Image of the week

Proba-V captured this image over the border region of Syria, Turkey and Iraq

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Identifying Alzheimer’s using space software

Software for processing satellite pictures taken from space is now helping medical researchers to establish a simple method for wide-scale screening for Alzheimer's disease.

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NASA Ames Research Center News and Features Update

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft launched Wednesday at 7:27 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. IRIS will study the solar atmosphere.

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NASA Launches Satellite to Study How Sun's Atmosphere is Energized

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft launched Wednesday at 7:27 p.m. PDT (10:27 p.m. EDT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The mission to study the solar atmosphere was placed in orbit by an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket.
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Stargazer Aircraft Carrying IRIS Takes Off

The Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft takes off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:30 p.m. EDT on June 27, 2013, headed over the Pacific Ocean to release the Pegasus XL rocket carrying NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory.

NASA's Voyager 1 Explores Final Frontier of Our 'Solar Bubble'

Data from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles from the sun, suggest the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.

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European Space Agency Flickr Update

Gaia scanning the sky

27-06-2013 02:34 PM CEST

This animation shows the Gaia spacecraft spinning in space scanning the sky.
Gaia's mission relies on the systematic and repeating observation of star positions in two fields of view. As the detectors repeatedly measure the position of each celestial object, they will detect any changes in the object's motion through space.

 To achieve its mission the spacecraft is spinning slowly, sweeping its two telescopes across the entire celestial sphere to make four complete rotations per day.
Gaia's telescopes point at two different portions of the sky, separated by a constant 106.5°. Therefore, objects arrive in the second field of view 106.5 minutes after they are observed in the first.

Meanwhile its spin axis precesses around the Sun with a period of about 63 days, allowing different parts of the sky to be scanned. This scanning strategy builds up an interlocking grid of positions, providing absolute – rather than relative – values of the stellar positions and motions.
The spacecraft spin axis makes an angle of 45° with the Sun direction, ensuring that the payload is shaded from the Sun, but that the solar arrays can still produce electricity efficiently.

Credits: ESA-C.Carreau

Moon-set seen from the ISS

27-06-2013 10:36 AM CEST

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano snapped this view of moon-set from his privileged position on the International Space Station.

Luca is onboard the orbital outpost as part of ESA's long duration mission, Volare.

If you would like to see more of his images, please visit his dedicated Flickr photostream: Volare Mission.

Credits: ESA/NASA