Comet passed just 87,000 miles (140,000km) from the red planet Tonnes of comet dust bombarded the Martian sky Created incredible scene of thousands of fireballs an hour. Warped the Martian atmosphere leaving metals and a yellow afterglow Opportunity rover on the surface returned an image of the comet Event provided unprecedented opportunity for researchers to gather data Siding Spring comes from the Oort Cloud in the outer solar system

By Mark Prigg and Jonathan O'Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: 18:38 EST, 7 November 2014 | Updated: 01:12 EST, 8 November 2014

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It was one of the most incredible displays ever seen - yet only a handful of rovers and spacecraft were there to witness it.

Nasa has revealed the data its spacecraft gathered whenComet Siding Spring, which passed just 87,000 miles(139,500 km) by Mars on Oct. 19.

Experts describe the scene, with thousands of shooting stars per hour and the entire sky changing colour as 'mind blowing'.

Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with Nasa's orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter. A pristine distant comet created a once-in-eight-million-year fireworks show on Mars and no humans were there to witness it.

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Nasa reveals comet that grazed Mars

Geyer won't say how much contracting out this first test flight to Lockheed Martin is saving taxpayers, though he did say it makes financial sense. He said Lockheed has expertise in areas that NASA "doesn't need to get in the middle of."

"They know how to integrate rockets. They've built rockets," he said. "So we contracted with them and we said, 'Look, I'm going to give you these objectives. I want you to test the heat shield, I want you to test the avionics. I want you to test the parachutes.'"

Lockheed and the United Launch Alliance, which is providing the rocket, even took an unusual step for a NASA space flight and licensed both the launch and re-entry with the Federal Aviation Administration. After this flight, however, NASA will take the lead.

Much of Orion borrows from the Apollo and space shuttle systems, but not everything.

Read MorePilot actions in Virgin Galactic crash

"The shape is very similar to Apollo, because the physics haven't changed," Geyer said.

However, Hawes said, "Everything inside is new."

Changes include using composite materials that lighten the craft and a new cockpit reducing the 300 switches from Apollo to about 50 for Orion. Some components were created using 3-D printing.

If all goes well, another test flight will be going into a very high orbit around the moon, which will include a service module built by Airbus, and by 2021, a manned mission. NASA is less interested in returning to the moon and more interested in reaching an asteroid, towing it into lunar orbit, and using it as a potential base from which to go to Mars.

Currently the Orion program is budgeted for about $1 billion a year. Geyer hopes that continues, but he and everyone may be feeling more pressure than ever to see next month's test succeed, given failures elsewhere.

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Check out the new spacecraft from NASA & Lockheed

November 7, 2014

Provided by Carol Rasmussen, NASA Earth Science News Team

NASA has relaunched its Webby Award-winning website, Global Climate Change, with enhanced interactive features that play on any mobile device, state-of-the-art visuals, and new sections on climate change solutions and the people behind the science.

First launched in 2008, the Global Climate Change website provides easy-to-understand information about the causes and effects of climate change and the ways NASA studies them, along with the latest climate news from the agency, graphics and visualizations. The URL is: http://climate.nasa.gov

Highlights of the redesign include:

- An improved Vital Signs dashboard, providing interactive charts with continuously updated data on atmospheric carbon dioxide, sea level rise, Arctic ice extent, global temperature and other key indicators of climate change

- Visualizations of change over time from NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio

- A section that focuses on science and technology advances that are providing essential data for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change

- Making a Difference, a section that highlights NASAs climate researchers and the work they do

The updated site retains popular features of the earlier version, including the Images of Change gallery, the Climate Time Machine and the Eyes on the Earth data visualization tool.

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NASA Rolls Out Enhanced, Mobile-Friendly Climate Site

Geyer won't say how much contracting out this first test flight to Lockheed Martin is saving taxpayers, though he did say it makes financial sense. He said Lockheed has expertise in areas that NASA "doesn't need to get in the middle of."

"They know how to integrate rockets. They've built rockets," he said. "So we contracted with them and we said, 'Look, I'm going to give you these objectives. I want you to test the heat shield, I want you to test the avionics. I want you to test the parachutes.'"

Lockheed and the United Launch Alliance, which is providing the rocket, even took an unusual step for a NASA space flight and licensed both the launch and re-entry with the Federal Aviation Administration. After this flight, however, NASA will take the lead.

Much of Orion borrows from the Apollo and space shuttle systems, but not everything.

Read MorePilot actions in Virgin Galactic crash

"The shape is very similar to Apollo, because the physics haven't changed," Geyer said.

However, Hawes said, "Everything inside is new."

Changes include using composite materials that lighten the craft and a new cockpit reducing the 300 switches from Apollo to about 50 for Orion. Some components were created using 3-D printing.

If all goes well, another test flight will be going into a very high orbit around the moon, which will include a service module built by Airbus, and by 2021, a manned mission. NASA is less interested in returning to the moon and more interested in reaching an asteroid, towing it into lunar orbit, and using it as a potential base from which to go to Mars.

Currently the Orion program is budgeted for about $1 billion a year. Geyer hopes that continues, but he and everyone may be feeling more pressure than ever to see next month's test succeed, given failures elsewhere.

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New spacecraft from NASA & Lockheed

Mechanizm (N.A.S.A. Remix)
Mechanizm (N.A.S.A. Remix) MUTe Composer: Mikkel Rasmussen Remixer: N.A.S.A Remix Writer: Liran Ackermann Writer: Roy Sasson Auto-generated by YouTube.

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Mechanizm (N.A.S.A. Remix) - Video

Unknown Hydraulic Elevators at 1110 Nasa Parkway Nassau Bay, TX
Riding the elevators at 1110 Nasa Parkway. Please comment if you know what elevator brand it is. I apologize for the camera shaking.

By: Elevators in the South by alexmcferren

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Unknown Hydraulic Elevators at 1110 Nasa Parkway Nassau Bay, TX - Video

NASA Camaro Mustang Challenge- Eagles Canyon Raceway Nov 2014 R4
Race 4. moving up the field on the first lap and was crashed out on turn 10. back on track and moved up to finish 6th.

By: Craig Mccormick

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NASA Camaro Mustang Challenge- Eagles Canyon Raceway Nov 2014 R4 - Video

NASA Camaro Mustang Challenge- Eagles Canyon Raceway Nov 2014 R1
Race 1. Missed qualifying due to upper control arm mount damage being repaired. Started from rear of grid, jumped start as flagger was on drugs. Finished 6th.

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NASA Camaro Mustang Challenge- Eagles Canyon Raceway Nov 2014 R1 - Video

Dr. Harold "Sonny" White - Eagleworks Laboratories: Advanced Propulsion
NASA Ames Research Director #39;s Colloquium, August 12, 2014. Human space exploration is currently still in Low Earth Orbit. But what would it eventually take for humans to explore the outer...

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Dr. Harold "Sonny" White - Eagleworks Laboratories: Advanced Propulsion - Video

NASA Warns Major Droughts Threaten Food Supply, Global Security!
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com Water in the world #39;s largest aquifers is being pumped out at greater rates than can be replenished naturally. NASA says this poses a greater threat to...

By: DAHBOO77

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NASA Warns Major Droughts Threaten Food Supply, Global Security! - Video

Ex NASA Edgar Mitchell Spills Beans and thoughts on Alien Visits and Speaks Live
A Re Run Blast from the Past For New Subs and Viewers. Ed Mitchell NASA Apollo Astronaut Spills the Beans live on air confirms Alien existance and more, one of them must watch info clips. A...

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Ex NASA Edgar Mitchell Spills Beans and thoughts on Alien Visits and Speaks Live - Video

Dj Nasa "Greu de Ucis (Part One)" (Instrumental)
Dj Nasa "Greu de Ucis (Part One)" Instrumental 2014 Dj Nasa "Greu de Ucis (Part One)" Instrumental 2014 Dj Nasa "Greu de Ucis (Part One)" Instrumental 2014 RecycledRecords.

By: RecycledRecords Official Channel

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Dj Nasa "Greu de Ucis (Part One)" (Instrumental) - Video

NASA #39;S BOBAK FERDOWSI ON TOM GREEN LIVE 10/30/14 part 3
thanks for watching.

By: Amerishima2012

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NASA'S BOBAK FERDOWSI ON TOM GREEN LIVE 10/30/14 part 3 - Video

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER NASA is preparing to launch its next-generation, deep-space capsule Orion next month on its first spaceflight, a mission that a NASA administrator Thursday called "our first step in our journey to Mars."

At a briefing, Deputy Associate Administrator William Hill and other NASA and industry officials outlined hopes and expectations for a mission Dec. 4 that will blast an unmanned Orion capsule from Kennedy Space Center, sending it 3,600 miles into space and back for a splashdown off Baja California, Mexico.

The flight, which will involve two Earth orbits and last less than five hours, will give NASA and its Orion business partner, Lockheed Martin, their first space test of the capsule envisioned as a critical part of any NASA trips to the moon, an asteroid, Mars or beyond.

Those missions are not envisioned until the 2020s and 2030s, and even the first manned flight of Orion is not expected before 2021.

For the Dec. 4 test, Orion will be staged on top the most powerful rocket available in the world today, a three-booster Delta IV Heavy, provided by United Launch Alliance. As launched, the capsule will be fully configured to carry four crew members although it will be unoccupied.

All the tests and research NASA will be conducting on the flight will be with the assumption that there are astronauts on board.

The launch is set for 7:05 a.m., with Dec. 5 and 6 available as backup launch days.

The mission will test Orion's capabilities ranging from the 17 separations that will occur as various parts of the rocket and capsule system fall away, to the computers' ability to withstand space radiation, to the heat shield's and parachutes' operations for re-entry and splashdown. The test flight will cost about $370 million including the rocket, but not including the capsule, which NASA and Lockheed Martin intend to recover and reuse.

Orion will go 3,600 miles into space by comparison, the International Space Station orbits the Earth just 260 miles away so that it can built up to a top speed of 20,000 mph on its return. That's almost as fast as it would have to go for a journey to the moon.

NASA's Orion Flight Director Mike Sarafin called the mission Orion's "trial by fire."

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NASA readies Orion for 'first step to Mars'

A NASA sounding rocket experiment has detected a surprising surplus of infrared light in the dark space between galaxies, a diffuse cosmic glow as bright as all known galaxies combined. The glow is thought to be from orphaned stars flung out of galaxies.

This is a time-lapse photograph of the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER) rocket launch, taken from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in 2013. The image is from the last of four launches. Image Credit: T. Arai/University of Tokyo

The findings redefine what scientists think of as galaxies. Galaxies may not have a set boundary of stars, but instead stretch out to great distances, forming a vast, interconnected sea of stars.

Observations from the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, or CIBER, are helping settle a debate on whether this background infrared light in the universe, previously detected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, comes from these streams of stripped stars too distant to be seen individually, or alternatively from the first galaxies to form in the universe.

"We think stars are being scattered out into space during galaxy collisions," said Michael Zemcov, lead author of a new paper describing the results from the rocket project and an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "While we have previously observed cases where stars are flung from galaxies in a tidal stream, our new measurement implies this process is widespread."

Using suborbital sounding rockets, which are smaller than those that carry satellites to space and are ideal for short experiments, CIBER captured wide-field pictures of the cosmic infrared background at two infrared wavelengths shorter than those seen by Spitzer. Because our atmosphere itself glows brightly at these particular wavelengths of light, the measurements can only be done from space.

"It is wonderfully exciting for such a small NASA rocket to make such a huge discovery," said Mike Garcia, program scientist from NASA Headquarters. "Sounding rockets are an important element in our balanced toolbox of missions from small to large."

During the CIBER flights, the cameras launch into space, then snap pictures for about seven minutes before transmitting the data back to Earth. Scientists masked out bright stars and galaxies from the pictures and carefully ruled out any light coming from more local sources, such as our own Milky Way galaxy. What's left is a map showing fluctuations in the remaining infrared background light, with splotches that are much bigger than individual galaxies. The brightness of these fluctuations allows scientists to measure the total amount of background light.

To the surprise of the CIBER team, the maps revealed a dramatic excess of light beyond what comes from the galaxies. The data showed that this infrared background light has a blue spectrum, which means it increases in brightness at shorter wavelengths. This is evidence the light comes from a previously undetected population of stars between galaxies. Light from the first galaxies would give a spectrum of colors that is redder than what was seen.

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NASA Rocket Experiment Finds the Universe Brighter Than We Thought

V2 Launch Site with Hermes A-1 Rocket, Launch Complex 33 Gantry, White Sands Missile Range, NM, 2006. One of the earliest launch complexes built. Used to test launch captured German V2 rockets. Many of the features in LC 33's blockhouse made there way into other blockhouses at Cape Canaveral--like multiple panes of glass laminated together to allow for protected viewing of the launch from the blockhouse. Roland Miller

V2 Launch Site with Hermes A-1 Rocket, Launch Complex 33 Gantry, White Sands Missile Range, NM, 2006. One of the earliest launch complexes built. Used to test launch captured German V2 rockets. Many of the features in LC 33's blockhouse made there way into other blockhouses at Cape Canaveral--like multiple panes of glass laminated together to allow for protected viewing of the launch from the blockhouse.

Shelter Dome, Rubber Room, Launch Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 1996. Adjoining the Rubber Room was a Shelter Dome room with the floor set on springs to isolate the occupants from whatever conflagration may be occurring above them as they seek shelter. Roland Miller

Shelter Dome, Rubber Room, Launch Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 1996. Adjoining the Rubber Room was a Shelter Dome room with the floor set on springs to isolate the occupants from whatever conflagration may be occurring above them as they seek shelter.

Wind Tunnel Test Chamber with Model, 7 X 10 Foot Wind Tunnel, NASA Langley Research Center, VA, 1997. Roland Miller

Wind Tunnel Test Chamber with Model, 7 X 10 Foot Wind Tunnel, NASA Langley Research Center, VA, 1997.

Fuel Tank, Lunar Module, Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, KS, 2002. I photographed this fuel tank while it was in storage, attracted to the amazing colors the oxidation created. Roland Miller

Fuel Tank, Lunar Module, Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, KS, 2002. I photographed this fuel tank while it was in storage, attracted to the amazing colors the oxidation created.

Saturn V F1 Center Engine, Saturn V Center, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 1997. I was asked, in 1997, to photograph the newly opened Saturn V Center, including access to a high-lift for vantage points like this view of the center Saturn V F1 engine. Roland Miller

Saturn V F1 Center Engine, Saturn V Center, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 1997. I was asked, in 1997, to photograph the newly opened Saturn V Center, including access to a high-lift for vantage points like this view of the center Saturn V F1 engine.

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Capturing NASAs Abandoned Launch Sites Before They Disappear

Could the plot of the movie "Interstellar" happen in real life -- both the catastrophe or the solution?

In the film, which opens nationwide on Friday, the hope for the future of mankind rests in the hands of a group of astronauts who must find a new planet hospitable to human life after governments and economies collapse and food is scarce.

While the sci-fi mystery makes for an exciting Hollywood plot, NASA says it is "on the cusp" of solving the central quandary of the film.

"For thousands of years we've wondered if we could find another home among the stars. We're right on the cusp of answering that question," NASA said in a blog post addressing the mysteries of "Interstellar" space.

"Multiple NASA missions are helping us extend humanity's senses and capture starlight to help us better understand our place in the universe," the space agency said.

NASA

PHOTO: This enormous mosaic of the Milky Way galaxy from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows dozens of dense clouds, called nebulae.

After the astronauts in "Interstellar" leave a dystopian Earth with Dust Bowl-like conditions, they're able to push the limits of human space travel by using a newly discovered wormhole to jaunt between galaxies in search of food and a planet that can save the human race.

The space-time shortcut offered by the wormhole is a real theory spearheaded by Caltech astrophysicist Kip Thorne, who consulted on the film regarding his research that it may be possible to stabilize a wormhole and cross in far reaches of space that might otherwise take eons to access.

In real life, one NASA spacecraft is actually on the verge of leaving the solar system. Voyager 1, which blasted off in 1977, finally edged its way into interstellar space in 2012. The spacecraft won't see another star for 40,000 years, according to NASA, showing just how many unknowns still exist in the universe.

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NASA's Real Life 'Interstellar' Mission

Sounding rocket found infrared light in dark space between galaxies Glow is thought to be from orphaned stars flung out of galaxies Findings redefine what scientists think of as a galaxy

By Mark Prigg for MailOnline

Published: 19:17 EST, 6 November 2014 | Updated: 08:03 EST, 7 November 2014

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Nasa has detected a surprising surplus of infrared light in the dark space between galaxies.

Baffled astronomers say the lights is a diffuse cosmic glow as bright as all known galaxies combined.

They believe it could be from orphaned stars flung out of galaxies.

This artist's concept shows a view of a number of galaxies sitting in huge halos of stars. The stars are too distant to be seen individually and instead are seen as a diffuse glow, colored yellow in this illustration. The CIBER rocket experiment detected this diffuse infrared background glow in the sky and found that the glow between galaxies equals the total amount of infrared light coming from known galaxies.

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Nasa spots mystery light as bright as ALL known galaxies combined

NASA #39;s Animation Shows Massive Space Junk Around Earth
Floating in Earth #39;s orbit are millions of tiny particles of space junk. Litter is an ongoing problem on Earth, but it also appears to be an issue in outer space. NASA released an animated...

By: GeoBeats News

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NASA's Animation Shows Massive Space Junk Around Earth - Video

NASA astronauts landing their T-38 Jet
The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twin-engine supersonic jet trainer introduced in 1961.

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NASA astronauts landing their T-38 Jet - Video