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space

SPACE: Best. Job. Ever.

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Planetary Protection Officer

From the NASA job website: Planetary Protection Officer This position is assigned to Office of Safety and Mission Assurance for Planetary Protection. Planetary protection is concerned with the avoidance of organic-constituent and biological contamination in human and robotic space exploration. NASA maintains policies for planetary protection applicable to all space flight missions that may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft, which are intended to return to Earth and its biosphere with samples from extraterrestrial targets of exploration. This policy is based on federal requirements … Read more

SPACE: NASA Craft Flies Over Jupiter’s Red Spot

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Cassini Jupiter

Scientists are about to get an up-close and personal look at the planet Jupiter’s most famous landmark, the Great Red Spot. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will be directly over the spot shortly after 10 p.m. ET Monday, July 10, about 5,600 miles above the gas giant’s cloud tops. That’s closer than any spacecraft has been before. The spot is actually a giant storm that has been blowing on Jupiter for centuries. It’s huge, larger than Earth in diameter. Not only will Juno’s camera be able to capture detailed images of the spot, but the probe also carries scientific instruments that can … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers find “Styrofoam” Planet

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styrofoam planet

Fifth-graders making styrofoam solar system models may have the right idea. Researchers at Lehigh University have discovered a new planet orbiting a star 320 light years from Earth that has the density of styrofoam. This “puffy planet” outside our solar system may hold opportunities for testing atmospheres that will be useful when assessing future planets for signs of life. “It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40 percent larger, making it about as dense as styrofoam, with an extraordinarily large atmosphere,” said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of … Read more

PROFILE: The First Queer Astronaut

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Sally Ride

For eons, humanity has looked towards the stars and yearned to reach them – to explore distant moons and planets, and touch the very edges of the universe. In the last 50 years, we have made incredible progress, setting foot on the moon, landing robots on Mars and even beaming pictures back from as far away as Pluto. An important part of that journey was Sally Ride, the first known LGBT astronaut. More than 330 American astronauts have made it to space, but Ride was the first American woman – and LGBT person – to go into space, taking the … Read more

SCIENCE: We’re Changing Near Earth Space Weather Too

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space weather

Our Cold War history is now offering scientists a chance to better understand the complex space system that surrounds us. Space weather — which can include changes in Earth’s magnetic environment — are usually triggered by the sun’s activity, but recently declassified data on high-altitude nuclear explosion tests have provided a new look at the mechanisms that set off perturbations in that magnetic system. Such information can help support NASA’s efforts to protect satellites and astronauts from the natural radiation inherent in space. From 1958 to 1962, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. ran high-altitude tests with exotic code names like Starfish, … Read more

SPACE: Beautiful New Video of Jupiter

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Jupiter South Pole

NASA released a beautiful new video of Jupiter, showing the Solar System’s largest planet in a way we’ve never seen it before. The images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft, and include huge circular storms in the planet’s atmosphere. Enjoy!

SPACE: Another Super Earth Found

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Super Earth

It seems like only yesterday when scientists announced the discovery of yet another “super-Earth.” Last year, a half-lava, half-rock world, dubbed 55 Cancri e, was found around 40 light-years from Earth and was determined to be twice the size of our home planet. And now it has happened again. Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have announced the discovery of a new super-Earth, designated LHS 1140b, orbiting the habitable zone of a small red dwarf star, LHS 1140, about 39 light-years away. (It’s 4.2 light-years from our sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.) By Lee Speigel – … Read more

Where No Gay Has Gone Before: Fashionistas in Space!

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When many of us hear the word ‘fabrics’, we immediately think of avant-garde, haute couture dresses, the latest fashions from Paris, or ‘who-is-wearing-who’ on the Red Carpet.  In space exploration, however, fabrics have more applications than for just snazzy clothes, like antennas, spacesuits and shields for spacecraft. Raul Polit Casillas, a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is the son of a fashion designer from Spain, so he grew up familiar with fabrics.  Now he is applying his knowledge and skills to develop woven metal fabrics for applications in space. The fabrics that Polit Casillas and … Read more

SPACE: NASA Budget Not Worried About Near Earth Asteroid

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asteroid - pixabay

Last month, President Donald Trump signed a bill into law giving NASA $19.5 billion to spend on a variety of projects in the 2018 budget year, including planning further exploration of the planet Mars. From the Oval Office, the president said: For almost six decades, NASA’s work has inspired millions and millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future right here on Earth. I’m delighted to sign this bill. It’s been a long time since a bill like this has been signed, reaffirming our national commitment to the core mission of NASA: human space exploration, space science … Read more