Daybreak at Gale Crater

This computer-generated images depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater, beginning to catch morning light. Northward is to the left. Gale is the crater with a mound inside it near the center of the image. NASA selected Gale Crater as the landing site for Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory. The mission's rover will be placed on the ground in a northern portion of Gale crater in August 2012. Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 kilometers) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The intended landing site is at 4.5 degrees south latitude, 137.4 degrees east longitude. This view was created using three-dimensional information from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which flew on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The vertical dimension is not exaggerated. Color information is based on general Mars color characteristics. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Detects Metabolic Precursors in Meteorite Dust

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

NASA scientists have found organic compounds associated with cellular respiration in carbonaceous meteorites, and simulated space-like conditions in the laboratory to determine how the compounds could have formed in deep space billions of years ago.

Irene (Atlantic Ocean)

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite has been busy measuring rainfall within Hurricane Irene, and forecasts call for between 5 and 10 inches in the southeastern and central Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands as Irene moves toward them today

Tropical Depression 14W (Western North Pacific Ocean)

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

The fourteenth tropical depression of the Western North Pacific Ocean season has officially formed and NASA infrared satellite imagery has shown organization in the system through bands of thunderstorms.

Hurricane Irene

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

High above the Earth from aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Ron Garan snapped this image of Hurricane Irene as it passed over the Carribean on Aug. 22, 2011. The National Hurricane Center noted on Aug. 22 that Irene is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches across Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Southeastern Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands. Isolated maximum amounts of rainfall may reach up to 20 inches. Image Credit: NASA

NASA Hosts News Conference On Upcoming Mission To Moon

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT, on Thursday Aug. 25, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.

Viking 1 Examines Mars' Ophir Chasma

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

During its examination of Mars, the Viking 1 spacecraft returned images of Valles Marineris, a huge canyon system 5,000 km, or more than 3 miles, long, whose connected chasma or valleys may have formed from a combination of erosional collapse and structural activity. This synthetic oblique view shows Ophir Chasma, the northern most one of the connected valleys of Valles Marineris. For scale, the large impact crater in lower right corner is about 18.5 miles, or 30 km, wide. Ophir Chasma is a large west-northwest-trending trough about 62 miles, or 100 km, wide. The Chasma is bordered by high-walled cliffs, most likely faults, that show spur-and-gully morphology and smooth sections. The walls have been dissected by landslides forming reentrants. The volume of the landslide debris is more than 1,000 times greater than that from the May 18, 1980, debris avalanche from Mount St. Helens. The longitudinal grooves seen in the foreground are thought to be due to differential shear and lateral spreading at high velocities. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

Earth and Its Moon As Seen By Voyager 1

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

This image of the Earth and moon in a single frame, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, was recorded on Sept. 18, 1977, by Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles from Earth. The spacecraft launched on July 20, 1975. This photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Because the Earth is many times brighter than the moon, the moon was artificially brightened so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints. Image Credit: NASA

Tropical Depression 8 (Atlantic Ocean)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:00:00 -0500

The eighth tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season formed from the low pressure System 93L on August 19 at 8 a.m. EDT ...

Tropical Depression 8 strengthened into a tropical storm during the mid-day hours on August 19, and the GOES-13 satellite saw towering thunderstorms within the storm's center