Archive | Kepler

ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Koss, A, Barth This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 4709 located around 240 million light-years away in the southern constellation Telescopium. Hubble beautifully captures its faint halo and swirling disk filled with stars and dust bands. The compact region at its core might be the most […]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) While astronaut Gene Cernan was on the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 mission, his spacesuit collected loads of lunar dust. The gray, powdery substance stuck to the fabric and entered the capsule causing eye, nose, and throat irritation dubbed “lunar hay fever.” Credit: […]

Credit: NASA NASA has awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines, LLC of Houston, to support the agency’s lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network , operated by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This Subcategory 2.2 GEO to Cislunar Relay Services is a new firm-fixed-price, multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task […]

Credit: NASA NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colorado, to develop a lightning mapping instrument as part of NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately $297.1 million. It includes the development of two flight instruments as […]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Credit: NASA NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, invites media to its annual Small Business Industry and Advocate Awards ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 19. The awards recognize small businesses and small business champions from government and industry for their outstanding achievements in […]

From Sept. 6-7, 2024, NASA’s Johnson Space Center brought the excitement of space exploration to the annual Japan Festival at Hermann Park in Houston.   The lively cultural event featured traditional food, dance, martial arts, and more, while Johnson’s booth attracted attendees with interactive space exhibits and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities.   Johnson Space […]

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 16 min read ICESat-2 Hosts Third Applications Workshop Introduction The NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 mission (ICESat-2), launched September 15, 2018, continues the first ICESat mission, delivering invaluable global altimetry […]

“I would say family and part of that ‘first-gen experience’ [shaped me]. Being born in the U.S. gave me a lot of opportunities that my family and parents were robbed of because of situations in their home country. It shaped me to be a hard worker and to aspire to large things because not only was it […]

Mars: Perseverance (Mars 2020) Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter […]

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) researchers examined the structures of four titanium-based compounds solidified in levitators in microgravity and on the ground and found  that the internal microstructures were generally similar. These results could support development of new materials for use in space manufacturing. To produce glass or metal alloys on Earth, raw materials are placed into […]

NASA An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this view of peak fall foliage around Ottawa, Canada on Oct. 14, 2020. Sugar maple leaves turn orange-red, and hickories turn golden-bronze during autumn, regionally known as “the Fall Rhapsody.” Fall color reaches its peak when air temperatures drop and shortened daylight triggers plants to slow and […]

Credit: NASA NASA has awarded the NASA Academic Mission Services 2 (NAMS-2) contract to Crown Consulting Inc., of Arlington, Virginia, to provide the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, aeronautics and exploration technology research and development support. NAMS-2 is a single award hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum potential value of […]

NASA, ESA/Matthias Maurer An astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped this picture of the Moon as the station orbited 265 miles above the U.S. state of Minnesota on Dec. 17, 2021. Astronauts aboard the orbital lab take images using handheld digital cameras, usually through windows in the station’s cupola, for Crew Earth Observations . […]