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 …
After a successful launch and more than a day in flight, our second super pressure balloon (SPB) carrying EUSO-2 developed a leak, and flight controllers safely terminated the flight over the Pacific Ocean. The scientific balloon launched from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand, May 13, 12:02 p.m. NZST (May 12, 8:02 p.m EDT). The balloon was …
This week, astronomers around the world are celebrating the announcement of the next cycle of Webb observations. We asked Christine Chen, associate astronomer and JWST Science Policies Group lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute, to describe the selection process to determine the targets Webb will observe. "On May 10, the Space Telescope Science Institute …
Wānaka, New Zealand—NASA is targeting Saturday, May 13 (Friday, May 12 in U.S. EDT) to conduct a second super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight launching from Wānaka Airport to further test and qualify the technology, which can offer cost savings compared to space missions. The first super pressure balloon launch carrying the Super Pressure Balloon …
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, …