NASA is on a planet-hunting mission, and it hasn't failed to deliver.

This week the space agency announced that its Kepler spacecraft has discovered what could be 833 new planets since January, bringing its total up to 3,538 potential planets. In case that count may be a bit hard to imagine, NASA put together an animation (above) illustrating all the planets Kepler has discovered so far.

Created by Kepler's Daniel Fabrycky, the video is the third visualization of its kind to depict extrasolar planets spotted by the space telescope.

As Fabrycky explains in a description of the video on YouTube, the animation shows the "relative sizes of the orbits and planets in the multi-transiting planetary systems discovered by Kepler up to Nov. 2013."

Various colors are used to differentiate each planet orbiting its specific star, while the size of each ring the colored circles travel along equates to the size of the planet's orbit. The 7-planet system KOI-351 is the most colorful in the animation -- can you spot it?

NASA launched the Kepler spacecraft into orbit in 2009. Its aim has been to catalog celestial bodies that orbit stars in the Milky Way in hopes of finding more Earth-like planets.

As it turns out, habitable planets similar to Earth are far more common than previously thought. A study published Monday revealed that one in five sunlike stars observed by Kepler have an orbiting planet in the "habitable zone," suggesting that extraterrestrial life may exist in our own galaxy.

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Here Are All The Planets NASA's Kepler Has Discovered So Far (VIDEO)

NASA is offering high school juniors in Texas an opportunity to explore their interests in space exploration and careers through the High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) program.

Nominated by Texas state legislators, selected participants will engage in online forums focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) topics and complete activities focused on space missions, the International Space Station, the moon, Mars and beyond to qualify for a six-day summer experience at NASA,s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

During the summer experience, students will work on a team-oriented Mars exploration project with a Texas teacher and a NASA engineer or scientist mentor. Students may receive a science elective credit toward graduation upon successful completion of the project.

To be eligible, students must be U.S. citizens, residents of Texas and high school juniors with an interest in STEM studies. Students also must have access to the Internet and e-mail, and be able to commit to the program for one year.

HAS is sponsored by NASA and funded by the State of Texas, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Rotary NASA, at no cost to the participants. The program was developed in 1999 to encourage more students to pursue studies and careers in STEM. More than 7,000 students from across Texas have participated to date.

The deadline is approaching quickly. Visit the High School Aerospace Scholars website for more information:

http://has.aerospacescholars.org/

To apply, visit:

http://has.aerospacescholars.org/apply

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NASA Education Offers Career Program for Texas High School Scholars

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Md., will host this month's Sunday Experiment on Nov. 17 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST. It's a free afternoon for elementary-aged school children and their families with a look at how NASA explores space and studies Earth from space using satellites and other technology.

This month's Sunday Experiment will explore NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite project. The TDRS project at NASA Goddard is building three new Tracking and Data Relay Satellites: TDRS K, L and M. Ten TDRS spacecraft are currently in geosynchronous orbit. Together they form the space-based communication relay network known as the Space Network (SN).

The SN is made up of seven TDRS spacecraft that are responsible for relaying more than 40 different spacecrafts' data to the ground 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The TDRS constellation is responsible for gathering data from low-Earth orbiting spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's Earth-observing fleet of satellites and the International Space Station, and transmitting it to TDRS ground terminals. Once the data arrives at the ground terminals, it is sent out to the spacecraft's data processing facilities across the country. The communication also works the opposite direction with controllers on the ground using the SN to send commands like "Hey, satellite, turn your camera on!" to spacecraft.

TDRS K was the first of the third generation of TDRS satellites and launched Jan. 30, 2013. TDRS L, the second go this generation to launch, will launch January 2014. This generation of TDRS will ensure that NASA's communication needs are met for many years to come.

In addition to celebrating all things science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the Sunday Experiment celebrates major science missions that are managed by NASA Goddard and set to launch in the near future. The Sunday Experiment is a place where children and adults alike can discover the excitement of Goddard through fun and engaging activities.

The Sunday Experiment, usually held the third Sunday of each month from September through May, with some exceptions, spotlights Goddard's world-renowned science and engineering research and technological developments. Families leave inspired by the activities, wowed by the scientists and engineers, and excited about Goddard's revolutionary research and technology.

For more information and directions to the NASA Goddard Visitor's Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/index.html

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/directions/index.html

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NASA Invites Children, Families to Learn About NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) has released an umbrella NASA Research Announcement (NRA) titled "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014 (SpaceTech-REDDI-2014)". This will be STMD's inaugural umbrella solicitation covering multiple STMD programs.

The NRA is accessible from the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website (http://nspires.nasaprs.com) by linking through the menu listing "Solicitations", and then selecting "Open Solicitations" and finally selecting "Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014 (SpaceTech-REDDI-2014)". Under SpaceTech-REDDI-2014, proposals will be solicited through Appendices which will be issued as funding is made available for new opportunities. Once new Appendices are released, interested parties will be able to access them by clicking through the Open Solicitations link, then selecting "NRA NNH14ZOA001N", and then selecting "List of Open Program Elements".

It is anticipated that this initial umbrella solicitation (SpaceTech-REDDI-2014) will be open for one year (through October 2014) and follow-up umbrella SpaceTech-REDDI solicitations will be issued annually in November. With every release of SpaceTech-REDDI, the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will provide targeted release plans for Appendices for that year.

The STMD portfolio supports early-stage studies, for assessing the feasibility of entirely new technologies (which corresponds to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range from 1 to 3); matures feasible technologies through rapid competitive development and ground-based testing (TRL 3-5); and performs flight demonstrations in relevant environments to complete the final steps prior to mission infusion (TRL 5-7). This technological diversity results in a sustainable pipeline of revolutionary concepts. STMD seeks aggressive technology development efforts that may require undertaking significant technical challenges and risk to achieve a higher potential payoff.

The following STMD programs are included in the SpaceTech-REDDI-2014 umbrella NRA:

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program focuses on visionary aeronautics and space system concepts. TRL Range: 1-3

Appendix A1: NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I

Appendix A2: NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase II

Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Program engages academia in innovative research in advanced space technology. TRL Range: 1-3

Appendix B1: Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Early Career Faculty (ECF) Appendix B2: Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) Early Stage Innovations (ESI)

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Release of NASA Space Technology SpaceTech-REDDI-2014 NRA

NASA Curiosity Rover Finds Destroyed Building Blocks
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Mars Mission Briefed on This Week @NASA
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Quilting In Space! NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg
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21 hours ago by Rob Gutro NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Depression 30W on Nov. 5 at 0611 UTC/1:11 a.m. EDT as it was making its way west through the South China Sea. The purple areas indicate coldest cloud tops with potential for heavy rainfall. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the South China Sea and revealed that warm sea surface temperatures and low wind shear enabled Tropical Depression 30W to strengthen into a tropical storm.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm 30W on Nov. 5 at 0611 UTC/1:11 a.m. EDT as it was making its way west through the South China Sea. The infrared AIRS data provides valuable cloud top temperature data that indicates how high the thunderstorms are the make up the tropical cyclone. Some of those thunderstorms mostly north of the storm's center were high into the troposphere where air temperatures were colder than -63F/-52C. Cloud top temperatures in that range indicate that the thunderstorms have the potential to drop heavy rainfall.

AIRS infrared data also revealed that the sea surface temperatures are warm in the area of the South China Sea where TD30W is moving. Warm sea surface temperatures over 26.6C/80F are needed to maintain a tropical cyclone's intensity and those in the path of TD30W are warmer than that, enabling the storm to intensify through increased evaporation.

On Nov. 5 at 1500 UTC/10 a.m. EDT, Tropical Storm 30W or TS30W had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots/40 mph/64.8 kph. TS30W was located approximately 507 nautical miles/ 583.4 miles/939 km east of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, near 11.0 north and 114.5 east. TS30W was moving west at 16 knots/18.4 mph/29.6 kph.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast predicts that TS30W will make landfall as a tropical storm in southern Vietnam near the city of Nha Trang on Nov. 6 around 1200 UTC Universal Time./7 p.m. Vietnam local time.

Explore further: NASA sees Tropical Depression 30W affecting central Philippines

Tropical Depression 30W formed and moved through Visayas, Philippines. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the depression that showed it had some potential for heavy rain while moving through ...

NASA infrared imagery revealed that bands of thunderstorms have been wrapping into the center of newborn Tropical Depression 29W, indicating it's organizing and strengthening in the Philippine Sea.

Tropical Depression 11W formed in the western North Pacific Ocean and appears to be tracking toward Luzon, in the Northern Philippines. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the tropical depression ...

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NASA sees warm sea surface helped strengthen Tropical Storm 30W

News

November 5, 2013 01:07 PM ET

Computerworld - About 10 months from now, NASA's Mars robotic rovers and orbiters are slated to be getting some company.

The Indian Space Research Organization this morning launched a spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre near Chennai to begin a mission to Mars.

After a 10-month journey, the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars and begin to study the Red Planet's atmosphere and surface. The primary goal: To gather technical information that can help Indian scientists plan for interplanetary travels.

The Indian space agency said the Mangalyaan spacecraft, will spend the next 20 to 25 days orbiting the Earth, testing itself and moving into a higher orbit where it will slingshot toward Mars.

If Mangalyaan, Hindi for "Mars Craft," reaches its destination, India will join the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency in successfully getting crafts to the planet.

Today, NASA has two robotic rovers, Curiosity and Opportunity exploring the surface of Mars, and orbiters Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter taking images, studying the Martian atmosphere and relaying data compiled by the rovers back to Earth.

Michael Braukas, a NASA spokesman, said the U.S. agency hopes the Indian effort will complement its work.

He told Computerworld on Monday that while India's Mars mission is not a cooperative one with NASA, the U.S. agency will will provide provide data from its satellites and antennas to show Indian Space Research Organization officials, for instance, Mangalyaan's position in space.

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NASA's Mars robots set to get company with India's successful launch

NASA #39;s new frontier, and the Trouble with "Gravity"
Hank describes how astronomers used a technique called gravitational lensing to find the most distant galaxy ever detected -- and how NASA is embarking on a ...

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The ISS launch will carry three flight engineers; Koichi Wakata, from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio; and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. The crew will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan, aboard a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft. The flight to the ISS will take six hours followed by a two hour docking procedure.

The three flight engineers will replace Expedition 37 crew members Luca Parmitano, from the European Space Agency, Karen Nyberg, from NASA, and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. The three Expedition 37 members will leave the ISS on Sunday, Nov. 10, reports NASA. Fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, who arrived at the ISS in September, will replace Yurchikhin as commander.

NASA will provide a live stream, as they have done previously, of the ISS launch but have added a unique public viewing event for the occasion. NASA will show the launch from the Times Square Toshiba vision screen, located at One Times Square, beginning at 10:15 p.m. EST until 11:45 p.m. EST.

William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a statement, The space station serves as a unique laboratory for researchers around the world, home to astronauts from multiple countries, and was built with international cooperation, so it's fitting to show the launch of the next crew in the most cosmopolitan city in the United States.

Wednesdays launch is just the beginning of an incredibly busy schedule for the ISS crew, notes NASA. Mike Hopkins, a NASA flight engineer, has been working on the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, SPHERES-RINGS, experiment which seeks to demonstrate wireless power transfer between satellites at a distance for enhanced operations. After the Soyuz launch, a spacewalk is scheduled for Saturday that will see Kotov and cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy carry the 2014 Winter Olympic torch outside of the ISS. The week concludes with the departure of the three Expedition 37 crew members on Sunday.

The ISS launch live stream can be viewed below, beginning at 10:15 p.m. EST.

Live streaming video by Ustream

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NASA ISS Live Stream: Watch The Soyuz Launch From Times Square Or From Home

NASA has selected nine research teams from seven states for a new institute that will bring researchers together in a collaborative virtual setting to focus on questions concerning space science and human space exploration.

The teams participating in the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) will address scientific questions about the moon, near-Earth asteroids, the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and their near space environments, in cooperation with international partners.

"We look forward to collaborative scientific discoveries from these teams," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "These results will be vital to NASA successfully conducting the ambitious activities of exploring the solar system with robots and humans."

Based and managed at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., the institute will support scientific research and complement and extend existing NASA science programs. SSERVI represents an expansion of NASA's Lunar Science Institute, established at Ames in 2008, to include other solar system destinations.

"SSERVI continues to strengthen the collaboration between exploration and science as we explore the solar system together," said Jason Crusan, director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division in NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington.

SSERVI members include academic institutions, non-profit research institutes, private companies, NASA centers and other government laboratories. The winning teams, which SSERVI will support for five years at a combined total of about $12 million per year, were selected from a pool of 32 proposals based on competitive peer-review evaluation.

The selected SSERVI member teams, listed with their research topics and principal investigators, are:

- Institute for the Science of Exploration Targets: Origin, Evolution and Discovery; William Bottke, Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

- Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science; Daniel Britt, University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla.

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NASA Selects Research Teams for New Virtual Institute

Lots of UFOs around the sun in images NASA satellite SOHO STEREO October 29, 2013
In this review, you will see many different unidentified objects and anomalies. You can see the different types of unidentified objects. Objects have differe...

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Lots of UFOs around the sun in images NASA satellite SOHO STEREO October 29, 2013 - Video

The Ammo Box Found On Mars By NASA Spirit Rover
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NASA | A Laser Scientist Answers 5 Questions About LVIS
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NASA | A Laser Scientist Answers 5 Questions About LVIS - Video

NASA EDGE: Sun-Earth Connection
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Mapping the Boundaries of Interstellar Space | IBEX | NASA Science HD Video
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Nov-2013

Contact: Rob Gutro robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Tropical Storm Sonia formed on Friday, Nov. 1 from the eighteenth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season. Sonia became a tropical storm on Nov. 2 and by Nov. 4 made landfall in western Mexico. Sonia's brief life was captured in a NASA animation of imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite.

NOAA's GOES-West satellite keeps a continuous eye on the eastern Pacific and western U.S. NASA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. takes the satellite data and creates video and still images. A 36 second video that runs from Nov. 1 to Nov. 4 shows Tropical Depression 18E strengthen into Tropical Storm Sonia (it appeared more rounded as the circulation became more organized), and then moved northeast and made landfall during the early morning hours on Nov. 4.

On Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. EDT, Tropical Depression 18E was located about 345 miles/555 km south of the southern tip of Baja California and was moving northwest. By Sunday, Nov. 3 at 4 a.m. EST, Tropical Depression 18E strengthened into Tropical Storm Sonia when it was about 285 miles/455 km south of the southern tip of Baja California. That's when tropical storm warnings and watches were issued from Mazatlan northward to Altata. Hours after strengthening, Sonia turned to the north-northeast and headed for mainland Mexico.

Sonia's strongest maximum sustained winds reached 45 mph/75 kph but only for several hours. Sonia maintained that strength from 10 a.m. EDT to 7 p.m. EST and then weakened.

By 4 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 4, Sonia had already made landfall along the coast of Sinaloa near the city of El Dorado. Sonia had already weakened to a tropical depression as it continued moving further inland on a north-northwesterly track. Sonia's maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph/55 kph and it was weakening as it moved over western Mexico's rugged and mountainous terrain. It was centered about 20 miles/30 km southeast of Culiacan, Mexico, near 24.6 north and 107.3 west.

Rainfall is the biggest threat from Sonia, as with any land falling tropical cyclone. The National Hurricane Center expects between 3 and 6 inches of rainfall with isolated totals as high as 10 inches in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, western Durango and southern Chihuahua on Nov. 3.

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NASA video shows birth and death of Tropical Storm Sonia

For the first time, a NASA airborne campaign will measure changes in the height of the Greenland Ice Sheet and surrounding Arctic sea ice produced by a single season of summer melt. NASA's C-130 research aircraft flew from the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, VA, to Greenland Wednesday where they will conduct survey flights to collect data that will improve our understanding of seasonal melt and provide baseline measurements for future satellite missions. Flights are scheduled to continue through Nov. 16.

The land and sea ice data gathered during this campaign will give researchers a more comprehensive view of seasonal changes and provide context for measurements that will be gathered during NASA's ICESat-2 mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2016.

"The more ground we cover the more comparison points we'll have for ICESat-2," said Bryan Blair of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, principal investigator for the Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor, or LVIS.

Warm summer temperatures lead to a decline in ice sheet elevation that often can be significant in low-lying areas along the Greenland coast. In past years, the Jakobshavn Glacier, located in the lower elevations of western Greenland, has experienced declines of nearly 100 feet in elevation over a single summer. Higher elevations farther inland see less dramatic changes, usually only a few inches, caused by pockets of air in the snowpack that shrink as temperatures warm.

"Surface melt is more than half of the story for Greenland's mass loss," said Ben Smith, senior physicist at the University of Washington's Advanced Physics Laboratory, Seattle, and member of the science team that selected flight lines for this campaign. The rest of Greenland's mass loss comes from ice flowing downhill into the ocean, often breaking off to form icebergs, and from melting at the base of the ice sheet.

Researchers will measure ice elevation using the LVIS laser altimeter and the LVIS-GH, a new, smaller version designed to fly on NASA's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. LVIS and LVIS-GH will measure separate but overlapping swaths of the ice from an altitude of 28,000 feet.

The C-130 carrying both instruments will fly out of Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, allowing researchers to sample both high- and low-elevation ice and a variety of geographic areas.

"We plan to concentrate our flights on areas northwest, southeast and southwest Greenland and the Arctic Ocean," said Michelle Hofton, LVIS mission scientist at Goddard and the University of Maryland, College Park. "The measurements we collect along lines sampled in IceBridge's spring 2013 Arctic campaign will allow scientists to assess changes over the summer."

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NASA Begins Airborne Campaign To Map Greenland Ice Sheet Summer Melt

India is preparing for a Tuesday launch of its first Mars-bound spacecraft, which NASA hopes will complement its efforts on the planet.

India's PSLV-C25 rocket, carrying a Mars-bound spacecraft, sits on its launch pad, ready for a Tuesday launch. (Image: Indian Space Research Organization)

The Indian Space Research Organization spacecraft will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre near Chennai. Once the craft reaches Mars, it will orbit the planet and gather information needed for future Indian interplanetary missions.

The organization said the journey to Mars should take about 10 months.

India is looking to test its ability to build and launch a spacecraft capable of reaching and orbiting Mars, using autonomous features and surviving 300 days in space. The craft will also study the Martian surface and atmosphere.

"It's probably going to complement our research," said Michael Braukas, a NASA spokesman.

Braukas told Computerworld that India's Mars mission is not a cooperative one with NASA, but added that the U.S. agency will provide the Indian agency some deep space communications help. The U.S. plans to provide data from its satellites and antennas that show the craft's position in space, for instance.

NASA already has robotic rovers Curiosity and Opportunity exploring the surface of Mars along with orbiters Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter taking images, studying the Martian atmosphere and relaying data compiled by the rovers back to Earth.

Braukas wouldn't say whether NASA is concerned that India's orbiter might interfere with the the U.S. agency's craft.

The Indian orbiter is slated to carry at least five scientific tools, including a tri-color camera to capture images of Mars surface features, and a methane sensor and a Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to study surface composition and mineralogy.

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NASA hopes India's Mars mission can aid U.S. efforts