Month: May 2024

Modeling the Hawaiian Shoreline

NeRD

NASA/Lisa Tanh, Matilda Anokye, Ian Lee, Connor Racette The island of Hawai’i and surrounding waters glow in unusual shades in this 2022 model made through NASA DEVELOP. The model was created to help the County of Hawai’i in their shoreline setback plan. The image shows areas of high flood risk (blue), as well as sea surface temperatures. Orange in the west indicates high temperatures, while red in the east represents low temperatures. NASA DEVELOP projects bridge the gap between NASA’s Earth science data and society, addressing environmental concerns and enhancing…

Read More

NASA’s Heliophysics Experiment to Study Sun on European Mission

NeRD

The Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) will fly aboard the European Space Agency’s Vigil space weather mission and capture new views that will help researchers connect features on the Sun’s surface to those in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Credits: NASA NASA announced Tuesday it selected a new instrument to study the Sun and how it creates massive solar eruptions. The agency’s Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation, or JEDI, will capture images of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light invisible to our eyes but…

Read More

Welcome Back to Planet Earth, Expedition 70 Crew! 

NeRD

On May 16, 2024, a crowd of more than 500 people gathered at Space Center Houston’s IMAX theater for the Expedition 70 crew debrief and awards ceremony. Crew members from NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 and Soyuz MS-24 missions shared reflections from their voyage aboard the International Space Station and bestowed well-deserved recognition upon Johnson Space Center employees and partners whose dedication and support contributed to the expedition’s success.  A group photo of participants from the Expedition 70 crew debrief and awards ceremony on May 16, 2024, at Space Center Houston’s IMAX theater. Credit: NASA/David…

Read More

Space mysteries: Do all planets have magnetic fields?

NeRD

One of Earth’s defining features is its magnetic field. It forms a protective shield against high-energy particles ejected by the Sun and thus arguably has provided life with a safer place to grow into the complex array of organisms we see today.  The most stunning indications of Earth’s magnetic field are auroras, dancing curtains of colorful light that appear near the North and South poles during times of high solar activity. Another sign that Earth has a magnetic field is that a compass points north wherever you are on the…

Read More

Right again, Einstein! Scientists find where matter ‘waterfalls’ into black holes

NeRD

Scientists have confirmed, for the first time, that the very fabric of spacetime takes a “final plunge” at the edge of a black hole.  The observation of this plunging region around black holes was made by astrophysicists at Oxford University Physics, and helps validate a key prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 theory of gravity: general relativity.  The Oxford team made the discovery while focusing on regions surrounding stellar-mass black holes in binaries with companion stars located relatively close to Earth. The researchers utilized X-ray data collected from a range of…

Read More

The James Webb Space Telescope may have solved a puffy planet mystery. Here’s how

NeRD

A surprisingly low reservoir of methane may explain how a planet around a nearby star grew weirdly puffy, according to new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST(. The finding shows that planetary atmospheres can inflate to remarkable amounts without employing esoteric theories of planet formation, astronomers say. “The Webb data tells us that planets like WASP-107 b didn’t have to form in some odd way with a super small core and a huge gassy envelope,” Michael Line, an extrasolar planetologist at Arizona State University, said in a statement.…

Read More

Sols 4188-4190: Aurora Watch on Mars

NeRD

4 min read Sols 4188-4190: Aurora Watch on Mars This image was taken by MAHLI onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4187 NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Friday, May 17, 2024 During the night of May 10, Earth experienced a fantastic display of aurorae (Northern and Southern Lights) which extended all the way to tropical latitudes, courtesy of the strongest geomagnetic storm since 2003. The enormous solar active region 3664, which produced the X-class flares and powerful coronal mass ejections powering this magnetic storm, has since rotated away from Earth.…

Read More

Aurorasaurus Roars During Historic Solar Storm

NeRD

2 min read Aurorasaurus Roars During Historic Solar Storm During the peak of activity (May 10-11, 2024) the Aurorasaurus website showed widespread reports and real-time alerts. The largest geomagnetic storm in 21 years lit up the sky last weekend, and NASA’s volunteers were ready. Between May 10th and 12th 2024, NASA’s Aurorasaurus project received an unprecedented number of reports from around the world. It also helped eager aurora chasers get a better view. “Aurorasaurus made all the difference for me,” said volunteer Damon Tighe. “I was able to see it in Oakland, CA and knew it was coming…

Read More

NASA Selects BAE Systems to Develop Ocean Color Instrument for NOAA

NeRD

NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected BAE Systems (formerly known as Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation) of Boulder, Colorado, to develop an instrument to analyze ocean data as part of NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately $450 million. It includes the development of two flight instruments as well as options for additional units. The anticipated period of performance for this contract includes support for 10 years of on-orbit operations and five years of on-orbit storage,…

Read More

NASA, Sierra Space Deliver Dream Chaser to Florida for Launch Preparation

NeRD

Dream Chaser Tenacity, Sierra Space’s uncrewed cargo spaceplane, is processed inside the Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, May 20, 2024. The spaceplane arrived inside a climate-controlled transportation container from the agency’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio. Final testing and prelaunch processing will be completed inside the high bay of the SSPF ahead of Dream Chaser’s inaugural launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett As part of NASA’s efforts to…

Read More