OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between 0.5 and 10 keV. Embedded within the solar-wind plasma is the interplanetary magnetic field. The solar wind varies in density, temperature and speed over time and over solar latitude and longitude. Its particles can escape the Sun’s gravity because of their high energy resulting from the high temperature of the corona, which in turn is a result of the coronal magnetic field.

At a distance of more than a few solar radii from the Sun, the solar wind is supersonic and reaches speeds of 250 to 750 kilometers per second. The flow of the solar wind is no longer supersonic at the termination shock. The Voyager 2 spacecraft crossed the shock more than five times between 30 August and 10 December 2007. Voyager 2 crossed the shock about a billion kilometers closer to the Sun than the 13.5-billion-kilometer distance where Voyager 1 came upon the termination shock. The spacecraft moved outward through the termination shock into the heliosheath and onward toward the interstellar medium. Other related phenomena include the aurora (northern and southern lights), the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the Sun, and geomagnetic storms that can change the direction of magnetic field lines.

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab/Krystofer Kim (USRA): Animator

NASA dicit:

Among the most striking features in the image are the rich colors of the clouds moving toward the Great Red Spot, a storm rolling counterclockwise between two bands of clouds. These two cloud bands, above and below the Great Red Spot, are moving in opposite directions. The red band above and to the right (northeast) of the Great Red Spot contains clouds moving westward and around the north of the giant tempest. The white clouds to the left (southwest) of the storm are moving eastward to the south of the spot.

All of Jupiter’s colorful cloud bands in this image are confined to the north and south by jet streams that remain constant, even when the bands change color. The bands are all separated by winds that can reach speeds of up to 400 miles (644 kilometers) per hour.

Video Credit: NASA Goddard

NASA dicit:

The […] test was conducted using a qualification version of the propulsion system at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, New Mexico. While the system never left the ground, it simulated one of the most taxing situations the spacecraft’s engines could encounter after launch.

This test simulated what is referred to as an abort-to-orbit scenario. In the event the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) was unable to set the spacecraft on its path to the Moon, Orion would deliberately separate early from the ICPS and the ESA (European Space Agency)-provided service module’s engines would fire to boost the spacecraft into a safe, temporary orbit. That would allow time to evaluate the crew and spacecraft before a decision is made to either continue with an alternate mission profile, or return to Earth. Under an alternate mission profile, Orion and its crew may still be able to accomplish some of the mission objectives even if the trajectory and the primary mission objective has changed.

During the successful test, engineers simulated the abort-to-orbit scenario by firing the Orion main engine on the service module, in addition to all eight of its auxiliary engines simultaneously. Each of the reaction control thrusters were also periodically fired throughout the test to simulate attitude control and overall propulsion system capacity.

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

Tour the GJ 357 system, located 31 light-years away in the constellation Hydra. Astronomers confirming a planet candidate identified by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite subsequently found two additional worlds orbiting the star. The outermost planet, GJ 357 d, is especially intriguing to scientists because it receives as much energy from its star as Mars does from the Sun.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA): Lead Producer/Chris Smith (USRA): Lead Animator/Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Lead Science Writer

NASA dicit:

NASA, NOAA and university partners are taking to the skies, and the ground, to chase smoke from fires burning across the United States. The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) is starting in Boise, Idaho, with a long-term of goal of improving our understanding of how smoke from fires affects air quality across North America.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/Kathryn Mersmann (USRA): Lead Producer/Samson K. Reiny (Wyle Information Systems): Lead Writer/Alex Kekesi (GST): Lead Visualizer/LK Ward (USRA): Producer/Ellen T. Gray (ADNET): Producer/Music: “Broad Horizons” by Chris White [PRS] from Killer Tracks

Wikipedia dicit:

Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program with a planned launch on 17 July 2020, and touch down in Jezero crater on Mars on 18 February 2021. It will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars and investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials. It will cache sample containers along its route for a potential future Mars sample-return mission.

The currently unnamed Mars 2020 mission was announced by NASA on 4 December 2012 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The rover’s design is derived from the Curiosity rover, and will use many components already fabricated and tested, including different scientific instruments and a core drill.

Video Credit: NASA