THE NEBULA

FROM:  NASA 

The brightly glowing plumes seen in this image are reminiscent of an underwater scene, with turquoise-tinted currents and nebulous strands reaching out into the surroundings. However, this is no ocean. This image actually shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small nearby galaxy that orbits our galaxy, the Milky Way, and appears as a blurred blob in our skies. The NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope has peeked many times into this galaxy, releasing stunning images of the whirling clouds of gas and sparkling stars (opo9944a, heic1301, potw1408a). This image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula's outskirts. This famously beautiful nebula, located within the LMC, is a frequent target for Hubble (heic1206, heic1402).  In most images of the LMC the color is completely different to that seen here. This is because, in this new image, a different set of filters was used. The customary R filter, which selects the red light, was replaced by a filter letting through the near-infrared light. In traditional images, the hydrogen gas appears pink because it shines most brightly in the red. Here however, other less prominent emission lines dominate in the blue and green filters. This data is part of the Archival Pure Parallel Project (APPP), a project that gathered together and processed over 1,000 images taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, obtained in parallel with other Hubble instruments. Much of the data in the project could be used to study a wide range of astronomical topics, including gravitational lensing and cosmic shear, exploring distant star-forming galaxies, supplementing observations in other wavelength ranges with optical data, and examining star populations from stellar heavyweights all the way down to solar-mass stars. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA: acknowledgement: Josh Barrington Text: European Space Agency.

Space to Ground: Vantage Point: 12/19/14

Four Galileo satellites at ESA test centre

Four Galileo satellites at ESA test centre

ScienceCasts: What Lies Inside Jupiter

Space to Ground: Vantage Point: 12/19/14

PLANET HUNTER

FROM:  NASA 

Caption Credit:  NASA.  The artistic impression shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. In May the spacecraft began its new mission observing in the ecliptic plane, the orbital path of Earth around the sun, depicted by the grey-blue line marked by opaque cross-like shapes. Each shape represents the field-of-view of an observing campaign. The K2 mission observes a specific portion of the distant sky for approximately 80 days, until it is necessary to rotate the spacecraft to prevent sunlight from entering the telescope. The spacecraft orbits the sun every 372 days as it trails Earth, allowing for four full campaigns per orbit or year. The arching band of stars is the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Using publicly available data collected by the spacecraft in February 2014 during the performance concept test to prove K2 would work, astronomers have confirmed the first exoplanet detected by the K2 mission. The newly confirmed planet, HIP 116454b, is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth, and closely orbits a star smaller and cooler than our sun once every nine days, making the planet too hot for life as we know it. The star and planet are 180 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Pisces. In May 2013, data collection for Kepler's extended prime mission came to an end when the second of four reaction wheels used to stabilize the spacecraft failed. Without at least three functioning reaction wheels, Kepler couldn’t be pointed at the original field with sufficient stability to precisely measure the dimming of starlight caused by a planet when it passes or transits in front of a distant star. Rather than giving up on the stalwart spacecraft, a team of scientists and engineers crafted a resourceful strategy to use pressure from sunlight as a virtual reaction wheel to help control the spacecraft while observing the sky in the ecliptic plane. The resulting K2 mission promises to not only continue Kepler’s planet hunt, but to expand that search to bright nearby stars which harbor planets that allow scientists to study them in detail to better understand their composition. K2 will also introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, active galaxies, and supernovae. Link to full NASA press release: NASA’s Kepler Reborn, Makes First Exoplanet Find of New Mission Credit: NASA Ames-JPL-Caltech-T Pyle.

Johann-Dietrich Woerner to be Director General of ESA

Johann-Dietrich Woerner to be Director General of ESA

Ames at AGU Fall Meeting 2014 | NASA

Ames at AGU Fall Meeting 2014 | NASA

CryoSat extends its reach on the Arctic

CryoSat extends its reach on the Arctic

SpaceX Dragon version 2 to Transport U.S. Astronauts to the Internationa...

Colours of Borneo

Colours of Borneo

Crude oil cargo for ESA’s first flight with China

Crude oil cargo for ESA’s first flight with China

Rosetta fuels debate on origin of Earth’s oceans

Rosetta fuels debate on origin of Earth’s oceans

Exploring Beyond

NASA Updates Briefings for Fifth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station | NASA

NASA Updates Briefings for Fifth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station | NASA

ISS as never seen before

ISS as never seen before

Proba-3 double-satellite nearer to space

Proba-3 double-satellite nearer to space

ScienceCasts: The Sounds of Interstellar Space

Week In Images

Week In Images

Orion Soars on First Flight Test

Orion test sets stage for ESA service module

Orion test sets stage for ESA service module

Romanian mosaic

Romanian mosaic

European astronomers spot faint asteroid

European astronomers spot faint asteroid

On solid ground

On solid ground

Europe’s 3D printer set for Space Station

Europe’s 3D printer set for Space Station

SUN SPOTS IN THE ULTRA EXTREME

FROM:  NASA

The sun emitted a significant solar flare on Oct. 19, 2014, peaking at 1:01 a.m. EDT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is always observing the sun, captured this image of the event in extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 131 Angstroms – a wavelength that can see the intense heat of a flare and that is typically colorized in teal. This flare is classified as an X1.1-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 flare is twice as intense as an X1, and an X3 is three times as intense. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. > More: NASA's SDO Observes an X-class Solar Flare.  Image Credit-NASA-Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Thanksgiving Message from the International Space Station

SOYUZ ROCKET ROLLS OUT

FROM:  NASA

Caption Credit:  NASA.  Expedition 42 Soyuz Rocket Rolls Out.  The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft is rolled out to the launch pad by train on Friday, Nov. 21, 2014 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for Nov. 24 and will carry Expedition 42 Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA , and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station.  Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.

Cosmic lighthouse

Cosmic lighthouse

SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION FROM CHANDRA'S X-RAY OBSERVATORY AND ESA'S XMM-NEWTON

FROM:  NASA

 The destructive results of a powerful supernova explosion reveal themselves in a delicate tapestry of X-ray light, as seen in this image from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton. The image shows the remains of a supernova that would have been witnessed on Earth about 3,700 years ago. The remnant is called Puppis A, and is around 7,000 light years away and about 10 light years across. This image provides the most complete and detailed X-ray view of Puppis A ever obtained, made by combining a mosaic of different Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. Low-energy X-rays are shown in red, medium-energy X-rays are in green and high energy X-rays are colored blue. These observations act as a probe of the gas surrounding Puppis A, known as the interstellar medium. The complex appearance of the remnant shows that Puppis A is expanding into an interstellar medium that probably has a knotty structure. Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that can provide the raw material from which future generations of stars and planets will form. Studying how supernova remnants expand into the galaxy and interact with other material provides critical clues into our own origins. A paper describing these results was published in the July 2013 issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is available online. The first author is Gloria Dubner from the Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Image credit: NASA/CXC/IAFE/G.Dubner et al & ESA/XMM-Newton.

Week In Images

Week In Images

Megacity

Megacity

Game Changing Development Demonstration Video 2014

Sea Ice Thickness Comparison: 1979 vs 2013

Secrets of space success

Secrets of space success

Secrets of space success

Secrets of space success

Simulating Space

Simulating Space

Tracking Philae

Tracking Philae

BUILDING THE TOOLS TO BUILD THE NEXT SPACECRAFT

FROM:  NASA

Caption and Image Credit:  NASA.  World's Largest Spacecraft Welding Tool for Space Launch System-The largest spacecraft welding tool in the world, the Vertical Assembly Center, officially is open for business at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The 170-foot-tall, 78-foot-wide giant completes a world-class welding toolkit that will be used to build the core stage of America's next great rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).

 SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid and eventually Mars. The core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall (61 meters) with a diameter of 27.6 feet (8.4 meters), will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the rocket's RS-25 engines.

The Vertical Assembly Center is part of a family of state-of-the-art tools designed to weld the core stage of SLS. It will join domes, rings and barrels to complete the tanks or dry structure assemblies. It also will be used to perform evaluations on the completed welds. Boeing is the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, including avionics.

Pioneering Philae completes main mission before hibernation

Pioneering Philae completes main mission before hibernation

Europe’s 3D printer set for Space Station

Europe’s 3D printer set for Space Station

Comet week in images

Comet week in images

Panoramic postcard

Panoramic postcard

Touchdown! Rosetta’s Philae probe lands on comet

Touchdown! Rosetta’s Philae probe lands on comet

Farewell, Philae

Farewell, Philae

Eye-catching space technology restoring sight

Eye-catching space technology restoring sight

Galileo satellite set for new orbit

Galileo satellite set for new orbit

ScienceCasts: Re-thinking an Alien World

Dead Sea

Dead Sea

NASA/JAXA's GPM Satellite Video of Vance

3D printing a moonbase

3D printing a moonbase

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...

Icy rocks around Saturn

Icy rocks around Saturn

Five years in space: one satellite, three missions

Five years in space: one satellite, three missions

ScienceCasts: Mars Landing Sky Show

Titan’s swirling polar cloud is cold and toxic

Titan’s swirling polar cloud is cold and toxic

Week In Images

Week In Images

Spooky Space Station

Spooky Space Station

Gateway to space open for thousands of ESA visitors

Gateway to space open for thousands of ESA visitors

Steering ESA satellites clear of space debris

Steering ESA satellites clear of space debris

Four Years of Progress

NASA Holds News Conference Following Orbital Launch Mishap

Where to land?

Where to land?

Launch of SpaceX Dragon CRS-2 to ISS, Thruster Issue Delays Arrival to S...

ScienceCasts: The Zero Gravity Coffee Cup

Week In Images

Week In Images

THE MISSION IS IN SIGHT

Europe’s new age of metals begins

Europe’s new age of metals begins

Week In Images

Week In Images

NASA VIDEO: Commercial Rocket Test Helps Prep for Journey to Mars

Siding Spring grazes Mars

Siding Spring grazes Mars

Vintage comet

Vintage comet

ScienceCasts: Bright Explosion on the Moon

Herschel's Comet

Herschel's Comet

Rosetta’s comet at ESA

Rosetta’s comet at ESA

Europe secures new generation of weather satellites

Europe secures new generation of weather satellites

Fishbone forest

Fishbone forest

ESA confirms the primary landing site for Rosetta

ESA confirms the primary landing site for Rosetta

Molten metals in spin cycle on ESA’s centrifuge

Molten metals in spin cycle on ESA’s centrifuge

ScienceCasts: Weird Planets

Week In Images

Week In Images

Robo-centaur

Robo-centaur

Lutetia’s dark side hosts hidden crater

Lutetia’s dark side hosts hidden crater

Mirror, mirror: testing 3D printing for space

Mirror, mirror: testing 3D printing for space

My Planet from Space

My Planet from Space

Setting sail for ESA spaceplane recovery

Setting sail for ESA spaceplane recovery

ScienceCasts: Amateur Scientists Discover Galactic Bubbles

What's Up for October 2014

CryoSat unveils secrets of the deep

CryoSat unveils secrets of the deep

Alexander Gerst set for spacewalk

Alexander Gerst set for spacewalk

Four candidate landing sites for ExoMars 2018

Four candidate landing sites for ExoMars 2018

Craters on the edge

Craters on the edge

FALCON 9 ROCKET HEADS INTO SPACE

FROM:  NASA 

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft lifts off on the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:52 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, carrying about 5,000 pounds of NASA science investigations and cargo are on their way to the International Space Station.The mission is the company's fourth cargo delivery flight to the space station. One of the new Earth science investigations heading to the orbital laboratory is the International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer. ISS-RapidScat monitors ocean winds from the vantage point of the space station. This information will be useful for weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring. Dragon also will deliver the first-ever 3-D printer in space, biomedical hardware and other biological research including a new plant study. Dragon is scheduled to be grappled at 7:04 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, by Expedition 41 Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, using the space station's robotic arm to take hold of the spacecraft. Dragon is scheduled to depart the space station in mid-October for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, bringing from the space station almost 3,200 pounds of science, hardware and crew supplies. Credit: NASA/Sandy Joseph and Kevin O'Connell.

GOCE reveals gravity dip from ice loss

GOCE reveals gravity dip from ice loss

Week In Images

Week In Images

ESA spaceplane on its way

ESA spaceplane on its way

How to catch a Dragon

How to catch a Dragon

Winter in Argyre

Winter in Argyre

ScienceCasts: What Lies Inside Jupiter

Helsinki

Helsinki

NASA Chooses Boeing and SpaceX Companies to Transport U.S. Astronauts to...

Lemon juice: new ingredient for space designers?

Lemon juice: new ingredient for space designers?

Rainbow aurora

Rainbow aurora

Giant solar flare

Giant solar flare

‘J’ marks the spot for Rosetta’s lander

‘J’ marks the spot for Rosetta’s lander

ORION CREW MODULE SITS ATOP SERVICE MODULE

FROM:  NASA 

Caption Credit:  NASA.  NASA’s first completed Orion crew module sits atop its service module at the Neal Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew and service module will be transferred together on Wednesday to another facility for fueling, before moving again for the installation of the launch abort system. At that point, the spacecraft will be complete and ready to stack on top of the Delta IV Heavy rocket that will carry it into space on its first flight in December. For that flight, Exploration Flight Test-1, Orion will travel 3,600 miles above the Earth – farther than any spacecraft built to carry people has traveled in more than 40 years – and return home at speeds of 20,000 miles per hour, while enduring temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.  Image Credit-NASA-Rad Sinyak

Gaia discovers its first supernova

Gaia discovers its first supernova

European Space Agency ESA Space News Update

European Space Agency ESA Space News Update

ScienceCasts: Re-thinking an Alien World

ScienceCasts: Fruit Flies on the International Space Station

Neutron stars at odds

Neutron stars at odds

HUBBLE LOOKS INTO SPACE AND FINDS IT INTERESTING

FROM:  NASA 

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a variety of intriguing cosmic phenomena. Surrounded by bright stars, towards the upper middle of the frame we see a small young stellar object (YSO) known as SSTC2D J033038.2+303212. Located in the constellation of Perseus, this star is in the early stages of its life and is still forming into a fully-grown star. In this view from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys(ACS) it appears to have a murky chimney of material emanating outwards and downwards, framed by bright bursts of gas flowing from the star itself. This fledgling star is actually surrounded by a bright disk of material swirling around it as it forms — a disc that we see edge-on from our perspective. However, this small bright speck is dwarfed by its cosmic neighbor towards the bottom of the frame, a clump of bright, wispy gas swirling around as it appears to spew dark material out into space. The bright cloud is a reflection nebula known as [B77] 63, a cloud of interstellar gas that is reflecting light from the stars embedded within it. There are actually a number of bright stars within [B77] 63, most notably the emission-line star LkHA 326, and it nearby neighbor LZK 18. These stars are lighting up the surrounding gas and sculpting it into the wispy shape seen in this image. However, the most dramatic part of the image seems to be a dark stream of smoke piling outwards from [B77] 63 and its stars — a dark nebula called Dobashi 4173. Dark nebulae are incredibly dense clouds of pitch-dark material that obscure the patches of sky behind them, seemingly creating great rips and eerily empty chunks of sky. The stars speckled on top of this extreme blackness actually lie between us and Dobashi 4173. European Space Agency Credit: ESA/NASA

Hang out with Rosetta

Hang out with Rosetta

Week In Images

Week In Images

Update on Galileo launch injection anomaly

Update on Galileo launch injection anomaly

INTEGRAL catches dead star exploding in a blaze of glory

INTEGRAL catches dead star exploding in a blaze of glory

Galileo liftoff

Galileo liftoff

Light of life

Light of life

Mars Deep down

Mars Deep down

THE 'BONANZA KING' AND MARS

FROM:  NASA

The pale rocks in the foreground of this fisheye image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover include the "Bonanza King" target under consideration to become the fourth rock drilled by the Mars Science Laboratory mission.  No previous mission has collected sample material from the interior of rocks on Mars. Curiosity delivers the drilled rock powder into analytical laboratory instruments inside the rover. Curiosity's front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam), which has a very wide-angle lens, recorded this view on Aug. 14, 2014, during the 719th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.  The view faces southward, looking down a ramp at the northeastern end of sandy-floored "Hidden Valley." Wheel tracks show where Curiosity drove into the valley, and back out again, earlier in August 2014.  The largest of the individual flat rocks in the foreground are a few inches (several centimeters) across.  For scale, the rover's left front wheel, visible at left, is 20 inches (0.5 meter) in diameter.  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover and the rover's Navcam. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

ESA and CNES experts ready for Galileo’s first orbits

ESA and CNES experts ready for Galileo’s first orbits

Ice sheet highs, lows and loss

Ice sheet highs, lows and loss

Launching Galileo

Launching Galileo

Twin Galileos meet, ready for Thursday’s launch

Twin Galileos meet, ready for Thursday’s launch

NASA | Colliding Neutron Stars Create Black Hole and Gamma-ray Burst

Introducing this year’s underground astronauts

Introducing this year’s underground astronauts

Week In Images

Week In Images

Final European Resupply Cargo Ship Begins Its Journey To The Space Station

What's Up for August 2014

Space Station Live: Orion Recovery Training

The halo of a galaxy

The halo of a galaxy

NASA's OPALS Beams Video from Space

Happy Birthday, John Glenn, From the International Space Station

NEW NASA SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM

FROM:  NASA 

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, will be the most powerful rocket in history. The flexible, evolvable design of this advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle will meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs. In addition to carrying the Orion spacecraft, SLS will transfer important cargo, equipment and science experiments to deep space, providing the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable means to expand our reach in the solar system. It will allow astronauts aboard Orion to explore multiple deep-space destinations including an asteroid and ultimately Mars. The first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will have a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. As the SLS is evolved, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built and provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system. Image Credit: NASA.

Apollo 11 For All Mankind

Restored Apollo 11 EVA

ScienceCasts: One Year to Pluto

Orbital 2 Mission Underway on This Week @NASA

A TYPICAL SUN BURST

FROM:  NASA 

A stream of plasma burst out from the sun, but since it lacked enough force to break away, most of it fell back into the sun (May 27, 2014). The video, seen in a combination of two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, covers a little over two hours. This eruption was minor and such events occur almost every day on the sun and suggest the kind of dynamic activity being driven by powerful magnetic forces near the sun's surface.   Image credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Sailing satellites into safe retirement

Sailing satellites into safe retirement

Pre-launch Activities Complete for Supply Mission to ISS

Pre-launch Activities Complete for Supply Mission to ISS

NASA | Scientists Create First Full 3D Model of Eta Carinae Nebula

Inflatables in space

Russian Soyuz Rocket

A LOOK INTO DESTINY

FROM:  NASA 

This view in the International Space Station, photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member, shows how it looks inside the space station while the crew is asleep. The dots near the hatch point to a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station in case the crew was to encounter an emergency. This view is looking into the Destiny Laboratory from Node 1 (Unity) with Node 2 (Harmony) in the background. Destiny is the primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads, supporting a wide range of experiments and studies. Image Credit: NASA.

What Is A Planet?

ScienceCasts: Mysterious Objects at the Edge of the Electromagnetic Spec...

ScienceCasts: Big Surprise

ScienceCasts: Fruit Flies on the International Space Station

Canada Day

Canada Day

A LOOK AT GALAXY NGC 4485

FROM:  NASA

This image from NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxy NGC 4485 in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). The galaxy is irregular in shape, but it hasn’t always been so. Part of NGC 4485 has been dragged towards a second galaxy, named NGC 4490 — which lies out of frame to the bottom right of this image. Between them, these two galaxies make up a galaxy pair called Arp 269. Their interactions have warped them both, turning them from spiral galaxies into irregular ones. NGC 4485 is the smaller galaxy in this pair, which provides a fantastic real-world example for astronomers to compare to their computer models of galactic collisions. The most intense interaction between these two galaxies is all but over; they have made their closest approach and are now separating. The trail of bright stars and knotty orange clumps that we see here extending out from NGC 4485 is all that connects them — a trail that spans some 24 000 light-years. Many of the stars in this connecting trail could never have existed without the galaxies’ fleeting romance. When galaxies interact hydrogen gas is shared between them, triggering intense bursts of star formation. The orange knots of light in this image are examples of such regions, clouded with gas and dust. European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Kathy van Pelt.

NASA | Take a "Swift" Tour of the Andromeda Galaxy

ScienceCasts: NASA to Launch Carbon Observatory

Cassini Saturn Arrival

THE PATH TO MARS AND BEYOND

FROM:  NASA

NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s – goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010.  A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers already are on and around Mars, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover measured radiation on the way to Mars and is sending back radiation data from the surface. This data will help us plan how to protect the astronauts who will explore Mars. Future missions like the Mars 2020 rover, seeking signs of past life, also will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts survive on Mars.  Engineers and scientists around the country are working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home from the next giant leap for humanity.  Illustration from Nasa.

Boeing Details Its Plans for CST-100 Assembly at Kennedy

THE ARM OF ATLANTIS MOVES DESTINY

FROM:  NASA 

On Feb. 10, 2001, the crews of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station successfully installed the U.S. Destiny Laboratory onto the station. In this photo, Destiny is moved by the shuttle's remote manipulator system (RMS) robot arm from its stowage position in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Astronaut Marsha Ivins began the work, using Atlantis' robotic arm to remove a station docking port, called Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA 2), to make room for Destiny. The adapter was removed from the station's Unity module and latched in a temporary position on the station's truss. Then, at 9:50 a.m. CST, astronauts Tom Jones and Bob Curbeam began a spacewalk that continued throughout the day, in tandem with Ivin's robotic arm work. Jones provided Ivins visual cues as she moved the adapter to its temporary position, and Curbeam removed protective launch covers and disconnected power and cooling cables between the Destiny lab and Atlantis. At 12:57 p.m., the lab was latched into position on the station, and soon a set of automatic bolts tightened to hold it permanently in place for years of space research. The lab added 3,800 cubic feet of volume to the station, increasing the onboard living space by 41 percent. The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated the U.S segment of the space station as a national laboratory. As the nation's only national laboratory on-orbit, the space station National Lab will improve life on Earth, foster relationships among NASA, other federal entities, and the private sector, and advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education through utilization of the space station's unique capabilities as a permanent microgravity platform with exposure to the space environment.  Image Credit: NASA.

ScienceCasts: Solar Mini-Max

WHERE THE WATER MEETS THE LAND IN THE WESTERN SAHARA

FROM:  NASA 

On May 23, 2014, Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson posted this photograph -- taken from the International Space Station -- to Instagram. Swanson noted, “Western Sahara – the contrast between the sand and the water is spectacular from here.” Swanson uploaded the first image from space to Instagram on April 7. He began posting imagery to the social media site during his pre-flight training. › View Instagram imagery from the International Space Station The three Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station worked advanced science this week while awaiting a new trio, set to lift off on Wednesday, May 28. Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29 Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Image Credit: NASA

'Hello, World': NASA OPALS' First Official Video Sent Via Laser

EXPEDITION 40 SOYUZ TMA-13M ROCKET LAUNCHES TO ISS

FROM:  NASA SOYUZ

The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is launched with Expedition 40 Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, ESA, and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA in the early hours of Thursday, May 29, 2014 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Suraev, Gerst, and Wiseman will spend the next five and a half months aboard the International Space Station.  Image Credit-NASA-Joel Kowsky

SpaceX Unveils Dragon V2

Morpheus Completes Nighttime Flight Test

Expedition 40/41 Mission Overview

Welcome Aboard! New Crew Arrives on Space Station

HRP ForceShoe Evaluation

A CANYON GRANDER THAN THE GRAND CANYON

FROM:  NASA 

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars:   Explanation: The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The above mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.  Image and story credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA.

This Week at NASA

Space Station Live: Testing a New Spacesuit for an Asteroid Spacewalk

Space Station Live: 3D Printing in Space

Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater (+playlist)

Dragon Heads Home (+playlist)

"WALK THIS WAY"

FROM:  NASA 
Spacewalk Training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory 

In this image taken on Nov. 7, 2012, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (partially obscured), both Expedition 40/41 flight engineers, attired in training versions of their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, are submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA's Johnson Space Center. Divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist Wiseman and Gerst in their rehearsal, which is intended to help prepare them for work on the exterior of the International Space Station. Wiseman, Gerst and Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on May 28, 2014, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are scheduled to return to Earth in November. Image Credit: NASA.

DEM L241: Hardy Star Survives Supernova Blast

DEM L241: Hardy Star Survives Supernova Blast

Suivre la famille de lanceurs européens depuis le Gabon

Follow the family of European launchers from Gabon

SHOWING THE DUNES OF MARS WITH HiRISE

FROM:  NASA 

Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on Mars. As such, it is continuously monitored with the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, a science instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with a new image acquired about every six weeks. By monitoring the sand dune changes, we can determine how winds vary seasonally and year-to-year. This observation is one of the more recent Nili images, acquired on March 1, 2014. Compared to an image acquired on Nov. 22, 2012, changes are obvious. The ripples on the dunes have moved, as well some of the dune boundaries, such as the one at upper left. New landslides on the central dune's lee face are apparent. Such changes, in just 16 months (and finer scale changes have been seen in just a couple of weeks), demonstrate the effectiveness of wind in modifying the Martian landscape. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. > More information and image products Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-Univ. of Arizona Caption: Nathan Bridges.

Retired NASA research test pilot Bill Dana dies

Das Europäische Astronautenzentrum

Das Europäische Astronautenzentrum

Experts demonstrate versatility of Sentinel-1

Experts demonstrate versatility of Sentinel-1

Exam time

Exam time

Minister Kamp bij Woensdagmorgen.nl

Minister Kamp bij Woensdagmorgen.nl

CENTAURUS A WITH IT'S SUPER-MASSIVE BLACK HOLE CENTER

FROM:  NASA

Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky -- making it an ideal target for amateur astronomers -- and is famous for the dust lane across its middle and a giant jet blasting away from the supermassive black hole at its center. Cen A is an active galaxy about 12 million light years from Earth.  This image is part of a "quartet of galaxies" collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers that combines optical data from amateur telescopes with data from the archives of NASA missions. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations.  Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Rolf Olsen; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Clues for a Martian Landscape

Clues for a Martian Landscape

Immagine EO della Settimana: Anteprima Sentinel

Immagine EO della Settimana: Anteprima Sentinel

NASA's Path to Mars

Laserové sbohem lunární misi

Laserové sbohem lunární misi

Joyas brillantes en el Plano Galáctico

Joyas brillantes en el Plano Galáctico

THE MASSIVE EL GORDO GALAXY CLUSTER

FROM:  NASA 

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has weighed the largest known galaxy cluster in the distant universe, catalogued as ACT-CL J0102-4915, and found it definitely lives up to its nickname -- El Gordo (Spanish for "the fat one"). By measuring how much the cluster's gravity warps images of galaxies in the distant background, a team of astronomers has calculated the cluster's mass to be as much as 3 million billion times the mass of our sun. Hubble data show the galaxy cluster, which is 9.7 billion light-years away from Earth, is roughly 43 percent more massive than earlier estimates. The team used Hubble to measure how strongly the mass of the cluster warped space. Hubble's high resolution allowed measurements of so-called "weak lensing," where the cluster's immense gravity subtly distorts space like a funhouse mirror and warps images of background galaxies. The greater the warping, the more mass is locked up in the cluster.  Credit-NASA-ESA.

Week in Images

Week in Images

Euronews: I 50 anni dell'odissea spaziale dell'Europa

Euronews: I 50 anni dell'odissea spaziale dell'Europa

El campo de COSMOS en rayos X

El campo de COSMOS en rayos X

IN THE CONSTELLATION LIBRA

FROM:  NASA 

This new Hubble image is centered on NGC 5793, a spiral galaxy over 150 million light-years away in the constellation of Libra. This galaxy has two particularly striking features: a beautiful dust lane and an intensely bright center — much brighter than that of our own galaxy, or indeed those of most spiral galaxies we observe. NGC 5793 is a Seyfert galaxy. These galaxies have incredibly luminous centers that are thought to be caused by hungry supermassive black holes — black holes that can be billions of times the size of the sun — that pull in and devour gas and dust from their surroundings. This galaxy is of great interest to astronomers for many reasons. For one, it appears to house objects known as masers. Whereas lasers emit visible light, masers emit microwave radiation. The term "masers" comes from the acronym Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Maser emission is caused by particles that absorb energy from their surroundings and then re-emit this in the microwave part of the spectrum. Naturally occurring masers, like those observed in NGC 5793, can tell us a lot about their environment; we see these kinds of masers in areas where stars are forming. In NGC 5793 there are also intense mega-masers, which are thousands of times more luminous than the sun.   Credit:  NASA, ESA, and E. Perlman (Florida Institute of Technology)

NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of...

Liftoff of SpaceX-3 (+playlist)

Tower of Vega

Tower of Vega

Premières images radar pour Copernicus

Premières images radar pour Copernicus

From red Mars to green Earth

From red Mars to green Earth

A beleza que surge do caos

A beleza que surge do caos

THE BIG SPOT ON JUPITER

FROM:  NASA 

At about 89,000 miles in diameter, Jupiter could swallow 1,000 Earths. It is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere. Such winds sustain spinning anticyclones like the Great Red Spot -- a raging storm three and a half times the size of Earth located in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. In January and February 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft zoomed toward Jupiter, capturing hundreds of images during its approach, including this close-up of swirling clouds around Jupiter's Great Red Spot. This image was assembled from three black and white negatives. The observations revealed many unique features of the planet that are still being explored to this day. > View more images and watch a time-lapse of Jupiter assembled from images taken by the spacecraft Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Images courtesy of NASA-JPL

James Webb Space Telescope Deployment In Detail

Extremen beheersen: inhuldiging testbank voor raketmotoren in Luik

Extremen beheersen: inhuldiging testbank voor raketmotoren in Luik

Cassini descubre patrones muy familiares sobre las dunas de Titán

Cassini descubre patrones muy familiares sobre las dunas de Titán

L'Italia di notte

L'Italia di notte

CELEBRATING HUBBLE ON 24TH ANNIVERSARY OF LAUNCH

FROM:  NASA 

In celebration of the 24th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have captured infrared-light images of a churning region of star birth 6,400 light-years away. This colorful Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula unveils a collection of carved knots of gas and dust silhouetted against glowing gas. The cloud is sculpted by ultraviolet light eating into the cool hydrogen gas.  Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Morpheus Completes 8th Free Flight

Full launch coverage

Full launch coverage

Watch Sentinel-1 launch

Watch Sentinel-1 launch

Double visite ministérielle à Redu

Double visite ministérielle à Redu

Hack a space app

Hack a space app

Week in Images

Week in Images

El Ciclo Solar

El Ciclo Solar

ADRIFT IN ORION'S STELLAR NURSERY..."

FROM:  NASA 

This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori's cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. In three dimensions, LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge. The beautiful picture is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team.

Expedition 39 40 Launches to the International Space Station

Interactive Swarm

Interactive Swarm

Mars yard ready for Red Planet rover

Mars yard ready for Red Planet rover

Growing more coffee

Growing more coffee

Estrellas y burbujas

Estrellas y burbujas

U.S. EXTENDS BEST WISHES TO PEOPLE OF GREECE ON THEIR 193RD INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

On the Occasion of Greek National Day

Press Statement

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

March 21, 2014

---

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I extend best wishes to the people of Greece on the 193rd anniversary of your independence on March 25.
My home of Massachusetts is host to one of the largest Greek-American communities in the United States. During my time in statewide political office, I served beside a proud Greek-American, former Governor Michael S. Dukakis. When I joined the United States Senate, I succeeded another equally proud Greek-American, Paul Tsongas.

My experience has been enriched through my visits to Greece, and I was happy to welcome Foreign Minister Venizelos to the State Department last year.

From the ancient Greek thinkers, whose ideas and principles inspired America’s Founding Fathers, to the modern Hellenic Republic, the bonds between us are strong and continue to grow.

The United States stands in solidarity with Greece as a NATO ally, and we look forward to deepening our security partnership in the years to come.

Beyond our strong bilateral relationship, our people share important values and cultural ties. We will continue to encourage the commercial, educational, and exchange opportunities that serve as the foundation of our friendship.

We applaud Greece’s leadership of the EU Council Presidency, and we are committed to working together to ensure a more secure and prosperous future for Greeks and Americans alike.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

THE COLORFUL PLANET EARTH

FROM:  NASA 
On Aug. 3, 2004, NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft began a seven-year journey, spiraling through the inner solar system to Mercury.

One year after launch, the spacecraft zipped around Earth, getting an orbit correction from Earth’s gravity and getting a chance to test its instruments by observing its home planet. This image is a view of South America and portions of North America and Africa from the Mercury Dual Imaging System’s wide-angle camera aboard MESSENGER. The wide-angle camera records light at eleven different wavelengths, including visible and infrared light. Combining blue, red, and green light results in a true-color image from the observations. The image substitutes infrared light for blue light in the three-band combination. The resulting image is crisper than the natural color version because our atmosphere scatters blue light. Infrared light, however, passes through the atmosphere with relatively little scattering and allows a clearer view. That wavelength substitution makes plants appear red. Why? Plants reflect near-infrared light more strongly than either red or green, and in this band combination, near-infrared is assigned to look red. Apart from getting a clearer image, the substitution reveals more information than natural color. Healthy plants reflect more near-infrared light than stressed plants, so bright red indicates dense, growing foliage. For this reason, biologists and ecologists occasionally use infrared cameras to photograph forests.

 Why is that Forest Red and that Cloud Blue? How to Interpret a False-Color Satellite Image Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington Caption: Holli Riebeek.

Countdown to launch

Countdown to launch

Recyclage van water in de ruimte

Recyclage van water in de ruimte

Measuring a Distant Black Hole's Spin

Week in Images

Week in Images

24 años de Hubble: la Nebulosa Cabeza de Mono

24 años de Hubble: la Nebulosa Cabeza de Mono

ICE RETREATS AT THE MARTIAN DUNES DURING MARTIAN SPRING

FROM:  NASA 
Mars’ northern-most sand dunes are beginning to emerge from their winter cover of seasonal carbon dioxide (dry) ice. Dark, bare south-facing slopes are soaking up the warmth of the sun. The steep lee sides of the dunes are also ice-free along the crest, allowing sand to slide down the dune. Dark splotches are places where ice cracked earlier in spring, releasing sand. Soon the dunes will be completely bare and all signs of spring activity will be gone.

This image was acquired by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 16, 2014. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. > More information and image products Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Caption: Candy Hansen.

Der Heiligenschein der Venus

Der Heiligenschein der Venus

Sportprestaties analyseren met satellietnavigatie

Sportprestaties analyseren met satellietnavigatie

Aidez Andreas à trouver un nom pour sa mission

Aidez Andreas à trouver un nom pour sa mission

El cometa Churyumov-Gerasimenko, visto el 28 de febrero de 2014

El cometa Churyumov-Gerasimenko, visto el 28 de febrero de 2014

SUN EMITS "SIGNIFICANT SOLAR FLARE"

FROM:  NASA 
On Feb. 24, 2014, the sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:49 p.m. EST. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which keeps a constant watch on the sun, captured images of the event. These SDO images from 7:25 p.m. EST on Feb. 24 show the first moments of this X-class flare in different wavelengths of light -- seen as the bright spot that appears on the left limb of the sun. Hot solar material can be seen hovering above the active region in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation, appearing as giant flashes of light in the SDO images. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. > Read more Image Credit: NASA/SDO.

ESA Week in Images

Week in Images

Isla Margarita

Isla Margarita

Shenanigan training

Shenanigan training

Laserkommunikation zwischen Mond und Erde

Laserkommunikation zwischen Mond und Erde

ESA-Radar spürt erste Trümmerteile im All auf

ESA-Radar spürt erste Trümmerteile im All auf

Rosettas Selbstportrait

Rosettas Selbstportrait

Neosat

Neosat

Os planaltos do norte do Equador nesta imagem do Envisat

Os planaltos do norte do Equador nesta imagem do Envisat

LAUNCH OF THE H-IIA WITH GPM CORE OBSERVATORY

FROM:  NASA 

H-IIA ROCKET ROLLS OUT AT TANEGASHIMA SPACE CENTER, JAPAN

A Japanese H-IIA rocket carrying the NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory rolls out to launch pad 1 at the Tanegashima Space Center, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, Tanegashima, Japan. Once launched, the GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. The rocket is scheduled to lift off during a launch window that opens at 1:37 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 27 (3:37 a.m., Friday, Feb. 28 Japan time). GPM is an international satellite mission to provide next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. The GPM Core Observatory satellite carries advanced instruments that will set a new standard for precipitation measurements from space. The data they provide will be used to unify precipitation measurements made by an international network of partner satellites to quantify when, where, and how much it rains or snows around the world. The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities of using satellite precipitation information to directly benefit society. Image Credit-NASA-Bill Ingalls.

JAPANESE H-IIA ROCKET LAUNCHES FROM TANEGASHIMA SPACE CENTER 

A Japanese H-IIA rocket with the NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard, is seen launching from the Tanegashima Space Center on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 (Japan Time), in Tanegashima, Japan. The GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. Image Credit-NASA-Bill Ingalls.

Woensdagmorgen.nl: Niet meer afhankelijk van je energieleverancier

Woensdagmorgen.nl: Niet meer afhankelijk van je energieleverancier

Antarktische Sonne

Antarktische Sonne

Antarktische Sonne

Antarktische Sonne

Calling scientists: send your experiment out of this world

Calling scientists: send your experiment out of this world