NASA reveals roadmap to Mars

 

Mars has released a document outlining its steps to Mars (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) That NASA has aspirations for a manned mission to the Red Planet is already well known, but the space agency has now revealed in greater detail how it plans to make such a mission reality. In a document titled "NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration," the expedition is broken down into three separate phases, painting a picture of the incremental scientific advances needed to land humans on the Martian surface. "NASA’s strategy connects near-term activities and capability development to the journey to Mars and a future with a sustainable human presence in deep space," says William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters. The first of NASA's steps to Mars falls under the title "Earth Reliant," and centers on research to be carried out on the International Space Station (ISS). In this microgravity test-bed, the agency will continue developing technologies aimed at improving human health to prepare for manned missions to deep space. In the second stage, NASA will carry out manned missions in cislunar-space, that is the area between the Earth and the Moon or the Moon's orbit. Dubbed "Proving Ground," this phase will entail developing and validating capabilities required to allow humans to live in environments further away from our home planet, such as on a certain dusty, red planet. The third and final stage, called "Earth Independence," is intended to capitalize on the advances in the previous steps to bring humans to the Mars vicinity, first to low-Mars orbit and possibly one of the planet's moons, and then to touch down on the surface. Together, the phases are intended to address three hurdles NASA sees as fundamental in getting to Mars: transportation (the ability for humans and cargo to safely travel into deep space), working in space (so crew members and robots can be productive once they get there) and staying healthy (for survival). The agency will discuss the plan with congress and partners in the coming weeks. The entire Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration document can be read online here. Source: NASA   http://www.gizmag.com/nasa-journey-to-mars-plans/39804/

Good night from space

 

Earth's thin atmosphere stands out against the blackness of space in this photo shared on Aug. 31, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station. The station's solar panels can be seen in darkness at the right of the image.

Kelly, in the midst of a year-long stay on the orbital outpost, shared the photo in a tweet: "Day 157. At the end of the day, #sunrise will come again. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace."

Last Updated: Sep. 1, 2015

Editor: Jim Wilson  

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/good-night-from-space

Sea Ice in the Greenland Sea

 

As the northern hemisphere experiences the heat of summer, ice moves and melts in the Arctic waters and the far northern lands surrounding it. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of sea ice off Greenland on July 16, 2015.

Large chunks of melting sea ice can be seen in the sea ice off the coast, and to the south spirals of ice have been shaped by the winds and currents that move across the Greenland Sea. Along the Greenland coast, cold, fresh melt water from the glaciers flows out to the sea, as do newly calved icebergs. Frigid air from interior Greenland pushes the ice away from the shoreline, and the mixing of cold water and air allows some sea ice to be sustained even at the height of summer.

According to observations from satellites, 2015 is on track to be another low year for arctic summer sea ice cover. The past ten years have included nine of the lowest ice extents on record. The annual minimum typically occurs in late August or early September. The amount of Arctic sea ice cover has been dropping as global temperatures rise. The Arctic is two to three times more sensitive to temperature changes as the Earth as a whole.

Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

Last Updated: Aug. 24, 2015

Editor: Sarah Loff

Hubble Finds a Little Gem

 

This colorful bubble is a planetary nebula called NGC 6818, also known as the Little Gem Nebula. It is located in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), roughly 6,000 light-years away from us. The rich glow of the cloud is just over half a light-year across — humongous compared to its tiny central star — but still a little gem on a cosmic scale. When stars like the sun enter "retirement," they shed their outer layers into space to create glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. This ejection of mass is uneven, and planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. NGC 6818 shows knotty filament-like structures and distinct layers of material, with a bright and enclosed central bubble surrounded by a larger, more diffuse cloud. Scientists believe that the stellar wind from the central star propels the outflowing material, sculpting the elongated shape of NGC 6818. As this fast wind smashes through the slower-moving cloud it creates particularly bright blowouts at the bubble’s outer layers. Hubble previously imaged this nebula back in 1997 with its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, using a mix of filters that highlighted emission from ionized oxygen and hydrogen. This image, while from the same camera, uses different filters to reveal a different view of the nebula.   Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt Text credit: European Space Agency Last Updated: Aug. 7, 2015 Editor: Ashley Morrow

NASA to Share the Universe with Tumblr Users

 

NASA is launching an official Tumblr profile that will give Tumblr users a regular dose of space in a blog-like format through text, photos, videos and more. Tumblr is a social media platform that allows users to connect and follow other content creators in a collaborative micro-blog format. People are able to discover, share and create content that expresses their personality, hobbies and interests. The NASA Tumblr profile will share information, images and video about the agency’s missions of exploration and discovery. To follow NASA’s new Tumblr account, visit: http://nasa.tumblr.com Credits: NASA NASA now is on Tumblr Along with the new official NASA Tumblr account, astronaut Peggy Whitson will offer a behind-the-scenes look at an astronaut’s journey as she trains for a six-month mission to the International Space Station. It takes a NASA Village to train an astronaut, and Whitson’s Tumblr will highlight the many people who make human spaceflight possible. To follow Whitson’s Tumblr, visit: http://astropeggy.tumblr.com/ These two official NASA Tumblr profiles will be joined by two mission accounts. The JunoCam Tumblr will showcase Jupiter images from amateur astronomers and public-processed images from JunoCam on board NASA's Juno mission. The Curiosity rover will share engineering, science and selfies from the surface of Mars. To follow JunoCam and Curiosity on Tumblr, visit: http://nasajunocam.tumblr.com http://curiositymarsrover.tumblr.com NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno and Curiosity missions for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA engages and inspires the public by sharing unique content through social media. The agency continues to add new platforms like Tumblr to offer the public a comprehensive view of NASA’s missions, facilities and people. For a comprehensive list of NASA social media accounts and platforms, visit: www.nasa.gov/socialmedia John Yembrick / Jason Townsend Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1584 / 202-358-0359 john.yembrick@nasa.gov / jason.c.townsend@nasa.gov Last Updated: Aug. 7, 2015 Editor: Karen Northon

Students rise to NASA electric aircraft design challenge

 

The one-and-only winner of the graduate section was Tom Neuman for his Vapor design (Credit: Tom Neuman/Georgia Institute of Technology) In a recent challenge issued by NASA, university students were asked to design an electric aircraft envisaged to enter service in the year 2020 and be commercially competitive with standard piston-engine craft. In response, the space agency received submissions from 20 universities across the United States that not only met the brief but, in many cases, went above and beyond to really the impress the judges. We take a look at the top five prize winners. The designs were assessed not only on their merit, but also considered in regard to the student university level. As such, submissions were categorized into graduate and undergraduate design studies and judged accordingly.   Graduate Level The one-and-only winner of this section was Tom Neuman, a graduate student with a Master’s of aerospace engineering at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His design brought in twin 8 ft (2.5 m) tail-mounted propellers that, according to Neuman, were computer-modeled to achieve 92 percent efficiency. With an efficient laminar flow fuselage design and retractable landing gear to further reduce drag, Vapor has a claimed 25 percent reduction in parasitic drag when compared to a Cirrus SR22 aircraft used as a standard light-aviation benchmark. Designed to be powered by a proton exchange membrane fuel-cell (PEMFC), Neuman claims to have modeled a specific-energy of 800 Wh/kg in his design study at an impressive 55 percent efficiency. With this set-up, Vapor is expected to be capable of 800 nautical miles (1,482 km) at a cruising speed of around 150 knots (278 km/h).     Undergraduate Level Blade In first place in this category is a design produced by a team of students from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). The design is more conventional with twin wing-mounted motors. A puller-propeller concept intended to be built using composite materials, the electric power-plants are intended to be driven by a bank of rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries. Ethan Kellogg and team members produced a performance design claim of 135 knot (250 km/h) cruising speed and a range of 520 nautical miles (963 km) for Bladessa. With 270 horsepower (200 Kw) on tap, the Bladessa design is intended to have a maximum take-off weight of around 4,200 lb (1,900 kg), including up to 700 lb (317 kg) of payload. Again, laminar flows have been carefully modeled to achieve maximum efficiency and minimum drag on and around the fuselage of the aircraft. Areion In second place was another UC Davis design, this time a pusher-propeller type with a forward canard. Presumably named after the winged immortal horse born to the goddess Demeter, this contender's configuration is also designed to decrease the area and drag of the main wing by using a blended airfoil design and a set of imaginatively-named hyperelastic flaperons. According to the team led by fourth year undergraduate, Louis Edelman, this enables the usage of Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) technology to reduce energy requirements over the flight envelope. Again an all-electric aircraft, power and flight characteristic details are sparse, but the team does say that it would be a hydrogen-powered fuel-cell that provided the energy. BeamTree PH-10 Bringing up third place in the list of winners was a design from a team at Virginia Tech. With a 48.5 ft (14.7 m) wingspan, an AC induction motor, and three lithium-ion battery packs, the BeamTree PH-10 is designed to be capable of a cruise speed of 175 knots (325 km/h) for an impressive distance of 783 nautical miles (1,450 km). The large mass of the electric propulsion system was the main design driver for the Virginia Tech team who envisaged a tadpole fuselage to reduce profile drag along with winglets to help better aerodynamic efficiency. SCUBA Stingray Rounding out the top five is the SCUBA Stingray design – yet another entrant from UC Davis – which received an honorable mention. Designed to use a cutting-edge hybrid aluminum-air/lithium ion battery system for long range and heavy payload capacity. Design specifications include a four-passenger carrying capacity, along with a claimed range of at least 500 nautical miles (926 km), carrying a payload in excess of 400 lb (180 kg), all while cruising at a speed greater than 130 knots (240 km/h). The outstanding design aspects of the Stingray, according to the team, are tapered primary and horizontal wings, fixed tricycle landing gear, along with a substantial T-tail empennage. According to NASA, the ideas of these students are more than mere academic exercises; research at the space agency in aeronautics also includes finding ways to cut back on fossil fuel dependence and reduce the aviation sector's pollution emissions, including lessening noise around airports. "The research and critical thinking that went into each of these designs was very impressive," said Jaiwon Shin, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics. "It's clear there is a new generation of aeronautical innovators nearly ready to make their mark on the future of aviation." Winners of this challenge will be invited to visit NASA in October to present their work. Source: NASA

NASA's Spitzer Confirms Closest Rocky Exoplanet

 

July 30, 2015

This artist's concept shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b. At 21 light-years away, the planet is the closest outside of our solar system that can be seen crossing, or transiting, its star.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.

Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet itself can't be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star.

HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research.

"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come."

The planet, initially discovered using HARPS-North instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

"Webb and future large, ground-based observatories are sure to point at it and examine it in detail,” Motalebi said.

Only a small fraction of exoplanets can be detected transiting their stars due to their relative orientation to Earth. When the orientation is just right, the planet’s orbit places it between its star and Earth, dimming the detectable light of its star. It’s this dimming of the star that is actually captured by observatories such as Spitzer, and can reveal not only the size of the planet but also clues about its composition.

"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbor," said astronomer and study co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.

HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet's mass and orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.

Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet's size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) -- confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.

Now that astronomers know HD 219134b transits its star, scientists will be scrambling to observe it from the ground and space. The goal is to tease chemical information out of the dimming starlight as the planet passes before it. If the planet has an atmosphere, chemicals in it can imprint patterns in the observed starlight.

Rocky planets such as this one, with bigger-than-Earth proportions, belong to a growing class of planets termed super-Earths.

"Thanks to NASA's Kepler mission, we know super-Earths are ubiquitous in our galaxy, but we still know very little about them," said co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium, lead scientist for the Spitzer detection of the transit. "Now we have a local specimen to study in greater detail. It can be considered a kind of Rosetta Stone for the study of super-Earths."

Further observations with HARPS-North also revealed three more planets in the same star system, farther than HD 219134b. Two are relatively small and not too far from the star. Small, tightly packed multi-planet systems are completely different from our own solar system, but, like super-Earths, are being found in increasing numbers.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive, housed at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

For more information about NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

Round of Testing Completed on Webb Telescope Flight Mirrors

 

This July 11, 2015 photograph captures one of the final, if not the final, James Webb Space Telescope flight primary mirror segments to be processed through NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Calibration, Integration and Alignment Facility (CIAF).

The mirror is seen here on the Configuration Measurement Machine (CMM), which is used for precision measurements of the backs of the mirrors. These precision measurements must be accurate to 0.1 microns or 1/400th the thickness of a human hair.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Last Updated: July 28, 2015

Editor: Sarah Loff

NASA Views Complex World: New Horizons Pluto Science Update Set for July 24

 

A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and received on Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible.

Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Members of NASA’s New Horizons team will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, July 24, to reveal new images and discuss latest science results from the spacecraft’s historic July 14 flight through the Pluto system.

The briefing will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefing live.

The briefing participants are:

• Jim Green, director of Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters
• Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado
• Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
• William McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator at Washington University in St. Louis
• Cathy Olkin, New Horizons deputy project scientist at SwRI

Media may ask questions by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must send an email providing their name, affiliation and telephone number to Felicia Chou at felicia.chou@nasa.gov by noon Friday. Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

From Mountains to Moons: Multiple Discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons Pluto Mission

 

 

New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise -- a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.

Credits: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI

Icy mountains on Pluto and a new, crisp view of its largest moon, Charon, are among the several discoveries announced Wednesday by NASA's New Horizons team, just one day after the spacecraft’s first ever Pluto flyby.

"Pluto New Horizons is a true mission of exploration showing us why basic scientific research is so important," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "The mission has had nine years to build expectations about what we would see during closest approach to Pluto and Charon. Today, we get the first sampling of the scientific treasure collected during those critical moments, and I can tell you it dramatically surpasses those high expectations."

“Home run!” said Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “New Horizons is returning amazing results already. The data look absolutely gorgeous, and Pluto and Charon are just mind blowing."

A new close-up image of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto’s bright heart-shaped feature shows a mountain range with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.

The mountains on Pluto likely formed no more than 100 million years ago -- mere youngsters in a 4.56-billion-year-old solar system. This suggests the close-up region, which covers about one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.

“This is one of the youngest surfaces we’ve ever seen in the solar system,” said Jeff Moore of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.  

Unlike the icy moons of giant planets, Pluto cannot be heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body. Some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.

“This may cause us to rethink what powers geological activity on many other icy worlds,” says GGI deputy team leader John Spencer at SwRI.

The new view of Charon reveals a youthful and varied terrain. Scientists are surprised by the apparent lack of craters. A swath of cliffs and troughs stretching about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) suggests widespread fracturing of Charon’s crust, likely the result of internal geological processes. The image also shows a canyon estimated to be 4 to 6 miles (7 to 9 kilometers) deep. In Charon’s north polar region, the dark surface markings have a diffuse boundary, suggesting a thin deposit or stain on the surface.

New Horizons also observed the smaller members of the Pluto system, which includes four other moons: Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos. A new sneak-peak image of Hydra is the first to reveal its apparent irregular shape and its size, estimated to be about 27 by 20 miles (43 by 33 kilometers).

The observations also indicate Hydra's surface is probably coated with water ice. Future images will reveal more clues about the formation of this and the other moon billions of years ago. Spectroscopic data from New Horizons’ Ralph instruments reveal an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences among regions across the frozen surface of Pluto. 

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the mission, science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Follow the New Horizons mission on Twitter and use the hashtag #PlutoFlyby to join the conversation. Live updates also will be available on the mission Facebook page.

For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and all the new images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

and

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/plutotoolkit.cfm

Hubble Looks at Stunning Spiral

 

 

This little-known galaxy, officially named J04542829-6625280, but most often referred to as LEDA 89996, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. The galaxy is much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The disk-shaped galaxy is seen face on, revealing the winding structure of the spiral arms. Dark patches in these spiral arms are in fact dust and gas — the raw materials for new stars. The many young stars that form in these regions make the spiral arms appear bright and bluish.

The galaxy sits in a vibrant area of the night sky within the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), and appears very close to the Large Magellanic Cloud  — one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

The observations were carried out with the high resolution channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. 

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Flickr user C. Claude
Text credit: European Space Agency

Last Updated: July 10, 2015

Editor: Ashley Morrow

From Satellite Swarms to Interstellar Submarines, NASA Selects Leading-Edge Technology Concepts for Continued Study

 

Montage of several newly awarded NIAC Phase II concepts from fellows Bruce Wiegmann, Adrian Stoica, Steven Oleson, and Justin Atchison. Credits: L to R, B. Wiegmann/MSFC, A. Stoica/JPL, S. Oleson, J. Atchison NASA has selected seven technology proposals for continued study under Phase II of the agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. The selections are based on the potential to transform future aerospace missions, introduce new capabilities or significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems. The selected proposals address a range of visionary concepts, including metallic lithium combustion for long-term robotics operations, submarines that explore the oceans of icy moons of the outer planets, and a swarm of tiny satellites that map gravity fields and characterize the properties of small moons and asteroids. "NASA's investments in early-stage research are important for advancing new systems concepts and developing requirements for technologies to enable future space exploration missions," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This round of Phase II selections demonstrates the agency's continued commitment to innovations that may transform our nation's space, technology and science capabilities." NIAC Phase II awards can be worth as much as $500,000 for a two-year study, and the awards allow proposers to further develop their concepts from previously-selected Phase I studies. Phase I studies must demonstrate the initial feasibility and benefit of a concept. Phase II studies allow awardees to refine their designs and explore aspects of implementing the new technology. NASA selected these projects through a peer-review process that evaluated innovativeness and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, most requiring 10 or more years of concept maturation and technology development before use on a NASA mission. "This is an excellent group of NIAC studies," said Jason Derleth, NIAC Program executive at NASA Headquarters. "From seeing into cave formations on the moon to a radically new kind of solar sail that uses solar wind instead of light, NIAC continues to push the bounds of current technology." NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate innovates, develops, tests and flies hardware for use in future missions. Through programs such as NIAC, the directorate is demonstrating that early investment and partnership with scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation can provide technological dividends and help maintain America's leadership in the new global technology economy. For a complete list of the selected proposals and more information about NIAC, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/niac

NuSTAR Stares at the Sun

 

Flaring, active regions of our sun are highlighted in this new image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan's Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red.

All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time on April 29, 2015. The NuSTAR image is a mosaic made from combining smaller images.

The active regions across the sun’s surface contain material heated to several millions of degrees. The blue-white areas showing the NuSTAR data pinpoint the most energetic spots. During the observations, microflares went off, which are smaller versions of the larger flares that also erupt from the sun's surface. The microflares rapidly release energy and heat the material in the active regions.

NuSTAR typically stares deeper into the cosmos to observe X-rays from supernovas, black holes and other extreme objects. But it can also look safely at the sun and capture images of its high-energy X-rays with more sensitivity than before. Scientists plan to continue to study the sun with NuSTAR to learn more about microflares, as well as hypothesized nanoflares, which are even smaller.

In this image, the NuSTAR data shows X-rays with energies between 2 and 6 kiloelectron volts; the Hinode data, which is from the X-ray Telescope instrument, has energies of 0.2 to 2.4 kiloelectron volts; and the Solar Dynamics Observatory data, taken using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, shows extreme ultraviolet light with wavelengths of 171 and 193 Angstroms.

Note the green Hinode image frame edge does not extend as far as the SDO ultraviolet image, resulting in the green portion of the image being truncated on the right and left sides.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/JAXA

Last Updated: July 8, 2015

Editor: Tony Greicius

The North Sea Abloom

 

 

Despite its cold waters and harsh winds, the North Sea is a fertile basin for phytoplankton blooms. The drifting, plantlike organisms tend to be most abundant in late spring and early summer due to high levels of nutrients in the water and increasing sunlight. The intense winds blowing over the relatively shallow North Sea causes a lot of vertical and horizontal mixing that brings nutrients to the surface, as does runoff from European rivers.

This image, acquired on June 11, 2015, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows a mass of phytoplankton blooming between Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Germany. As compared to a June 6 image showing a different stage of the bloom cycle, areas of concentrated phytoplankton are smaller and most have the milky color characteristic of coccolithophores; there are few to no green areas. The change could be due to the short life span of phytoplankton—two to six days—and differences between the species. Some outlast others because of their ability to survive at lower nutrient levels.

Some researchers have found that numbers of plankton can actually begin to increase in the middle of winter, when growth conditions would seem to be at their worst. Studies suggest that winter storms churn the ocean and cause deep water mixing. This water mixing allows for phytoplankton to grow and live at depth without being spotted by their predators. When spring arrives, phytoplankton can fully bloom because not only are the nutrients available, but there is a longer period of sunlight.

More information and images: NASA's Earth Observatory

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using data from the Level 1 and Atmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS)
Caption: Rachel Carlowicz with Mike Carlowicz, interpretation insight provided by Mike Behrenfeld, Oregon State University, and Jochen Wollschläger, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht

Last Updated: July 6, 2015

Editor: Sarah Loff

NASA takes a stroll through 50 years of spacewalk history

 

Astronauts toiling away on the International Space Station (Credit: NASA) Image Gallery (69 images) NASA has marked half a century of spacewalks by rolling out a catalog of breathtaking photos taken across decades of extravehicular activity. June 3 marks 50 years to the day that Edward H. White II stepped out into the emptiness of space in 1965, blazing a trail for generations of NASA astronauts to follow. White ventured out into space from NASA's Gemini IV spacecraft, but he wasn't the first human to step outside a spacecraft in orbit. Only months earlier, on March 18, 1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov took the first space walk, pipping the Americans and their exploratory aspirations at the post. Almost two decades after White spent 20 minutes making his way around the outside of the Gemini spacecraft, countryman Bruce McCandless made another huge leap. As part of the STS-41B mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, McCandless would depart the spacecraft to perform the first untethered spacewalk. This was made possible by way of a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled jetpack known as the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which allowed McCandless to move around in open space. NASA astronauts have now completed hundreds of spacewalks. This includes 21 spacewalks on the surface of the Moon, 184 strolls outside the International Space Station, 82 walks outside of space shuttle airlocks and 166 hours logged servicing the Hubble Space Telescope. These days, NASA is turning its attention to developing more advanced spacesuits that can handle travel into deep space, namely a trip to Mars. You can see some of the many highlights of NASA's 50 year history of spacewalking in the spectacular photogallery. Source: NASA About the Author Nick was born outside of Melbourne, Australia, with a general curiosity that has drawn him to some distant (and very cold) places. Somewhere between enduring a winter in the Canadian Rockies and trekking through Chilean Patagonia, he graduated from university and pursued a career in journalism. Having worked for publications such as The Santiago Times and The Conversation, he now writes for Gizmag from Melbourne, excited by tech and all forms of innovation, the city's bizarre weather and curried egg sandwiches. All articles by Nick Lavars As Canadian astronaut Dave Williams wraps up his STS-118 shuttle mission repairing & constructing the International Space Station, years of training and technology developed in Montreal have helped him soar to great heights. For decades, NASA has been studying astronaut’s physiological responses to zero gravity, to living in outer space and to staying in a space vehicles and space stations for extended periods of time. NASA recently conducted under water research since the environment provides some useful similarities to working in space. Using off the shelf technology, developed by THOUGHT TECHNOLOGY LTD of Montreal. The device is a wearable outfit that records multiple physiological measurements simultaneously. The technology is ultra miniaturized, using a standard FlexComp Infiniti™ physiological encoder, storing the data using flash memory cards. The astronauts, Commander Dave Williams, a Canadian Physician, and Ron Garin, an American, wore the “gear” throughout the day while living in an NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) undersea habitat, off the shore of Key Largo Florida, 65 feet down, below the surface.NASA researcher William Toscano described the mission, “Our project was called Nemo Nine. It was 22 days long, with 2 astronauts participating. They wore the FlexComp Infiniti™ system for three of the mission days. What we were looking was the effect of isolation, workload and fatigue on the individuals. We’re using the Nemo Nine environment as an analog of a space station.” It was all stored on flash memory cards, “We recorded five measurements–heart rate and electrocardiogram, respiration, skin conductance, hand temperature and finger pulse volume. Throughout the day they had activities and tasks to do.” New, micro-miniaturization technologies have enabled NASA researchers to use commercially produced biomedical devices like the FlexComp Infiniti™ to do what used to take a wall full of equipment easily weighing over 1000 pounds. Now, the device, manufactured by Thought Technology a company that is the world’s largest provider of medical and consumer biofeedback instrumentation, weighs less than a pound and has built-in data storage using flash memory cards. http://www.thoughttechnology.com/blog/wp/?works=what-helps-give-canadas-dave-williams-a-steady-hand-in-space Lawrence Klein

Building Hubble's successor: Crucial Pathfinder test set up inside Chamber A

 

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 10:05am Laura Betz, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center   James Webb Space Telescope's Pathfinder backplane test model is being prepared for its cryogenic test. Courtesy of NASA/Chris GunnInside NASA's giant thermal vacuum chamber, called Chamber A, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the James Webb Space Telescope's Pathfinder backplane test model is being prepared for its cryogenic test. Previously used for manned spaceflight missions, this historic chamber is now filled with engineers and technicians preparing for a crucial test. Exelis developed and installed the optical test equipment in the chamber. "The optical test equipment was developed and installed in the chamber by Exelis," said Thomas Scorse, Exelis JWST Program Manager. "The Pathfinder telescope gives us our first opportunity for an end-to-end checkout of our equipment." "This will be the first time on the program that we will be aligning two primary mirror segments together," said Lee Feinberg, NASA Optical Telescope Element Manager. "In the past, we have always tested one mirror at a time but this time we will use a single test system and align both mirrors to it as though they are a single monolithic mirror." The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. SOURCE: NASA

Chicago in Winter

From the International Space Station (ISS), European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph of Chicago and posted it to social media on Feb. 19, 2015. She wrote, "How do you like #Chicago dressed for winter?" Crewmembers on the space station photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles above the surface as part of the Crew Earth Observations program. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s. The ISS maintains an altitude between 220 - 286 miles (354 - 460 km) above the Earth, and an orbital inclination of 51.6˚, providing an excellent stage for observing most populated areas of the world. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti

Astronaut Barry Wilmore on the First of Three Spacewalks

NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore works outside the International Space Station on the first of three spacewalks preparing the station for future arrivals by U.S. commercial crew spacecraft, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. Fellow spacewalker Terry Virts, seen reflected in the visor, shared this photograph on social media. The spacewalks are designed to lay cables along the forward end of the U.S. segment to bring power and communication to two International Docking Adapters slated to arrive later this year. The new docking ports will welcome U.S. commercial spacecraft launching from Florida beginning in 2017, permitting the standard station crew size to grow from six to seven and potentially double the amount of crew time devoted to research. The second and third spacewalks are planned for Wednesday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, March 1, with Wilmore and Virts participating in all three. Image Credit: NASA

Magnetospheric Multiscale Observatories Processed for Launch

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observatories are processed for launch in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida. MMS is an unprecedented NASA mission to study the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known as magnetic reconnection. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe. The mission observes reconnection directly in Earth's protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere. By studying reconnection in this local, natural laboratory, MMS helps us understand reconnection elsewhere as well, such as in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system's heliosphere and interstellar space. MMS is a NASA mission led by the Goddard Space Flight Center. The instrument payload science team consists of researchers from a number of institutions and is led by the Southwest Research Institute. Launch of the four identical observatories aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is managed by Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Services Program. Liftoff is currently targeted for 10:44 p.m. EDT on March 12. Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

NASA releases details of Titan submarine concept

The Titan submarine would use a large dorsal fin as an antenna (Image: NASA) Now that NASA has got the hang of planetary rovers, the space agency is looking at sending submarines into space around the year 2040. At the recent 2015 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Cocoa Beach, Florida, NASA scientists and engineers presented a study of the Titan Submarine Phase I Conceptual Design, which outlines a possible mission to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where the unmanned submersible would explore the seas of liquid hydrocarbons at the Titanian poles. If you had to choose the odd man out of all the moons of the Solar System, Titan would be it. Larger than the planet Mercury, it's the only moon with a proper atmosphere. In this case, one composed largely of nitrogen and methane at a pressure one and half times that of Earth's, which is remarkable when you consider that the gravity is only 0.14 g. It is, however, unpleasantly cold at a nippy minus 290 °F (minus 179 °C). As a result of the Voyager and Cassini probe flybys and the Huygens probe landing, it's been established that there are three large polar seas on Titan consisting of methane and ethane in a composition similar to that of liquified natural gas. The largest of these is Kraken Mare, which was discovered by the Cassini probe n 2007. It lies in the Titanian arctic between 60 and 80 degrees north latitude, covers 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq miles), and may be 160 m (525 ft) deep, though some estimates place it beyond 300 m (1,000 ft). It even has tides due to the pull of Saturn, a complex shoreline, and evaporite deposits, so it's of particular interest to scientists. Unfortunately, as anyone who has peered over the side of a boat can tell you, there's only so much that can be learned by looking at the surface, so NASA is considering what kind of a submarine would be able to explore the depths of Kraken Mare. NASA's conceptual Titan submarine is based on experience gained from the building and operations of drone submersibles on Earth. Weighing in at about one tonne (2,200 lb), it uses conventional electric propulsion modified for use on Titan for a 90-day mission covering 2,000 km (1,240 miles) of Kraken Mare. Because of its elongated shape, the sub would need to be delivered to the surface of Titan using a winged spacecraft similar to US Air Force X-37 lifting body, which could survive a hypersonic entry into Titan's atmosphere, ditch on the surface of Kraken Mare, and then sink away, leaving the submarine floating on the surface. After orientation and testing, the sub would then begin its mission. Because of the great distance from Earth, the submarine would operate with a very high level of autonomy. At its heart, the submarine would use a 1 kW radiothermal Stirling generator. This would not only provide power to propel the craft, but it would also keep the electronics from freezing. Unfortunately, Titan is so cold that it's almost a cryogenic environment, so the waste heat from the generator would cause the liquids around it to boil and this would need be taken into account when designing the sub to minimize interference. However, NASA estimates that the boat could do about one meter per second (3.6 km/h, 2.2 mph). For economy and simplicity, the conceptual submarine would not use an orbiter as a relay because an orbiter would need to be nuclear powered and include a propulsion system, which would greatly increase the cost and complexity of the mission. Due to the large amount of data that needs to sent to Earth, the submarine needs a large dorsal fin that includes a planar phased-array antenna. While operating, the submarine would surface for 16 hours per day for Earth communications during which it would study its surroundings using a mast camera. This is a bonus because the high latitudes mean any break in the Titanian clouds would be rewarded with spectacular views of Saturn on the horizon. Like an earthbound submarine, the Titan sub would use ballast tanks, but their design is still open to question because methane and ethane are not water and Titan is very different from Earth. The liquid density of different ratios of methane to ethane, for example, is very variable compared to that of fresh versus salt water, so something as basic as the size of the tanks has yet to be sorted out. Titan's gravity is low, but if Kraken Mare is as deep as some theories indicate, and taking into account the composition and temperature of the Titanian atmosphere, it could also cause trouble because at great depths the nitrogen in the ballast tanks could condense into a liquid, which could result in a sudden loss of buoyancy. For this reason, the tanks would need to use a piston to allow in and expel liquid rather than relying on air pressure as in a conventional submarine. NASA doesn't say much about the objectives of the Titan submarine, but it would probably be a full itinerary. This would likely include the study of the structure and composition of Kraken Mare in terms of both its liquid and its sediment. Also, since Titan has an overabundance of organic chemicals, the submarine would be tasked with looking for traces of prebiotic compounds that could give clues as to how life began on Earth. The animation below shows the conceptual Titan submarine in action. Source: NASA (PDF)