98W (Northwestern Pacific Ocean)

NASA's TRMM satellite data revealed heavy rainfall and banding of thunderstorms around the southern quadrant of System 98W in the northwestern Pacific near Guam and the Marianas Islands.

Libya's Al Jawf oasis

Deep in the Sahara Desert, the Al Jawf oasis in southeastern Libya is pictured in this image from Japan's ALOS satellite. The city can be seen in in the upper left corner, while large, irrigated agricultural plots appear like Braille across the image. 

Between the city and the plots we can see the two parallel runways of the Kufra Airport. The agricultural plots reach up to a kilometre in diameter. 

Their circular shapes were created by a central-pivot irrigation system, where a long water pipe rotates around a well at the centre of each plot. Since the area receives virtually no rainfall, fossil water is pumped from deep underground for irrigation.

This Week @ NASA, August 9, 2013

So what can a planetary rover do with a year on Mars?

All NASA's Curiosity rover did was beam back over 190 gigabits of data, more than 36-thousand images and zap 75-thousand-plus laser shots at science targets … and oh by the way, it also completed the mission's main science goal by finding evidence that life was possible on Mars in the past.

The agency celebrated the one year anniversary of Curiosity's landing on Mars with live events from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- featuring rover team members.

ONE YEAR ON MARS! – HQ/JPL #1YearOnMars

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Astronaut Michael Foale Leaves NASA After 26-Year Career

NASA astronaut Michael Foale has retired, ending a 26-year space agency career that included 375 days in space during six space shuttle missions and extended stays aboard two space stations.

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Robotics Workstation in the International Space Station’s Cupola

At the robotics workstation in the International Space Station's Cupola, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Expedition 36 flight engineer, participates in onboard training activity in preparation for the grapple and berthing of the Japanese "Kounotori" H2 Transfer Vehicle-4 (HTV-4) set for August 9, 2013. 

Nyberg and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy will use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to reach out and capture the vehicle for its installation on the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node. 

Image Credit: NASA

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Week in Images

What are the parts of the Soyuz Rocket? What are the stages into orbit? What is the launch sequence? Watch and find out. This video has been produced from an actual lesson delivered to the ESA astronaut class of 2009 (also known as the #Shenanigans09) during their ESA Basic Training in 2009-2010.

A very young star, RNO 91, is being born in the guts of the dark cloud LDN 43, 520 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The newborn star is hidden in this image, revealed only by light reflected onto the plumes of the dark cloud. A dusty, icy disc surrounding it may host planet embryos.

This image is based on data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A version of this image was entered into the

CAVES staff under a ray of light coming from the ceiling of a cave, which appears very infrequently throughout the year.

The ESA CAVES team is preparing for CAVES 2013 by doing a 'dry run' at the training site. Procedures, tasks, equipment and locations are checked in preparation for the real thing: sending six astronauts underground in September.

CAVES, an abbreviation of Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, prepares astronauts to work safely and effectively and solve problems as a multicultural team while exploring uncharted areas using space procedures.

Photograph taken by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano from on board the International Space Station showing a rising crescent Moon seen through rare noctilucent clouds. Luca is part of the six-strong Expedition 36 crew currently resident on the ISS. More about his six-month Volare Mission:

The Envisat satellite found that the dormant Mount Longonot in Kenya rose by 9 cm from 2004 to 2006. Tectonic activity such as the movement of magma underground may have caused this deformation of the surface above.

Our week through the lens:

05-09 August 2013

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Finds Source of Magellanic Stream

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy.

NASA Sees Enthusiastic Response to Asteroid Call for Ideas

NASA has received more than 400 responses to its request for information (RFI) on the agency's asteroid initiative, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced Friday.

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Hubble Eyes a Mysterious Old Spiral

This striking cosmic whirl is the center of galaxy NGC 524, as seen with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy is located in the constellation of Pisces, some 90 million light-years from Earth. NGC 524 is a lenticular galaxy. 

Station Astronauts Remotely Control Planetary Rover From Space

NASA uses the International Space Station as a platform to study how remotely-operated vehicles may one day help astronauts explore other worlds.
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NASA's WISE Finds Mysterious Centaurs May Be Comets

The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) finds most centaurs are comets.

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NASA Mission Discovers Particle Accelerator in Heart of Van Allen Radiation Belts

Using data from a NASA satellite, scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe and known as the Van Allen radiation belts.

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Tenth Parachute Test for NASA's Orion Adds 10,000 Feet of Success

A complicated, high-altitude test Wednesday demonstrated NASA's new Orion spacecraft could land safely even if one of its parachutes failed.

A test version of the Orion capsule touches down in the Arizona desert following a parachute test on Wednesday, July 24.

A test version of the Orion capsule is righted following its touchdown after a parachute test. Although the parachute system is tested in the desert, Orion will land in the Pacific Ocean.

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View From Mars Orbiter Showing Curiosity Rover at 'Shaler'

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity appears as a bluish dot near the lower right corner of this enhanced-color view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  

The rover's tracks are visible extending from the landing site, "Bradbury Landing," in the left half of the scene. 

NASA Invites Media to Space Station Astronaut-Robot Test

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station will control NASA's K10 planetary rover at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., from 8-11 a.m. PDT Friday, July 26, and media are invited to watch.

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NASA'S Spitzer Observes Gas Emission From Comet Ison

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have observed what most likely are strong carbon dioxide emissions from Comet ISON ahead of its anticipated pass through the inner solar system later this year.

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NASA Creates Spacewalk Mishap Investigation Board

NASA has appointed a board to investigate the July 16 early termination of a spacewalk outside the International Space Station, develop a set of lessons learned from the incident and suggest ways to prevent a similar problem in the future.

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NASA Releases Images of Earth Taken By Distant Spacecraft

Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space.

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Gravity Waves and Sunglint, Lake Superior

From the vantage point of the International Space Station, astronauts frequently observe atmospheric and surface phenomena in ways that are impossible to view from the ground. Two such phenomena—gravity waves and sunglint—are illustrated in this photograph of northeastern Lake Superior. 

Mission Control Celebrates Success of Apollo 11

Flight controllers celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission on July 24, 1969, at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston. On July 20, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong planted the first human foot on another world. 

With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." 

Image Credit: NASA

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