NASA
Image of the Day…Tropical Storm Bill from ISS…
Tropical Storm Bill From the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly), currently on a one-year mission to the International Space Station, took this photograph of Tropical Storm Bill in the Gulf of Mexico as it approached the coast of Texas, on June 15, 2015. Kelly wrote, “Concerned for all in its path including family, friends & colleagues.”
Image Credit: NASA
Source….www.nasa.gov
” What LIFE on Mars would be …” ?
IN A quest to see if people could survive living on Mars, NASA sent six scientists to Hawaii for eight months in an enclosure that simulates the conditions of life on the Red Planet.
This meant that fresh air, sunshine and fresh food were all off the table. The only food available was anything that could be freeze-dried. If they wanted to talk a short walk outside their 11-meter diameter dome, they even had to chuck on a space suit.
They were monitored by surveillance cameras, body movement trackers and electronic surveys.
Last week the crew were finally free to leave their Mars dome.
The scientist’s home for eight months. Source: AP
Crew member Jocelyn Dunn told AP it was awesome to feel the sensation of wind on her skin.
“When we first walked out the door, it was scary not to have a suit on,” said Dunn, 27, a doctoral candidate at Purdue University. “We’ve been pretending for so long.”
The dome’s volcanic location, silence and its simulated airlock seal provided an atmosphere similar to space. Looking out the dome’s porthole windows, all the scientists could see were lava fields and mountains, said University of Hawaii professor Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the study.
Tracking the crew members’ emotions and performance in the isolated environment could help ground crews during future missions to determine if a crew member is becoming depressed or if the team is having communication problems.
“Astronauts are very stoic people, very level-headed, and there’s a certain hesitancy to report problems,” Binsted said. “So this is a way for people on the ground to detect cohesion-related problems before they become a real issue.”
Spending eight months in a confined space with six people had its challenges, but crew members relieved stress doing team workouts and yoga. They were able to use a solar-powered treadmill and stationary bike, but only in the afternoons on sunny days.
“When you’re having a good day its fine, it’s fun. You have friends around to share in the enjoyment of a good day,” Dunn said. “But if you have a bad day, it’s really tough to be in a confined environment. You can’t get out and go for a walk … it’s constantly witnessed by everyone.”
Could we be living on the Red Planet soon? Source: AP
The hardest part was being far away from family and missing events like her sister’s wedding, for which she delivered a toast via video, Dunn said. “I’m glad I was able to be there in that way, but … I just always dreamt of being there to help,” she said.
The first thing crew members did when they emerged from the dome was to chow down on foods they’ve been craving — juicy watermelon, devilled eggs, peaches and croissants, which was a step up from the freeze dried chilli they’d been eating.
Next on Dunn’s list: going for a swim. Showers in the isolated environment were limited to six minutes per week, she said.
Next on Dunn’s list: going for a swim. Showers in the isolated environment were limited to six minutes per week, she said.
“To be able to just submerge myself in water for as long as I want, to feel the sun, will be amazing,” Dunn said. “I feel like a ghost.”
Source…news.com.au
Natarajan
eRumour Circulating Now…. ” A Massive asteroid Will hit Earth in September 2015″
Reports have gone viral that the government is preparing for a large asteroid to hit Earth in September 2015.
The Truth:
The claim that a massive asteroid will hit the earth in September 2015 is a Hoax.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) operates the Near-Earth Object Program to identify asteroids that come within millions of miles of earth. The JPL has taken to Twitter to dismiss claims that a massive asteroid will strike earth in September 2015:
“ The September asteroid scare is just another hoax.”
“The claims an asteroid scheduled to hit earth in September are a hoax.”
These claims appear to have started with the Rev. Efrain Rodriguez, a Pentecostal Evangelical minister from Puerto Rico. Rodriguez claimed that god told him an asteroid would strike off the coast of Puerto Rico and cause 40 million deaths. Aside from Rodriguez’s personal account, there’s no proof that an asteroid is on course to strike earth in September 2015.
These claims were echoed by a number of blog sites and went viral with a YouTube video that had more than 430,000 views. But the video appears to be nothing more than an advertisement for a book about the rapture and doesn’t include any details about the so-called asteroid bound for Earth.
Because there is no scientific proof that an asteroid will hit the Earth in September 2015, and because NASA has directly denied those claims, we’re classifying this one as fiction.
A copy of the email submitted to Truthorfiction.com:
Collected on: 05/29/2015
Source….. http://www.truthorfiction.com and http://www.youtube.com
Natarajan
Image of the Day…Fresh Crater Find in Mars….
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a “fresh” (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars on March 30, 2015.
This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Fresh craters often have steep, active slopes, so the HiRISE team is monitoring this crater for changes over time. The bedrock lithology is also diverse. The crater is a little more than 1-kilometer wide.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Caption: Alfred McEwen
Source…www.nasa.gov
natarajan
image of the Day… Sunset Sequence in Mars…!!!
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recorded this sequence of views of the sun setting at the close of the mission’s 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover’s location in Gale Crater.
The four images shown in sequence here were taken over a span of 6 minutes, 51 seconds.
This was the first sunset observed in color by Curiosity. The images come from the left-eye camera of the rover’s Mast Camera (Mastcam). The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. Mastcam sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are.
Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. The effect is most pronounced near sunset, when light from the sun passes through a longer path in the atmosphere than it does at mid-day.
Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover’s Mastcam. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project’s Curiosity rover. For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M Univ.
Source……www.nasa.gov
Stunning Images of Planet Earth ….Captured From ISS…!!!
The Dutch physician and European Space Agency astronaut was selected to participate in International Space Station expeditions 30 and 31. Leaving the planet on December 21st 2011 and returning the following July, Andre Kuipers captured some absolutely incredible images of our planet.
400 kilometers above Earth
The Australian Outback
A bizarre interaction between light and the sunset
Canada
A comet as seen from ISS
Flattened Moon beams
ISS at MOONLIGHT
Sahara Desert and the Atlantic Ocean
The Moonrise
The ISS Observatories
The Sahara Desert and Mauritania
over the Somalian Desert
The Soyuz – the apparatus Kuipers used to return to Earth
The Super Moon
By on January 23, 2014 in
Natarajan
Image of the Day…Sky View of Earth…
This composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans was captured by six orbits of the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft on April 9, 2015, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Tropical Cyclone Joalane can be seen over the Indian Ocean.
Winds, tides and density differences constantly stir the oceans while phytoplankton continually grow and die. Orbiting radiometers such as VIIRS allows scientists to track this variability over time and contribute to better understanding of ocean processes that are beneficial to human survival on Earth. The image was created by the Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
For more information, please visit: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/npp
Image Credit: Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Source…..www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Dramatic Space Photos….
May 18, 2013. On this date astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured three beautiful views of Pavlof Volcano, part of the Aleutian Arc, with a handheld Nikon D3S digital camera. As the volcano poured out lava and shot ash 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) into the air, the astronauts managed to capture these seldom-seen oblique views of the volcano, which are very different from the top-down views of most unmanned satellites.
Pavlof Volcano May 18, 2013 via ISS. The space station was about 475 miles south-southeast of the volcano when astronauts aboard captured this beautiful, oblique view. Photo provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. Image taken by the Expedition 36 crew.
Pavlof Volcano May 18, 2013 via ISS. This volcano is located about 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. In May 2013, its volcanic plume extended southeastward over the North Pacific Ocean. Photo provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. Image taken by the Expedition 36 crew.
Source…..www.earthsky.org
Natarajan
Image of the Day….Astronauts at work on International Space Station…
This week, the six-member Expedition 43 crew worked a variety of onboard maintenance tasks, ensuring crew safety and the upkeep of the International Space Station’s hardware. In this image, NASA astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Terry Virts (right) work on a Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) inside the station’s Japanese Experiment Module. The CDRA system works to remove carbon dioxide from the cabin air, allowing for an environmentally safe crew cabin.
The crew also is packing the SpaceX Dragon space freighter readying the vehicle for its return home and splashdown May 21.
Tags: Expedition 43, Image of the Day, International Space Station, One-Year Crew
Source……www.nasa.gov
natarajan
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