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“If you just invest a little time and a little effort in people, you will get so much more back.”

Dewayne Washington leads communications efforts for the #MarsSampleReturn campaign. This #BlackHistoryMonth, discover his leadership philosophies: go.nasa.gov/3xi9ugh
#NASA



Feel like you’re spiraling? You’re in good company!

Webb’s images of NGC 1365 (left), NGC 7496 (top) & NGC 1433 (bottom) reveal the galaxies' networks of gas and dust in incredible detail. The data is part of an ongoing Webb survey of 19 spiral galaxies: go.nasa.gov/3YzvAXj
#JamesWebb



“We’re able to harvest the power of the sun and sustain our astronauts, their health and habitat, and our exploration.”

Lyndsey McMillon-Brown helps design & develop solar cells that may help future #Artemis missions establish a long-term lunar presence: go.nasa.gov/3YC1Bye
#NASAArtemis #Artemis

in reply to NASA

Improving solar cell efficiency would be a massive benefit to come from the Mars Program.

Right now, solar cells only react to one wavelength of light with the rest of the spectrum going to waste. Reacting to a 2nd wavelength would DOUBLE efficiency (producing nearly twice as much electricity.) Imagine a solar cell that reacts to the 7 primaries (ROYGBIV)? Solar cars that never need plugging in! 😵



Today's rocket launches are part of an effort to study Earth's mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere about 31 to 53 miles (50-85km) in altitude. 🚀☁️

The mesosphere is where meteors often burn up. It has its own chemistry and winds, and is where noctilucent ⁠clouds form!
#NASAEarth



Bigger and better together!

Hubble and @NASAWebb have both studied Pandora's Cluster in great detail, revealing gravitational lensing – which occurs when a massive object's gravity warps and magnifies the light coming from more distant objects behind it. ⬇️
#Hubble



Hubble studied Pandora's central core as part of the three-year Frontier Fields program, which sought to use powerful space telescopes in tandem with gravitational lensing to peer deeper into the universe than ever before. go.nasa.gov/3lKudqA
#Hubble


Webb's broader mosaic of four images shows three clusters of galaxies coming together to form a megacluster!

About 50,000 sources of near-infrared light were captured by Webb, allowing astronomers to learn more about galaxy evolution. go.nasa.gov/3S6mpeL
#Hubble



The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies

Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Lorenzi, Angus Lau, Tommy Tse Text: ChatGPT (apologies to Edgar Allen Poe)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230216.ht… #APOD

#APOD


The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230216.ht… #APOD
#APOD
in reply to NASA

One of these pictures is my desktop background. No icons on the screen who disturb the view on it. Just to remind me how small and insignificant we are in the universe.


Engineers continue evaluating a coolant leak in the Progress 82 cargo craft. Meanwhile, the Exp 68 crew kept up its human research and space physics studies today. blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/20…
#ISS
#iss


Our VIPER lunar rover will land at a newly named mountain honoring @nasa mathematician Melba Mouton, who helped land the first humans on the Moon.

About the size of Delaware, Mons Mouton is located in one of the 13 candidate #Artemis III landing regions. go.nasa.gov/411iBiM
#NASAArtemis #Artemis



When it comes to planets, Earth is kinda teeny, even in our own solar system. And planets between the size of Earth and Neptune/Uranus can be found only in systems beyond our own. go.nasa.gov/3EaYJ3g
#NASAExoplanets


Pandora's Secrets Revealed 🤩
@NASAWebb's latest image reveals never-before-seen details in Pandora’s Cluster. The combined mass of the galaxies creates a powerful gravitational lens, allowing much more distant galaxies in the early universe to be seen. go.nasa.gov/3YuWShE
#NASAExoplanets


Have humans ever visited Mars?

Not yet, but we’ve sent rovers, landers, and orbiters to gather the information we'll need to keep future astronauts safe, and with @NASAArtemis, we’re working on new tech that could one day get humans to Mars. mars.nasa.gov/
#NASA

#NASA


A spiral of stars 🌀

A few months after the final Hubble servicing mission, the telescope took this #HubbleClassic image of the spiral galaxy M100.

It’s classified as a grand-design spiral galaxy because of its two prominent lanes of young, blue stars: go.nasa.gov/3YBSYUg
#Hubble



2020 saw a record-breaking rise in methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The increase was driven by a combination of warm, wet weather in the Northern Hemisphere and the COVID-19 lockdowns.

go.nasa.gov/3YCcxMm
#NASAEarth

in reply to NASA

so it mentions several times 'due to lockdowns' but zero references as to *why*

Canada (where I live) never once 'locked down', we could always go out and shop at malls throughout the entire pandemic, I understand some American states may have introduced individualized 'lockdown' concepts

so with 'lockdown' poorly defined, and zero references as to what about 'lockdowns' caused an increase in methane...

...this is weird misinformation



A decrease of nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution during the COVID-19 lockdowns indirectly slowed the removal of methane from the atmosphere.

NOx serves as an atmospheric “detergent” by reacting with methane and removing it from the atmosphere.
#NASAEarth



In 2020, Northern wetlands were about half a degree warmer than in 2019 and had 2-11% more precipitation. This likely caused wetlands to expand, brought earlier soil thaw and later soil freeze dates, and may have increased methane emissions from permafrost and thermokarst lakes.
#NASAEarth


50 years ago, two Saturn rockets were being prepared at @NASAKennedy for the launch of America's first space station, Skylab. nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-…
#NASAhistory


Melba Roy Mouton—a NASA mathematician and key figure in the Apollo era—is being honored with the naming of a mountain on the Moon’s South Pole.

Mons Mouton is the future landing site of VIPER, our rover set to explore the lunar surface for Artemis: go.nasa.gov/3xo4mHd #BHM
#NASA

#NASA #bhm
in reply to NASA

That is quite an honor. I like the symbolism of the south pole as the solar system orbital plane of the ecliptic is in same relationship to the plane of the galaxy rather. Like that which a Ferris Wheel has to the ground.

The heart of the Milky Way is to the south of earth as mapped in the night stars.

I am lucky to have had very dark skies whereby I could see the summer stars and the heart of the Galaxy between the sting of the Scorpion and the Archer or some name , the Teapot.’



As a former Boy Scout, Roger Chaffee (born #OTD in 1935) had more outdoor experience than some of his fellow astronauts. Over his 3-day jungle survival training, he was able to find various things to eat, describing palm hearts as delicious, and snails as just plain terrible.
#NASAhistory
in reply to NASA

Gotta sautée them in butter and garlic, and good luck finding that in the jungle.


Learn more about Roger Chaffee's life, taken from us too soon in the tragic Apollo 1 fire in 1967. go.nasa.gov/3I4UuY4
#NASAhistory


Airglow Sky over France apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230215.ht… #APOD
#APOD
in reply to NASA

This is what the sky looks like moments before Thanos and his army comes through some sort of space portal.

#toomuchmarvel



This widely-reported event was instrumental in the establishment of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office in January 2016. #AsteroidWatch

Read more about the Chelyabinsk event's role in upping our planetary defense game: go.nasa.gov/3IhJKqt
#NASAhistory



#10YearsAgo today, a 10,000 ton meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia releasing energy roughly equivalent to 500-kilotons of TNT. Thousands of buildings were damaged and nearly 1,500 people were injured (though there were no fatalities).

Photo credit: M. Ahmetvaleev
#NASAhistory

in reply to NASA

If this impact event had happened over New York City, the insurance costs due to damages would be staggering! (I really would like to see an estimate of this - I'd include it in my asteroids and planetary defense lecture.)


Cyclone Gabrielle lashed New Zealand in mid-February, adding to an unusually wet season and causing destructive flooding, storm surge, and landslides. 🌧️ 🌀

The @nasa @noaa Suomi NPP satellite took this image of the cyclone moving southeast on Feb. 14. go.nasa.gov/3k6LZDH
#NASAEarth



Curious Universe is back! 🎧

The next season of NASA's podcast takes listeners on wild adventures through our solar system, galaxy, and beyond.

Tune in every Tuesday starting February 21: nasa.gov/curiousuniverse
#Hubble



Airglow Sky over France

Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230215.ht… #APOD

#APOD


We’re feeling the love today while looking at this image of our Pale Blue Dot. 😍 Voyager 1 took this photo of Earth from about 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) away on #ValentinesDay in 1990.

go.nasa.gov/3YnoZiN
#NASAEarth

in reply to NASA

Quick & dirty calculation: it would take a Human about 114,000 years to walk that distance, without stopping.


We’re feeling the love today while looking at this image of our Pale Blue Dot. 😍 Voyager 1 took this photo of Earth from about 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) away on #ValentinesDay in 1990.

go.nasa.gov/3YnoZiN
#NASAEarth




You make us feel out of this world, @NASASpacePlace! 🤩
#NASAEarth



It’s been a great 51 years with you, @NASA_Landsat! Thanks for helping us study our home planet. 🌏

Happy #ValentinesDay!
#NASAEarth



We love this picture Orion snapped of us, @NASAMoon. 🥰

Happy #ValentinesDay!
#NASAEarth



Hey, @NASAOcean!

Can you believe it’s already been about two months since SWOT launched? We can’t wait for it to help us get to know you better. 💙
#NASAEarth



A @NASASpinoff technology called FINDER has been deployed to aid first responders after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. This technology helps rescue teams locate people trapped in rubble. go.nasa.gov/3I4uj3y
#NASA
#NASA


Earth is a tiny dot from 3.7 million miles away. Imagine looking for worlds *trillions* of miles away!
You look great, btw💖
#NASAExoplanets
in reply to NASA

Source: Wikipedia:

"... From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives ... on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
— Carl Saga



The Exp 68 crew worked on a bio-printer and an ultra-high res camera, packed cargo ships, and prepped for the next @SpaceX crew swap mission. blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/20…
#ISS
#iss


Psst, @NASAEarth, you're the best! We've discovered 5,250 exoplanets and not a single one is exactly like Earth, with all your delicious oxygen. Happy #ValentinesDay!💙🌎
#NASAExoplanets

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