Meet Megan McArthur, NASA Astronaut & Crew-2 Pilot

Are You Ready to #BeTheSpark?

Students - want to modify a NASA Spinoff technology and solve a real word problem?

Our Optimus Prime Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge, known as OPSPARC for short, is a student challenge that guides teams through various NASA Spinoff technologies that are in their everyday world. The teams use their imagination, creativity, and engineering skills to develop their own ideas for NASA spinoff technology.

Spinoffs are technologies originally created for space and modified into everyday products used here on Earth.

Perhaps the most widely recognized NASA spinoff, memory foam was invented by NASA-funded researchers looking for ways to keep test pilots cushioned during flights. Today, memory foam makes for more comfortable beds, couches and chairs, not to mention better shoes, movie theater seats and even football helmets.

There are more than two-thousand NASA Spinoffs They include memory foam, invisible braces, firefighting equipment, programmable pace makers, artificial limbs, scratch-resistant lenses, aircraft anti-icing systems, endangered species tracking software, cochlear implants, satellite television, long-distance telecommunications, and many, many more.

The deadline has been extended to February 26th for our Mission 3 student challenge. Sign up NOW here: https://opsparc.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Fans of the Hasbro TRANSFORMERS brand will pick up on the play on words between the challenge name, OPSPARC, and the "AllSpark" from the TRANSFORMERS universe. The AllSpark is what gave the TRANSFORMERS robots life and knowledge, which they use to help mankind — just like NASA spinoffs. Students from around the globe will have the opportunity to Be The Spark!

OPTIMUS PRIME and TRANSFORMERS are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2018 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Astronaut in the house!

Air Force Colonel and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague is back from his seven month stay aboard the space station and ready to answer your questions in today's Tumblr Answer Time!

Let's get started.

Photographing Planets with the Roman Space Telescope

Nearly 100 years ago, astronomer Bernard Lyot invented the coronagraph – a device that made it possible to recreate a total solar eclipse by blocking the Sun’s light. That helped scientists study the Sun’s corona, which is the outermost part of our star’s atmosphere that’s usually hidden by bright light from its surface.

Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, now under construction, will test out a much more advanced version of the same thing. Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument will use special masks to block the glare from host stars but allow the light from dimmer, orbiting planets to filter through. It will also have self-flexing mirrors that will measure and subtract starlight automatically.

This glare-blocking prowess is important because planets can be billions of times dimmer than their host stars! Roman’s high-tech shades will help us take pictures of planets we wouldn’t be able to photograph using any other current telescopes.

Other observatories mainly use this planet-hunting method, called direct imaging, from the ground to photograph huge, bright planets called “super-Jupiters” in infrared light. These worlds can be dozens of times more massive than Jupiter, and they’re so young that they glow brightly thanks to heat left over from their formation. That glow makes them detectable in infrared light.

Roman will take advanced planet-imaging tech to space to get even higher-quality pictures. And while it’s known for being an infrared telescope, Roman will actually photograph planets in visible light, like our eyes can see. That means it will be able to see smaller, older, colder worlds orbiting close to their host stars. Roman could even snap the first-ever image of a planet like Jupiter orbiting a star like our Sun.

Astronomers would ultimately like to take pictures of planets like Earth as part of the search for potentially habitable worlds. Roman’s direct imaging efforts will move us a giant leap in that direction!

And direct imaging is just one component of Roman’s planet-hunting plans. The mission will also use a light-bending method called microlensing to find other worlds, including rogue planets that wander the galaxy untethered to any stars. Scientists also expect Roman to discover 100,000 planets as they cross in front of their host stars!

Find out more about the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Twitter and Facebook, and about the person from which the mission draws its name.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Digital Creators: Apply to Watch Astronauts Launch to Space with NASA

Do you spend a lot of time online? Would you like to see our next crew of astronauts lift off to the International Space Station?

We're looking for digital content creators of all backgrounds to join us at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for our Crew-6 mission to the space station, set to lift off no earlier than Sunday, Feb. 26. Applications close Friday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. EST (2000 UTC)—we'd love to see you there! Apply now.

Can't make this one? Click here to stay updated about future opportunities.

What will scientists do if Perseverance does find signs of life on Mars?

It’s official - we’re headed to do science on the Sun! ☀️

At 11:03 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 9, Solar Orbiter, an international collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, launched aboard United Launch Alliance’s #AtlasV rocket for its journey to our closest star. The spacecraft will help us understand how the Sun creates and controls the constantly changing space environment throughout the solar system. The more we understand about the Sun’s influence on the planets in our solar system and the space we travel through, the more we can protect our astronauts and spacecraft as we journey to the Moon, to Mars and beyond. More here. 

Image Credit: NASA Social participant, Jared Frankle

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today we celebrate International Women’s Day, a day in which we honor and recognize the contributions of women…both on Earth and in space.

Since the beginning, women have been essential to the progression and success of America’s space program.

Throughout history, women have had to overcome struggles in the workplace. The victories for gender rights were not achieved easily or quickly, and our work is not done.

Today, we strive to make sure that our legacy of inclusion and excellence lives on.

We have a long-standing cultural commitment to excellence that is largely driven by data, including data about our people. And our data shows progress is driven by questioning our assumptions and cultural prejudices – by embracing and nurturing all talent we have available, regardless of gender, race or other protected status, to build a workforce as diverse as our mission. This is how we, as a nation, will take the next giant leap in exploration.

As a world leader in science, aeronautics, space exploration and technology, we have a diverse mission that demands talent from every corner of America, and every walk of life.

So, join us today, and every day, as we continue our legacy of inclusion and excellence.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Learn more about the inspiring woman at NASA here: https://women.nasa.gov/

How Well Do You Know 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.

How did Venus get its name? It is named for the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is believed that Venus was named for the most beautiful of the ancient gods because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers.

Here are a few fun facts that you might not know:

One day on Venus lasts as long as 243 Earth days (aka the time it takes for Venus to rotate or spin once)

Venus is a rocky planet, also known as a terrestrial planet

Venus’ thick and toxic atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets

Venus has no moons or rings

More than 40 spacecraft have explored the planet

No evidence of life has been found on Venus. The planet’s extreme high temperatures of almost 480 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit) makes it seem an unlikely place for life as we know it

Venus spins backwards when compared to the other planets. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east

Night Light

Did you know that Venus is the brightest planet in Earth’s dark skies? Only the moon — which is not a planet — is brighter. Venus outshines the other planets because it is closer and its thick cloud cover is excellent at reflecting sunlight.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech⁣

In this large celestial mosaic, our Spitzer Space Telescope captured a stellar family portrait! You can find infants, parents and grandparents of star-forming regions all in this generational photo.  ⁣ There’s a lot to see in this image, including multiple clusters of stars born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust – some older and more evolved than others. Dive deeper into its intricacies by visiting https://go.nasa.gov/2XpiWLf ⁣

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Hello there 👋

Welcome back to Mindful Mondays! 🧘

Mondays are, famously, most people’s seventh favorite day of the week. And Mondays where everything is darker, longer, and colder than normal? Thanks, but no thanks.

But don’t panic; we’ve got something to help. It might be small, but it can make a big difference. Just ten minutes of mindfulness can go a long way, and taking some time out to sit down, slow down, and breathe can help center your thoughts and balance your mood. Sometimes, the best things in life really are free.

This year, we have teamed up with the good folks at @nasa. They want you to tune in and space out to relaxing music and ultra-high-definition visuals of the cosmos—from the surface of Mars.  

Sounds good, right? Well, it gets better. Watch more Space Out episodes on NASA+, a new no-cost, ad-free streaming service.

Why not give it a try? Just a few minutes this Monday morning can make all the difference, and we are bringing mindfulness straight to you. 

🧘WATCH: Space Out with NASA: Martian Landscapes, 11/27 at 1pm EST🧘

YouTube

Space Out with NASA: Martian Landscapes

Explore the surface of Mars as you turn on, tune in, and space out to relaxing music and stunning ultra-high-definition visuals of our cosmi