You ain't seen nothing yet! Today's image was just the latest in a series of the New Horizons Pluto "picture show." Tomorrow, more images of surface close-ups will make the more than four-hour journey to Earth at the speed of light to give ten times the resolution of what we saw today, with details as small as New York's Central Park. Stay tuned!
Come Fly with New Horizons on its Approach to Pluto: Images from New Horizons show the view from aboard the spacecraft closes in on the Pluto system for a July 14 flyby. This time-lapse approach movie was made from images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera aboard New Horizons spacecraft taken between May 28 and June 25, 2015. During that time the spacecraft distance to Pluto decreased almost threefold, from about 35 million miles to 14 million miles (56 million kilometers to 22 million kilometers). The images show Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, growing in apparent size as New Horizons closes in. As it rotates, Pluto displays a strongly contrasting surface dominated by a bright northern hemisphere, with a discontinuous band of darker material running along the equator. Charon has a dark polar region, and there are indications of brightness variations at lower latitudes.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Happy #smday to all our followers. We've put together some of the best #Travel pics you've sent us on #socialmedia for #socialmediaday2015 Keep sending them in. #InstaGood #Motivation #Ryanair #ryanair30 #avgeek #Summer
The sun unleashed no less than five solar flares in five days this week all from the same dynamic active region (June 21-25, 2015). Many of these were associated with coronal mass ejections, most of which impacted Earth and generated beautiful auroral displays. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Flares are the bright flashes you see, followed by spirals of magnetic field lines as the active region reorganizes itself.
Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA
Astronaut Terry Virts (@Astro_Terry) shared this video of "Tropical Storm #Blanca as it made landfall yesterday." The International Space Station (@ISS) and its crew orbit Earth from an altitude of 250 miles, traveling at a speed of approximately 17,500 miles per hour, providing a great vantage point to observe the Earth below.
Video credit: NASA
#nasa #hurricane #tropicalstorm #iss #space #spacestation #internationalspacestation #storm #pacific #ocean #clouds #earth #earthobs
Aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Terry Virts posted this video June 2 of the moon setting and wrote, “Full moon #moonset.” Credit: NASA
A billowing plume of steam signals a successful 450-second test of the RS-25 rocket engine May 28 at our Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The hotfire test was conducted on the historic A-1 Test Stand where Apollo Program rocket stages and Space Shuttle Program main engines also were tested. RS-25 engines tested on the stand will power the core stage of our new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is being developed to carry humans deeper into space than ever before.
Aboard the International Space Station, astronaut @Astro_Terry Virts posted this time-lapse video and wrote, "Our spectacular universe! Look closely and you can see two satellites streaking across the sky." Image Credit: NASA
Over a six-hour period on April 21, 2015, our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a wing-like prominence eruption from our sun. SDO views the sun in various wavelengths of the extreme ultraviolet, including 171 (shown in gold) and 304 (shown in orange) angstroms.
Many of Hubble's most iconic images reveal majestic nebulae in the nearby universe. These observations advance our understanding of how gas and dust come together to form nebulae, and how these nebulae become the sites for newborn star and planetary systems.
Ken Carpenter, Hubble Operations Project Scientist, talks about his favorite Hubble image of the Carina Nebula. #Hubble25
From supermassive black holes at galactic centers to giant bursts of star formation to titanic collisions between galaxies, Hubble Space Telescope discoveries allow astronomers to probe the current properties of galaxies as well as examine how they formed and developed.
Jennifer Wiseman, Senior Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, talks about her favorite Hubble image of the NGC 1309 spiral galaxy. #Hubble25
The keen eye of the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed intricate details of the shapes, structures and histories of galaxies — whether alone, as part of small groups or within vast clusters.
Jane Rigby, Astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center, talks about her favorite Hubble image, galaxy cluster RCS2 032727-132623. #Hubble25
Over the last 25 years, Hubble has revealed properties of space and time that for most of human history were only probed in the imaginations of scientists and philosophers alike. Today, Hubble continues to provide views of cosmic wonders never before seen and is at the forefront of many new discoveries.
Mike Garcia, NASA Headquarters Hubble Project Scientist, talks about the significance of Hubble. #Hubble25
Since launching in 1990, Hubble has far exceeded its original science goals and unveiled an even more complex and mysterious universe than once envisioned. It has inspired the world and sparked humanity’s natural curiosity. “We are the Hubble generation, and our world is bigger than our planet.” Debra Wallace, NASA HQ Deputy Project Scientist. #Hubble25
The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most powerful scientific instruments ever conceived. Hubble’s most important discoveries have provided answers to questions that astronomers did not yet know how to ask, and found objects that were not yet imagined.
Kate Whitaker, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, talks about one of Hubble’s greatest achievements. #Hubble25
Since launching 25 years ago this month, Hubble has reinvigorated and reshaped our perception of the cosmos and uncovered a universe where almost anything seems possible within the laws of physics.
Amber Straughn, Astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center, talks about her favorite Hubble image. #Hubble25
