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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Spot the Station app was developed in collaboration with the public through a series of crowdsourcing competitions.NASA In its 25th year of operations, the International Space Station continues to symbolize discovery and cooperation for the benefit of humanity. Since 2012, observers have interacted with the space station through NASA’s Spot the Station website, a web browser-based tool that includes interactive maps for users to track the station and find viewpoints closest to their location.
A decade after the website’s release, NASA sought to enhance public access to this capability with a mobile app. NASA released the Spot the Station app on IOS and Android in 2023. As of Dec. 2024, it has more than 770,000 users in 227 countries and territories around the globe, according to Ensemble, who NASA contracts to maintain support of the app.
Revamping the Spot the Station experience was more than just an opportunity for NASA to make improvements; it allowed NASA to gather direct input from users by involving them in the development of the new app. Space Operations web and platform lead, Allison Wolff, pitched the idea to publicly crowdsource the app’s development.
In 2022, Wolff and her team supported the release of three separate crowdsourcing competitions, where global communities were invited to design key components of the new Spot the Station app. Participants submitted functional designs, including an augmented reality component not offered on the web version and interfaces for screens such as login and sign-up windows. Multiple winners were awarded prizes totaling $8,550 across the three challenges.
As the former Innovation Strategist in NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, part of the agency’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program, Wolff was well acquainted with the ingenuity and results that stem from public-private collaborations.
“NASA strives to incorporate inclusion and innovation into how we operate. We also collaborate with minds outside the agency because the best ideas can come from very surprising places,” said Wolff.
Not only were the winning designs used in the final product, but the development team gained valuable feedback and worldwide perspectives from everyone who participated in the competition.
“When you use the power of the crowd and get a consistent message about a component or an interface, that’s a good indicator of what is user-friendly,” said Wolff.
Crowdsourcing continues to enhance the app’s functionality, including translating the app into six languages, including Spanish, French, and German, thanks to user contributions. In addition, the app’s code is open source, enabling anyone to modify and use the code for their own projects and support the tool’s growth. NASA will continue to update and improve the app with feedback from the public.
Find more opportunities: www.nasa.gov/get-involved/
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By NASA
X-ray: NASA/CXC; Infrared: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeilder, E.Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand Since antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is fitting then that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar lifecycle resembles a giant holiday wreath itself.
The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 602 have fewer heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the galaxy. Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago when the universe was much younger.
This new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with a previously released image from the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. The dark ring-like outline of the wreath seen in Webb data (represented as orange, yellow, green, and blue) is made up of dense clouds of filled dust.
Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra (red) show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space. These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster. The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand In addition to this cosmic wreath, a new version of the “Christmas tree cluster” is also now available. Like NGC 602, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old — about 1,000 times older.) In this image of NGC 2264, which is much closer than NGC 602 at a distance of about 2,500 light-years from Earth, Chandra data (red, purple, blue, and white) has been combined with optical data (green and violet) captured from by astrophotographer Michael Clow from his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description
This release includes two composite images, each featuring a star cluster that strongly resembles holiday greenery.
The first image depicts star cluster NGC 602 in vibrant and festive colors. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud.
The image is aglow with specks and dots of colorful, festive light, in blues, golds, whites, oranges, and reds. These lights represent stars within the cluster. Some of the lights gleam with diffraction spikes, while others emit a warm, diffuse glow. Upon closer inspection, many of the glowing specks have spiraling arms, indicating that they are, in fact, distant galaxies.
The second image in today’s release is a new depiction of NGC 2264, known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster”. Here, wispy green clouds in a conical shape strongly resemble an evergreen tree. Tiny specks of white, blue, purple, and red light, stars within the cluster, dot the structure, turning the cloud into a festive, cosmic Christmas tree!
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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By NASA
What does all this sighting information mean?
SpotTheStation! Time: Wed Apr 25 7:45 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 66 degrees, Appears: WSW, Disappears NE.”
Spot The station
Download the App
The International Space Station is seen in this 30 second exposure as it flies over Elkton, VA early in the morning, Saturday, August 1, 2015. NASA/Bill Ingalls Time is when the sighting opportunity will begin in your local time zone. All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset. This is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky. Visible is the maximum time period the space station is visible before crossing back below the horizon. Max Height is measured in degrees (also known as elevation). It represents the height of the space station from the horizon in the night sky. The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is ninety degrees. If you hold your fist at arm’s length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees. Appears is the location in the sky where the station will be visible first. This value, like maximum height, also is measured in degrees from the horizon. The letters represent compass directions — N is north, WNW is west by northwest, and so on. Disappears represents where in the night sky the International Space Station will leave your field of view. The International Space Station orbits with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This means that, as it orbits, the farthest north and south of the Equator it will ever go is 51.6 degrees latitude. If you live north or south of 51.6 degrees, the ISS will never go directly over your head- this includes places like Alaska. Spot The Station may not properly inform you of all visible space station passes in these locations. Spot The Station’s sighting opportunities pages will give you a list of all possible space station sightings for your location.NASA Important: The International Space Station orbits with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This means that, as it orbits, the farthest north and south of the Equator it will ever go is 51.6 degrees latitude. If you live north or south of 51.6 degrees, the ISS will never go directly over your head- this includes places like Alaska. Spot The Station may not properly inform you of all visible space station passes in these locations. Spot The Station’s sighting opportunities pages will give you a list of all possible space station sightings for your location.
The space station looks like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesn’t have flashing lights or change direction. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane (airplanes generally fly at about 600 miles (965 km) per hour; the space station flies at 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour).
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By NASA
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station adjusted the camera for night imaging and captured the green veils and curtains of an aurora that spanned thousands of kilometers over Quebec, Canada.NASA Why is the space station up there?
The space station is Earth’s only microgravity laboratory. This football field-sized platform hosts a plethora of science and technology experiments that are continuously being conducted by crew members, or are automated. Research aboard the orbiting laboratory holds benefits for life back on Earth, as well as for future space exploration. The space station serves as a testbed for technologies and allows us to study the impacts of long-term spaceflight to humans, supporting NASA’s mission to push human presence farther into space. Learn more about the research happening on the space station, and opportunities to conduct your science there.
The sighting opportunity schedule indicates that the space station passed over my house last night; I’m signed up for alerts but didn’t get one, why not?
You will only receive an alert if the space station will reach a max height of at least 40° on flyover. Flyovers reaching at least 40° provide the best chance for a sighting opportunity because they are visible above most landscapes and buildings. Check the “Max Height” column of your sighting opportunity schedule for the flyovers that are 40° or more.
The flyover schedule indicates the space station is both appearing and disappearing from the same direction, how is that possible? E.g. – Time: Mon Jul 15 11:57 PM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 51°, Appears: 51° above ENE, Disappears: 11° above ENE
The Spot the Station software rounds off directions to the nearest cardinal and intracardinal directions. This can result in it seeming as though the ISS will be appearing and disappearing in the same direction even though it is traveling across the sky. This typically happens on flyovers with a short window of visibility because the ISS is quickly moving into (or out of) the Earth’s dark shadow where, from our location on the ground, we can’t observe its full pass across the sky.
How often can I expect to see the space station?
The space station is visible because it reflects the light of the Sun – the same reason we can see the Moon. However, unlike the Moon, the space station isn’t bright enough to see during the day. It can only be seen when it is dawn or dusk at your location. As such, it can range from one sighting opportunity a month to several a week, since it has to be both dark where you are, and the space station has to happen to be going overhead.
Why aren’t there any sighting opportunities for my location?
It needs to be dark where you are and the space station needs to be overhead in order for you to see it. Since the space station’s orbit takes it all around the globe, it can be passing over you at times when it will not be visible- either in the middle of the day or the middle of the night. The space station must be 40 degrees or more above the horizon for it to be visible. Spot The Station will only send out notifications when you will have an opportunity to see the space station, not every time it will be overhead.
Do I need a telescope to see the space station?
No, you can see the space station with your bare eyes, no equipment required.
Can you explain how to identify the space station in the sky? Did I see the space station last night?
The space station looks like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesn’t have flashing lights or change direction. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane (airplanes generally fly at about 600 miles (965 km) per hour; the space station flies at 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour).
Can you explain how to read the alert messages?
What does all this sighting information mean?
Time is when the sighting opportunity will begin in your local time zone. All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset. This is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky. Visible is the maximum time period the space station is visible before crossing back below the horizon. Max Height is measured in degrees (also known as elevation). It represents the height of the space station from the horizon in the night sky. The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is ninety degrees. If you hold your fist at arm’s length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees. Appears is the location in the sky where the station will be visible first. This value, like maximum height, also is measured in degrees from the horizon. The letters represent compass directions — N is north, WNW is west by northwest, and so on. Disappears represents where in the night sky the International Space Station will leave your field of view. The International Space Station orbits with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This means that, as it orbits, the farthest north and south of the Equator it will ever go is 51.6 degrees latitude. If you live north or south of 51.6 degrees, the ISS will never go directly over your head- this includes places like Alaska. Spot The Station may not properly inform you of all visible space station passes in these locations. Spot The Station’s sighting opportunities pages will give you a list of all possible space station sightings for your location.NASA How fast is the space station travelling?
The ISS circles the Earth every 90 minutes. It travels at about 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour, which gives the crew 16 sunrises and sunsets every day. In the more than 15 years that people have been living onboard, the Station has circumnavigated the Earth tens of thousands of times. You can see more facts about the ISS on the Space Station: Facts and Figures webpage .
Does the station appear and then disappear because of the light of the Moon?
The space station is visible because it is reflecting light from the Sun. This is the same reason that the Moon appears to shine. Even when the Moon hasn’t risen, you’ll still be able to see the space station.
I haven’t received any emails or text messages.
If you signed up, entered your registration code and received an on-screen confirmation message then you’re signed up! Chances are the International Space Station just hasn’t passed over your location at dawn or dusk yet. Read the FAQ “Why aren’t there any sighting opportunities for my location” for more information.
If you signed up with your email address, check your spam folder to see if alert messages are going there. Add SpotTheStation@hq.nasa.gov to your list of allowed senders to prevent alerts from going to spam or junk email.
I haven’t received the code for sign up / renewal / unsubscribe?
If you signed up by email make sure the email containing the code didn’t end up in your spam folder. This email will appear to come from noreply@nasa.gov.
Add the SpotTheStation@hq.nasa.gov email address to your list of allowed senders.
If it has been more than one hour and you haven’t received the requested code please try the process again and if you’re still have problems, email us at SpotTheStation@hq.nasa.gov for assistance.
What if my city isn’t listed?
If your specific city or town isn’t listed, register using the next closest one. The space station is visible for an approximate 50 mile (80 km) radius around each of the listed locations.
When are alerts sent out?
Alerts are generally sent about 24 hours before the International Space Station pass. This means you’ll receive the message the night before for a morning pass and the morning of for an evening pass.
If you are not receiving the alerts on time, see related FAQs for an explanation.
Why am I receiving the alerts hours or even days after sightings?
Spot The Station alerts are sent out 24 hours before an upcoming space station pass. Unfortunately, some email providers queue messages in an unpredictable way. Adding SpotTheStation@hq.nasa.gov to list of allowed senders or contacts list might help.
You can also obtain a two-week schedule of space station passes from the website. Please see the next FAQ for details.
How can I receive a two-week schedule of upcoming sightings?
Visit the Sighting Opportunities page and enter your location to find out when the space station will be passing over you during the next two weeks.
You can bookmark this page or print the schedule for easy access.
Can I register more than one location to the same email address or phone number?
Unfortunately, no. Only one location can be registered per email address or mobile phone number. However, if you have multiple email addresses and/or both an email address and a mobile phone, you can register each of them to receive alerts for different locations.
I am getting errors when I try to register, renew or cancel my alerts.
“The email address / mobile number you entered is not valid” – Make sure you have entered a properly formatted email or SMS address. Mobile phone numbers do not require any formatting, you can simply enter as a string of digits; special characters like parenthesis and dashes are not required.
“The email address / mobile number you provided cannot be found” – You are attempting to renew or cancel alerts for an email address or mobile number that does not appear to be registered.
“It looks like you have already attempted this process but not yet completed it. Please check your email or text messages for an 8-digit code and instructions to complete the process or wait 24-hours and try again.” – You will receive this error message if you try to initiate the same request more than three times without entering your 8-digit code to complete the process. Please complete your request now or wait 24-hours and try again.
“The code you entered is not valid. Please try again.” – If you have received this message, verify the correct 8-digit code is entered and that the code is less than 24-hours old. Codes expire after 24-hours at which point a new code will be required.
“You must cancel your current alert before creating a new one or create a new alert using a different email address or mobile number.” – You can only sign up for one alert per email address or mobile number. If you want to change the alert you are receiving you have to cancel the existing alert and sign up for a new one. If you wish to have alerts sent to you for more than one location you can sign up using different email addresses or mobile numbers.
“You have already completed your sign up / renewal / cancellation” – You will receive this error message if you attempt to enter your 8-digit code more than once. No further action is required.
“You have exceeded the number of incomplete requests allowed from your IP address. Please wait 24-hours and try again.” – To prevent spam, Spot The Station limits the number of incomplete requests allowed from each IP address. Please complete your request now or wait 24-hours and try your request again
If you are receiving other error messages or continue to have trouble, please let us know.
What time zone is used for alert notifications?
All of the Spot The Station information is listed in the local time zone for the selected location. Spot The Station automatically adjusts for Daylight Saving Time.
What email address should I add to my “Allow/Safe Senders List” so I can make sure my alerts don’t end up in the spam folder?
The correct address is SpotTheStation@hq.nasa.gov
How do I change my email address or phone number?
In order to update your email address or phone number, you need to register using a different email address or mobile phone number. If you choose, you can cancel your original alert.
I moved, how can I change my location?
In order to change your location you need to cancel your existing alert and register again using the new location information.
What is my SMS Address?
Your SMS Address is an email address used to send text messages to mobile phones. The format is your 10-digit mobile number followed by the email address of your mobile carrier. For example, an AT&T SMS address would be 12345678910@text.att.net. Check with your individual carrier for their format.
Will I get charged for the mobile phone text alerts?
Check with your mobile carrier and the service plan you have to find out if you are charged for text messages. NASA’s Spot The Station is not responsible for any charges associated with the alerts.
How will I know when it’s necessary for me to renew my alert registration?
Your registration is good for one year. Spot The Station will email you when it is time to renew your registration so you can continue to receive alerts. This is a one-step process; all you need to do is follow the link in the renewal message.
How do I unsubscribe from alerts?
You can stop receiving email or mobile phone alerts by canceling them here. You will be sent an email or text message, simply follow the link provided in that message to complete your request.
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By NASA
4 min read
December’s Night Sky Notes: Spot the King of Planets
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Jupiter is our solar system’s undisputed king of the planets! Jupiter is bright and easy to spot from our vantage point on Earth, helped by its massive size and banded, reflective cloud tops. Jupiter even possesses moons the size of planets: Ganymede, its largest, is bigger than the planet Mercury. What’s more, you can easily observe Jupiter and its moons with a modest instrument, just like Galileo did over 400 years ago.
This image taken on Feb. 7 by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, reveals swirling cloud formations in the northern area of Jupiter’s north temperate belt. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image using data from the JunoCam imager. NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS | Image processing by Kevin M. Gill, © CC BY Jupiter’s position as our solar system’s largest planet is truly earned; you could fit 11 Earths along Jupiter’s diameter, and in case you were looking to fill up Jupiter with some Earth-size marbles, you would need over 1300 Earths to fill it up – and that would still not be quite enough! However, despite its formidable size, Jupiter’s true rule over the outer solar system comes from its enormous mass. If you took all of the planets in our solar system and put them together, they would still only be half as massive as Jupiter all by itself. Jupiter’s mighty mass has shaped the orbits of countless comets and asteroids. Its gravity can fling these tiny objects towards our inner solar system and also draw them into itself, as famously observed in 1994 when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, drawn towards Jupiter in previous orbits, smashed into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Its multiple fragments slammed into Jupiter’s cloud tops with such violence that the fireballs and dark impact spots were not only seen by NASA’s orbiting Galileo probe but also by observers back on Earth!
Look for Jupiter near the Eye of the Bull, Aldebaran, in the Taurus constellation on the evening of December 15, 2024. Binoculars may help you spot Jupiter’s moons as small bright star-like objects on either side of the planet. A small telescope will show them easily, along with Jupiter’s famed cloud bands. How many can you count? Credit: Stellarium Web Jupiter is easy to observe at night with our unaided eyes, as well-documented by the ancient astronomers who carefully recorded its slow movements from night to night. It can be one of the brightest objects in our nighttime skies, bested only by the Moon, Venus, and occasionally Mars, when the red planet is at opposition. That’s impressive for a planet that, at its closest to Earth, is still over 365 million miles (587 million km) away. It’s even more impressive that the giant world remains very bright to Earthbound observers at its furthest distance: 600 million miles (968 million km)! While the King of Planets has a coterie of 95 known moons, only the four large moons that Galileo originally observed in 1610 – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Calisto – can be easily observed by Earth-based observers with very modest equipment. These are called, appropriately enough, the Galilean moons. Most telescopes will show the moons as faint star-like objects neatly lined up close to bright Jupiter. Most binoculars will show at least one or two moons orbiting the planet. Small telescopes will show all four of the Galilean moons if they are all visible, but sometimes they can pass behind or in front of Jupiter or even each other. Telescopes will also show details like Jupiter’s cloud bands and, if powerful enough, large storms like its famous Great Red Spot, and the shadows of the Galilean moons passing between the Sun and Jupiter. Sketching the positions of Jupiter’s moons during the course of an evening – and night to night – can be a rewarding project! You can download an activity guide from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at bit.ly/drawjupitermoons
Now in its eighth year, NASA’s Juno mission is one of just nine spacecraft to have visited this impressive world. Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016 to begin its initial mission to study this giant world’s mysterious interior. The years have proven Juno’s mission a success, with data from the probe revolutionizing our understanding of this gassy world’s guts. Juno’s mission has since been extended to include the study of its large moons, and since 2021 the plucky probe, increasingly battered by Jupiter’s powerful radiation belts, has made close flybys of the icy moons Ganymede and Europa, along with volcanic Io. What else will we potentially learn in 2030 with the Europa Clipper mission?
Find the latest discoveries from Juno and NASA’s missions to Jupiter at science.nasa.gov/jupiter/
Originally posted by Dave Prosper: February 2023
Last Updated by Kat Troche: November 2024
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