Dawn Team Shares New Maps and Insights about Ceres

Mysteries and insights about Ceres are being discussed this week at the European Planetary Science Conference in Nantes, France.

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Comet Feature Named After Late NASA Scientist Claudia Alexander

Scientists from the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission honor their deceased colleague, Claudia Alexander of JPL, by naming a feature after her on the mission's target comet.

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NASA Selects Contractor for Environmental, Medical Contract

NASA has selected Integrated Mission Support Services, LLC of Merritt Island, Florida to fulfill the Kennedy Environmental and Medical Contract (KEMCON) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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NASA: Background Ozone a Major Issue in U.S. West

New technique more accurately determines the sources of ozone in a given area.

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An update on Comet 67P/C-G’s water-ice cycle

Last week we reported on the daily water-ice cycle of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that was observed in a specific region of the comet’s neck by Rosetta’s VIRTIS instrument, in September 2014. Yesterday at the European Planetary Science Congress, animations were shown covering the period 1 August 2014 to 10 February 2015 for two different areas of the nucleus, showing the behaviour of the water-ice over a much longer period. “We are now able to show that this cycle is common in several regions of the nucleus, depending on the illumination conditions, and hence further demonstrate that the proposed cycle is a general mechanism of water transport from depth to the surface acting on comets,” said Fabrizio Capaccioni, VIRTIS principal investigator. Fabrizio described the results in a press briefing held at EPSC yesterday afternoon. The two movies are based on data acquired between 1 August 2014, when the comet was at a distance of about 542 million km (3.62 AU) from the Sun and 10 February 2015, when the comet was 352 million km (2.35 AU) from the Sun. They show the ice abundance at each time during the comet's 12.4 hour day for two different regions: one focused on the Imhotep region on the comet’s large lobe, the other around the comet’s neck. For each timestamp, each data point represents the average, for a particular hour of the comet day, over the entire timeframe August-February. The blue regions indicate the presence of ice in the uppermost surface layer, red shows no ice, and grey indicates portions of the comet that were in shadow. “We see that in many areas on the comet's surface the bluer regions have a short lifetime, appearing just after dawn and disappearing a few hours later,” says Fabrizio. “This indicates that in these areas the ice is not stable at the surface but is deposited during the night […]

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NASA TV to Air Space Station Cargo Ship Launch, Docking

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the next launch and docking of an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress 61, to resupply the International Space Station Thursday, Oct. 1. NASA TV coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

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NASA Announces Appointment of New Agency Chief Information Officer

Renee Wynn took the helm Monday in leading the agency's information technology efforts and capabilities as NASA’s new chief information officer (CIO).

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NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

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NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today's Mars

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

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How Rosetta’s comet got its shape

This news item is mirrored from the main ESA Web Portal. Two comets collided at low speed in the early Solar System to give rise to the distinctive ‘rubber duck’ shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, say Rosetta scientists. The origin of the comet’s double-lobed form has been a key question since Rosetta first revealed its surprising shape in July 2014. Two leading ideas emerged: did two comets merge or did localised erosion of a single object form the ‘neck’? Now, scientists have an unambiguous answer to the conundrum. By using high-resolution images taken between 6 August 2014 and 17 March 2015 to study the layers of material seen all over the nucleus, they have shown that the shape arose from a low-speed collision between two fully fledged, separately formed comets. “It is clear from the images that both lobes have an outer envelope of material organised in distinct layers, and we think these extend for several hundred metres below the surface,” says Matteo Massironi, lead author from the University of Padova, Italy, and an associate scientist of the OSIRIS team. “You can imagine the layering a bit like an onion, except in this case we are considering two separate onions of differing size that have grown independently before fusing together.” The results of the study are reported in the journal Nature and were presented today at the European Planetary Science Congress in Nantes, France. To reach their conclusion, Matteo and his colleagues first used images to identify over 100 terraces seen on the surface of the comet, and parallel layers of material clearly seen in exposed cliff walls and pits. A 3D shape model was then used to determine the directions in which they were sloping and to visualise how they extend into the subsurface. It soon became clear that the features […]

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Rosetta Science Working Team dedication to deceased colleagues

Guest blog post by Matt Taylor, Rosetta Project Scientist. At the most recent Rosetta Science Working Team meeting, held in Göttingen Germany in September 2015, a number of new science investigations were discussed, along with updates on on-going studies of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and its environment. This growing body of science and discovery has only been made possible through the dedication of hundreds of scientists and engineers across the globe, who have worked or still work on the mission. For a project that has been going for almost 30 years, it is also regrettably inevitable that a few members of this large team have been outlived by the mission, including some who unfortunately did not live to appreciate the main comet phase. As a token of deep gratitude and thanks, the Rosetta SWT has dedicated the upcoming special issue of scientific papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics to everyone who has worked on the mission, including those who continue to work on the mission, but especially those colleagues who have passed away. As part of this recognition, the SWT has also dedicated two features on the comet to two esteemed colleagues who have passed away in recent years. These features are the C. Alexander Gate, found on the smaller lobe, dedicated to Dr Claudia J. Alexander, the US Rosetta Project Scientist who passed away in July this year, and the A. Coradini Gate, located on the larger lobe, after Dr Angioletta Coradini, the former Principal Investigator of the VIRTIS instrument, who passed away in September 2011. The two features were chosen for their prominence on Comet 67P/C-G, and for their very distinctive and striking gate-like appearances, considered to be highly appropriate monuments for our absent colleagues. Matt also announced the dedication during the opening ceremony of the European Planetary Science Congress today.

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Rosetta at EPSC: Watch press briefing online

Scientists are meeting this week in Nantes, France, at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) to discuss the latest results in the field of planetary science. A press briefing is being held today at 13:00 GMT / 15:00 CEST to present new results from the Rosetta Mission. The presenters are: Matt Taylor (Rosetta Project Scientist, ESA); Matteo Massironi (OSIRIS Team, Univ Padova); Fabrizio Capaccioni (VIRTIS Principal Investigator, INAF-IAPS) The briefing will be streamed live here.

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NASA Selects Science Education Partners for STEM Agreements

NASA has selected 27 organizations from across the United States to begin negotiations for cooperative agreement awards totaling $42 million to implement a new strategic approach to more effectively engage learners of all ages on NASA science education programs and activities.

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ROSINA detects argon at Comet 67P/C-G

The noble gas argon has been detected in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the first time, thanks to the ROSINA mass spectrometer on-board Rosetta. Its detection is helping scientists to understand the processes at work during the comet’s formation, and adds to the debate about the role of comets in delivering various ‘ingredients’ to Earth. The new results are reported in Science Advances today and describe data collected on 19, 20, 22, and 23 October 2014, when the comet was around 465 million km (3.1 AU) from the Sun, and Rosetta was in a 10 km orbit around the comet. During the time spent close to the comet, the ROSINA instrument was able to take an inventory of the key constituents of the comet’s coma, with many ingredients already reported (see links at end of article). Determining the chemical make-up of comets is a necessary step to understanding their role in bringing water and other ingredients to the inner planets during the Solar System’s early history. The so-called noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon) rarely react chemically with other elements to form molecules, mostly remaining in a stable atomic state, representative of the environment around a young star in which planets, comets, and asteroids are born. In addition, their abundance and isotopic compositions can be compared to the values known for Earth and Mars, and for the solar wind and meteorites, for example. The relative abundance of noble gases in the atmospheres of terrestrial planets is largely controlled by the early evolution of the planets, including outgassing via geological processes, atmospheric loss, and/or delivery by asteroid or cometary bombardment. Thus the study of noble gases in comets can also provide information on these processes. However, noble gases are very easily lost from comets through sublimation, and […]

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Opportunity Mars Rover Preparing for Active Winter

How about: NASA's Opportunity Mars rover will soon move to a position that will help the sun-powered robot keep active through the Martian winter.

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NASA to Announce Mars Mystery Solved

NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency's ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on Monday, Sept. 28.

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NASA to Announce Mars Mystery Solved

NASA will detail a major science finding from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28 at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

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Cometwatch 21 September

Today's CometWatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 21 September 2015, about 330 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 28.1 m/pixel and the image measures 28.8 km across. The contrast was increased to enhance the comet's activity; the original image is provided below. The comet is oriented with the small lobe to the left and the large lobe to the right. Jets of gas and dust are seen all around the sunlit portion of the nucleus and are particularly clear around the central neck region with the ejected material seen extending towards the edge of the image frame. This week Rosetta embarked on a new trajectory that will take it 1500 km away from the comet nucleus by 30 September in order to study the broader scale of the coma and to investigate the comet’s plasma environment. It will return to closer distances in mid-October. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image from today’s entry is provided below:

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Rosetta reveals comet’s water-ice cycle

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has provided evidence for a daily water-ice cycle on and near the surface of comets. This story is mirrored from the main ESA web portal. Comets are celestial bodies comprising a mixture of dust and ices, which they periodically shed as they swing towards their closest point to the Sun along their highly eccentric orbits. As sunlight heats the frozen nucleus of a comet, the ice in it – mainly water but also other ‘volatiles’ such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide – turns directly into a gas. This gas flows away from the comet, carrying dust particles along. Together, gas and dust build up the bright halo and tails that are characteristic of comets. Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014 and has been studying it up close for over a year. On 13 August 2015, the comet reached the closest point to the Sun along its 6.5-year orbit, and is now moving back towards the outer Solar System. A key feature that Rosetta’s scientists are investigating is the way in which activity on the comet and the associated outgassing are driven, by monitoring the increasing activity on and around the comet since Rosetta’s arrival. Scientists using Rosetta’s Visible, InfraRed and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, VIRTIS, have identified a region on the comet’s surface where water ice appears and disappears in sync with its rotation period. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature. “We found a mechanism that replenishes the surface of the comet with fresh ice at every rotation: this keeps the comet ‘alive’,” says Maria Cristina De Sanctis from INAF-IAPS in Rome, Italy, lead author of the study. The team studied a set of data taken in September 2014, concentrating on a one square km region on the comet’s neck. At the […]

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NASA Developed Technology Aims to Save Commercial Airlines Fuel, Time

Two passenger airlines soon will test NASA-developed software designed to help air carriers save time and reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

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NASA TV to Broadcast Cargo Ship Departure from Space Station

Five weeks after delivering approximately five tons of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station, an unpiloted Japanese cargo ship is scheduled to depart the station Monday, Sept. 28. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the departure beginning at 11 a.m. EDT.

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NASA’s “Space to Ground” to be Released in Spanish During National Hispanic Heritage Month

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, NASA is releasing four Spanish- language episodes of its weekly web series “Space to Ground.”

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NASA Seeks Big Ideas from Students for Inflatable Heat Shield Technology

NASA is giving university and college students an opportunity to be part of the agency’s journey to Mars with the Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge.

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Rosetta’s far excursion to study the coma at large

Next week, on 23 September, Rosetta will depart on a three-week excursion that will take it up to 1500 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, much farther than it has been since arriving at the comet in August 2014. The main science goal driving this course of action is to study the coma of 67P/C-G on a broader scale while the comet's activity is still high in the post-perihelion phase. While almost all instruments on Rosetta will be operating during the excursion, this exploration of the coma at large will be especially interesting to study the plasma environment of the comet with the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments. In particular, scientists are aiming at detecting the bow shock, a boundary between the comet's magnetosphere and the ambient solar wind. The existence of a bow shock in a comet's environment around its activity peak was predicted in 1967 by Ludwig Biermann, and confirmed in the past decades by observations at comets 21P/Giacobini–Zinner, 1P/Halley, 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup and 19P/Borrelly. “Previous measurements that were performed during fly-bys only provided limited data points about the bow shocks of a handful of comets. Rosetta, instead, will take data over several days, monitoring the evolution of the plasma environment of 67P/C-G shortly after its perihelion,” says Claire Vallat, a Rosetta Science Ground Segment scientist at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). Along the new trajectory, Rosetta will move away from the nucleus up to 1500 km in the direction of the Sun, where the bow shock is expected to be found. This maximum distance will be reached by the end of September, with the spacecraft returning to closer distances by mid-October. “While it may appear odd to depart from the nucleus at this time, these measurements are also key to understanding the comet's behaviour at large and […]

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Comet surface changes before Rosetta’s eyes

In the months leading to the perihelion of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta scientists have been witnessing dramatic and rapid surface changes on the Imhotep region, as reported in a paper to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Since arriving at Comet 67P/C-G in August 2014, Rosetta has been witnessing an increase in the activity of the comet, warmed by the ever-closer Sun. A general increase in the outflow of gas and dust has been punctuated by the emergence of jets and dramatic rapid outbursts in the weeks around perihelion, the closest point to the Sun on the comet’s orbit, which occurred on 13 August 2015. But in June 2015, just two months before perihelion, Rosetta scientists started noticing important changes on the surface of the nucleus itself. These very significant alterations have been seen in Imhotep, a region containing smooth terrains covered by fine-grained material as well as large boulders, located on 67P/C-G’s large lobe. “We had been closely monitoring the Imhotep region since August 2014, and as late as May 2015, we had detected no changes down to scales of a tenth of a metre,” comments Olivier Groussin, an astronomer at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France, OSIRIS Co-Investigator and lead author of the study. “Then one morning we noticed that something new had happened: the surface of Imhotep had started to change dramatically. The changes kept going on for quite a while.” First evidence for a new, roughly round feature in Imhotep was seen in an image taken with Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 3 June. Subsequent images later in June showed this feature growing in size, and being joined by a second round feature. By 2 July, they had reached diameters of roughly 220 m and 140 m, respectively, and another new feature began to appear. By the […]

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News Conference Features Next Space Station Crew, Interview Opportunities

NASA will host a news conference for the next crew launching to the International Space Station, including NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, on Thursday, Sept. 24, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Television will broadcast the news conference live at 2 p.m. EDT, preceded by video of crew training at 1:30 p.m.

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CometWatch 11 September

Today's CometWatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 11 September 2015, about 319 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 27.2 m/pixel and the image measures 27.9 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the comet's activity. In this orientation, the small comet lobe is on the left and the large lobe on the right. Rosetta was flying on the night side of the comet at the time, so most of the nucleus appears dark and stands out beautifully against the diffuse background glow of activity. Parts of the Anubis and Atum regions are visible on the upper edge of the large lobe in this view, while Seth and Ash (below) are mostly cast in shadow. Anuket can be seen on the comet's neck, leading to a small patch of Serqet that is visible on the top left edge of the small lobe; below these two regions, Hapi (on the neck) and Ma'at (on the small lobe) are also cast in shadow. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Completes Key Milestone for Orion Spacecraft in Support of Journey to Mars

NASA’s mission to send astronauts to deep space destinations where no other human has traveled has taken another important step forward with the completion of a critical milestone for the Orion spacecraft currently in production.

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Funky Light Signal From Colliding Black Holes Explained

A dance between two candidate black holes is yielding some high-speed secrets.

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NASA to Hold Teleconference to Discuss Orion Spacecraft Progress

NASA officials will hold a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 16 to discuss the agency’s progress on the Orion spacecraft, which will carry humans on missions into deep space.

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NASA Awards JSC Administrative Support Services II Contract

NASA has awarded AWD Management Services, Inc., of Lawrenceville, Georgia, a five-year contract to provide administrative and secretarial support services at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

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Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission.

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Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission.

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Arctic Sea Ice Summertime Minimum Is Fourth Lowest on Record

According to a NASA analysis of satellite data, the 2015 Arctic sea ice minimum extent is the fourth lowest on record since observations from space began.

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NASA Awards Mechanical Integrated Services, Technology Contract

NASA has awarded the Mechanical Integrated Services and Technology contract to ATA Aerospace, Joint Venture of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for mechanical engineering and related services at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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Philae’s descent: The director’s cut

This blog post is contributed by Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at ESA. On 30 July, the first papers covering the scientific results obtained by Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were published in Science magazine. On that occasion, we released a number of images taken by Philae on 12 November 2014, including a sequence of seven taken by the ROLIS downward-looking camera towards the end of the descent to the lander's first touchdown point at Agilkia, previously known as Site J. (As is now well-known, Philae rebounded after briefly touching down at Agilkia, eventually coming to rest at a site called Abydos.) Now, to mark the first anniversary of the selection of Site J as the target for Philae, we are releasing a “special edition” version of that ROLIS image sequence. The seven still images, each spaced by 10 seconds, have been interpolated in time to create a movie that shows Philae's descent between 67 metres and just 9 metres above the surface in real-time, taking just under 1 minute. The movie ends at that point, as there are no further images in the sequence: Philae had touched down at Agilkia before another 10 seconds had passed. Having worked with Jakub Knapik, visual effects supervisor at Platige Image, Warsaw on our short sci-fi film, "Ambition", we were delighted when he took those seven ROLIS images and used state-of-the-art visual effects tools to interpolate between the images to create this movie sequence. (For the technically-curious among you, Jakub used the VFX compositor NUKE from The Foundry to re-project the original set of seven images in 3D, then rendered an interpolated sequence using a tracked 3D camera that mimicked the path of Philae during its descent.) If you look closely at the original seven ROLIS images you will notice that […]

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USAID, NASA Officials and Astronauts Discuss Connecting Space to Village

USAID will host a town hall from 10 to 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 17 to discuss its partnership with NASA to use space data to help international development efforts around the world. The event will be held in Washington in the amphitheater of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

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NASA, Honeywell Bring Hip-Hop Education Show to 10 Midwest States

NASA and Honeywell are starting the 11th year of their "FMA Live! Forces in Motion" show with a fall 2015 tour designed to ignite students' interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

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NASA Awards Contract for Institutional Operations and Maintenance Services

NASA has selected Mainthia Technologies, Inc., of Cleveland to provide on-site support services for operations and maintenance for the central process systems recertification and pressure vessels and systems at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

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NASA, U.S. Senate Welcome Robot Challenge Winners to Washington

The West Virginia Mountaineers, winners of the 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge, will be recognized for their achievement at an event from 3 to 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 21, in Room 385 of the Senate Russell Office Building in Washington. Media are invited to attend and meet the team members.

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NASA Administrator to Attend Minority Partnerships Meeting, Visit Alabama A&M

Media are invited to speak with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Wednesday, Sept. 16 during the second annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Partnerships Meeting in Huntsville, Alabama.

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Study Contrasts Effects of Two Types of SoCal Fires

Wildfires driven by autumn Santa Ana winds are 10 times more expensive than summer fires, a new study shows. But both kinds are costly, and both are on the increase.

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Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes

The next rock target to be drilled by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover may be sandstone that was deposited by wind, unlike previous rock targets deposited by water.

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NASA, Harmonic Launch First Non-Commercial UHD Channel in North America

NASA is partnering with Harmonic, a worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, to launch NASA TV UHD, the first ever non-commercial consumer ultra-high definition (UHD) channel in North America. The partnership is the result of a Space Act Agreement between Harmonic and the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

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Understanding Philae’s wake-up: behind the scenes with the Philae team

Since Rosetta’s lander Philae first woke up from hibernation and called ‘home’ on 13 June, the teams at the Lander Control Center (LCC – DLR), the Science Operations and Navigation Center (SONC – CNES), the Max-Planck Institute (MPS – Göttingen) and the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (Wigner Research Centre for Physics – Budapest) have been working with ESA’s Rosetta Mission Operations Centre (RMOC – ESOC) and the Rosetta Science Ground Segment (RSGS – ESAC), and in close cooperation with the Philae and Rosetta scientists, to establish regular and predictable contacts with Philae, and to resume scientific measurements. This blog post has been written by Koen Geurts, Philae technical manager, and Cinzia Fantinati, Philae operations manager (both from the LCC at DLR), and gives a detailed insight into the work being done by the teams. Following Philae’s deployment by Rosetta to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, the lander operated for 2.5 days before falling into hibernation at its final landing site, Abydos. The fundamental issue was a lack of sunlight to charge Philae’s secondary batteries. Due to the large number of unknowns with respect to Philae’s final landing site, not least the lander’s orientation with respect to the local topography, it was difficult to precisely predict when Philae might wake-up again as the comet approached the Sun and the strength of the sunlight increased. Another major concern was the ability of the hardware to survive the very low temperatures, well below the –55°C qualification temperature, expected during the likely several month long hibernation phase. Previous posts have described the essential conditions that must be met for Philae to wake up and boot: an internal temperature above –45°C and more than 5.5W of power. Based on measurements made before Philae entered hibernation in November and models […]

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CometWatch 5 September

Today's CometWatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 5 September 2015, about 445 km from the nucleus. The scale is 37.9 m/pixel and the image measures 38.8 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the comet's activity. Interestingly, many white specks appear to be sprinkled in the upper part of the image, above the intense outflow of dust emanating from the comet's nucleus. This large amount of debris could likely be the result of a possible episode of increased cometary activity shortly before the image was taken. In this view, the nucleus is oriented with the underside of the large comet lobe pointing towards the observer, while the small lobe is mostly hidden behind. The smooth Imhotep region can be seen as the bright patch towards the left, with the rougher Khepry to the upper right, parts of Aten to the right and some of the circular features of Ash visible to the lower right. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Invites Media to Explore Mars Science Fiction and Fact in Cinema

Media are invited to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday, Sept. 15 for a fresh perspective on the journey to Mars. Cast members from the soon-to-be-released 20th Century Fox movie “The Martian” will meet with NASA scientists and engineers to see the real technology and spacecraft being developed for future Mars exploration.

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NASA Astronauts, Events Mark Halfway Point of One-Year Space Station Mission

Tuesday, Sept. 15, is the midpoint for NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of their one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. To mark the occasion, the National Press Club in Washington will host an event from 8:30 to 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 14, to discuss the first ever one-year space mission.

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NASA Telescopes Find Galaxy Cluster with Vibrant Heart

Astronomers have discovered a rare beast of a galaxy cluster whose heart is bursting with new stars.

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Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail

The brightest spots on the dwarf planet Ceres gleam with mystery in new views delivered by NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

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NASA Television to Broadcast Friday Return of Space Station Crew

Three crew members aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to leave the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth Friday, Sept. 11. NASA Television will provide complete coverage of their departure and landing.

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First Pieces of NASA’s Orion for Next Mission Come Together at Michoud

NASA is another small step closer to sending astronauts on a journey to Mars. On Saturday, engineers at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans welded together the first two segments of the Orion crew module that will fly atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a mission beyond the far side of the moon.

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CometWatch 30 August

Today's CometWatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 30 August 2015, about 404 km from the nucleus. The scale is 34.4 m/pixel; the image was cropped and measures 18.9 km across. The contrast was slightly increased to reveal the comet's activity as well as surface details on the nucleus. The uncropped, original image, which measures 35.3 km across, is provided below. You can stretch the contrast even further to see the full extent of the activity. Like last Friday's CometWatch entry, this image shows the southern hemisphere of 67P/C-G, which came into view in the past few months as the short southern summer started on the comet. In this orientation, the small comet lobe is on the right and the large lobe on the left. The recently identified regions Wosret and Sobek are visible on the small lobe and on the comet's 'neck', respectively. On the large lobe, part of the newly named region Khonsu is visible, leading to Imhotep towards the left edge; on the upper left, parts of the Ash region can be seen, and on the lower left, parts of Khepry. You can find a regional map here, to help find your way around the southern hemisphere of the comet. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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CometWatch 26 August

Today's CometWatch entry is an image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 26 August 2015, about 415 km from the nucleus. The scale is 35.4 m/pixel and the image measures 36.2 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the full extent of the comet's activity. This view shows the southern hemisphere of 67P/C-G, which had remained in darkness for over five and a half years until seasons changed on the comet in May. Currently, the southern hemisphere is experiencing a short summer, which will last about 10 months, until early 2016. Ever since, several portions of the comet's surface that were previously cast in shadow were revealed, allowing scientists to identify four new regions on the nucleus of 67P/C-G. In today's CometWatch image the larger of the two comet lobes points up and the smaller lobe down. On the large lobe, parts of the recently identified region Anhur are visible at the centre, with Anubis and Atum on the right and Aker on the left. Of the other newly named regions, Khonsu is located towards the upper edge of the large lobe in this view, hints of Sobek can be seen on the neck, and Wosret is well in sight on the small lobe. You can find a regional map here, to help find your way around the southern hemisphere of the comet. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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Herschel and Planck Honored with Space Systems Award

Herschel and Planck teams are recipients of a prestigious aerospace industry award.

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'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity

Hedgehog is a new concept for a robot that is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of traversing small solar system bodies.

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NASA's TES Satellite Instrument Gives New Insight into Water Cycle

NASA satellite measurements have given scientists a better understanding of what happens to rain and snow that fall on land, with a few surprising findings.

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NASA TV to Air Grand Opening of Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will participate in the grand opening of The Boeing Company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Sept. 4. The event will air live on NASA Television beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

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NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues

Mission managers for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite’s two science instruments, can no longer return data. However, the mission continues to produce high-quality science measurements with its radiometer instrument.

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NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues

NASA SMAP observatory managers have determined its radar can no longer return data, but the mission continues to produce high-quality science with its radiometer instrument.

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At Saturn, One of These Rings is not like the Others

One section of Saturn's rings may be loaded with chunks of solid ice, possibly shards from a destroyed moon, according to a new study by Cassini scientists.

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Three Space Station Crews to Answer Media Questions from Orbit

Nine International Space Station crew members will discuss their mission with reporters from around the world during a joint crew news conference to air live on NASA Television at 10:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 8.

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Study Tallies One Loss Path for Early Mars' Atmosphere

The amount of Martian atmosphere trapped by mineral formation appears inadequate to account for a warm environment when rivers cut valleys on ancient Mars.

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NASA Discusses First Ground Tournament Prizes in Cube Quest Challenge

Media are invited to talk with the five top competitors from the first round of the Cube Quest Challenge during a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 9.

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Soyuz Heads to Space Station with New Crew, Return Transportation for One-Year Mission Team

Three crew members representing Russia, Denmark and Kazakhstan have launched to the International Space Station to provide a new ride home for the station’s one-year crew and continue important research that advances NASA's journey to Mars.

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Comet Hitchhiker Would Take Tour of Small Bodies

A concept for orbiting and landing on multiple asteroids and comets is being developed at JPL.

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NASA Awards Systems Engineering Advanced Services Contract

NASA has awarded a contract to Alcyon Technical Services Joint Venture, LLC of Huntsville, Alabama to provide mission and instrument systems engineering services for the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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NASA Awards Postdoctoral Program Contract

NASA has selected the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) of Columbia, Maryland to provide the agency with administrative support and coordination of research opportunities between NASA’s mission directorates and centers.

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NASA Awards Technology, Integrated Discipline Engineering Services Contract

NASA has awarded a contract to Trident Vantage Systems, LLC of Arlington, Virginia to provide engineering and related services at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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NASA Awards Grants to Expand STEM Education

NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) has selected nine universities for cooperative agreement awards totaling $3.6 million to create and operate a NASA MUREP Aerospace Academy.

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New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways

Researchers have developed innovative flat, optical lenses as part of a collaboration between JPL and the Caltech.

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