NASA

NASA

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Who’s that wonderful girl? Could she be any cuter? 🎵⁣ ⁣ June 30 is International Asteroid Day, a day to raise awareness about asteroids and how we study them. While we love all asteroids, there’s a limit to how many photos we can add to one post, so let’s visit just one in celebration of this special day.⁣ ⁣ This is Asteroid Ida. Ida is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) long and, as you may have noticed, has its own satellite: a moon. That’s right: some asteroids have their own moon – or two! This picture, taken by our Galileo spacecraft on Aug. 28, 1993, was the first conclusive evidence that natural satellites of asteroids exist.⁣ ⁣ Like most asteroids, Ida and its moon, named Dactyl, reside in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. Ida is one of the Koronis family of asteroids, which are thought to be the debris of an ancient collision between two larger objects. It is covered in craters and a deep layer of regolith (pulverized rock).⁣ ⁣ Ida was named by Moriz von Kuffner, a Viennese brewer and amateur astronomer, after a nymph in Greek mythology who was entrusted to care for the infant Zeus together with her sister Adrasteia. The International Astronomical Union named Dactyl for mythological creatures that lived on Mt. Ida on the island of Crete.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A large, gray, rocky, pitted oblong asteroid dominates the image. To its right is a small, rocky moon. They stand out against the darkness of space.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech⁣ ⁣ #NASA #InternationalAsteroidDay #Asteroid #Space #Moon #Astronomy

06.30 23:07

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We tip our hat to this view 🤠 ⁣ ⁣ Located about 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy is famous for its distinctive shape resembling the brim of a wide hat. ⁣ ⁣ On June 3, 2025, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed a clearer view of how the galaxy got its name from the Spanish sombra, meaning ‘shade.’ Under a near-infrared camera, the central cluster of old stars at the galaxy’s core glow brightly, while thick lanes of dust block starlight in the outer ring to create a shadowed disk. ⁣ ⁣ But hold onto your hat: this galaxy may have a turbulent past. Studies suggest the Sombrero was shaped by a violent merger with at least one other galaxy. Webb’s latest near-infrared view, combined with other NASA telescope observations at different wavelengths, help astronomers piece together how galaxies like the Sombrero form and evolve. ⁣ ⁣ Image description: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new image of the Sombrero galaxy in near-infrared wavelengths shows dust from the outer ring blocking starlight from the inner portions of the galaxy. A bright, central bulge of stars is surrounded by a darker, dusty ring that arcs across the image, giving the galaxy its hat-like appearance. The background is dotted with faint stars and galaxies. ⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI ⁣ ⁣ #SombreroGalaxy #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA #Webb #Galaxy #VirgoConstellation
When that ol' Moon gets so big and bright 🌕⁣ ⁣ NASA astronaut @astro_christina took this photo of the July 16, 2019, full moon from the @ISS. While the space station crew observes lunar phases from about 260 miles (418 km) above us, you can join them and admire the Moon from the ground. Head outside on July 10 and take a look!⁣ ⁣ Looking at the Moon with just your eyes, you’ll see mostly areas of white and gray. The gray patches are solidified volcanic lava flows. The lighter-colored areas are called the highlands, and show the earliest crust on the Moon, dominated by a type of rock called anorthosite.⁣ ⁣ What you see on the Moon with your eyes only will vary depending on your eyesight. Don’t forget to give yourself plenty of time for your eyes to adjust and look carefully. If you have binoculars or a telescope, you’ll be able to see more details, like Archimedes Crater – a depression that’s 3/4 the size of Washington, D.C. – or the Sea of Tranquility, the site of the first Moon landing.⁣ ⁣ Image description: The full moon is a silvery white circle in the dark night sky in this photo taken from the International Space Station. The bottom of the image has a soft haze over it, lightening the sky to a blue shade.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Christina Koch⁣ ⁣ #NASA #FullMoon #Moon #Astronomy #Night #Space
We’ve got our shades on for summer 😎☀️⁣ NASA technicians recently installed our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s solar array Sun shield — the set of solar panels that will travel with Roman a million miles away into space! These panels will power the entire observatory and help keep the instruments cool by shading them from sunlight.⁣ ⁣ Together with Roman’s visor-like sunshade and outer barrel assembly — which will house the telescope and instruments — the solar array Sun shield will soon undergo testing to ensure a successful launch.⁣ The team is on track to connect Roman’s two halves in November, resulting in a complete observatory by the end of the year. Roman remains on schedule for launch by May 2027, with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026.⁣ ⁣ Once in space, Roman’s large, crisp view will unveil more than 100,000 distant worlds, 100 million stars, more than a billion galaxies, and countless other cosmic objects, gathering clues to mysteries like dark energy and dark matter. We stand poised at the brink of unfathomable scientific discovery.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts⁣ Music: “Turbulent Grace,” Tom Samson [PRS], Nick Reeves [PRS], and Graham Harding [PRS], Universal Production Music⁣ ⁣ Video description is in the comments. #nasa #nasaroman #space #universe #telescope
At NASA, we’re redefining the mirror selfie.⁣ ⁣ Astronaut Zena Cardman pauses to inspect her spacesuit’s wrist mirror, a small but crucial tool for reading suit displays and controls. This portrait, taken at @NASAJohnson in Houston, Texas, shows one of the many small moments of preparation in an astronaut’s journey to spaceflight.⁣ ⁣ Cardman, a Virginia native, is gearing up for her first spaceflight to the International Space Station as part of our SpaceX Crew-11 mission, scheduled to launch later this summer. Selected in the “Turtles” astronaut class of 2017, she has a research background in geobiology, with degrees in biology and marine sciences from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.⁣ ⁣ Her experience includes multiple expeditions to Antarctica as part of her studies of life in extreme environments like caves and deep-sea sediments. Now, she’s taking on the next frontier.⁣ ⁣ This photo was one of NASA’s 2024 Photos of the Year, capturing the calm determination required in every moment of an astronaut’s training—even routine spacesuit checks.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Astronaut Zena Cardman wears a white spacesuit and looks down while adjusting a small mirror on her wrist, attached to her left glove. She is photographed against a dark background at Johnson Space Center.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Astronaut #SpaceX #NASAPhotoOfTheYear #MirrorSelfie
Nothing like a clear view⁣ ⁣ @NASAHubble captured an image of this previously unexplored globular cluster in the Milky Way, Palomar 8. A globular cluster is a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars tightly bound together by gravity in a spherical shape – like a globe. Globular clusters generally form early in the galaxies’ histories in regions rich in gas and dust. Since the stars form from the same cloud of gas as it collapses, they typically hover around the same age.⁣ ⁣ The density of stars at the centers of these groupings is so high that individual stars are hard to discern, even with powerful telescopes on Earth. However, Hubble can! This image is part of a study that uses Hubble to distinguish individual stars of the entire globular cluster system of the Milky Way. These observations will give us key information on the early stages of our galaxy.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Bright stars cluster against a black background. The stars are more densely concentrated in the center of the image. The stars appear mostly white, but bright red and blue stars are also visible sprinkled throughout the image.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Massari (INAF — Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Stars #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Hubble #Astronomy
Fourth of July sparklers 🌟⁣ ⁣ @NASAHubble captured this colorful view of two bright stars in the Orion Nebula. The brighter of the two, at lower right, is a particular type of variable star known as an Orion Variable. Like some humans, these young stars go through mood swings and growing pains. Unlike humans, the stars’ changes are visible to astronomers as irregular variations in luminosity.⁣ ⁣ Orion Variables are often associated with diffuse nebulae, and this star is no exception; the darkness of space is visible through patches of gas and dust.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Two stars with diffraction spikes shine brightly in the image. The larger star, at lower right, is in a bright blue cloud of gas and dust, while the smaller star at upper left is in a red haze. The clouds are somewhat patchy. Smaller red stars are scattered around them.⁣ ⁣ Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Bally, M. Robberto⁣ ⁣ #NASA #RedWhiteandBlue #FourthofJuly #Stars #Space #Summer #Orion
Not your ordinary spiral... At first glance, UGC 11397 looks like a typical spiral galaxy: two graceful arms, illuminated by stars, stretch out from its core. The heart of UGC 11397 hides what makes this galaxy unique, though—a supermassive black hole 174 million times the mass of our Sun. And it's still growing. Material trapped by the black hole emits light in frequencies from radio waves to gamma rays, but thick clouds of dust hide most of this from view in the visible spectrum. X-ray emissions, though, helped astronomers uncover this cosmic phenomenon. This image of UGC 11397 was taken by our orbiting @NASAHubble telescope. Image description: A spiral galaxy burns bright, with twin spiral arms snaking out in shades of white, blue, and dark red. The background surrounding it has a handful of shining stars. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth #NASA #Space #Universe #Galaxy #BlackHole
Do it scared.⁣ ⁣ Astronaut Bruce McCandless II flew the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) out of the space shuttle Challenger’s payload bay for the first time on Feb. 7, 1984, a time where many were fearful about the use of a self-propelled and untethered backpack in space.⁣ ⁣ The MMU jetpack allowed crews to move outside of the cargo bay and perform activities away from the safety of the spacecraft. The award-winning manned maneuvering unit was designed for a specific type of mission: satellite rescue missions. McCandless would be the first to test the MMU technology. He first flew 150 feet (45 meters) away and returned, then ventured out to 320 feet (97 m) away from the shuttle. This is an orbital spacewalk record that still stands today.⁣ ⁣ McCandless remembered trying to ease the tension for his wife and the flight controllers in Mission Control, saying something similar to Neil Armstrong’s declaration as he first stepped on the Moon in 1969. “It may have been one small step for Neil,” he proclaimed, “but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.”⁣ ⁣ Image description: Astronaut Bruce McCandless II reaches a maximum distance from Challenger before reversing direction in his manned maneuvering unit (MMU) and returning to Challenger. Earth is pictured below him as he floats above; his white space suit contrasts with the blackness of space. A fellow crew member inside the vehicle's cabin took this photograph with a 70mm camera.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #Astronaut #ISS #Spacewalk
...Hubble bubble The Bubble Nebula is seven light-years across: big enough that it could comfortably hold our solar system, the nearest star system to ours (Alpha Centauri), and all the space in between. It's being blown up by a seething star, 45 times more massive than our Sun—the big purple one near the center of this image. As hot gas escapes from the star as stellar wind, it runs into cold, interstellar gas around it, forming the outer edge of the bubble like a snowplow piling up snow. This nebula was first spotted in 1787 by William Herschel, a prominent astronomer who also discovered the planet Uranus. More than 200 years later, our @NASAHubble telescope captured this image of the Bubble Nebula; it was released in 2016 to mark the 26th anniversary of Hubble's time in orbit. Visit https://go.nasa.gov/4ev4h9I to learn more about the space telescope's ongoing mission—and how you can take part this year in Hubble's Night Sky Challenge! Image description: A big, translucent, blue bubble floats amid a cosmic landscape. A bright purple star shines near its 10 o'clock position, with a few other smaller stars scattered inside and outside the bubble. The background is filled with an orange-yellow haze, with a bright cloud near the top-left corner. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) #NASA #Universe #Hubble #Astronomy #Nebula
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