Tag: NASA

An international scientific team recently published a new map of the ocean floor based on Earth’s gravity field, and it is a particularly useful tool. The maps were created through computer analysis and modeling of new satellite data from ESA’s CryoSat-2 and from the NASA-CNES Jason-1, as well as older data from missions flown in the 1980s and 90s.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) shared this photo taken aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 11, 2015, during preparations for a spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Peake wrote, “Final suit fit check prior to Friday’s EVA – feels just great! #Principia #spacewalk”

Mars’ seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice has eroded many beautiful terrains as it sublimates (goes directly from ice to vapor) every spring. In the region where the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image on Feb. 4, 2009, we see troughs that form a starburst pattern.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy’s orientation clearly reveals the galaxy’s striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disk surrounding a bright galactic bulge.

Astronomers have made the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster using three of NASA’s Great Observatories.

ESA astronaut Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) took this photograph over the west coast of Canada from the International Space Station on Dec. 31, 2015, and shared it with his Twitter followers on Jan. 5, writing, “I was lucky enough to fly a helicopter in these Rocky Mountains once – I’m a bit higher this time! #Principia”

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscope Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has imaged a swath of the Andromeda galaxy — the nearest large galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy.

What looks like a pair of Saturnian satellites is actually a trio upon close inspection.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Expedition 46 Flight Engineer Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) photographed the Alps from orbit on Dec. 27, 2015 and later shared the image with his social media followers, writing, “There may not be much snow in the Alps this winter but they still look stunning from here! #Principia”

NASA’s Earth Observatory has tracked down images resembling all 26 letters of the English alphabet using only NASA satellite imagery and astronaut photography. In this image, the letter ‘Y’ is for yardangs, elongated landforms sculpted by erosion and similar to sand dunes, but instead comprised of sandstone or siltstone.

The striking feature in this image, acquired by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 19, 2014, is a boulder-covered landslide along a canyon wall. Landslides occur when steep slopes fail, sending a mass of soil and rock to flow downhill, leaving behind a scarp at the top of the slope.