By Mara Freilich, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. // ABOARD THE SALLY RIDE // While doing oceanographic fieldwork, we live and work on the ship. This is the second week that we have been at sea. While there is a rhythm to life at sea, every day is different. Since we are …
By Kathryn Cawdrey, Science writer for NASA's Earth Science News Team //OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN NEAR CABO VERDE// When the dust that wafts off the Sahel and Sahara regions of Africa mixes with tropical clouds, it creates what's known as a rainy "disturbance" in the eastern Atlantic. These disturbances are hurricanes in their youngest form, …
This week, NASA's OSIRIS-REx science team is meeting as a whole for the last time before the sample of asteroid Bennu arrives on Earth. This occasion marks the last chance for the group to convene to make sure team members, lab facilities, and sample-analysis techniques are working as expected and ready for the delivery of …
By Dante Capone, Ph.D. student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography // ABOARD THE SALLY RIDE // Being a biological oceanographer on a physical oceanographic voyage has highlighted a key distinction between the two disciplines. Physical oceanographers rely on sensing – deploying instrumentation that measures properties of the water: temperature, velocity, oxygen, etc. Those data …
On May 9, NASA's Lucy spacecraft carried out a trajectory correction maneuver to set the spacecraft on course for its close encounter with the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh. The maneuver changed the velocity of the spacecraft by only about 7.7 mph (3.4 m/s). Even though the spacecraft is currently travelling at approximately 43,000 mph …
Five researchers supported by NASA's Living With a Star Program will join the 2023-2024 class of NASA's Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship. The early career PhDs, selected by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)'s Cooperative Program for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS), will research interdisciplinary projects contributing to the field of heliophysics at …
By Richard Witherspoon, OSIRIS-REx Ground Recovery Lead, Lockheed Martin In anticipation of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample delivery this fall, the team held our first round of rehearsals April 17 to April 27. Our goal was to practice retrieving the spacecraft's sample capsule from a simulated landing site at Lockheed Martin's campus near Denver. I am …
As Earth spins around the Sun, our planet's slight tilt creates seasons. Now, research from two NASA space missions has found how the same tilt also influences seasonal differences in space weather – conditions in space produced by the Sun's activity. Space weather events produce the beautiful glow of the northern and southern lights, but, …
In a world where many global challenges exist, finding ways to respond to an as yet undiscovered asteroid that might one day impact Earth could seem like a lesser priority. While it is true there are currently no known asteroids of significant size on a collision trajectory with Earth, an asteroid impact with our …
On March 23, 2023, NASA's Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) successfully passed its critical design review, marking a major milestone for the project and keeping it on pace for a scheduled launch next year.
