Starship Asterisk*

Here’s one bit of NASA outreach that won’t be affected by suspensions or sequesters: an edited version of “We Are The Explorers,” a video highlighting the past successes and future goals of the space administration — created by NASA and featuring an inspiring narration by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen — will be screened in several major U.S. cities during the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness thanks to an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.com. ...

You can contribute here!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

NASA's fleet of Earth-observing satellites constantly circle the globe, completing their orbits every 90 minutes. They give us invaluable information about everything from our weather and climate, to the way we use our land, to the air we breathe. This video highlights some of the newest satellites in the fleet, including the versatile Suomi National Polar-orbiting (NPP) satellite, a partnership between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Aquarius, which measures sea surface salinity and is a joint project between NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina. While many of the images are "true color" or photorealistic in nature, this video also includes data visualizations, which help scientists see data in useful new ways, and computer models, which help us understand interconnected Earth systems and make projections into the future.

Curious about what images we used in this video? Here's a list, in order, of all of the images we used and links for each one where you can find out more.

For more of NASA's best images from 2012, check out our NASA's Earth Month 2013 web interactive.

In this composite image of the Wing the Chandra data is shown in purple, optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope is shown in red, green and blue and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in red.

starsurfer wrote:MWP 1
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1127.html
Copyright: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. MWP1 is a very usually shaped, unusually large, and unusually old, planetary nebulae. The progenitor star is also one of the hottest stars known, so hot it is producing large amounts of X-rays. The image was generated with observations in the Oxygen [OIII] (blue) and Hydrogen-Alpha (orange) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.

RJN wrote:Found on somebody's G+ page, who seemingly did not take the image nor owns the copyright. Can you find the copyright holder? Here is the image:

waterlightning_unknown.jpg

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Source: CICLOPS

From the south pole of the frozen surface of Enceladus, enormous, effervescent jets of icy brine spew volumes of vapor and ice particles at high speeds. Some of the material is jettisoned into space where it is snared by Saturn's gravity, wherein Saturn's hazy E ring is created. The organic-rich compounds that make up this salty spray marks Enceladus as a potential habitable zone candidate.

Scientists theorize the jets originate deep below the moon's thick ice cap in a warm subsurface ocean and find their pressurized escape from vents along the "Tiger Stripe" trenches, nicknamed as such due to their distinct striping across the moons ever-changing southern terrain.

I've been held spellbound by Enceladus since first viewing Cassini's stunning images of it's sunlit jets and desolate landscapes. With considerate input by Dr. Carolyn Porco, I was able to better understand how to render the exciting dynamics taking place on Saturn's tiny companion.

RJN wrote:Found on somebody's G+ page, who seemingly did not take the image nor owns the copyright. Can you find the copyright holder? Here is the image:

waterlightning_unknown.jpg

MargaritaMc wrote:

starsurfer wrote:MWP 1
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1127.html
Copyright: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

Golly - that is really beautiful - and strange.
This is the info from the url above

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. MWP1 is a very usually shaped, unusually large, and unusually old, planetary nebulae. The progenitor star is also one of the hottest stars known, so hot it is producing large amounts of X-rays. The image was generated with observations in the Oxygen [OIII] (blue) and Hydrogen-Alpha (orange) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M6.5 class flare at 3:16 EDT on April 11, 2013. This image shows a combination of light in wavelengths of 131 and 171 Angstroms. Credit: NASA/SDO