#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Interesting Rock Textures Galore at Bright Angel" Upon the rover’s arrival at Bright Angel, it was so exciting to see all the interesting features in the rocks of this interval! In particular, these rocks contain an abundance of veins and nodules. Veins are linear features containing mineral crystals that often form thin plates or sheets that cut through the rocks and across […] [June 28, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/interesting-rock-textures-galore-at-bright-angel/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Sols 4226-4228: A Powerful Balancing Act" Earth planning date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024 As documented in a previous blog last week, we continue to juggle power constraints as we focus on analyzing our newest drilled sample on Mars: “Mammoth Lakes 2.” Today, the star of the show is a planned dropoff to SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite) and evolved […] [June 28, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4226-4228-a-powerful-balancing-act/

#NewImage from #Nasa: "Comet 13P Olbers" Not a paradox, Comet 13P/Olbers is returning to the inner Solar System after 68 years. The periodic, Halley-type comet will reach its next perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on June 30 and has become a target for binocular viewing low in planet Earth's northern hemisphere night skies. But this sharp telescopic image of 13P is composed of stacked exposures made on the night of June 25. It easily reveals shifting details in the bright comet's torn and tattered ion tail buffeted by the wind from an active Sun, along with a broad, fanned-out dust tail and slightly greenish coma. The frame spans over two degrees across a background of faint stars toward the constellation Lynx. [June 28, 2024] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2406/13P_Olbers_2024_06_24_215434PDT_DEBartlett1024.jpg

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Hubble Examines an Active Galaxy Near the Lion’s Heart" It might appear featureless and unexciting at first glance, but NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of this elliptical galaxy — known as Messier 105 — show that the stars near the galaxy’s center are moving very rapidly. Astronomers have concluded that these stars are zooming around a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of […] [June 28, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-examines-an-active-galaxy-near-the-lions-heart/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Shares Two New Moon to Mars Architecture White Papers" NASA has released two white papers associated with the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture efforts. The papers, one on lunar mobility drivers and needs, and one on lunar surface cargo, detail NASA’s latest thinking on specific areas of its lunar exploration strategy. While NASA has established a yearly cadence of releasing new documents associated with [

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "An Eclipse Megamovie Megastar" Nazmus “Naz” Nasir is a software engineer by day, and an astrophotographer by night….and sometimes by day as well! This April, Naz participated in NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie 2024 project, photographing the total solar eclipse. He posted online a spectacular video composed of stabilized and aligned photographs of the sun taken during totality. The video includes links to tutorials Naz […] [June 28, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/an-eclipse-megamovie-megastar/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA@ My Library and Partners Engage Millions in Eclipse Training and Preparation" The Space Science Institute, with funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provided unprecedented training, support, and supplies to 15,000 libraries in the U.S. and territories in support of public engagement during the 2023 and 2024 eclipses. From September 2022 to September 2024, these efforts included: One public library […] [June 28, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/science-activation/nasa-my-library-and-partners-engage-millions-in-eclipse-training-and-preparation/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "In Space Production Applications News" Technological innovations make headlines every day, and NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) Portfolio of awards are driving these innovations into the future.

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Opportunities Fuel Growth and Entrepreneurship for Bronco Space Club Students" NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of winning funds from NASA’s TechLeap Prize competition. It grew from its roots in a broom [

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "The Maze is Afoot" This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman

#NewPhoto from #Nasa: "The Maze is Afoot" This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Announces Winners of Inaugural Human Lander Challenge" NASA’s 2024 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) Forum brought 12 university teams from across the United States to Huntsville, Alabama, near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, to showcase their innovative concepts for addressing the complex issue of managing lunar dust. The 12 finalists, selected in March 2024, presented their final presentations to a panel of [

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Awards Contract for Infrared Telescope Facility Operations" NASA has selected the University of Hawaii in Honolulu to maintain and operate the agency’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea in Hilo, Hawaii. The Management and Operations of NASA’s IRTF is a hybrid firm-fixed-price contract with an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity provision. The contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $85.5 million, with a base [

#NewImage from #Nasa: "A Solstice Moon" Rising opposite the setting Sun, June's Full Moon occurred within about 28 hours of the solstice. The Moon stays close to the Sun's path along the ecliptic plane and so while the solstice Sun climbed high in daytime skies, June's Full Moon remained low that night as seen from northern latitudes. In fact, the Full Moon hugs the horizon in this June 21 rooftop night sky view from Bursa, Turkey, constructed from exposures made every 10 minutes between moonrise and moonset. In 2024 the Moon also reached a major lunar standstill, an extreme in the monthly north-south range of moonrise and moonset caused by the precession of the Moon's orbit over an 18.6 year cycle. As a result, this June solstice Full Moon was at its southernmost moonrise and moonset along the horizon. [June 29, 2024] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2406/SolsMoon2024c1024.jpg

#NewImage from #Nasa: "" About 12 seconds into this video, something unusual happens. The Earth begins to rise. Never seen by humans before, the rise of the Earth over the limb of the Moon occurred about 55.5 years ago and surprised and amazed the crew of Apollo 8. The crew immediately scrambled to take still images of the stunning vista caused by Apollo 8's orbit around the Moon. The featured video is a modern reconstruction of the event as it would have looked were it recorded with a modern movie camera. The colorful orb of our Earth stood out as a familiar icon rising above a distant and unfamiliar moonscape, the whole scene the conceptual reverse of a more familiar moonrise as seen from Earth. To many, the scene also spoke about the unity of humanity: that big blue marble -- that's us -- we all live there. The two-minute video is not time-lapse -- this is the real speed of the Earth rising through the windows of Apollo 8. Seven months and three missions later, Apollo 11 astronauts would not only circle Earth's moon, but land on it. [June 30, 2024] https://img.youtube.com/vi/1R5QqhPq1Ik/maxresdefault.jpg

#NewImage from #Nasa: "" What's happened since the universe started? The time spiral shown here features a few notable highlights. At the spiral's center is the Big Bang, the place where time, as we know it, began about 13.8 billion years ago. Within a few billion years atoms formed, then stars formed from atoms, galaxies formed from stars and gas, our Sun formed, soon followed by our Earth, about 4.6 billion years ago. Life on Earth begins about 3.8 billion years ago, followed by cells, then photosynthesis within a billion years. About 1.7 billion years ago, multicellular life on Earth began to flourish. Fish began to swim about 500 million years ago, and mammals because walking on land about 200 million years ago. Humans first appeared only about 6 million years ago, and made the first cities only about 10,000 years ago. The time spiral illustrated stops there, but human spaceflight might be added, which started only 75 years ago, and useful artificial intelligence began to take hold within only the past few years. [July 01, 2024] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2407/TimeSpiral_Budassi_960.jpg

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Invites Media to Northrop Grumman’s 21st Station Resupply Launch" Media accreditation is open for the next launch to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency and will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting [

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "July’s Night Sky Notes: A Hero, a Crown, and Possibly a Nova!" Look to the skies all summer long for a Hero and a Crown – and a potential recurring nova. [July 01, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/night-sky-network/night-sky-notes-july2024/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Behind the Scenes of a NASA ‘Moonwalk’ in the Arizona Desert" NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas recently performed four moonwalk simulations to help NASA prepare for its Artemis III mission. Due to launch in September 2026, Artemis III will land two, yet-to-be-selected, astronauts at the Moon’s South Pole for the first time. Traveling to space requires immense preparation, not just for the astronauts, but […] [July 01, 2024] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/behind-the-scenes-of-a-nasa-moonwalk-in-the-arizona-desert/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Awards Support STEM Research at Minority Serving Institutions" NASA has selected 23 minority-serving institutions to receive $1.2 million to grow their research and technology capabilities, collaborate on research projects, and contribute to the agency’s missions for the benefit of humanity. Through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Partnership Learning Annual Notification (MPLAN) award, selected institutions will receive up to $50,000 each [