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This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 5307, a planetary nebula that lies about 10,000 light-years from Earth. It can be seen in the constellation Centaurus (the Centaur), which can be seen primarily in the southern hemisphere. A planetary nebula is the final stage of a Sun-like star. As such, planetary nebulas allow us a glimpse into the future of our own solar system. A star like our Sun will, at the end of its life, transform into a red giant. Stars are sustained by the nuclear fusion that occurs in their core, which creates energy. The nuclear fusion processes constantly try to rip the star apart. Only the gravity of the star prevents this from happening. At the end of the…

Sixteen years ago, NASA launched its Spitzer Space Telescope into orbit around the Sun. Since the observatory launched on Aug. 25, 2003, it has been lifting the veil on the wonders of the cosmos, from our own solar system to faraway galaxies, using infrared light. Spitzer’s primary mission lasted five-and-a-half years and ended when it ran out of the liquid helium coolant necessary to operate two of its three instruments. But its passive-cooling design has allowed part of its third instrument to continue operating for more than 10 additional years. The mission is scheduled to end on Jan. 30, 2020. This Spitzer image shows the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi and the bow shock, or shock wave, in front of it. Visible only in infrared light,…

NASA completed a milestone in preparation for Green Run testing of its Space Launch System (SLS) core stage with an August 23-24, 2019, lift and installation of the core stage pathfinder simulator onto the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center. For this test of the new core stage, the team at Stennis will lift the flight core stage for Artemis 1, the first SLS mission into the stand. SLS and the new Orion spacecraft are the foundation for NASA’s Artemis Program, which will send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024. The team at Stennis modified the B-2 Test Stand at for the core stage Green Run testing, which involved lifting the core stage from its horizontal position on the…

West Point graduate, physician and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is pictured working outside the International Space Station during a six-hour and 32-minute spacewalk to install the orbiting lab’s second commercial crew vehicle docking port, the International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3). Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will dock at the adapters in the near future when bringing astronauts to the station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. On Wednesday, Aug. 21, Morgan and fellow astronaut Nick Hague installed the IDA-3 to Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 on the space-facing side of the station’s Harmony module. Image Credit: NASA 这张照片拍摄于美国宇航局宇航员、物理学家安德鲁·摩根在国际空间站外进行6小时32分钟的太空行走，以安装轨道实验室的第二个商用载人飞船对接端口——国际对接适配器3 (IDA-3)。波音公司的CST-100星际客机和SpaceX公司的乘员龙飞船将在不久的将来把宇航员送入空间站，作为NASA商业载人计划的一部分，它们将与适配器对接。 8月21日，星期三，摩根和他的宇航员同伴尼克·黑格在空间站和谐号舱面向太空的一侧安装了IDA-3到压力耦合适配器-3上。 图片来源:NASA

This atmospheric image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a dark, gloomy scene in the constellation of Gemini (the Twins). The subject of this image confused astronomers when it was first studied — rather than being classified as a single object, it was instead recorded as two objects, owing to its symmetrical lobed structure (known as NGC 2371 and NGC 2372, though sometimes referred to together as NGC 2371/2). These two lobes are visible to the lower left and upper right of the frame, and together form something known as a planetary nebula. Despite the name, such nebulas have nothing to do with planets; NGC 2371/2 formed when a Sun-like star reached the end of its life and blasted off its outer layers,…

A member of the audience takes a picture with their phone as Vice President Mike Pence is introduced during the sixth meeting of the National Space Council, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. Chaired by the Vice President, the council’s role is to advise the President regarding national space policy and strategy, and review the nation’s long-range goals for space activities. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky 2019年8月20日星期二，美国国家航空航天委员会第六次会议在弗吉尼亚州尚蒂利的史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆史蒂文F.乌德瓦尔-哈齐中心举行，会上介绍副总统迈克·彭斯时，一名观众用手机拍了一张照片。该委员会由副主席担任主席，其职责是就国家太空政策和战略向总统提供建议，并审查美国太空活动的长期目标。 图片来源:NASA/Joel Kowsky

A quick moving storm passes as teams from NASA and SpaceX practice procedures for medical emergency evacuation onboard the GO Searcher ship, Friday, August 15, 2019, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX will use the GO Searcher ship during the Demo-2 mission to recover NASA astronauts returning from the International Space Station in their Crew Dragon spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls 2019年8月15日，星期五，在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角海岸外的大西洋上，来自NASA和SpaceX的团队在“GO Searcher”号上像一场快速移动的风暴掠过一样练习紧急医疗疏散程序。SpaceX将在Demo-2任务中使用GO Searcher飞船来回收乘坐乘员龙号宇宙飞船从国际空间站返回的NASA宇航员。 影像来源：NASA/Bill Ingalls

Today is National Aviation Day and progress is ongoing in the next evolution of air mobility – all thanks to emerging 3D printing technology. This image of a full-scale model of Langley Aerodrome No. 8 is being constructed at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The LA-8 model will to contribute to the agency’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) initiative. “It’s definitely a new world with 3-D printing,” said engineering technician Sam James, pictured here. “It’s the future without a doubt.” About 80 percent of the model is built using 3D printers on center using nylon and polycarbonate, which allows engineers to change the wings, the fuselage and add other sections of the model such as propellers and computer hardware rapidly. Since 1939, August 19 has been celebrated…