Rare Blue Supermoon 8/19/24
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The Sturgeon Moon rises behind a replica Saturn V rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Monday, August 19, 2024. Over 99% full when it rose, the moon was a rare combination of a blue moon and a supermoon, a phenomenon that will not repeat until 2027. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/rare-blue-supermoon-8-19-24/
Tortoise Takes a Leisurely Stroll
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Slow and steady wins the race for this gopher tortoise, ambling along the Launch Pad 39B beach road on NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Gopher tortoises are dry-land turtles that live in scrub, dry hammock, pine flatwood, coastal grassland and dune habitats.
Revisiting OSIRIS-REx
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay A training model of the sample return capsule is seen is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/osiris-rex-sample-return-training-15/
Rings and Things
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The subject of this week’s circular Hubble Picture of the Week is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape, for a spiral galaxy, with thin arms emerging from the ends of its barred core to draw a near-circle around its disc.
São Francisco’s Colorful Palette
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay An astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped this photo while in orbit over southeast Brazil. The image focuses on the Três Marias Reservoir, a human-made waterbody fed by the São Francisco River. The types of land cover vary across the image, with bold colors dominating the scene.
Earth’s Crest Over the Lunar Horizon
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay This view of the Earth's crest over the lunar horizon was taken during the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Apollo 15 launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on July 26, 1971. Aboard was a crew of three astronauts: David R. Scott, James B. Irwin, and Alfred M. Worden. The primary scientific objectives were to observe the lunar surface, survey and sample material and surface features in a preselected area of the Hadley-Apennine region, setup and activation of surface experiments and conduct in-flight experiments and photographic tasks from lunar orbit.
Webb Sees Gassy Baby Stars
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay In this image of the Serpens Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). Serpens is a reflection nebula, which means it’s a cloud of gas and dust that does not create its own light, but instead shines by reflecting the light from stars close to or within the nebula.
The International Space Station’s “window to the world”
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The International Space Station's "window to the world" is pictured from the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
Interior of Vacuum Tank at the Electric Propulsion Laboratory
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Interior of the 20-foot diameter vacuum tank at the NASA Lewis Research Center’s Electric Propulsion Laboratory.
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun - makes it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova. Historical records do show that about 170 years ago Eta Carinae underwent an unusual outburst that made it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Eta Carinae, in the Keyhole Nebula, is the only star currently thought to emit natural LASER light. This featured image brings out details in the unusual nebula that surrounds this rogue star. Diffraction spikes, caused by the telescope, are visible as bright multi-colored streaks emanating from Eta Carinae's center. Two distinct lobes of the Homunculus Nebula encompass the hot central region, while some strange radial streaks are visible in red extending toward the image right. The lobes are filled with lanes of gas and dust which absorb the blue and ultraviolet light emitted near the center. The streaks, however, remain unexplained.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/etacarinae-hubbleschmidt-1764-aaeb6f/
Telfer Mine, Western Australia
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay In the arid outback of Western Australia, miners have excavated rust-colored soil to reach the precious minerals below. The open pits and ponds of Telfer mine can be seen in this image, captured by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/teflermine-oli2-20231215-lrg/
Ranger 7 Snaps the Moon
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Ranger 7 took this image, the first picture of the Moon by a U.S. spacecraft, on July 31, 1964, about 17 minutes before crashing into the lunar surface.
Peekaboo!
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay A rabbit sits in the underbrush at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The center shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/wildlife-photography-bunnies/
Hubble Images a Classic Spiral
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor.
A Saturnian Summer
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn's icy moons are clearly visible in this exposure: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom. This image is taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system's gas giant planets. In Saturn's case, astronomers continue tracking shifting weather patterns and storms.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/stsci-h-p2043a-f-1592x1137-1/
Astronaut Eileen Collins, NASA’s First Female Shuttle Commander
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Astronauts Eileen M. Collins, STS-93 mission commander, and Jeffrey S. Ashby, pilot, peruse checklists on Columbia's middeck.
Chandra Sees the Peacock’s Galaxy
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay The barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 is interacting with a smaller galaxy to the upper left. The smaller galaxy has likely stripped gas from NGC 6872 to feed the supermassive black hole in its center.
Explorers on the Moon: Apollo 11 Landing
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, poses for a photo beside the U.S. flag that has been placed on the Moon at Tranquility Base during the Apollo 11 mission landing on July 20, 1969.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/apollo-11-mission-image-astronaut-edwin-aldrin-poses-beside-th/
Artemis II Core Stage on the Move
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay On July 16, 2024, the Artemis II core stage rolled out of the Vertical Assembly Building to the waiting Pegasus barge at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in preparation for delivery to Kennedy Space Center.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/artemis-ii-core-stage-rollout-2/
Acting Center Chief Technologist Dr. Phillip Williams
#NASA #ImageOfTheDay "I found out years later that seeing me in high school and hearing my experience in college inspired her to major in physics, and so she became the first robotics director at her school. And now she’s a principal. And it just rocked me because I was just being me and trying to share. It seemed like I paid it forward the same way that NASA mechanical engineer made a mark on me.” — Dr. Phillip Williams, Acting Center Chief Technologist, NASA's Langley Research Center
