U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón reads her poem for the Europa Clipper mission during an event with NASA, Thursday, June 1, 2023, at the Library of Congress in Washington.

The original poem, entitled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” connects two water worlds – Earth and Europa. The poem will be engraved on a plaque carried aboard the Europa Clipper spacecraft as part of NASA’s "Message in a Bottle" campaign, which invites people around the world to sign their names to the poem that will journey to another world. Participants’ names will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.89 billion kilometers) aboard the Europa Clipper spacecraft, set to launch in October 2024, on its voyage to Jupiter and its moons.

Learn more about Europa Clipper.

Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

Source: www.nasa.gov

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket stands on Pad B, Launch Complex 1, in Māhia, New Zealand, just ahead of a successful launch on Friday, May 26, with NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) CubeSats payload. Now that the final pair of CubeSats are in orbit, TROPICS will study the formation and development of tropical cyclones, known as hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the West Pacific. Hurricane season begins June 1, and the increase of cyclone data collected by TROPICS may lead to improved tropical cyclone forecasts, ultimately helping decision makers and first responders.

Image Credit: Rocket Lab

Source: www.nasa.gov

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But this wide and deep image combining data from two telescopes also reveals its extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the right, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Bosc's fringe-toed lizard (Acanthodactylus boskianus asper) juvenile, in the Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan. Jordan achieved independence from the UK on 25 May 1946.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Two black-bellied whistling ducks walk through a field of wildflowers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 19, 2023. The center shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Merritt Island's strategic location along the Atlantic Flyway provides a resting and feeding place for thousands of wading birds, shorebirds, and songbirds; more than 330 native and migratory bird species call Kennedy and the wildlife refuge home. Diverse habitats that include brackish marshes, saltwater estuaries, and hardwood hammocks provide homes to an amazing diversity of more than 500 species of wildlife.

Learn more about how NASA uses data science for conservation at Kennedy.

Image Credit: NASA/Franki Michaux

Source: www.nasa.gov

Jomblang Cave, a pit cave in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Fern Polypodium aureum Sorus.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Slow life in the teahouse Jiaotong in Chongqing, China. Today is International Tea Day.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Looping through the Jovian system in the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft recorded stunning views of Europa and uncovered evidence that the moon's icy surface likely hides a deep, global ocean. Galileo's Europa image data has been remastered here, with improved calibrations to produce a color image approximating what the human eye might see. Europa's long curving fractures hint at the subsurface liquid water. The tidal flexing the large moon experiences in its elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to keep the ocean liquid. But more tantalizing is the possibility that even in the absence of sunlight that process could also supply the energy to support life, making Europa one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. What kind of life could thrive in a deep, dark, subsurface ocean? Consider planet Earth's own extreme shrimp.

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Common clubtail (Gomphus vulgatissimus) in Hesse, Germany.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 glistens in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This concentrated group of stars lies around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Globular clusters like NGC 6325 are tightly bound collections of stars with anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of members. They can be found in all types of galaxies and act as natural laboratories for astronomers studying star formation. This is because the constituent stars of globular clusters tend to form at roughly the same time and with similar initial composition, meaning astronomers can use them to fine-tune their theories of how stars evolve.

Astronomers inspected this particular cluster not to understand star formation, but to search for a hidden monster. Though it might look peaceful, astronomers suspect this cluster could contain an intermediate-mass black hole that is subtly affecting the motion of surrounding stars. Previous research found that the distribution of stars in some highly concentrated globular clusters – those with stars packed relatively tightly together – was slightly different from what astronomers expected.

This discrepancy suggests that at least some of these densely packed globular clusters – including perhaps NGC 6325 – could have a black hole lurking at the center. To explore this hypothesis further, astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to observe a larger sample of densely populated globular clusters, which included this star-studded image of NGC 6325. Additional data from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys was also incorporated into this image.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, E. Noyola, R. Cohen

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
[email protected]

Source: www.nasa.gov

A menagerie of interesting astronomical finds are visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In addition to several large elliptical galaxies, a ring-shaped galaxy is lurking on the right of the image. A pair of bright stars are also visible at the left of the image, notable for their colorful crisscrossing diffraction spikes. This collection of astronomical curiosities is the galaxy cluster ACO S520, located in the constellation Pictor and captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

ACO S520 represents one of a series of Hubble observations searching for massive, luminous galaxy clusters that had not been captured by earlier surveys. Astronomers took advantage of occasional gaps in Hubble's busy schedule to capture images of these barely explored galaxy clusters, revealing a wealth of interesting targets for further study with Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Galaxy clusters are among the largest known objects in the universe. Studying these objects can provide insights into the distribution of dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of the mass of a galaxy cluster.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
[email protected]

Source: www.nasa.gov

This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows JO204, a ‘jellyfish galaxy’ so named for the bright tendrils of gas that appear in this image as drifting lazily below JO204’s bright central bulk. The galaxy lies almost 600 million light-years away in the constellation Sextans. Hubble observed JO204 as part of a survey performed with the intention of better understanding star formation under extreme conditions.

While the delicate ribbons of gas beneath JO204 may look like floating jellyfish tentacles, they are in fact the outcome of an intense astronomical process known as ram pressure stripping. Ram pressure is a particular type of pressure exerted on a body when it moves relative to a fluid. An intuitive example is the sensation of pressure you experience when you are standing in an intense gust of wind – the wind is a moving fluid, and your body feels pressure from it. An extension of this analogy is that your body will remain whole and coherent, but the more loosely bound things – like your hair and your clothes – will flap in the wind. The same is true for jellyfish galaxies. They experience ram pressure because of their movement against the intergalactic medium that fills the spaces between galaxies in a galaxy cluster. The galaxies experience intense pressure from that movement, and as a result their more loosely bound gas is stripped away. This gas is mostly the colder and denser gas in the galaxy – gas which, when stirred and compressed by the ram pressure, collapses and forms new stars in the jellyfish’s beautiful tendrils.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
[email protected]

Source: www.nasa.gov

From left, astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Hammock Koch talk with television host Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on April 5, 2023. The astronauts, who will orbit the Moon aboard Artemis II in late 2024, appeared on the show after being named by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency on April 3. NASA astronauts Wiseman, Glover and Hammock Koch will serve as mission commander, pilot and mission specialist respectively. Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, will serve as a mission specialist.

Image credit: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"/Scott Kowalchyk

Source: www.nasa.gov

This Feb 3, 2023, enhanced-color image from Landsat 9 highlights a green and blue patchwork pattern in flooded rice fields in southwestern Louisiana. Raised levees used for water management form the grid pattern between the fields, which appear dark blue.

As it flowed through several southern states over tens of thousands of years, the Mississippi River left a valuable layer of fertile soil in its wake. This low-lying floodplain and the flat coastal prairies of Louisiana and Texas are now home to most of the rice farms in the United States. In 2021, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—collectively known as the Rice Belt—produced about 73 percent of all rice in the United States. 

Image Credit: NASA

Source: www.nasa.gov

Rough-sawn cut surface of a cherry wood board

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Elementary school students eagerly raise their hands as Diana Trujillo, technical group supervisor for sequence planning and execution and tactical mission lead for the Mars Perseverance rover, speaks to them on March 13, 2023.

Born and raised in Colombia, Trujillo immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 to pursue her dream of working for NASA. She has held several roles for NASA and JPL, including Mars Curiosity rover mission lead, deputy project system engineer, and deputy team chief of engineering operations on Curiosity.

Trujillo has also been active in sharing the excitement and opportunities of STEM with the public. She co-created and hosted #JuntosPerseveramos, NASA’s first Spanish-language live broadcast of a planetary landing, for Perseverance’s arrival on Mars, which attracted millions of viewers worldwide.

Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Source: www.nasa.gov

The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen as it lands with Crew-5 mission members aboard on Saturday, March 11, 2023. The crew returned in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. EST.

During the 156.5 days they spent aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 68, Crew-5 participated in several spacewalks to prepare the space station for solar arrays and conducted various experiments, including growing plants without soil and studying radiation exposure.

Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

Source: www.nasa.gov

The irregular spiral galaxy NGC 5486 hangs against a background of dim, distant galaxies in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The tenuous disk of the galaxy is threaded through with pink wisps of star formation, which stand out from the diffuse glow of the galaxy’s bright core. While this particular galaxy has indistinct, meandering spiral arms, it lies close to the much larger Pinwheel Galaxy, which is one of the best-known examples of a ‘grand design’ spiral galaxy with prominent and well-defined spiral arms. In 2006, Hubble captured an image of the Pinwheel Galaxy which was, at the time, the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever taken with Hubble.

NGC 5486 lies 110 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. This observation comes from a selection of Hubble images exploring debris left behind by Type II supernovae. As massive stars reach the end of their lives, they cast off huge amounts of gas and dust before ending their lives in titanic supernova explosions. NGC 5486 hosted a supernova in 2004, and astronomers used the keen vision of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys to explore the aftermath in the hopes of learning more about these explosive events.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
301-286-1940

Source: www.nasa.gov

Jamesa Stokes' path to being an engineer at NASA started out on a completely different road.

While she loved and excelled at math and science, she was also passionate about studio art, her first major in college.  But knowing that science can also be a creative pursuit, she switched to physics and embarked on a journey to NASA when she reached grad school.

Stokes, who received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Auburn University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, was awarded a graduate fellowship to conduct research at NASA Glenn.  She later became a NASA intern and converted to a full-time Materials Research Engineer when she finished her Ph.D.

“Working at NASA means tackling the bigger problems we face for the benefit of society,” said Stokes.  “My job is to develop and understand how advanced materials behave in the extreme environments of space. It will help protect not only the lives of astronauts but also flight vehicles.”

Are you considering a STEM career?  Stokes says there are many ways to reach your goal.

“There is no required path to becoming a scientist or engineer nor is there one way a scientist or engineer is supposed to act or look,” she said.  “Never let anyone discourage you from pursuing what you like and remember that you can always be more than whatever societal conventions envision your future to be. Participate in STEM clubs and activities to figure out what makes you passionate about science and engineering.”

Image Description: Engineer Jamesa Stokes works in a special laboratory testing advanced materials to see how they behave in extreme space environments. Credits: Jef Janis, NASA Glenn Research Center

Source: www.nasa.gov

While the International Space Station orbited over the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 19, 2022, NASA astronaut Bob Hines captured this image of South Padre Island, a barrier island along the coast of Texas. The island is part of the greater Padre Island, the longest barrier island in the world, which spans a length of 113 miles (182 kilometers).

Barrier islands along the Gulf and East coasts of North America play a critical role protecting the mainland from the damaging effects of storms. They bear the brunt of large storm surges and reduce flooding on the mainland.

Image Credit: NASA/Bob Hines

Source: www.nasa.gov