The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row.
Astronauts are looking forward to an unprecedented view of the cosmos when the largest window ever built for space is installed on the International Space Station.
In the aftermath of a recent, deadly earthquake, the NASA-led SERVIR program orchestrated use of satellite data to show Honduran disaster officials where help was needed most.
(Arizona State University) NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera has taken and received its first images of the Moon, kicking off the year-long mapping mission of Earth's nearest celestial neighbor. The LROC imaging system is under the watchful eyes of Arizona State University professor Mark Robison, the principal investigator.
(American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Ancient supervolcano's eruption caused decade of severe winters"; "Understanding fault movement during Wenchuan earthquake"; "First direct measurement of lunar backscatter from solar wind"; "Reducing uncertainty in estimates of global sea level rise"; "Boost in freshwater content of Arctic Ocean "; "Data gaps in records hinder detection of climate trends"; "Glaciers cause seismic activity in Iceland"; and more.
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has transmitted its first images since reaching the moon on June 23. The spacecraft's two cameras, collectively known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, were activated June 30. The cameras are working well, and have returned images of a region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).
The extremely low operational temperature of just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero (0.1 K) has been reached on the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument (HFI). This makes the HFI detectors the coldest known objects in outer space. The achievement, seven weeks after launch, marks a key milestone for the Planck mission. The spacecraft's active cooling system has now reached its final operational conditions and the two instruments onboard Planck (HFI and the Low Frequency Instrument, LFI) are now both at their cryogenic operational temperatures.
The Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) on board the Cassini spacecraft has found sodium (Na) in varying concentrations in virtually all of its in-situ measurements of the water ice particles in Saturn's E ring. This has important implications for the icy moon Enceladus as the moon's south polar plumes are considered to be the main source of these E-ring water ice particles. In an article published today in Nature, Frank Postberg and colleagues conclude that the amount and type of sodium-bearing minerals found in the CDA measurements strongly favour the presence of a subsurface liquid water reservoir on Enceladus.
On 14 June 2009, precisely one month after launch, Herschel opened its eyes as the cryocover, the cryostat lid, was commanded to open. The images obtained by the PACS instrument during the remainder of the operational day (14-15 June) are shown below.
On July 2 the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument reached their amazingly low operational temperature of -273°C, making them the coldest known objects in space. The spacecraft has also just entered its final orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2.
Combining gamma-ray telescopes with the supersharp radio 'vision' of the Very Long Baseline Array showed astronomers the location from which very-high-energy gamma rays are emerging from the core ot the giant galaxy M87.
New details have emerged about the history of water on Mars, gleaned from the 2008 NASA Phoenix Mars Mission. Scientists found patterns in the ground near the lander, multi-sided shapes about three to ten meters in size. The shapes are created when the surface contracts and the ice cracks. Sand fills in the cracks before the ice expands and buckles the surface to make the distinctive patterns.
