NASA’s Juno spacecraft may have captured some of the most fleeting phenomena associated with powerful lightning storms here on Earth—400 million miles away on Jupiter! Nicknamed sprites and elves these amazingly brief yet beautiful flashes of light occur miles above powerful lightning discharges in thunderstorms. They’ve only fairly recently been well-documented on Earth through digital…
Tag: NASA
NASA’s Flying Observatory Found Water on the Moon During Its First Look
NASA and DLR’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—a telescope-on-an-airplane called SOFIA for short—has detected yet more evidence of water on the Moon, this time in the form of H2O molecules possibly trapped within pieces of glass that form when meteorites strike the Moon’s surface. These particular findings, announced on October 26, 2020, focus on an…
To Bennu and Back: A Pre-TAG Interview with Thomas Zurbuchen and Lori Glaze
After almost two years in orbit at asteroid Bennu it’s nearly go time for OSIRIS-REx—or, should I say, Touch-and-Go time! Later today, October 20, starting at 1:50 p.m. EDT (17:50 UTC) the van-sized spacecraft will begin its descent toward the surface of Bennu, culminating in the attempt to siphon up at least 60 grams of…
Get to Know Bennu Better Before OSIRIS-REx’s Sample Grab
It’s almost TAG time! On October 20, 2020 NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will slowly descend from its orbit 2,500 feet (770 meters) above Bennu to briefly touch the asteroid’s pebbly surface with its TAGSAM instrument, quickly sucking in and filter-capturing a small amount of material which will be returned to Earth for scientific study in 2023….
NASA Satellite Data Show “Greening” of the Arctic as Sea Ice Levels Remain Low
NASA’s Landsat program—which will see its newest satellite launched in 2021—has given us a view from space of forests, farms, fresh water resources, and cities across our planet since the early 1970s — the longest scientific record of its kind. Now, researchers have used high-resolution Landsat data acquired since 1985 to show how the Arctic…
Hubble’s Newest View of Jupiter Shows New Storms Brewing
News from NASA: This latest image of Jupiter, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on August 25, 2020, was captured when the planet was 406 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet’s turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of…
NASA Rocket Trails Trace Twisting Waves at the Border of Space
Glowing vapor clouds released from NASA research rockets launched in Alaska in January 2018 trace curling waves high in Earth’s atmosphere, at the very boundary of space, revealing fluid flow structures known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
Betelgeuse’s Recent Dimming Likely Caused by a Dusty Outburst
From October 2019 to February 2020, Betelgeuse (the bright orange star at Orion’s right shoulder, not Tim Burton’s magical necroprankster) was seen to dim dramatically, even more so than it typically does. It was something that wasn’t just observed with telescopes but also it was quite obvious to the naked eye from most locations. This…
Ceres’ Salty Mound is the Result of Ongoing Geologic Activity
First observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003, the curious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres—the largest world in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter—was brought into exquisite focus with the arrival of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft in 2015. The largest and brightest of these spots—a single 340-meter-high mound named Cerealia Facula…
What’s the Weather on Jupiter? Cloudy with a Chance of Mushballs
Recent findings from NASA’s Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter since July 4, 2016, may have solved an ongoing mystery about the composition of the giant planet’s upper atmosphere; namely, the case of the missing ammonia. (Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium but also contains trace amounts of ammonia, methane, and water vapor.) North…
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Launches to Mars
Today, July 30, 2020 at 7:50 a.m. EDT (11:50 UTC) NASA’s Mars 2020 rover Perseverance launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a ULA Atlas V 541 rocket. The weather at the Cape was picture-perfect and the launch went smoothly, sending NASA’s newest robotic mission to Mars on its way for an anticipated arrival and landing…
For the Umpteenth Time No NASA Didn’t Change the Zodiac
Come on everyone, no. Just…no. NASA did not “change your star sign.” NASA neither creates “star signs” nor names or changes them. This is because 1. that’s not NASA’s job, and 2. “star signs”—i.e., astrology—is junk science. (And that’s being grossly generous with the term “science.”)
