NASA

NASA

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Riding into orbit 👩‍🚀 On June 18, 1983—42 years ago today—astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel to space. Ride launched alongside four crewmates on STS-7, the second flight of space shuttle Challenger. The crew deployed two satellites and conducted research on biology, chemistry, and human health during their six days in orbit. Ride joined the NASA astronaut corps in 1978 with five other women (and 29 men); she flew two missions in space before leaving NASA in 1987, going on to direct the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego. A lifelong supporter of space exploration, Ride passed away in 2012 at the age of 61. Image description: Astronaut Sally Ride floats gently as she sits in the front seat of the space shuttle Challenger. Light from the shuttle window on the left illuminates Ride's face and upper body; Ride is wearing a blue polo shirt, with a watch on her left arm. The shuttle around her is filled with consoles and control panels. Credit: NASA #NASA #Space #SpaceShuttle #Astronaut #SallyRide

06.18 23:41

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All eyes on me ☄️⁣ ⁣ When @NASAHubble captured this image of Comet ISON on April 30, 2013, the comet was closer to the Sun than Jupiter's orbit. First spotted 585 million miles away in September 2012, the comet became the subject of a massive global observation campaign incorporating space-based and ground-based telescopes and participation from citizen scientists and professional and amateur astronomers. Why was ISON so special?⁣ ⁣ As a comet travels through the solar system, it faces many perils. Before it reaches Mars, the Sun’s radiation begins to boil its water. A giant ejection of solar material from the Sun could rip its tail off. And, if it survives all this, the intense radiation and pressure as it flies near the surface of the sun could destroy it altogether. Comet ISON was making its first trip around the Sun, which meant it was still made of pristine matter from the earliest days of the solar system’s formation. ISON was, like all comets, a dirty snowball made up of dust and frozen gases like water, ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide – some of the fundamental building blocks that scientists believe led to the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago.⁣ ⁣ By tracking its journey, scientists could learn what the comet was made of and how it reacted to its environment. They could also learn more about the origins of the solar system.⁣ ⁣ Just prior to its closest approach to the Sun on Nov. 28, 2013, Comet ISON went through a major heating event, and was torn to pieces. What remained of Comet ISON appeared to brighten and spread out, then fade. The legacy of the data collected during this great observation, however, would go on for years as scientists analyzed what they found.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A white comet with a long, fuzzy tail rises up diagonally to the right. All around it are stars and galaxies, which dot the blackness of space.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Comet #Space #Hubble #Telescope #SolarSystem
Far out ☮️⁣ ⁣ This magical, mystical scene of a star cluster within a nebula is about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. The massive young stars in the cluster release intense ultraviolet radiation which makes the gas clouds below glow.⁣ ⁣ The brightest light (at the center of where most stars are clustered in the picture), designated Pismis 24-1, was once thought to be a single star with an incredibly large mass of 200 to 300 solar masses. Solar mass is a standard unit of mass in astronomy equal to – you guessed it – the mass of the Sun. That would have made it by far the most massive known star in the galaxy and would have put it considerably above the currently believed upper mass limit of about 150 solar masses for individual stars.⁣ ⁣ @NASAHubble measurements, however, discovered that Pismis 24-1 is actually two separate stars, and, in doing so, "halved" their mass to around 100-150 solar masses each.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A group of white and blue stars sparkles in the darkness of space. In the background are orange galaxies, sprinkled all over. Below the stars, orange and yellow clouds of gas glow, revealing structures that look like rock formations and arches.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA, ESA, and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain); Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Stars #Space #Telescope #Nebula
A River full of stars 🌟 This galaxy, officially known as NGC 685, is about 64 million light-years from Earth. From our perspective, it can be found in the constellation Eridanus, also known as the River — one of the largest constellations in our night sky. Our orbiting @NASAHubble telescope studied this galaxy to get a better look at its newly-forming stars, seen here as blue patches in the galaxy's spiral arms. Hubble's findings are allowing astronomers to catalogue 100,000 different star clusters in nearby galaxies, helping us understand how our universe continues to change. Image description: Loosely defined spiral arms swirl out of a galaxy with a bright white, barred core. Pink clouds intermingle with countless blue and white stars, with a few distant galaxies and other astronomical phenomena visible at the image's edge. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee, F. Belfiore #NASA #Space #Universe #Galaxy #Hubble #NASAHubble
Sour, but sweet 🍋‍🟩⁣ ⁣ In the lonely outskirts of the Milky Way, an outflow of gas from a new star streams out of a star-forming region. When the outflow collides with the hydrogen gas around it, the gas glows, creating a bright beacon like the one seen here.⁣ ⁣ This representative color image is a combination of data from our Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). In this image, light from Spitzer's infrared channels at 3.6 and 4.5 microns has been represented in green and red, respectively, giving the clouds their electric lime color. 2MASS’s near-infrared observations at 2.2 microns are blue.⁣ ⁣ Launched on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer used an ultra-sensitive infrared telescope to study asteroids, comets, planets, and distant galaxies. It was the first telescope to detect light from an exoplanet, or a planet outside our solar system. Spitzer’s mission ended on Jan. 30, 2020.⁣ ⁣ Image description: In the middle of the picture, a lime green cloud of gas catches your eye in a citrusy splash of color. Blue and yellow dots of light are visible through the cloud, which is most concentrated at the center, but spreads outward in several tendrils. All around the cloud are many blue stars of varying brightness and the darkness of space.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/2MASS/SSI/University of Wisconsin⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #Telescope #Stars
Scroll through the Milky Way — in infrared ❤️ In visible light, most of our home galaxy's stars are hidden behind thick clouds of dust and gas. But in the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, distant stars and other features shone with clarity and color. Infrared light is just beyond the visible spectrum; its waves can pass through dense regions of dust. Humans can't see them, though we can feel them as heat. This Spitzer panorama (first released in 2005) spans 9 degrees of Earth's night sky — about the width of your fist, held out at arm's length. Its infrared data is displayed here in shades of red, orange, green, and blue. Keep an eye out for bubbles formed by powerful forces from newborn stars, or star clusters in groups of blue, yellow, and green specks. Spitzer, the first telescope to detect light from a planet outside our solar system, launched in 2004 and studied the cosmos until 2020. Its findings are still helping us learn more about our universe. Image description: A highly-detailed, panoramic image of the Milky Way, mostly in shades of red. Bright red clouds and nebulae swirl through the image from left to right, with individual stars of various sizes dotting the entire image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin #NASA #Space #Universe #Telescope #MilkyWay #Panorama
Truly iconic behavior 🌟⁣ ⁣ Scientists discovered a star (circled in the picture above) that acts like no other star seen before, so they combined data from @NASAChandraXray and the Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder radio telescope on Wajarri Country in Australia to study the star’s antics.⁣ ⁣ They found that the star is not only a long-period radio transient — meaning that its radio waves regularly vary in intensity over tens of minutes — but the star's X-waves also vary regularly every 44 minutes. Finally, a team of astronomers discovered the star's X-rays and radio waves also dropped off dramatically over the course of six months. This combination of the 44-minute cycle in X-rays and radio waves, in addition to the months-long changes, is unlike anything astronomers have seen in the Milky Way galaxy.⁣ ⁣ Image description: This composite image shows a dramatically colorful scene. There are green, blue, and orange gas clouds at top left and a large, wispy, a supernova remnant which appears as a red oval ring at lower right. The oddly-behaving star sits inside that oval ring; a tiny purple speck (with a white circle around it) in a sea of colorful specks.⁣ ⁣ Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/ICRAR, Curtin Univ./Z. Wang et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/IPAC; Radio: SARAO/MeerKAT; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Star #Telescope #Science
It’s showtime! 🍿    Grab some popcorn and head outside for June’s night sky sightings, featuring our solar system’s finest: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn.    Experience the director’s cut: June brings the summer solstice to those north of the equator, which is the winter solstice for those south of the equator. This year, the solstice starts on June 20th if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. Th is when the Sun is above the horizon longer than any other day, making it the longest day of the year. The situation is reversed for the Southern Hemisphere, where it’s the shortest day of the year.    Catch views of our galaxy during the Milky Way “”Core Season.”” This is the time of year when the Milky Way is most visible as a faint band of hazy light arching across the sky all night. You’ll need to be under dark skies, away from bright city lights, if you want to try and see it.    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech  Thumbnail credit: Preston Dyches    #NASA #Space #WhatsUp #ThingsToDo #Skywatching #Stargazing #NightSky #Astronomy
Have an ice day 🧊 In the Karakoram Mountains, snowy peaks give way to icy glaciers in this image taken by the Landsat 8 satellite in 2017. You can see the glaciers here as long, snaky trails of ice that follow the path of the river. Several of the glaciers that flow into these mountain gorges surge, meaning they cycle through periods when they flow forward several times faster than usual. In the spring of 2017, one glacier advanced as quickly as 65 feet (20 meters) a day—slow by human standards, but fast enough to dislodge water that pooled up behind it, leading to potential floods. The Landsat program is a series of satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the @USGS. Landsat satellites have been observing Earth since 1972, providing an uninterrupted data archive to help make informed decisions about Earth's natural resources and the environment. Image description: Jagged brown mountain gorges snake through a craggy white landscape, as seen from far above. Blue rivers and lakes can be seen in some of the gorges, with smooth, grayish-white glaciers flowing into them. Credit: Image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey #NASA #Landsat #Earth #Mountain #Glacier
Driving on the Moon? Hot dog! 🌭⁣ This vehicle – which looks like the front half of a famous sausage-shaped car – is one of many lunar rover concepts created for the Apollo program. Part of preparation for the missions was figuring out a design for a lunar vehicle that would allow astronauts a greater range of mobility.⁣ Designers had a lot to consider when creating a Moon rover: weak gravity, a lack of atmosphere, and extreme temperature, to name a few. These factors, frank-ly, imposed severe requirements on the vehicle. Each concept provided data that helped in designing the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) that made its debut during the Apollo 15 mission (swipe to see it).⁣ The LRV, which did not end up being glizzy-shaped, drove at a blistering 5 miles per hour (8 km per hour). Astronaut Dave Scott said of the first trip on the Moon, “This is a super way to travel … This is great … and it’s easy to drive … No problem at all.” Sounds like a bun-believable experience.⁣ During their 67-hour stay on the Moon, Scott and fellow astronaut Jim Irwin used the LRV to make three separate motor trips to explore the rim of Hadley Rille, deep crater edges, and the Apennine Mountains. The LRV more than met its goal of increasing movement, as Scott and Irwin covered almost four times as much lunar terrain as the total covered by the crews of the Apollo 11, 12, and 14 missions before them.⁣ Image descriptions:⁣ 1. An astronaut stands near a lunar rover concept that looks like the front half of the Weinermobile attached by a hose to a platform with large fan-like wheels. The front half has the same wheels, as well as an open hatch on the side and small windows in the front. The photo is in black and white.⁣ 2. At right, astronaut Jim Irwin works at the LRV on the Moon. The rover looks noticeably different from the concept vehicle in the previous image. It has four tires that look more like ones you’d see on a car, except they are made of wire. The high gain antenna stands out on the rover’s right side. St. George crater appears in the distance behind Irwin’s head.⁣⁣ Credit: NASA #NASA #Apollo #VehicleDesign #HotDog #NowWereHungry
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