Leveraging Teacher Leaders to Share the Joy of NASA Heliophysics

NeRD

Learn Home Leveraging Teacher Leaders to… Heliophysics Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Stories Science Activation Highlights Citizen Science   2 min read Leveraging Teacher Leaders to Share the Joy of NASA Heliophysics Many teachers are exceptionally skilled at bridging students’ interests with real-world science. Now for the third year, the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has brought together such a group of highly-motivated secondary and higher education teachers as part of their NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (HEAT) Space Physics Ambassador program. In…

Read More

Space Station AMS-02 Instrument Works on the Mystery of Dark Matter

NeRD

AMS-02 mounted on the outside of the space station. NASA Visible matter in the form of stars and planets adds up to about five percent of the total known mass of the Universe. The rest is either dark matter, antimatter, or dark energy. The exact nature of these substances is unknown, but the International Space Station’s Alpha-Magnetic Spectrometer or AMS-02 is helping to solve the mystery. AMS-02 collects data on charged particles from cosmic ray events, which helps scientists understand the origin of those rays and could ultimately reveal whether…

Read More

Hubble telescope spies a sparkling ‘cosmic fossil’ 3 million light-years away (image)

NeRD

The Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered an isolated cosmic fossil, which may offer new insight on galaxy formation.  Located about 3 million light-years from Earth, the Tucana Dwarf galaxy sits at the far edge of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes our Milky Way galaxy. This galaxy is home to older stars, leading researchers to believe it may contain traces from the early universe, according to a statement from NASA.  “Having such pristine properties enables scientists to use the Tucana Dwarf as a cosmic fossil,” NASA officials said in…

Read More

La NASA invita a los medios al lanzamiento de Europa Clipper

NeRD

Técnicos ponen a prueba un conjunto de enormes paneles solares que miden aproximadamente 14,2 metros de largo y 4,1 metros de alto para la nave espacial Europa Clipper de la NASA, dentro de la Instalación de servicio de carga peligrosa de la agencia en el Centro Espacial Kennedy en Florida el 7 de agosto. Crédito: NASA/Kim Shiflett Read this release in English here. La NASA y SpaceX tienen planificado que la ventana para el lanzamiento de la misión Europa Clipper se abra el jueves 10 de octubre. Esta misión ayudará a…

Read More

Thruster issues delay BepiColombo probe’s Mercury arrival until November 2026

NeRD

The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft is set for a Mercury flyby late on Wednesday (Sept. 4), but thruster issues mean the probe faces a lengthy delay before entering orbit around the solar system’s innermost planet. BepiColombo launched in 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket to seek out answers to mysteries surrounding Mercury. Its circuitous route to entering orbit around Mercury involves one Earth flyby, a pair of Venus flybys and six more around Mercury itself. The Sept. 4 flyby will be BepiColombo’s fourth of Mercury to date.  However, plans for…

Read More

El X-59 de la NASA avanza en las pruebas de preparación para volar

NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) El técnico de soporte vital de la NASA Matthew Sechler ayuda a instalar un asiento eyectable en el avión X-59, en las instalaciones de Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, en Palmdale, California. La culminación de instalación del asiento marca un hito en la integración de la aeronave mientras se prepara para las pruebas en tierra firme. Crédito: Lockheed Martin Read this story in English here. El equipo que prepara el X-59 de la NASA continúa realizando pruebas en preparación para…

Read More

40 Years Ago: STS-41D – First Flight of Space Shuttle Discovery

NeRD

On Aug. 30, 1984, space shuttle Discovery lifted off on the STS-41D mission, joining NASA’s fleet as the third space qualified orbiter. The newest shuttle incorporated newer technologies making it significantly lighter than its two predecessors. Discovery lofted the heaviest payload up to that time in shuttle history. The six-person crew included five NASA astronauts and the first commercial payload specialist. During the six-day mission, the crew deployed a then-record three commercial satellites, tested an experimental solar array, and ran a commercial biotechnology experiment. The astronauts recorded many of the…

Read More

Scientists make lab-grown black hole jets

NeRD

An experiment using beams of protons to probe how plasma and magnetic fields interact may have just solved the mystery of how quasars and other active supermassive black holes unleash their relativistic jets. Let’s picture the scene at the heart of a quasar. A supermassive black hole, perhaps hundreds of millions — or even billions — of times the mass of our sun, is ravenously devouring matter that is streaming into its maw from a spiraling, ultra-hot disk. That charged matter is called plasma, and  it gets gravitationally drawn into…

Read More

Proyecto de la NASA en Puerto Rico capacita a estudiantes en biología marina

NeRD

9 Min Read Proyecto de la NASA en Puerto Rico capacita a estudiantes en biología marina Una península cubierta por un bosque verde en la isla de Culebra se adentra en las aguas azules del Caribe mientras una tormenta cae a lo lejos. El azul turquesa que rodea la isla indica la presencia de aguas poco profundas, que son el hogar de los famosos arrecifes de coral de esta isla. Credits: Centro Ames de la NASA/Milan Loiacono Read this story in English here. Tainaliz Marie Rodríguez Lugo respiró hondo, se ajustó…

Read More