Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
This article is for students grades 5-8.
The Sun is the star of our solar system. Its gravity holds Earth and our planetary neighbors in its orbit. At 865,000 miles (1.4 million km) in diameter, it’s the largest object in our solar system. On Earth, its influence is felt in our weather, seasons, climate, and more. Let’s learn about our dynamic star and its connections to life on Earth.
What is the Sun, and what is it made of?
The Sun is a yellow dwarf star. It is approximately 4.5 billion years old and is in its “main sequence” phase. This means it is partway through its lifecycle with a few billion more years ahead of it.
The Sun is made of hydrogen and helium gases. At its core, hydrogen is fused to form helium. This nuclear reaction creates the Sun’s heat and light. That energy moves outward through the Sun’s radiative zone and convective zone. It then reaches the Sun’s visible surface and lower atmosphere, called the photosphere. Above the photosphere lies the chromosphere, which forms the Sun’s middle atmosphere, and beyond that is the corona, the Sun’s outermost atmosphere.
The Sun is a yellow dwarf star with a complex series of layers and features.NASA What is the solar cycle?
The Sun goes through a pattern of magnetic activity known as the solar cycle. During each cycle, the Sun experiences a very active period called “solar maximum” and a less active period called “solar minimum.”
During solar maximum, increased magnetic activity creates sunspots. These appear as darker, cooler spots on the Sun’s surface. The more sunspots we can see, the more active the Sun is.
The solar cycle begins at solar minimum, peaks at solar maximum, and then returns to solar minimum. This cycle is driven by the Sun’s magnetic polarity, which flips – north becomes south, and vice versa – every 11 years. It takes two cycles – or 22 years – to complete the full magnetic cycle where the poles return to their original positions.
The Sun’s level of magnetic activity changes throughout its 11-year solar cycle. During each cycle, the Sun experiences a less-active period called “solar minimum” (left) and a very active period called “solar maximum” (right).NASA Wait. The Sun’s magnetic poles can flip??
Yes! Like Earth, the Sun has north and south magnetic poles. But unlike Earth, the Sun’s poles flip regularly. Each 11-year solar cycle is marked by the flipping of the Sun’s poles. The increased magnetic activity during solar maximum makes the north and south poles less defined. As the cycle moves back to solar minimum, the polarization of the poles returns – with flipped polarity.
Unlike Earth, the Sun’s poles regularly flip with each 11-year solar cycle.NASA What is space weather?
Space weather includes phenomena such as solar wind, solar storms, and solar flares. When space weather conditions are calm, there may be little noticeable effect on Earth. But when the Sun is more active, space weather has real impacts on Earth and in space.
Let’s explore these phenomena and how they affect our planet.
Periods of increased solar activity can cause noticeable effects on Earth and in space.NASA What is solar wind?
Solar wind is a stream of charged particles that flow outward from the Sun’s corona. It extends far beyond the orbit of the planets in our solar system. When solar wind reaches Earth, its charged particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field. This causes colorful streams of moving light at Earth’s north and south poles called aurora.
Earth’s magnetic field protects our planet from the charged solar particles of the solar wind.NASA What are solar storms, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections?
The Sun’s magnetic fields are a tangle of constant motion. These fields twist and stretch to the point that they snap and reconnect. When this magnetic reconnection occurs, it releases a burst of energy that can cause a solar storm.
Solar storms can include phenomena such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections. They happen more frequently around the solar maximum of the Sun’s cycle. A solar flare is an intense burst of light and energy from the Sun’s surface. Solar flares tend to happen near sunspots where the Sun’s magnetic fields are strongest. A coronal mass ejection is a massive cloud of material flowing outward from the Sun. These can occur on their own or along with solar flares.
The Sun’s magnetic field is strongest near sunspots. These active regions of the Sun’s surface release energy in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections like these.NASA How do these phenomena affect Earth?
When a solar storm erupts towards Earth, our atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from significant harm. However, some impacts are possible, both on Earth and in space. For example, strong solar storms can cause power outages and radio blackouts. GPS signals can be disrupted. Satellite electronics can be affected. And astronauts working outside of the International Space Station could be exposed to dangerous radiation. NASA monitors and forecasts space weather to protect the safety and health of astronauts and spacecraft.
When charged particles from intense solar storms interact with Earth’s magnetic fields, colorful auroras like this one captured in Saskatchewan, Canada, can occur.NASA Learn more about the Sun
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 on the first-ever mission to fly into the Sun’s corona. Since its first pass through the corona in 2021, every orbit has brought it closer to the Sun. On Dec. 24, 2024, it makes the first of its three final, closest solar approaches of its primary mission. Test your knowledge with NASA’s new quiz, Kahoot! Parker Solar Probe trivia.
Visit these resources for more details about the Sun:
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/ https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-the-sun/en/ https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/stars/ Explore More For Students Grades 5-8 View the full article
-
By NASA
X-rays are radiated by matter hotter than one million Kelvin, and high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy can tell us about the composition of the matter and how fast and in what direction it is moving. Quantum calorimeters are opening this new window on the Universe. First promised four decades ago, the quantum-calorimeter era of X-ray astronomy has finally dawned.
Photo of the XRISM/Resolve quantum-calorimeter array in its storage container prior to integration into the instrument. The 6×6 array, 5 mm on a side, consists of independent detectors – each one a thermally isolated silicon thermistor with a HgTe absorber. The spectrometer consisting of this detector and other essential technologies separates astrophysical X-ray spectra into about 2400 resolution elements, which can be thought of as X-ray colors.NASA GSFC A quantum calorimeter is a device that makes precise measurements of energy quanta by measuring the temperature change that occurs when a quantum of energy is deposited in an absorber with low heat capacity. The absorber is attached to a thermometer that is somewhat decoupled from a heat sink so that the sensor can heat up and then cool back down again. To reduce thermodynamic noise and the heat capacity of the sensor, operation at temperatures less than 0.1 K is required.
The idea for thermal measurement of small amounts of energy occurred in several places in the world independently when scientists observed pulses in the readout of low-temperature thermometers and infrared detectors. They attributed these spurious signals to passing cosmic-ray particles, and considered optimizing detectors for sensitive measurement of the energy of particles and photons.
The idea to develop such sensors for X-ray astronomy was conceived at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1982 when X-ray astronomers were considering instruments to propose for NASA’s planned Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). In a fateful conversation, infrared astronomer Harvey Moseley suggested thermal detection could offer substantial improvement over existing solid-state detectors. Using Goddard internal research and development funding, development advanced sufficiently to justify, just two years later, proposing a quantum-calorimeter X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) for inclusion on AXAF. Despite its technical immaturity at the time, the revolutionary potential of the XRS was acknowledged, and the proposal was accepted.
The AXAF design evolved over the subsequent years, however, and the XRS was eliminated from its complement of instruments. After discussions between NASA and the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), a new XRS was included in the instrument suite of the Japanese Astro-E X-ray observatory. Astro-E launched in 2000 but did not reach orbit due to an anomaly in the first stage of the rocket. Astro-E2, a rebuild of Astro-E, was successfully placed in orbit in 2005 and renamed Suzaku, but the XRS instrument ceased operation before observations started due to loss of the liquid helium, an essential part of the detector cooling system, caused by a faulty storage system.
A redesigned mission, Astro-H, that included a quantum-calorimeter instrument with a redundant cooling system was successfully launched in 2016 and renamed Hitomi. Hitomi’s Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) obtained high resolution spectra of the Perseus cluster of galaxies and a few other sources before a problem with the attitude control system caused the mission to be lost roughly one month after launch. Even so, Hitomi was the first orbiting observatory to obtain a scientific result using X-ray quantum calorimeters. The spectacular Perseus spectrum generated by the SXS motivated yet another attempt to implement a spaceborne quantum-calorimeter spectrometer.
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) was launched in September 2023, with the spectrometer aboard renamed Resolve to represent not only its function but also the resolve of the U.S./Japan collaboration to study the Universe through the window of this new capability. XRISM has been operating well in orbit for over a year.
Development of the Sensor Technology
Development of the sensor technology employed in Resolve began four decades ago. Note that an X-ray quantum-calorimeter spectrometer requires more than the sensor technology. Other technologies, such as the coolers that provide a
The sensors used from XRS through Resolve were all based on silicon-thermistor thermometers and mercury telluride (HgTe) X-ray absorbers. They used arrays consisting of 32 to 36 pixels, each of which was an independent quantum calorimeter. Between Astro-E and Astro-E2, a new method of making the thermistor was developed that significantly reduced its low-frequency noise. Other fabrication advances made it possible to make reproducible connections between absorbers and thermistors and to fit each thermistor and its thermal isolation under its X-ray absorber, making square arrays feasible.
Through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract executed after the Astro-E2 mission, EPIR Technologies Inc. reduced the specific heat of the HgTe absorbers. Additional improvements made to the cooler of the detector heat sink allowed operation at a lower temperature, which further reduced the specific heat. Together, these changes enabled the pixel width to be increased from 0.64 mm to 0.83 mm while still achieving a lower heat capacity, and thus improving the energy resolution. From Astro-E through Astro-H, the energy resolution for X-rays of energy around 6000 eV improved from 11 eV, to 5.5 eV, to 4 eV. No changes to the array design were made between Astro-H and XRISM.
Resolve detector scientist Caroline Kilbourne installing the flight Resolve quantum-calorimeter array into the assembly that provides its electrical, thermal, and mechanical interfaces.NASA GSFC Over the same period, other approaches to quantum-calorimeter arrays optimized for the needs of future missions were developed. The use of superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES) instead of silicon (Si) thermistors led to improved energy resolution, more pixels per array, and multiplexing (a technique that allows multiple signals to be carried on a single wire). Quantum-calorimeter arrays with thousands of pixels are now standard, such as in the NASA contribution to the future European New Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (newAthena) mission. And quantum calorimeters using paramagnetic thermometers — which unlike TES and Si thermistors require no dissipation of heat in the thermometer for it to be read out — combined with high-density wiring are a promising route for realizing even larger arrays. (See Astrophysics Technology Highlight on these latest developments.)
The Resolve instrument aboard XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) captured data from the center of galaxy NGC 4151, where a supermassive black hole is slowly consuming material from the surrounding accretion disk. The resulting spectrum reveals the presence of iron in the peak around 6.5 keV and the dips around 7 keV, light thousands of times more energetic that what our eyes can see. Background: An image of NGC 4151 constructed from a combination of X-ray, optical, and radio light.Spectrum: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve. Background: X-rays, NASA/CXC/CfA/J.Wang et al.; optical, Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma/Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope; radio, NSF/NRAO/VLA Results from Resolve
So, what is Resolve revealing about the Universe? Through spectroscopy alone, Resolve allows us to construct images of complex environments where collections of gas and dust with various attributes exist, emitting and absorbing X-rays at energies characteristic of their various compositions, velocities, and temperatures. For example, in the middle of the galaxy known as NCG 4151 (see figure above), matter spiraling into the central massive black hole forms a circular structure that is flat near the black hole, more donut-shaped further out, and, according to the Resolve data, a bit lumpy. Matter near the black hole is heated up to X-ray-emitting temperatures and irradiates the matter in the circular structure. The Resolve spectrum has a bright narrow emission line (peak) from neutral iron atoms that must be coming from colder matter in the circular structure, because hotter material would be ionized, and would have a different emission signature. Nonetheless, the shape of the iron line needs three components to describe it, each coming from a different lump in the circular structure. The presence of absorption lines (dips) in the spectrum provides further detail about the structure of the infalling matter.
A second example is the detection of X-ray emission by Resolve from the debris of stars that have exploded, such as N132D (see figure below), that will improve our understanding of the explosion mechanism and how the elements produced in stars get distributed, and allow us to infer the type of star each was before ending in a supernova. Elements are identified by their characteristic emission lines, and shifts of those lines via the Doppler effect tell us how fast the material is moving.
XRISM’s Resolve instrument captured data from supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud to create the most detailed X-ray spectrum of the object ever made. The spectrum reveals peaks associated with silicon, sulfur, argon, calcium, and iron. Inset at right is an image of N132D captured by XRISM’s Xtend instrument.JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve and Xtend These results are just the beginning. The rich Resolve data sets are identifying complex velocity structures, rare elements, and multiple temperature components in a diverse ensemble of cosmic objects. Welcome to the quantum calorimeter era! Stay tuned for more revelations!
Project Leads: Dr. Caroline Kilbourne, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), for silicon-thermistor quantum calorimeter development from Astro-E2 through XRISM and early TES development. Foundational and other essential leadership provided by Dr. Harvey Moseley, Dr. John Mather, Dr. Richard Kelley, Dr. Andrew Szymkowiak, Mr. Brent Mott, Dr. F. Scott Porter, Ms. Christine Jhabvala, Dr. James Chervenak (GSFC at the time of the work) and Dr. Dan McCammon (U. Wisconsin).
Sponsoring Organizations and Programs: The NASA Headquarters Astrophysics Division sponsored the projects, missions, and other efforts that culminated in the development of the Resolve instrument.
Explore More
7 min read NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA DAVINCI Mission’s Many ‘Firsts’ to Unlock Venus’ Hidden Secrets
NASA’s DAVINCI probe will be first in the 21st century to brave Venus’ atmosphere as…
Article 1 day ago 2 min read Hubble Images a Grand Spiral
Article 4 days ago View the full article
-
-
By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
On Dec. 10, 1974, NASA launched Helios 1, the first of two spacecraft to make close observations of the Sun. In one of the largest international efforts at the time, the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany, provided the spacecraft, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, had overall responsibility for U.S. participation, and NASA’s Lewis, now Glenn, Research Center in Cleveland provided the launch vehicle. Equipped with 10 instruments, Helios 1 made its first close approach to the Sun on March 15, 1975, passing closer and traveling faster than any previous spacecraft. Helios 2, launched in 1976, passed even closer. Both spacecraft far exceeded their 18-month expected lifetime, returning unprecedented data from their unique vantage points.
The fully assembled Helios 1 spacecraft prepared for launch.Credit: NASA The West German company Messerchmitt-Bölkow-Blohm built the two Helios probes, the first non-Soviet and non-American spacecraft placed in heliocentric orbit, for the West German space agency DFVLR, today’s DLR. Each 815-pound Helios probe carried 10 U.S. and West German instruments, weighing a total of 158 pounds, to study the Sun and its environment. The instruments included high-energy particle detectors to measure the solar wind, magnetometers to study the Sun’s magnetic field and variations in electric and magnetic waves, and micrometeoroid detectors. Once activated and checked out, operators in the German control center near Munich controlled the spacecraft and collected the raw data. To evenly distribute the solar radiation the spacecraft spun on its axis once every second, and optical mirrors on its surface reflected the majority of the heat.
Workers encapsulate a Helios solar probe into its payload fairing. Credit: NASA
Launch of Helios 1 took place at 2:11 a.m. EST Dec. 10, 1974, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force, now Space Force, Station, on a Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket. This marked the first successful flight of this rocket, at the time the most powerful in the world, following the failure of the Centaur upper stage during the rocket’s inaugural launch on Feb. 11, 1974. The successful launch of Helios 1 provided confidence in the Titan IIIE-Centaur, needed to launch the Viking orbiters and landers to Mars in 1976 and the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, later renamed Voyager, spacecraft in 1977 to begin their journeys through the outer solar system. The Centaur upper stage placed Helios 1 into a solar orbit with a period of 190 days, with its perihelion, or closest point to the Sun, well inside the orbit of Mercury. Engineers activated the spacecraft’s 10 instruments within a few days of launch, with the vehicle declared fully operational on Jan. 16, 1975. On March 15, Helios 1 reached its closest distance to the Sun of 28.9 million miles, closer than any other previous spacecraft – Mariner 10 held the previous record during its three Mercury encounters. Helios 1 also set a spacecraft speed record, traveling at 148,000 miles per hour at perihelion. Parts of the spacecraft reached a temperature of 261 degrees Fahrenheit, but the instruments continued to operate without problems. During its second perihelion on Sept. 21, temperatures reached 270 degrees, affecting the operation of some instruments. Helios 1 continued to operate and return useful data until both its primary and backup receivers failed and its high-gain antenna no longer pointed at Earth. Ground controllers deactivated the spacecraft on Feb. 18, 1985, with the last contact made on Feb. 10, 1986.
Helios 1 sits atop its Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket at Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force, now Space Force, Station in Florida.Credit: NASA
Helios 2 launched on Jan. 15, 1976, and followed a path similar to its predecessor’s but one that took it even closer to the Sun. On April 17, it approached to within 27 million miles of Sun, traveling at a new record of 150,000 miles per hour. At that distance, the spacecraft experienced 10% more solar heat than its predecessor. Helios 2’s downlink transmitter failed on March 3, 1980, resulting in no further useable data from the spacecraft. Controllers shut it down on Jan. 7, 1981. Scientists correlated data from the Helios instruments with similar data gathered by other spacecraft, such as the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform Explorers 47 and 50 in Earth orbit, the Pioneer solar orbiters, and Pioneer 10 and 11 in the outer solar system. In addition to their solar observations, Helios 1 and 2 studied the dust and ion tails of the comets C/1975V1 West, C/1978H1 Meier, and C/1979Y1 Bradfield. The information from the Helios probes greatly increased our knowledge of the Sun and its environment, and also raised more questions left for later spacecraft from unique vantage points to try to answer.
llustration of a Helios probe in flight, with all its booms deployed. Credit: NASA The joint ESA/NASA Ulysses mission studied the Sun from vantage points above its poles. After launch from space shuttle Discovery during STS-41 on Oct. 6, 1990, Ulysses used Jupiter’s gravity to swing it out of the ecliptic plane and fly first over the Sun’s south polar region from June to November 1994, then over the north polar region from June and September 1995. Ulysses continued its unique studies during several more polar passes until June 30, 2009, nearly 19 years after launch and more than four times its expected lifetime. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched on Aug. 12, 2018, has made ever increasingly close passes to the Sun, including flying through its corona, breaking the distance record set by Helios 2. The Parker Solar Probe reached its first perihelion of 15 million miles on Nov. 5, 2018, with its closest approach of just 3.86 million miles of the Sun’s surface, just 4.5 percent of the Sun-Earth distance, planned for Dec. 24, 2024. The ESA Solar Orbiter launched on Feb. 10, 2020, and began science operations in November 2021. Its 10 instruments include cameras that have returned the highest resolution images of the Sun including its polar regions from as close as 26 million miles away.
Illustration of the Ulysses spacecraft over the Sun’s pole.Credit: NASA Illustration of the Parker Solar Probe during a close approach to the Sun.Credit: NASA The ESA Solar Orbiter observing the Sun.Credit: NASA About the Author
John J. Uri
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 Related Terms
Helios 1 Missions NASA History Explore More
3 min read NASA Moves Drone Package Delivery Industry Closer to Reality
Article 1 hour ago 5 min read NASA Scientific Balloon Flights to Lift Off From Antarctica
Article 1 hour ago 6 min read NASA Invites Social Creators for Launch of Two NASA Missions
Article 3 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A scientific balloon is inflated during NASA’s 2023 Antarctic campaign in McMurdo, Antarctica. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Antarctica’s icy expanse to kick off the annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon Campaign, where two balloon flights will carry a total of nine missions to near space. Launch operations will begin mid-December from the agency’s Long Duration Balloon camp located near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf.
“Antarctica is our cornerstone location for long-duration balloon missions, and we always look forward to heading back to ‘the ice,’” said Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. “It’s a tremendous effort to stage a campaign like this in such a remote location, and we are grateful for the support provided to us by the U.S. National Science Foundation, New Zealand, and the U.S. Air Force.”
This year’s Antarctic campaign includes investigations in astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research, and upper atmospheric research, along with technology demonstrations. The campaign’s two primary missions include:
GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer), led by Columbia University in New York, is an experiment to detect anti-matter particles produced by dark matter interactions. The anti-particles stemming from these interactions in our galaxy can only be observed from a suborbital platform or in space, since Earth’s atmosphere shields us from the cosmic radiation. GAPS aims to provide an unprecedented level of sensitivity to certain classes of anti-particles, allowing the exploration of a currently unexplored energy regime of the elusive dark matter. Salter Test Flight Universal, led by NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, will test and validate long-duration balloon and subsystems, while supporting several piggyback missions on the flight. Piggyback missions, or smaller payloads, riding along with the Salter Test Flight Universal mission include:
MARSBOx (Microbes in Atmosphere for Radiation, Survival, and Biological Outcomes Experiments), led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, will expose melanized fungus, called Aspergillus niger, to the stratosphere’s extreme radiation and temperature fluctuations, low atmospheric pressure, and absence of water — conditions much like the surface of Mars. Knowledge of how this fungus adapts to protect itself in this harsh environment could lead to the development of treatments to protect astronauts from high radiation exposure. EMIDSS-6 (Experimental Module for Iterative Design of Satellite Subsystems 6), led by National Polytechnical Institute − Mexico, is a technological platform with experimental design and operational validation of instrumentation that will collect and store data from the stratospheric environment to contribute to the study of climate change. SPARROW-6 (Sensor Package for Attitude, Rotation, and Relative Observable Winds – 6), led by NASA’s Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, will demonstrate relative wind measurements using an ultrasonic anemometer designed for the balloon float environment. WALRUSS (Wallops Atmospheric Light Radiation and Ultraviolet Spectrum Sensor), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a technology demonstration of a sensor package capable of measuring the total ultraviolet wavelength spectrum and ozone concentration. INDIGO (INterim Dynamics Instrumentation for Gondolas), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a data recorder meant to measure the shock, rotation, and attitude of the gondola during the launch, float, and landing phases of flight. Data will be used to improve understanding of the dynamics of flight and to inform the design of future components and hardware. The remaining two piggyback missions are led by finalists of NASA’s FLOATing DRAGON (Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery And Guided On-board Node) Balloon Challenge, sponsored by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace. The challenge was created for student teams to design, build, and fly an autonomous aerial vehicle, deployed from a gondola during a high-altitude balloon flight. The teams’ student-built data vaults will be safely dropped from around 120,000 feet with the capability to target a specific landing point on the ground to manage risk. The missions participating in the Antarctic campaign are Purdue University’s Purdue DRAGONfly, and University of Notre Dame’s IRIS v3.
NASA’s zero-pressure balloons, used in the Antarctic campaign, are made of a thin plastic film and are capable of lifting up to 8,000 pounds of payload and equipment to altitudes above 99.8% of Earth’s atmosphere. Zero-pressure balloons, which typically have a shorter flight duration from the loss of gas during the day-to-night cycle, can support long-duration missions in polar regions during summer. The constant daylight of Antarctica’s austral summer and stable stratospheric wind conditions allow the balloon missions to remain in near space for days to weeks, gathering large amounts of scientific data as they circle the continent.
NASA’s Long Duration Balloon camp is located about eight miles from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The Columbia team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division. NASA balloon launch operations from Antarctica receive logistical support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, which oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program.
For mission tracking, click here. For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.
By Olivia Littleton
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 EditorOlivia F. LittletonContactOlivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.govLocationWallops Flight Facility Related Terms
Scientific Balloons Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility Explore More
7 min read NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico
Article 4 months ago 7 min read NASA Balloons Head North of Arctic Circle for Long-Duration Flights
Article 7 months ago 4 min read GUSTO Breaks NASA Scientific Balloon Record for Days in Flight
Article 10 months ago View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.