Our pale blue dot, planet Earth, is seen in this video captured by NASA astronaut Jack Fischer (@astro2fish) from his unique vantage point on the International Space Station (@iss). From 250 miles above our home planet, this time-lapse imagery takes us over the Pacific Ocean’s moon glint and above the night lights of San Francisco, CA. The thin hue of our atmosphere is visible surrounding our planet with a majestic white layer of clouds sporadically seen underneath.
The International Space Station is currently home to 6 people who are living and working in microgravity. As it orbits our planet at 17,500 miles per hour, the crew onboard is conducting important research that benefits life here on Earth.
What’s up for August? A total solar eclipse across the continental United States, and you can help us collect scientific data during this solar event! The eclipse, happening on August 21, will be visible throughout North America. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights – a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the Sun and the Sun’s tenuous atmosphere – the corona – can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the Sun’s disk.
Looking directly at the Sun is unsafe, so plan to protect your eyes during this solar event. The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed Sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers. Watch for more information about the eclipse and how you can help us collect data during this solar event!
Credit: NASA
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Numerous arches of magnetic field lines danced and swayed above a large active region on the Sun over about a 30-hour period on July 17-18, 2017. We can also see the magnetic field lines from the large active region reached out and connected with a smaller active region. Those linked lines then strengthened (become brighter), but soon began to develop a kink in them and rather swiftly faded from view. All of this activity is driven by strong magnetic forces associated with the active regions. The images were taken in extreme ultraviolet light.
Credit: NASA
Phobos photobombs Hubble’s look at Mars! When the Hubble Space Telescope observed Mars near opposition in May 2016, a sneaky companion photobombed the picture. Phobos, the Greek personification of fear, is one of two tiny moons orbiting Mars. In 13 exposures over 22 minutes, Hubble captured a timelapse of Phobos moving through its 7-hour 39-minute orbit.
This timelapse video captures a portion of the path that tiny Phobos takes around Mars. The transitions between frames have been smoothed to illustrate continuous motion. Phobos completes an orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes, which is faster than Mars rotates. Rising in the Martian west, it runs three laps around the Red Planet in the course of one Martian day, which is about 24 hours and 40 minutes. It is the only natural satellite in the solar system that circles its planet in a time shorter than the parent planet’s day. Hubble photographed Phobos orbiting the Red Planet on May 12, 2016, when Mars was 50 million miles from Earth. This was just a few days before the planet passed closer to Earth in its orbit than it had in the past 11 years.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon and Z. Levay (STScI)
#Hubble #Mars #space #science #nasa #astronomy #planet #solarsystem #phobos #telescope
How do eclipses work? Solar eclipses occur when the new moon passes between Earth and the sun and the moon casts a traveling shadow on Earth.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the new moon is in the right position to exactly cover the sun's disk. This will happen next month when the new moon will completely block our view of the sun along a narrow path from Oregon to South Carolina.
During August's total solar eclipse, it may be dark enough to see some of the brighter stars and a few planets!
Two weeks before or after a solar eclipse there's often, but not always, a lunar eclipse. But it's not necessarily a total lunar eclipse. This will happen because the moon will be at opposition. The full moon and Earth and the sun will be lined up with Earth in the middle.
Credit: NASA
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No one knows the International Space Station better than the people who live and work there – and now they’re sharing that knowledge in bite-sized chunks. In the first of a series of short videos called “SpeedyTime,” NASA astronaut Jack Fischer gives us a quick-but-thorough tour of payload activities inside and outside the airlock in the station’s Japanese laboratory module, Kibo.
Join him for this quick tour on the orbiting laboratory!
Currently, three humans are living and working on the International Space Station, conducting important research and helping us advance technology.
Credit: NASA
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Between July 5-11, our Sun-observing satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, saw a sunspot rotate into view and captured it on this. Such sunspots are a common, but are less frequent as we head toward solar minimum, which is the period of low solar activity during its regular approximately 11-year cycle. This sunspot is the first to appear after the sun was spotless for two days, and it is the only sunspot group at this moment. Like freckles on the face of the sun, they appear to be small features, but size is relative: The dark core of this sunspot is actually larger than Earth.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO/Joy Ng, producer
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What’s up in the night skies in July? Beginning July 1, we’ll be able to see all the moon’s phases.
Many of the Apollo landing sites are on the lit side of the first quarter moon. But to see these sites, you’ll have to rely on images for lunar orbiting spacecraft. On July 9, the full moon rises at sunset and July 16 is the last quarter. The new moon begins on July 23 and is the phase we’ll look forward to in August, when it will give us the total solar eclipse. The month of July ends with a first quarter moon.
Credit: NASA
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Did you know that it’s #AsteroidDay?! Watch this animation to see a simulated asteroid breaking up during atmospheric entry at about 45,000 miles per hour. You’ll notice that a high-pressure shock wave forms around the asteroid causing it to fracture and flatten like a pancake.
In support of our Planetary Defense Coordination Office, researchers are creating 3-D models and using one of our most powerful supercomputers to produce simulations of hypothetical asteroid impact scenarios. Their results help first responders and other agencies to identify and make better informed decisions for how best to defend against life-threatening asteroid events.
Credit: NASA
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Get outside and see what’s up in the night sky! On June 15, Saturn reaches opposition, which is when Saturn, Earth and the sun are all in a straight line, with Earth in the middle. Opposition provides the best and closest views of the ringed planet and several of its brightest moons.
If you see just one, that’s Titan. Titan is 50% larger than our own moon and orbits Saturn about every 16 Earth days. Through a telescope you’ll be able to compare the cloud bands on both Saturn and Jupiter.
Credit: NASA
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Once installed aboard the International Space Station, our Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer will provide high-precision measurements of neutron stars, objects containing ultra-dense matter at the threshold of collapse into black holes. NICER will also test, for the first time in space, technology that uses pulsars as navigation beacons.
Seen here, NICER is extracted from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft trunk on orbit. Following installation onto the space station, NICER will be powered up, deployed and its range of motion verified by robotic camera.
Saying goodbye to a parting spacecraft. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer posted this video Thursday saying, “How super cool this is! Our robot arm releases Cygnus and the spaceship flies away! Moments like this happen all the time on @iss”. The Cygnus spacecraft had been docked to the International Space Station since April and was released on June 4, after delivering supplies and science to the crew onboard. Cygnus will remain in orbit for a week in support of the SAFFIRE experiment, which studies fire in microgravity.
Credit: NASA
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LIFTOFF! SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vehicle successfully launched from Launch Complex 39A at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:07 p.m. EDT today. Carrying more than 6,000 pounds of supplies and science to the International Space Station, the spacecraft will arrive at the orbiting laboratory on Monday, where it will stay for about a month.
Numerous experiments are packed inside the Dragon spacecraft, including some that will enhance study of the heart in microgravity, study microbial aboard the space station and continue research on plants grown in orbit.
Credit: NASA
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What's Up in the sky for June? Have a planet party and compare Saturn and Jupiter! We’ll show you where and when to point your telescope or binoculars to see these planets and their largest moons. Through a telescope, you’ll even be able to compare cloud bands on two planets!
Credit: NASA
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Our sun observing spacecraft, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, witnessed a partial solar eclipse in space on May 25, 2017 when it caught the moon passing in front of the sun. The lunar transit lasted about an hour, between 2:24 and 3:17 p.m. EDT, with the moon covering about 89 percent of the sun at the peak of its journey across the face of the sun.
Dream. Innovate. Build. Discover: The State of NASA. This morning, Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot gave an address at NASA Headquarters to rollout the Fiscal Year 2018 Budget proposal. He touched on the fact that NASA missions inspire the next generation, inject innovation into the national economy, provide critical information needed to address challenges and support global engagement and international leadership. “As NASA approaches its 60th anniversary in 2018, the Fiscal Year 2018 budget request will maintain NASA’s place as the global leader in space.” Detailed information on NASA’s budget proposal can be found at nasa.gov/budget
CREDIT: NASA
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