NASA – Page 31 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

NSF/NASA Scientific Balloon Launches From Antarctica

By Guest PostDecember 24, 2010Scienceantarctic summer, balloon array, dartmouth college, NASA, new mexico state university, sandwich wrap, scientific balloon, university of maryland, university of pennsylvania

This season’s annual scientific balloon campaign, which is held by NSF and NASA, will conduct varied experiments using ultra-sophisticated instrumentation.

NASA and the National Science Foundation launched a scientific balloon on Monday, December 20, Eastern Standard time, to study the effects of cosmic rays on Earth. It was the first of five scientific balloons scheduled to launch from Antarctica in December.

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM VI) experiment was designed and built at the University of Maryland. CREAM is investigating high-energy cosmic-ray particles that originated from distant supernovae explosions in the Milky Way and reached Earth. Currently, CREAM VI is floating 126,000 ft above Antarctica with nominal science operations. (more…)

Citizen Scientists Join Search for Earth-like Planets

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2010Scienceastronomers, citizen science project, constellation, cygnus, debra fischer, dimming of light, earth, earth like planets, exoplanets, galaxy zoo, galaxy zoo project, global network, globe, human computing power, jupiter, kepler mission, kevin schawinski, large gas giants, meg schwamb, NASA, planet candidates, planet hunters, solar system, space telescope, sun, web users, yale astronomer, zooniverse

Web users around the globe will be able to help professional astronomers in their search for Earth-like planets thanks to a new online citizen science project called Planet Hunters that launched Dec. 16. at www.planethunters.org.

Planet Hunters, which is the latest in the Zooniverse citizen science project collection, will ask users to help analyze data taken by NASA’s Kepler mission. The space telescope has been searching for planets beyond our own solar system—called exoplanets—since its launch in March 2009. (more…)

Cassini Spots Potential Ice Volcano on Saturn Moon

By Guest PostDecember 15, 20101 commentScience3 d map, cassini, cassini huygens mission, cassini radar images, cassini spacecraft, cryovolcanoes, earth, enceladus, erupts, flagstaff, ice, ice volcanoes, Iceland, italy, jeffrey kargel, laki, molten rock, moon, mt etna, NASA, randolph kirk, saturn, solar system, sotra facula, subterranean geological activity, titan, topography, volcanic topography

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found possible ice volcanoes on Saturn’s moon Titan that are similar in shape to those on Earth that spew molten rock.

Topography and surface composition data have enabled scientists to make the best case yet in the outer solar system for an Earth-like volcano landform that erupts in ice. The results were presented on December 14 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. (more…)

WISE Sees an Explosion of Infrared Light

By Guest PostDecember 12, 20101 commentSciencecastor, constellation, dust, emitting light, eta geminorum, exploded star, gas, gas atoms, gemini, halo, ic 443 nebula, infrared light, infrared wavelengths, jet propulsion laboratory, massive stars, NASA, rainbow, shock waves, supernovae, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise, wise image

A circular rainbow appears like a halo around an exploded star in this new view of the IC 443 nebula from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE.

When massive stars die, they explode in tremendous blasts, called supernovae, which send out shock waves. The shock waves sweep up and heat surrounding gas and dust, creating supernova remnants like the one pictured here. The supernova in IC 443 happened somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. (more…)

Soot From Space Tourism Rockets Could Spur Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2010Environmentaerospace corporation, carbon dioxide emissions, climate impact, complex global pattern, darin toohey, global climate change, michael mills, NASA, solar energy, space tourism rockets, stratospheric layer, university of colorado

WASHINGTON—Rocket exhaust could become a significant contributor to global climate change in coming decades, according to a new study. The research finds that soot emitted by rockets — not their carbon dioxide emissions — has the greater potential to contribute to global climate change in coming decades. (more…)

Powered Lift: Novel GTRI Design Would Let Commercial Jets Use Smaller Airports While Reducing Noise

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2010Science, Technologyairplane, boeing 737, california polytechnic state university, cestol aircraft, circulation-control technology, conventional wing, cruise-efficient, design, estol program, fixed-wing jet aircraft, graham blaylock, hybrid wing body low noise, lift coefficient, NASA, nicholas moore, performance, reducing engine noise, rick gaeta, robert englar, robert j englar, short take-off and landing aircraft, short takeoff and landing performance, stol

Research underway at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) could enable fixed-wing jet aircraft to take off and land at steep angles on short runways, while also reducing engine noise heard on the ground.

About the image: This computer-generated graphic shows a model of the cruise-efficient, short take-off and landing (CESTOL) aircraft design that GTRI researchers are investigating. Image credit: California Polytechnic State University (more…)

CU-Boulder-Led Hubble Astronomy Team Uncovers Evidence of Early Heated Universe

By Guest PostOctober 8, 2010Scienceastrophysical and planetary sciences, big bang, black hole, black holes, charles danforth, cos, cosmic origins spectrograph, dwarf galaxies, galaxies, global warming, hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, kevin france, michael shull, NASA, quasar beacon, radiation, remote universe, small galaxies, universal warming, universe, university of colorado at boulder

If you think global warming is bad, 11 billion years ago the entire universe underwent what might be called universal warming. The consequence of that early heating was that fierce blasts of radiation from voracious black holes stunted the growth of some small galaxies for a stretch of 500 million years. (more…)

What Lives in the Sea? – First Census of Marine Life Reveals Thousands of New Species

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2010Nature, Scienceanimal plankton, autonomous underwater vehicles, auvs, celebes sea, census of marine life, chris german, cmarz, coml, decade of discovery, deep-sea imaging systems, deep-water chemosynthetic ecosystems, larry madin, lost city, marine geochemist, marine zooplankton, mid-atlantic ocean, NASA, peter wiebe, remotely operated vehicles, rovs, sonar, squidworm, tentacles, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

The Census of Marine Life, a ten-year project to catalog all life in the sea, discovered more than 6,000 new species during its “decade of discovery,” scientists reported as they unveiled its results at a finale event in London Oct. 4-6. The collaboration combined the efforts of scientists from research organizations in more than 80 nations, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). (more…)

Tag Archives: NASA