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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Tessa Keating is a public affairs specialist in the Office of Communications at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Keating plans onsite logistics, serves as a protocol officer, and coordinates the Space Flight Awareness Program for NASA Stennis and the NASA Shared Services Center.NASA/Danny Nowlin Every task at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is not simply work for Tessa Keating – it is a meaningful step toward a part of something great.
“It has been a dream career. I count it an honor to share the NASA story and humbled to know our team witnesses a part of history,” said Keating, a NASA public affairs specialist in the NASA Stennis Office of Communications. “Every day is an opportunity to contribute to the NASA legacy that will last beyond today. “
Keating plans onsite logistics, serves as a protocol officer, and coordinates the Space Flight Awareness Program for NASA Stennis and the NASA Shared Services Center. In fact, she organized much of the recent Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy Award ceremony at NASA Stennis in August, except for one part. As the ceremony finished, NASA Stennis Director John Bailey said one more award was to be given.
No one was more surprised than the logistics coordinator herself when Keating’s family joined her on stage. The 21-year NASA Stennis employee was honored for her outstanding contributions in sharing the NASA story of exploring the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all with a diverse audience and for equipping everyone with a broader knowledge and appreciation of the center’s vital role within NASA.
“I am not sure I will ever be able to top that in my NASA career,” Keating said.
It became a full-circle moment that she described as a great honor. The Silver Snoopy is the astronauts’ personal award and is presented to less than 1 percent of the total NASA workforce. Reid Wiseman, a NASA astronaut and commander for the upcoming Artemis II mission around the Moon, presented the award to Keating, along with a lapel pin flown aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission.
As NASA returns to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for the Artemis Generation, Keating says it will be extra-special watching Wiseman and the Artemis II crew lay the groundwork for future milestones.
Keating helped lay the groundwork ahead of the successful Artemis I mission. She served as lead logistics for onsite guest operations in 2021 when NASA conducted the most powerful propulsion test in more than 40 years at NASA Stennis. A full-duration hot fire of the first SLS (Space Launch System) core stage and its four RS-25 engines culminated a year-long series of integrated tests. Keating coordinated the viewing of the hot fire for some 200 agency leaders and guests, despite restricted settings due to COVID-19.
“It was truly a highlight. I had grown up hearing my parents and grandparents talk about engines that were tested during the Apollo era, and I had never experienced something of that magnitude,” Keating said. “I was able to live it, feel it, and watch the next part of NASA history onsite.”
For Keating, the groundwork for a NASA career came following graduation with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from William Carey University and a master’s degree in Communications from The University of Southern Mississippi, both schools in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Having grown up in Pearl River County, Mississippi, for most of her life, she knew about NASA Stennis. However, she did not think she could ever work at the center because her strengths were in areas beyond math and science.
Following some additional exploration and conversations with influential people in her life, Keating discovered she, in fact, could be a part of something great at NASA Stennis.
“The possibilities are endless at NASA when you allow yourself to put your best foot forward and research the many opportunities that are available. There is always room for various types of studies,” Keating said. “I credit where I am in my career to God and to the people who have helped to guide my path. I will be forever grateful.”
Learn more about the people who work at NASA Stennis View the full article
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By USH
Last Monday, paraglider Alex Lang was flying high above the Great Pyramid of Giza when he noticed unexpected movement at its peak. To his surprise, it wasn't a person, but a dog perched at the top of the ancient monument.
Image credit: Alex Lang.
Lang, who recorded the bizarre sighting, described the dog barking and chasing birds from the very summit of the pyramid.
The footage left people both fascinated and confused, wondering how the dog had managed to scale such an immense structure. Some even joked that it might be a manifestation of Anubis, god of funerary practices and care of the dead. However, the main concern was whether the dog could safely make its way back down.
Luckily, a few days later, the dog was captured on video making its way down the ancient landmark, appearing calm and unscathed, as if the climb had been no big deal.
Image credit: abcnews.
Link video dog making its way down.https://www.tiktok.com/@abcnews/video/7427042186371386654/View the full article
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By European Space Agency
On 15 October 2024, ESA’s Euclid space mission reveals the first piece of its great map of the Universe, showing millions of stars and galaxies.
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Watches… Missions Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 4 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Watches Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Behave Like a Stress Ball
Hubble Space Telescope data of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot spanning approximately 90 days. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Astronomers have observed Jupiter’s legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises – especially when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it.
Hubble’s new observations of the famous red storm, collected 90 days between December 2023 to March 2024, reveal that the GRS is not as stable as it might look. The recent data show the GRS jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The combined Hubble images allowed astronomers to assemble a time-lapse movie of the squiggly behavior of the GRS.
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This time-lapse movie is assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations spanning approximately 90 days (between December 2023 and March 2024) when the giant planet Jupiter ranged from 391 million to 512 million miles from the Sun. Astronomers measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over a full oscillation cycle. The data reveal that the Great Red Spot is not as stable as it might look. It was observed going through an oscillation in its elliptical shape, jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The cause of the 90-day oscillation is unknown. NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Video: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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“While we knew its motion varies slightly in its longitude, we didn’t expect to see the size oscillate. As far as we know, it’s not been identified before,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of the science paper published in The Planetary Science Journal. “This is really the first time we’ve had the proper imaging cadence of the GRS. With Hubble’s high resolution we can say that the GRS is definitively squeezing in and out at the same time as it moves faster and slower. That was very unexpected, and at present there are no hydrodynamic explanations.”
Hubble monitors Jupiter and the other outer solar system planets every year through the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL) led by Simon, but these observations were from a program dedicated to the GRS. Understanding the mechanisms of the largest storms in the solar system puts the theory of hurricanes on Earth into a broader cosmic context, which might be applied to better understanding the meteorology on planets around other stars.
Using Hubble Space Telescope data spanning approximately 90 days (between December 2023 and March 2024) when the giant planet Jupiter ranged from 391 million to 512 million miles from the Sun, astronomers measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over one full oscillation cycle. The data reveal that the Great Red Spot is not as stable as it might look. It was observed going through an oscillation in its elliptical shape, jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The cause of the 90-day oscillation is unknown. NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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Simon’s team used Hubble to zoom in on the GRS for a detailed look at its size, shape, and any subtle color changes. “When we look closely, we see a lot of things are changing from day to day,” said Simon. This includes ultraviolet-light observations showing that the distinct core of the storm gets brightest when the GRS is at its largest size in its oscillation cycle. This indicates less haze absorption in the upper atmosphere.
“As it accelerates and decelerates, the GRS is pushing against the windy jet streams to the north and south of it,” said co-investigator Mike Wong of the University of California at Berkeley. “It’s similar to a sandwich where the slices of bread are forced to bulge out when there’s too much filling in the middle.” Wong contrasted this to Neptune, where dark spots can drift wildly in latitude without strong jet streams to hold them in place. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has been held at a southern latitude, trapped between the jet streams, for the extent of Earth-bound telescopic observations.
Using Hubble Space Telescope data spanning approximately 90 days (between December 2023 and March 2024) when the giant planet Jupiter ranged from 391 million to 512 million miles from the Sun, astronomers measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, color, and vorticity over a full oscillation cycle. The data reveal that the Great Red Spot is not as stable as it might look. It was observed going through an oscillation in its elliptical shape, jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The cause of the 90-day oscillation is unknown. The observation is part of the observing programs led by Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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The team has continued watching the GRS shrink since the OPAL program began 10 years ago. They predict it will keep shrinking before taking on a stable, less-elongated, shape. “Right now it’s over-filling its latitude band relative to the wind field. Once it shrinks inside that band the winds will really be holding it in place,” said Simon. The team predicts that the GRS will probably stabilize in size, but for now Hubble only observed it for one oscillation cycle.
The researchers hope that in the future other high-resolution images from Hubble might identify other Jovian parameters that indicate the underlying cause of the oscillation.
The results are being presented at the 56th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences, in Boise, Idaho.
Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth, has fascinated astronomers for over 150 years. But thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, we’re now seeing this legendary storm in a whole new light. Recent observations show that the Great Red Spot is wobbling and fluctuating in size.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Learn More
Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up
Telescopes and Spacecraft Join Forces to Probe Deep into Jupiter’s Atmosphere
Hubble’s Grand Tour of the Outer Solar System
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Science Contacts:
Amy Simon
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Michael H. Wong
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
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Last Updated Oct 09, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Jupiter Missions Planetary Science Planets The Solar System Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Studying the Outer Planets and Moons
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Studying the cosmos for over a quarter century, the Hubble Space Telescope has made more than a million observations and…
Hubble Posters
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By Space Force
The 2024 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association, offered DAF senior leaders an opportunity to share their views on modernization and readiness in response to emerging security threats, while reaffirming the DAF’s commitment to reoptimization.
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