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JSC1892_ISSThe_Vision_and_Mi
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ISS: THE VISION AND MISSION
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2001
| Description |
ISS: THE VISION AND MISSION JSC1892 (2001) 7 1/4 Minutes This narrated production provides a broad, easy to understand overview of the International Space Station and outlines the goals and benefits of the station program. The video covers the international cooperation involved in building the station parts on the ground and launching them into space. Spectacular spacewalking scenes illustrate the challenge astronauts face in assembling the station in earth orbit. The focus shifts to the benefits of building a space station from medical and technological advances, to providing a point of inspiration for the next generation of engineers and scientists. The video concludes with ISS Program Manager Tommy Holloway, who delivers the mission statement of the station. The best mission downlink and onboard video was used in the creation of this video. |
| Date |
2001 |
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Dust clouds over eastern Chi
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The desert takes to the skie
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5/9/01
| Date |
5/9/01 |
| Description |
The desert takes to the skies in these images of eastern China from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). A hazy summer view from July 9, 2000, (left) compares with a spectacularly dusty spring view from April 7, 2001, (middle). The two images cover an area from central Manchuria near the top to portions of North and South Korea at the bottom. The image on the right is a higher resolution MISR nadir- camera view of a portion of the April 7, 2001, dust cloud. When viewed at full magnification, a number of atmospheric wave features, like the ridges and valleys of a fingerprint, are apparent. These are probably induced by surface topography, which can disturb the wind flow. A few small cumulus clouds are also visible and are casting shadows on the thick lower dust layer. According to the Xinhua News Agency in China, nearly one million tons of Gobi Desert dust blow into Beijing each year. During a similar dust outbreak last year, the Associated Press reported that the visibility in Beijing had been reduced to the point where buildings were barely visible across city streets and airline schedules were significantly disrupted. The dust has also been implicated in adverse health effects such as respiratory discomfort and eye irritation. Asia's desert areas are prone to soil erosion, as underground water tables are lowered by prolonged drought and by industrial and agricultural water use. Heavy winds blowing eastward across the arid and sparsely vegetated surfaces of Mongolia and western China pick up large quantities of yellow dust. Airborne dust clouds from the April 2001 storm blew across the Pacific Ocean and were carried as far as North America. The minerals transported in this manner are believed to provide nutrients for both oceanic and land ecosystems. The left-hand and middle images are from Terra orbits 2,967 and 6,928 respectively. They are approximately 380 kilometers (236 miles) in width. The right-hand image covers an area roughly 250 kilometers (155 miles) wide by 470 kilometers (292 miles) high. Analyses of images such as these constitute one phase of MISR's participation in the Asian-Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment, an international campaign aimed at studying the offshore transport of airborne particles from the Asian continent. More information about this international endeavor is available online at http://saga.pmel.noaa.gov/aceasia/ . MISR, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is one of several Earth-observing experiments aboard Terra, launched in December 1999. MISR acquires images of the Earth at nine angles simultaneously, using nine separate cameras pointed forward, downward, and backward along its flight path. More information about MISR is available at http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov . JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team. # # # # # |
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Eruption at Tvashtar Catena
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This pair of images taken by
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2/26/01
| Date |
2/26/01 |
| Description |
This pair of images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft captures a dynamic eruption at Tvashtar Catena, a chain of volcanic bowls on Jupiter's moon Io. They show a change in the location of hot lava over a period of a few months in 1999 and early 2000. The image on the left uses data obtained on Nov. 26 and July 3, 1999, at resolutions of 183 meters (600 feet) and 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) per pixel, respectively. The red and yellow lava flow itself is an illustration based upon imaging data. The image on the right is a composite using a five-color observation made on Feb. 22, 2000, at 315 meters (1030 feet) per pixel. These are among the most fortuitous observations made by Galileo because this style of volcanism is too unpredictable and short-lived to plan to photograph. Short-lived bursts of volcanic activity on Io had been previously detected from Earth-based observations, but interpreting the style of volcanic activity from those lower- resolution views was highly speculative. These Galileo observations confirm hypotheses that the initial, intense thermal output comes from active lava fountains. Galileo's high-resolution observations of volcanic activity on Io have also confirmed other hypotheses based on earlier, low- resolution data. These include interpretations of slowly spreading lava flows at Prometheus and Amirani and an active lava lake at Pele. These tests of earlier hypotheses increase scientists' confidence in interpreting volcanic activity seen in low-resolution remote sensing data of Earth as well as Io. However, these data are still of insufficient resolution to adequately test the more quantitative models that have been applied to volcanic eruptions on Earth and Io. These images also show other geologic features on Io, such as the scalloped margins of the plateau to the northeast of the active lavas. These margins appear to have formed by sapping, a process usually associated with springs of water. Liquid sulfur dioxide might be the fluid responsible for sapping on Io. A better understanding of sapping on Io will influence how scientists interpret similar features on Mars (where the viability of carbon dioxide or water as the sapping fluid remains controversial). 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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Amirani's Big Lava Flow on I
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These images from NASA's Gal
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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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Pine Island Glacier, Antarct
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These two images of Pine Isl
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4/3/01
| Date |
4/3/01 |
| Description |
These two images of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica show the recently discovered 25-kilometer (15-mile) long crack that scientists expect will turn into a large iceberg within the next 18 months. The views from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on the Terra satellite also reveal differences in the ice sheet's surface texture, highlighting surface fractures and enabling distinction of rough crevasses from smooth blue ice. The image data shown was acquired on December 12, 2000, during Terra orbit 5246. At left is a conventional, true-color image from the downward-looking (nadir) camera. The false-color image at right is a composite of red-band data taken by the MISR forward 60-degree, nadir, and aftward 60-degree cameras, displayed in red, green and blue, respectively. Color variations in the true-color image at left highlight spectral differences. In the multi-angle composite, on the other hand, color variations act as a proxy for differences in the angular reflectance properties of the scene. In this representation, clouds show up as light purple. Blue to orange gradations on the surface indicate a transition in ice texture from smooth to rough. For example, the bright orange carrot-like features are rough crevasses on the glacier's tongue. In the conventional nadir view, the blue ice labeled "rough crevasses"' and "smooth blue ice" are similarly colored, but the multi-angle composite reveals their different textures, with the smoother ice appearing dark purple instead of orange. This could be an indicator of different mechanisms by which this ice is exposed. The multi-angle view also reveals subtle roughness variations on the frozen sea ice between the glacier and the open water in Pine Island Bay. To the left of the 'icebergs' label are chunks of floating ice. Smaller icebergs embedded in the frozen sea ice are visible below and to the right of the label. These small icebergs are associated with dark streaks. Analysis of the illumination geometry suggests that these streaks are surface features, not shadows. Wind-driven motion and thinning of the sea ice in the vicinity of the icebergs are a possible explanation. Recently, Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center discovered in Landsat 7 imagery a newly-formed crack traversing the Pine Island Glacier. This crack is visible as an off-vertical dark line in the MISR nadir view. In the multi-angle composite, the crack and other stress fractures show up very clearly in bright orange. Radar observations of Pine Island Glacier in the 1990's showed the glacier to be shrinking, and the newly discovered crack is expected to eventually lead to the calving of a major iceberg. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calf., for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. Image credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/LaRC, MISR Team ##### |
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Perspective View with Landsa
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Santa Barbara, California, s
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1/11/01
| Date |
1/11/01 |
| Description |
Santa Barbara, California, sometimes called "America's Riviera," is seen in this perspective view generated with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and an enhanced Landsat satellite image. Santa Barbara enjoys a Mediterranean climate, a mountain backdrop and a long and varied coastline. The view is toward the northeast, from the Goleta Valley in the foreground to a snow-capped Mount Abel, elevation 2,526 meters (8,286 feet), along the skyline. The coast here faces generally south. Consequently, fall and winter sunrises occur over the ocean, which is unusual for the U.S. West Coast. The Santa Barbara backcountry is very rugged and largely remains as undeveloped wilderness and an important watershed for local communities. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data match the 30-meter resolution (98-feet) of most Landsat images and will substantially help in analyses of the large and growing Landsat image archive. For visualization purposes, topographic heights displayed in this image are exaggerated two times. Colors approximate natural colors. The elevation data used in this image was acquired by SRTM aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) that flew twice on Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three- dimensional measurements of Earth's land surface. To collect the 3-D SRTM data, engineers added a mast 60 meters (about 200-feet) long, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Location (Isla Vista): 34.41 deg. North lat., 119.85 deg. West lon. View: East Scale: Scale Varies in this Perspective Date Acquired: February 16, 2000 SRTM, December 14, 1984 Landsat Image: NASA/JPL/NIMA/USGS # # # # # |
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Perspective View with Landsa
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Before the arrival of Europe
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1/11/01
| Date |
1/11/01 |
| Description |
Before the arrival of Europeans, California's Cuyama Valley was inhabited by Native Americans who were culturally and politically tied to the Chumash tribes of coastal Santa Barbara County. Centuries later, the area remains the site of noted Native American rock art paintings. In the 1800s, when Europeans established large cattle and horse-breeding ranches in the valley, the early settlers reported the presence of small villages along the Cuyama River. This perspective view looks upstream toward the southeast through the Cuyama Valley. The Caliente Range, with peak elevations above 1,550 meters (5,085 feet), borders the valley on the left. The Cuyama River, seen as a bright meandering line on the valley floor, enters the valley from headwaters more than 2,438 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level near Mount Abel and flows 154 kilometers (96 miles) before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river's course has been determined in large part by displacement along numerous faults. Today, the Cuyama Valley is the home of large ranches and small farms. The area has a population of 1,120 and is more than an hour and a half drive from the nearest city in the county. This image was generated by draping an enhanced Landsat satellite image over elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30- meter (98-feet) resolution of most Landsat images and will substantially help in analyses of the large and growing Landsat image archive. For visualization purposes, topographic heights displayed in this image are exaggerated two times. Colors approximate natural colors. The elevation data used in this image was acquired by SRTM aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) that flew twice on Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three- dimensional measurements of Earth's land surface. To collect the 3-D SRTM data, engineers added a mast 60 meters (about 200 feet) long, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Location (Center): 34.97 deg. North lat., 119.70 deg. West lon. View: Southeast Scale: Scale Varies in this Perspective Date Acquired: February 16, 2000 SRTM, December 14, 1984 Landsat Image: NASA/JPL/NIMA/USGS # # # # # |
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Jupiter Night-Side Auroras,
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Oval-shaped auroras glow in
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2/5/01
| Date |
2/5/01 |
| Description |
Oval-shaped auroras glow in night-side areas near Jupiter's north and south poles in these images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Jan. 13, 2001. The lower frame is the first to capture the southern aurora on the planet's night side. Blue lines of longitude and latitude have been added in each frame to indicate position of the glows. Jupiter's auroral ovals are similar to Earth's auroras, often called the northern lights or southern lights, although fluctuations in solar activity play a more important role in the auroras at Earth than at Jupiter. Energetic particles are constantly streaming towards Jupiter on magnetic field lines that intersect the planet's atmosphere on a ring around the magnetic pole. Where the energetic particles hit the upper atmosphere, they cause emission of light, similar to the glow in a fluorescent bulb. In the north (upper image), the magnetic pole is offset from the rotational pole, which is where the blue longitude lines converge, just to the left of the imaged area. The auroral oval appears like a draped necklace that is carried around by the rotation of the planet. In the south (lower image), the magnetic and rotational poles are nearly coincident, so no significant offset is visible. Cassini had passed its closest to Jupiter about two weeks before taking these pictures, so it was in position to see the night side of the planet. It was about 16.5 million kilometers (10.3 million miles) from the planet and about 2.5 degrees below the plane of Jupiter's equator. The smallest features visible are about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) across. The images were taken by Cassini's narrow-band camera through a filter centered on a light-wave frequency at which hydrogen emits light when it is excited. They have been processed to remove scattered light from the overexposed sunlit crescent of the planet. Hydrogen is a major ingredient of Jupiter's atmosphere. It is not understood why the auroral oval rings are so thin. Cassini images will help scientists figure out what brings about the narrow nature and other features of the auroras, such as the break in the northern oval visible in the upper image. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona # # # # # |
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Altamaha River delta, Georgi
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The history of sea islands i
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3/2/01
| Date |
3/2/01 |
| Description |
The history of sea islands in the Altamaha River delta on the coast of Georgia is revealed in this image produced from data acquired by the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR), developed and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The outlines of long-lost plantation rice fields, canals, dikes and other inlets are clearly defined. Salt marshes are shown in red, while dense cypress and live oak tree canopies are seen in yellow-greens. Agricultural development of the Altamaha delta began soon after the founding of the Georgia Colony in 1733. About 25 plantations were located on the low-lying islands and shores by the 19th century, taking advantage of the rich alluvial flow and annual inundation of water required by some crops. The first major crop was indigo, when demand for that faded, rice and cotton took its place. A major storm in 1824 destroyed much of the town of Darien (upper right) and put many of the islands under 20 feet of water. The Civil War ended the plantation system, and many of the island plantations disappeared under heavy brush and new growth pine forests. Some were used as tree farms for paper and pulp industries, while the Butler Island (center left) plantation became a wildlife conservation site growing wild sea rice for migrating ducks and other water fowl. Margaret Mitchell is reputed to have used the former owner of the Butler Plantation as a basis for the Rhett Butler character in her novel "Gone With The Wind," taking the first name from Rhett's Island (lower right). These data were obtained during a 1994-95 campaign along the Georgia coast. AIRSAR's ability to detect vegetation canopy density, hydrological features and other topographic characteristics is a useful tool in landscape archaeology. AIRSAR flies aboard a NASA DC-8 based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The analysis on the data shown was accomplished by Dr. Gary McKay, Department of Archaeology and Geography, and Ian Morrison, Department of Archaeology, both of the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). AIRSAR is part of NASA's Earth Enterprise program. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. More information about AIRSAR is available at http://airsar.jpl.nasa.gov . Imaging radar information is at http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov . Dr. McKay's activities can be accessed at http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/arch.remotesense.index.html . |
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Rann of Kachchh, India, pers
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The earthquake that struck w
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4/26/01
| Date |
4/26/01 |
| Description |
The earthquake that struck western India on January 26, 2001, was the country's strongest in the past 50 years. This perspective view from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) shows the area of the earthquake's epicenter in the lower left corner. The southern Rann of Kachchh appears in the foreground. The Rann is an area of low-lying salt flats that shows up with various shades of white and blue in this false- color Landsat image. The gray area in the middle of the image is called the Banni plains. The darker blue spots and curving lines in the Rann and the Banni plains are features that appeared after the January earthquake. Their true colors are shades of white and gray, but the infrared data used in the image gives them a blue or turquoise color. These features are the effects of liquefaction of wet soil, sand and mud layers caused by the shaking of the earthquake. The liquefaction beneath the surface causes water to be squeezed out at the surface, forming mud volcanoes, sand blows and temporary springs. Some of the residents of this dry area were hopeful that they could use the water, but they found that the water was too salty in almost every place where it came to the surface. The city of Bhuj, India, appears as a gray area in the upper right of the image. Bhuj and many other towns and cities nearby were almost completely destroyed by the January 2001 earthquake. This magnitude 7.7 earthquake was the deadliest in the history of India with some 20,000 fatalities and over a million homes damaged or destroyed. The city of Bhuj was the historical capital of the Kachchh region. Highways and rivers appear as dark lines. Vegetation appears bright green in this false-color Landsat image. The city of Anjar is in the dark gray area near the upper left of the image. Previously damaged by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in 1956 that killed 152 people, Anjar suffered again in the larger 2001 earthquake. The red hills in the center of the image are the Has and Karo Hills, which reach up to 300 meters (900 feet) elevation. Geologists are studying the folded red sandstone layers that form these hills to determine if they are related to the fault that broke in the 2001 earthquake. This three-dimensional perspective view was generated using topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and an enhanced false-color Landsat 7 satellite image. Colors are from Landsat bands 5, 4, and 2 as red, green and blue, respectively. Topographic expression is exaggerated 5X. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30-meter (98-foot) resolution of most Landsat images and will substantially help in analyses of the large and growing Landsat image archive. The Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper image used here was provided to the SRTM by the United States Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X- Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200- foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Image: NASA/JPL/NIMA |
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| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
Download the free RealPlayer 8 Basic View RealPlayer video in its own window Inner Radiation Belts of Jupiter February 27, 2002 Details in radiation belts close to Jupiter are mapped from measurements that NASA's Cassini spacecraft made of radio emission from high-energy electrons moving at nearly the speed of light within the belts. The three views show the belts at different points in Jupiter's 10-hour rotation. A picture of Jupiter is superimposed to show the size of the belts relative to the planet. Cassini's radar instrument, operating in a listen-only mode, measured the strength of microwave radio emissions at a frequency of 13.8 gigahertz (13.8 billion cycles per second or 2.2 centimeter wavelength). The results indicate the region near Jupiter is one of the harshest radiation environments in the solar system. From Earth-based radio telescopes, the telltale radio emissions would be swamped out by heat-generated radio emissions from Jupiter's atmosphere, but Cassini was close enough to Jupiter in January 2001 to differentiate between the emissions from the radiation belts and those from the atmosphere. The belts appear to wobble as the planet turns because they are controlled by Jupiter's magnetic field, which is tilted in relation to the planet's poles. For more information about the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft and its observations of Jupiter, see the Cassini home page, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Credit: NASA/JPL More information about the Cassini and Galileo joint observations of the Jupiter system is available online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby. Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo and Cassini missions for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. For higher resolution, click here. |
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| Description |
Jupiter Aurora |
| Full Description |
Solar Wind and Aurora at Jupiter March 8, 2001 For higher resolution image, click here. NASA's Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft recently provided scientists an opportunity to watch whether changes in Jupiter's glowing auroras correspond in timing to fluctuations in the solar wind reaching Jupiter. While Cassini passed near Jupiter in December 2000 and January 2001, the Hubble telescope obtained ultraviolet images of the ring-shaped aurora near Jupiter's north pole. The auroras, comparable to Earth's northern lights, are glows caused when charged particles steered by the planet's magnetic field excite gases high in the atmosphere. They give an indication of conditions in the invisible magnetic field. The Hubble images were taken at times when instruments on Cassini were measuring the solar wind approaching Jupiter. The solar wind is a fluctuating stream of particles speeding away from the Sun. The Cassini measurements allowed scientists to extrapolate the properties of the solar wind even closer to Jupiter, where it interacts with the planet's magnetic field. One example of these sets of data is presented in this pair of images. An image of Jupiter's northern aurora, taken by Hubble on Dec. 16, 2000, shows the aurora as a white loop against a blue background in the top frame. The bottom frame presents information that Cassini's plasma spectrometer and magnetometer instruments collected about the solar wind reaching Jupiter at the same time. It gives measurements of the solar wind's speed, density, pressure and magnetic-field direction. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). It is managed for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. Cassini, on course to reach Saturn in 2004, is a cooperative mission of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Cassini for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. More information about the studies of Jupiter while Cassini passed it available online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby . Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Michigan |
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Video greeting to NASA JPL b
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| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
Saturn. Why this change? Well, for one thing it made a more straightforward storyline. And more important, the special effects department couldn't produce a Saturn that Stanley found convincing. That was just as well because if they had done so, the movie would have been badly dated by the Voyager missions, which showed Saturn's rings to be far more implausible than anyone had ever imagined. I have seen enough instances where Nature imitates art, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed on what Cassini discovers at Iapetus. I want to thank everyone associated with this mission and the overall project. It may lack the glamour of manned spaceflight, but science projects are tremendously important for our understanding of the Solar System. And who knows, one day our survival on Earth might depend on what we discover out there. This is Arthur Clarke, wishing you a successful flyby., Video greeting to NASA JPL to mark the Iapetus flyby of Cassini spacecraft -- Sept. 10, 2007 by Arthur C. Clarke (The following is a transcript of the video greeting.) Hello! This is Arthur Clarke, joining you from my home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I'm delighted to be part of this event to mark Cassini's flyby of Iapetus. I send my greetings to all my friends - known and unknown - who are gathered for this important occasion. I only wish I could be with you, but I'm now completely wheelchaired by Polio and have no plans to leave Sri Lanka again. Thanks to the World Wide Web, I have been following the progress of Cassini-Huygens mission from the time it was launched several years ago. As you know, I have more than a passing interest in Saturn. And I was really spooked in early 2005, when the Huygens probe returned sound recordings from the surface of Titan. This is exactly what I had described in my 1975 novel Imperial Earth, where my character is listening to the winds blowing over the desert plains. Perhaps that was a foretaste of things to come! On September 10, if everything goes according to plan, Cassini would give us our closest look at Iapetus - one of Saturn's most interesting moons. Half of Iapetus appears as dark as asphalt, and the other half is as bright as snow. When Giovanni Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1671, he could only see the bright side. We had a better glimpse when Voyager 2 flew past in August 1981 - but that was from almost a million kilometers away. In contrast, Cassini is going to come within a little over one thousand kilometers of Iapetus. This is a particularly exciting moment for fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey - because that's where the lone astronaut Dave Bowman discovers the Saturn monolith, which turns out to be a gateway to the stars. Chapter 35 in the novel is titled 'The Eye of Iapetus', and it contains this passage: "Iapetus was approaching so slowly that it scarcely seemed to move, and it was impossible to tell the exact moment when it made the subtle change from an astronomical body to a landscape, only fifty miles below. The faithful verniers gave their last spurts of thrust, then closed down forever. The ship was in its final orbit, completing a revolution every three hours at a mere eight hundred miles an hour - all the speed that was necessary in this feeble gravitation field." More than 40 years later, I cannot remember why I placed the Saturn monolith on Iapetus. At that time, in the early days of the Space Age, earth-based telescopes couldn't show any details of this celestial body. But I have always had a strange fascination for Saturn and its family of Moons. By the way, that 'family' has been growing at a very impressive rate. When Cassini was launched, we knew of only 18 moons. I understand it is now 60 - and counting.I can't resist the temptation to say: My God, it's full of moons! But in the movie, Stanley Kubrick decided to place all the actions at Jupiter, not |
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Hubble Space Telescope
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Hubble Space Telescope |
| date |
02.08.2001 |
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Artist's concept of the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit above Earth. *Image Credit*: NASA and STScI |
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Icy Comet NEAT
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Icy Comet NEAT |
| date |
05.07.2004 |
| description |
This image of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was taken at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ, on May 7, 2004. The image was taken with the Mosaic I camera, which has a one-square degree field of view, or about five times the size of the Moon. Even with this large field, only the comet's coma and the inner portion of its tail are visible. This color image was assembled by combining images taken through blue, green and red filters. A small star cluster (C0736-105, or Melotte 72) is visible in the lower right of the image, between the head of the comet and the bright red star in the lower-right corner. Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was discovered on August 24, 2001, by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. *Image Credit*: T. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Z. Levay and L.Frattare (Space Telescope Science Institute) and National Optical Astronomy Observatory/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy/National Science Foundation |
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Aurora Australis
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Aurora Australis |
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Red and green colors predominate in this view of the Aurora Australis photographed from the Space Shuttle in May 1991 at the peak of the last geomagnetic maximum. The payload bay and tail of the Shuttle can be seen on the left hand side of the picture. Auroras are caused when high-energy electrons pour down from the Earth's magnetosphere and collide with atoms. Red aurora occurs from 200 km to as high as 500 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 6300 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms. Green aurora occurs from about 100 km to 250 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 5577 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms. The light is emitted when the atoms return to their original unexcited state. At times of peaks in solar activity, there are more geomagnetic storms and this increases the auroral activity viewed on Earth and by astronauts from orbit. Photographing them requires careful technique with long exposures and fast film (in this case ASA 1600). Such film can only be used on short-duration Shuttle flights and not from the Space Station because it is sensitive to radiation damage in orbit over time. The most recent astronaut photograph of aurora was taken before the April 2001 flurry of solar activity, and showed only a relatively low-energy green glow. This image was taken by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery in May 1991. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Crab Nebula Movie: Space Mov
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Crab Nebula Movie: Space Movie Reveals Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar |
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Supernovas & Supernova Remnants |
| Release Date |
September 19, 2002 |
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Venus: Venus In A New Light
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Venus: Venus In A New Light |
| Category |
Solar System |
| Release Date |
November 29, 2001 |
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Hubble Optical (26 June 2001
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Hubble Optical (26 June 2001) |
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Hubble Optical (04 Sept 2001
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Hubble Optical (04 Sept 2001) |
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Mars: Mars Glows In X-Rays
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Mars: Mars Glows In X-Rays |
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Solar System |
| Release Date |
November 07, 2002 |
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Pioneer 10 Trajectory
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Pioneer 10 Trajectory |
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This image, drawn in 1970, is an artist's rendering of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft trajectory, with the planets labeled and a list of the instruments that were intended to be flown. Before the use of computer animation, artists were hired by JPL and NASA to depict a spacecraft in flight, for use as a visual aid to promote the project during development. Pioneer 10 was managed by NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The Pioneer F spacecraft, as it was known before launch, was designed and built by TRW Systems Group, Inc. JPL developed three instruments that flew on the spacecraft: Magnetic Fields, S-Band Occultation, and Celestial Mechanics, as well as running the Deep Space Network which provided tracking and data system support. Caltech was responsible for the Jovian Infrared Thermal Structure experiment. Pioneer was very successful, crossing the orbit of Mars and the asteroid belt beyond it, encountering, studying, and photographing Jupiter, then crossing the orbits of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It left the solar system in 1983 and has been contacted several times in the past few years. As of July 2001, the spacecraft was still able to send a return signal to Earth. At Jupiter, the experiments of Pioneer were used to examine the environmental and atmospheric characteristics of the giant planet. Pioneer was also the vital precursor to all future flights to the outer solar system. It determined that a spacecraft could safely fly through the asteroid belt. It also measured the intensity of Jupiter's radiation belt so that NASA could design future Jupiter (and other outer planets) orbiters. |
| Date |
03/07/1972 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Dr. Mae C. Jemison, First Af
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Dr. Mae C. Jemison, First African-American Woman in Space |
| Full Description |
The first African-American woman in space, Dr. Mae C. Jemison was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama but considers Chicago, Illinois her hometown. She received a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering (and completed the requirements for a Bachelor in African and Afro-American studies) at Stanford University in 1977. Dr. Jemison also received a Doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. After medical school she did post graduate medical training at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center. As an area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa, she managed the health care delivery system for U.S. Peace Corps and U.S. Embassy personnel. Jemison's background includes work in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and reproductive biology. She also developed and participated in research projects on the Hepatitis B vaccine and rabies. Jemison was a General Practitioner and attending graduate Engineering classes in Los Angeles when she was named an astronaut candidate in 1987. She flew her first flight as a science mission specialist on STS-47, Spacelab-J, in September 1992. She was co-investigator for the Bone Cell Research Experiment on that mission. In completing her first space flight, Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes and 23 seconds in space. Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993. In 1994, she founded and began a term as chair of The Earth We Share (TEWS), an annual international science camp where students, aged 12 to 16, work together to solve current global dilemmas. From 1995- 2002 she was a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. She is currently director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in developing countries. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame and several corporate boards of directors on the Texas Governor's State Council for Science and Biotechnology Development. Dr. Jemison published her memoirs, Find Where DE:the Wind Goes:Moments from My Life in 2001. She currently resides in Houston, Texas. |
| Date |
07/1992 |
| NASA Center |
Johnson Space Center |
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Female Astronauts
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Female Astronauts |
| Full Description |
Astronauts Dr. N. Jan Davis (left) and Dr. Mae C. Jemison (right) were mission specialists on board the STS-47 mission. Born on November 1, 1953 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Dr. N. Jan Davis received a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 followed by a Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1985. In 1979 she joined NASA Marshall Space Flight Center as an aerospace engineer. A veteran of three space flights, Dr. Davis has logged over 678 hours in space since becoming an astronaut in 1987. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-47 in 1992 and STS-60 in 1994, and was the payload commander on STS-85 in 1997. In July 1999, she transferred to the Marshall Space Flight Center, where she became Director of Flight Projects. Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama but considers Chicago, Illinois her hometown. She received a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering (and completed the requirements for a Bachelor degree in African and Afro-American studies) at Stanford University in 1977, and a Doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. After receiving her doctorate, she worked as a General Practitioner while attending graduate engineering classes in Los Angeles. She was named an astronaut candidate in 1987, and flew her first flight as a science mission specialists on STS-47, Spacelab-J, in September 1992, logging 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space. In March 1993, Dr. Jemison resigned from NASA, thought she still resides in Houston, Texas. She went on to publish her memoirs, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, in 2001. The astronauts are shown preparing to deploy the lower body negative pressure (LBNP) apparatus in this 35mm frame taken in the science module aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavor. Fellow astronauts Robert L. Gibson (Commander), Curtis L. Brown (Junior Pilot), Mark C. Lee (Payload Commander), Jay Apt (Mission Specialist), and Mamoru Mohri (Payload Specialist) joined the two on their maiden space flight. The Spacelab-J mission was a joint effort between Japan and the United States. |
| Date |
09/15/1992 |
| NASA Center |
Johnson Space Center |
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Satellite Footprints Seen in
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Satellite Footprints Seen in Jupiter Aurora |
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Intergalactic 'Pipeline' Fun
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Intergalactic 'Pipeline' Funnels Matter Between Colliding Galaxies |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Back to top [ #top ] |
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See What NASA's Hubble Sees,
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See What NASA's Hubble Sees, with the Click of a Mouse |
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Hubble Spies Huge Clusters o
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Hubble Spies Huge Clusters of Stars Formed by Ancient Encounter |
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NGC 4013: A Galaxy on the Ed
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NGC 4013: A Galaxy on the Edge |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Spies Huge Clusters o
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Hubble Spies Huge Clusters of Stars Formed by Ancient Encounter |
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'Survivor' Planets: Astronom
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'Survivor' Planets: Astronomers Witness First Steps of Planet Growth - and Destruction |
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Star Clusters Born in the Wr
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Star Clusters Born in the Wreckage of Cosmic Collisions |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
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What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Snaps Picture of Rema
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Hubble Snaps Picture of Remarkable Double Cluster |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Captures Best View of
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Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Captures Best View of
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| Title |
Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Burst of Star Formation Driv
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Burst of Star Formation Drives Bubble in Galaxy's Core |
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Hubble Captures Best View of
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| Title |
Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained From Earth |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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| Title |
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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| Title |
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Sends Season's Greeti
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Hubble Sends Season's Greetings from the Cosmos to Earth |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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| Title |
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Scientists Track "Perfect St
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| Title |
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Makes First Direct Me
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| Title |
Hubble Makes First Direct Measurements of Atmosphere on World Around another Star |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Makes First Direct Me
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| Title |
Hubble Makes First Direct Measurements of Atmosphere on World Around another Star |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Makes First Direct Me
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| Title |
Hubble Makes First Direct Measurements of Atmosphere on World Around another Star |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Hubble Hunts Down Binary Obj
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Hubble Hunts Down Binary Objects at the Fringe of Our Solar System |
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