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January’s Night Sky Notes: The Red Planet
Have you looked up at the night sky this season and noticed a bright object sporting a reddish hue to the left of Orion? This is none other than the planet Mars! January will be an excellent opportunity to spot this planet and some of its details with a medium-sized telescope. Be sure to catch these three events this month.
Astronomy Activation Ambassadors: A New Era
The NASA Science Activation Program’s Astronomy Activation Ambassadors (AAA) project aims to measurably enhance student Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) engagement via middle school, high school, and community college science teacher professional development. In 2024, AAA transitioned its focus to the development of an Astronomy Academy with varying levels of extent and intensity available […]
Sols 4402-4415: Rover Decks and Sequence Calls for the Holidays
Earth planning date: Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 Welcome to the 2024 holiday plan for Curiosity! This year we’re spanning 14 sols to last us through the Earth new year. And this is my fourth year operating Mastcam during the holidays (throwback to 2023 Marsmas!). I already knew to expect a long day, so I got […]
What’s Up: January 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA
Four Planets in One View! Each evening this month, enjoy a sweeping view of four bright planets at once. Also look for a close approach of Venus and Saturn, Mars occulted by the Moon, and meteors! Skywatching Highlights January 3 – Quadrantid meteor shower peaks: This is a moderate shower, usually delivering 20 to 30 […]
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun
Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour […]
Alison Olcott
Alison came to the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters as part of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). She leads the Exobiology Program, whose goal is to understand the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe and the Habitable Worlds Program, whose goal to use knowledge of the history of the Earth […]
Puzzle Page #8: WISPR
Today’s Puzzle Answer: WISPR WISPR, or the Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe, is one of four instrument suites aboard Parker Solar Probe, but it is the only imager. WISPR does not look directly at the Sun; instead, it was designed to capture expansive views of the solar wind. Its very wide field of view extends […]
Science Done by Volunteers Highlighted at December’s American Geophysical Union Meeting
More than 30,000 scientists gathered in Washington, D.C. during the second week of December – many to show off the work of NASA’s science volunteers! The American Geophysical Union held its annual meeting of professionals this month – the world’s largest gathering of Earth and Space Scientists. Here’s what they were talking about. Two dozen […]
Amendment 89: D.3 APRA Mandatory NOIs Due Date extended to January 6, 2025
D.3 Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program (APRA) solicits basic research proposals for investigations that are relevant to NASA’s programs in astronomy and astrophysics and includes research over the entire range of photons, gravitational waves, and particle astrophysics. Awards may be for up to four years’ duration (up to five years for Suborbital Investigations), but shorter-term […]
Puzzle Page #7: 10
Today’s Puzzle Answer: 10 We dropped the name “Parker” 10 times in that video — but there is only one Eugene Parker! As a young professor at the University of Chicago in the mid-1950s, Dr. Parker developed a mathematical theory that predicted the solar wind, the constant outflow of solar material from the Sun. Throughout […]