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NASA Inspires Your Crafty Creations for World Embroidery Day

It’s amazing what you can do with a little needle and thread! For #WorldEmbroideryDay, we asked what NASA imagery inspired you. You responded with a variety of embroidered creations, highlighting our different areas of study.

Here’s what we found:

Webb’s Carina Nebula

Wendy Edwards, a project coordinator with Earth Science Data Systems at NASA, created this embroidered piece inspired by Webb’s Carina Nebula image. Captured in infrared light, this image revealed for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. Credit: Wendy Edwards, NASA. Pattern credit: Clare Bray, Climbing Goat Designs

Wendy Edwards, a project coordinator with Earth Science Data Systems at NASA, first learned cross stitch in middle school where she had to pick rotating electives and cross stitch/embroidery was one of the options.  “When I look up to the stars and think about how incredibly, incomprehensibly big it is out there in the universe, I’m reminded that the universe isn’t ‘out there’ at all. We’re in it,” she said. Her latest piece focused on Webb’s image release of the Carina Nebula. The image showcased the telescope’s ability to peer through cosmic dust, shedding new light on how stars form.

Ocean Color Imagery: Exploring the North Caspian Sea

Danielle Currie of Satellite Stitches created a piece inspired by the Caspian Sea, taken by NASA’s ocean color satellites. Credit: Danielle Currie/Satellite Stitches

Danielle Currie is an environmental professional who resides in New Brunswick, Canada. She began embroidering at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as a hobby to take her mind off the stress of the unknown. Danielle’s piece is titled “46.69, 50.43,” named after the coordinates of the area of the northern Caspian Sea captured by LandSat8 in 2019.

An image of the Caspian Sea captured by Landsat 8 in 2019. Credit: NASA

Two Hubble Images of the Pillars of Creation, 1995 and 2015

Melissa Cole of Star Stuff Stitching created an embroidery piece based on the Hubble image Pillars of Creation released in 1995. Credit: Melissa Cole, Star Stuff Stitching

Melissa Cole is an award-winning fiber artist from Philadelphia, PA, USA, inspired by the beauty and vastness of the universe. They began creating their own cross stitch patterns at 14, while living with their grandparents in rural Michigan, using colored pencils and graph paper.  The Pillars of Creation (Eagle Nebula, M16), released by the Hubble Telescope in 1995 when Melissa was just 11 years old, captured the imagination of a young person in a rural, religious setting, with limited access to science education.

Lauren Wright Vartanian of the shop Neurons and Nebulas created this piece inspired by the Hubble Space Telescope’s 2015 25th anniversary re-capture of the Pillars of Creation. Credit:  Lauren Wright Vartanian, Neurons and Nebulas

Lauren Wright Vartanian of Guelph, Ontario Canada considers herself a huge space nerd. She’s a multidisciplinary artist who took up hand sewing after the birth of her daughter. She’s currently working on the illustrations for a science themed alphabet book, made entirely out of textile art. It is being published by Firefly Books and comes out in the fall of 2024. Lauren said she was enamored by the original Pillars image released by Hubble in 1995. When Hubble released a higher resolution capture in 2015, she fell in love even further! This is her tribute to those well-known images.

James Webb Telescope Captures Pillars of Creation

Darci Lenker of Darci Lenker Art, created a rectangular version of Webb’s Pillars of Creation. Credit:  Darci Lenker of Darci Lenker Art

Darci Lenker of Norman, Oklahoma started embroidery in college more than 20 years ago, but mainly only used it as an embellishment for her other fiber works. In 2015, she started a daily embroidery project where she planned to do one one-inch circle of embroidery every day for a year.  She did a collection of miniature thread painted galaxies and nebulas for Science Museum Oklahoma in 2019. Lenker said she had previously embroidered the Hubble Telescope’s image of Pillars of Creation and was excited to see the new Webb Telescope image of the same thing. Lenker could not wait to stitch the same piece with bolder, more vivid colors.

Milky Way

Darci Lenker of Darci Lenker Art was inspired by NASA’s imaging of the Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: Darci Lenker

In this piece, Lenker became inspired by the Milky Way Galaxy, which is organized into spiral arms of giant stars that illuminate interstellar gas and dust. The Sun is in a finger called the Orion Spur.

The Cosmic Microwave Background

This image shows an embroidery design based on the cosmic microwave background, created by Jessica Campbell, who runs Astrostitches. Inside a tan wooden frame, a colorful oval is stitched onto a black background in shades of blue, green, yellow, and a little bit of red. Credit: Jessica Campbell/ Astrostitches

Jessica Campbell obtained her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Toronto studying interstellar dust and magnetic fields in the Milky Way Galaxy. Jessica promptly taught herself how to cross-stitch in March 2020 and has since enjoyed turning astronomical observations into realistic cross-stitches. Her piece was inspired by the cosmic microwave background, which displays the oldest light in the universe.

The full-sky image of the temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) in the cosmic microwave background, made from nine years of WMAP observations. These are the seeds of galaxies, from a time when the universe was under 400,000 years old. Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team

GISSTEMP: NASA’s Yearly Temperature Release

Katy Mersmann, a NASA social media specialist, created this embroidered piece based on NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) global annual temperature record. Earth’s average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record. Credit: Katy Mersmann, NASA

Katy Mersmann is a social media specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. She started embroidering when she was in graduate school. Many of her pieces are inspired by her work as a communicator. With climate data in particular, she was inspired by the researchers who are doing the work to understand how the planet is changing. The GISTEMP piece above is based on a data visualization of 2020 global temperature anomalies, still currently tied for the warmest year on record.

In addition to embroidery, NASA continues to inspire art in all forms. Check out other creative takes with Landsat Crafts and the James Webb Space telescope public art gallery.

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Return to Venus

Japan's Akatsuki orbiter is making a second attempt to enter orbit around Venus today, Dec. 7. A malfunction in 2010 caused the spacecraft to miss its first orbit opportunity. The mission team came up with a plan to try again this week. In honor of Akatsuki, here are a few things you need to know about Venus, physics and other missions to explore our solar system's second planet:

1. Venus Climate Orbiter

The down-to-business names for Akatsuki - which means "Dawn" or "Daybreak" in Japanese - are Venus Climate Orbiter and Planet-C. Akatsuki is Japan's third deep space mission. At Venus, the orbiter will study Venusian meteorology. JAXA defines the mission's goals as:

Observing Venus as a whole to understand its perpetual cloud layer, deep atmosphere and surface

Close observations of cloud structures and convection

Searching for signs of lightning and air glow

2. Exploring Venus

Venus played a key role in early deep space exploration. Our Mariner 2 was the first successful interplanetary mission in 1962. And several Soviet spacecraft have made the tough descent and landing on Venus' hellish surface. HERE is a list of other missions to Venus.

3. All About Venus

Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect. A permanent layer of clouds traps heat, creating surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Glimpses below the clouds reveal volcanoes and deformed mountains. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets.

4. Sizing Up the Solar System

Venus also played a key role in determining the distance between Earth and the sun - creating the Astronomical Unit, the basic measurement we use to define our place in the cosmos. Many 18th century explorers, including the legendary James Cook, undertook perilous journeys to define the astronomical unit by watching Venus cross the face of the sun.

5. It’s Just a Phase

Like the moon, Venus has phases. It can be full when Venus is on the far side of the sun, new when Venus is between the sun and Earth and a crescent at other points in between. Take a look at Galileo Galilei’s sketches of the phases of Venus HERE.

Follow Along:

As mentioned, Japan's Akatsuki orbiter is making a second attempt to enter orbit around Venus today, Dec. 7. Follow along HERE for updates on this attempt. 

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World Teacher Appreciation Day!

On #WorldTeachersDay, we are recognizing our two current astronauts who are former classroom teachers, Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold, as well as honoring teachers everywhere. What better way to celebrate than by learning from teachers who are literally out-of-this-world!

During the past Year of Education on Station, astronauts connected with more than 175,000 students and 40,000 teachers during live Q & A sessions. 

Let’s take a look at some of the questions those students asked:

The view from space is supposed to be amazing. Is it really that great and could you explain? 

Taking a look at our home planet from the International Space Station is one of the most fascinating things to see! The views and vistas are unforgettable, and you want to take everyone you know to the Cupola (window) to experience this. Want to see what the view is like? Check out earthkam to learn more.

What kind of experiments do you do in space?

There are several experiments that take place on a continuous basis aboard the orbiting laboratory - anything from combustion to life sciences to horticulture. Several organizations around the world have had the opportunity to test their experiments 250 miles off the surface of the Earth. 

What is the most overlooked attribute of an astronaut?

If you are a good listener and follower, you can be successful on the space station. As you work with your team, you can rely on each other’s strengths to achieve a common goal. Each astronaut needs to have expeditionary skills to be successful. Check out some of those skills here. 

Are you able to grow any plants on the International Space Station?

Nothing excites Serena Auñón-Chancellor more than seeing a living, green plant on the International Space Station. She can’t wait to use some of the lettuce harvest to top her next burger! Learn more about the plants that Serena sees on station here. 

What food are you growing on the ISS and which tastes the best? 

While aboard the International Space Station, taste buds may not react the same way as they do on earth but the astronauts have access to a variety of snacks and meals. They have also grown 12 variants of lettuce that they have had the opportunity to taste.

Learn more about Joe Acaba, Ricky Arnold, and the Year of Education on Station.

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CAPSTONE: Testing a Path to the Moon

Before NASA's Artemis astronauts head to the Moon, a microwave oven-sized spacecraft will help lead the way. The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is a CubeSat mission set to launch in spring of 2022. For at least six months, the small spacecraft will fly a unique elongated path around the Moon. Its trajectory—known as a near rectilinear halo orbit—has never been flown before! Once tried and tested, the same orbit will be home to NASA’s future lunar space station Gateway. Here are five things to know:

1. The 55-pound (25 kg) spacecraft is equipped with solar arrays, a camera, and antennae for communication and navigation.

2. Powerful thrusters will help propel the CubeSat toward the Moon.

3. CAPSTONE will fly a unique elongated path around the Moon for at least six months.

4. At its closest approach, it will come within 2,100 miles (3,380 km) of the Moon's North Pole.

5. The same orbit will be home to Gateway— our future outpost for Artemis astronauts heading to the Moon and beyond.

CAPSTONE is commercially owned and operated by Advanced Space in Westminster, Colorado. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the demonstration mission. The program is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The development of CAPSTONE’s navigation technology is supported by NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program. The Artemis Campaign Development Division within NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate funds the launch and supports mission operations. The Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the launch.

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Andre Douglas

A Virginia native, Andre Douglas served in the U.S. Coast Guard as a naval architect and salvage engineer. Douglas later worked as an engineer for Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on NASA's DART mission to redirect an asteroid. https://go.nasa.gov/48FBlam

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A Spacecraft's Second Life: Our K2 mission

A critical failure that ended one mission has borne an unexpected and an exciting new science opportunity. The Kepler spacecraft, known for finding thousands of planets orbiting other stars, has a new job as the K2 mission.

Like its predecessor, K2 detects the tiny, telltale dips in the brightness of a star as an object passes or transits it, to possibly reveal the presence of a planet. Searching close neighboring stars for near-Earth-sized planets, K2 is finding planets ripe for follow-up studies on their atmospheres and to see what the planet is made of. A step up from its predecessor, K2 is revealing new info on comets, asteroids, dwarf planets, ice giants and moons. It will also provide new insight into areas as diverse as the birth of new stars, how stars explode into spectacular supernovae, and even the evolution of black holes.

K2 is expanding the planet-hunting legacy and has ushered in entirely new opportunities in astrophysics research, yet this is only the beginning.

Searching Nearby for Signs of Life

Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Scientists are excited about nearby multi-planet system known as K2-3. This planetary system, discovered by K2, is made of three super-Earth-sized planets orbiting a cool M-star (or red dwarf) 135 light-years away, which is relatively close in astronomical terms. To put that distance into perspective, if the Milky Way galaxy was scaled down to the size of the continental U.S. it would be the equivalent of walking the three-mile long Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. At this distance, our other powerful space-investigators – the Hubble Space Telescope and the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – could study the atmospheres of these worlds in search of chemical fingerprints that could be indicative of life. K2 expects to find a few hundred of these close-by, near-Earth-sized neighbors.

K2 won’t be alone in searching for nearby planets outside our solar system. Revving up for launch around 2017-2018, our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) plans to monitor 200,000 close stars for planets, with a focus on finding Earth and Super-Earth-sized planets.

The above image is an artist rendering of Gliese 581, a planetary system representative of K2-3.

Neptune's Moon Dance

Movie credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/J. Rowe

Spying on our neighbors in our own solar system, K2 caught Neptune in a dance with its moons Triton and Nereid. On day 15 (day counter located in the top right-hand corner of the green frame) of the sped-up movie, Neptune appears, followed by its moon Triton, which looks small and faint. Keen-eyed observers can also spot Neptune's tiny moon Nereid at day 24. Neptune is not moving backward but appears to do so because of the changing position of the Kepler spacecraft as it orbits around the sun. A few fast-moving asteroids make cameo appearances in the movie, showing up as streaks across the K2 field of view. The red dots are a few of the stars K2 examines in its search for transiting planets outside of our solar system. An international team of astronomers is using these data to track Neptune’s weather and probe the planet’s internal structure by studying subtle brightness fluctuations that can only be observed with K2.

Dead Star Devours Planet

Image credit: CfA/Mark A. Garlick

K2 also caught a white dwarf – the dead core of an exploded star –vaporizing a nearby tiny rocky planet. Slowly the planet will disintegrate, leaving a dusting of metals on the surface of the star. This trail of debris blocks a tiny fraction of starlight from the vantage point of the spacecraft producing an unusual, but vaguely familiar pattern in the data. Recognizing the pattern, scientists further investigated the dwarf’s atmosphere to confirm their find. This discovery has helped validate a long-held theory that white dwarfs are capable of cannibalizing possible remnant planets that have survived within its solar system.

Searching for Far Out Worlds

NASA/JPL-Caltech

In April, spaced-based K2 and ground-based observatories on five continents will participate in a global experiment in exoplanet observation and simultaneously monitor the same region of sky towards the center of our galaxy to search for small planets, such as the size of Earth, orbiting very far from their host star or, in some cases, orbiting no star at all. For this experiment, scientists will use gravitational microlensing – the phenomenon that occurs when the gravity of a foreground object focuses and magnifies the light from a distant background star.

The animation demonstrates the principles of microlensing. The observer on Earth sees the source (distant) star when the lens (closer) star and planet pass through the center of the image. The inset shows what may be seen through a ground-based telescope. The image brightens twice, indicating when the star and planet pass through the observatory's line of sight to the distant star.

Full microlensing animation available HERE.

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Take a moment, look outside your window. 🌷🌼

Today is the #FirstDayOfSpring in the Northern Hemisphere, also known as the vernal equinox.

#DYK Earth’s tilted axis causes the season? Throughout the year, different parts of Earth receive the Sun’s most direct rays. So, when the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And when the South Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

These images are of Zinnias. They are part of the flowering crop experiment that began aboard the International Space Station on Nov. 16, 2015, when NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren activated the Veggie system and its rooting "pillows" containing zinnia seeds.

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Will Perseverance be near any other Rovers?

Human Research, Robotic Refueling, Crystallography and More Headed to Orbiting Lab

New science is headed to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon.

Investigations on this flight include a test of robotic technology for refueling spacecraft, a project to map the world’s forests and two student studies inspired by Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” series.

Learn more about the science heading into low-Earth orbit:

The forest is strong with this one: GEDI studies Earth’s forests in 3D

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is an instrument to measure and map Earth’s tropical and temperate forests in 3D.

The Jedi knights may help protect a galaxy far, far away, but our GEDI will help us study and understand forest changes right here on Earth.

Robotic refueling in space

What’s cooler than cool? Cryogenic propellants, or ice-cold spacecraft fuel! Our Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3) will demonstrate technologies for storing and transferring these special liquids. By establishing ways to replenish this fuel supply in space, RRM3 could help spacecraft live longer and journey farther.

The mission’s techniques could even be applied to potential lunar gas stations at the Moon, or refueling rockets departing from Mars.

Staying strong in space

The Molecular Muscle investigation examines the molecular causes of muscle abnormalities from spaceflight in C. elgans, a roundworm and model organism.

This study could give researchers a better understanding of why muscles deteriorate in microgravity so they can improve methods to help crew members maintain their strength in space.

Investigation studies space-grown crystals for protection against radiation

Perfect Crystals is a study to learn more about an antioxidant protein called manganese superoxide dismutase that protects the body from the effects of radiation and some harmful chemicals.

The station’s microgravity environment allows researchers to grow more perfectly ordered crystals of the proteins. These crystals are brought back to Earth and studied in detail to learn more about how the manganese superoxide dismutase works. Understanding how this protein functions may aid researchers in developing techniques to reduce the threat of radiation exposure to astronauts as well as prevent and treat some kinds of cancers on Earth.

Satellite deployment reaching new heights with SlingShot

SlingShot is a new, cost-effective commercial satellite deployment system that will be tested for the first time.

SlingShot hardware, two small CubeSats, and a hosted payload will be carried to the station inside SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and installed on a Cygnus spacecraft already docked to the orbiting laboratory. Later, Cygnus will depart station and fly to a pre-determined altitude to release the satellites and interact with the hosted payload.

Investigation studies accelerated aging in microgravity

Spaceflight appears to accelerate aging in both humans and mice. Rodent Research-8 (RR-8) is a study to understand the physiology of aging and the role it plays on the progression of disease in humans. This investigation could provide a better understanding of how aging changes the body, which may lead to new therapies for related conditions experienced by astronauts in space and people on Earth.

Guardians of the space station: Student contest flies to orbiting lab

The MARVEL ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Space Station Challenge is a joint project between the U.S. National Laboratory and Marvel Entertainment featuring two winning experiments from a contest for American teenage students. For the contest, students were asked to submit microgravity experiment concepts that related to the Rocket and Groot characters from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” comic book series.

Team Rocket: Staying Healthy in Space

If an astronaut suffers a broken tooth or lost filling in space, they need a reliable and easy way to fix it. This experiment investigates how well a dental glue activated by ultraviolet light would work in microgravity. Researchers will evaluate the use of the glue by treating simulated broken teeth and testing them aboard the station.

Team Groot: Aeroponic Farming in Microgravity

This experiment explores an alternative method for watering plants in the absence of gravity using a misting device to deliver water to the plant roots and an air pump to blow excess water away. Results from this experiment may enable humans to grow fruits and vegetables in microgravity, and eliminate a major obstacle for long-term spaceflight.

These investigation join hundreds of others currently happening aboard the station. For more info, follow @ISS_Research!

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If I am in the path of totality (Hopkinsville, KY) when can I take off my glasses to view the eclipse? Can I keep them off for the entire 2 minutes and 40 seconds?

If you are viewing the partial eclipse or lead up to totality, once you no longer can see any light through your eclipse glasses, then you can take them off. As long as the moon is fully covering the Sun you are safe. I would err on the side of caution and look away from the Sun a few moments before it’s over. This is also a great time to see what is happening around you! The animals should be responding differently than normal and this would be a great time to see that.