FROM: NASA
Landsat Data Continuity Mission Prelaunch
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft onboard is seen on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. The spacecraft launched Feb. 11.
Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
FROM: NASA
Russian Cargo Ship Heads to Station
The ISS Progress 50 resupply ship launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:41 a.m. EST (8:41 p.m. Kazakhstan time) Monday on an accelerated, four-orbit journey to rendezvous with the International Space Station.
FROM: NASA
The International Space Station update video for Feb. 12, 2013.
FROM: NASA
The International Space Station update video for Feb. 11, 2013.
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| Credit: NASA. |
FROM: NASA
For more than a decade, scientists have observed ship;s tracks in natural-color satellite imagery of the ocean. These bright, linear trails amidst the cloud layers are created by particles and gases from ships. They are a visible manifestation of pollution from ship exhaust, and scientists can now see that ships have a more subtle, almost invisible, signature as well.
Data from the Dutch and Finnish-built Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite show long tracks of elevated Nitrogen Oxide levels along certain shipping routes. NO2, is among a group of highly-reactive oxides of nigrogen known as NOx, that can lead to the production of fine particles and ozone that damage the human cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Combustion engines, such as those that propel ships and motor vehicles, are a major source of NO2 pollution.
For Full Article With References Visit Nasa Photo Images.
FROM: NASA
Simulation of Martian Bedrock Drilling
This animation depicts NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilling a hole to collect a rock-powder sample at a target site called "John Klein." Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech.
FROM: NASA
LDCM-A New Era in Earth Observation
NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is the eighth satellite in the Landsat series, which began in 1972. The mission will extend more than 40 years of global land observations that are critical in many areas, such as energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture. NASA's Launch Services Program will launch the LDCM spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
FROM: NASA
Two Systems Become One Historic Blizzard
Two low pressure systems merged over New England around midnight (EST) on Feb. 9, 2013. This animation of NOAA's GOES-13 satellite imagery from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9 shows the two systems coming together and creating a blizzard of historic proportions in New England. On Feb. 9 at 4 a.m. hundreds of thousands of people were without power in Massachusetts alone. Credit: NASA GOES Project
FROM: NASA
Powerful Nor'easter Coming Together
A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. A satellite image from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on Feb. 8 shows a western frontal system approaching the coastal low pressure area.
The satellite image, captured at 9:01 a.m. EST, shows clouds associated with the western frontal system stretching from Canada through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, into the Gulf of Mexico. The comma-shaped low pressure system located over the Atlantic, east of Virginia, is forecast to merge with the front and create a powerful nor'easter. The National Weather Service expects the merged storm to move northeast and drop between two to three feet of snow in parts of New England.
Credit: NASA
FROM: NASAPowerful Winter Storm in the Making
A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 shows the two systems headed for a collision off the mid-Atlantic Coast. Credit-NASA GOES Project
FROM: NASA
OSIRIS-REx Targets Near-Earth Asteroid
NASA is sending the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to asteroid 1999 RQ36 to better understand the evolution of its orbit and to retrieve a pristine sample for study on Earth. Credit-NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
FROM: NASA
The Orion nebula is featured in this sweeping image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
This metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks forming around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame nebula. This complex in our Milky Way galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
This series of images of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) was taken by the Medium-Resolution Imager of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013. At the time, the spacecraft was 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the comet. NASA Video.
FROM: NASA
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has acquired its first images of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). The images were taken by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Imager over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013, from a distance of 493 million miles (793 million kilometers). Many scientists anticipate a bright future for comet ISON; the spaceborne conglomeration of dust and ice may put on quite a show as it passes through the inner solar system this fall.
"This is the fourth comet on which we have performed science observations and the farthest point from Earth from which we've tried to transmit data on a comet," said Tim Larson, project manager for the Deep Impact spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The distance limits our bandwidth, so it's a little like communicating through a modem after being used to DSL. But we're going to coordinate our science collection and playback so we maximize our return on this potentially spectacular comet."
Deep Impact has executed close flybys of two comets - Tempel 1 and Hartley 2 - and its mission scientists, led by University of Maryland Astronomer Michael A'Hearn, have performed scientific observations on two more - comet Garradd and now ISON. The ISON imaging campaign is expected to yield infrared data, and light curves (which are used in defining the comet's rotation rate) in addition to visible-light images. A movie of comet ISON was generated from initial data acquired during this campaign. Preliminary results indicate that although the comet is still in the outer solar system, more than 474 million miles (763 million kilometers) from the sun, it is already active. As of Jan. 18, the tail extending from ISON's nucleus was already more than 40,000 miles (64,400 kilometers) long.
Long-period comets like ISON are thought to arrive from the solar system's Oort cloud, a giant spherical cloud of icy bodies surrounding our solar system so far away its outer edge is about a third of the way to the nearest star (other than our sun). Every once in a while, one of these loose conglomerations of ice, rock, dust and organic compounds is disturbed out of its established orbit in the Oort cloud by a passing star or the combined gravitational effects of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. With these gravitational nudges, so begins a comet's eons-long, arching plunge toward the inner solar system.
ISON was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by two Russian astronomers using the International Scientific Optical Network's 16-inch (40-centimeter) telescope near Kislovodsk. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, based at JPL, has plotted its orbit and determined that the comet is more than likely making it first-ever sweep through the inner solar system. Having not come this way before means the comet's pristine surface has a higher probability of being laden with volatile material just spoiling for some of the sun's energy to heat it up and help it escape. With the exodus of these clean ices could come a boatload of dust, held in check since the beginnings of our solar system. This released gas and dust is what is seen on Earth as comprising a comet's atmosphere (coma) and tail.
ISON will not be a threat to Earth - getting no closer to Earth than about 40 million miles on Dec. 26, 2013. But stargazers will have an opportunity to view the comet's head and tail before and after its closest approach to the sun -- if the comet doesn't fade early or break up before reaching the sun.
Launched in January 2005, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft traveled about 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) to the vicinity of comet Tempel 1. On July 3, 2005, the spacecraft deployed an impactor that was essentially "run over" by the nucleus of Tempel 1 on July 4. Sixteen days after comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly past Earth in late December 2007. This extended mission of the Deep Impact spacecraft culminated in the successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010. In January of 2012, the spacecraft performed, from a distance, an imaging campaign on comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd).
To date, Deep Impact has traveled about 4.39 billion miles (7.06 billion kilometers) in space.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Deep Impact mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland is the Principal Investigator institution for the mission. Deep Impact is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
FROM: NASA
Mariner 10's Portrait of VenusOn Feb. 5, 1974, Mariner 10 took this first close-up photo of Venus.
Made using an ultraviolet filter in its imaging system, the photo has been color-enhanced to bring out Venus's cloudy atmosphere as the human eye would see it. Venus is perpetually blanketed by a thick veil of clouds high in carbon dioxide and its surface temperature approaches 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
Launched on Nov. 3, 1973 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, Mariner 10 flew by Venus in 1974. Image Credit-NASA
FROM: NASA
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Launches
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket streaks away from Space Launch Complex 41 into the night sky over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K, TDRS-K, to orbit.
The TDRS-K spacecraft is part of the next-generation series in the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, a constellation of space-based communication satellites providing tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services. Photo credit-NASA-Glenn Benson
FROM: NASA
ISS Update: Record-Setting Science on Station
NASA Public Affairs Officer Brandi Dean talks with Vic Cooley, Lead Increment Scientist, about the many experiments taking place aboard the International Space Station.
FROM: NASA
Operation IceBridge: Getz Mission in 3 Minutes
Can you stuff all the sights and science of a 12-hour mission into just three minutes? Maybe not, but here's our first try, chronicling NASA's recent flight to Antarctica's remote Getz Ice Shelf, where Operation IceBridge measured everything from the ice surface to the bedrock below, flew low over giant icebergs, and even scanned a lengthy new crack in the ice. Credit-NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
FROM: NASA
ISS Update: Studying Smart Fluids in Space
Dr. Eric Furst from the University of Delaware joins NASA Public Affairs Officer Kelly Humphries in the Mission Control Center in Houston via telephone to discuss the InSpace-3 experiment taking place aboard the International Space Station
