In Zero Gravity, Ping Pong Becomes Real-life pong, Because With No Gravity To Alter Its Course, The

For NASA, Earth Day is Every Day!

With a fleet of spacecraft orbiting our home planet collecting data on everything from the air we breathe to natural disasters that impact our lives, Earth is always in focus. Join us as we celebrate our home with beautiful views from our unique vantage point of space.

On December 17, 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 snapped this iconic image of planet Earth. Dubbed the Blue Marble, this image was taken as Apollo 17 rocketed toward the moon. 

On the way to the moon or from the surface of Mars, our spacecraft have photographed the beauty of Earth from many vantage points. In this image, the most powerful telescope orbiting Mars captured this view of Earth and its moon, showing continent-size detail on the planet and the relative size of the moon. The image combines two separate exposures taken on November 20, 2016, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

In this image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on our Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame.

Our Suomi-NPP satellite also observed the Earth at night. Earth’s “night lights” often have a gee-whiz curiosity for the public , but have also served as a tool for fundamental research for nearly 25 years. They have provided a broad, beautiful picture, showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness. 

You can be mesmerized by the constant swirls in these visualizations of ocean currents. The swirling flows of tens of thousands of ocean currents were captured using the largest computations of their kind ever undertaken, using high-end computing resources at our Ames Research Center. 

We’ve all seen iconic photographs of Earth shot by astronauts. But even satellites and robotic spacecraft often get in on the act. The above image, called “Pale Blue Dot,” was taken Voyager 1 in February 1990 from a distance of 4 billion miles.

Our satellites do more than take pretty pictures of Earth. They do everything from measure rainfall to observe weather patterns. The ten satellites in the Global Precipitation Measurement Constellation have provided unprecedented information about rain and snow fall across the entire Earth. This visualization shows the constellation in action, taking precipitation measurements underneath the satellite orbits. 

In an homage to Apollo 17′s “Blue Marble” image, Suomi-NPP, a joint NASA-NOAA Earth-observing satellite, made this composite image, by making a number of swaths of Earth’s surface on January 4, 2012. 

What’s your favorite aspect of planet Earth? These kids have their own ideas. You can even “adopt” parts of the planet. Which one of the 64,000 locations will you get? 

Our home planet is constantly changing, which is why our fleet of Earth-observing satellites continuously monitor the globe, recording every moment of what they see. Luckily for us, many of the views are not only deeply informative but also awe-inspiring. 

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

Women of Science: Lise Meitner

Not only is inequality damaging for individuals, it also vandalises society as a whole.

This begs the question: what has society missed out on because of inequality?

This is a small testament to those women who somehow managed to throw off the shackles of oppression and change the scientific world.

Women of Science:

Lise Meitner

In a very extreme case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Lise Meitner was a female Austrian Jew who excelled in physics; meanwhile fleeing Nazi prosecution.

At the age of 14 she completed her schooling feeling unsatisfied and wanted to continue onto higher education. This was the only schooling females were allowed to do at the time, but she was motivated by discoveries from scientists such as Henri Becquerel and wanted to pursue a future of radioactivity research.

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We grew some cress in box with a lid on it, that had one small hole for light. The result: a beautiful example of phototropism, plants growing and moving towards a source of light.

This is a great activity to try at home with the kids.

Not all shadows are black. The Colored Shadows exhibit is a discovery of the colors hidden in white light. Red, green and blue spotlights shine on a wall. The wall is white because red, blue and green light combine to make white light. These colors are often called the additive primary colors. As you walk (or dance) between the lights and the wall, your body casts three different shadows. 

Artificial Water waves

The chain Reaction…Just for science

WATCH This Mind-Bending Video That Shows Liquid Boiling AND Freezing At The Same Time

I grew crystals in my fridge last night. They are also lavender scented. Here’s how I did it: About 2 cups of lavender scented Epsom salts. A glass jar. 1 cup of hot water (microwaved the water) ½ cup of additional hot water with food coloring of your choice (I used green) A fridge to put the jar of melted Epsom salts in over night.

Directions:

The ½ cup water, get it hot then you are gonna mix food coloring in it and set it aside.

Put your Epsom salts in the glass jar.

Take the full cup of hot water and pour into the jar over the Epsom salts. Stir for two minutes.

Take the colored water you had put aside and add it to the jar. Stir it up and then put the jar in the fridge (24 hrs)

When it is time to take the jar out of the fridge, it won’t look different at first do not get discurged! You have to get rid of the remaining liquid, once you do, the result will be your very own crystals grown by you!

The Feminine Face of Space

Museum of Cosmonauts, 1984 - 2015