保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
In this image from Jan. 18, 2019, Teddy Tzanetos, MiMi Aung and Bob Balaram of NASA’s Mars Helicopter project observe a flight test of a model of the Mars Helicopter in the Space Simulator, a 25-foot-wide (7.62 meter-wide) vacuum chamber at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Aung is currently the Mars Helicopter Project manager. Aung, who has worked at JPL...
NASA uses pi every day! Pi is instrumental in developing the size of parachutes to land on the Red Planet. In fact, pi helps engineers determine how big the parachute needs to be in order to generate the drag needed to slow down craft landing on Mars. It also helps researchers map and explore Earth and planets in our own and other solar systems. In this June...
During the March 5, 2021, spacewalk, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi spent nearly 7 hours working on the farthest set of existing solar arrays on the International Space Station’s left (port) side, known as P6, to install a modification kit on solar array 4B and reconfigure the modification kit on 2B, completing tasks that ...
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features an impressive portrait of M1-63, an example of a bipolar planetary nebula located in the constellation of Scutum (the Shield). A nebula like this one is formed when the star at its center sheds huge quantities of material from its outer layers, leaving behind a spectacular cloud of gas and dust. It...
Stacking is complete for the twin Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Artemis I mission. Over several weeks, workers used one of five massive cranes to place 10 booster segments and nose assemblies on the mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers with Exploration Gro...
March 8 of each year is celebrated around the globe as International Women’s Day. At NASA, women – be they scientists, pilots, astronauts or subject matter experts – help the agency fulfill its mission. Joan Higginbotham is one of those women. She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996. She began her career at NASA in 1987 as an electrical engi...
This artist’s impression of hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris shows the star’s vast convection cells and violent ejections. VY Canis Majoris is so large that if it replaced the Sun, the star would extend for hundreds of millions of miles, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota),...
It’s March 2021 and in about another month the Hubble Space Telescope will celebrate 31 years in space observing the universe. In this image celebrating Hubble’s 30th birthday, the giant red nebula (NGC 2014) and its smaller blue neighbor (NGC 2020) are part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Mi...
Did you know that NASA’s Kennedy Space Center shares its home with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge? In this image from 2014, a great egret strikes a classic pose amid the brush on Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The undeveloped property on Kennedy is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Merritt Island National Wildlife...
Kelly J. Latimer was a research pilot in the Flight Crew Branch of NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center from March through November 2007 and flew the T38, T-34, G-III, C-17, and the Ikhana/Predator B. Latimer was the center’s first female research test pilot. Prior to joining NASA, Latimer was on active duty with the U.S. Air Forc...