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Ahh, scientists. Impatient, but the best

Fifty years ago, a bunch of impatient scientists didn’t want to wait all day for a computer to compute the very first digital photo of Mars, so they colored the printout with pastels and made the print themselves.

Jupiter’s south pole, taken by Cassini

Life on Mars…Maybe

A sample pulled from Mars just last month has been thoroughly examined by the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, and earlier today scientists declared that they have finally found solid evidence that Mars could have once sustained life.

From mission lead scientist John Grotzinger of Caltech:

“We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and is so supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it.“

Read more via Science Now.

Photos: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/MSSS

Back-to-Back Friday Spacewalks

On Friday, Jan. 6 and Friday, Jan. 13, astronauts on the International Space Station will step outside to perform spacewalks. 

What’s a spacewalk? It’s any time an astronaut gets out of a vehicle or spacecraft while in space. It can also be called an EVA (extravehicular activity).

Astronauts go on spacewalks for many reasons. These activities allow crew members to work outside their spacecraft (in this case the space station).

So what specific tasks will astronauts perform in these two upcoming spacewalks? Let’s take a look…

Both spacewalks are being performed to upgrade the orbital outpost’s power system. 

The crew members will install adapter plates and hook up electrical connections for six new lithium-ion batteries that were delivered to the station in December.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson will perform the first spacewalk on Jan. 6. The work will continue Jan. 13 during the second spacewalk, which will be conducted by Kimbrough and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Prior to each spacewalk, the new batteries will be robotically extracted from a pallet to replace 12 older nickel-hydrogen batteries through a series of robotic operations.  

Watch LIVE Spacewalk Coverage

Friday, Jan. 6 Coverage begins at 5:30 a.m. EST, with astronauts venturing outside at 7 a.m. Watch HERE

Friday, Jan. 13 Coverage begins at 5:30 a.m. EST, with astronauts venturing outside at 7 a.m. Watch HERE

Watch for more…

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NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula : These cosmic clouds have blossomed 1,300 light-years away, in the fertile starfields of the constellation Cepheus. Called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula to evoke the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic image shows off the Iris Nebulas range of colors and symmetries, embedded in surrounding fields of interstellar dust. Within the Iris itself, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the reflection nebula glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the stars invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula contains complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The pretty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span about six light-years. The colorful field-of-view stretches almost five Full Moons across the sky. via NASA

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