Topic: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA detects Gravitational Waves from Two merging Neutron Stars

October 17, 2017 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – For the first time, NASA scientists have detected light tied to a gravitational-wave event, thanks to two merging neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993, located about 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

Shortly after 5:41am PDT (8:41am EDT) on August 17th, 2017, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up a pulse of high-energy light from a powerful explosion, which was immediately reported to astronomers around the globe as a short gamma-ray burst. The scientists at the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves dubbed GW170817 from a pair of smashing stars tied to the gamma-ray burst, encouraging astronomers to look for the aftermath of the explosion.

An artist’s impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. (R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL)

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NASA Sounding Rocket finds signatures of Tiny Solar Flares

October 16, 2017 |

Written by Sarah Frazier
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Like most solar sounding rockets, the second flight of the FOXSI instrument – short for Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager – lasted 15 minutes, with just six minutes of data collection. But in that short time, the cutting-edge instrument found the best evidence to date of a phenomenon scientists have been seeking for years: signatures of tiny solar flares that could help explain the mysterious extreme heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere. 

FOXSI detected a type of light called hard X-rays – whose wavelengths are much shorter than the light humans can see – which is a signature of extremely hot solar material, around 18 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The NASA-funded FOXSI instrument captured new evidence of small solar flares, called nanoflares, during its December 2014 flight on a suborbital sounding rocket. Nanoflares could help explain why the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, is so much hotter than the surface. Here, FOXSI’s observations of hard X-rays are shown in blue, superimposed over a soft X-ray image of the Sun from JAXA and NASA’s Hinode solar-observing satellite. (JAXA/NASA/Hinode/FOXSI)

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NASA and NOAA Satellites observe Hurricane Nate make Landfall

October 9, 2017 |

Written by Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – NASA’s Aqua satellite and NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite analyzed the temperatures in Hurricane Nate’s cloud tops and determined that the most powerful thunderstorms and heaviest rain areas were around the center of the tropical cyclone after it made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

At 8:00pm EDT/7:00pm CDT on October 7th, 2017 Hurricane Nate’s eye was at the mouth of the Mississippi River. National Weather Service radar data and surface observations indicated that Hurricane Nate made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, around 12:30am CDT/1:30am EDT on October 8th, with maximum winds of 85 mph (140 kph).

On October 8th at 4:20am EDT (0820 UTC) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite analyzed Nate’s cloud top temperatures in infrared light and found strongest storms (yellow) around the center of circulation. (NASA/NRL)

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NASA study shows Boyajian Star’s dimness could be caused by Dust

October 6, 2017 |

Written by Elizabeth Landau
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – One of the most mysterious stellar objects may be revealing some of its secrets at last.

Called KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star, or Tabby’s Star, the object has experienced unusual dips in brightness — NASA’s Kepler space telescope even observed dimming of up to 20 percent over a matter of days. In addition, the star has had much subtler but longer-term enigmatic dimming trends, with one continuing today. None of this behavior is expected for normal stars slightly more massive than the Sun.

This illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA to launch James Webb Space Telescope in Spring 2019

October 3, 2017 |

NASA Headquarters

Washington, D.C. – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope now is planning to launch between March and June 2019 from French Guiana, following a schedule assessment of the remaining integration and test activities. Previously Webb was targeted to launch in October 2018.

“The change in launch timing is not indicative of hardware or technical performance concerns,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington. “Rather, the integration of the various spacecraft elements is taking longer than expected.”

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

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NASA’s MESSENGER Spacecraft data shows how Micrometeoroids effect Mercury’s Atmosphere

October 2, 2017 |

Written by Kathryn DuFresne
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Mercury, our smallest planetary neighbor, has very little to call an atmosphere, but it does have a strange weather pattern: morning micro-meteor showers.

Recent modeling along with previously published results from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft — short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging, a mission that observed Mercury from 2011 to 2015 — has shed new light on how certain types of comets influence the lopsided bombardment of Mercury’s surface by tiny dust particles called micrometeoroids. This study also gave new insight into how these micrometeoroid showers can shape Mercury’s very thin atmosphere, called an exosphere. 

Scientists used models along with earlier findings from the MESSENGER mission to shed light on how certain types of comets influence the micrometeoroids that preferentially impact Mercury on the dawn side of the planet. Here, data from the Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer, or MASCS, instrument is overlain on the mosaic from the Mercury Dual Imaging System, or MDIS. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

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NASA’S OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft uses Earth’s Gravity to Slingshot toward Asteroid Bennu

September 25, 2017 |

Written by Nancy Neal Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – NASA’s asteroid sample return spacecraft successfully used Earth’s gravity on Friday to slingshot itself on a path toward the asteroid Bennu, for a rendezvous next August.

At 12:52pm EDT on September 22nd, 2017 the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) spacecraft came within 10,711 miles (17,237 km) of Antarctica, just south of Cape Horn, Chile, before following a route north over the Pacific Ocean.

This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft passing by Earth. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona)

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spots Unusual Object in Asteroid Belt

September 21, 2017 |

Written by Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute

Baltimore, MD – NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope helped an international team of astronomers find that an unusual object in the asteroid belt is, in fact, two asteroids orbiting each other that have comet-like features. These include a bright halo of material, called a coma, and a long tail of dust.

Hubble was used to image the asteroid, designated 300163 (2006 VW139), in September 2016 just before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Sun. Hubble’s crisp images revealed that it was actually not one, but two asteroids of almost the same mass and size, orbiting each other at a distance of 60 miles.

Hubble Space Telescope photo reveals two asteroids orbiting each other that have comet-like features. The asteroid pair, called 2006 VW139/288P, was observed in September 2016, just before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Sun. The photos revealed ongoing activity in the binary system. (NASA, ESA, and J. DePasquale and Z. Levay (STScI))

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NASA observes Hurricane Maria before it makes Landfall

September 20, 2017 |

Written by Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Satellite data is enabling forecasters to look inside and outside of powerful Hurricane Maria. A NASA animation of satellite imagery shows Hurricane Maria’s first landfall on the island of Dominica.

NASA’s GPM satellite provided a 3-D look at the storms within that gave forecasters a clue to Maria strengthening into a Category 5 storm, and NASA’s Aqua satellite gathered temperature data on the frigid cloud tops of the storm.

This image of Category 5 Hurricane Maria moving through the eastern Caribbean Sea was taken on Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. EDT from NOAA’s GOES East satellite. (NASA/NOAA GOES Project)

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NASA observes Tropical Storm Irma moving North up Florida Peninsula

September 12, 2017 |

Written by Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured night-time look at Hurricane Irma as it weakened to a large tropical storm and the GOES East satellite provided a daytime view as the large storm continued moving north over Florida.

Irma made landfall twice on September 10th, 2017, first in the Florida Keys and then near Naples. The storm has now been downgraded to a tropical storm but could still cause significant impacts over Georgia and Alabama. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama was under a Tropical Storm Watch on September 11th.

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this night-time infrared image of Hurricane Imra on Sept. 11, 2017 at 3:21 a.m. EDT (0721 UTC) located over central Florida. (NOAA/NASA Goddard Rapid Response Team)

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