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NASA Mission to Study Mysteries in the Origin of Solar Radio Waves
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Learn Home Science Activation NASA Workshops Culturally… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 2 min read
NASA Workshops Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement with Educators
From November 6-8, 2024, the NASA Science Activation Program’s Planetary Resources and Content Heroes (ReaCH) project held a Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement workshop at the Bradley Observatory at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia for the space sciences community, including planetary science, astrobiology, astronomy, and heliophysics professionals, as well as invited education specialists. To practice the skills learned in the workshop, participants facilitated a variety of space-themed, culturally-inclusive, hands-on activities for 79 students, family, and staff at the Center for a New Generation at the Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy Boys and Girls Club.
Workshop participants provided anonymous feedback as a part of their workshop evaluations:
“[This experience] helped me learn a lot about how to make different cultures and ethnicities feel involved and included and also engage with them to inspire in them a love for science”
“. . .I feel like the discussions were so important to me, considering we all come from so many different backgrounds, and our exposure has been different, so we all have a different point of view to bring to the discussion that others, that I, might not think of right away. So I think it was really nice to hear so many different perspectives in all of these discussions.”
“[The facilitator] connected cultural diversity to an activity. That is not easy to do. I loved it and it is what I expected coming into this workshop.”
This workshop was conducted in partnership with Agnes Scott College, Georgia Tech, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, and members of the Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER) NASA Solar System Exploration Research Institute (SSERVI) Center. ReaCH workshops are designed to enhance the ability of scientists to engage their local communities in science. The Planetary ReaCH project is building a replicable model that will be used to support similar workshops for other science fields. NASA-funded researchers, including early-career scientists, are invited to apply for the 2025 workshops!
The Planetary ReaCH project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0003 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
The workshop was attended by researchers including early career scientists, planetary scientists, astrobiologists, astronomers, heliophysicists, and education specialists. Share
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Last Updated Jan 02, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector, or NGLR-1, is one of 10 payloads set to fly aboard the next delivery for NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative in 2025. NGLR-1, outfitted with a retroreflector, will be delivered to the lunar surface to reflect very short laser pulses from Earth-based lunar laser ranging observatories. Photo courtesy Firefly Aerospace Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal scattering or diffusion. Retroreflectors are mirrors that reflect the incoming light back in the same incoming direction. Calculating the time required for the beams to bounce back allowed scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, both of which are directly affected by Earth’s gravitational pull. More than 50 years later, on the cusp of NASA’s crewed Artemis missions to the Moon, lunar research still leverages data from those Apollo-era retroreflectors.
As NASA prepares for the science and discoveries of the agency’s Artemis campaign, state-of-the-art retroreflector technology is expected to significantly expand our knowledge about Earth’s sole natural satellite, its geological processes, the properties of the lunar crust and the structure of lunar interior, and how the Earth-Moon system is changing over time. This technology will also allow high-precision tests of Einstein’s theory of gravity, or general relativity.
That’s the anticipated objective of an innovative science instrument called NGLR (Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector), one of 10 NASA payloads set to fly aboard the next lunar delivery for the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. NGLR-1 will be carried to the surface by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander.
Developed by researchers at the University of Maryland in College Park, NGLR-1 will be delivered to the lunar surface, located on the Blue Ghost lander, to reflect very short laser pulses from Earth-based lunar laser ranging observatories, which could greatly improve on Apollo-era results with sub-millimeter-precision range measurements. If successful, its findings will expand humanity’s understanding of the Moon’s inner structure and support new investigations of astrophysics, cosmology, and lunar physics – including shifts in the Moon’s liquid core as it orbits Earth, which may cause seismic activity on the lunar surface.
“NASA has more than half a century of experience with retroreflectors, but NGLR-1 promises to deliver findings an order of magnitude more accurate than Apollo-era reflectors,” said Dennis Harris, who manages the NGLR payload for the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Deployment of the NGLR payload is just the first step, Harris noted. A second NGLR retroreflector, called the Artemis Lunar Laser Retroreflector (ALLR), is currently a candidate payload for flight on NASA’s Artemis III mission to the Moon and could be set up near the lunar south pole. A third is expected to be manifested on a future CLPS delivery to a non-polar location.
“Once all three retroreflectors are operating, they are expected to deliver unprecedented opportunities to learn more about the Moon and its relationship with Earth,” Harris said.
Under the CLPS model, NASA is investing in commercial delivery services to the Moon to enable industry growth and support long-term lunar exploration. As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA aims to be one of many customers on future flights. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the development of seven of the 10 CLPS payloads carried on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Learn more about. CLPS and Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
Alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
Alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 02, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA photographer Joel Kowsky captured this image of the Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.
The NASA Headquarters photo team chose this image as one of the best from 2024. See more of the top 100 from last year on Flickr.
Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun
An artist’s concept showing Parker Solar Probe. Credits:
NASA/APL Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.
Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received late on Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.
This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.
Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star.
Nicky fox
NASA Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate
“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” said Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, the spacecraft hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved.
Credits: NASA This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741.
Parker Solar Probe has spent the last six years setting up for this moment. Launched in 2018, the spacecraft used seven flybys of Venus to gravitationally direct it ever closer to the Sun. With its last Venus flyby on Nov. 6, 2024, the spacecraft reached its optimal orbit. This oval-shaped orbit brings the spacecraft an ideal distance from the Sun every three months — close enough to study our Sun’s mysterious processes but not too close to become overwhelmed by the Sun’s heat and damaging radiation. The spacecraft will remain in this orbit for the remainder of its primary mission.
“Parker Solar Probe is braving one of the most extreme environments in space and exceeding all expectations,” said Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which designed, built, and operates the spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland. “This mission is ushering a new golden era of space exploration, bringing us closer than ever to unlocking the Sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.”
Close to the Sun, the spacecraft relies on a carbon foam shield to protect it from the extreme heat in the upper solar atmosphere called the corona, which can exceed 1 million degrees Fahrenheit. The shield was designed to reach temperatures of 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt steel — while keeping the instruments behind it shaded at a comfortable room temperature. In the hot but low-density corona, the spacecraft’s shield is expected to warm to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The spacecraft’s record close distance of 3.8 million miles may sound far, but on cosmic scales it’s incredibly close. If the solar system was scaled down with the distance between the Sun and Earth the length of a football field, Parker Solar Probe would be just four yards from the end zone — close enough to pass within the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun known as the corona. NASA/APL “It’s monumental to be able to get a spacecraft this close to the Sun,” said John Wirzburger, the Parker Solar Probe mission systems engineer at APL. “This is a challenge the space science community has wanted to tackle since 1958 and had spent decades advancing the technology to make it possible.”
By flying through the solar corona, Parker Solar Probe can take measurements that help scientists better understand how the region gets so hot, trace the origin of the solar wind (a constant flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to half the speed of light.
“The data is so important for the science community because it gives us another vantage point,” said Kelly Korreck, a program scientist at NASA Headquarters and heliophysicist who worked on one of the mission’s instruments. “By getting firsthand accounts of what’s happening in the solar atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe has revolutionized our understanding of the Sun.”
Previous passes have already aided scientists’ understanding of the Sun. When the spacecraft first passed into the solar atmosphere in 2021, it found the outer boundary of the corona is wrinkled with spikes and valleys, contrary to what was expected. Parker Solar Probe also pinpointed the origin of important zig-zag-shaped structures in the solar wind, called switchbacks, at the visible surface of the Sun — the photosphere.
Since that initial pass into the Sun, the spacecraft has been spending more time in the corona, where most of the critical physical processes occur.
This conceptual image shows Parker Solar Probe about to enter the solar corona. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith “We now understand the solar wind and its acceleration away from the Sun,” said Adam Szabo, the Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This close approach will give us more data to understand how it’s accelerated closer in.”
Parker Solar Probe has also made discoveries across the inner solar system. Observations showed how giant solar explosions called coronal mass ejections vacuum up dust as they sweep across the solar system, and other observations revealed unexpected findings about solar energetic particles. Flybys of Venus have documented the planet’s natural radio emissions from its atmosphere, as well as the first complete image of its orbital dust ring.
So far, the spacecraft has only transmitted that it’s safe, but soon it will be in a location that will allow it to downlink the data it collected on this latest solar pass.
The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been.
Joe Westlake
Heliophysics Division Director, NASA Headquarters
“The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an amazing accomplishment.”
The spacecraft’s next planned close solar passes come on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025.
By Mara Johnson-Groh
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact: Sarah Frazier
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Last Updated Dec 27, 2024 Editor Abbey Interrante Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Parker Solar Probe (PSP) Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Solar Flares Solar Wind Space Weather The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
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