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NASA’s View of COVID-19

#COVID19 led to changes in human activities around the globe. We can see some of these changes from space. Some bodies of water have run clearer, emissions of pollutants have temporarily declined, and transportation and shipment of goods have decreased.

Along with our partner agencies – ESA and JAXA – we’re making satellite data available on the COVID-19 Earth Observation Dashboard, where you can explore some of the changes we can see from space.

But it’s not just what we can see. When the pandemic began, NASA engineers sprang into action to build ventilators, oxygen hoods and more to help save lives.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

It takes strength and courage to admit the truth.

Rick Riordan (via quotemadness)

Travel to Exotic Destinations in our Galaxy!

The planets beyond our solar system – exoplanets – are so far away, often trillions of miles, that we don’t have the technology to truly see them. Even the best photos show the planets as little more than bright dots. We’ve confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets, but we think there are billions. Space telescopes like Hubble aren’t able to take photos of these far-off worlds, but by studying them in different wavelengths of light (colors), we’ve learned enough about conditions on these planets that we can illustrate them.

We know, thanks to the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, that there is a thick atmosphere on a planet called 55 Cancri e about 40 light-years away. And Hubble found silicate vapor in the atmosphere of this rocky world. We also know it’s scorching-close to its Sun-like star, so … lava. Lots and lots of lava. This planet is just one of the many that the James Webb Space Telescope will soon study, telling us even more about the lava world!

You can take a guided tour of this planet (and others) and see 360-degree simulations at our new Exoplanet Travel Bureau.

Travel to the most exotic destinations in our galaxy, including:

Kepler-16b, a planet with two suns.

Then there’s PSO J318.5-22, a world with no sun that wanders the galaxy alone. The nightlife would never end on a planet without a star.

TRAPPIST-1e, which will also be studied by the Webb Space Telescope, is one of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star about 40 light-years from Earth. It’s close enough that, if you were standing on this exoplanet, you could see our Sun as a star in the Leo constellation! You can also see it on the poster below: look for a yellow star to the right of the top person’s eye.

We haven’t found life beyond Earth (yet) but we’re looking. Meanwhile, we can imagine the possibility of red grass and other plants on Kepler-186f, a planet orbiting a red dwarf star.

We can also imagine what it might be like to skydive on a super-Earth about seven times more massive than our home planet. You would fall about 35% faster on a super-Earth like HD 40307g, making for a thrilling ride!

Any traveler is going to want to pick up souvenirs, and we have you covered. You can find free downloads of all the posters here and others! What are you waiting for? Come explore with us!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Black Holes Dine on Stellar Treats!

See that tiny blob of light, circled in red? Doesn’t look like much, does it? But that blob represents a feast big enough to feed a black hole around 30 million times the mass of our Sun! Scientists call these kinds of stellar meals tidal disruption events, and they’re some of the most dramatic happenings in the cosmos.

Sometimes, an unlucky star strays too close to a black hole. The black hole’s gravity pulls on the star, causing it to stretch in one direction and squeeze in another. Then the star pulls apart into a stream of gas. This is a tidal disruption event. (If you’re worried about this happening to our Sun – don’t. The nearest black hole we know about is over 1,000 light-years away. And black holes aren’t wild space vacuums. They don’t go zipping around sucking up random stars and planets. So we’re pretty safe from tidal disruption events!)

The trailing part of the stream gets flung out of the system. The rest of the gas loops back around the black hole, forming a disk. The material circling in the disk slowly drifts inward toward the black hole’s event horizon, the point at which nothing – not even light – can escape. The black hole consumes the gas and dust in its disk over many years.

Sometimes the black hole only munches on a passing star – we call this a partial tidal disruption event. The star loses some of its gas, but its own gravity pulls it back into shape before it passes the black hole again. Eventually, the black hole will have nibbled away enough material that the star can’t reform and gets destroyed.

We study tidal disruptions, both the full feasts and the partial snacks, using many kinds of telescopes. Usually, these events are spotted by ground-based telescopes like the Zwicky Transient Facility and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae network.

They alert other ground- and space-based telescopes – like our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (illustrated above) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton – to follow up and collect more data using different wavelengths, from visible light to X-rays. Even our planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has observed a few of these destructive wonders!

We’re also studying disruptions using multimessenger astronomy, where scientists use the information carried by light, particles, and space-time ripples to learn more about cosmic objects and occurrences.

But tidal disruptions are super rare. They only happen once every 10,000 to 100,000 years in a galaxy the size of our own Milky Way. Astronomers have only observed a few dozen events so far. By comparison, supernovae – the explosive deaths of stars – happen every 100 years or so in a galaxy like ours.

That’s why scientists make their own tidal disruptions using supercomputers, like the ones shown in the video here. Supercomputers allow researchers to build realistic models of stars. They can also include all of the physical effects they’d experience whipping ‘round a black hole, even those from Einstein’s theory of general relativity. They can alter features like how close the stars get and how massive the black holes are to see how it affects what happens to the stars. These simulations will help astronomers build better pictures of the events they observe in the night sky.

Keep up with what’s happening in the universe and how we study it by following NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

NASA Tech Launching on the Falcon Heavy

Later this month, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will take to the skies for the third time to launch the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission. Several exciting, one-of-a-kind NASA technology and science payloads are among the two-dozen spacecraft aboard.

First, let’s talk about that Falcon Heavy rocket. Its 27 engines generate thrust at liftoff equal to that of approximately 18 airplanes, and it can lift over 140,000 pounds.

Managed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, STP-2 is the first government-contracted Falcon Heavy launch. It will reuse the two side boosters recovered after the April flight. SpaceX describes it as one of the most challenging launches in the company’s history.

It’s a big deal to us at NASA because we’re launching some pretty cool technologies. The tech will support our future exploration plans by helping improve future spacecraft design and performance. Here’s a bit about each:

Deep Space Atomic Clock

Time is the heartbeat of space navigation. Today, we navigate in deep space by using giant antennas on Earth to send signals to spacecraft, which then send those signals back to Earth. Atomic clocks on Earth measure the time it takes a signal to make this two-way journey. Only then can human navigators on Earth use large antennas to tell the spacecraft where it is and where to go.

Our Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been perfecting an atomic clock fit for exploration missions. The Deep Space Atomic Clock is the first atomic clock designed to fly on a spacecraft destined for beyond Earth’s orbit. The timepiece is lighter and smaller—no larger than a toaster oven—than its refrigerator-sized, Earthly counterparts.

This miniaturized clock could enable one-way navigation: a spacecraft receives a signal from Earth and can determine its location immediately using its own, built-in navigation system. Even smaller versions of the clock are being investigated right now that could be used for the growing number of small to mid-size satellites. As we go forward to the Moon with the Artemis program, precise measurements of time are key to mission success.

The Deep Space Atomic Clock is the primary payload onboard the General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Orbital Test Bed satellite and will perform a year-long demonstration in space.

Enhanced Tandem Beacon Experiment (E-TBEx)

Two tiny satellites will study how signals can be muddled as they travel through hard-to-predict bubbles in the upper atmosphere. Signals sent from satellites down to Earth (and vice versa) can be disrupted by structured bubbles that sometimes form in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Because this region is affected both by weather on Earth and conditions in space, it’s hard to predict just when these bubbles will form or how they’ll mess with signals.

The E-TBEx CubeSats (short for Enhanced Tandem Beacon Experiment) will try to shed some light on that question. As these little satellites fly around Earth, they’ll send radio signals (like the ones used by GPS) to receiving stations on the ground. Scientists will be able to look at the signals received and see if they were jumbled as they traveled through the upper atmosphere down to Earth — which will help us track when these bubbles are forming and how much they’re interfering with our signals.

Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM)

For decades, we have relied on a highly toxic spacecraft fuel called hydrazine. The Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) will lay the foundation to replace conventional chemical propulsion systems with a safer and more efficient alternative for next-generation spacecraft.

GPIM will demonstrate a new propellant in space for the first time. Concocted by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, this innovative, “green” fuel—which actually has more of a peach hue—is expected to improve overall spacecraft performance due to its higher density, increased thrust and lower freezing point in comparison with hydrazine.

GPIM’s propulsion system, developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne, consists of new compatible tanks, valves and thrusters. During the two-month-long demonstration on a Ball Aerospace spacecraft, engineers will conduct orbital maneuvers to demonstrate the performance of the propellant and propulsion system.

Space Environment Testbeds (SET)

It’s not easy being a spacecraft; invisible, energetic particles zip throughout space — and while there are so few that space is considered a vacuum, what’s there still packs a punch. Tiny particles — like those seen here impacting a detector on a Sun-studying spacecraft — can wreak havoc with the electronics we send up into space.

Space Environment Testbeds — or SET, for short — is a mission to study space radiation and how it affects spacecraft and electronics in orbit. What looks like snow flurries in these animated images, for example, is actually a solar radiation storm of incredibly fast particles, unleashed by a solar eruption. Energetic particles from the Sun or deep space can spark memory damage or computer upsets on spacecraft, and over time, degrade hardware.

By studying radiation effects and different methods to protect satellites, SET will help future missions improve spacecraft design, engineering and operations.

Follow @NASA_Technology and @NASASun on Twitter for news about the STP-2 launch and our missions aboard.

Check out www.nasa.gov/spacex to stay up-to-date on the launch day and time. Don’t forget to tune into our launch coverage, scheduled to start about 30 minutes before liftoff!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

UN seems to have too much time and money these days… defund this globalist organ 

How was it possible for the world to be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time?

Gillian Rubinstein (via quotemadness)

Raindrop Cake 水信玄餅