Our Newest Class Of Astronaut Candidates Graduated On March 5, 2024. This Means They’re Now Eligible

Hi, I'm a 20 year old Aeronautical Engineering student, I live in Mexico, and I'm interested in getting involved in some way with NASA, my question is, what's the best way of doing this?

“We saw to the edge of all there is—⁣⁣

So brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back.” 

-Tracy K. Smith, US Poet Laureate ⁣⁣

Some pictures are worth a thousand words and some a thousand thoughts. On Jan. 31, astronaut Christina Koch shared this emotional view and quote from the International Space Station. ⁣⁣Enjoy. 

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It was a dark and stormy flyby... ⁣⁣

Our @NASAJuno spacecraft's JunoCam captured images of the chaotic, stormy northern hemisphere of Jupiter during its 24th close pass of the giant planet on Dec. 26, 2019. Using data from the flyby, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this color-enhanced image. At the time, the spacecraft was about 14,600 miles (23,500 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter’s clouds, at a latitude of about 69 degrees north.⁣

Image Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS⁣

Image processing by Kevin M. Gill, © CC BY⁣

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Why We Study the Sun-Earth Connection – Explained Through Songs

We're launching a new mission to the International Space Station to continue measurements of the Sun's energy reaching Earth.

The Total and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1) will precisely measure the total amount of sunlight that falls on Earth and how that light is distributed among different wavelengths, including the ultraviolet, visible and infrared. This will give us a better understanding of Earth’s primary energy supply and help improve models simulating Earth’s climate.

1. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray.

The Sun is Earth's sunshine and it does more than make us happy; it gives us life. Our Sun's energy drives our planet's ocean currents, seasons, weather and climate. Changes in the Sun also alter our climate in at least two ways.

First, solar radiation has a direct effect where it heats regions of Earth, like our oceans, land, and atmosphere. Second, the solar radiation can cause indirect effects, such as when sunlight interacts with molecules in the upper atmosphere to produce ozone which can affect human health.  

Earth’s energy system is in a constant dance to maintain a balance between incoming energy from the Sun and outgoing energy from Earth to space, which scientists call Earth’s energy budget. If you have more energy absorbed by the Earth than leaving it, its temperature increases and vice versa. Because the Sun is Earth's fundamental energy source and only sunshine, we need a quantitative record of the Sun's solar energy output. TSIS-1 will provide the most accurate measurements ever made of sunlight as seen from above Earth’s atmosphere.

2. You're hot then you're cold…You're in then you're out. You're up then you're down.

The energy flow between the Earth and Sun's connection is not a constant thing. The Sun can be fickle, sometimes it puts out slightly more energy and some years less. Earth is no better. The Earth absorbs different amounts of the Sun's energy depending on many factors, such as the presence of clouds and tiny particles in the atmosphere called aerosols.  

What we do know is that the Sun's cycle is about 11 years rolling through periods of quiet to times of intense activity. When the Sun is super-intense it releases explosions of light and solar material. This time is a solar maximum.

When the Sun is in a quiet state this period is called the solar minimum.

Over the course of one solar cycle (one 11-year period), the Sun’s total emitted energy varies on average at about 0.1 percent. That may not sound like a lot, but the Sun emits a large amount of energy – 1,361 watts per square meter. Even fluctuations at just a tenth of a percent can affect Earth. That's why TSIS-1 is launching: to help scientists understand and anticipate how changes in the Sun will affect us on Earth.

3. You're so vain. You probably think this climate model is about you.

Scientists use computer models to interpret changes in the Sun’s energy input. If less solar energy is available, scientists can gauge how that affects Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, weather and seasons by using computer simulations. But the Sun is just one of many factors scientists use to model Earth’s climate. A lot of other factors come into play in addition to the energy from the Sun. Factors like greenhouse gases, clouds scattering light and small particles in the atmosphere called aerosols all can affect Earth’s climate so they all need to be included in climate models. So, while we need to measure the total amount of energy from the Sun, we also need to understand how these other factors alter the amount of energy reaching Earth's surface and affect our climate.

4. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me.

We receive the Sun's energy in many different wavelengths, including visible light (rainbows!) as well as light we can't see like infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. Each color or wavelength of light from the Sun affects Earth’s atmosphere differently.

For instance, ultraviolet light from the Sun can affect Earth's ozone. High in the atmosphere is a layer of protective ozone gas. Ozone is Earth’s natural sunscreen, absorbing the Sun’s most harmful ultraviolet radiation and protecting living things below. But ozone is vulnerable to certain gases made by humans that reach the upper atmosphere. Once there, they react in the presence of sunlight to destroy ozone molecules. Currently, several satellites from us and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) track the ozone in the upper atmosphere and the solar energy that drives the photochemistry that creates and destroys ozone. Our new instrument, TSIS-1, will join that fleet with even better accuracy.

TSIS-1 will see different types of ultraviolet (UV) light, including UV-B and UV-C. Each plays a different role in the ozone layer. UV-C rays are essential in creating ozone. UV-B rays and some naturally occurring chemicals regulate the abundance of ozone in the upper atmosphere. The amount of ozone is a balance between these natural production and loss processes.

TSIS-1 data of the Sun's UV energy will help improve computer models of the atmosphere that need accurate measurements of sunlight across the ultraviolet spectrum to model the ozone layer correctly. While UV light represents a tiny fraction of the total sunlight that reaches the top of Earth's atmosphere, it fluctuates from 3 to 10 percent, a change that, in turn causes small changes in the chemical composition and thermal structure of the upper atmosphere.

This is just one of the important applications of TSIS-1 measurements. TSIS-1 will measure how the Sun's energy is distributed over 1,000 different wavelengths.

5. Every move you make…every step you take, I'll be watching you.

TSIS-1 will continue our nearly 40 years of closely studying the total amount of energy the Sun sends to Earth from space. We've previously studied this 'total solar irradiance' with nine previous satellites, currently with Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, (SORCE).

NASA’s SORCE collected this data on the total amount of the Sun’s radiant energy throughout Sept. 2017. The satellite actually detected a dip in total irradiance – or the total amount of energy from the Sun- during the month’s intense solar activity.

But there's still very much we don't know about total solar irradiance. We do not know how it varies over longer timescales. Longer term observations are especially important because scientists have observed unusually quiet magnetic activity from the Sun for the past two decades with previous satellites. During the last prolonged solar minimum in 2008-2009, our Sun was the quietest it has ever been since we started observations in 1978. Scientists expect the Sun to enter a solar minimum within the next three years, and TSIS-1 will be primed to take measurements of the next minimum and see if this is part of a larger trend.

For all the latest Earth updates, follow us on Twitter @NASAEarth or Facebook. 

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The total solar eclipse is coming! Here’s your chance to ask an eclipse scientist your questions! Have questions about the upcoming total solar eclipse on August 21? Join our Tumblr Answer Time session on Thursday, August 17 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT/12:00 - 1:00 p.m. PDT. here on NASA’s Tumblr, where space physics researcher Alexa Halford will answer them. Make sure to ask your questions now by visiting: https://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!

See all the #AnswerTime questions here: https://nasa.tumblr.com/tagged/answertime

Alexa Halford is a space physics researcher at our Goddard Space Flight Center and Dartmouth College. She started researching waves in Earth's magnetosphere as an undergraduate at Augsburg College with Mark Engebretson using ground based magnetometers in the Arctic and Antarctic. She moved away from waves to focus on geomagnetic storms and substorms during her masters at the University of Colorado Boulder with Dan Baker but returned once more to waves with her PhD at University of Newcastle NSW Australia. Her PhD thesis was on Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) waves during the CRRES mission and their relationship to the plasmasphere and radiation belts.

She is member of the scientific team for a NASA-funded scientific balloon experiment project called BARREL (Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses) where she looks at the population of particles lost due to these interactions. She is now currently a contractor at NASA Goddard continuing work the BARREL and NASA Van Allen Probes satellite missions.

To get more information about the eclipse, visit: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

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Nichole Ayers

Nichole Ayers was born in San Diego but considers Colorado her home. A major in the U.S. Air Force, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman F-22 formation in combat in 2019. https://go.nasa.gov/3IqAyzw

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Questions coming up from….

@teamadamsperret: Congrats on your PhD!! When people ask what you do, what's your reply?

@Anonymous: How does it feel, working in NASA?

@moonlighy: How did you find your love for this job?

@redbullanddepression: what the prettiest star in the sky in your opinion? also, you are a great role model as a queer woman who is attending university next year to major in aerospace engineering!!!

Four Things ECOSTRESS Can See From Space

Our new instrument in space, the Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), is designed to study how plants respond to heat and water stress by measuring the temperature of Earth's vegetation, but that’s not all it will do. Adding ECOSTRESS to the Space Station will also add to our understanding of volcanoes, fires, urban heat and coastal and inland waters.

1. Fires

ECOSTRESS's radiometer can detect all kinds of fires, but it may be most useful in recording small fires – new wildfires that are just beginning to grow. These have proven hard to study from satellite observations. ECOSTRESS has a pixel size of only 130 by 230 feet (40 by 70 meters), offering a much sharper view. "We'll be able to see a bonfire on a beach," ECOSTRESS scientist Simon Hook says.

Credit: USGS

2. Volcanoes

ECOSTRESS's thermal infrared imager will be able to spot new fissures and hotspots that can signal impending volcanic eruptions.

The Chiliques volcano in Chile was thought to be dormant until thermal images revealed new activity. Credit: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

3. Urban Heat

The heat generated by a large city can compound the health hazards of heat waves, particularly for the oldest and youngest city dwellers. Which neighborhoods suffer from heat the most? With the very detailed images from ECOSTRESS, we'll be able to see which mitigation efforts are keeping neighborhoods cool.

Urban areas can be up to 8 degrees warmer than surrounding suburban or natural landscapes, as seen here in a true-color image of the Atlanta area, top, and temperature data, bottom. Credit: NASA

4. Coastal and Inland Waters

Along coastlines and in large lakes, wind can push surface water aside allowing water from the depths to rise to the surface, bringing nutrients. These upwellings of cold water are important sources of nutrition for the coastal and lake plants and animals. ECOSTRESS can detect these smaller upwellings, providing valuable information for researchers.

Upwelling can be seen in satellite data. Here temperature data (top) and chlorophyll concentrations (bottom) are shown around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. Credit: MODIS Ocean Color Team/Norman Kuring

Read more about the ECOSTRESS mission at https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/. Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

It’s kick-off time! Pilot Dean “Gucci” Neeley is reporting for duty with answers to your questions in today’s Tumblr Answer Time!

The Invisible Network: A New NASA Podcast

We sit on the precipice of a golden age of space exploration — a renaissance of space science and technology. Every day, our missions send millions of bits of data to Earth, unraveling long-held mysteries about the universe, our solar system and even our own planet. But what makes it all possible?

Today we debut a new, limited edition podcast called “The Invisible Network.” It brings you a side of NASA you may have never seen or heard of before — oft overlooked technologies crucial to spaceflight and humanity’s ambitions among the stars.

Communications is the vital link between Earth and space. A collection of far-flung ground stations enabled the Apollo missions: our first steps on the Moon; the Voyager missions: our first brushes with interstellar space; and supported the earliest space and Earth science missions, expanding our knowledge of the stars and of ourselves.

Today, our communications networks are vastly different than those that supported Apollo. Tomorrow’s networks will be even more advanced.

“The Invisible Network” explores technological innovations guiding us into the future. These seemingly un-sexy feats of engineering will allow us to return to the Moon, journey to Mars and venture ever-further into the unknown.

Artist’s rendering of the upcoming Orion missions.

Our podcast’s title, "The Invisible Network," comes from author and former NASA engineer Sunny Tsiao’s book, “Read You Loud and Clear,” published in 2008. Tsiao notes that our communications and tracking programs are often described as “invisible.” Infrastructures, he writes, are seldom recognized, except when they fall short.

If our networks are invisible, perhaps it’s because they work so well.

We hope you’ll join us on our journey into The Invisible Network. Subscribe to the show and share us with a friend. For more information visit nasa.gov/invisible or nasa.gov/scan.

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