James Webb Space Telescope’s Golden Mirror

Inside the clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the golden James Webb Space Telescope is viewed from overhead with its secondary mirror booms stowed. In the next few months, engineers will install other key elements, and take additional measurements to ensure the telescope is ready for space. via NASA http://ift.tt/1O0fSJy

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Orion Crew Module for Exploration Mission-1 Lifted to Test Stand

The Orion spacecraft crew module for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) is lifted into a test stand for pressure testing in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The work is an important milestone on Orion’s journey toward EM-1, its mission beyond the moon atop the Space Launch System rocket in 2018. via NASA http://ift.tt/1NX1IZI

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Full-Circle Vista from ‘Naukluft Plateau’ on Mars

This mid-afternoon, 360-degree panorama was acquired by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on April 4, 2016, as part of long-term campaign to document the context and details of the geology and landforms along Curiosity’s traverse since landing in August 2012. via NASA http://ift.tt/1T4XSz6

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Light Echoes Used to Study Protoplanetary Disks

This illustration shows a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. A new study uses data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and four ground-based telescopes to determine the distance from a star to the inner rim of its surrounding protoplanetary disk. Researchers used a method called “photo-reverberation,” also known as “light echoes. via NASA http://ift.tt/26rHbbb

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Ice Scours the North Caspian Sea

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite acquired this large natural-color image showing a wide view of the Caspian Sea around the Tyuleniy Archipelago on April 16, 2016. Ocean scientist Norman Kuring of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center found a puzzling feature in the image — lines crisscrossing the North Caspian Sea. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SnBS6G

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Morning Sunglint Over the Pacific

This Earth observation composite image from the International Space Station captures morning sunglint and low clouds over the central Pacific Ocean. The image was put together at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, from a series of photographs taken by Expedition 47 Commander Jeff Williams on March 25, 2016. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SgYGou

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Development of High-Power Solar Electric Propulsion

A prototype 13-kilowatt Hall thruster is tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. This prototype demonstrated the technology readiness needed for industry to continue the development of high-power solar electric propulsion into a flight-qualified system. via NASA http://ift.tt/1VE9BLL

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Cameras Around Lake Tahoe Change Fight Against Wildfires by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A growing network of cameras trained on the mountains around Lake Tahoe is changing the way crews fight Western wildfires by allowing early detection that triggers quicker, cheaper, more tactical suppression than traditional war-like operations,…

Published: April 20, 2016 at 11:41AM

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Preparing the Vehicle Assembly Building for NASAs Next Rocket

A view from below in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center shows three work platforms installed for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The platforms will surround and provide access to the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for Exploration Mission 1. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Qn5o6T

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Liftoff at NASAs 16th Annual Student Launch Challenge

One of dozens of high-powered rockets lifts off on April 16, 2016, during NASA’s 16th annual Student Launch challenge, held near Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama from April 13-16. Nearly 50 middle and high school, college and university teams from 22 states competed in the challenge. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Sqtl1r

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Y Marks the Spot

A sinuous feature snakes northward from Enceladus’ south pole like a giant tentacle. via NASA http://ift.tt/1TeVHMe

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Early Ice Breakup of Beaufort Sea Due to Early Warm Temperatures

This image of early ice breakup of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument infrared channel, at around 1148 UTC on April 13, 2016. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Vq8z5q

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April 14, 1981, Landing of First Space Shuttle Mission

The rear wheels of the space shuttle orbiter Columbia touched down on Rogers dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (then Dryden), California, to successfully complete a stay in space of more than two days. Astronauts John W. Young, STS-1 commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, were aboard the vehicle. via NASA http://ift.tt/1TTGD8R

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News Q’s | Inky the Octopus Escapes From a New Zealand Aquarium by MICHAEL GONCHAR

By MICHAEL GONCHAR

How did Inky escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier?

Published: April 14, 2016 at 12:30AM

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Oyster Hatchery Sows Pearls of Wisdom on Climate Change by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Say “infrastructure” and most people think roads and bridges, not tubes and valves. But to Bill Mook, the black box in the basement of his oyster hatchery is every bit as fundamental as the basic facilities and structures that serve as a community’s…

Published: April 13, 2016 at 10:08PM

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Night Image of Chicago

Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra of NASA captured this brightly lit night image of the city of Chicago on April 5, 2016, from the International Space Station. Kopra (@astro_tim) wrote, “#Goodnight #Chicago from @Space_Station. #CitiesFromSpace” via NASA http://ift.tt/1VVgFSw

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Inky the Octopus Legs It From New Zealand Aquarium by DAN BILEFSKY

By DAN BILEFSKY

Tracks suggest he slipped through a small gap at the top of his tank, scampered across the floor, slid down a 164-foot-long drainpipe and reached the ocean.

Published: April 13, 2016 at 08:00PM

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T-38C Passes in Front of the Sun at Supersonic Speed

An Air Force Test Pilot School T-38C passes in front of the sun at a supersonic speed, creating shockwaves that are caught photographically for research. NASA is using a modern version of schlieren imagery to visualize supersonic flow phenomena with full-scale aircraft in flight. The results will help engineers design a quiet supersonic transport. via NASA http://ift.tt/1YrJhlF

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The Great Divide

It’s difficult to get a sense of scale when viewing Saturn’s rings, but the Cassini Division (seen here between the bright B ring and dimmer A ring) is almost as wide as the planet Mercury. via NASA http://ift.tt/1ROQuvB

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Dory and Nemo in Hell’s Kitchen by TOVE DANOVICH

By TOVE DANOVICH

Manhattan Aquariums on West 37th Street draws fish lovers to the muffled hum of filters, the thrum of music and the psychedelia of coral.

Published: April 9, 2016 at 08:00PM

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Busy Traffic at the International Space Station

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA took this photograph on April 6, 2016, as the International Space Station flew over Madagascar, showing three of the five spacecraft docked to the station. The station crew awaits the scheduled launch today, April 8, of the third resupply vehicle in three weeks: a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SEPqqq

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April 7, 1991, Deployment of Breakthrough Gamma-ray Observatory

Twenty-five years ago, NASA launched the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, an astronomical satellite that transformed our knowledge of the high-energy sky. In this view, taken on April 7, 1991, from the aft flight deck window of space shuttle Atlantis, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is released by the shuttle’s remote manipulator system. via NASA http://ift.tt/23lAYLv

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Computer-Simulated Image of a Supermassive Black Hole

Astronomers have uncovered a near-record breaking supermassive black hole in an unlikely place: in the center of a galaxy in a sparsely populated area of the universe. The observations, made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Telescope in Hawaii, may indicate that these monster objects may be more common than once thought. via NASA http://ift.tt/1UWtvRX

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The Turbulent North Atlantic

The Gulf Stream waters flow in somewhat parallel layers, slicing across what is otherwise a fairly turbulent western North Atlantic Ocean in this March 9, 2016 image collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite. The turbulence is made visible by the pigmented phytoplankton it entrains. via NASA http://ift.tt/1YdApQo

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Moonset Viewed From the International Space Station

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA took this striking photograph of the moon from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station on March 28, 2016. Peake shared the image on March 30 and wrote to his social media followers, “I was looking for #Antarctica – hard to spot from our orbit. Settled for a moonset instead.” via NASA http://ift.tt/1RIC6kY

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