保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
The Voyager mission was designed to take advantage of a rare geometric arrangement of the outer planets in the late 1970s and the 1980s which allowed for a four-planet tour with a minimum of propellant and trip time. This layout of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which occurs about every 175 years, allows a spacecraft on a particular flight path to swin...
在这张横跨340光年的拼接图像中，韦伯的近红外相机（NIRCam）以全新的视角展示了狼蛛星云的恒星形成区域，其中包括数以万计从未见过的年轻恒星，这些恒星以前被宇宙尘埃笼罩。最活跃的区域似乎闪烁着巨大的年轻恒星，呈淡蓝色。 影像来源：NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team 很久以前，一个宇宙创造的故事展开了：数千颗从未见过的年轻恒星被发现在一个名为剑鱼座30号星云的恒星孕育区，由NASA的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜拍摄。在之前的望远镜图像中，狼蛛星云因其图像中出现的尘埃细丝而被昵称为狼蛛星云，长期以来，该星云一直是研究恒星形成的天文学家的最爱。除了年轻的恒星，韦伯还揭示了遥远的背景星系，以及星云气体和尘埃的详细结构和组成。 狼蛛星云位于大麦哲伦星云星系中，距离我...
A little-studied star, TYC 3203-450-1, upstages a galaxy in this Hubble Telescope image from December 2017. Both the star and the galaxy are within the Lizard constellation, Lacerta. However, the star is much closer than the much more distant galaxy. Astronomers studying distant objects call these stars “foreground stars” and they are often not very happy ab...
Auroras and hazes glow in this composite image of Jupiter taken by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). NIRCam has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum: the auroras are mapped to redder co...
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, as the Artemis I launch teams loaded more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants including liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Artemis I flight test is the first integrated test of our deep space explor...
This view of the crescent Earth over the Moon’s horizon was taken during the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Apollo 15 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on July 26, 1971 via a Saturn V launch vehicle. Aboard was a crew of three astronauts: David R. Scott, mission commander; James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot; and Alfred M. Worden, command module ...
T-38 planes are a fixture of astronaut training, assisting pilots and mission specialists to think quickly in changing situations. Here, our T-38s fly in formation above the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Launch Pad 39B. The SLS and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission will launch no earlier than Aug. 29, 2022. Astronaut Andrew Morgan posted this ...
This time lapse of the Milky Way Galaxy taken from the International Space Station (ISS) also captured a lightning strike on Earth so bright that it lit up the space station’s solar panels. Astronaut Kjell Lindgren posted this on Twitter and Instagram on Sept. 2, 2015, saying, “Large lightning strike on Earth lights up or solar panels.” See more ...
The supersonic X-1E research aircraft was the last of NASA’s experimental X-1 series of aircraft. From 1955-1958, it made 26 flights and one captive flight (attached to a carrier aircraft). Research flights took place over what is now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. In this photo from November 2021, the X-1E looks toward...
The core of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has taken center stage in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Standing 10 feet (3 meters) high and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide, the craft’s main body will for the next two years be the focus of attention in the facility’s ultra-hygienic High Bay 1 as engi...