Questions tagged [nasa]
Questions regarding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the American civilian space agency.
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How will NASA perseverance re-enter the earth from Mars
Perseverance has been in Mars since 2021, and I'm just wondering the mechanism through with it will return to earth.
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Angular extent of this composite Chandra / JWST image of the Tarantula Nebula?
I thought I’d ask this question here, as I couldn’t readily find the answer looking through online resources.
What is the angular extent of the composite Chandra / JWST image of the Tarantula Nebula ...
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would the Solar Gravitational Lens Mission be looking at a specific exoplanet?
Quoting https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/Direct_Multipixel_Imaging_and_Spectroscopy_of_an_Exoplanet/, the proposed Solar Gravitational Lens Mission would "...
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How did NASA choose "James Webb" as the name of the telescope?
How did NASA decide to name the telescope "James Webb" and not some other name like Copernicus or Ptolemy? The wiki page mentions controversy over the name in the past couple of years but ...
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How the heck does JPL actually do the numerical integration for their development ephemerides? (general questions)
After writing this answer to JPL Horizons - "highly accurate measurements of planetary positions" - how do they do it? which draws from Park, Folkner, Williams & Boggs 2021 The JPL ...
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Data base of exoplanets with common names to use beside Nasa Exoplanet Archive
For a project I am working on, I use data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive at
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/TAP/sync?query=select+*+from+ps&format=json
I take this json data down and ...
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Calculating velocity of Earth from JPL DE
We have discussed how to calculate positions from JPL development ephemerides in this question.
Following this answer, I am now using SPICE's algorithm for calculating the derivatives of the Chebyshev ...
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For how many solar system bodies do recent JPL Development Ephemerides include libration?
Since the Earth and the Moon are so gravitationally and tidally engaged and the laser ranging data so precise, the JPL Development Ephemerides are based on extensive modeling of the Earth-Moon system ...
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Difference in Sunrise times between Horizons and NOAA
I used the NOAA solar calculator at https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/ to generate the sunrise time for today.
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How does NASA estimate the size of the population of Near-Earth Objects (NEO) of diameter>140 meters?
In 2018, the US Congress passed a bill to allocate budgets and mission goals to NASA.
Section 321 of that Bill mentions a goal for detection of NEOs of diameter >140 Km. Quote:
(1) The George E. ...
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More on NASA's "blockbuster return to Venus" and what is in for astronomy?
On June 2nd, 2021, I read an Science-article with the click-baiting title Venus can’t wait—NASA plans blockbuster return to hothouse neighbor which mainly refers to a NASA press release from the same ...
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How can Voyager have left the solar system while at the same time there are solar system objects much farther? [duplicate]
I'm aware of Where does the Solar System end? but this question is different because I'd like to focus on the specific announcement by NASA about the Voyager spacecraft "leaving the solar system&...
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Use MOXIE on Earth [closed]
I recently read about a machine called MOXIE that synthesised oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars. I haven't been able to get the exact idea of how the thing works(though I've noticed analogies to ...
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How are image credits expressed in Astronomy presentations?
Sorry if this is a stupid question. I'm preparing an astronomy presentation, and I want to make sure I give credits where credits are due. But I see credits appear in different formats, for example:
...
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Determining observer's position based on azimuth and elevation of observed object
It is possible to generate Ephemeris through the web-interface of JPL's Horizon system based on observer's location. Unfortunately I don't know the formula that is used to do that with a high ...
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Orbital Mechanics: where can I find initial conditions for orientations and angular rates of planets in our solar system?
I am looking to write the equations of motion (EOMs) for a 6DOF analysis of our solar system. I want to integrate the equations forward in time, and need a complete set of initial conditions to do so....
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How does NASA's ASTHROS stratospheric telescope compare to its James Webb space telescope?
In Space SE I've asked Would it have been cheaper and faster to put a James Webb-like Space Telescope on a balloon instead of a rocket?
I linked there to a few news items:
CNET: NASA to send stadium-...
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The newly discovered comet NEOWISE has been given the name C/2020 F3. What is the meaning of the F3 and the C in this name?
The new comet C/2020 F3 was first spotted by NASA's NEOWISE satellite in March 2020.
It is now visible in the NE sky just before dawn. The C may refer to it's non-periodic nature (so far). What does ...
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What does G/IG signify in the galaxy names ESO 012- G 014 and ESO 293-IG 034?
The NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE (NED) lists galaxies from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) catalog as G (ESO 012- G 014) or IG (ESO 293-IG 034).
What does G/IG signify?
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Pair together light curve and radial velocity data of specified star
I would like to create a web application that works with light curves and radial velocities of stars with exoplanets. I found a NASA bulk data download with both light curves and radial velocities (it'...
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Moving objects in the sky tonight 27th March 2020 [duplicate]
Multiple moving objects not in a line. The are staggered single line and in groups of two or three. One or two moved downward. They had a dim light orangey colour.
It was not obvious that these ...
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How can I download all of this JPL MRO imaging data at once?
There are several files. I think that they all needs to downloaded to have the complete dataset. Is there a particularly good way to download them all in one shot?
https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/...
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How official is TNO 486958, 2014 MU69's new name Arrokoth?
The Trans-Neptunian object 486958 or 2014 MU69 has had several designations and nicknames. According to Phys.org's NASA renames faraway ice world 'Arrokoth' after backlash
Ultima Thule, the ...
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Astronomical animations of deep space objects
Is there any real animations from NASA or others (not simulation or Artist's impression) like this
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004400/a004442/frames/730x730_1x1_30p/
or this
https://...
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Did NASA/JPL get "waning" and "waxing" backwards in this video?
The NASA JPL video What's Up: September 2019 Skywatching Tips from NASA says (per both the closed captions and audio):
We’re in a several-month period right now when the new Moon falls right around ...
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Why does the Earth have a z-component at the start of the J2000 epoch?
When I go to the NASA HORIZONS webpage
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi
and ask for the VECTOR coordinates of the Earth on 1 January 2000, it tells me that Earth has the following coordinates ...
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High quality, detailed images of planets on web
I have been looking for images of the planets and have found pretty decent ones of Earth and Venus from NASA.
That detail is opposed to this one of Uranus:
And these of Mars, (and this and this)
I ...
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What are the most popular galaxies for which we have images? [closed]
The only galaxies I can think of (not being an astronomer) are Andromeda and Milky Way. There are 51 near galaxies, but they all pretty much say "satellite of Milky way" or "satellite of Andromeda". ...
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How to caclulate the chinese Three Gorges Dam impact on Earth rotation? [closed]
According to this January 2005 NASA JPL News item NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth, the Three Gorges Dam has slowed down Earth's rotation by 0.06 microseconds per day.
Having that weight ...
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What is the coordinate acceleration for pure radial motion?
As seen in this answer and also in this book chapter 6, page 6-10 expression 22, when you are falling in radially from being at rest at infinity your velocity in coordinate time, as seen from a ...
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Agena docking in First Man [closed]
In the movie, First Man Neil Armstrong and his colleague David Scott, as part of the Gemini 8 program, attempt to dock with the Agena. But it turns out to be disastrous as they go into a continuous ...
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What produces gravitational waves with "periods between about 100 - 8000 seconds"?
The Ulysses mission has a compelling story. It was sent to Jupiter to perform a gravitational assist shooting it out of the plane of the ecliptic in order to fly over the Sun's north and south poles ...
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Was NASA's 2007 attempt to see helions during a solar eclipse successful? What instruments were used?
This answer about Sun-grazing comets led me eventually to Wikipedia's Helion (meteoroid), which has a one-sentence long article:
A Helion meteoroid is a meteoroid that arrives from the approximate ...
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Does the KBO 2014-MU69 have two numbers and entries in asteroid databases? How did it get promoted to Major Body designation?
In this answer I show that the (now pretty famous) Kuiper Belt Object 2014-MU69 has two entries in JPL's ephemeris generating Horizons site; Major Body ...
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Why does it take so long to transmit an image from New Horizons to Earth?
I just got the news that the New Horizons space probe has passed by some remote planet on the edge of the solar system.
I was surprised that the guy from NASA says that it might take 24 months from ...
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Calculating the Size of Earth in the Apollo 8 Earthrise Photo
I was debating with someone online (I know, great way to get nowhere fast) regarding the size of Earth as it appears in the famous 'Earthrise' photos from Apollo 8.
Below is an accurate (almost pixel-...
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Can NASA's sound recordings of planets, and photos of astronomical bodies, be used freely in for-profit projects? [closed]
Can NASA's sound recordings, and photos of, astronomical bodies be used in for-profit/commercial projects (movies, video games)?
I've read NASA's Media Usage Guidelines, but am still not sure.
(here'...
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Does anybody know date of publishing of following spirit rover image in NASA apod?
I want to find this image in the following linked index.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
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What are the best places near Kennedy Space Center to watch a night launch? [closed]
Will the below official launch viewing areas be open for a night launch (Atlas V at 7:40 p.m. on 18 Jan 2018)? If not, what are the other options?
THE LC-39 OBSERVATION GANTRY
APOLLO/SATURN V CENTER
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How can we ge to the exoplanet Proxima b? [closed]
I would like to know please how can we get to the exoplanet Proxima b. I heard it is the potentially habitable exoplanet closet to Earth at only 4.2 light years away. So exciting!
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Blood Moon Identification in NASA reports [duplicate]
Often I look at NASA's Eclipse Web Site. More specifically, I often look at the Index to Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipse. How can I tell if an eclipse results in a "blood moon"? I know not ...
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How was Trappist-1 discovered?
I was going through all the questions in this community related to TRAPPIST-1 in order to know how planets TRAPPIST-1b to TRAPPIST-1h were discovered, but there aren't any.
How were they discovered?
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Will JWST be as durable as the hubble telescope?
JW Space Telescope is designed for a 5-10 year mission duration. Seeing as Hubble and other space missions have paved the way for JWST for reliability issues, It even has zero friction gyro's with 100+...
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Which observatories help NASA find 5 new asteroids per day?
I just read the following in the NPR website news article NASA's New 'Intruder Alert' System Spots An Incoming Asteroid.
NASA pays for several telescopes around the planet to scan the skies on a ...
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why hasn't Nasa gone back to our Moon? [closed]
why has not Nasa gone back to our Moon since the first landing on the moon
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nasaworking on a way to travel faster than speed of light [closed]
even if they did how will time pass in that ship. Also that ship would require a infinite amount of energy to fight the drag.but what would provide the drag since in space there is nothing to resist?
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What mechanism could have formed the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum rift-like gravity anomalies?
According to the NASA JPL web-report, Gravity Gradients Frame Oceanus Procellarum, a rift-like ring structure surrounding the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum has been detected as a gravity anomaly by the ...
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Hubble HST scheduling algorithm
NASA developed SPIKE: Intelligent Scheduling of Hubble Space Telescope Observations (HST) and this.
My question is simple, is there a programming library, preferably in python or C#, to implement the ...
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What are the differences between TESS and PLATO exoplanet telescopes?
Within a year now it has been decided to launch TESS in 2017 and PLATO in 2024, space telecopes of NASA and ESA. They seem to have very similar science goals, both searching for transiting Earth sized ...
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Spotting the International Space Station (ISS)
Recently, I visited the NASA website which provides sighting locations to see the International Space Station (ISS). As we all know, we can even see ISS with the naked eye in a clear sky as a passing ...
