Bill Nelson, Mark Kelly praise how ASU involves students in missions
Thursday, 02 June 2022 09:11
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Both men have been blasted into space and have served in the U.S. Senate. But NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly were "back in school" during a visit to Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration on Friday, May 27.
The pair got to see details of the university's more than 20 space missions - ASU is leading the NASA space missions Psyche and LunaH- Perseverance studies the devil winds of Jezero Crater
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During its first couple hundred days in Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover saw some of the most intense dust activity ever witnessed by a mission sent to the Red Planet's surface. Not only did the rover detect hundreds of dust-bearing whirlwinds called dust devils, Perseverance captured the first video ever recorded of wind gusts lifting a massive Martian dust cloud.
A paper rec NASA partners with industry for new spacewalking, moonwalking services
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NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to advance spacewalking capabilities in low-Earth orbit and at the Moon, by buying services that provide astronauts with next generation spacesuit and spacewalk systems to work outside the International Space Station, explore the lunar surface on Artemis missions, and prepare for human missions to Mars.
The awards leverage NASA expertise NASA's MAVEN spacecraft resumes science and operations, exits safe mode
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NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission returned to normal science and relay operations on May 28, 2022, after recovering from an extended safe mode event. The spacecraft encountered problems in February with its Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). The mission team successfully diagnosed the issue with these navigation instruments and developed a system for the spacecraft Black holes helped quenching star formation in the early Universe
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While some galaxies form stars at a continuous rate, others die out and lead a more passive life. What made these galaxies stop forming stars at an early age is not well established, not the least because they are so distant and faint that they evade being observed. But looking at the combined light from thousands of galaxies, a team of astronomers including the University of Copenhagen showed t Plato's cave: vacuum test for exoplanet detection
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A test version of the payload module of ESA's exoplanet-detecting Plato spacecraft underwent a prolonged vacuum soak within Europe's largest thermal vacuum chamber, to evaluate its endurance of space conditions.
There are tasks in space where multiple smaller imagers are better than one big equivalent. ESA PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission, Plato, is to detect Earth-scal First images from Webb Space Telescope coming soon
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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will release its first full-color images and spectroscopic data on July 12, 2022. As the largest and most complex observatory ever launched into space, Webb has been going through a six-month period of preparation before it can begin science work, calibrating its instruments to UCI-led astronomy team finds evidence of galactic metal shrouded in dust
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A thorough understanding of galaxy evolution depends in part on an accurate measurement of the abundance of metals in the intergalactic medium - the space between stars - but dust can impede observations in optical wavelengths. An international team of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine, Oxford University in England, and other institutions uncovered evidence of heavier elements Small molecules have big impacts in interstellar clouds
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"One of the key goals, when you think about modern astronomy, considers the life cycle of molecular material," said Arshia Jacob, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University. Diffuse atomic gas becomes dense molecular gas, which ultimately forms stars and stellar systems, and continues to evolve over time. Though astronomers understand much of this process, there are a lot of missing pieces. Five questions to help you understand hurricanes and climate change
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The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season has officially started, and NASA scientists are working with partners at NOAA, FEMA and other organizations to help communities prepare for these storms and respond to their aftermath. To gain a better understanding of how hurricanes are intensifying and becoming stronger in the face of climate change, NASA is developing technology and missions to study our hom Magnetic vortices explain mysterious auroral beads
Thursday, 02 June 2022 08:58 Write a comment
One solar stormy day in November 2018, 13 spacecraft including ESA’s Cluster mission were in the right place at the right time to spot a process that has never been seen in its entirety before. Their observations explain how vortices at the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere can cause auroral beads to dot the sky a hundred thousand kilometres below.
NASA selects Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for spacesuit contracts
Wednesday, 01 June 2022 20:53 Write a comment
NASA awarded contracts to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to provide spacesuits for International Space Station spacewalks and Artemis moonwalks, although neither the agency nor the winning companies offered many technical or financial details.
NASA awards two contracts for next generation spacesuits
Wednesday, 01 June 2022 19:44 Write a comment
NASA on Wednesday announced it has awarded contracts to two companies to develop the next generation of spacesuits for missions to the International Space Station and the Moon.
The winners of the Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) Contract were Axiom Space—which has organized commercial flights to the ISS and is working on its own private space station—and Collins Aerospace.
"History will be made with the suits when we get to the Moon. We will have our first person of color and our first woman that will be wearers and users of these suits in space," Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston told reporters.
The values of the contracts have not yet been announced but they have a combined ceiling of $3.5 billion through 2034.
NASA could end up picking both companies, just one, or add more companies later.
Experts at the US space agency laid out the technical standards they required of the suits, with the companies responsible for designing, certifying and producing the suits as well as support equipment for both the ISS and the Artemis missions to return to the Moon.
Did NASA find Hell? Scientists brace for first glimpse of world that constantly burns
Wednesday, 01 June 2022 16:44 Write a comment
Mankind's first look at conditions on a "super-Earth" 50 light years away is expected in coming weeks via the James Webb Space Telescope, and NASA is bracing to see the stuff of nightmares.
The planet, called 55 Cancri e, orbits so close to "its Sun-like star" that surface conditions could literally be like the Hell of biblical description: a dimension in a constant state of burning.
Data show 55 Cancri e is less than 1.5 million miles from its star—1/25 the distance super hot Mercury is from our sun, NASA says.
"With surface temperatures far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals, the day side of the planet is thought to be covered in oceans of lava," NASA reported last week.
"Imagine if Earth were much, much closer to the Sun. So close that an entire year lasts only a few hours. So close that gravity has locked one hemisphere in permanent searing daylight and the other in endless darkness. So close that the oceans boil away, rocks begin to melt, and the clouds rain lava."
Nothing like it exists in our solar system, NASA says.
Looking ahead to Webb telescope's first images
Wednesday, 01 June 2022 16:31 Write a comment
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will release its first full-color images and spectroscopic data on 12 July 2022.
As the largest and most complex observatory ever launched into space, Webb has been going through a six-month period of preparation before it can begin science work, calibrating its instruments to its space environment and aligning its mirrors. This careful process, not to mention years of new technology development and mission planning, has built up to the first images and data: a demonstration of Webb at its full power, ready to begin its science mission and unfold the infrared Universe.
"This first release will be a remarkable moment for the mission, giving us a first glimpse of how Webb will transform our view of the Universe," said Chris Evans, ESA Webb Project Scientist. "We are looking forward to sharing the experience of seeing these first images and spectra with the public across Europe."
Behind the scenes: Creating Webb's first images
"As we near the end of preparing the observatory for science, we are on the precipice of an incredibly exciting period of discovery about our Universe.