NASA has awarded the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation-2 (ICESat-2) Mission Operations Center Support contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Dulles, Virginia.
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New Sun Missions to Help NASA Better Understand Earth-Sun Environment
NASA has selected two science missions – the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and HelioSwarm – to help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment.
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NASA Awards Rapid IV On-Ramp II Contracts for Spacecraft Systems
NASA has awarded three contracts under the on-ramp feature of the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) contract. These multi-agency contracts are available to support all NASA centers and other federal agencies.
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NASA Sets Coverage, Opens Virtual Experience for Next Cargo Launch
NASA and commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman are targeting 12:40 p.m. EST Saturday, Feb. 19, for the launch of the company’s 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
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Voyager’s View of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. via NASA https://ift.tt/7JP6QFE
NASA to Discuss Webb Telescope Progress, Mirror Alignment
NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 11, to share progress made in the early stages of aligning the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirrors.
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T Tauri and Hind s Variable Nebula
The star with an orange tint near top center in this dusty telescopic frame is T Tauri, prototype of the class of T Tauri variable stars. Next to it (right) is a yellow cosmic cloud historically known as Hind’s Variable Nebula (NGC 1555). About 650 light-years away, at the boundary of the local bubble and the Taurus molecular cloud, both star and nebula are seen to vary significantly in brightness but not necessarily at the same time, adding to the mystery of the intriguing region. T Tauri stars are now generally recognized as young (less than a few million years old), sun-like stars still in the early stages of formation. To further complicate the picture, infrared observations indicate that T Tauri itself is part of a multiple system and suggest that the associated Hind’s Nebula may also contain a very young stellar object. The well-composed image spans about 8 light-years at the estimated distance of T Tauri. via NASA https://ift.tt/ecigBGJ
NASA Television to Cover Space Station Cargo Launch, Docking
NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station.
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Mark Vande Hei’s Window to the World
Astronaut Mark Vande Hei peers at the Earth below from inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station’s window to the world. via NASA https://ift.tt/AbjPqm7
Eta Car: 3D Model of the Most Dangerous Star Known
What’s the most dangerous star near earth? Many believe it’s Eta Carinae, a binary star system about 100 times the mass of the Sun, just 10,000 light years from earth. Eta Carinae is a ticking time bomb, set to explode as a supernova in only a few million years, when it may bathe the earth in dangerous gamma rays. The star suffered a notorious outburst in the 1840s when it became the brightest star in the southern sky, only to fade to obscurity within decades. The star was not destroyed, but lies hidden behind a thick, expanding, double-lobed structure called the Homunculus which now surrounds the binary. Studies of this ejecta provide forensic clues about the explosion. Using observations from NASA satellites we can now visualize the 3D distribution of the shrapnel, all the way from the infrared, through optical and UV, to the outermost shell of million-degree material, visible only in X-rays. via NASA https://ift.tt/jild5xR