James Webb Space Telescope First Images

The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope have been released to the public!

Carina Nebula

Stephan’s Quintet

Southern Ring Nebula

SMACS 0723

Larger versions of these and other images can be viewed and downloaded here: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

Dial-A-Moon

Most of us learned in school that there is a lunar cycle that repeats monthly (every 29.5 days). In the lunar cycle, there are different phases of the Moon that represent different quarters of the cycle (at least from earth’s vantage point of only half of the Moon’s sphere): waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full Moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, and new Moon.

However, we all know that the appearance of the Moon on any given day does not always fall neatly into one of the named phases. If you’d like to see what the Moon looks like at any given time in 2022, look no further than Dial-A-Moon which is provided to us by the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.

Dial-A-Moon lets you see what the Moon looks like at any hour of any day, past or present, in calendar year 2022. Want to know what the Moon will look like on your birthday or on a night when you’ll be camping? Just enter the month, day, and hour in Coordinated Universal Time.

The site also provides links to many high-resolution images and videos that illustrate the Moon phases and the lesser known concepts of libration and position angle. Here’s one such example:

James Webb Space Telescope

On December 25, 2021, millions of people will wake up in eager anticipation of opening Christmas presents. Far fewer people will be interested in the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope which is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The launch has been delayed several times, and the current launch window is December 25 between 7:20 AM and 7:52 AM Eastern time.

Check out this website for an informative overview of the James Webb Space Telescope, its launch plan, and its unfolding. If you will be up early on Christmas Day, consider watching the live stream of the launch on the NASA website.

I am eager to see what kinds of images it is able to capture and transmit a million miles back to earth.

Photos from Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

I previously wrote about NASA’s launch of its Mars Perseverance Rover. Yesterday it successfully landed on the surface of Mars, and you can watch recorded coverage of the landing here:

Did you know that NASA will be posting raw images that are taken from the Perseverance Rover? You can find them here.

 

I was disappointed to find only 3 low-resolution (2 of the 3 images are 320x240 pixels, and the other is 1280x960 pixels) .png files at the moment. Perhaps they will post high-resolution raw files (i.e., straight out of the camera and unprocessed) at a later time. Maybe Perseverance only had the bandwidth to send thumbnails and the original raw files will take more time to be transmitted back to earth. Nevertheless, how cool is that?

Also notice that on the Raw Images website, each photo is accompanied by an acquisition date along with its corresponding day on Mars which is referred to as a sol or a Martian day. A sol is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds long which is only slightly longer than an earth day. However, a Martian year is approximately 668 sols, equivalent to approximately 687 Earth days. All 3 of the currant images were taken on February 18, 2021 which is designated as sol 0.

I plan to check back occasionally to see if more interesting images from Perseverance are posted to the Raw Images site. While looking for photos, I also happened to find the archives of raw images from the Mars Curiosity Rover (launched in 2011) which you can view here. Happy exploring, earthlings!

Send Your Name to Mars

NASA plans to launch its Perseverance rover to Mars, with a launch period between July 30 and August 15. The first launch attempt will be tomorrow, July 30, and the trip will take about 7 months. Did you know that you can be a part of the mission? You can send your name to Mars!

A placard commemorating NASA's “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign was installed on the Perseverance Mars rover. It contains 3 microchips with more than 10 million names of people who signed up before the deadline. The names were stenciled onto the chips using electron beam engraving. If you had previously signed up, you can retrieve your boarding pass. If you missed the time window to have your name etched into one of the chips, you can send you name to Mars in a future mission.

The “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign is intended to generate interest in NASA Mars missions. To find out more, visit https://mars.nasa.gov. From there, you can learn about prior and future missions to Mars. And if you join at the right time, you’ll be able to watch the launch broadcast.