This Is No Westeros. On April 8, 2019, The Landsat 8 Satellite Acquired A Scene Of Contrasts In Russia:

See the Universe in a New Way with the Webb Space Telescope's First Images

Are you ready to see unprecedented, detailed views of the universe from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory ever made? Scroll down to see the first full-color images and data from Webb. Unfold the universe with us. ✨

Carina Nebula

This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars, called the Cosmic Cliffs, is the edge of the star-birthing Carina Nebula. Usually, the early phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but Webb can peer through cosmic dust—thanks to its extreme sensitivity, spatial resolution, and imaging capability. Protostellar jets clearly shoot out from some of these young stars in this new image.

Southern Ring Nebula

The Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula: it’s an expanding cloud of gas and dust surrounding a dying star. In this new image, the nebula’s second, dimmer star is brought into full view, as well as the gas and dust it’s throwing out around it. (The brighter star is in its own stage of stellar evolution and will probably eject its own planetary nebula in the future.) These kinds of details will help us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments. Finally, you might notice points of light in the background. Those aren’t stars—they’re distant galaxies.

Stephan’s Quintet

Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies near each other, was discovered in 1877 and is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This new image brings the galaxy group from the silver screen to your screen in an enormous mosaic that is Webb’s largest image to date. The mosaic covers about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter; it contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. Never-before-seen details are on display: sparkling clusters of millions of young stars, fresh star births, sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars, and huge shock waves paint a dramatic picture of galactic interactions.

WASP-96 b

WASP-96 b is a giant, mostly gas planet outside our solar system, discovered in 2014. Webb’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) measured light from the WASP-96 system as the planet moved across the star. The light curve confirmed previous observations, but the transmission spectrum revealed new properties of the planet: an unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze, and evidence of clouds in the atmosphere. This discovery marks a giant leap forward in the quest to find potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.

Webb's First Deep Field

This image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, looks 4.6 billion years into the past. Looking at infrared wavelengths beyond Hubble’s deepest fields, Webb’s sharp near-infrared view reveals thousands of galaxies—including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared—in the most detailed view of the early universe to date. We can now see tiny, faint structures we’ve never seen before, like star clusters and diffuse features and soon, we’ll begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions.

These images and data are just the beginning of what the observatory will find. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space—and for milestones like this!

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Kirk vs. Spock: NASA Trivia Time!

Star Trek has inspired generations of NASA employees to boldly go exploring strange new worlds and develop the technologies for making science fiction become science reality. We recently caught up with Star Trek Beyond actors Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) and quizzed them on some NASA trivia. Before you take a look at their answers (video at bottom of post), take a stab at answering them yourself! See how well you do: 

1. What does the first “A” in NASA stand for?  A) Adventure B) Aeronautics

2. On July 4 this year, we sent a spacecraft into orbit around what planet? A) Jupiter B) Pluto

3. What do scientists call a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system? A) Exoplanet B) Nebula

4. Although it never flew in space, what was the name of the first space shuttle? A) Discovery B) Enterprise

5. What is a light-year a measurement of? A) Time B) Distance

6. When looking for habitable worlds around other stars, we want to find planets that are what? A) Goldilocks zone planets B) Class M Planets

7. Olympus Mons is the largest known volcano in our solar system. What planet is it on? A) Mars B) Earth

8. Which NASA satellite made an appearance in Star Trek the Motion Picture? A) Voyager B) Galileo

9. Who was the first American woman in space? A) Sally Ride B) Janice Lester

10. While developing life support for Mars missions, what NASA Spinoff was developed? A) Enriched baby food B) Anti-gravity boots

11. What technology makes replication of spare parts a reality on the International Space Station? A) Closed-Loop System B) 3-D Printer

12. What two companies are contracted by NASA to carry astronauts to and from the space station? A) Boeing and SpaceX B) Amazon and Virgin Galactic

ANSWERS: 1:B, 2:A, 3:A, 4:B, 5:B, 6:A, 7:A, 8:A, 9:A, 10:A, 11:B, 12:A

Now that you’ve tested your own space knowledge, find out how Zachary and Chris did at NASA Trivia: 

Learn more about NASA + Star Trek at: http://www.nasa.gov/startrek

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Go for Venus! Fifty-five years ago this week, Mariner 2, the first fully successful mission to explore another planet launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Here are 10 things to know about Mariner 2.

1. Interplanetary Cruise 

On August 27, 1962, Mariner 2 launched on a three and a half month journey to Venus. The little spacecraft flew within 22,000 miles (about 35,000 kilometers) of the planet. 

2. Quick Study 

Mariner 2's scan of Venus lasted only 42 minutes. And, like most of our visits to new places, the mission rewrote the books on what we know about Earth's sister planet.

3. Hot Planet 

The spacecraft showed that surface temperature on Venus was hot enough to melt lead: at least 797 degrees Fahrenheit (425 degrees Celsius) on both the day and night sides.

4. Continuous Clouds 

The clouds that make Venus shine so bright in Earth's skies are dozens of miles thick and permanent. It's always cloudy on Venus, and the thick clouds trap heat - contributing to a runaway "greenhouse effect."

5. Night Light 

Those clouds are why Venus shines so brightly in Earth's night sky. The clouds reflect and scatter sunlight, making Venus second only to our Moon in celestial brightness.

6. Under Pressure 

Venus' clouds also create crushing pressure. Mariner 2's scan revealed pressure on the surface of Venus is equal to pressure thousands of feet under Earth's deepest oceans.

7. Slow Turn 

Mariner 2 found Venus rotates very slowly, and in the opposite direction of most planets in our solar system.

8. Space Travel Is Tough 

Mariner 2 was a remarkable accomplishment, considering that in 1962 engineers were still in the very early stages of figuring out how operate spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. The first five interplanetary missions launched - by the U.S. and Soviet Union, the only two spacefaring nations at the time - were unsuccessful.

9. Not Ready for Its Close Up 

Mariner 2 carried no cameras. The first close-up pictures of Venus came from NASA's Mariner 10 in 1974.  

10. Hot Shot 

The first (and still incredibly rare) photo of the surface of Venus was taken by the Soviet Venera 9 lander, which survived for a little more than a minute under the crushing pressure and intense heat on the ground.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Jessica Wittner

Jessica Wittner, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, hails from California. A National Outdoor Leadership School alum, Wittner enjoys riding motorcycles and off-roading. https://go.nasa.gov/49CxwUN

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

❤️🧡💛 Color the Cosmos 💚💙💜

📣 Attention, space explorers! Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope presents: two new coloring pages! Unleash your creativity to bring these celestial scenes to life.

Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, smiles out at us from our first coloring page. She’s considered the mother of our Hubble Space Telescope because she helped everyone understand why it was important to have observatories in space – not just on the ground. If it weren’t for her, Hubble may have never become a reality.

The Roman Space Telescope is named after her to honor the legacy she left behind when she died in 2018. Thanks to Nancy Grace Roman, we’ve taken countless pictures of space from orbiting telescopes and learned so much more about the universe than we could have possibly known otherwise!

The second coloring page illustrates some of the exciting science topics the Roman Space Telescope will explore. Set to launch in the mid-2020s, the mission will view the universe in infrared light, which is like using heat vision. We’ll be able to peer through clouds of dust and see things that are much farther away.

We anticipate all kinds of discoveries from the edge of our solar system to the farthest reaches of space. This coloring page highlights a few of the things the Roman Space Telescope will help us learn more about. The mission will find thousands of planets beyond our solar system and hundreds of millions of galaxies. It will also help us unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, represented by the gray web-like pattern in the background. With so much exciting new data, who knows what else we may learn?

Download the coloring pages here!

Learn more about the Roman Space Telescope at: https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Prepare to be mesmerized… 😵‍💫

Feast your eyes on the magnificent galaxy M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy! This hypnotic spiral galaxy was captured in visible light with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Living up to its nickname, the Whirlpool Galaxy has the traits of a typical spiral galaxy, like beautifully curving arms, pink star-forming regions, and brilliant blue strands of star clusters.

The Whirlpool Galaxy is located about 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Discover more about the Whirlpool Galaxy here.

Right now, the Hubble Space Telescope is exploring #GalaxiesGalore! Find more galaxy content and spectacular new images by following along on Hubble’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

What’s Up for September 2016

We won’t have a solar eclipse until Aug. 21, 2017, but observers in central Africa will see an annular eclipse, where the moon covers most but not all of the sun, on Sept. 1. Observers always need to use safe solar eclipse glasses or filters on telescopes, binoculars and cameras.

Also this month, there are two minor meteor showers, both with about 5 swift and bright meteors per hour at their peak, which will be near dawn. The first is the Aurigid shower on Sept. 1. The new moon on the first means the sky will be nice and dark for the Aurigids. 

The second shower is the Epsilon Perseids on Sept. 9. The first quarter moon sets on the 9th at midnight, just in time for the best viewing of the Perseids.

There are many nice pair-ups between the moon and planets this month. You can see the moon between Venus and Jupiter on Sept. 2, and above Venus on the 3rd, right after sunset low on the West-Southwest horizon. On the 15th the nearly full moon pairs up with Neptune, two weeks after its opposition, when the 8th planet is closest to Earth in its orbit around the sun.

Watch the full September “What’s Up” video for more: 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

10 Ways to BBQ on an Alien World

There are over 3,700 planets in our galaxy. Many of them orbit stars outside our solar system, these are known as exoplanets. Spend a summer weekend barbecuing it up on any of these alien worlds.

(WARNING: Don't try any of this on Earth—except the last one.)

1. Lava World

Janssen aka 55 Cancri e

Hang your steak on a fishing pole and dangle your meat over the boiling pools of lava on this possible magma world. Try two to three minutes on each side to get an ashy feast of deliciousness.

2. Hot Jupiter

Dimidium aka 51 Pegasi b

Set your grill to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius) or hop onto the first exoplanet discovered and get a perfect char on your hot dogs. By the time your dogs are done, it’ll be New Year’s Eve, because a year on this planet is only four days long.

3. Super Earth

HD 40307 g

Super air fry your duck on this Super Earth, as you skydive in the intense gravity of a planet twice as massive as Earth. Why are you air frying a duck? We don’t know. Why are you skydiving on an exoplanet? We’re not judging.

4. Lightning Neptune

HAT-P-11b

I’ve got steaks, they’re multiplying/and I’m looooosing control. Cause the power this planet is supplying/is electrifying!

Sear your tuna to perfection in the lightning strikes that could flash across the stormy skies of this Neptune-like planet named HAT-P-11b.

5. Red Earth

Kepler-186f

Tired of all that meat? Try a multi-colored salad with the vibrant plants that could grow under the red sun of this Earth-sized planet. But it could also be a lifeless rock, so BYOB (bring your own barbecue).

6. Inferno World

Kepler-70b

Don’t take too long to prep your vegetables for the grill! The hottest planet on record will flash-incinerate your veggies in seconds!

7. Egg-shaped

WASP-12b

Picture this: You are pressure cooking your chicken on a hot gas giant in the shape of an egg. And you’re under pressure to cook fast, because this gas giant is being pulled apart by its nearby star.

8. Two suns

Kepler-16b

Evenly cook your ribs in a dual convection oven under the dual stars of this “Tatooine.” Kick back and watch your two shadows grow in the fading light of a double sunset.

9. Takeout

Venus

Order in for a staycation in our own solar system. The smell of rotten eggs rising from the clouds of sulfuric acid and choking carbon dioxide will put you off cooking, so get that meal to go.

10. Take a Breath

Earth

Sometimes the best vacations are the ones you take at home. Flip your burgers on the only planet where you can breathe the atmosphere.

Grill us on Twitter and tell us how bad our jokes are.

Read the full version of this week’s ‘Solar System: 10 Things to Know’ Article HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

What's a day working at NASA like??

NASA Communications and Navigation in 2021: Top 10 Iconic Moments

Did you know NASA uses global networks of antennas and relay satellites to talk with astronauts and spacecraft?

Our space communications and navigation community has had an incredible year! From supporting science and exploration missions to developing cutting-edge tech, here are some of the team’s most impactful accomplishments of 2021.

1. We launched a revolutionary tech demo, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, which will showcase the benefits of using infrared laser links to send data from space. Laser communications systems can offer 10 to 100 times more data per second than traditional radio! You can learn more about the mission in a new season of our podcast, The Invisible Network.

2. Planetary radars observed their 1,000th near-Earth asteroid since 1968! Our Deep Space Network plays a critical role in detecting near-Earth asteroids, using radar to spot them. These radar detections help definitively predict if an asteroid is going to hit Earth, or if it’s just going to pass close by.

3. We used lessons learned developing communications services for the Moon to address digital inequality on Earth. Folks at our Glenn Research Center in Cleveland examined how lunar network approaches could address technical challenges to Wi-Fi connectivity in their local community.

4. Our Search and Rescue office participated in dress rehearsals for the Artemis I mission to the Moon! They tested critical distress technologies that will help locate Artemis astronauts in the unlikely event they need to leave the Orion capsule and enter open water before recovery teams can reach them.

5. With high international participation, we hosted a virtual workshop on cognitive communications at our Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Cognitive communications employs artificial intelligence and machine learning in radio systems to provide a host of benefits to user missions!

6. We celebrated the 100th birthday of the creator of Star Trek, the late Gene Roddenberry. The event featured Roddenberry’s son Rod, NASA administrator Bill Nelson, and Star Trek actor George Takei. Following the program, our Deep Space Network broadcast Gene’s 1976 remarks on diversity and inclusion toward star system 40 Eridani — home to the planet Vulcan in Star Trek lore. Signals from the broadcast will arrive there in 16.5 years.

7. We worked with the aerospace community to refine our LunaNet architecture for lunar communications and navigation services! LunaNet will leverage innovative networking techniques, standards, and an extensible framework to rapidly expand network capabilities at the Moon for Artemis. This framework will allow industry, academia, and international partners to build and operate LunaNet nodes alongside us.

8. Our Deep Space Network welcomed a brand new satellite dish into the family! Called Deep Space Station 56, or DSS-56, the 112-foot-wide (34-meter) dish is now online and ready to communicate for a variety of uses, including missions at the Moon and Mars.

9. Our Near Space Network engaged with over 200 commercial aerospace companies! They’re working toward a new paradigm where NASA missions near Earth can rely on a blend of government and commercial space communications infrastructure to meet their needs.

10. Our 10th item on the list isn’t a single moment, but the continued support our communications networks provided missions throughout 2021. Whether it was a Commercial Crew mission to the International Space Station or the Perseverance Rover’s touchdown on Mars, our Near Space Network and Deep Space Network were there to empower mission success! Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!