No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this view of ocean and clouds over Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffused and shows the gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the sun illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet’s atmosphere. A clear high-altitude layer, visible along the day side’s upper edge, scatters blue sunlight and fades into the blackness of space. This picture actually is a single digital photograph taken in June of 2001 from the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of 211 nautical miles.
Above: NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
NASA employs the use of cryogenics for a variety of reasons, and researchers are constantly exploring new methods and applications in the hopes of continuously improving the technology. Here are just a few examples of how NASA utilizes cryogenics:
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Infrared Sensors: infrared rays, also called “heat rays” are given off by all warm objects. Infrared telescopes must be cold so that their own radiation doesn’t swamp the weak infrared signals from faraway astronomical objects. There will be infrared telescopes on the airborne infrared observatory SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
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Electronics: all sensors require electronics. Cooling electronics reduces the noise in the circuits and thus allows them to study weaker signals.
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X-rays: the sensors for XRS, the X-Ray Spectrometer measure temperature changes induced by incoming x-rays. When the sensors are colder, the induced temperature changes are larger and easier to measure.
fyeahuniverse:
NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula, in the Southern Hemisphere.
(via throughascientificlens)
fyeahuniverse:
The Moon: look but don’t touch
Before anyone thought to make up any rules, people had been dreaming of going to the moon. But, now that we’re there, what can we do to protect the famous landing site of Apollo? The race is on to land a robot on the moon, and NASA is recommending that we make certain restriction zones around the landing site in order to preserve the US flags, the footprints, and Apollo hardware.
(Image credit: NASA)
(via throughascientificlens)
![crownedrose:
tyrannoraptora:
thescienceofreality:
codyjohnston:
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Curiosity found something “earthshaking” on Mars, but NASA won’t say just yet what it is because they want to make sure their data is correct because this is potentially an unbelievably important find for humanity, and in conclusion, this is a pretty cool time to be alive.
I’m quite curious about this, but I do fear I’m going to get tired quick of waiting to hear the official news.
“No word on exactly how long it will take before we learn more, but Grotzinger told NPR that it will likely take “several weeks” before he and his team are ready to go public. Until then, feel free to take to the comments with your best (or worst) guesses.” [x]
For more information check out the articles from POPSCI here and Huffington Post here.
please be aliens, please be aliens
SO EXCITED.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdusef53Wi1qzrnsho1_500.png)
