NASA Administrator, Astronauts Bring Space to Washington Schools

NASA is supporting a nationwide initiative to provide nutritious and hands-on educational kits to children, teachers, and families in need. Members of the media are invited in-person to the next event in Washington to learn more about the Artemis Learning Lunchbox initiative from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, as well as agency astronauts.

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Endeavour Crew Make Repairs to Hubble

In this Dec. 1993, onboard view from Space Shuttle mission STS-61 shows astronauts Story Musgrave and Jeffrey Hoffman’s Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. via NASA https://ift.tt/kOEC5FB

M16: A Star Forming Pillar from Webb

What’s happening inside this interstellar mountain? Stars are forming. The mountain is actually a column of gas and dust in the picturesque Eagle Nebula (M16). A pillar like this is so low in density that you could easily fly though it — it only appears solid because of its high dust content and great depth. The glowing areas are lit internally by newly formed stars. These areas shine in red and infrared light because blue light is scattered away by intervening interstellar dust. The featured image was captured recently in near-infrared light in unprecedented detail by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched late last year. Energetic light, abrasive winds, and final supernovas from these young stars will slowly destroy this stellar birth column over the next 100,000 years. via NASA https://ift.tt/jRoezuN

NASA Administrator Names New Leadership at Two Agency Centers

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has named Bradley Flick director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, effective immediately. The administrator also has named Dave Mitchell to fill the role as acting director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, effective Jan. 1.

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Orion Approaches Moon Before Return Flyby

On the 19th day of the Artemis I mission, Dec. 4, 2022, a camera mounted on the Orion spacecraft captured the Moon just in frame as Orion prepared for its return powered flyby on Dec. 5, when it passed approximately 79 miles above the lunar surface. via NASA https://ift.tt/fmRT5qX

Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster

Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the unaided eye even from the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured 11-hour exposure, taken from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer’s eyesight. via NASA https://ift.tt/k4wlmsx

Video: Powers of Ten

How different does the universe look on very small scales? On very large scales? The most famous short science film of its generation gives breathtaking comparisons. That film, Powers of Ten, originally created in the 1960s, has been officially posted to YouTube and embedded here. From a picnic blanket near Chicago out past the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, every ten seconds the film zooms out to show a square a factor of ten times larger on each side. The 9-minute video then reverses, zooming back in a factor of ten every two seconds and ends up inside a single proton. The Powers of Ten sequence is actually based on the book Cosmic View by Kees Boeke in 1957, as is a similar but mostly animated film Cosmic Zoom that was also created in the late 1960s. The changing perspectives are so enthralling and educational that sections have been recreated using more modern computerized techniques, including the first few minutes of the movie Contact. Ray and husband Charles Eames, the film’s creators, were known as quite visionary spirits and even invented their own popular chair. via NASA https://ift.tt/derUYMX

Stereo Mars

Mars looks sharp in these two rooftop telescope views captured in late November from Singapore, planet Earth. At the time, Mars was about 82 million kilometers from Singapore and approaching its opposition, opposite the Sun in planet Earth’s sky on December 8. Olympus Mons, largest of the volcanoes in the Tharsis Montes region (and largest known volcano in the Solar System), is near Mars‘ western limb. In both the images it’s the whitish donut-shape at the upper right. The dark area visible near center is the Terra Sirenum region while the long dark peninsula closest to the planet’s eastern limb is Sinus Gomer. Near its tip is Gale crater, the Curiosity rover’s landing site in 2012. Above Sinus Gomer, white spots are other volcanoes in the Elysium region. At top of the planet is the north polar cap covered with ice and clouds. Taken about two days apart, these images of the same martian hemisphere form a stereo pair. Look at the center of the frame and cross your eyes until the separate images come together to see the Red Planet in 3D. via NASA https://ift.tt/WYhjkZA

Hubble Spies Emission Nebula-Star Cluster Duo

This whole collection is NGC 1858, an open star cluster in the northwest region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way that boasts an abundance of star-forming regions. NGC 1858 is estimated to be around 10 million years old. via NASA https://ift.tt/wNl6Kdp