NASA has awarded the Facilities Operations and Maintenance Services (FOMS) III contract, an 8(a) set-aside acquisition, to Akima Support Operations, LLC of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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NASA Television Coverage Set for Weather Satellite Science Briefing, Launch
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) newest weather satellite, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S), is scheduled to launch Thursday, March 1. The launch, as well as prelaunch and science briefings on Tuesday, Feb. 27, will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
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Destination: History
On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn made history by becoming the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the place we call home–planet Earth. via NASA http://ift.tt/2GuM4HY
A Partial Solar Eclipse over Buenos Aires
What’s happened to top of the Sun? Last week, parts of Earth’s southern hemisphere were treated to a partial solar eclipse, where the Moon blocks out part of the Sun. The featured image was taken toward the end of the eclipse from the coast of Uruguay overlooking Argentina’s Buenos Aires. Light-house adorned Farallón Island is seen in the foreground, and a plane is visible just to the left of the Sun. The image is actually a digital combination of two consecutive exposures taken with the same camera using the same settings — one taken of the landscape and another of the background Sun. The next solar eclipse visible on Earth will be another partial eclipse occurring in mid-July and visible from parts of southern Australia including Tasmania. via NASA http://ift.tt/2C73dJH
NASA to Host National Space Council Meeting at Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host a meeting of the National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, Feb. 21. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the meeting beginning at 10 a.m. EST.
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Galaxy Formation in a Magnetic Universe
How did we get here? We know that we live on a planet orbiting a star orbiting a galaxy, but how did all of this form? To understand details better, astrophysicists upgraded the famous Illustris Simulation into IllustrisTNG — now the most sophisticated computer model of how galaxies evolved in our universe. Specifically, this featured video tracks magnetic fields from the early universe (redshift 5) until today (redshift 0). Here blue represents relatively weak magnetic fields, while white depicts strong. These B fields are closely matched with galaxies and galaxy clusters. As the simulation begins, a virtual camera circles the virtual IllustrisTNG universe showing a young region — 30-million light years across — to be quite filamentary. Gravity causes galaxies to form and merge as the universe expands and evolves. At the end, the simulated IllustrisTNG universe is a good statistical match to our present real universe, although some interesting differences arise — for example a discrepancy involving the power in radio waves emitted by rapidly moving charged particles. via NASA http://ift.tt/2CuxNZz
LL Ori and the Orion Nebula
Stars can make waves in the Orion Nebula’s sea of gas and dust. This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion’s stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori’s cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula’s hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. In three dimensions, LL Ori’s wrap-around shock front is shaped like a bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the „bottom“ edge. This beautiful painting-like photograph is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation. via NASA http://ift.tt/2F9mp8d
NASA Awards Contract for Construction, Maintenance, Environmental, Testing Services
NASA has selected Firelake-Arrowhead NASA Services of Lenexa, Kansas, to perform facility management, surveying, energy management, life safety code compliance and environmental management services for the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
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New Mexico Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station
Students from six schools in Alamogordo, New Mexico, will speak with a NASA astronaut living, working and doing research aboard the International Space Station at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 21.
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Jupiter’s Swirling Cloud Formations
See swirling cloud formations in the northern area of Jupiter’s north temperate belt in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. via NASA http://ift.tt/2EvNHVk