NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Who ya gonna call? 🚫👻 #Landsat calibration team! Learn how the Landsat team used the Moon to identify and “bust” ghostly stray light leaking into imagery from the USGS/NASALandsat 8 TIRS instrument. https://lnkd.in/efvhbgCR

Do you have ideas for human health science that could be performed on the future Gateway lunar space station? NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), are seeking information on human health research that could be implemented on humanity’s first space station around the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Gateway will enable a diverse array of scientific research by leveraging the deep-space lunar environment and will serve as a year-round laboratory offering both internal and external study capabilities. All parties including commercial entities, international organizations, academia, NASA Centers, and other government agencies are eligible to send ideas. Ideas must be submitted by Nov. 25, 2024. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eAbvu584

Feeling cute, might move closer to your galaxy later 💅 This image of galaxy M90 from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is creeping towards our Milky Way. It’s 55 million light-years away, but one of the few galaxies getting closer to us. As M90 continues to move toward us over billions of years, it will also be evolving from its current state as a spiral galaxy into a lenticular galaxy due to its lack of gas and ability to form new stars. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e6w53dut

What can we see when we look with different eyes? Researchers compared hi-res images of Uranus from the Hubble Space Telescope with more distant views from the New Horizons spacecraft, as a test for what we can learn about planets around distant stars. Uranus made an ideal target for this test case, because many known exoplanets are gas giants of similar size. In addition, New Horizons was in the right place relative to Uranus to study its twilight crescent, which can’t be done from Earth. https://lnkd.in/epZ7Yddz

Teaching old data new tricks! Scientists leading NASA’s DAVINCI mission to Venus, which is scheduled to launch in the early 2030s, are using modern data-analysis techniques to draw more details from decades-old data. DAVINCI will drop a probe over a mountainous region called Alpha Regio, a possible ancient continent. The probe will take measurements and high-res infrared Images down to the surface, capturing views never seen from below Venus’ opaque clouds. By reanalyzing data from previous missions to Venus, such as topography data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft, and using machine learning to fill in gaps, scientists are able to gain a better view of the area as they prepare to go there. Venus hasn’t seen an atmospheric probe in nearly 50 years. Due to the planet’s harsh conditions, scientists’ goal is to arrive with as much detail as possible to get the most out of their limited time diving towards the surface. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gYv7S43M

This week, we celebrated our first Cherry Tree Event at the Goddard Visitor Center on the Greenbelt campus. Rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard, for whom the center is named, climbed a cherry tree on Oct. 19, 1899. While looking at the ground below and sky above, he dreamed about space travel. The Cherry Tree Event celebrates 125 years of Goddard’s dream as well as the center’s 65th anniversary. In attendance were NASA Chief Economist Alex MacDonald, NASA Goddard Center Director Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation President & CEO David Iannucci, Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan, Greenbelt City Council member Danielle McKinney, and Greenbelt Mayor Pro Tem Kristen Weaver.

Like kids riling each other up, the stars in the binary system R Aquarii, seen by the Hubble Space Telescope, create this dazzling display together. One star pulsates, varying in brightness over roughly 390 days, peaking at nearly 5,000 times our Sun’s brightness. https://lnkd.in/euxP_zJ3

NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program is working with industry to enhance our lunar capabilities. Recently, two contract selections were made to bolster SCaN’s Near Space Network (NSN). On Sept. 24, NASA awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines, LLC of Houston to support the NSN’s lunar relay systems. NASA plans to establish humans living and working on the Moon, and lunar relays will be key to bringing science and astronaut data back to Earth. These relays will provide vital services for the scientific study of the Moon’s South Pole and expand landing opportunities. Learn more at the link in the comments. On Oct. 1, NASA selected Intuitive Machines, LLC of Houston and Aalyria Technologies Inc. of Livermore, California, to perform capability studies and gain insight into industry’s lunar user terminals, network management, and network orchestration. These were awarded under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (Next STEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Appendix Q. Learn more at the link in the comments. The contract selections support NASA SCaN’s long-term objectives for developing interoperable communications and navigation at the Moon.

Environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore visited Goddard in Greenbelt, Md. on Oct. 16, 2024, to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission. DSCOVR is a joint NASA, NOAA, and U.S. Air Force mission. The project originally was called Triana, a mission conceived of by Gore in 1998 during his vice presidency. After the vice president's talk, four Goddard scientists participated in a panel discussion about advancements in monitoring of the atmosphere from space and showcased how Goddard’s research drives the future of Earth science. Vice President Gore also took a tour of Goddard, including a view into the clean room where Goddard is assembling the Roman Space Telescope. https://lnkd.in/gtG_fXYB Photo credit: NASA/Travis Wohlrab

Your Sun, to the max. We’re officially in solar maximum, according to scientists who monitor and study the Sun’s natural cycles and space weather, including things like the aurora we’ve been seeing at lower latitudes. https://lnkd.in/eiuve_pB The Sun moves between low and high magnetic activity about every 11 years. At the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip and the Sun transitions to a more active state, with more sunspots & solar storms, which can cause auroras and affect satellites and infrastructure. Solar max isn’t responsible for current climate change on Earth, however. How do we know? 1. The timing doesn’t line up. Solar cycles last about 11 years. Earth’s temperature has been warming for much longer than that, lining up with human emissions of greenhouse gases. 2. The warming is in the wrong place. If solar output were causing climate change, Earth’s upper atmosphere would be warmest, closest to the Sun. Instead, the upper atmosphere is cooling, while the lower atmosphere is warming, consistent with greenhouse gases trapping heat. 3. Solar cycles couldn’t cause this much change. Although the Sun puts out a ton of energy — enough to make our planet habitable — the Sun’s energy output only changes by 0.15% in a typical solar cycle, not enough to explain current temperature shifts. https://lnkd.in/ebitArcf