Revesmecaniques - LOIN D'ICI

Holy--days.

Our New Satellite to Study the Edge of Space

We’re about to launch a new satellite called ICON — the Ionospheric Connection Explorer — to study our planet’s boundary to space.

The overlap between Earth’s upper atmosphere and outer space is complicated and constantly changing. It’s made up of a mix of neutral gas (like the air we breathe) and charged particles, where negatively charged electrons have separated from positively charged ions. This charged particle soup reacts uniquely to the changing electric and magnetic fields in near-Earth space, while weather conditions from here on Earth can also travel upwards and influence this region. This makes Earth’s interface to space a dynamic, hard-to-predict region of the atmosphere.

Understanding what causes the changes in this region and how to predict them isn’t just a matter of curiosity. Earth’s boundary to space is home to many of our Earth-orbiting satellites, and it also plays a role in transmitting signals for communications and navigation systems. Unpredictable changes here can garble those signals and even shorten the lifetime of satellites.

ICON, launching on Nov. 7, will study this region with a unique combination of instruments. Orbiting about 360 miles above Earth, ICON will use its cameras to measure winds near the upper edge of Earth’s boundary to space and track atmospheric composition and temperature by studying a phenomenon called airglow. ICON also carries an instrument that will capture and measure the particles directly around the spacecraft, or in situ. 

ICON is launching aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. On launch day, the Pegasus XL is carried out over the ocean by Northrop Grumman’s L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, which takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. About 50 miles off the coast of Florida, the Pegasus XL drops from the plane and free-falls for about five seconds before igniting and carrying ICON into low-Earth orbit.

NASA TV coverage of the launch starts at 2:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 7 at nasa.gov/live. You can also follow along with the mission on Twitter, Facebook or at nasa.gov/icon.

#human

- Teri Toye and Patrick Fox on their wedding night, NYC

- Joey in my mirror, Berlin

 - French Chris at the drive-in, NJ

- Suzanne and Philippe on the train, Long Island, NYC

- Joana and Auréle in my bed embraced, Sag Harbor, NYC

-  Amanda in the sauna, Hotel Savoy, Berlin

- The hug, NYC

Nan Goldin

Untitled by Laura del Rosal Migoya

Filterloze foto van een van de hoogste meren van Oostenrijk met op de achtergrond een gletsjer (tevens de laatste foto van deze vakantie). (at Rotkogelhütte 2666m Sölden)

black backgrounds.

(not mine.)

I exist as I am, that is enough.

Walt Whitman (via wordsnquotes)

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