832-07:00Public Invited to Two Free Earth Day 2012 Events at NASA Goddard<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j7mDJmkC5jQ/T5EQH2pBHHI/AAAAAAAAAv0/IO_XUAUwggI/s1600/638832main_globe_east_226.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j7mDJmkC5jQ/T5EQH2pBHHI/AAAAAAAAAv0/IO_XUAUwggI/s200/638832main_globe_east_226.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733381527732034674" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. is hosting two free events on April 18 in celebration of Earth Day's forty-second anniversary. Both events will take place at the NASA Goddard Visitor's Center on IceSat Road, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Greenbelt, Md</span>.<br /><br />Often cited as the most-viewed photograph of all time, the view of Earth's disk from Apollo 17 is emblematic of our home planet as an isolated blue marble. Despite the ubiquity of the Blue Marble, few people realize NASA has viewed the Earth since the agency's creation. In this talk Rob Simmon of <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA's Earth Observatory</span> will discuss the history of NASA's evolving views of Earth, from the first weather satellites to the latest climate missions, from the orbit of Mercury to the edge of the Solar System. He will also describe the techniques used to build images that simulate the view from space, including cloud-free global composites and a picture of the Eastern Hemisphere from <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA </span>and NOAA's newest Earth-observing mission, Suomi NPP. Speaker: Robert Simmon, NASA's Earth Observatory<br />Length: 20 minutes<br /><br />1 - 2 p.m. EDT -- See the broadcast presentation titled: "Beautiful Earth Multimedia Performance and Science Dialogue," on a big screen at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center Auditorium.<br /><br />Join us on a musical and visual tour of Earth from space with interactive discussions through the Beautiful Earth program. Director and Musician Kenji Williams performs the BELLA GAIA (www.bellagaia.com) multimedia show along with interactive discussions by NASA Earth Scientist Thorsten Markus and Native American Science Educator Jim Rock. The Beautiful Earth program highlights Earth's water in all of its forms: liquid, solid, and vapor, from the western scientific, indigenous, artistic, and multi-cultural points of view. The program simulates spaceflight for the public and reminds us of the beauty and inter-connectedness of Earth’s life systems. Students and teachers from across the country will interact live with the program.<br /><br />Three days of <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA activities</span> will also be held on the National Mall in Washington from April 20 through April 22. The agency's involvement includes free activities and exhibits open to the public.<br /><br /></div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-10782074695032390142012-04-17T00:06:00.000-07:002012-04-17T00:16:36.636-07:00Giant Prominence Erupts<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn-akm.vmixcore.com/vmixcore/js?auto_play=0&cc_default_off=1&player_name=uvp&width=512&height=332&player_id=1aa0b90d7d31305a75d7fa03bc403f5a&t=V0_tG-RC5HEANKx_4BEvfA5Us946Y6l_oU"></script><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />A beautiful prominence eruption producing a coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on April 16, 2012. Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare occurred at the same time, peaking at 1:45 PM EDT. The CME was not aimed toward Earth. </div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-80223967580461221822012-04-09T00:11:00.001-07:002012-04-09T00:29:33.498-07:0012-Mile-High Martian Dust Devil Caught in Act<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn-akm.vmixcore.com/vmixcore/js?auto_play=0&cc_default_off=1&player_name=uvp&width=512&height=332&player_id=1aa0b90d7d31305a75d7fa03bc403f5a&t=V0UGnpD3HsuZDHgN-xNE2zV_O7wq6xBjFD"></script><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">A <span style="font-weight: bold;">Martian dust</span> devil roughly 12 miles high (20 kilometers) was captured whirling its way along the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars</span> on March 14. It was imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Despite its height, the plume is little more than three-quarters of a football field wide (70 yards, or 70 meters). </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars. They are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> The image was taken during late northern spring, two weeks short of the northern summer solstice, a time when the ground in the northern mid-latitudes is being heated most strongly by the sun. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</span> has been examining the Red Planet with six science instruments since 2006. Now in an extended mission, the orbiter continues to provide insights into the planet's ancient environments and how processes such as wind, meteorite impacts and seasonal frosts continue to affect the Martian surface today. This mission has returned more data about Mars than all other orbital and surface missions combined. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> More than 21,700 images taken by HiRISE are available for viewing on the instrument team's website: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu . Each observation by this telescopic camera covers several square miles, or square kilometers, and can reveal features as small as a desk. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mars Exploration Rover Project</span> are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter. </p>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-18854295890488024132012-04-03T05:13:00.002-07:002012-04-03T05:15:45.947-07:00Hurricane Season 2012: Typhoon Pakhar (Western North Pacific Ocean)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e-Z092DmbTI/T3rp5g9WIiI/AAAAAAAAAvo/Xz2RYRqQivU/s1600/635929main_20120402_Pakhar-AIRSDOUBLE-226.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e-Z092DmbTI/T3rp5g9WIiI/AAAAAAAAAvo/Xz2RYRqQivU/s200/635929main_20120402_Pakhar-AIRSDOUBLE-226.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727147050464059938" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Typhoon Pakhar</span> made landfall on April 1 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT) in southeastern Vietnam and NASA satellites tracked its progress across Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and into the Gulf of Thailand.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A NASA satellite</span> captured two infrared images of the clouds and thunderstorms that Pakhar brought when it made landfall. The two images were captured from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA's Aqua satellite</span> on April 1 and April 2, after Typhoon Pakhar made landfall in southeastern Vietnam. The coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63F (~-52C) and indicated the strongest thunderstorms with the heaviest rainfall. The images were from April 1 at 1823 UTC (2:23 p.m. EDT) when Pakhar had moved into Cambodia and April 2 at 0647 UTC (2:47 a.m. EDT) when the remnants moved into the Gulf of Thailand.<br /><br />According to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vietnam News.com</span>, as Pakhar made landfall it affected seven provinces including Ho Chi Minh City, with heavy rains and gusty winds. Two deaths and 10 injuries were reported. The province of Dong Nai, Bien Hoa City reported more than 700 damaged homes. Flooded streets, damaged structures and downed trees were reported throughout. </div>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3188580220276756770.post-38648526137703672882012-03-26T05:19:00.001-07:002012-03-26T05:22:41.228-07:00NASA GRAIL Returns First Student-Selected Moon Images<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lnKIX3stHGE/T3BfhDWGkwI/AAAAAAAAAvc/FH9CrBReIDU/s1600/633080main_pia15514-673.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 102px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lnKIX3stHGE/T3BfhDWGkwI/AAAAAAAAAvc/FH9CrBReIDU/s200/633080main_pia15514-673.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724180147826234114" border="0" /></a>One of two <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA spacecraft</span> orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft. <p style="text-align: justify;"> The image was taken by the MoonKam, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students. Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A and B, the twin spacecraft are now called Ebb and Flow. Both washing-machine-sized orbiters carry a small MoonKAM camera. Over 60 student–requested images were taken by the Ebb spacecraft from March 15-17 and downlinked to Earth March 20. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> "<span style="font-weight: bold;">MoonKAM</span> is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "Through MoonKAM, we have an opportunity to reach out to the next generation of scientists and engineers. It is great to see things off to such a positive start." </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">GRAIL </span>is NASA's first planetary mission to carry instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach. Students will select target areas on the lunar surface and request images to study from the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego. More than 2,700 schools spanning 52 countries are using the MoonKAM cameras. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> "What might seem like just a cool activity for these kids may very well have a profound impact on their futures," Ride said. "The students really are excited about MoonKAM, and that translates into an excitement about science and engineering." </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena</span>, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. GRAIL is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. </p>David Lindahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14640879007289366549noreply@blogger.com0