Education
Jupiter: The Gas Giant
Of all the planets that orbit around our Sun there are two that are easily visible and are fascinating objects to view. These are, of course, Saturn and Jupiter. Of these Jupiter is prominent in our night skies at the moment. At magnitude -2.06 it is the third brightest thing in the sky after the …
NASA launches STEM-in-sports online learning program
Teachers and students can learn the science behind scoring a touchdown, throwing a slam-dunk or a hitting a homerun with a new distance-learning program called NASA STEM Mania. NASA’s Distance Learning Network (DLN) will present the two-week series Monday, Feb. 24, through Monday, March 10, and will give educators and students from kindergarten through 12th …
Free space systems engineering course starts March 3
Space Systems Engineering, a new massive open online course or MOOC from NASA and the Saylor Foundation, launches on Monday, March 3, 2014. The six-week, general-audience course is available to the public at no cost and provides a unique opportunity to learn from NASA engineers. Students who participate can earn a free certificate. The Space …
The Auroras of Planet Earth
Nature has an uncanny knack of producing some of the most spectacular astronomical events we can witness, the likes of Solar eclipses, meteor showers and other phenomenon that never fail to impress. There is one event however, that once you witness it, it will be burnt into your memory and will stay with you for …
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No…it’s a spaceplane!
Vocabulary • Latitude: The number of degrees north (or south) from the equator. • Orbital Altitude: The height above Mean Sea Level of an orbiting spacecraft. • Orbital Inclination: The angle that an orbit makes as it crosses the equator. Narrative Across the pond is an innovative rocket company that toils away in relative obscurity …
NASA Spinoffs for transportation
Charged with carrying the human race to frontiers distant and challenging, it only makes sense that NASA has had a profound impact on transportation. Since its founding in 1958, NASA’s pioneering research has advanced aeronautics and other modes of transportation as well. Through partnerships with private industry, NASA expertise and technologies developed for space travel are leading to …
Comets are unpredictable beasts
The media was full of talk of comets with the inaugural visit of Comet ISON C/2012 S1. It was pre-hyped as being “The Comet of the Century”, being visible in daylight etc, etc. The reality of the matter is that comets are strange beasts and are rarely predictable unless they have been round a few …
Catch a falling star: Quadrantids ring in 2014
Falling stars, shooting stars and fireballs are all common names for meteors. ‘Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket’ was a number 1 song by Perry Como from 1957. The lyrics, of course, allude to meteors. To bring in the new year there is a regular meteor shower called the Quadrantids. This …
Students send experiments to space on suborbital flight
Gasps, whistles, and cheers burst from 300 observers as the SpaceLoft 7 rocket blasted into the sky from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. Among the crowd were 60 students, ranging from middle school through university level, who watched the rocket carry experiments they had designed and built. “That feeling of seeing something you built …
Delta V and the GRAVITY of the situation
In the recent film release, “Gravity,” astronauts are left stranded at the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) after a pretty horrific accident. Since one of the astronauts was wearing a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), they used the nifty apparatus to get to the International Space Station (ISS). We like this movie, even though many space blogs …