Tropical Cyclone Vayu’s eye was just off the western coast of India when the NOAA-20 satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image of the storm. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the NOAA-20 polar orbiting satellite provided a visible image of the storm. The VIIRS image revealed an eye surrounded by…
How a Tiny Curiosity Motor Identified a Massive Martian Dust Storm
There is no shortage of eyeballs, human and robotic, pointed at Mars. Scientists are constantly exploring the Red Planet from telescopes on Earth, plus the six spacecraft circling the planet from its orbit, and two roving its surface. So when dust filled the atmosphere during the recent planet-wide dust storm, observations were plentiful. NASA’s Mars…
Hubble Uncovers Never-before-seen Features Around a Neutron Star
An unusual infrared light emission from a nearby neutron star detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope could indicate new features never before seen. One possibility is that there is a dusty disk surrounding the neutron star; another is that there is an energetic wind coming off the object and slamming into gas in interstellar space…
Next-Generation Photodetector Camera To Deploy During Demo Mission
Testing tools and technologies for refueling and repairing satellites in orbit won’t be the only demonstration taking place aboard the International Space Station during NASA’s next Robotic Refueling Mission 3, or RRM3. An advanced, highly compact thermal camera that traces its heritage to one now flying on NASA’s Landsat 8 has been mounted in a…
Next-Generation Photodetector Camera To Deploy During Demo Mission
Testing tools and technologies for refueling and repairing satellites in orbit won’t be the only demonstration taking place aboard the International Space Station during NASA’s next Robotic Refueling Mission 3, or RRM3. An advanced, highly compact thermal camera that traces its heritage to one now flying on NASA’s Landsat 8 has been mounted in a…
Disruption Tolerant Networking To Demonstrate Internet In Space
NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations and Science Mission Directorates are collaborating to make interplanetary internet a reality. They’re about to demonstrate Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking, or DTN – a technology that sends information much the same way as conventional internet does. Information is put into DTN bundles, which are sent through space and ground networks to…
Networking To Demonstrate Internet In Space
NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations and Science Mission Directorates are collaborating to make interplanetary internet a reality. They’re about to demonstrate Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking, or DTN – a technology that sends information much the same way as conventional internet does. Information is put into DTN bundles, which are sent through space and ground networks to its destination.…
May The Forest Be With You: GEDI Moves Toward Launch To Space Station
A first-of-its-kind laser instrument designed to map the world’s forests in 3-D is moving toward an earlier launch to the International Space Station than previously expected. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation – or GEDI, pronounced like “Jedi,” of Star Wars fame – instrument is undergoing final integration and testing this spring and summer at NASA’s…
Improved Hubble Yardstick Gives Fresh Evidence for New Physics in the Universe
Astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to make the most precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe since it was first calculated nearly a century ago. Intriguingly, the results are forcing astronomers to consider that they may be seeing evidence of something unexpected at work in the universe. That’s because the latest…
NASA Leverages Proven Technologies to Build Agency’s First Planetary Wind Lidar
NASA scientists have found a way to adapt a handful of recently developed technologies to build a new instrument that could give them what they have yet to obtain: never-before-revealed details about the winds on Mars and ultimately Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. We pride ourselves in leveraging new technology,” said Mike Smith, a planetary scientist…
NASA Confirms Re-Discovered IMAGE Satellite
The identity of the satellite re-discovered on Jan. 20, 2018, has been confirmed as NASA’s IMAGE satellite. After an amateur astronomer recorded observations of a satellite in high Earth orbit on Jan. 20, 2018, his initial research suggested it was the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) — a NASA mission launched into orbit around…
ICON & GOLD Teaming Up to Explore Earth’s Interface to Space
Like Earth, space has weather. Except instead of swirling winds and downpours of precipitation, space weather is defined by shifting electric and magnetic fields and rains of charged particles. At the very beginning of space, starting just 60 miles above Earth’s surface, there’s a layer of the atmosphere that shifts and changes in concert with…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Completes Final Cryogenic Testing
The vault-like, 40-foot diameter, 40-ton door of Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston was unsealed on November 18, signaling the end of cryogenic testing for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The historic chamber’s massive door opening brings to a close about 100 days of testing for Webb, a significant milestone in the…
Medical-Like Tools for NASA to Study Samples of the Solar System
A diagnostic tool, similar in theory to those used by the medical profession to non-invasively image internal organs, bones, soft tissue, and blood vessels, could be equally effective at “triaging” extraterrestrial rocks and other samples before they are shipped to Earth for further analysis. In an effort designed to find creative uses of technology for…
James Webb Space Telescope’s Laser-Focused Sight
About 1 million miles away from the nearest eye surgeon, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be able to perfect its own vision while in orbit. Though the Webb telescope will focus on stars and galaxies approximately 13.5 billion light-years away, its sight goes through a similar process as you would if you underwent laser…
Self-Portrait Of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Marks Critical Test
What appears to be a unique selfie opportunity was actually a critical photo for the cryogenic testing of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The photo was used to verify the line of sight (or path light will travel) for the testing configuration. During Webb’s extensive…
NASA’s Webb Telescope Will Study Our Solar System’s ‘Ocean Worlds’
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will use its infrared capabilities to study the “ocean worlds” of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, adding to observations previously made by NASA’s Galileo and Cassini orbiters. The Webb telescope’s observations could also help guide future missions to the icy moons. Europa and Enceladus are on the Webb…
NASA Detects Drop In Global Fires
Shifting livelihoods across the tropical forest frontiers of South America, the Eurasian Steppe, and the savannas of Africa are altering landscapes and leading to a significant decline in the amount of land burned by fire, a trend that NASA’s satellites have detected from space. The ongoing transition from nomadic cultures to settled lifestyles and intensifying…
NASA’s Webb Telescope Ghostly ‘Lights Out’ Inspection
What happens when the lights are turned out in the enormous clean room that currently houses NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope? The technicians who are inspecting the telescope and its expansive golden mirrors look like ghostly wraiths in this image as they conduct a “lights out inspection” in the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility…
NASA, NOAA Satellites See Winter Storm Madness ‘March’ to the East
NASA and NOAA satellites are providing various views of the major winter storm marching toward the U.S. East coast on March 13. The storm is forecast to merge with another system and is expected to bring large snowfall totals from the Mid-Atlantic to New England. NASA’s Aqua satellite gathered infrared data from the storm system…
Flashy First Images Arrive from NOAA’s GOES-16 Lightning Mapper
Detecting and predicting lightning just got a lot easier. The first images from a new instrument onboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite are giving NOAA National Weather Service forecasters richer information about lightning that will help them alert the public to dangerous weather. The first lightning detector in a geostationary orbit, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), is…
Probing Seven Worlds with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
With the discovery of seven earth-sized planets around the TRAPPIST-1 star 40 light years away, astronomers are looking to the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to help us find out if any of these planets could possibly support life. “If these planets have atmospheres, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the key to unlocking…
Hubble Gazes into a Black Hole of Puzzling Lightness
The beautiful spiral galaxy visible in the center of the image is known as RX J1140.1+0307, a galaxy in the Virgo constellation imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it presents an interesting puzzle. At first glance, this galaxy appears to be a normal spiral galaxy, much like the Milky Way, but first appearances…
Hubble Gazes at A Cosmic Megamaser
This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it hosts a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. The entire galaxy essentially acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light (hence…
Hubble Gazes at a Cosmic Megamaser
This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it hosts a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. The entire galaxy essentially acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light (hence…