Category: General

Anything and everything space

NASA’s Webb Reveals Smallest Asteroids Yet Found in Main Asteroid Belt

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Illustration of the main asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter NASA NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope includes asteroids on its list of objects studied and secrets revealed.  A team led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge repurposed Webb’s observations of a distant star to reveal a population of small asteroids — smaller than astronomers had ever detected orbiting the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The 138 new asteroids range from the size of a bus to the size of a…

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Program Manager at NASA Glenn Earns AIAA Sustained Service Award 

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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Christopher Pestak Credit: NASA  Christopher Pestak, program manager of the Glenn Engineering and Research Support (GEARS) contract at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has received the 2025 Sustained Service Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This award recognizes AIAA members who have given their time, dedication, and efforts in service to AIAA, the aerospace community, and the engineering profession.   Pestak oversees and coordinates the efforts of 350 contractor employees performing a wide range of scientific,…

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NASA Finds ‘Sideways’ Black Hole Using Legacy Data, New Techniques

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4 Min Read NASA Finds ‘Sideways’ Black Hole Using Legacy Data, New Techniques Image showing the structure of galaxy NGC 5084, with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory overlaid on a visible-light image of the galaxy. Chandra’s data, shown in purple, revealed four plumes of hot gas emanating from a supermassive black hole rotating “tipped over” at the galaxy’s core. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC, A. S. Borlaff, P. Marcum et al.; Optical full image: M. Pugh, B. Diaz; Image Processing: NASA/USRA/L. Proudfit NASA researchers have discovered a perplexing case of a black hole that appears to…

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GSFC Data Science Group Releases Innovative Foundation Model: SatVision Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA)

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At Goddard Space Flight Center, the GSFC Data Science Group has completed the testing for their SatVision Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) Foundation Model, a geospatial foundation model for coarse-resolution all-sky remote sensing imagery. The team, comprised of Mark Carroll, Caleb Spradlin, Jordan Caraballo-Vega, Jian Li, Jie Gong, and Paul Montesano, has now released their model for wide application in science investigations. Foundation models can transform the landscape of remote sensing (RS) data analysis by enabling the pre-training of large computer-vision models on vast amounts of remote sensing data. These models can be…

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Station Science Top News: Dec. 6, 2024

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Astronaut cognitive performance remains generally stable Researchers found that astronauts on six-month missions to the International Space Station demonstrated generally stable cognitive performance but mild changes in certain areas, including processing speed, working memory, attention, and willingness to take risks. This research provides baseline data that could help identify cognitive changes on future missions and support development of appropriate countermeasures. Research to date has suggested mild decreases in some cognitive performance domains during spaceflight, likely influenced by spaceflight stressors such as radiation and sleep disruption. Longer missions represent greater exposure…

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White Sands Test Facility Encourages Locals to Leave Their Footprint on the Space Industry

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At the edge of Las Cruces, New Mexico, surrounded by miles of sunbaked earth, NASA’s White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) is quietly shaping the future. There is no flash, no fanfare — the self-contained facility operates as it has since 1962, humbly and in relative obscurity. Yet as New Mexico’s space industry skyrockets amid intensifying commercial spaceflight efforts across the state, WSTF feels a new urgency to connect with the community. With the facility’s latest Test and Evaluation Support Team (TEST3) contract now in its third year, Program Manager Michelle…

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¿Por qué cultivamos plantas en el espacio?

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1 Min Read ¿Por qué cultivamos plantas en el espacio? Plantas de berro Thale de tres semanas de edad de la investigación Plant Habitat-03 son vistas justo antes de una cosecha a bordo de la Estación Espacial Internacional. Credits: NASA Hay muchas razones por las cuales cultivamos diversos tipos de plantas en el espacio. Las plantas proveen alimentación y bienestar psicológico a los astronautas y ayudan a reciclar el aire de la Estación Espacial Internacional, pero hay muchos otros beneficios asociados con esta actividad. Jorge Sotomayor, gerente de investigaciones de…

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Interview with Luke Sollitt

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Let’s begin by Inquiring into your early years, your childhood, where you were born, where you grew up, what your family was like? Do you have siblings? What did your parents do, and how young were you when you developed an interest in what has become your career? I was born in Boston. My mom lived in Vermont at the time, so it’s kind of a home state. We moved to the Washington DC area, to Alexandria, when I was about four. I have a brother whose name is Ian.…

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Experience the Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Mission  

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jsc2024e064444 (Sept. 30, 2024) — The crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission (from left) mission specialist Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers, pilot, and Anne McClain, commander, along with Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), pose for a picture during training at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition mission as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.…

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