My NASA Data Milestones: Eclipsed by the Eclipse!

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2 min read My NASA Data Milestones: Eclipsed by the Eclipse! The My NASA Data (MND) project supports grades 3rd through 12th-grade students and teachers across the globe in analyzing and interpreting NASA mission data. MND provides student and teacher materials, including teacher-facing lesson plans, student-facing lessons and interactives, and NASA data via an easy-to-access interface. Having recently celebrated over 1 million digital engagements in the 2023 fiscal year, MND was excited and amazed to experience a record-breaking 1 million visitors from March 10 – April 10, 2024 -– a…

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The 2024 solar eclipse was a teachable moment in more ways than one

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POTSDAM, N.Y. — At first, it seemed like every other college orientation session happening in universities across the country. A handful of prospective students, my teenage daughter Zadie included, listened intently on the eighth floor of the administration building here while an admissions official shared all the amenities that the State University of New York Potsdam has to offer. In the back of the room, near me, were current university students ready to share their college life experiences. A two-hour tour lay ahead for all of us.  But throughout the…

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Iconic British meteorite ‘Winchcombe’ found to have a smashing past

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The Winchcombe meteorite, which fell to the ground in Gloucestershire in the U.K. after blazing a trail through the night sky on Feb. 28, 2021, came from an asteroid that had been heavily altered by water as well as smashed apart and reformed multiple times. That’s the conclusion of a detailed analysis of the meteorite, fragments of which were found scattered in fields near the village of Winchcombe, and even on one family’s driveway. It was the first meteorite fall in the U.K. to be retrieved since 1991. Thanks to…

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Object that slammed into Florida home was indeed space junk from ISS, NASA confirms

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The mysterious object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA has confirmed. That home, in the seaside city of Naples, belongs to Alejandro Otero. Shortly after the March 8 incident, Otero said he thought the offending object was part of a cargo pallet packed with 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of aging batteries jettisoned from the ISS in March 2021.  And he was right, according to a new NASA analysis of the object, which was performed at…

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The next full Moon is the Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, the Pesach or Passover Moon

NeRD

19 min read The next full Moon is the Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, the Pesach or Passover Moon The next full Moon is the Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, the Pesach or Passover Moon, the Hanuman Jayanti Festival Moon, and Bak Poya.  The next full Moon will be Tuesday evening, April 23, 2024, appearing opposite the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 7:49 PM EDT. This will be on Wednesday from the time zones of the UK, Ireland, and Portugal eastward across…

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SWOT Satellite Helps Gauge the Depth of Death Valley’s Temporary Lake

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Water depths in Death Valley’s temporary lake ranged between about 3 feet (or 1 meter, shown in dark blue) to less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters, light yellow) from February through early March. By measuring water levels from space, SWOT enabled research to calculate the depth. NASA/JPL-Caltech Data from the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission helped researchers to calculate the depth of water in this transient freshwater body. California’s Death Valley, the driest place in North America, has hosted an ephemeral lake since late 2023. A NASA-led analysis…

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Seeing the Solar Eclipse from 223,000 Miles Away

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This spectacular image showing the Moon’s shadow on Earth’s surface was acquired during a 20-second period starting at 2:59 p.m. EDT (18:59:19 UTC) on April 8, 2024, by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse from hundreds of thousands of miles away. The camera suite aboard the LRO usually retrieves high resolution black and white images of the Moon’s surface; these images provide knowledge of polar illumination conditions, identify potential resources, hazards, and enable safe landing site selection.…

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Nuclear fusion reactor in South Korea runs at 100 million degrees C for a record-breaking 48 seconds

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South Korea’s “artificial sun” has set a new fusion record after superheating a plasma loop to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius) for 48 seconds, scientists have announced.  The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor broke the previous world record of 31 seconds, which was set by the same reactor in 2021.The breakthrough is a small but impressive step on the long road to a source of near-unlimited clean energy.  Scientists have been trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion — the process by which stars…

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1st female ISS program manager looks ahead to new spaceships, space stations (exclusive)

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Dana Weigel, the first woman to helm the International Space Station program manager, says she’s excited to oversee so much commercial space activity on the orbiting complex. Weigel officially took helm of the International Space Station (ISS) program manager position on Sunday (April 7), succeeding Joel Montalbano. She was previously deputy ISS program manager and has 20 years of experience in numerous high-profile NASA roles. Working directly alongside Montalbano in management since 2021, she said, “I’ve gotten a lot of experience with the challenges that are there,” Weigel told Space.com…

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This little robot can hop in zero-gravity to explore asteroids

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A three-legged robot named SpaceHopper could help combat the challenges of exploring low-gravity environments, such as those found on asteroids or moons.  The SpaceHopper program was first launched two and a half years ago as a student research project at ETH Zurich university in Switzerland. And recently, researchers tested the hopping robot in a simulated zero-gravity environment during a European Space Agency parabolic flight, according to a statement from the university. The robot consists of a triangular body with an articulated leg at each corner. Each of these three legs…

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