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Saturday, January 31, 2015
SMAP Takes to the Skies
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Ready for Jan. 29 Launch
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Executive: No Guarantee BP Would Help Pay Subsidiary’s Fines by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An executive for the BP subsidiary that faces billions of dollars in possible fines for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill testified Tuesday that it is uncertain whether other BP entities would step in to help pay a steep penalty.
Published: January 27, 2015 at 05:21AM
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Sounding Rockets Launch Into an Aurora
To help answer some of these questions, NASA suborbital sounding rockets carrying university-developed experiments — the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (M-TeX) and Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) — were launched into auroras from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The experiments explore the Earth’s atmosphere’s response to auroral, radiation belt and solar energetic particles and associated effects on nitric oxide and ozone.
This composite shot of all four sounding rockets for the M-TeX and MIST experiments is made up of 30 second exposures. The rocket salvo began at 4:13 a.m. EST, Jan. 26, 2015. A fifth rocket carrying the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe remains ready on the launch pad. The launch window for this experiment runs through Jan. 27.
Image Credit: NASA/Jamie Adkins
> More: M-TeX and MIST Experiments Launched from Alaska via NASA http://ift.tt/1yL9zFf
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Monday, January 26, 2015
Rocky Mountain National Park Viewed From the International Space Station
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Thursday, January 22, 2015
Atomic Scientists: We’re Getting Even Closer to Doomsday by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says Earth is now closer to human-caused doomsday than it has been in more than 30 years because of global warming and nuclear weaponry. But other experts say that’s way too gloomy.
Published: January 22, 2015 at 06:38AM
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Our Oceans Are Facing a Mass Extinction
Global warming is a thing. While some politicians might continue to yell at the top of their voices about how they’re not scientists and how we can’t really tell if global warming is the fault of humans, literally almost all scientists say that it’s real and it’s happening and that we need to do something about it or face consequences that we haven’t even begun to imagine. One of the worst effects (out of all of the terrible effects) of global warming is the mass extinctions that are going to strike many of our best-known and most loved animals around the world, like polar bears. Nature takes a long time to evolve and the earth is changing at a rate that is just too fast for all but the most adaptable flora and fauna to keep up with and avoid extinction.
One of the areas that is being the hardest hit by the global changes in temperature are the oceans. As everyone knows, the oceans cover about 70% of our planet, if not more. With 96% of all of the earths water found in the oceans, the ramifications of a massive change in the oceans would be literally incalculable. With that in mind, the fact that scientists around the world are saying that the oceans are on the brink of a mass extinction event unlike humans have ever seen should be a clarion call to arms in defense of the earth and our environment. Even though less animals will go extinct than if this were to happen on land (fewer species go extinct in the water), the fact remains that fish populations will be harmed which in turn will have a ripple effect on both marine life as well as people who rely on the ocean for commercial interests and sustenance.
While the news sounds horrible, scientists are stressing that this can be reversed if immediate action is taken. With 40% of coral reefs dead or dying and water acidity increasing due to atmospheric CO2, it’s up to governments and people around the world to wake up and take control of the only earth they have. This planet is our home and it’s about time that we take responsibility for it and help the climate change deniers and those in businesses who profit off the destruction of the earth to realize what they’re doing.
If you’d like to read more, the link is here.
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Greenland’s Leidy Glacier
This view of the region pictured above was acquired August 7, 2012, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite. In April 2012, the feature caught the attention of a NASA pilot, who snapped this picture from the cockpit of a high-flying ER-2 aircraft during a research flight over the Greenland ice cap.
More information.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2015
In the Vortex of Power
This test allows engine manufacturers to simulate flying through the upper atmosphere where large amounts of icing particles can be ingested and cause flame outs or a loss of engine power on aircraft. This test was the first of its kind in the world and was highly successful in validating PSL’s new capability. No other engine test facility has this capability.
Glenn is working with industry to address this aviation issue by establishing a capability that will allow engines to be operated at the same temperature and pressure conditions experienced in flight, with ice particles being ingested into full scale engines to simulate flight through a deep convective cloud.
The information gained through performing these tests will also be used to establish test methods and techniques for the study of engine icing in new and existing commercial engines, and to develop data required for advanced computer codes that can be specifically applied to assess an engine’s susceptibility to icing in terms of its safety, performance and operability.
Image Credit: NASA
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New Expedition 37 Crew Launches to Space Station
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Sochi, Russia Winter Olympic Sites (Mountain Cluster)
In this southwest-looking image, red indicates vegetation, white is snow, and the resort site appears in gray. The area imaged is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) across in the foreground and 20 miles (32 kilometers) from front to back. The image was created from the ASTER visible and near-infrared bands, draped over ASTER-derived digital elevation data.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. ;More information about ASTER is available at asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team via NASA http://ift.tt/1d2tCEF
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Shuttle Endeavour Crossing
Endeavour, built as a replacement for space shuttle Challenger, completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit, and orbited Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles. Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on display in the CSC’s Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers.
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Orion Crew Module Set for Connection to Heat Shield
EFT-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion capsule 3,600 miles into space for a four-hour mission to test several of its most critical systems. After making two orbits, Orion will return to Earth at almost 20,000 miles per hour and endure temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before its parachutes slow it down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean.
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Fermi’s Motion Produces a Study in Spirograph
The LAT sweeps across the entire sky every three hours, capturing the highest-energy form of light – gamma rays – from sources across the universe. These range from supermassive black holes billions of light-years away to intriguing objects in our own galaxy, such as X-ray binaries, supernova remnants and pulsars.
Image Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration via NASA http://ift.tt/ZDFgwH
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Expedition 38 Crew With Olympic Torch
Launch of the Soyuz rocket carrying the Expedition 38 trio is scheduled for 11:14 p.m. EST Wed., Nov. 6 (10:14 a.m. Kazakh time, Nov. 7) and will send Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata on a six-month mission aboard the space station.
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Expedition 38 Takes an In-Flight Crew Portrait
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Happy Little Crater on Mercury
The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft’s seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System’s innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MESSENGER acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a yearlong extended mission, during which plans call for the acquisition of more than 80,000 additional images to support MESSENGER’s science goals.
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