NASA

NASA

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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

07.05 03:16

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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
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
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
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
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