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STS-58 Post Flight Press Con
…
STS-58 POST FLIGHT PRESS CON
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1993
| Description |
STS-58 POST FLIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE JSC1382 - (1993) - 23 Minutes Commander: John E. Blaha Pilot: Richard A. Searfoss Mission Specialists: M. Rhea Seddon, William Surles 'Bill' McArthur, Jr., David A. Wolf, Shannon W. Lucid Payload Specialists: Martin J. Fettman Dates: October 18-November 1, 1993 Vehicle: Columbia OV-102 Payloads: Spacelab Life Sciences-2 (SLS-2), SAREX-II, OARE, and PILOT Landing site: Concrete runway 22 at Edwards AFB, CA |
| Date |
1993 |
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JSC1432_STS65_Post_Flight_Pr
…
STS-65 POST FLIGHT PRESENTAT
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1994
| Description |
STS-65 POST FLIGHT PRESENTATION JSC1432 - (1994) - 44 3/4 Minutes Commander: Robert D. Cabana Pilot: James Donald Halsell, Jr. Mission Specialists: Richard J. Hieb, Carl E. Walz, Leroy Chiao, Donald A. Thomas Payload Specialist: Chiaki Naito-Mukai Dates: July 8-22, 1994 Vehicle: Columbia OV-102 Payloads: IML-2, CPCG, SAREX-II, OARE, MAST, and AMOS Landing site: Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center, FL |
| Date |
1994 |
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JSC1564_STS75_Post_Flight_Pr
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STS-75 POST FLIGHT PRESENTAT
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1996
| Description |
STS-75 POST FLIGHT PRESENTATION JSC1564 (1996) 38 1/4 Minutes - Commander: Andrew M. Allen Pilot: Scott J. 'Doc' Horowitz Mission Specialists: Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Maurizio Cheli (Italy), Claude Nicollier (Switzerland), Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Umberto Guidoni (Italy) Dates: February 22-March 9,1996 Vehicle: Columbia OV-102 Payloads: Tethered Satellite System, USMP-3, OARE, and CPCG Landing site: Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center, FL |
| Date |
1996 |
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JSC1589_STS78_Post_Flight_Pr
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STS-78 POST FLIGHT PRESENTAT
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1996
| Description |
STS-78 POST FLIGHT PRESENTATION JSC1589 (1996) - 34 Minutes - Commander: Terence T. 'Tom' Henricks Pilot: Kevin R. Kregel Mission Specialists: Richard M. Linnehan, Susan J. Helms, Charles E. Brady Jr., Jean-Jacques Favier (France), Robert Brent Thirsk (Canada) Dates: June 20-July 7, 1996 Vehicle: Columbia OV-102 Payloads: Spacelab-LMS, SAMS-D, OARE, PDPU, EDO Pallet, and SAREX Landing site: Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center, FL |
| Date |
1996 |
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Long Duration Balloon Facili
…
Standing in front of the Lon
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6/23/08
| Description |
Standing in front of the Long Duration Balloon Facility are ATIC lead scientist Joachim Isbert and NASA engineer Tia Ferguson. In December 2007 and January 2008, NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, launched and recovered three high-altitude balloons from the Antarctica facility. |
| Date |
6/23/08 |
|
NASA's Mars Team Teaches Old
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Animated route of Spirit's e
…
1/2/07
Space Shuttle Model
This illustration was used t
…
3/4/08
| Description |
This illustration was used to develop a 3-D model of the space shuttle Columbia. The model was later used in a video to show where damage occurred on the leading edge of Columbia's wing. Engineers in NASA Glenn's Ballistics Impact Lab performed experiments that helped determine how foam from the external tank had caused the damage. Art by Eric Mindek (RS Information Systems, Inc.) |
| Date |
3/4/08 |
|
The Columbia Orchestra
The Columbia Orchestra prese
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9/13/08
| Description |
The Columbia Orchestra presents Christopher Theofanidis Rainbow Body in Goddard's Building 8 Auditorium. Image credit:NASA GSFC |
| Date |
9/13/08 |
|
NASA Honors Fallen Colleague
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NASA's Kennedy Space Center
…
12/9/09
| Description |
NASA's Kennedy Space Center managers paid tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency's Day of Remembrance observance on Jan. 29. Kennedy Center Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana, Kennedy Deputy Center Director Janet Petro and United Space Alliance Vice President of Launch and Recovery Systems and Florida Site Executive Mark Nappi took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Space Mirror Memorial. NASA's Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. |
| Date |
12/9/09 |
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Shuttle Columbia in the Mate
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The Space Shuttle Columbia c
…
10/9/08
| Description |
The Space Shuttle Columbia can be seen in the post-flight processing facility known as the MDD (Mate-Demate Device) at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, CA, in this aerial view taken shortly after completing its first orbital mission with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base. April, 1981 NASA / Photo ECN-14962 |
| Date |
10/9/08 |
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The Antelope Valley Inn in L
…
The Antelope Valley Inn in L
…
10/9/08
| Description |
The Antelope Valley Inn in Lancaster, CA, celebrates the Space Shuttle Columbia's first landing at nearby Edwards AFB on April 14, 1981. Columbia was built in the Lancaster area. April 1981 NASA / Photo ECN-15435 |
| Date |
10/9/08 |
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Shuttle Columbia Touches Dow
…
The Space Shuttle Columbia t
…
10/9/08
| Description |
The Space Shuttle Columbia touches down on lakebed runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to conclude the first orbital shuttle mission. April 14, 1981 NASA / Photo ED06-0045-1 |
| Date |
10/9/08 |
|
DC-8
ED09-0284-18 Encased in its
…
10/8/09
| Description |
ED09-0284-18 Encased in its insulated cover for thermal stability, a gravimeter was installed in the cabin of NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory in preparation for Operation Ice Bridge. The sensor, managed by Columbia University, will allow scientists to measure the shape of the ocean cavity beneath floating Antarctic ice shelves. Operation Ice Bridge is a multi-year study that tracks changes in Antarctica's sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. September 29, 2009 NASA Photo / Tom Tschida |
| Date |
10/8/09 |
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Wenatchee, Washington L & C
…
This spaceborne radar image
…
8/15/96
| Date |
8/15/96 |
| Description |
This spaceborne radar image shows a segment of the Columbia River as it passes through the area of Wenatchee, Washington, about 220 kilometers (136 miles) east of Seattle. The Wenatchee Mountains, part of the Cascade Range, are shown in green at the lower left of the image. The Cascades create a "rain shadow" for the region, limiting rainfall east of the range to less than 26 centimeters (10 inches) per year. The radar's ability to see different types of vegetation is highlighted in the contrast between the pine forests, that appear in green and the dry valley plain that shows up as dark purple. The cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee are the grid-like areas straddling the Columbia River in the left center of the image. With a population of about 60,000, the region produces about half of Washington state's lucrative apple crop. Several orchard areas appear as green rectangular patches to the right of the river in the lower right center. Radar images such as these can be used to monitor land use patterns in areas such as Wenatchee, that have diverse and rapidly changing urban, agricultural and wildland pressures. This image was acquired by Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 10, 1994. The image is 38 kilometers by 45 kilometers (24 miles by 30 miles) and is centered at 47.3 degrees North latitude, 120.1 degrees West longitude. North is toward the upper left. The colors are assigned to different radar frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is L- band, horizontally transmitted and received, green is L-band, horizontally transmitted, vertically received, and blue is C- band, horizontally transmitted, vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian, and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. ##### |
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Nile River, Sudan
These are two views of part
…
12/6/96
| Date |
12/6/96 |
| Description |
These are two views of part of the Nile River, near the Fourth Cataract in Sudan. The top image is a photograph taken with color infrared film from Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1995. The radar image at the bottom was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in April 1994. The thick, white band in the top right of the radar image is an ancient channel of the Nile that is now buried under layers of sand. This channel cannot be seen in the photograph and its existence was not known before this radar image was processed. The area to the left in both images shows how the Nile is forced to flow through a chaotic set of fractures that causes the river to break up into smaller channels, suggesting that the Nile has only recently established this course. The radar images have allowed scientists to develop new theories to explain the origin of the "Great Bend" of Nile in Sudan, where the river takes a broad turn to the southwest before resuming its northward course to the Mediterranean Sea. Each image is about 50 kilometers by 19 kilometers (31 miles by 12 miles). North is toward the upper right. The images are centered at 19.0 degrees North latitude, 32.6 degrees East longitude. The radar image is produced with the following color assignments: Red is C-band horizontally transmitted and vertically received, Green is L-band horizontally transmitted and vertically received, and Blue is L-band horizontally transmitted and horizontally received. Radar brightness values are inverted for each color channel. SIR-C/X- SAR is a joint mission of the United States, German and Italian space agencies. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and manages the SIR-C portion of the mission for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. ##### |
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Amirani's Big Lava Flow on I
…
These images from NASA's Gal
…
2/26/01
| Date |
2/26/01 |
| Description |
These images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft show changes in the largest active field lava flows in the solar system, the Amirani lava flow on Jupiter's moon Io. Scientists have identified 23 distinct new flows by comparing the two images taken 134 days apart, on Oct. 11, 1999, and Feb. 22, 2000. The Amirani lava-flow field spans more than 300 kilometers (190 miles). Individual flows within it are each several kilometers or miles long, which is about the size of the entire active eruption on Kilauea, Hawaii. In total, the new lava flows at Amirani covered about 620 square kilometers (240 square miles) of Io in less than five months. By comparison, Kilauea covered only about 10 square kilometers (4 square miles) in the same time. Amirani is huge even when compared to other Ionian lava flows: The Prometheus lava flow field covered only about 60 square kilometers (24 square miles) during this time. Galileo scientists are studying Amirani to understand how such large lava flows are created. The last eruption this size on Earth happened about 15 million years ago along the Columbia River in what is now the state of Washington. Many scientists thought that such long lava flows were formed in violent volcanic outbursts. However, the eruption observed at Amirani is relatively calm, despite the fact that over 100 tons of lava are disgorged every second. Galileo's observations of Io indicate that huge, ancient lava flows on the Earth, such as the Columbia River flood basalts, could also have formed in relatively tranquil eruptions. The color image on the left is a composite of black-and- white images collected on Feb. 22, 2000, at a resolution of 210 meters (690 feet) per picture element, and color images collected on June 30, 1999, at 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mile) per picture element. The white boxes and arrows show the locations of the areas analyzed in detail on the right. The left-hand pair of black-and-white images, labeled I24, are parts of a mosaic collected on Oct. 11, 1999, at 500 meters (550 yards) per picture element. The center pair of images, labeled I27, shows what the same areas looked like on Feb. 22, 2000. These later images are about twice as sharp as the earlier images, making some features that did not change appear crisper. In order to demonstrate the real changes, the I27 images were divided by the I24 images, producing the pair of ratio images on the right. The new dark lava that erupted between October 1999 and February 2000 has been highlighted in red. Images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo . The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. # # # # # |
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Washington, D.C. L-band, b&w
This radar image of the Wash
…
3/2/95
| Date |
3/2/95 |
| Description |
This radar image of the Washington, D.C. area demonstrates the capability of imaging radar as a useful tool for urban planners and managers to map and monitor land use patterns. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X- band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 150th orbit on April 18, 1994. North is toward the upper right. The Potomac River enters the scene at the top of the image, widens near the center of the image, then runs south and west off the left side of the image. Downtown Washington appears near the center, just to the right of the point where the river widens. The image shows an area 50.3 kilometers by 45.0 kilometers (31.2 miles by 27.9 miles) that is centered at 38.9 degrees north latitude and 77.1 degrees west longitude. The radar illumination is from the left side of the image. The image shows a single channel of SIR-C radar data: L-band, horizontally transmitted and received. State and city boundaries are also visible in the image. Virginia is to the left (southwest) of the Potomac River. Maryland and the District of Columbia are to the right (northeast). The avenues that form the boundary between Maryland and the District of Columbia appear as bright lines because the radar strikes the walls of buildings along the avenues at a perpendicular angle. The dark strip near the center of the image is the National Mall, and the Ellipse and White House grounds can be seen as an adjacent dark patch. The Capital Beltway highway appears as a thin black strip encircling the city. The large dark rectangle near the bottom of the image is Andrews Air Force Base, home of the presidential plane Air Force One. Dark patches to the right of the image represent some of the few remaining agricultural areas in this rapidly expanding metropolitan area. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community to better understand the global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused by nature and those changes which are induced by human activity. SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v.(DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR. ##### |
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NGC 7793
| Title |
NGC 7793 |
| Description |
Galaxy NGC 7793, located approximately 10 million light-years away, is a member of the Sculptor group of galaxies. This galaxy cluster, named after the constellation in which it resides, is one of the closest to our own Local Group of galaxies. This image was captured as part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). As the "glowing" red emission maps out, Spitzer is able to pierce through dense clouds of gas and dust that comprise the spiral disk, revealing new star formation that is driving the evolution of the galaxy. The SINGS image is a four channel false color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
|
NGC 3627 (M66)
| Title |
NGC 3627 (M66) |
| Description |
This image of spiral galaxy NGC 3627, also known as Messier 66, was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). NGC 3627 is estimated to be 30 million light-years distant and seen towards the constellation Leo. Astronomers suspect that the galaxy's distorted shape is due to its ongoing gravitational interactions with its neighbors Messier 65 and NGC 3628. NGC 3627 is another brilliant example of a barred spiral galaxy, the most common type of disk galaxy in the local Universe. Its blue core and bar-like structure illustrates a concentration of older stars. While the bar seems devoid of star formation, the bar ends are bright red and actively forming stars. A barred spiral offers an exquisite laboratory for star formation because it contains many different environments with varying levels of star-formation activity, e.g., nucleus, rings, bar, the bar ends and spiral arms. The SINGS image is a four-channel false-color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
|
NGC 2976
| Title |
NGC 2976 |
| Description |
The nearby galaxy NGC 2976, located approximately 10 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major near the Big Dipper, was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). Unlike other spiral galaxies where the star-forming and dusty regions highlight spiral arms, this galaxy has a rather chaotic appearance. As the "glowing" red emission maps out, Spitzer is able to pierce through dense clouds of gas and dust that comprise the spiral disk, revealing new star formation that is driving the evolution of the galaxy. The SINGS image is a four channel false color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
|
NGC 3351 (M95)
| Title |
NGC 3351 (M95) |
| Description |
This image of galaxy NGC 3351, located approximately 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The remarkable galaxy is graced with beautiful "rings" of star formation as seen at the longer (red) wavelengths, pierced by a massive bar-like stellar structure (blue light) that extends from the nucleus to the ringed disk. The SINGS image is a four-channel false-color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
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Spitzer Turns Two (NGC 4725)
| Title |
Spitzer Turns Two (NGC 4725) |
| Description |
On August 25, 2003, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope blasted into the same dark skies it now better understands. In just two years, the observatory's infrared eyes have uncovered a hidden universe teeming with warm stellar embryos, chaotic planet-forming disks, and majestic galaxies, including the delightfully odd galaxy called NGC 4725 shown here. This peculiar galaxy is thought to have only one spiral arm. Most spiral galaxies have two or more arms. Astronomers refer to NGC 4725 as a ringed barred spiral galaxy because a prominent ring of stars encircles a bar of stars at its center (the bar is seen here as a horizontal ridge with faint red features). Our own Milky Way galaxy sports multiple arms and a proportionally smaller bar and ring. In this false-color Spitzer picture, the galaxy's arm is highlighted in red, while its center and outlying halo are blue. Red represents warm dust clouds illuminated by newborn stars, while blue indicates older, cooler stellar populations. The red spokes seen projecting outward from the arm are clumps of stellar matter that may have been pushed together by instable magnetic fields. NGC 4725 is located 41 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. This picture is composed of four images taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (red), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8- and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
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NGC 1566
| Title |
NGC 1566 |
| Description |
This beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1566, located approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The faint blue light is coming from mature stars, while the "glowing" red spiral arms indicate active star formation and dust emission. Much of the active star formation is seen in the two symmetric arms that are reminiscent of other grand design spirals such as the Whirlpool galaxy. The small and very luminous blue nucleus suggests that this is a Seyfert galaxy (a galaxy that is actively emitting radiation from a very small region in its core). The SINGS image is a four-channel false-color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
|
A More Spectacular Sombrero
…
| Title |
A More Spectacular Sombrero (Widescreen Version) |
| Description |
This movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to infrared views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." Viewed from Earth, the spiral galaxy is seen nearly edge-on, just six degrees away from its equatorial plane. 50,000 light-years across, the Sombrero galaxy is considered one of the most massive objects at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is located 28 million light-years away, hosts a rich system of nearly 2,000 globular clusters and may harbor a super-massive black hole. In Hubble's visible light image, only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, pierced through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
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Spitzer Spies Spectacular So
…
| Title |
Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero |
| Description |
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
|
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So
…
| Title |
Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero |
| Description |
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
|
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So
…
| Title |
Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero |
| Description |
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
|
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So
…
| Title |
Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero |
| Description |
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
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A More Spectacular Sombrero
| Title |
A More Spectacular Sombrero |
| Description |
This movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to infrared views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." Viewed from Earth, the spiral galaxy is seen nearly edge-on, just six degrees away from its equatorial plane. 50,000 light-years across, the Sombrero galaxy is considered one of the most massive objects at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is located 28 million light-years away, hosts a rich system of nearly 2,000 globular clusters and may harbor a super-massive black hole. In Hubble's visible light image, only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, pierced through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon. |
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NGC 4579
| Title |
NGC 4579 |
| Description |
Galaxy NGC 4579 was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). In this image, the red structures are areas where gas and dust are thought to be forming new stars, while the blue light comes from mature stars. This SINGS image is a four-channel, false-color composite, where blue indicates emission at 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) in this picture has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8 micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. |
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Red Giant Plunging Through S
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| Title |
Red Giant Plunging Through Space |
| Description |
This image from the Spitzer Space Telescope (left panel) shows the "bow shock" of a dying star named R Hydrae (R Hya) in the constellation Hydra. Bow shocks are formed where the stellar wind from a star are pushed into a bow shape (illustration, right panel) as the star plunges through the gas and dust between stars. Our own Sun has a bow shock, but prior to this image one had never been observed around this particular class of red giant star. R Hya moves through space at approximately 50 kilometers per second. As it does so, it discharges dust and gas into space. Because the star is relatively cool, that ejecta quickly assumes a solid state and collides with the interstellar medium. The resulting dusty nebula is invisible to the naked eye but can be detected using an infrared telescope. This bow shock is 16,295 AU from the star to the apex and 6,188 AU thick. 1 AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth. The mass of the bow shock is about 400 times the mass of the Earth. The false-color Spitzer image shows infrared emissions at 70 microns. Brighter colors represent greater intensities of infrared light at that wavelength. The location of the star itself is drawn onto the picture in the black "unobserved" region in the center. |
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Dusty Death of a Massive Sta
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| Title |
Dusty Death of a Massive Star |
| Description |
The supernova remnant1E0102.2-7219 (inset) sits next to the nebula N76 in a bright, star-forming region of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy located about 200,000 light-years from Earth. A supernova remnant is made up of the messy bits and pieces of a massive star that exploded, or went supernova. The image on the right shows glowing dust grains in three wavelengths of infrared radiation: 24 microns (red) measured by the multiband imaging photometer aboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and 8.0 microns (green) and 3.6 microns (blue) measured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. The red bubble is a dust envelope around the supernova remnant E0102, which is being heated by the shock wave created in the explosion of the remnant's massive progenitor star some 1,000 years ago. Most of the blue stars are in the Small Magellanic Cloud, though some are in our own galaxy. The close-up of E0102 on the left is a composite of the infrared observations by Spitzer (red), an optical image (0.5 microns) captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (green), and X-ray measurements by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue). The X-ray ring is generated when the reverse shock slams into stellar material that was expelled during the explosion. |
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Dusty Death of a Massive Sta
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| Title |
Dusty Death of a Massive Star |
| Description |
The supernova remnant1E0102.2-7219 (inset) sits next to the nebula N76 in a bright, star-forming region of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy located about 200,000 light-years from Earth. A supernova remnant is made up of the messy bits and pieces of a massive star that exploded, or went supernova. The image on the right shows glowing dust grains in three wavelengths of infrared radiation: 24 microns (red) measured by the multiband imaging photometer aboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and 8.0 microns (green) and 3.6 microns (blue) measured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. The red bubble is a dust envelope around the supernova remnant E0102, which is being heated by the shock wave created in the explosion of the remnant's massive progenitor star some 1,000 years ago. Most of the blue stars are in the Small Magellanic Cloud, though some are in our own galaxy. The close-up of E0102 on the left is a composite of the infrared observations by Spitzer (red), an optical image (0.5 microns) captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (green), and X-ray measurements by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue). The X-ray ring is generated when the reverse shock slams into stellar material that was expelled during the explosion. |
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Dusty Death of a Massive Sta
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| Title |
Dusty Death of a Massive Star |
| Description |
The supernova remnant1E0102.2-7219 (inset) sits next to the nebula N76 in a bright, star-forming region of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy located about 200,000 light-years from Earth. A supernova remnant is made up of the messy bits and pieces of a massive star that exploded, or went supernova. The image on the right shows glowing dust grains in three wavelengths of infrared radiation: 24 microns (red) measured by the multiband imaging photometer aboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and 8.0 microns (green) and 3.6 microns (blue) measured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. The red bubble is a dust envelope around the supernova remnant E0102, which is being heated by the shock wave created in the explosion of the remnant's massive progenitor star some 1,000 years ago. Most of the blue stars are in the Small Magellanic Cloud, though some are in our own galaxy. The close-up of E0102 on the left is a composite of the infrared observations by Spitzer (red), an optical image (0.5 microns) captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (green), and X-ray measurements by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue). The X-ray ring is generated when the reverse shock slams into stellar material that was expelled during the explosion. |
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Dwarfs in Coma Cluster
| Title |
Dwarfs in Coma Cluster |
| Description |
This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. |
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Dwarfs in Coma Cluster
| Title |
Dwarfs in Coma Cluster |
| Description |
This false-color mosaic of the central region of the Coma cluster combines infrared and visible-light images to reveal thousands of faint objects (green). Follow-up observations showed that many of these objects, which appear here as faint green smudges, are dwarf galaxies belonging to the cluster. Two large elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 and NGC 4874, dominate the cluster's center. The mosaic combines visible-light data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (color coded blue) with long- and short-wavelength infrared views (red and green, respectively) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. |
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Missing Black Holes Found!
| Title |
Missing Black Holes Found! |
| Description |
A long-lost population of active supermassive black holes, or quasars, has been uncovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. This image, taken with Spitzer's infrared vision, shows a fraction of these black holes, which are located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue). Spitzer originally scanned the field of galaxies shown in the picture as part of a multiwavelength program called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or Goods. This picture shows a portion of the Goods field called Goods-South. When astronomers saw the Spitzer data, they were surprised to find that hundreds of the galaxies between 9 and 11 billion light-years away were shining with an unexpected excess of infrared light. They then followed up with X-ray data from Chandra of the same field, and applied a technique called stacking, which adds up the faint light of multiple galaxies. The results revealed that the infrared-bright galaxies are hiding many black holes that had been theorized about before but never seen. This excess infrared light is being produced by the growing black holes. The other smudges in this picture are distant galaxies, most of which are closer to us than the circled galaxies, causing them to appear brighter. This image was taken by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer at a wavelength of 24 microns. It shows the faintest distant objects ever observed with Spitzer at this wavelength. |
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Missing Black Holes Found!
| Title |
Missing Black Holes Found! |
| Description |
A long-lost population of active supermassive black holes, or quasars, has been uncovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. This image, taken with Spitzer's infrared vision, shows a fraction of these black holes, which are located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue). Spitzer originally scanned the field of galaxies shown in the picture as part of a multiwavelength program called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or Goods. This picture shows a portion of the Goods field called Goods-South. When astronomers saw the Spitzer data, they were surprised to find that hundreds of the galaxies between 9 and 11 billion light-years away were shining with an unexpected excess of infrared light. They then followed up with X-ray data from Chandra of the same field, and applied a technique called stacking, which adds up the faint light of multiple galaxies. The results revealed that the infrared-bright galaxies are hiding many black holes that had been theorized about before but never seen. This excess infrared light is being produced by the growing black holes. The other smudges in this picture are distant galaxies, most of which are closer to us than the circled galaxies, causing them to appear brighter. This image was taken by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer at a wavelength of 24 microns. It shows the faintest distant objects ever observed with Spitzer at this wavelength. |
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Missing Black Holes Found!
| Title |
Missing Black Holes Found! |
| Description |
A long-lost population of active supermassive black holes, or quasars, has been uncovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. This image, taken with Spitzer's infrared vision, shows a fraction of these black holes, which are located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue). Spitzer originally scanned the field of galaxies shown in the picture as part of a multiwavelength program called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or Goods. This picture shows a portion of the Goods field called Goods-South. When astronomers saw the Spitzer data, they were surprised to find that hundreds of the galaxies between 9 and 11 billion light-years away were shining with an unexpected excess of infrared light. They then followed up with X-ray data from Chandra of the same field, and applied a technique called stacking, which adds up the faint light of multiple galaxies. The results revealed that the infrared-bright galaxies are hiding many black holes that had been theorized about before but never seen. This excess infrared light is being produced by the growing black holes. The other smudges in this picture are distant galaxies, most of which are closer to us than the circled galaxies, causing them to appear brighter. This image was taken by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer at a wavelength of 24 microns. It shows the faintest distant objects ever observed with Spitzer at this wavelength. |
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NASA TV's This Week at NASA,
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Scientists now believe Earth
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04/09/10
| Description |
Scientists now believe Earth's nearest neighbor Venus is more like our planet than they previously thought. New findings based on pictures and infrared imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission and NASA's Magellan spacecraft confirm that Venus is not a cold rock but a dynamic host of active volcanoes like those found in Hawaii. * Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover, has reached another milestone in its travels around the Red Planet. The rover has covered more than twelve-and-a-half miles since landing on Mars six years ago. * The first, full-scale, friction stir welded and spun-formed tank dome was unveiled by NASA and its partners at a special ceremony at the Marshall Space Flight Center. * Four members of the STS-130 Endeavour space shuttle crew expressed their appreciation for employees of the Marshall Space Flight Center during a recent visit. The crew thanked employees for supporting the successful February mission to the International Space Station. Among other contributions, Marshall provided the three main engines that powered the crew on their 14-day mission. * Twenty-nine years ago, on April 12, 1981, space shuttle Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. Commanded by Gemini and Apollo veteran John Young and piloted by first-time flyer Bob Crippen, this first space shuttle mission, STS-1, was also the first U.S. manned orbital space flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project almost six years earlier. |
| Date |
04/09/10 |
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Empty Nest
| title |
Empty Nest |
| date |
01.18.2004 |
| description |
This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars. This spectacular view may encapsulate Spirit's entire journey, from lander to its possible final destination toward the east hills. On its way, the rover will travel 250 meters (820 feet) northeast to a large crater approximately 200 meters (660 feet) across, the ridge of which can be seen to the left of this image. To the right are the east hills, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the lander. The picture was taken on the 16th martian day, or sol, of the mission (Jan. 18/19, 2004). A portion of Spirit's solar panels appear in the foreground. Data from the panoramic camera's green, blue and infrared filters were combined to create this approximate true color image. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL/Cornell |
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Moonrise
| title |
Moonrise |
| date |
01.26.2003 |
| description |
A quarter moon is visible in this oblique view of Earth's horizon and airglow, recorded with a digital still camera on the final mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Columbia's crew was killed on Feb. 1, 2003 when the shuttle broke up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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'McMurdo' Panorama from Spir
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| title |
'McMurdo' Panorama from Spirit's 'Winter Haven' |
| description |
This 360-degree view, called the "McMurdo" panorama, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. From April through October 2006, Spirit has stayed on a small hill known as "Low Ridge." There, the rover's solar panels are tilted toward the sun to maintain enough solar power for Spirit to keep making scientific observations throughout the winter on southern Mars. This view of the surroundings from Spirit's "Winter Haven" is presented in approximately true color. Oct. 26, 2006, marks Spirit's 1,000th sol of what was planned as a 90-sol mission. (A sol is a Martian day, which lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds). The rover has lived through the most challenging part of its second Martian winter. Its solar power levels are rising again. Spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars will begin in early 2007. Before that, the rover team hopes to start driving Spirit again toward scientifically interesting places in the "Inner Basin" and "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev crater. The McMurdo panorama is providing team members with key pieces of scientific and topographic information for choosing where to continue Spirit's exploration adventure. The Pancam began shooting component images of this panorama during Spirit's sol 814 (April 18, 2006) and completed the part shown here on sol 932 (Aug. 17, 2006). The panorama was acquired using all 13 of the Pancam's color filters, using lossless compression for the red and blue stereo filters, and only modest levels of compression on the remaining filters. The overall panorama consists of 1,449 Pancam images and represents a raw data volume of nearly 500 megabytes. It is thus the largest, highest-fidelity view of Mars acquired from either rover. Additional photo coverage of the parts of the rover deck not shown here was completed on sol 980 (Oct. 5 , 2006). The team is completing the processing and mosaicking of those final pieces of the panorama, and that image will be released on the Web shortly to augment this McMurdo panorama view. This beautiful scene reveals a tremendous amount of detail in Spirit's surroundings. Many dark, porous-textured volcanic rocks can be seen around the rover, including many on Low Ridge. Two rocks to the right of center, brighter and smoother-looking in this image and more reflective in infrared observations by Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, are thought to be meteorites. On the right, "Husband Hill" on the horizon, the rippled "El Dorado" sand dune field near the base of that hill, and lighter-toned "Home Plate" below the dunes provide context for Spirit's travels since mid-2005. Left of center, tracks and a trench dug by Spirit's right-front wheel, which no longer rotates, have exposed bright underlying material. This bright material is evidence of sulfur-rich salty minerals in the subsurface, which may provide clues about the watery past of this part of Gusev Crater. Spirit has stayed busy at Winter Haven during the past, six months even without driving. In addition to acquiring this spectacular panorama, the rover team has also acquired significant new assessments of the elemental chemistry and mineralogy of rocks and soil targets within reach of the rover's arm. The team plans soon to have Spirit drive to a very nearby spot on Low Ridge to access different rock and soil samples while maintaining a good solar panel tilt toward the sun for the rest of the Martian winter. Despite the long span of time needed for acquiring this 360-degree view -- a few images at a time every few sols over a total of 119 sols because the available power was so low -- the lighting and color remain remarkably uniform across the mosaic. This fact attests to the repeatability of wintertime sols on Mars in the southern hemisphere. |
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Columbia Commander Eileen Co
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| title |
Columbia Commander Eileen Collins |
| date |
07.24.1999 |
| description |
Commander Eileen Collins consults a checklist while seated at the flight deck Commander's station in the Shuttle Columbia during STS-93. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Spirit's Race Against Winter
| title |
Spirit's Race Against Winter |
| date |
11.29.2007 |
| description |
While struggling to reach a winter outpost necessary for survival on Mars, Spirit has been slowed by sand in the bottom of a shallow, bowl-like depression. Spirit's goal is to reach a slope on the north edge of "Home Plate" that will keep its solar panels trained on the Sun. If the rover can collect enough sunlight to survive, Spirit will continue to study terrain near "Home Plate," which the rover reached after crossing the floor of Gusev Crater and scaling the "Columbia Hills." This map shows the rover's progress from July 2004 to November 2007. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/UNM/High-Resolution Science Imaging Experiment |
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Columbia Memorial
| title |
Columbia Memorial |
| date |
01.06.2004 |
| description |
The landing site of the Mars Spirit rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February. The area in the vast flatland of the Gusev Crater where Spirit landed this weekend will be called the Columbia Memorial Station. Since its historic landing, Spirit has been sending extraordinary images of its new surroundings on the red planet over the past few days. Among them, an image of a memorial plaque placed on the spacecraft to Columbia's astronauts and the STS-107 mission. The plaque is mounted on the back of Spirit's high-gain antenna, a disc-shaped tool used for communicating directly with Earth. The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter. The memorial plaque was attached March 28, 2003, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Chris Voorhees and Peter Illsley, Mars Exploration Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed the plaque. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Manicouagan Reservoir
| title |
Manicouagan Reservoir |
| description |
Located in a rugged, heavily timbered area of the Canadian Shield in Quebec Province, Manicouagan Reservoir is impressive in this low-oblique, west-looking photograph. The reservoir, a large annular lake, marks the site of an impact crater 100 kilometers wide. Formed almost 212 million years ago when a large meteorite hit Earth, the crater has been worn down by many advances and retreats of glaciers and other processes of erosion. The reservoir is drained at its south end by the Manicouagan River, which flows from the reservoir and empties into the Saint Lawrence River nearly 483 kilometers south. *Note*: The tail fin visible on the lower left side of the image belongs to the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was taken during a 10-day mission in November-December 1983. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Columbia Liftoff
| title |
Columbia Liftoff |
| date |
04.12.1981 |
| description |
Space Shuttle Columbia liftoff from Complex 39A during the first launch of the space shuttle. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Aerial View of Columbia Laun
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| title |
Aerial View of Columbia Launch |
| date |
11.12.1981 |
| description |
Aerial view of the STS-2 Columbia launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, taken by astronaut John Young aboard NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA). *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Ulysses Launch
| title |
Ulysses Launch |
| date |
10.06.1990 |
| description |
The Space Shuttle Discovery hurtles into space as sister ship Columbia looks on from Launch Pad 39A. Discovery lifted off from pad 39B at 7:47 a.m. EDT, Oct. 6. Columbia will be moved to the vacated pad 39B where it will undergo testing to pinpoint the source of a liquid hydrogen leak. Discovery is carrying a crew of five and the Ulysses solar explorer as it embarks on mission STS-41, a four-day flight. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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