Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula

Colorful New Portrait Shows Energetic Details Embedded in Supernova Remnant
In the summer of the year 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers saw a new "guest star," that appeared six times brighter than Venus. So bright in fact, it could be seen during the daytime for several months. Halfway around the world, Native Americans made pictographs of a crescent moon with the bright star nearby that some think may also have been a record of the supernova.

This "guest star" was forgotten about until 700 years later with the advent of telescopes. Astronomers saw a tentacle-like nebula in the place of the vanished star and called it the Crab Nebula. Today we know it as the expanding gaseous remnant from a star that self-detonated as a supernova, briefly shining as brightly as 400 million suns. The explosion took place 6,500 light-years away. If the blast had instead happened 50 light-years away it would have irradiated Earth, wiping out most life forms.

In the late 1960s astronomers discovered the crushed heart of the doomed star, an ultra-dense neutron star that is a dynamo of intense magnetic field and radiation energizing the nebula. Astronomers therefore need to study the Crab Nebula across a broad range of electromagnetic radiation, from X-rays to radio waves. This composite picture from five observatories captures the complexity of this tortured-looking supernova remnant.

Credits:
NASA, ESA, G. Dubner (IAFE, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires) et al.; A. Loll et al.; T. Temim et al.; F. Seward et al.; VLA/NRAO/AUI/NSF; Chandra/CXC; Spitzer/JPL-Caltech; XMM-Newton/ESA; and Hubble/STScI
Release Date: May 10, 2017

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Orbital sunrise | International Space Station

The International Space Station orbits toward another sunrise as it travels around Earth at more than 17,500 miles per hour.

Image Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 1, 2017

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Madrid, Spain | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France: "Here is Madrid in the morning light. Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is in the center of this pic. Too bad, tonight's big derby against Atletico Madrid is in Vicente Calderón Stadium!"

"Madrid dans la lumière du matin et ses deux stades en un cliché ! C’est le Bernabéu au centre de la photo, pas de chance, le derby de ce soir se joue au Calderón ;)"

Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. (Source: Wikipedia)

Credit: ESA/NASA
Release Date: April 12, 2017

#NASA #ESA #ISS #Earth #Science #Madrid #Capital #City #Spain #España #Astronaut #ThomasPesquet #Proxima #Expedition51 #Technology #Photography #JSC #CNES #France #Europe #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education

Soyuz Crew Spacecraft | International Space Station

The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft that carried Expedition 51 crew members Oleg Novitskiy, Thomas Pesquet and Peggy Whitson to space is pictured docked to the Rassvet module.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: April 26, 2017

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Soyuz Crew & Progress Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

The Soyuz MS-03 crew ship (foreground) and the Progress 66 cargo craft are pictured as the International Space Station orbits about 250 miles above Earth.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 2, 2017

#NASA #ESA #ISS #Earth #Science #Soyuz #MS03 #Crew #Cargo #Spacecraft #Progress #Progress66 #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Россия #Russia #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #Expedition51 #Technology #UnitedStates #CNES #France #Europe #JSC #UnitedStates #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education


Russian Progress Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

The Progress 66 cargo craft is seen docked to the Pirs docking compartment as the International Space Station orbits about 250 miles above Earth.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 1, 2017

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Cloud Bands Streak Across Saturn's moon Titan | NASA Cassini

May 9, 2017: This view was obtained during a distant flyby, above the moon's surface. Although NASA's Cassini will have no further close, targeted flybys of Titan, the spacecraft continues to observe the giant moon and its atmosphere from a distance.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of bands of bright, feathery methane clouds drifting across Saturn's moon Titan on May 7, 2017.

The view was obtained during a distant (non-targeted) flyby, during which Cassini passed 303,000 miles (488,000 kilometers) above the moon's surface. Although Cassini will have no further close, targeted flybys of Titan, the spacecraft continues to observe the giant moon and its atmosphere from a distance.

The dark regions at top are Titan's hydrocarbon lakes and seas.

Two versions of this image are presented here, one with stronger enhancement (top image) and one with much softer enhancement (bottom image).

The image was taken on May 7, 2017, at a distance of 316,000 miles (508,000 kilometers). The view is an orthographic projection centered on 57 degrees north latitude, 48 degrees west longitude. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer. Image scale is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at https://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Image Date: May 7, 2017

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Titan #Moon #Atmosphere #Clouds #Methane #Hydrocarbon #Lakes #Seas #GrandFinale #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #History #STEM #Education

Mars: Those Sleek Dunes | NASA MRO

Observation by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), approximately 252 kilometers above the surface. Enhanced color image is less than 1 kilometer across. This image was acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Image Date: December 2016
Release Date: May 9, 2017

#NASA #Mars #Space #Astronomy #Science #Dunes #Geology #Landscape #Terrain #Geoscience #MRO #Reconnaissance #Orbiter #Spacecraft #HiRISE #Camera #JPL #STEM #Education

Tropical Cyclone Donna, South Pacific | International Space Station

Cyclone Donna was photographed just East of Australia as the International Space Station orbited about 250 miles above. Donna is the strongest South Pacific cyclone in the month of May ever recorded.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 7, 2017
Release Date: May 9, 2017

#NASA #Earth #Science #Cyclone #Tropical #Donna #Weather #Storm #Pacific #Ocean #Fiji #Australia #Astronauts #Expedition51 #Technology #JSC #UnitedStates #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education 

Auroras over Europe | International Space Station

Happy Europe Day!

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France: "We also have auroras in Europe (and they are the best auroras, it is true): a bit to the north, though. The big city in the foreground is Berlin, and over there I see Copenhagen."

"L’Europe aussi offre de belles aurores boréales, du moins au nord. Au premier plan, Berlin et derrière, la Belgique se distingue comme toujours nettement"

Credit: ESA/NASA
Image Date: March 27, 2017
Release Date: May 9, 2017

#NASA #ESA #Earth #Science #Aurora #Borealis #Berlin #Germany #Deutschland #Copenhagen #Denmark #Danmark #EuropeDay #Astronaut #ThomasPesquet #Expedition51 #Technology #UnitedStates #CNES #France #Europe #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #LightPollution #STEM #Education

European Triangle | International Space Station

Happy Europe Day!

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France: "London, Paris and Brussels form a very European triangle."

"Londres, Paris et Bruxelles forment un triangle très européen"

Credit: ESA/NASA

Image Date: April 2, 2017
Release Date: May 9, 2017

#NASA #ESA #Earth #Science #EuropeDay #Astronaut #ThomasPesquet #Expedition51 #Technology #UnitedStates #CNES #France #Europe #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #LightPollution #STEM #Education

NASA's P-3 Aircraft Flies over Southeast Greenland

Image: shadow of aircraft from above flying over iceberg
May 9, 2017: The shadow of NASA's P-3 aircraft is seen over an iceberg on a May 8, 2017 flight supporting NASA's Operation IceBridge mission. IceBridge began its final week of Arctic Spring 2017 surveys with a glacier-packed mission in Greenland, called Southeast Glaciers 01.

The P-3 is a four-engine turboprop based out of Wallops and capable of long duration flights of 8-12 hours. It is supporting the same suite of IceBridge instruments flown in the past IceBridge Arctic and Antarctic campaigns.

The mission of Operation IceBridge is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain continuity of measurements between ICESat missions. The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2018.

Image Credit: NASA/Joe MacGregor
Image Date: May 8, 2017
Release Date: May 9, 2017

#NASA #Earth #Science #Greenland #Grønland #Iceberg #Ice #Polar #OperationIcebridge #Icebridge #ICESat #ICESat2 #Aircraft #Lockheed #P3 #WP3DOrion #Airborne #Reconnaissance #Observatory #Climate #ClimateChange #Laboratory #Research #Mapping #NOAA #Photography #STEM #Education

Canada Post launches stamp for Canadarm robotic arm

Happy 150th Birthday, Canada!

May 4, 2017: Deepak Chopra, President and CEO of Canada Post, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen unveiled the Canadarm stamp together. The new Canadarm stamp, which goes on sale on June 1, features a photo of the robotic arm taken on April 25, 1990 as it grappled the Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of the shuttle Discovery to place the observatory into orbit. First tested in orbit on Nov. 13, 1981, during the second mission of NASA's space shuttle Columbia, the Canadarm shuttle remote manipulator system (SRMS) made possible the deployment and recovery of satellites from the payload bay of the shuttle and played a critical role in the assembly of the International Space Station.

The 50-foot-long (15-meter) robotic arms—five were flown between 1981 and 2011—featured six rotating joints and could maneuver items in space that had a mass equivalent to a fully-loaded city bus.

Credit: Canada Post
Release Date: May 4, 2017

#Canada #CSA #Space #Science #Technology #Engineering #Robotics #Robots #Canadarm #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Spacecraft #MDA #SparAerospace #CanadaPost #Stamp #Astronaut #JeremyHansen #Canada150 #ISS #SpaceShuttle #Human #Spaceflight #Aerospace #Innovation #History #STEM #Education

Athens, Greece | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France: "Athens, Greece: The cradle of European civilization and democracy!"

"Au centre d’Athènes, on devine la Pnyx où siégeait l’assemblée des citoyens ! 25 siècles plus tard, un Européen la survole tranquillement depuis l’espace… La technologie a drôlement avancé, mais certains idéaux sont éternels…"

Credit: ESA/NASA
Release Date: March 4, 2017

#NASA #ESA #Earth #Science #Athens #Αθήνα #Greece #Ελλάδα #Culture #Civilization #History #Astronaut #ThomasPesquet #Expedition50 #Technology #UnitedStates #CNES #France #Europe #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education

Green and blue | European Southern Observatory

Sitting amongst the alien landscape of the harsh Atacama, the antennas of the Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) look eerily otherworldly in this ESO Picture of the Week as they are bathed in a neon green light.

This light is actually an built-in function of ALMA, not evidence of alien activity! The array’s antennas have a flashing green light that blinks periodically whilst the antennas are in operation, and does not disturb the radio-wavelength observations. This light is not usually quite so visible—this picture was captured using a 10-second exposure, during which time a green flash occurred and spread throughout the image, creating a stark contrast between the neon green of the antennas and the deep blue of the night sky.

Jagged ice formations known as penitentes can be seen in the foreground. These form at high altitudes where the low pressure and cold temperatures cause an unusual freezing and melting cycle. Penitentes form in a wide range of sizes, from a couple of centimeters up to around five meters. The ones in this picture are fairly small, measuring less than a meter.

Credit: ESO/S. Fandango
Release Date: May 8, 2017

#ESO #Astronomy #Science #Space #Cosmos #Universe #Array #Antennas #ALMA #Atacama #Chile #Europe #Astrophotography #Photography #STEM #Education

James Webb Space Telescope Arrival | NASA’s Johnson Space Center

James Webb Space Telescope is pushed into the clean room
May 7, 2017: The James Webb Space Telescope is pushed into the clean room of Building 32. Building 32 houses Chamber A, the thermal vacuum chamber where the telescope will have its final thermal vacuum testing.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will undergo its last cryogenic test before it is launched into space in 2018.

The telescope was loaded onto a trailer truck from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and moved slowly down a highway by the Webb team to U.S. Air Force’s Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. At Andrews, the telescope was then loaded onto a C-5 aircraft and flown to Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.

When the C-5 landed at Ellington, the telescope was carefully unloaded and delivered to NASA Johnson. In the coming weeks, the telescope will be prepared for a final cryogenic test that will run approximately 100 days. Then, it will continue its journey to Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, for final integration and testing with the remainder of the Webb Observatory—the sunshield and spacecraft bus—prior to launch.

To ensure the telescope's optics will operate at its frigid destination 1 million miles out in space, it must complete several cryogenic tests. The last cryogenic test will occur in Johnson's Chamber A, the same vacuum chamber where the Apollo spacecraft were tested. This critical end-to-end optical test will test the telescope at its extremely cold operating temperatures—at 40 Kelvin—the temperature that it will operate in space.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s most advanced space observatory. This engineering marvel is designed to unravel some of the greatest mysteries of the universe, from discovering the first stars and galaxies that formed after the big bang to studying the atmospheres of planets around other stars. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

For further information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit: jwst.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov/webb

Article Credit: NASA/Goddard/JSC
Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Release Date: May 7, 2017

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Telescope #JWST #JamesWebb #Exoplanets #Planets #Astrophysics #Cosmos #Universe #ESA #CSA #Goddard #GSFC #Aircraft #VacuumChamber #Cryogenic #Testing #JSC #Johnson #Houston #Texas #UnitedStates #STScI #STEM #Education