Month: April 2024

NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter

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NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024. The dark spot centered in the bottom third of this image is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri orbiter, smudged because it was traveling quickly in the opposite direction of NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) when LRO snapped the photo.…

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Introduction to Spectrum

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You can’t see it. . .you can’t touch it. . .you can’t live without it. Use these downloadable activity sheets to enhance your lesson plan at school or at home. Scroll down for the downloadable files. Have fun! Spectrum Infographic Infographic featuring factoids about the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA Spectrum Crossword Puzzle Crossword puzzle featuring terms relevant to the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA Download Spectrum Infographic Jan 17, 2024 JPEG (586.88 KB) Spectrum Crossword Jan 17, 2024 JPEG (363.91 KB)

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Lagniappe for April 2024

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7 Min Read Lagniappe for April 2024 Explore the April 2024 issue, highlighted by NASA achieving a milestone for new Artemis Moon rocket engines, NASA and Stennis Leaders providing an annual update, and a reminder about the total solar eclipse on April 8. Explore the April 2024 issue featuring: NASA Achieves Milestone for Engines to Power Future Artemis Missions NASA-Sponsored FIRST Robotics Competition Welcomes 37 Teams to Magnolia Regional NASA, Stennis Leaders Provide Annual Update Gator Speaks Gator Speaks NASA/Stennis Picture this. The year is 2044. It is 20 years…

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40 Years Ago: STS-41C, the Solar Max Repair Mission

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On Apr. 6, 1984, space shuttle Challenger took off on its fifth flight, STS-41C. Its five-person crew of Commander Robert L. “Crip” Crippen, Pilot Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, and Mission Specialists Terry J. “TJ” Hart, James D. “Ox” Van Hoften, and George D. “Pinky Nelson flew a seven-day mission that expanded the shuttle’s capabilities. They deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), the largest and heaviest shuttle payload up to that time. They retrieved, repaired, and redeployed the failing Solar Max satellite in a highly complex choreography of rendezvous and…

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Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies

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2 min read Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 72. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features Arp 72, a very selective galaxy group that only includes two galaxies interacting due to gravity: NGC 5996 (the large spiral galaxy) and NGC 5994 (its smaller companion, in the lower left of the image). Both galaxies lie approximately 160 million light-years from Earth, and their cores are separated from each…

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Cannibal stars at the heart of the Milky Way stay young in a gruesome way

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Scientists have discovered the gruesome secret behind the apparent youth of some of stars at the heart of the Milky Way — stars participating in a sort of cosmic demolition derby around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. Like a cosmic version of 17th-century serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, who supposedly sought to maintain her youthful glow by bathing in the blood of her victims, some of these stars seem to stay looking young by slamming into their neighbor stars and coating themselves in the stolen stellar…

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SpaceX moves Super Heavy booster to pad ahead of 4th Starship flight (photos)

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SpaceX is continuing to gear up for the next test flight of its Starship megarocket. On Thursday (April 4), SpaceX announced via X that it has moved a Starship first stage, a 33-engine booster called Super Heavy, to the launch pad at its Starbase site in South Texas.  That post also shared two photos of the giant, stainless-steel booster clutched by the “chopstick” arms of the tower at Starbase’s orbital launch mount. Related: Relive SpaceX Starship’s 3rd flight test in breathtaking photos The booster is being prepped for the fourth…

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NASA Employee Grateful for Opportunities at NASA Stennis

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Cherie Beech works in the NASA Stennis Office of the Chief Information Officer, where she helps many of the more than 5,200 employees of the NASA Stennis Federal City, as customer engagement and information technology acquisition specialist. NASA/Danny Nowlin Cherie Beech knows full well the opportunity that working at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, affords. Since arriving at the federal city as a contractor 26 years ago, she since has expanded her skillset and grown…

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Ambitious new dark matter-hunting experiment delivers 1st results

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A new experiment designed to search the cosmos for its most mysterious “stuff,” dark matter, has delivered its first results.  While the Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD) developed by the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab hasn’t turned up dark matter particles just yet, the new results place a tighter constraint on the type of characteristics scientists can expect such particles to have. The BREAD experiment itself also served up an exciting new recipe that could be used in the hunt for dark matter…

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NASA’s NEOWISE Extends Legacy With Decade of Near-Earth Object Data

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6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This artist’s concept depicts the NEOWISE spacecraft in orbit around Earth. Launched in 2009 to survey the entire sky in infrared, the spacecraft took on a more specialized role in 2014 when it was reactivated to study near-Earth asteroids and comets. NASA/JPL-Caltech As the infrared space telescope continues its long-duration survey of the universe, it is creating a unique resource for future astronomers to make new discoveries. NASA’s NEOWISE mission has released its 10th year of infrared data –…

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