Astronomers used the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) telescope to take this deep image in ultraviolet light of the sprawling spiral galaxy M81, hoping to learn where it kept its hot stars. Hot stars emit more ultraviolet than cool stars, and are frequently associated with young, open clusters of stars and energetic star-forming regions. Less than […]
Above Bear Lake, Alaska, the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, are created by solar radiation entering the atmosphere at the magnetic poles. The appearance of these lights is just one way solar radiation affects us; it can also interfere with NASA missions in low-Earth orbit. To achieve long-duration human spaceflight missions in deeper space, several NASA centers are working […]
NASA in the News NASA announced a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing how to deal with them. Grand Challenges are ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. The challenge is […]
NASA in the News NASA’s Van Allen Probes discovered a previously unknown, transient third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space.
This is a composite of a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth. Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit said of the photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star-trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 […]
NASA in the News NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, caught the glow of two black holes lurking inside spiral galaxy IC342, which lies 7 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe).
As the planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, even the smallest of parts on the James Webb Space Telescope will play a critical role in its performance. “Actuators” are one component that will help Webb focus on some of the earliest objects in the universe. Pictured is the Webb engineering design unit’s primary mirror […]
This article is excerpted and adapted from Structuring Future International Cooperation: Learning from the ISS, by L. Cline, P. Finarelli, G. Gibbs, and I. Pryke In September 1988, the United States, Canada, Japan, and ten member nations of the European Space Agency signed agreements that established what was originally the Space Station Freedom (SSF).
NASA in the News On August 25, 2012, Neil Armstrong, America’s first man on the moon, passed away at the age of 82.
