Tag: Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s Hubble Temporarily Pauses Science

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1 min read NASA’s Hubble Temporarily Pauses Science This image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was taken on May 19, 2009 after deployment during Servicing Mission 4. NASA NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode May 24 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue, suspending science operations. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health. The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty telemetry readings. Hubble’s gyros measure the telescope’s slew rates and are part of the system that determines and…

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Hubble Views the Lights of a Galactic Bar

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2 min read Hubble Views the Lights of a Galactic Bar This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals details in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4731. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the broad and sweeping spiral galaxy NGC 4731. It lies in the constellation Virgo and is located 43 million light-years from Earth. This highly detailed image uses data collected from six different filters. The abundance of color illustrates the galaxy’s billowing clouds of gas, dark dust bands, bright pink star-forming…

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NASA Goddard, Maryland Sign Memo to Boost State’s Aerospace Sector

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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) To foster growth in Maryland’s aerospace industry, the state’s Department of Commerce signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NASA at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Wednesday, May 28, 2024. Center Director Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce Kevin Anderson signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Maryland’s Department of Commerce at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Wednesday, May 28, 2024. NASA/Brian Gabourel The agreement commits the two organizations to develop the…

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Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair

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2 min read Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair This Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST Team This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the jewel-bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689, which lies 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation has the distinction of being the only one of the 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as one named after the historical figure, Queen…

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NASA’s Compact Infrared Cameras Enable New Science

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A new, higher-resolution infrared camera outfitted with a variety of lightweight filters could probe sunlight reflected off Earth’s upper atmosphere and surface, improve forest fire warnings, and reveal the molecular composition of other planets. The cameras use sensitive, high-resolution strained-layer superlattice sensors, initially developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, using IRAD, Internal Research and Development funding. Their compact construction, low mass, and adaptability enable engineers like Tilak Hewagama to adapt them to the needs of a variety of sciences. Goddard engineer Murzy Jhabvala holds the heart…

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Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4

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8 Min Read Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4 Michael Good (on the end of the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System) works to refurbish and upgrade Hubble during Servicing Mission 4. Credits: NASA Fifteen years ago, human hands touched NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. As astronauts performed finishing tasks on the telescope during its final servicing mission in May 2009, they knew they had successfully concluded one of the most challenging and ambitious series of spacewalks ever conducted. But they couldn’t have known at the…

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Hubble Glimpses a Star-Forming Factory

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2 min read Hubble Glimpses a Star-Forming Factory This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope highlights the spiral galaxy UGC 9684. The celestial object showcased in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy UGC 9684, which lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes. This image shows an impressive example of several classic galactic features, including a clear bar in the galaxy’s center, and a halo surrounding its disk. The data for this Hubble image came from a study of Type-II…

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Former NASA Center Director, Scientist to Receive Presidential Medals

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Medals of Freedom are displayed Thursday, July 7, 2022, before a ceremony at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith) President Joe Biden will present Dr. Ellen Ochoa, former center director and astronaut at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Dr. Jane Rigby, senior project scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, each with the Presidential Medal of Freedom Friday in a ceremony at the White House in Washington. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor award, and these two NASA…

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2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Prediction vs. Reality

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2 min read 2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Prediction vs. Reality Image Before/After Before a total solar eclipse crossed North America on April 8, 2024, scientists at Predictive Science Inc. of San Diego aimed to foresee what the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, would look like during totality. The predictions help researchers understand the accuracy of their models of the Sun’s corona, which extends along its magnetic field. A solar eclipse offers a rare opportunity to view the entire corona from Earth, guiding research into how its energy can cause solar…

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NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue

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2 min read NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue The Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) in May 2009, during the fifth and final servicing of the orbiting observatory. NASA NASA is working to resume science operations of the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode April 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health. The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings.…

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