Sea Ice Swirls
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Floating fragments of sea ice spun into intricate patterns as ocean currents carried them south along Greenland’s east coast in spring 2024. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a moment of this dizzying journey on June 4, 2024.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/greenlandiceswirls-tmo-20240604-lrg/
A Solitary Sight
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The waning gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth from the International Space Station as it soared into an orbital nighttime 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean near the northeast coast of South America on Sept. 30, 2023.
Celebrating Pride at NASA’s Ames Research Center
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies beneath the American flag on the center pole with the California state and NASA flag at either side. The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies for the first time at any NASA center in front of the Ames Administration Building, N200, to commemorate Pride Month.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/intersex-progress-pride-flag-at-ames/
“Earthrise” by NASA Astronaut Bill Anders
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The rising Earth is about five degrees above the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft near 110 degrees east longitude. Astronaut Bill Anders took the photo on the morning of Dec. 24, 1968. The South Pole is in the white area near the left end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds.
What Are You Looking At?
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay A Florida redbelly turtle casts a suspicious look as he is being photographed on the grounds of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The redbelly turtle inhabits ponds, lakes, sloughs, marshes and mangrove-bordered creeks, in a range that encompasses Florida from the southern tip north to the Apalachicola area of the panhandle. Active year-round, it is often seen basking on logs or floating mats of vegetation. Adults prefer a diet of aquatic plants. The Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects.
Starliner to the Stars
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Florida. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is the first launch with astronauts of the Boeing CFT-100 spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The flight test, which launched at 10:52 a.m. EDT, serves as an end-to-end demonstration of Boeing’s crew transportation system and will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the orbiting laboratory. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/nasas-boeing-crew-flight-test-launch-2/
Hurricane Season Begins
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay An external high-definition camera on the International Space Station captured this image of Hurricane Idalia at 11:35 a.m. Eastern Time on Aug. 29, 2023. Idalia was a category 1 storm over the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of 140 kilometers (85 miles) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. June 1 marks the beginning of the 2024 hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean.
Webb Spots a Starburst
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. This galaxy, also known as Caldwell 21, resides roughly 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. NGC 4449 has been forming stars for several billion years, but it is currently experiencing a period of star formation at a much higher rate than in the past. Such unusually explosive and intense star formation activity is called a starburst and for that reason NGC 4449 is known as a starburst galaxy. Starbursts usually occur in the central regions of galaxies, but NGC 4449 displays more widespread star formation activity, and the very youngest stars are observed both in the nucleus and in streams surrounding the galaxy. It's likely that the current widespread starburst was triggered by interaction or merging with a smaller companion; indeed, astronomers think NGC 4449's star formation has been influenced by interactions with several of its neighbors.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/fireworks-of-stellar-starbursts/
Deputy Program Manager Vir Thanvi
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay "I say that to my team, whenever I have an opportunity. I share with my team that they are enabling science and exploration for dozens of missions being supported by NSN. Initially it just seems like words, but once they start realizing [their contributions] are real, I can tell you those people don't want to go anywhere. They just feel that sense of accomplishment." —Vir Thanvi, Deputy Program Manager, Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Apollo 10 Ends Successfully
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot, egresses the Apollo 10 spacecraft during recovery operations in the South Pacific. U.S. Navy underwater demolition team swimmers assisted in the recovery operations. Already in the life raft were astronauts Thomas P. Stafford (left), commander; and John W. Young, command module pilot. The three crewmen were picked up by helicopter and flown to the prime recovery ship, USS Princeton.
Helen Ling, Changemaker
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Helen Ling was a supervisor for the computing group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1960s. She was influential in the inclusion of women in STEM positions at JPL. Ling encouraged women within the computing group to attend night school in order to obtain degrees that would allow them more professional opportunities within JPL. A pioneer for women's rights in the workplace, Helen Ling was so admired in the computing group that those who worked under her lovingly referred to themselves as "Helen's girls." Many of them went on to become computer scientists and engineers within JPL thanks to the mentorship and guidance of Helen Ling.
A Moonlit Moonwalk
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay NASA astronaut Kate Rubins places a sample marker in the soil before collecting a sample during a nighttime simulated moonwalk in the San Francisco Volcanic Field in Northern Arizona on May 16, 2024. A sample marker provides a photographic reference point for science samples collected on the lunar surface.
Modeling the Hawaiian Shoreline
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Present-day Island of Hawai'i coastal flood risk, with higher risk indicated in dark blue, was modeled to help the County of Hawai'i in their shoreline setback plan. Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly data from 2022 Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) indicate low temperatures in the East (red) to high in the West (orange). Inland, high probability locations of wetlands are shown in bright yellow and could aid in climate adaptation planning.
Readying Apollo 10 for Launch
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Nighttime, ground-level view of the Apollo 10 space vehicle on Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center. This photograph of the 363-feet tall Apollo/Saturn V stack was taken during pull back of the mobile service structure. The Apollo 10 crew was astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene A. Cernan.
Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a triple-star star system.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/hubble-hptau-wfc3-1-flat-finalok/
Space Physics and Space Weather Scientist Dr. Yihua (Eva) Zheng
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay "For the girls or women in science — or in any profession or job — opportunities are more abundant than they were previously. Sometimes you need to take bold steps. Just a little push, and then you will get there." — Dr. Yihua (Eva) Zheng, Space Physics and Space Weather Scientist, Heliophysics Science Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Good Night, Moon
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay An illuminated waning gibbous moon contrasts the deep black of space as the International Space Station soared 270 miles over the Southern Ocean.
That's Refreshing
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay An American Flamingo takes a sip of water in the Indian River at Haulover Canal on Merritt Island on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. The American Flamingos are more common in Mexico and Cuba but the winds from Hurricane Idalia relocated them to Florida in September 2023. Kennedy Space Center in Florida shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge where more than 310 species of birds inhabit the refuge.
Spitzer Space Telescope Captures Galactic Snack
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay This image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Multiple wavelengths are shown, revealing stars (in blue and cyan), dust (red), and areas of star formation.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/pia26276-the-infrared-face-of-the-andromeda-galaxy/
Sulaiman Mountain Haze
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this oblique photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan. The range resulted from the slow-motion collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that began about 60 million years ago. Peaks rise to more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level in the northern portion of the mountain range, shown in this photograph.
