Post 7934
Image of the Day
Gold Medal Views
Credit: UrtheCast
Monday, August 22, 2016: With the closing of the Summer Olympics last night (Aug. 21), here is one last look of Rio, Brazil, from space. This image was captured by UrtheCast’s Deimos-2 satellite. In the upper left-hand side of the image you can see the Maracanã Stadium, which housed the opening and closing ceremonies. In first place for total medal count, the U.S. will return home with a haul of 121 medals (46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze). — Samantha Mathewson
New World Record
Credit: NASA/Chris Perry
Wednesday, August 24, 2016: NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia has set a new Guinness World Record for the most rocket engines fired on a single flight. On Sept. 16, 2015, the facility’s sounding rocket team launched a mission that included the firing of 44 rocket engines. — Samantha Mathewson
National Parks from Space
Credit: NASA
Friday, August 26, 2016: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, commander of Expedition 48, captured stunning images of America’s National Parks from space. Being on board the International Space Station gives Williams a unique vantage point of Earth from low orbit. Williams released his photos to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service yesterday (Aug. 25). This photo is of Katmai National Park in Alaska. Check out the full national park gallery here. — Samantha Mathewson
Red Rectangle Encompasses Star
Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
Tuesday, August 30, 2016: A Red Rectangle, also known as a proto-planetary nebula, surrounds the star HD 44179. This Hubble image captures an extraordinary view this unique cosmic structure and its apparent X-shaped structure, in addition to the glowing gas surrounding the star. This photo was released by NASA on April 8, 2016. — Samantha Mathewson
Island of Stars
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Wednesday, August 31, 2016: This image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a dwarf galaxy known as NGC 5264. This galaxy lies just over 15 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Serpent). NGC 5264 is an irregular galaxy, which means that it lacks a defined shape. — Samantha Mathewson
Spacewalk 37
Credit: NASA
Thursday, September 1, 2016: NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins venture outside the International Space Station again today (Sept. 1) to retract a thermal control radiator and install at least one new high-definition television camera. This is the astronauts’ second spacewalk together. On Aug. 19 they successfully installed the first International Docking Adapter, which will allow future spacecraft to dock directly with the U.S. segment of the space station. Watch today’s spacewalk live on Space.com. — Samantha Mathewson
Ceres’ Icy Volcano
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI
Friday, September 2, 2016: Data from NASA’s Ceres-orbiting Dawn spacecraft suggests that “ice volcanoes” have erupted on the dwarf planet in the recent past. This image shows a side view of Ahuna Mons, which is 2.5 miles tall and 10.5 miles wide (4 by 17 kilometers). Ahuna Mons has a dome shape that resembles that of mountains created on Earth by volcanism. However, unlike volcanoes on Earth, Ahuna Mons was created by a volcano spewing cold, molten ice rather than hot, liquid rock. Read more about the ice volcanoes on Ceres here. — Samantha Mathewson
Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/van Weeren et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
Monday, September 5, 2016: Pictured here is one of the most complex and distorted galaxy clusters known in the universe. This galaxy cluster is named MACS J0717 and is located about 5.4 billion light years away from Earth. MACS J0717 is the site of a collision between four clusters, which explains its complex and distorted structure. — Samantha Mathewson
A Surge in Saturn’s Rings
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Tuesday, September 6, 2016: NASA Cassini spacecraft captured this image of a bright spot on Saturn’s B ring. This glowing effect is an example of what is known as an “opposition surge,” which occurs when the sun is directly behind the observer — in this case, Cassini — looking toward the rings. The “opposition surge” makes an area on the rings appear extra bright. — Samantha Mathewson
Jupiter’s South Pole
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Wednesday, September 7, 2016: This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter. This is photo offers a never-before-seen view of the gas giant’s south pole region. This photo was taken on the view on August 27, 2016, when Juno was approximately 58,700 miles (94,500 kilometers) above the planet’s polar region, NASA officials said. — Samantha Mathewson
Old Soul Star
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Friday, September 9, 2016: A star known as IRAS 19312+1950 is actually much younger than it looks. Scientists recently found that this bright object lies within a large, chemically rich cloud of material, which suggests it exhibits both very young and very old characteristics. Surprisingly, this protostar was found in an area that was not previously thought to be a stellar nursery, where stars are born. This image was taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. — Samantha Mathewson
Aurora View from Space
Credit: ESA/NASA
Monday, September 12, 2016:This is a view of a beautiful aurora as seen from the International Space Station. The bright pink, green and blue lights of the aurora dance over the Pacific Northwest, creating not only a spectacular light show for those on Earth, but for those on the space station, too. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and ESA astronaut Tim Peake shared a series of aurora photographs on Twitter on Jan. 20 that were taken during their stay on the orbiting lab. Among them was this photo. — Samantha Mathewson
