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Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, and Ronald Evans were on their way to the Moon #OTD in 1972. You can follow along on their journey with Apollo 17 in Real-time, a multimedia project that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the mission: bit.ly/3Vmv6Su
#NASAMoon


Today at 11am ET (1600 UTC), @nasa Administrator @SenBillNelson and agency leaders will discuss @NASAClimate research and our role as a global leader in understanding how the planet is changing.

How to watch: go.nasa.gov/3P92hHi
#NASAEarth



Orion and the Ocean of Storms apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221208.ht… #APOD
#APOD


2 years after its 1st flyby of Earth, the Galileo spacecraft snapped this pic of our Moon on its 2nd flyby #20YearsAgo today. Galileo used what flight planners called a "VEEGA," a Venus-Earth-Earth gravity assist, to gain momentum for its trip to Jupiter: go.nasa.gov/3UCutn1
#NASAhistory


Orion and the Ocean of Storms

Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221208.ht… #APOD

#APOD


The #MarsHelicopter will attempt Flight 36 no earlier than Dec. 10. It's expected to reach 33 ft (10 meters) and travel 361 ft (110 meters) in a little more than 60 seconds. go.nasa.gov/3PcwdCE
#NASAJPL


More about NASA's science and missions devoted to our home planet: nasa.gov/earth @NASAEarth
#NASASolarSystem


More views of Earth from deep space: solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/410/…
#NASASolarSystem


Some planets, particularly young ones, are puffy. These gaseous worlds have size, but lack mass, meaning they have a consistency similar to cotton candy! #CottonCandyDay
go.nasa.gov/3F8lJ2h
#NASAExoplanets
in reply to NASA

I always find it amazing that Saturn is 2/3 as dense as water, and would float in it.


Time for a Mars “close-up”! 📸

About every 26 months, the orbit of Mars makes its closest approach to Earth – and December 8 is the next time!

This Hubble image shows Mars before its closest approach back in 2016: go.nasa.gov/3iMazJ9
#Hubble



Stargazers: Tonight Mars will slip behind the Moon for viewers in parts of North America, Europe, and Northern Africa.

This is called a lunar occultation! Check your preferred stargazing app for the time in your area. Learn more ⬇️ go.nasa.gov/3uvBqvN
#Hubble



Cotton candy … planets? These “super-puffs,” discovered by our @NASAExoplanets Kepler telescope, look as big as Jupiter but are roughly a hundred times lighter in mass. Like real cotton candy, their puffy atmospheres won’t last forever: go.nasa.gov/3WhgZi3 #CottonCandyDay
#NASAUniverse


On Dec. 8 at 11am ET (1600 UTC), Administrator @SenBillNelson and agency leaders will discuss @NASAClimate research and our role as a global leader in understanding how the planet is changing. How to watch: go.nasa.gov/3P92hHi
#NASA
#NASA


Live coverage for the about-to-launch Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission starts on Dec. 13. #AskNASA your questions and we’ll answer them during the briefing, news conference, or launch broadcast. See how you can tune in: go.nasa.gov/3F2OoWA
#NASA


Fifty years ago, Apollo 17 launched from @NASAKennedy, bringing a geologist, bacon, and what turned out to be super-handy duct tape to the lunar surface.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at our last crewed mission to the Moon: go.nasa.gov/3FywKeD
#NASA

#NASA
in reply to NASA

Eugene Cernan. Trivia question most people can't answer.
in reply to NASA

According to the NASA feed today is the 50's anniversary of the launch of the last moon rocket.

It's been 50 years since a human left low earth orbit.

#NASA #lostDreams



Earth has lost 561 square miles (1,453 square kilometers) of salt marshes in the past 20 years, a new @nasa study using #Landsat data shows.

Degrading marsh habitats releases carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere. go.nasa.gov/3UEtIdg
#NASAEarth



A similar view captured this week by @nasa's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard @NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft. epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/
#NASASolarSystem


Shine bright like NGC 2031 💎

Hubble's next #StarrySights image shows a cluster that resides about 150,000 light-years from Earth in an extremely dense region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.

For more: go.nasa.gov/3Hgfc8z
#Hubble



A kaleidoscope of grains to study🔬
Unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, 2 samples taken by @NASAPersevere are filled with broken rock & dust. Studying these could help teams design safer missions & equipment, especially for future Mars astronauts. go.nasa.gov/3YgdutY
#NASAJPL


#OTD in 1968, @nasa launched its first successful cosmic explorer. Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2, which could point at and track sources in the sky, is the direct ancestor of current telescopes including @NASAHubble, @chandraxray, and Swift. More: go.nasa.gov/3Y2cOIv
#NASAUniverse


Sometimes the stars that grow up together … stay together! This large infrared mosaic captured by our Spitzer telescope is a multigenerational “family portrait” of multiple clusters of stars born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust: go.nasa.gov/3VUQZbW #StarrySights
#NASAUniverse


Skywatchers in North America and Europe might be able to spot Mars ducking behind the Moon tonight.

Get the details:
#NASA

#NASA



The #Artemis I mission is uncrewed, but the @NASA_Orion spacecraft is filled with science, payloads, and…

Easter eggs. Take a look at this image and see if you can find them all. We will reveal them all on Dec. 10.
#NASA



The Exp 68 crew focused on spacesuit work, biomedical tests, and emergency training on Wednesday as the @NASAArtemis mission heads home. blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/20…
#ISS
#iss


NASA’s LunaH-Map spacecraft has taken its first star tracker images and used them to successfully test new autonomous navigation software. These tests pave the way for future small spacecraft to operate in deep space with minimal help from humans on Earth. go.nasa.gov/3HkiTtQ
#NASAMoon


Hey, @NASAMoon. Meet me tonight?
youtu.be/7FyEAPcvErQ?t=39
#NASAMars


Are wildfires getting worse? Unfortunately, yes. Changes in our climate have led to wildfires increasing in intensity, severity, size and duration. @NASAClimate expert Liz Hoy explains how and why we're studying these events from the ground, air, & space: nasa.gov/fires
#NASA
#NASA


We know more about the atmosphere of WASP-39 b than almost any other exoplanet, thanks to scientists around the world working with @NASAWebb data. See what we've learned: go.nasa.gov/3OqkAaI
#NASAExoplanets


For decades, astronomers generally divided gamma-ray bursts into two categories based on their duration and origin. Now Swift and Fermi have detected a burst that breaks the rules, shaking up what we knew about the universe’s most powerful events: go.nasa.gov/3HiA6DP
#NASAUniverse


As @NASA_Orion continues its journey home, we're also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic "Blue Marble" photo of Earth, taken on Dec. 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17.

Get the full-size image: go.nasa.gov/3VDWmg1
#NASA

#NASA



50 years after Apollo 17, other cameras in space have captured stunning, distant views of our home. Take a look: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/coll…
#NASAEarth


Look up!

Mars slips behind the Moon tonight (called an "occultation") for viewers in most of the U.S. If you're in the East Coast or the Southeast, the Moon will appear to just barely graze past Mars.

Check out stargazing tips for the December here: go.nasa.gov/3zLnOgh
#NASAJPL

in reply to NASA

In Valencia (Spain) the occultation of Mars by the Moon will occur at 6:21:49 CET and will end at 7:08:06 CET tomorrow, December 8, but unfortunately it will be cloudy.
in reply to NASA

I guess I’ll miss the occultation of Mars by the moon tonight - too much moisture in the air…


“The Blue Marble,” one of the most reproduced and influential images in history, was taken #50YearsAgo today by the #Apollo17 crew on their way to the Moon. #Apollo50th #photography
#NASAhistory


Today's full moon coincides with the 50th anniversary of the launch of #Apollo17 from @NASAKennedy. This was the first night launch of a Saturn V rocket. Learn more: go.nasa.gov/3URHDwR
#NASAMoon
in reply to NASA

AND there will be a rare occultation of Mars by the full moon this evening.

But I live in Ohio.

And it's raining.

😞

in reply to NASA

Of course you had to launch it at night. How else would you be able to see the moon?

And yes, I know you can see the moon during the day sometimes. But it's hard, and that makes navigation hard.

#science



We have liftoff!

#OTD in 1972, #Apollo17 set out for the Moon, carrying with it astronauts Gene Cernan, Jack Schmitt, and Ron Evans. #Apollo50th

Experience the launch in real time: apolloinrealtime.org/17
#NASAhistory



NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221207.ht… #APOD
#APOD


NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Tommaso Stella

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221207.ht… #APOD

#APOD


It's official! 🚀 NEO Surveyor has passed a major milestone and is now slated to launch no later than June 2028 to discover some of the most hard-to-find asteroids and comets in our solar system.
#NASAJPL
in reply to NASA

In case it strays too far away: please make sure not to let it into the path of #Oumuamua's second refugee ship with the sleeping people on board.
You almost woke the last one up.
try to avoid a crash if you can.

(Writing a SciFi story to place it on Patreon soon. That`s why you get this Mastodon post into your reply/mention, dear NASA bot. Don`t be alarmed, someone is just preparing their (new and to be set up) Patreon account and as a part of this, developing the content right now.)

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