Visual 'Autocorrect' For NASA Space Telescope

Things That Go Bump in the Gamma Rays

Some people watch scary movies because they like being startled. A bad guy jumps out from around a corner! A monster emerges from the shadows! Scientists experience surprises all the time, but they’re usually more excited than scared. Sometimes theories foreshadow new findings — like when there’s a dramatic swell in the movie soundtrack — but often, discoveries are truly unexpected. 

Scientists working with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope have been jumping to study mysterious bumps in the gamma rays for a decade now. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. Invisible to human eyes, they’re created by some of the most powerful and unusual events and objects in the universe. In celebration of Halloween, here are a few creepy gamma-ray findings from Fermi’s catalog.

Stellar Graveyards

If you were to walk through a cemetery at night, you’d expect to trip over headstones or grave markers. Maybe you’d worry about running into a ghost. If you could explore the stellar gravesite created when a star explodes as a supernova, you’d find a cloud of debris expanding into interstellar space. Some of the chemical elements in that debris, like gold and platinum, go on to create new stars and planets! Fermi found that supernova remnants IC 443 and W44 also accelerate mysterious cosmic rays, high-energy particles moving at nearly the speed of light. As the shockwave of the supernova expands, particles escape its magnetic field and interact with non-cosmic-ray particles to produce gamma rays. 

Ghost Particles

But the sources of cosmic rays aren’t the only particle mysteries Fermi studies. Just this July, Fermi teamed up with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica to discover the first source of neutrinos outside our galactic neighborhood. Neutrinos are particles that weigh almost nothing and rarely interact with anything. Around a trillion of them pass through you every second, ghost-like, without you noticing and then continue on their way. (But don’t worry, like a friendly ghost, they don’t harm you!) Fermi traced the neutrino IceCube detected back to a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. By the time it reached Earth, it had traveled for 3.7 billion years at almost the speed of light!

Black Widow Pulsars

Black widows and redbacks are species of spiders with a reputation for devouring their partners. Astronomers have discovered two types of star systems that behave in a similar way. Sometimes when a star explodes as a supernova, it collapses back into a rapidly spinning, incredibly dense star called a pulsar. If there’s a lighter star nearby, it can get stuck in a close orbit with the pulsar, which blasts it with gamma rays, magnetic fields and intense winds of energetic particles. All these combine to blow clouds of material off the low-mass star. Eventually, the pulsar can eat away at its companion entirely.

Dark Matter

What’s scarier than a good unsolved mystery? Dark matter is a little-understood substance that makes up most of the matter in the universe. The stuff that we can see — stars, people, haunted houses, candy — is made up of normal matter. But our surveys of the cosmos tell us there’s not enough normal matter to keep things working the way they do. There must be another type of matter out there holding everything together. One of Fermi’s jobs is to help scientists narrow down the search for dark matter. Last year, researchers noticed that most of the gamma rays coming from the Andromeda galaxy are confined to its center instead of being spread throughout. One possible explanation is that accumulated dark matter at the center of the galaxy is emitting gamma rays!

Fermi has helped us learn a lot about the gamma-ray universe over the last 10 years. Learn more about its accomplishments and the other mysteries it’s working to solve. What other surprises are waiting out among the stars?

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Hi there! Does the study of Earth Science teach us much about the science of other planets? Can much be assumed to be similar, or is the geology/biology incomparable? Thank you!

That’s a Wrap - September

Each month, the International Space Station focuses on an area of research. In September, the research focus was biology, encompassing cells, plants, animals, genetics, biochemistry, human physiology and more.

Benefits from this research are vast and include: combating diseases, reducing our environmental footprint, feeding the world’s population and developing cleaner energy.

Here’s a recap of some topics we studied this month:

Cells

Scientists studied T-cells in orbit to better understand how human immune systems change as they age. For an immune cell, the microgravity environment mimics the aging process. Because spaceflight-induced and aging-related immune suppression share key characteristics, researchers expect the results from this study will be relevant for the general population.

NASA to Napa

We raised a glass to the space station to toast how the study of plants in space led to air purification technology that keeps the air clean in wine cellars and is also used in homes and medical facilities to help prevent mold.

One-Year Mission

This month also marked the halfway point of the One-Year Mission. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko reached the midpoint on Sept. 15. This mission will result in valuable data about human health and the effects of microgravity on the body.

Microbes

Since microbes can threaten crew health and jeopardize equipment, scientists study them on astronauts’ skin and aboard the space station. Samples like saliva, blood, perspiration and swaps of equipment are collected to determine how microgravity, environment, diet and stress affect the microorganisms.

Model Organisms

Model organisms have characteristics that allow them to easily be maintained, reproduced and studied in a laboratory. Scientists investigate roundworms, medaka fish and rodents on the station because of this reason. They can also provide insight into the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of the human body.

For more information about research on the International Space Station, go HERE.

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What’s Up for July 2017

Prepare for the August total solar eclipse by observing the moon phases this month. Plus, two meteor showers peak at the end of July.

Solar eclipses occur when the new moon passes between the Earth and the sun and moon casts a traveling shadow on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the new moon is in just the right position to completely cover the sun’s disk.

This will happen next month on August 21, when the new month completely blocks our view of the sun along a narrow path from Oregon to South Carolina.

It may even be dark enough during the eclipse to see some of the brighter stars and few planets!

Two weeks before or after a solar eclipse, there is often, but not always, a lunar eclipse. This happens because the full moon, the Earth and the sun will be lined up with Earth in the middle.

Beginning July 1, we can 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.

We’ll also have two meteor showers, both of which peak on July 30. The Delta Aquarids will have 25 meteors per hour between midnight and dawn.

The nearby slow and bright Alpha Capricornids per at 5 per hour and often produce fireballs.

Watch the full video:

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What exactly is a sun eclipse? Will I be able to see it and if so when from the Netherlands?

The solar eclipse is when the moon is directly in front of the Sun and creates a shadow on the Earth. They happen about once every 18 months. I don’t believe that you’ll be able to see this eclipse from the Netherlands. I think the next one to be in Europe is in 2026. There’s one in Chillie and Argentia in 2019 and another in Antartica in 2021. 

History Made: Apollo 11 Splashes Down Today in 1969

The Apollo 11 Command Module “Columbia” is hoisted onto its recovery ship the USS Hornet, following splashdown on July 24, 1969. Credit: NASA

Four days after their historic achievement, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:49 p.m. EDT, about 900 miles from Hawaii. The crew was recovered by the crew of the USS Hornet where President Richard Nixon was waiting to greet them. 

Watch a replay of the original live broadcast of the recovery on NASA TV starting at 12:45 p.m. EDT. 

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Eight Small Satellites Will Give Us a New Look Inside Hurricanes

The same GPS technology that helps people get where they’re going in a car will soon be used in space in an effort to improve hurricane forecasting. The technology is a key capability in a NASA mission called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS).

The CYGNSS mission, led by the University of Michigan, will use eight micro-satellite observatories to measure wind speeds over Earth’s oceans, increasing the ability of scientists to understand and predict hurricanes. Each microsatellite observatory will make observations based on the signals from four GPS satellites.

The CYGNSS microsatellite observatories will only receive signals broadcast directly to them from GPS satellites already orbiting the Earth and the reflection of the same satellite’s signal reflected from the Earth’s surface. The CYGNSS satellites themselves will not broadcast.

The use of eight microsatellite observatories will decrease the revisit time as compared with current individual weather satellites. The spacecraft will be deployed separately around the planet, with successive satellites passing over the same region every 12 minutes.

This will be the first time that satellites can peer through heavy tropical rainfall into the middle of hurricanes and predict how intense they are before and during landfall.

As the CYGNSS and GPS constellations orbit around the Earth, the interaction of the two systems will result in a new image of wind speed over the entire tropics every few hours, compared to every few days for a single satellite.

Another advantage of CYGNSS is that its orbit is designed to measure only in the tropics…where hurricanes develop and are most often located. The focus on tropical activity means that the instruments will be able to gather much more useful data on weather systems exclusively found in the tropics. This data will ultimately be used to help forecasters and emergency managers make lifesaving decisions.

Launch!

CYGNSS launched at 8:37 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 15, from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CYGNSS launched aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket, deployed from Orbital’s “Stargazer” L-1011 carrier aircraft. 

Pegasus is a winged, three-stage solid propellant rocket that can launch a satellite into low Earth orbit. How does it work? Great question! 

After takeoff, the aircraft (which looks like a commercial airplane..but with some special quirks) flies to about 39,000 feet over the ocean and releases the rocket. 

After a five-second free fall in a horizontal position, the Pegasus first stage ignites. The aerodynamic lift, generated by the rocket’s triangle-shaped wing, delivers the payload into orbit in about 10 minutes. 

Pegasus is used to deploy small satellites weighing up to 1,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. 

And success! The eight CYGNSS satellites were successfully deployed into orbit! 

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@aura3700: What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen while in space?

Hi do you guys really say Houston when responding to each other !?!🤪

Hurry! You Can Catch a Ride to Jupiter with NASA

Well, at least your name can.  

One of the planet Jupiter’s largest and most intriguing moons is called Europa. Evidence hints that beneath its icy shell, Europa hides an ocean of liquid water – more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. In 2024, our Europa Clipper robotic spacecraft sets sail to take a closer look…and when it launches, your name can physically be aboard! Here’s how: 

NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invites people around the world to sign their names to a poem written by the U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored.

The poem will be engraved on Europa Clipper, along with participants' names that will be physically etched onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft. Together, the poem and names will travel 1.8 billion miles to the Jupiter system.

Signing up is easy! Just go to this site to sign your name to the poem and get on board. You can send your name en español, too. Envía tu nombre aquí.

The Europa Clipper launch window opens in October 2024, but don’t wait – everyone’s names need to be received this year so they can be loaded onto the spacecraft in time. Sign up by Dec. 31, 2023.

We hope you’ll be riding along with us! Follow the mission at europa.nasa.gov.

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