Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech⁣

How did COVID19 affect your teamwork leading up to the launch? I hope everyone is staying well and sane:)

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Mark your calendars for summer 2018: That's when we're launching a spacecraft to touch the sun. 

In honor of our first-ever mission to the heart of the solar system, this week we’re delving into the life and times of this powerful yellow dwarf star.

1. Meet Parker 

Parker Solar Probe, our first mission to go to the sun, is named after Eugene Parker, an American astrophysicist who first theorized that the sun constantly sends out a flow of particles and energy called the solar wind. This historic mission will explore one of the last regions of the solar system to be visited by a spacecraft and help scientists unlock answers to questions they've been pondering for more than five decades.

2. Extra SPF, Please 

Parker Solar Probe will swoop within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. The mission will provide new data on solar activity to help us better understand our home star and its activity - information that can improve forecasts of major space-weather events that could impact life on Earth.

3. Majorly Massive 

The sun is the center of our solar system and makes up 99.8 percent of the mass of the entire solar system. If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be about the size of a nickel.

4. Different Spin 

Since the sun is not a solid body, different parts of the sun rotate at different rates. At the equator, the sun spins once about every 25 days, but at its poles the sun rotates once on its axis every 36 Earth days.

5. Can't Stand on It

The sun is a star and a star doesn't have a solid surface. Rather, it's a ball of ionized gas 92.1% hydrogen (H2) and 7.8% helium (He) held together by its own gravity.

6. Center of Attention 

The sun isn't a planet, so it doesn't have any moons. But, the sun is orbited by eight planets, at least five dwarf planets, tens of thousands of asteroids, and hundreds of thousands to trillions of comets and icy bodies.

7. It's Hot in There 

And we mean really, really hot. The temperature at the sun's core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. However, its atmosphere, the corona, can reach temperatures of 3 million degrees. (That's as if it got hotter the farther away you got from a fire, instead of cooler!) Parker Solar Probe will help scientists solve the mystery of why the corona's temperature is so much higher than the surface.

8. Travel Conditions

The sun influences the entire solar system, so studying it helps us better understand the space weather that our astronauts and spacecraft travel through.

9. Life on the Sun? 

Better to admire from afar. Thanks to its hot, energetic mix of gases and plasma, the sun can't be home to living things. However, we can thank the sun for making life on Earth possible by providing the warmth and energy that supply Earth’s food chain.

10. Chance of a Lifetime 

Last but not least, don't forget that the first total solar eclipse to sweep across the U.S. from coast-to-coast since 1918 is happening on August 21, 2017. Our toolkit has you need to know to about it. 

Want to learn more? Read our full list of the 10 things to know this week about the solar system HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Houston, We Have a Launch!

Today, three new crew members will launch to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, along with Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:26 p.m. EDT. The three Expedition 47 crew members will travel in a Soyuz spacecraft, rendezvousing with the space station six hours after launch.

Traveling to the International Space Station is an exciting moment for any astronaut. But what if you we’re launching to orbit AND knew that you were going to break some awesome records while you were up there? This is exactly what’s happening for astronaut Jeff Williams.

This is a significant mission for Williams, as he will become the new American record holder for cumulative days in space (with 534) during his six months on orbit. The current record holder is astronaut Scott Kelly, who just wrapped up his one-year mission on March 1.

On June 4, Williams will take command of the station for Expedition 48. This will mark his third space station expedition…which is yet another record!

Want to Watch the Launch?

You can! Live coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. EDT on NASA Television, with launch at 5:26 p.m.

Tune in again at 10:30 p.m. to watch as the Soyuz spacecraft docks to the space station’s Poisk module at 11:12 p.m.

Hatch opening coverage will begin at 12:30 a.m., with the crew being greeted around 12:55 a.m.

NASA Television: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Follow Williams on Social!

Astronaut Jeff Williams will be documenting his time on orbit, and you can follow along on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Follow NASA’s Artemis I Moon Mission: Live Tracker, Latest Images, and Videos

On Nov. 16, 2022, the Artemis I mission officially began with the launch of the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System rocket. The rocket and spacecraft lifted off from historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Now, the Orion spacecraft is about halfway through its journey around the Moon. Although the spacecraft is uncrewed, the Artemis I mission prepares us for future missions with astronauts, starting with Artemis II.

Stay up-to-date with the mission with the latest full-resolution images, mission updates, on-demand and live video.

Imagery:

Find full-resolution images from the Orion spacecraft as they are released here.

Launch imagery can be found here. When Orion splashes down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11, the images will be available here, as well!

Videos:

This playlist contains informational videos, as well as upcoming and past live events, about Artemis I.

You can watch a livestream of the Artemis I mission here. (Just a note: the livestream may cut off during moments when the Orion team needs higher bandwidth for activities.)

Keep yourself updated on the upcoming broadcasts of Artemis milestones with the NASA TV schedule.

Trackers:

Our Artemis I Tracker uses live telemetry data streamed directly from Mission Control Center in Houston to show Orion position, attitude, solar array positions, and thruster firings throughout the mission.

“Eyes on the Solar System” shows Orion's position along the Artemis I trajectory and in relation to other NASA spacecraft and objects in the solar system.

“DSN Now” shows which antenna on Earth’s Deep Space Network is communicating with Orion.

Updates:

Read up on where Orion is and what’s next in the Artemis I mission with the Mission Blog.

Thank you so much for following with us on this historic mission. Go Artemis!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Solar System: 10 Things to Know This Week

January 8: Images for Your Computer or Phone Wallpaper

Need some fresh perspective? Here are 10 vision-stretching images for your computer desktop or phone wallpaper. These are all real pictures, sent recently by our planetary missions throughout the solar system. You'll find more of our images at solarsystem.nasa.gov/galleries, images.nasa.gov and www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages.

Applying Wallpaper: 1. Click on the screen resolution you would like to use. 2. Right-click on the image (control-click on a Mac) and select the option 'Set the Background' or 'Set as Wallpaper' (or similar).

1. The Fault in Our Mars

This image from our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of northern Meridiani Planum shows faults that have disrupted layered deposits. Some of the faults produced a clean break along the layers, displacing and offsetting individual beds.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

2. Jupiter Blues

Our Juno spacecraft captured this image when the spacecraft was only 11,747 miles (18,906 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter's clouds -- that's roughly as far as the distance between New York City and Perth, Australia. The color-enhanced image, which captures a cloud system in Jupiter's northern hemisphere, was taken on Oct. 24, 2017, when Juno was at a latitude of 57.57 degrees (nearly three-fifths of the way from Jupiter's equator to its north pole) and performing its ninth close flyby of the gas giant planet.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

3. A Farewell to Saturn

After more than 13 years at Saturn, and with its fate sealed, our Cassini spacecraft bid farewell to the Saturnian system by firing the shutters of its wide-angle camera and capturing this last, full mosaic of Saturn and its rings two days before the spacecraft's dramatic plunge into the planet's atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

4. All Aglow

Saturn's moon Enceladus drifts before the rings, which glow brightly in the sunlight. Beneath its icy exterior shell, Enceladus hides a global ocean of liquid water. Just visible at the moon's south pole (at bottom here) is the plume of water ice particles and other material that constantly spews from that ocean via fractures in the ice. The bright speck to the right of Enceladus is a distant star. This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 6, 2011.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

5. Rare Encircling Filament

Our Solar Dynamics Observatory came across an oddity this week that the spacecraft has rarely observed before: a dark filament encircling an active region (Oct. 29-31, 2017). Solar filaments are clouds of charged particles that float above the Sun, tethered to it by magnetic forces. They are usually elongated and uneven strands. Only a handful of times before have we seen one shaped like a circle. (The black area to the left of the brighter active region is a coronal hole, a magnetically open region of the Sun).

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334 

6. Jupiter's Stunning Southern Hemisphere

See Jupiter's southern hemisphere in beautiful detail in this image taken by our Juno spacecraft. The color-enhanced view captures one of the white ovals in the "String of Pearls," one of eight massive rotating storms at 40 degrees south latitude on the gas giant planet. The image was taken on Oct. 24, 2017, as Juno performed its ninth close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 20,577 miles (33,115 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

7. Saturn's Rings: View from Beneath

Our Cassini spacecraft obtained this panoramic view of Saturn's rings on Sept. 9, 2017, just minutes after it passed through the ring plane. The view looks upward at the southern face of the rings from a vantage point above Saturn's southern hemisphere.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

8. From Hot to Hottest

This sequence of images from our Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the Sun from its surface to its upper atmosphere all taken at about the same time (Oct. 27, 2017). The first shows the surface of the sun in filtered white light; the other seven images were taken in different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. Note that each wavelength reveals somewhat different features. They are shown in order of temperature, from the first one at about 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 degrees Celsius) on the surface, out to about 10 million degrees in the upper atmosphere. Yes, the sun's outer atmosphere is much, much hotter than the surface. Scientists are getting closer to solving the processes that generate this phenomenon.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

9. High Resolution View of Ceres

This orthographic projection shows dwarf planet Ceres as seen by our Dawn spacecraft. The projection is centered on Occator Crater, home to the brightest area on Ceres. Occator is centered at 20 degrees north latitude, 239 degrees east longitude.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334 

10. In the Chasm

This image from our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a small portion of the floor of Coprates Chasma, a large trough within the Valles Marineris system of canyons. Although the exact sequence of events that formed Coprates Chasma is unknown, the ripples, mesas, and craters visible throughout the terrain point to a complex history involving multiple mechanisms of erosion and deposition. The main trough of Coprates Chasma ranges from 37 miles (60 kilometers) to 62 miles (100 kilometers) in width.

Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

Explore and learn more about our solar system at: solarsystem.nasa.gov/. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Special Celestial Events in June 2020

Earth and the Moon are in a constant dance as they orbit the Sun — and in June 2020, they’ll create two special celestial events. 

June 20: Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere 

Earth has a slight tilt as it orbits the Sun, and June is one of two times each year when that tilt is most prominent: a solstice. At the solstices, which happen each year in June and December, Earth’s tilt is at the greatest angle with respect to the plane of its orbit, meaning that one hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, and the other hemisphere is tilted away. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 is the summer solstice — the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so the June solstice is the day on which the Northern Hemisphere receives the longest stretch of daylight for the year.

In both hemispheres, the Sun will rise and set at its northernmost point on the horizon. After June 20, the Sun will appear to travel south.

This view from our Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's DSCOVR satellite shows the change in Earth’s tilt between the June and December solstices.

During the June solstice, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, meaning the June solstice marks its shortest stretch of daylight for the year. June is the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice.  

June 21: Annular solar eclipse in Africa and Asia

The day after the solstice will see another special celestial event: an annular eclipse. Eclipses happen when the Moon lines up just right between the Sun and Earth, allowing it to block out part or all of the Sun’s bright face and cast a shadow on Earth. Though the Moon orbits Earth about once a month, its orbit is tilted by five degrees, so the perfect alignment that creates an eclipse is relatively rare. Often the Moon is too high or low in our sky to block out the Sun.

The June 21, 2020, eclipse is an annular eclipse visible primarily in Africa and Asia. During an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from Earth and its apparent size is too small to entirely block out the face of the Sun, leaving a sliver of the Sun visible around the Moon’s edge during the eclipse and creating a “ring of fire” effect.

Credit: Dale Cruikshank

Outside the path of annularity, people in other parts of Africa, Asia and even some of Europe and the Pacific have a chance to see a partial solar eclipse, weather permitting. The degree of the partial eclipse depends on how close you are to the path of annularity. Locations far from the path of annularity will see only a small part of the Sun covered by the Moon, while places close to the path will see almost all of the Sun obscured.

No matter where you are, you must take safety precautions to watch the eclipse safely. There is no part of an annular eclipse during which it is safe to look directly at the Sun. You must use a proper solar filter or an indirect viewing method during all phases of the eclipse — even if only a tiny sliver of the Sun is visible around the Moon’s edge, that’s still enough to cause damage to your eyes.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

10 Things: Why Cassini Mattered

One year ago, on Sept. 15, 2017, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft ended its epic exploration of Saturn with a planned dive into the planet’s atmosphere--sending back new science to the last second. The spacecraft is gone, but the science continues. Here are 10 reasons why Cassini mattered...

1. Game Changers

Cassini and ESA (European Space Agency)’s Huygens probe expanded our understanding of the kinds of worlds where life might exist.

2. A (Little) Like Home

At Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, Cassini and Huygens showed us one of the most Earth-like worlds we’ve ever encountered, with weather, climate and geology that provide new ways to understand our home planet.

3. A Time Machine (In a Sense)

Cassini gave us a portal to see the physical processes that likely shaped the development of our solar system, as well as planetary systems around other stars.

4. The Long Run

The length of Cassini’s mission enabled us to observe weather and seasonal changes over nearly half of a Saturn year, improving our understanding of similar processes at Earth, and potentially those at planets around other stars.

5. Big Science in Small Places

Cassini revealed Saturn’s moons to be unique worlds with their own stories to tell.

6. Ringscape

Cassini showed us the complexity of Saturn’s rings and the dramatic processes operating within them.

7. Pure Exploration

Some of Cassini’s best discoveries were serendipitous. What Cassini found at Saturn prompted scientists to rethink their understanding of the solar system.

8. The Right Tools for the Job

Cassini represented a staggering achievement of human and technical complexity, finding innovative ways to use the spacecraft and its instruments, and paving the way for future missions to explore our solar system.

9. Jewel of the Solar System

Cassini revealed the beauty of Saturn, its rings and moons, inspiring our sense of wonder and enriching our sense of place in the cosmos.

10. Much Still to Teach Us

The data returned by Cassini during its 13 years at Saturn will continue to be studied for decades, and many new discoveries are undoubtedly waiting to be revealed. To keep pace with what’s to come, we’ve created a new home for the mission--and its spectacular images--at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/cassini.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Pinpointing the Cause of Earth’s Recent Record CO2 Spike

A new NASA study provides space-based evidence that Earth’s tropical regions were the cause of the largest annual increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration seen in at least 2,000 years.

What was the cause of this?

Scientists suspect that the 2015-2016 El Niño – one of the largest on record – was responsible. El Niño is a cyclical warming pattern of ocean circulation in the Pacific Ocean that affects weather all over the world. Before OCO-2, we didn’t have enough data to understand exactly how El Nino played a part.

Analyzing the first 28 months of data from our Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, researchers conclude that impacts of El Niño-related heat and drought occurring in the tropical regions of South America, Africa and Indonesia were responsible for the record spike in global carbon dioxide.

These three tropical regions released 2.5 gigatons more carbon into the atmosphere than they did in 2011. This extra carbon dioxide explains the difference in atmospheric carbon dioxide growth rates between 2011 and the peak years of 2015-16.

In 2015 and 2016, OCO-2 recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide increases that were 50% larger than the average increase seen in recent years preceding these observations.

In eastern and southern tropical South America, including the Amazon rainforest, severe drought spurred by El Niño made 2015 the driest year in the past 30 years. Temperatures were also higher than normal. These drier and hotter conditions stressed vegetation and reduced photosynthesis, meaning trees and plants absorbed less carbon from the atmosphere. The effect was to increase the net amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.

In contrast, rainfall in tropical Africa was at normal levels, but ecosystems endured hotter-than-normal temperatures. Dead trees and plants decomposed more, resulting in more carbon being released into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, tropical Asia had the second-driest year in the past 30 years. Its increased carbon release, primarily from Indonesia, was mainly due to increased peat and forest fires -  also measured by satellites.

We knew El Niños were one factor in these variations, but until now we didn’t understand, at the scale of these regions, what the most important processes were. OCO-2’s geographic coverage and data density are allowing us to study each region separately.

Why does the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere matter?

The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is constantly changing. It changes from season to season as plants grow and die, with higher concentrations in the winter and lower amounts in the summer. Annually averaged atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have generally increased year over year since the 1800s – the start of the widespread Industrial Revolution. Before then, Earth’s atmosphere naturally contained about 595 gigatons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. Currently, that number is 850 gigatons.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means that it can trap heat. Since greenhouse gas is the principal human-produced driver of climate change, better understanding how it moves through the Earth system at regional scales and how it changes over time are important aspects to monitor.

Get more information about these data HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

We're sorry, but we will not be posting updates to Tumblr during the government shutdown. Also, all public NASA activities and events are cancelled or postponed until further notice. We'll be back as soon as possible! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Orion’s top images of 2020

The Orion program showed its resilience this year during an unprecedented time, racking up several success stories building and testing the spacecraft in preparation for upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon. From hot fire and structural testing, to crew and service module assembly activities, progress on Orion brought the agency closer to sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, and sustainable lunar exploration by 2028.

Ensuring crew safety, a hot fire test was conducted on the Northrop Grumman-built attitude control motor – which provides steering for Orion’s  launch abort system in the event of an emergency during ascent – at the company’s facility in Elkton, Maryland. The 30-second hot fire was the third and final test to qualify the motor for human missions, beginning with Artemis II.

During a three-month testing campaign at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, the Orion spacecraft was subjected to the extreme temperatures and electromagnetic environment it will experience on Artemis I – Orion’s first uncrewed test flight to the Moon atop the agency’s  Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Testing wrapped up early and the vehicle was readied for its journey back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard the agency’s one-of-a-kind Super Guppy.

Before NASA astronauts fly Orion on missions to the Moon and back, testing is necessary to verify the spacecraft’s ability to withstand the stresses of launch, climb to orbit, the harsh conditions of deep space transit, and return to Earth. Engineers from NASA and its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, completed testing on Orion’s Structural Test Article (STA) for Artemis I. The STA is structurally identical to Orion’s main spacecraft elements: the crew module, service module and launch abort system.

The first element machined for the Artemis III Orion crew module – a cone panel with openings for windows, which will provide a spectacular view – was designed by Lockheed Martin, and manufactured by AMRO Fabricating Corp., of South El Monte, California. The completed panel made its way to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, where engineers will weld it with other elements as part of Orion’s pressure vessel.

Orion’s European Service Module primary structure for the Artemis for the Artemis III mission arrived at the Airbus facility in Bremen, Germany, from its Thales Alenia Space manufacturing site in Turin, Italy. The service module will be equipped with components to power Orion and provide life support to astronauts – such as air, water, heat and cooling – during the mission that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon.

Three spacecraft adapter jettison fairing panels were fitted onto Orion’s service module inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy. Once secured, the panels encapsulate the service module to protect it from harsh environments such as heat, wind, and acoustics as the spacecraft is propelled out of Earth’s atmosphere atop the SLS rocket during NASA’s Artemis I mission.