(NASA’s image of the day on June 5, 2020) Almost like snowflakes, the stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s galactic center. Like snowflakes, the exact number of stars in such a cluster is difficult to discern. It is estimated that together…
Tag: NASA
Hypothesized First-Gen Stars Remain Unseen in Hubble Deep Views
(News from NASA) New results from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggest the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the early universe took place sooner than previously thought. A European team of astronomers have found no evidence of the first generation of stars, known as Population III stars, as far back as when…
June 3, 1965: NASA’s First Spacewalk
Today marks the the anniversary of America’s first spacewalk, performed by NASA astronaut Edward H. White II on the afternoon of June 3, 1965 during the four-day Gemini IV mission. In NASA terminology spacewalks are also referred to as extravehicular activities, or “EVAs” – basically anything performed by a person in space outside a spacecraft. The…
First Crew Dragon Astronauts Are Aboard the Space Station
(News from NASA) NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday aboard Crew Dragon, the first commercially built and operated American spacecraft to carry humans to orbit, opening a new era in human spaceflight.
Watch America’s Return to Flight Launch Live!
Just a reminder that you can watch today’s launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the Space Station from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A, live right here on Lights in the Dark!
Haunting Images from NASA of a Space Suit Drifting in Orbit
You might want to file this under “nightmare fuel.” Yes this is a thing that actually happened on the International Space Station in 2006. But if you’re not already familiar with what’s going on here, it’s probably not what you think…
Space Telescope Named After Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s First Chief of Astronomy
From NASA on May 20, 2020: NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe. The newly-named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – or Roman…
Ten Discoveries from SOFIA
(From NASA) Ten years ago, NASA’s telescope on an airplane, SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), first peered into the cosmos. Since the night of May 26, 2010, SOFIA’s observations of infrared light, invisible to the human eye, have made many scientific discoveries about the hidden universe.
Saturn Seen Through Titan’s Hazy Atmosphere
Here’s a view of the upper limb of Saturn seen through the atmosphere of its largest moon Titan. It’s a color-composite of images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on March 31, 2005 as it passed just 7,500 kilometers (4,660 miles) from Titan. Saturn was 1.2 million kilometers (745,000 miles) away from Cassini at the time.
First Look at the James Webb Space Telescope Folded in Fully Stowed Configuration
News from NASA: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been successfully folded and stowed into the same configuration it will have when loaded onto an Ariane 5 rocket for launch next year. Webb is NASA’s largest and most complex space science telescope ever built. Too big for any rocket available in its fully expanded…
Scientists Use Starlight to Probe Pluto’s Blue Sky
From a May 12, 2020 NASA article: When the New Horizons spacecraft passed by Pluto in 2015, one of the many fascinating features its images revealed was that this small, frigid world in the distant solar system has a hazy atmosphere. Now, new data helps explain how Pluto’s haze is formed from the faint light…
Stromatolites in the Nevada Desert…and Maybe Even on Mars?
I’m no paleontologist but I’ve long found stromatolites to be really interesting. They’re one of the earliest known forms of complex life on Earth. These layered mounds created over hundreds and thousands of years by cyanobacteria—basically “microbial reefs”— have existed on Earth for over 3.5 billion years. Today they can be found in active, living…
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