Most recent stories in Ministry of Space Exploration
A Ridge in the Low Southern Latitudes
The objective of this observation is to determine the nature of a long straight ridge. At a point the ridge seems to disappear at the edge of an old crater and then reappear after a pause. It may be a dike. Along its length it has narrow portions and wide portions. The scene is also available in Context Camera data.
Date: 28 July 2022
Altitude: 260 km
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaNGC 2442, the Meathook Galaxy
This close-up Hubble view of the Meathook Galaxy (NGC 2442) focuses on the more compact of its two asymmetric spiral arms as well as the central regions. The spiral arm was the location of a supernova that exploded in 1999. These observations were made in 2006 in order to study the aftermath of this supernova. Ground-based data from MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope were used to fill out parts of the edges of this image.
Image credit: NASA/ESA and ESOAntelope Valley Abloom
Near the western tip of the Mojave Desert and a few miles west of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, fields of wildflowers painted the landscape yellow in spring 2024. On April 9, the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired this image of fields of yellow wildflowers blanketing Antelope Valley amid solar and wind farms.
The day after the image was acquired, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve reported that wildflowers were “popping,” but the region’s famous poppies were not. Rangers at the reserve said they also saw very few small poppy plants maturing, suggesting an impressive poppy bloom is unlikely in the coming weeks.
However, “there are sweeping fields of Goldfields interspersed with Owl’s Clover and Creamcups,” the reserve said. California Goldfields (Lasthenia californica), a member of the sunflower family, thrive in clay soils and produce small daisy-like flowers. With plenty of moisture, large populations can bloom at once and yield the carpets of yellow that give the plant its name.
The burst of yellow came after this region received heavy rains in February and March. Those rains may have been too much for California Poppies, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to that report, the iconic—and finicky—orange flowers often do better after several years of drought, and they may be facing increased competition from grasses that benefited from all the rain.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.The Dunes of Change
The Mars Orbiter Camera imaged these dunes located in Mawrth Vallis in 2000, so now we can learn what a multi-decade dune movement average is by taking a new observation to create a MOC-HiRISE temporal pair. With MOC providing a long baseline to newer HiRISE images, we can build up global averages of the effects of wind on the environment. Two decades is long enough that the dunes will have moved noticeably between MOC and HiRISE.
Date: 29 July 2022
Altitude: 283 km
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaThe Solar Eclipse of 8 April 2024
This image shows the total solar eclipse of 8 April 2024, as seen from the Dunas de Bilbao, Mexico at 12:20 CST. It’s a remarkable coincidence that the Moon – visible in the center of this image – appears exactly the same size in the sky as the much larger but also much more distant Sun. When the two align perfectly as seen here, the Moon blocks out most of the Sun’s bright light and the latter’s extended atmosphere (called the corona) becomes visible.
Excitingly, the Sun is now nearing peak levels of activity, where its magnetic field becomes more disorganized before flipping its north and south poles. This is reflected in the structure of the Sun’s corona.
This image was taken with a Fujifilm X-T5 camera, using an exposure time of 1/10 seconds at ISO128. It was taken as part of an eclipse expedition organized by LUNEX EuroMoonMars and the KOSMICA Institute from Monterrey, Mexico. The group included space experts, space artists, and enthusiasts in connection with the International Aeronautical Foundation's Committee for the Cultural Utilization of Space.
In preparation for the eclipse, the group visited various cultural locations to recognize the strong links between Mexico, astronomy and space exploration.
Image credit: ESA/Bo Bi & Bernard Foing /KOSMICA/LUNEX EuroMoonMars; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGONGC 2685, the Helix Galaxy
The very unusual galaxy NGC 2685, also known as the Helix Galaxy, is located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. This image was captured by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF NOIRLab which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. NGC 2685 is a peculiar lenticular galaxy known as a polar ring galaxy. A ring of gas, stars, and dust orbits NGC 2685 perpendicular to the flat plane of the host galaxy. This odd crossing of planes is believed to be evidence of galaxy interactions, mergers, or tidal accretion events. Current research suggests that the present structure of NGC 2685 was formed when it captured material from another galaxy, which was strung out into an encircling ring. This galaxy is one of our closest known polar ring galaxies and is therefore one of the easiest of its kind to study. Owing to its odd characteristics, it has been called the most unusual galaxy in the Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies and appears as number 336 in astronomer Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/L. Bassino
Image processing: J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Rodriguez (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)