Plongée spatiale

Plongée spatiale

Encerramento da Missão X 2013, na qual participaram mais de 500 jovens portugueses

Encerramento da Missão X 2013, na qual participaram mais de 500 jovens portugueses

La actividad solar desencadena impresionantes auroras

La actividad solar desencadena impresionantes auroras

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

NASA AND FOREST SERVICE READY FOR 2013 WILDFIRE SEASON WITH NEW IMAGING SENSOR

FROM: NASA

NASA Imaging Sensor Prepares for Western Wildfire Season

WASHINGTON – Airborne imaging technology developed at NASA and transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service (USFS) in 2012 is being tested to prepare for this year's wildfire season in the western United States.

The Autonomous Modular Sensor (AMS) is a scanning spectrometer designed to help detect hot-spots, active fires, and smoldering and post-fire conditions. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and USFS engineers installed it on a Cessna Citation aircraft that belongs to the Forest Service. The USFS plans to use it in operational fire imaging and measurement.

The western United States is expected to have continued droughts this year resulting in increased potential for fire outbreaks, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho. To help mitigate fire danger, NASA researchers and USFS firefighters are collaborating to improve fire management capabilities.

"NASA technologies in the fields of data communication, aircraft systems, advanced sensing systems and real-time information processing finally have coalesced into the operational use that supports national needs in wildfire management," said Vincent Ambrosia, principal investigator of the Wildfire Research and Applications Partnership project and a senior research scientist at Ames and California State University, Monterey Bay.

Developed by NASA's Airborne Sciences Program, the Autonomous Modular Sensor acquires high-resolution imagery of the Earth's features from its vantage point aboard research aircraft. The sensor transmits nearly real-time data to ground disaster management investigators for analysis.
The sensor has been modified to fly on various crewed and uncrewed platforms, including NASA's Ikhana remotely piloted aircraft, a Predator-B modified to conduct airborne research. Between 2006 and 2010 the AMS flew on the Ikhana and NASA's B-200 King Air to demonstrate sensor capabilities, support national and state emergency requests for wildfire data, and ensure its operational readiness.

Data gathered during those flights was used to develop and test algorithms for scientific programs that monitor changes in environmental conditions, assess global change and respond to natural disasters.


The Autonomous Modular Sensor will be operated daily over wildfires throughout the United States, providing an unprecedented amount of data to the fire research and applications communities. USFS also will use the sensor to support other agency objectives, such as vegetation inventory analysis and water and river mapping.

"I see tremendous opportunity for my agency and other land management agencies to benefit from the application of NASA-developed technology," said Everett Hinkley, national remote sensing program manager with USFS in Arlington, Va. "The AMS expands our current capabilities and offers efficiencies in a number of remote-sensing applications including fire, post-fire and forest health applications."

NASA will continue to support the Forest Service's use of the Autonomous Modular Sensor. Researchers with NASA and other agencies will have access to the data and can request mission use through partnerships.

Minidružice Proba-V dorazila na evropský kosmodrom

Minidružice Proba-V dorazila na evropský kosmodrom

Observatoř Herschel brzy ukončí pozorování

Observatoř Herschel brzy ukončí pozorování

THE ZVEZDA SERVICE MODUCLE ARRAY

FROM: NASA
Space Station Solar Arrays

(3 April 2013) --- This close-up picture of a Zvezda Service Module array, reflecting bright rays of the sun, thus creating an artistic scene, was photographed on April 3 by one of the Expedition 35 crew members as part of an External Survey from International Space Station windows that was recently added to the crew's task list. Image Credit: NASA

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

Plongée spatiale

Plongée spatiale

Podepsaný kontrakt na detektor blesků pro meteorologické družice MTG

Podepsaný kontrakt na detektor blesků pro meteorologické družice MTG

Il Molise visto dallo spazio

Il Molise visto dallo spazio

STAR LIGHT GETS BENT

FROM: NASA

This artist's animation depicts an ultra-dense dead star, called a white dwarf, passing in front of a small red star. As the white dwarf crosses in front, its gravity is so great that it bends and magnifies the light of the red star.

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope was able to detect this effect, called gravitational lensing, not through direct imaging, but by measuring a strangely subtle dip in the star's brightness.

The red dwarf star is cooler and redder than our yellow sun. Its companion is a white dwarf, the burnt-out core of a star that used to be like our sun. Though the white dwarf is about the same diameter as Earth, 40 times smaller than the red dwarf, it is slightly more massive. The two objects circle around each other, but because the red dwarf is a bit less massive, it technically orbits the white dwarf.

Kepler is designed to look for planets by monitoring the brightness of stars. If planets cross in front of the stars, the starlight will periodically dip. In this case, the passing object turned out to be a white dwarf not a planet. The finding was serendipitous for astronomers because it allowed them to measure the tiny "gravitational lensing" effect of the white dwarf, a rarely observed phenomenon and a test of Einstein's theory of relativity. These data also helped to precisely measure the white dwarf's mass.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan

NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update