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Astrophysicist Gioia Rau Explores Cosmic ‘Time Machines’
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By NASA
Learn Home NASA HEAT Student Activity… Heliophysics Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
NASA HEAT Student Activity Featured in TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2024
On April 8, 2024, tens of millions experienced a solar eclipse from Mexico through the United States and into Canada. Astronomers, educators, and organizations had been preparing the public for this grand celestial event. Learning from engagement experiences in 2017, the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (NASA HEAT) promoted an activity called “Eclipse Essentials: Safe and Stylish Solar Viewing Glasses.” The activity was first tested in Albuquerque, New Mexico during the Balloon Fiesta around the October 2023 annular eclipse. Using solar viewing glasses, a paper plate, some drawing and decoration supplies, visitors – minors and adults alike – crowded around the heliophysics tables in the NASA tent. That positive experience led NASA HEAT to modify and perfect the design of their “face shield” activity before offering trainings to numerous educators and outreach personnel in the weeks leading up to the April 2024 engagement events.
Note: The glasses and the art activity are not only useful for solar eclipses. They can be used anytime to safely observe the Sun. While it is never safe to look directly at the sun with unprotected eyes, eclipse glasses are perfect for observing sunspots!
One proof of positive impact can be found at the Myers Elementary School in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Students from two kindergarten classes, escorted outside by their teachers Amy Johnston and Wendy Sheridan, stared toward the sky with their solar viewing glasses using paper plates to watch the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. The paper plates, which helped provide additional safety measures to protect their eyes, were attached to solar eclipse glasses and decorated by each student in their classrooms as a project leading up to the big day. A photo of the students was so captivating that multiple media outlets shared it on or shortly after the day of the eclipse.
The global media brand, TIME, selected a photo of these kindergarten students wearing their NASA HEAT-designed solar eclipse-viewing “face shields” during the April 8th solar eclipse as one of “TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2024”. When sharing about the top 100 photos on Instagram, TIME had this to say:
“Every year the TIME photo department sits down to curate the strongest images that crossed our path over the previous 12 months. And every year, sitting with the images, we find ourselves mulling the ways this collection feels heavier than the last, how the year produced images unlike what we’ve seen before.
But this year something else, a tautness, runs through the collection – the tension of conflict, the anxiety over outcome, anticipation of excitement or in possibility. Somehow, these photographers are able to capture that coiled feeling and hold it within the four walls of a frame. Be it by impeccable timing or intentional framing, they have created a time capsule that feels as if it’s about to be opened.”
NASA HEAT 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
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Kindergarten students at Myers Elementary School in Grand Blanc, Michigan watched the solar eclipse with special solar viewing glasses on Monday, April 8, 2024. The paper plates, which helped provide additional safety for their eyes, were added on and decorated by each student prior to the big day. Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal Share
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
2024 Solar Eclipse Heliophysics Science Activation Explore More
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By NASA
NASA’s SPHEREx observatory will use a technique called spectroscopy across the entire sky, capturing the universe in more than 100 colors.Credit: BAE Systems Media accreditation is open for the launch of two NASA missions that will explore the mysteries of our universe and Sun.
The agency is targeting late February to launch its SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observatory, a space telescope that will create a 3D map of the entire sky to help scientists investigate the origins of our universe. NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will study origins of the Sun’s outflow of material, or the solar wind, also will ride to space with the telescope.
NASA and SpaceX will launch the missions aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel, including a science briefing the week of launch. NASA will communicate additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.
Media interested in covering the launch must apply for media accreditation. The application deadline for U.S. citizens is 11:59 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 6, while international media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m., Monday, Jan. 20.
NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 321-867-2468.
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371.
Updates about spacecraft launch preparations are available on the agency’s SPHEREx blog and PUNCH blog.
The SPHEREx mission will observe hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies in infrared light, a range of wavelengths not visible to the human eye. With this map, SPHEREx will enable scientists to study inflation, or the rapid expansion of the universe a fraction of a second after the big bang. The observatory also will measure the collective glow from galaxies near and far, including light from hidden galaxies that individually haven’t been observed, and look for reservoirs of water, carbon dioxide, and other key ingredients for life in our home galaxy.
Launching as a rideshare with SPHEREx, the agency’s PUNCH mission is made up of four suitcase-sized satellites that will spread out around Earth’s day-night line to observe the Sun and space with a combined field of view. Working together, the four satellites will map out the region where the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, transitions to the solar wind, or the constant outflow of material from the Sun.
The SPHEREx observatory is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the Astrophysics Division within the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission principal investigator is based jointly at NASA JPL and Caltech. Formerly Ball Aerospace, BAE Systems built the telescope, supplied the spacecraft bus, and performed observatory integration. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the U.S., two in South Korea, and one in Taiwan. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx data set will be publicly available.
The agency’s PUNCH mission is led by Southwest Research Institute’s office in Boulder, Colorado. The mission is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions.
For more details about the SPHEREx mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex
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Alise Fisher (SPHEREx)
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier (PUNCH)
Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Laura Aguiar
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-593-6245
laura.aguiar@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 13, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe and Ices Explorer) Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kennedy Space Center Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) Science Mission Directorate View the full article
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By European Space Agency
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By NASA
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566.ESA/NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the center of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disk takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye.
As NGC 2566 appears to gaze at us, astronomers gaze right back, using Hubble to survey the galaxy’s star clusters and star-forming regions. The Hubble data are especially valuable for studying stars that are just a few million years old; these stars are bright at the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive. Using these data, researchers can measure the ages of NGC 2566’s stars, which helps piece together the timeline of the galaxy’s star formation and the exchange of gas between star-forming clouds and the stars themselves.
Hubble regularly teams up with other astronomical observatories to examine objects like NGC 2566, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Webb data complements Hubble’s by going beyond the infrared wavelengths of light Hubble can see, better defining areas of warm, glowing dust. At even longer wavelengths, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of 66 radio telescopes that work together can capture detailed images of the clouds of gas and dust in which stars form. Together, Hubble, Webb, and ALMA provide an overview of the formation, lives, and deaths of stars in galaxies across the universe.
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By NASA
1 min read
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NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft completed its first maximum afterburner test at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. This full-power test, during which the engine generates additional thrust, validates the additional power needed for meeting the testing conditions of the aircraft. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to overcome a major barrier to supersonic flight over land by reducing the noise of sonic booms.Lockheed Martin Corporation/Garry Tice NASA completed the first maximum afterburner engine run test on its X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft on Dec. 12. The ground test, conducted at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, marks a significant milestone as the X-59 team progresses toward flight.
An afterburner is a component of some jet engines that generates additional thrust. Running the engine, an F414-GE-100, with afterburner will allow the X-59 to meet its supersonic speed requirements. The test demonstrated the engine’s ability to operate within temperature limits and with adequate airflow for flight. It also showed the engine’s ability to operate in sync with the aircraft’s other subsystems.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter. The X-59’s first flight is expected to occur in 2025.
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactMatt Kamletmatthew.r.kamlet@nasa.gov Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Armstrong Flight Research Center Commercial Supersonic Technology Integrated Aviation Systems Program Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Supersonic Flight Explore More
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