Thanks to NASA and the Hubble Telescope we now have the largest and clearest image ever taken of our universe. It is a 1.5 billion-pixel image (69,536 x 22,230) of M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has traveled roughly 3 billion miles at this point and it’s finally set its sights on the dwarf planet Ceres. Images of Ceres were released back in December, but those images were just for calibration. Dawn’s recently captured pictures are about 27 pixels across, about three times better than what it took last month.
Dr. Carter Emmart, Producer of Dark Universe and director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, will present a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the most accurate three-dimensional mapping data of the universe was used to create the show’s beautiful visual effects.
NASA’s newest spacecraft, Orion, will be launching into space for the first time this Thursday, December 4th, on a flight that will take it further than any spacecraft built to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years and through temperatures twice as hot as molten lava to put its critical systems to the test.
Yesterday, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring astronauts back into space. This signals the agency’s return to manned space flight after the end of the space shuttle program.
NASA is one step closer to putting humans back into space. Watch the conference here…
Mission: SpaceX-3 Commercial Resupply Services flight
Launch Vehicle: Falcon
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launch Date: April 14, 4:58 p.m. EDT
NASA’s International Space Station resupply mission includes the legs for Robonaut, OPALS Lasercomm experiment and much more. I think, however, the most exciting and dramatic portion of the flight is the possible test of the ‘Grasshopper’ reusablility system.
Read the detailed story of the SpaceX Grasshopper program.
Reusability: The Key To Making Human Life Multi-Planetary
For a detailed description of the mission timeline, overview and SpaceX go to the SpaceX press kit. This is a wonderful resource.
I’m well aware of what today is. Believe me, I debated on whether or not to make a fake April Fools Day blog posting along the lines of “NASA announces the discovery of intelligent life on planet Eps Eri 04-01a,” or “50,000 year old space ship discovered in Antarctica.” However, there’s stuff out there in space that’s real and strange enough to bring to light without having to result in phoney gags. For example, a couple of days back I heard about the discovery of a pink planet way out in space. So here’s the rundown on the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star like the sun, GJ 504b that just happens to be pink.
It seems that just about every week or so scientists are discovering something weird out there in space. Some of these discoveries are more exciting than others, i.e., finally discovering water ice on Mars or discovering a star that’s potentially the size of the orbit of Saturn. But then sometimes new discoveries come and go and few people pay attention to them. I would like to talk about one such discovery: the discovery of possible ocean waves on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Could these possible waves be caused by Titan’s winds or something else that lies beneath?
“NASA plots daring flight to Jupiter’s watery moon”
(Credit: NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)
On March 4, 2014 Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, released a statement which includes, “In the coming year, we’ll build on our nation’s record of breathtaking and compelling scientific discoveries and achievements in space, with science missions that will reach far into our solar system, reveal unknown aspects of our universe and provide critical knowledge about our home planet. It includes funding for missions to Mars and the formulation for a mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa.”
It looks as though we may finally go to a ‘local’ body that will hold many surprises and in astronomical distances Europa is so very close.
Europa is just begging us to visit and the Europa Clipper is one mission.
This artist’s impression of Europa makes the place look more exotic than Mars.
(Credit: Chris Weeks)