NASA

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These Weird Red Arcs on Saturn's Moon Tethys Can't Be Explained






By Elizabeth Howell
August 5, 2015



An icy moon of Saturn has mysterious red arcs of material crisscrossing its surface — and no one
knows exactly how they got there.

The Cassini spacecraft caught these graffitilike features on camera as it imaged the northern side
of the Tethys, which is one of Saturn's larger moons.

While the arcs faintly show up in 2004 pictures, the latest images, from April, are the first to really
show their colors by incorporating the right viewing conditions and wavelengths invisible to the human
eye. This is partly because Saturn and its moons' northern hemispheres are currently in summer,
providing better illumination of this region.


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Astronauts in space have captured a rare image of a giant red sprite






By Dave Mosher
August 18, 2015



An astronaut took a beautiful photo of Earth at night, while flying over Central America in the International Space Station.

The moon is in the upper left, and a massive thunderstorm off to the right.

But there's something weird lurking in this image, captured on August 10.

Can you spot it?


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You Have to Watch This Amazing Video of the Aurora Borealis From Space






Jo Piazza
Managing Editor
August 18, 2015



The aurora borealis is even more spectacular from space. (Photo: Scott Kelly)


Seeing the aurora borealis, or the northern lights, here on Earth is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Seeing it from space is even more epic.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly posted a video from the International Space Station as he flew over an
aurora borealis traveling at about 17,000 miles per hour. These spectacular lights may be the aftermath
of a solar storm from earlier this month.


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New photos show a youthful Pluto that's still taking shape


The first video of flying over Pluto was just released, and it's absolutely amazing


To Pluto and Beyond: Planetarium Show Wows Space Fans

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WHY NASA HELPED RIDLEY SCOTT CREATE ‘THE MARTIAN’ FILM






By Ryan Bradley
August 19, 2015


The Martian
20th Century Fox
Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who becomes stranded on Mars.


The day Ridley Scott called NASA was a great day for NASA. Scott, or Sir Ridley, or the dude who has directed several of the greatest
sci-fi movies of all time, plus Thelma and Louise, was in the early stages of his newest movie, The Martian, based on the mega-popular
novel by Andy Weir.

The Martian is a deadly simple tale of an astronaut named Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) trying to survive and eventually escape
from Mars after being stranded there. But the most important fact about The Martian is not all of the extreme close ups on Matt Damon’s
handsome astronaut mug (there are many!). It’s that The Martian is extremely recent science fiction. Its set in a version of the future that
is not distant or fantastic, but familiar and possible. And the premise of the story is based on just the type of mission that NASA is planning.
For this reason, above all others, NASA was over the moon about The Martian.


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New Horizons may have a new target, and it's 1 billion miles past Pluto






By Miriam Kramer
August 29, 2015



NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which made its famous flyby of Pluto in July, has a new place to go.

Scientists working with the mission have picked their first-choice destination for New Horizons' post-Pluto existence.

The tiny object, now known as 2014 MU69, orbits the sun nearly 1 billion miles past Pluto in the Kuiper Belt — a group of icy objects in Pluto's part of space.


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Pluto Probe Starts Beaming Home 'Treasure Trove' of Flyby Data






by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
September 09, 2015 07:00am ET


NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spotted ice mountains 2 miles (3 kilometers) high on Pluto during its July 2015 flyby
of the dwarf planet.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI


NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has begun beaming home the best datafrom its epic July Pluto flyby.

On July 14, New Horizons became the first probe ever to fly by Pluto, zooming within 7,800 miles
(12,550 kilometers) of the dwarf planet's enigmatic surface. New Horizons sent some images and
measurements back to its handlers immediately after the encounter, but stored the vast majority
onboard for later transmission.


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NASA's New Pluto Panoramas Are Absolutely Stunning






By John Wenz
SEP 17, 2015 @ 12:16 PM



Planet or no planet, the views are unbeatable.

At some point, we will run out of "The best view of Pluto yet," but that time isn't right now. With each new trove of photos, the
smallest-planet-turned-largest-dwarf planet just gets better and better.

The New Horizons probe is slowly downlinking 16 GB of photos and data from its July flyby of the icy world at 1-4 kilobytes per
second and these new panoramas are unreal, showing us amazing new details about the terrain from a close-up view. So these
are the best yet views. Until the next best-yet views.


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Sunset on Pluto: Breathtaking NASA Photo Shows Mountains, Wispy Atmosphere






by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
September 17, 2015 04:37pm ET



A spectacular new image from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows Pluto in an entirely new light.

The photo, which New Horizons took during its epic July 14 flyby of Pluto, captures a gorgeous sunset
view. Towering ice mountains cast long shadows, and more than a dozen layers of the dwarf planet's
wispy atmosphere are clearly visible.

"This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself," New
Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado,
said in a statement today (Sept. 17). "But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details
about Pluto's atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains." [See more Pluto photos by New Horizons]


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Total Lunar Eclipse Will Bring a Moon Triple Treat Sunday






By Geoff Gaherty
September 23, 2015


Sunday’s lunar eclipse, seen as the moon enters the shadow’s umbra at 9:07 p.m. EDT.


This Sunday night moon observers have the chance to see a lunar triple treat, weather permitting.

First, the moon will be full, as it always must be for a lunar eclipse to occur. This is a special full moon,
because this is the Harvest Moon. Because the angle of the ecliptic —the path the moon and planets
follow across the sky —is low to the horizon, the moon rises about the same time every night, giving
farmers an extra supply of light when they most need it, at harvest time.

Second, the full moon will be at its closest to Earth in all of 2015, what is known to astronomers as a
"perigee moon." In recent years this has become known as a "supermoon." Perigee (meaning "closest to
Earth") occurs at 10 p.m. EDT, the moon being a mere 222,374 miles (357,877 km) from Earth.
[Supermoon Lunar Eclipse: When and Where to See It]


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'Super blood moon' to give stargazers a rare show






By Joshua Melvin
September 23, 2015


A 'supermoon' is seen from the central French city of Luynes, in September 2014 (AFP Photo/Guillaume Souvant)


Paris (AFP) - For the first time in decades, skygazers are in for the double spectacle on Monday of a swollen "supermoon" bathed in the
blood-red light of a total eclipse.

The celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, west Asia and the east Pacific, will be the result of the Sun, Earth and a
larger-than-life, extra-bright Moon lining up for just over an hour from 0211 GMT.

"It will be quite exciting and especially dramatic," predicted astronomer Sam Lindsay of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

"It'll be brighter than usual, bigger than usual."


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The sharpest Pluto photos ever released are in stunning color and changing how we see this perplexing world


Pluto has mysterious 'dragon scales' in new photos


New Horizons sends back stunning partial-color images of a new world


New Pluto images reveal mountain ranges textured like 'dragon scales'


New Pluto pictures astonish scientists -- again

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Jaw-dropping Andromeda galaxy photo comprises 37 hours of exposure






by Michelle Starr
September 24, 2015


This image of the Andromeda Galaxy was taken right here on Earth.
J-P Metsavainio. Used with permission


Using a STL-11000M, 35mm format, 11-megapixel CCD Camera by SBIG coupled with a William Optics Gran Turismo 81 telescope, data
collection was Lane's contribution. For 37 hours (non-consecutive), he trained camera and telescope at the tiny section of sky wherein
the Andromeda Galaxy lies. He shot 18 hours of visible light exposure, one hour through a hydrogen alpha filter to pick out ionised
hydrogen details and six hours each with a red, green and blue filter.

The raw images obtained from these exposures were then sent to Metsavainio, who corrected the optical distortion caused by the
telescope using CCDStack 2 software. He then combined the images and adjusted the levels and curves using PhotoShop CS3. This is
similar to the processing applied to images obtained from space telescopes.

The resulting image shows Andromeda in all her glory.


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New Pics Show Charon at it's Brightest and Most Beautiful


Fly Over Charon, Pluto's Biggest Moon


Hail the Tiny Moons of Pluto!


New Horizons Space Probe: What Surprised Scientists the Most About Pluto


Spacecraft captures some of the best photos we've ever seen of Saturn's water-rich moon

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Blue skies, frozen water detected on Pluto


Earth's Gravitational Pull Cracks Open the Moon


The sharpest photos of Jupiter ever taken reveal a rare feature that hasn't been seen for over 36 years


Giant 'Hole' in Sun Is 50 Earths Wide


New Pluto images reveal puzzling pockmarked terrain