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Sun Dance

Sometimes, the surface of our Sun seems to dance. In the middle of 2012, for example, NASA’s Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressive prominence that seemed to perform a running dive roll like an acrobatic dancer. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the featured time-lapse video covering about three hours. A looping magnetic field directed the flow of hot plasma on the Sun. The scale of the dancing prominence is huge — the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing arch of hot gas. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is still a topic of research. Unlike 2012, this year the Sun’s surface is significantly more serene, featuring fewer spinning prominences, as it is near the minimum in its 11-year magnetic cycle. via NASA https://ift.tt/2CyjGXp

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NASA to Televise Two Spacewalks, Preview Briefing

Astronauts on the International Space Station will conduct spacewalks Friday, Oct. 19, and Thursday, Oct. 25, to continue power system upgrades, and experts will preview the work during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 16, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble

Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole. Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), is being studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy’s central regions. via NASA https://ift.tt/2Pol8yD

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Aurora: The Frog’s View

What does an aurora look like to a frog? „Awesome!“ is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth’s geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog’s perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera’s lens on top. The „diamonds“ in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the „lake“ is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory. via NASA https://ift.tt/2zVkPG3

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Astronaut Joe Acaba Farms in Space

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re celebrating the contributions of the brilliant Hispanic women and men of NASA. In this image, astronaut Joe Acaba installs botany gear for the International Space Station’s Veggie facility, to demonstrate plant growth in space. via NASA https://ift.tt/2NmHgYg

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The Last Days of Venus as the Evening Star

That’s not a young crescent Moon poised above the hills along the western horizon at sunset. It’s Venus in a crescent phase. About 54 million kilometers away and less than 20 percent illuminated, it was captured by telescope and camera on September 30 near Bacau, Romania. The bright celestial beacon is now languishing in the evening twilight, its days as the Evening Star in 2018 coming to a close. But it also grows larger in apparent size and becomes an ever thinner crescent in telescopic views. Heading toward an inferior conjunction (non-judgmental), the inner planet will be positioned between Earth and Sun on October 26 and lost from view in the solar glare. At month’s end a crescent Venus will reappear in the east though, rising just before the Sun as the brilliant Morning Star. via NASA https://ift.tt/2O8yFxo

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NASA Evaluates Commercial Small-Sat Earth Data for Science

NASA has launched a pilot program to evaluate how Earth science data from commercial small-satellite constellations could supplement observations from the agency’s fleet of orbiting Earth science missions. On Sept. 28, the agency awarded sole-source contracts to acquire test data sets from three private sector organizations.

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Home Again! Space Station Crew Lands

The landing jets fire as the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft lands with Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold and Oleg Artemyev, members of the Expedition 55 and 56 crews onboard the International Space Station. via NASA https://ift.tt/2Rmq3Bk