Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
May 12, 2017: By day, satellite images of Iceland highlight the nation’s diverse landscape. Sunlight illuminates the smooth, rounded ice caps and the seasonal snow of the interior areas. Snow-capped ridges mark the glacier-carved coastlines.
But the view at night offers an entirely different perspective of the Nordic island nation. This image shows Iceland’s nighttime lights as observed in 2016; it comes from a new global composite map that provides the clearest-yet views of the patterns of human settlements across Earth. The composite was built by selecting the best cloud-free images acquired with the day/night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite.
Images of night lights are useful for showing how and where humans populate the planet. In this image, you can see how the Icelandic landscape influences where people live. The island’s interior—the so-called central highlands—is rugged. Compared to coastal areas, the interior is high in elevation, sparsely vegetated, and cold. It is sprinkled with volcanoes, icecaps, and hot springs. People visit the area, but you won’t see many signs of permanent settlement.
In contrast, areas closer to the island’s perimeter are well lit. Reykjavík stands out as the large, bright area in the southwest. That makes sense, given that it is the country’s capital and largest city. In 2014, the city’s population was 184,000 people—almost half of Iceland’s population. The other half live in smaller urban areas located primarily near the coast.
The coast is not only more hospitable; it provides access to ocean resources, particularly fishing. Some of those fishing villages are found on Snæfellsnes, a peninsula in western Iceland that appears well lit. Lights along the peninsula might also be farms and summer homes, and they appear in relatively high density because of the narrow coastal area.
Lights elsewhere could have their roots in agriculture. Towns primarily in the south, such as Flúðir and Hveragerði, make use of geothermal energy to heat greenhouses for growing vegetables and flowers. Artificial lights in these greenhouses can stay on well into the night, particularly during the dark winter months.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA GSFC Caption Credit: Kathryn Hansen with image interpretation provided by Throstur Thorsteinsson, University of Iceland Instrument(s): Suomi NPP - VIIRS Release Date: May 12, 2017
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/MSFC Image Date: April 8, 2017
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Student Rockets Blast Off During Annual 2017 #StudentLaunch Challenge
Fifty middle and high school, college and university teams from 23 states launched their student-built rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
May 12, 2017: In this 229th edition of "Earth from Space", Sentinel-2 takes us over the border of the U.S. states Utah and Colorado—presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA) Duration: 2 minutes, 31 seconds Release Date: May 12, 2017
May 10, 2017: NASA helped the town of Mars, Pennsylvania ring in the Martian New Year, May 5-6. Citizens of the town, just north of Pittsburgh, invited the agency to help celebrate Mars New Year, which happens about every two Earth years. Activities included two days of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics or (STEAM) activities, to encourage young people to pursue careers in these fields of study, which are critical to NASA's journey to Mars. Website: www.MarsNewYear.com
Credit: NASA Duration: 2 minutes Release Date: May 10, 2017
"Color mosaic of pancam images acquired by NASA's Opportunity rover on May 10, 2017 (mission sol 4726). Opportunity is at the head of 'Perseverance Valley,' located on the rim of Endeavour Crater. This view is made from raw uncalibrated images and has been color-adjusted to approximately the type of color you'd see on Mars. Note: The right side of the image was a bit overexposed in the raw images so that is why it seems a bit lighter there."
ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France: "Sardinia and its little sister Corsica"
"La Sardaigne et la Corse - une photo dont je suis plutôt fier"
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and before Cyprus) and an autonomous region of Italy. It is located in the Western Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica. (Source: Wikipedia)
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 13 regions of France. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the Italian island of Sardinia. A single chain of mountains make up two-thirds of the island. (Source: Wikipedia)
In this photo, the James Webb Space Telescope has just arrived at Ellington Field, in Houston, Texas from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The telescope was safely ensconced in a special transporter case (called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road, and Sea, or STTARS) which attaches to a truck. Webb telescope was first driven from NASA Goddard to Andrews, and then put in a C-5 cargo plane. The plane flew to Ellington, and then the telescope was transported by truck to NASA's Johnson Space Center for an end-to-end cryogenic test. Webb will undergo 100 days in a freezer (the huge test Chamber A), which mimics the extremely cold temperature at which the telescope will operate in space. Light will be passed through the telescope to ensure its optics are correctly aligned.
