NASA - Breaking News
That Starry Night Sky? It’s Full of Eclipses
5 min read
That Starry Night Sky? It’s Full of Eclipses An artist’s concept shows the TRAPPIST-1 planets as they might be seen from Earth using an extremely powerful – and fictional – telescope. NASA/JPL-CaltechOur star, the Sun, on occasion joins forces with the Moon to offer us Earthlings a spectacular solar eclipse – like the one that will be visible to parts of the United States, Mexico, and Canada on April 8.
But out there, among the other stars, how often can we see similar eclipses? The answer depends on your point of view. Literally.
On Earth, a total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the Sun’s disk as seen from part of Earth’s surface. In this case, the “path of totality” will be a strip cutting across the country, from Texas to Maine.
We also can see “eclipses” involving Mercury and Venus, the two planets in our solar system that orbit the Sun more closely than Earth, as they pass between our telescopes and the Sun (though only by using telescopes with protective filters to avoid eye damage). In these rare events, the planets are tiny dots crossing the Sun’s much larger disk.
A composite of images of the Venus transit taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 5, 2012. The image shows a timelapse of Venus’ path across the Sun. NASA/Goddard/SDOAnd astronomers can, in a sense, “see” eclipses among other systems of planets orbiting their parent stars. In this case, the eclipse is a tiny drop in starlight as a planet, from our point of view, crosses the face of its star. That crossing, called a transit, can register on sensitive light sensors attached to telescopes on Earth and those in space, such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, or TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). It’s how the bulk of the more than 5,500 confirmed exoplanets – planets around other stars – have been detected so far, although other methods also are used to detect exoplanets.
“A solar eclipse is a huge transit,” said Allison Youngblood, the deputy project scientist for TESS at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
And both types of “transits” – whether they involve solar eclipses or exoplanets – can yield world-changing science. Solar eclipse observations in 1919 helped prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity, when the bending of a star’s light by the Sun’s gravity caused the star’s apparent position to shift – showing that gravity causes space and time to curve around it.
Exoplanet transits also provide far more than just detections of distant planets, Youngblood said.
“The planet passes in front of the star, and blocks a certain amount of the star’s light,” she said. “The dip [in starlight] tells us about the size of the planet. It gives us a measurement of the radius of the planet.”
Careful measurements of multiple transits also can reveal how long a year is on an exoplanet, and provide insights into its formation and history. Careful measurements of multiple transits also can provide insights into exoplanet formation and history.
And the starlight shining through the exoplanet’s atmosphere during its transit, if measured using an instrument called a spectrograph, can reveal deeper characteristics of the planet itself. The light is split into a rainbow-like spectrum, and slices missing from the spectrum can indicate gases in the planet’s atmosphere that absorbed that “color” – or wavelength.
“Measuring the planet at many wavelengths tells us what chemicals and what molecules are in that planet’s atmosphere,” Youngblood said.
Eclipses are such a handy way to capture information about distant worlds that scientists have learned how to create their own. Instead of waiting for eclipses to occur in nature, they can engineer them right inside their telescopes. Instruments called coronagraphs, first used on Earth to study the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona), are now carried aboard several space telescopes. And when NASA’s next flagship space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launches by May 2027, it will demonstrate new coronagraph technologies that have never been flown in space before. Coronagraphs use a system of masks and filters to block the light from a central star, revealing the far fainter light of planets in orbit around it.
Of course, that isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Whether searching for transits, or for direct images of exoplanets using a coronagraph, astronomers must contend with the overwhelming light from stars – an immense technological challenge.
“An Earth-like transit in front of stars is equivalent to a mosquito walking in front of a headlight,” said David Ciardi, chief scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech. “That’s how little light is blocked.”
We don’t have this problem when viewing solar eclipses – “our very first coronagraphs,” Ciardi says. By pure happenstance, the Moon covers the Sun completely during an eclipse.
“A solar eclipse is like a human walking in front of a headlight,” he said.
We would have no such luck on other planets in our solar system.
Mars’ oddly shaped moons are too small to fully block the Sun during their transits; and while eclipses might be spectacular among the outer planets – for instance, Jupiter and its many moons – they wouldn’t match the total coverage of a solar eclipse.
We happen to be living at a fortunate time for eclipse viewing. Billions of years ago, the Moon was far closer to Earth, and would have appeared to dwarf the Sun during an eclipse. And in about 700 million years, the Moon will be so much farther away that it will no longer be able to make total solar eclipses.
“A solar eclipse is the pinnacle of being lucky,” Tripathi said. “The Moon’s size and distance allow it to completely block out the Sun’s light. We’re at this perfect time and place in the universe to be able to witness such a perfect phenomenon.”
A Long Year for a Cold Saturn
Share Details Last Updated Apr 02, 2024 Related Terms Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Exoplanets
Universe
Planet Hunters TESS
Solar System
Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Solar Corona Before Eclipse
4 min read
Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Solar Corona Before EclipseOur Sun, like many stars, is adorned with a crown. It’s called a corona (Latin for “crown” or “wreath”) and consists of long, thread-like strands of plasma billowing out from the Sun’s surface. The powerful magnetic field of the Sun defines these strands, causing them to ripple and evolve their structures constantly. The strands are faint, however, so the only way to observe the corona with the naked eye is during a total solar eclipse.
In anticipation of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, scientists at Predictive Science are using data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to predict what our Sun’s crown may look like on that day. What’s more, their model uses the computational efforts of NASA’s Pleiades Supercomputer to update its predictions in near real-time. This means that the model continuously updates its predictions as it ingests data beamed down from SDO, providing information as close to real-time as possible.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
supports HTML5 video
The solar corona is our star’s outer atmosphere. It “extends out into interplanetary space as the solar wind,” said Predictive Science president Jon Linker. Driven by heat and magnetic turbulence in the Sun, this wind blows out to the edges of the solar system. “It envelopes the planets,” Linker said, “including Earth.”
As Earth and other planets bathe in coronal outflow, their atmospheres react to the energetic particles and magnetic fields found within the solar wind. This reaction, called space weather, can range from mild to severe, just like terrestrial weather. Extreme space weather events, such as large solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections, can disrupt important communications technology, affect astronauts in orbit, or even harm the electric grids we all rely on.
Modern society depends on a variety of technologies that are susceptible to the extremes of space weather. This graphic shows some of the technology and infrastructure affected by space weather events. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterSpace weather is one of the most tangible effects of the Sun’s dynamic exterior, and creating accurate forecasts is something scientists are striving toward. According to Linker, refining these solar models helps build the foundation for forecasting. “If you’re going to predict the path of a coronal mass ejection, just like for a hurricane, to have this more accurate background is really important,” he said.
SDO and other solar observatories provide detailed insights about the corona, but scientists are still missing some vital information about the forces that drive its activity, which is needed to predict the corona’s appearance with precision. “We don’t have a way of measuring the magnetic field accurately in the corona,” said Emily Mason, a research scientist at Predictive Science. “That’s one of the things that makes this so challenging.”
To build their model, researchers at Predictive Science use measurements of the Sun’s changing magnetic field at the solar surface to drive their model in near real-time. A key to this innovation was creating an automated process that converts raw data from SDO to show how magnetic flux and energy are injected into the corona over time. Adding this dynamic into the model allows the corona to evolve over time, leading to solar eruptions. “We developed a software pipeline that took in the magnetic field maps, picked out all of the areas that should be energized, and then fine-tuned the amount of energy to add to those areas,” Mason said. Building this automatic pipeline was a huge step forward for the team. In past predictions, the model used a static snapshot of the surface magnetic field – not ideal for keeping up with the ever-changing Sun, especially during our current heightened period of solar activity. Similarly, in iterations from 2017 and 2021, Mason explained that a teammate used to “literally hand-draw which areas on the Sun needed to be energized” by analyzing extreme ultraviolet activity in certain regions. Continuously updating the magnetic field is central to all of the changes with this year’s model, and the team has high hopes for the results.
Image Before/AfterThe recurrence of total solar eclipses provides opportunities to test the accuracy of their models against real-life conditions and update them accordingly. “We’ve used the eclipse predictions every time to do something new with the model,” said Cooper Downs, a research scientist at Predictive Science who orchestrated the automated modeling pipeline. “I’m really excited to see over the next two weeks how this prediction keeps improving. I think it will be a really drastic difference from what we used to be able to do.”
Mason shares his enthusiasm. “The eclipse is just such a fantastic chance to go, ‘Look at this! This is what we think it’s gonna look like! Don’t you want to learn more about this?” she said with a grin. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for us to share the things that excite us all year round with everybody else.”
By Rachel Lense
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Article
1 hour ago
2 min read Solar Eclipse Resources
A spectacular eclipse will sweep across North America on April 8, 2024! Enjoy these free…
Article
23 hours ago
4 min read New ‘Eclipse Watch’ Tool Shows Eclipses from Space Any Time
Article
1 day ago
Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA Sets Coverage for Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Crewmates Return
Three crew members are scheduled to begin their return to Earth on Friday, April 5, from the International Space Station. NASA will provide live coverage of their departure from the orbital complex and landing.
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus will depart from the station’s Rassvet module in the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 11:55 p.m. EDT April 5, and will head for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, at 3:18 a.m. Saturday, April 6 (12:18 p.m. Kazakhstan time).
Coverage will begin at 8 p.m. on April 5 with farewells and the Soyuz hatch closure on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
O’Hara is completing a mission spanning 204 days in space that covered 3,264 orbits of the Earth and 86.5 million miles. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to the station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on March 23. Dyson will remain aboard the station for a six-month research mission.
After landing, the three crew members will fly on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O’Hara then will depart back to Houston.
Friday, April 5
8 p.m.: NASA coverage of farewells and hatch closure of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft begins
11:30 p.m.: NASA coverage for undocking continues
11:55 p.m.: Undocking
Saturday, April 6
2 a.m.: NASA coverage of deorbit burn and landing begins.
2:24 a.m.: Deorbit burn
3:18 a.m.: Landing
NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
-end-
Julian Coltre / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2024
5 min read
NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2024 The class of 2024 NHFP Fellows are shown in this photo montage (top to bottom, left to right): The Hubble Fellows (seen in the red hexagons) are: Michael Calzadilla, Sanskriti Das, Yue Hu, Wynn Jacobson-Galan, Madeleine McKenzie, Jed McKinney, Andrew Saydjari, Peter Senchyna, Raphael Skalidis, and Adam Smercina. The Einstein Fellows (seen in the blue hexagons) are: Vishal Baibhav, Jordy Davelaar, Alexander Dittmann, Cristhian Garcia Quintero, Amelia (Lia) Hankla, and Keefe Mitman. The Sagan Fellows (seen in green hexagons) are: Jaren Ashcraft, Kiersten Boley, Cheng Han Hsieh, Rafael Luque, Sarah Moran, Shangjia Zhang, Lily Zhao, and Sebastian Zieba. NASA, Catherine Cranmer (CXC)The highly competitive NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) recently named 24 new fellows to its 2024 roster. The program fosters excellence and inclusive leadership in astrophysics by supporting a diverse group of exceptionally promising and innovative early-career astrophysicists.
The NHFP enables outstanding postdoctoral scientists to pursue independent research in any area of NASA Astrophysics, using theory, observations, simulations, experimentation, or instrument development. Over 520 applicants vied for the 2024 fellowships. Each fellowship provides the awardee up to three years of support at a U.S. institution.
Once selected, fellows are named to one of three sub-categories corresponding to three broad scientific questions that NASA seeks to answer about the universe:
- How does the universe work? – Einstein Fellows
- How did we get here? – Hubble Fellows
- Are we alone? – Sagan Fellows
“The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program is a highly competitive program, and this year’s cadre of Fellows are to be congratulated on their selection,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “They will undoubtably be future leaders in the field of Astronomy and Astrophysics.”
The list below provides the names of the 2024 awardees, their fellowship host institutions, and their proposed research topics.
2024 NASA Hubble Fellowship Program:How does the universe work? – Einstein Fellows:
- Vishal Baibhav, Columbia University, Dancing with Black Holes: Harnessing gravitational waves to understand the formation of black holes
- Jordy Davelaar, Princeton University, Unraveling the physics of accreting black hole binaries
- Alexander Dittmann, Institute for Advanced Study, Bridging the Gap in Supermassive Black Hole Binary Accretion – From Simulation to Observation
- Cristhian Garcia Quintero, Harvard University, Phenomenological modified gravity in the non-linear regime and improving BAO measurements with Stage-IV surveys
- Amelia (Lia) Hankla, University of Maryland, College Park, Explaining Radio to X-ray Observations of Luminous Black Holes with a Multizone Outflowing Corona Model
- Keefe Mitman, Cornell University, Decoding General Relativity with Next-Generation Numerical Relativity Waveforms
How did we get here? – Hubble Fellows:
- Michael Calzadilla, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, A Multiwavelength View of the Evolving Baryon Cycle in Galaxy Clusters
- Sanskriti Das, Stanford University, Where the energetic universe meets the hot universe
- Yue Hu, Institute for Advanced Study, The Role of Magnetic Field in Galaxy Cluster’s Diffuse Structure Formation
- Wynn Jacobson-Galan, California Institute of Technology, Final Moments: Uncovering the Rate of Enhanced Red Supergiant Mass-loss in the Local Volume
- Madeleine McKenzie, Carnegie Observatories, Uncovering the unknown origins of globular clusters
- Jed McKinney, University of Texas, Austin, The Role of Dust in Shaping the Evolution of Galaxies
- Andrew Saydjari, Princeton University, Inferring Kinematic and Chemical Maps of Galactic Dust
- Peter Senchyna, Carnegie Observatories, Bridging the Gap: Bringing the First Galaxies into Focus with Local Laboratories
- Raphael Skalidis, California Institute of Technology, Magnetic fields in the multiphase interstellar medium
- Adam Smercina, Space Telescope Science Institute, A Portrait of the Triangulum: Advancing a New Frontier of Galaxy Evolution with Resolved Stars
Are we alone? – Sagan Fellows:
- Jaren Ashcraft, University of California, Santa Barbara, Optimizing the Vector Field for Next-generation Astrophysics
- Kiersten Boley, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory, Identifying the Key Materials for Planet Formation and Evolution
- Cheng Han Hsieh, University of Texas, Austin, A Deep Dive into the Early Evolution of Protoplanetary Disk Substructures and the Onset of Planet and Star Formation
- Rafael Luque, University of Chicago, Understanding the origin and nature of sub-Neptunes
- Sarah Moran, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, From Stars to Storms: Planetary Cloud Seeding with Sulfur-based Hazes
- Shangjia Zhang, Columbia University, Probing Young Planet Populations with 3D Self-Consistent Disk Thermodynamics
- Lily Zhao, University of Chicago, Enabling Radial Velocity Detection of Earth-Twins Through Data-Driven Algorithms and Community Collaboration
- Sebastian Zieba, Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory, Characterization of rocky exoplanet surfaces and atmospheres in the JWST era
An important part of the NHFP is the annual Symposium, which allows Fellows the opportunity to present results of their research, and to meet each other and the scientific and administrative staff who manage the program. The 2023 Symposium was held at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Science topics ranged through exoplanets, gravitational waves, fast radio bursts, cosmology and more. Non-science sessions included discussions about career paths, fellows’ plans for mentoring and to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the NHFP, as well as an open mic highlighting an array of talents outside of astrophysics.
The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland administers the NHFP on behalf of NASA, in collaboration with the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California.
Short bios and photos of the 2024 NHFP Fellows can be found at:
https://www.stsci.edu/stsci-research/fellowships/nasa-hubble-fellowship-program/2024-nhfp-fellows
Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Cheryl Gundy
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
NASA Fellowships
NASA Fellowship Activity Each year, the NASA Fellowship Activity awards training grants to Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) using Minority University Research…
History Office Fellowships
In conjunction with three major professional societies, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), History of Science Society (HSS)…
2024 Total Eclipse
NASA Engineer Chris Lupo Receives 2024 Federal Engineer Award
The National Society of Professional Engineers named Chris Lupo, deputy chief engineer of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, as the agency’s 2024 Federal Engineer of the Year. Sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers in Government, the award recognizes engineers employed in the federal government.
Lupo was recognized during an award ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington on Feb. 23, alongside recipients from the National Park Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Air Force, and others.
“It was an incredibly nice surprise to be selected for this award,” said Lupo. “I feel like I’m representing the team in accepting this award, which I believe is an acknowledgment that our NASA team has been successful kickstarting the commercial space industry for human spaceflight.”
Working alongside NASA’s commercial partners, Boeing and SpaceX, Lupo contributed to the design and development of both companies’ human-rated spaceflight systems, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Leading a team of over 100 engineers comprising nearly 20 engineering disciplines, Lupo spent the past decade working to ensure the spacecraft are safe, reliable, and a cost-effective means of transportation for astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
“I am very proud of the program’s engineering team and in particular Lupo’s leadership as deputy chief engineer. The team thoroughly reviews the analysis, testing, and previous flights data for every single mission that our commercial partners are executing to fly safely,” said Steve Stich, who manages the program.
Lupo joined the program spacecraft chief engineer, contributing to the effort to return human spaceflight capability to the United States following a retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. Beginning with the launch of SpaceX Demo-2 in 2020 – the first crewed spaceflight from American soil since the space shuttle – the program has launched nine crewed missions to the orbiting laboratory, most recently NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, which launched from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 4, 2024.
Lupo’s work with the Starliner spacecraft hits an important milestone this year with its first crewed flight test to the space station, after two previous uncrewed test flights.
“Returning the capability to launch astronauts from the U.S. again, that’s probably what I’m most proud of,” said Lupo. “I think all of us in the program are very proud of that. We’re doing a service for the nation, and I think it’s very important to get this industry established so that NASA can focus on human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit.”
Solar Eclipse Resources
Kent Blackwell, Back Bay Amateur Astronomers
From the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Get ready for the Moon to pass in front of the Sun, casting its shadow across all of North America. A spectacular total eclipse will sweep across North America on April 8, 2024!
The Night Sky Network and Astronomical Society of the Pacific are creating and curating information for amateur astronomers and other informal educators. See some of our Night Sky Network and community eclipse resources here:
- Most of the US will be graced with a partial eclipse. This is a great reason to get your community together. Plan your event with this simple Partial Eclipse Party Planner.
- Preparing for an Eclipse Public Presentation from our partners at NISE about viewing the eclipses, including what to expect if you are not on the central paths – edit to make it your own!
- The 2024 NASA Eclipse Resources include a Safe Solar Viewing Guide, Posters, and more!
- Andrew Fraknoi and a group of astronomy educators have created a collection of eclipse resources in preparation for the upcoming solar eclipses, including 32 educational activities.
- Find lists of safe solar viewers and filters from our partners at the American Astronomical Society.
- Enjoy this activity Eclipses Around the World to respectfully share ways of knowing eclipses from many cultures
- This video invites everyone to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hear about the eclipse in Spanish, Urdu, Mandarin, Arabic, and more at bit.ly/EclipseAmbassadorsYouTube
Clouded out? That’s okay – tune in to NASA’s official broadcast for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.
See the activities and resources below for more great eclipse ideas!
- Yardstick Eclipse Activity to model eclipses
- Handouts for the eclipse – eye safety and observing from AAS
- View a Solar Eclipse – DIY Pinhole Projector – Exploratorium
- Resources for Teachers, Administrators, and Families
- NASA’s official Eclipse site – science, safety, and events
- Safety Tips for Solar Eclipse Viewing from the AAS
- Projection Techniques for Safely Observing the Sun – AAS
- More Safety and Viewing Tips from EarthSky
- Collection of Educational Eclipse Resources
- Celebrate our Marvelous Moon
Interview with Alex Borlaff
OK, we generally start with your early years, your childhood, where you’re from, and a little bit about your family at the time. Where you grew up, I think it was in Spain? Do you have siblings, what did your parents do, that sort of thing. And how early was it in your life that you developed an interest in astrophysics or the career that you’re pursuing? What got you interested in that?
Well, I was born in Spain. I grew up and lived in Spain until three years ago when I moved here. I studied in a small town in Madrid, very close to Madrid. I grew up in a family with my mom, who was a nurse at an elderly care center, and my father, who was a firefighter. They are both now retired, but before my father was a firefighter. he was a mechanic. In my family there was a very good interest in both medical science and technology to try to understand why things happen. I remember that my father used to, before going to work, set up the TV for me to watch “Beakman’s World”. I think it was a 1980’s or 90’s show about scientists who would explain things to kids. I remember that very vividly. And very early, I started to gain an interest in how things worked and why nature looks like it looks, but I never really had a precise idea of what I wanted to do until very late, say university. When I applied to university, I was hesitating between doing engineering or astrophysics or physics in general, I had no idea. I always wanted to become a pilot, too. I started to think “I want to be an astronaut!” But at some point I said, “OK, this may be very difficult and what happens if you fail? What happens if you never become an astronaut, for example? You must find something that you really like and is worth doing even if you don’t make it.” So I chose physics because it’s a nice way to understand the whole universe, beyond just engineering. But I never lost track of engineering really. I’ve always been in a mixed world.
Do you have siblings?
Yes, yes. My older brother, Saul, is a firefighter too. He chose to follow my father’s trade. He’s very similar to me. I mean, when we are together, we are always trying to repair something, or building an antenna, or going on a hike or something like that. We are very similar.
The last person we talked to, who was also born in Spain and went to school there, told us that in Spain the education is not like here in America, where you can almost go all through college and not actually know what you want to do. But in Spain you must declare earlier, like at the high school level, and pursue engineering or pursue music or science or something, and you get locked in at that point.
Yeah. In Spain we start choosing fields as early as 14 – 16 years old.
I’ve looked at your list of publications and you have an extensive resume of work, so I’m surprised that you only got interested in this recently.
I’ve been very lucky. I have had very bright and supportive supervisors and colleagues all this time who taught and guided me.
Where did you go for your undergraduate and your graduate work?
I did my undergraduate degree and my masters in Madrid. I was still living with my parents there. In Spain we leave the nest pretty late (laughs). I started there in physics in the Complutense University of Madrid, which is the largest public university in Spain, and it was really hard. I had a hard time in the first two years because, to be honest, I’ve never been very good at math.
That would be a problem.
We are doing this in a NASA interview, but I have to say that I had to ask for help from my friends to keep up. In more practical fields, like the subjects that were related to the laboratory or the telescope, I think I was really good. But in the more theoretical subjects I always had trouble. But that was in the first year of university. When we started switching to more astrophysics and more practical things, it went more smoothly.
So, because you were in astrophysics, that was why you decided to continue and pursue a PhD, which is somewhat of a basic requirement in that kind of a field?
Yeah, many of my friends were well focused: you do a degree, then a master’s and a PhD, then you do a post doc, maybe another post doc, and then you are a professor, or something. I never had that path decided. I mean I followed in some way that career, but I think I’ve never been so focused as when I did my master’s and one of my friends said “Hey, are you thinking of doing a PhD in this place? And I was like “OK, maybe that would be interesting, to follow the continual theme.” But I wasn’t sure that I wanted to become a professor. I just thought it would be interesting to do a PhD and then start work at ESA or NASA.
And the place where you got your PhD, the university, was in the Canary Islands, I believe?
Yes, It’s an amazing place, very beautiful.
I don’t know how you could study there. That’s a place people go for vacation!
Oh, yeah! Well, that is true.
A very exotic place, I would think. OK. And then what? Did you get your post doc at Ames because you saw the opportunity posted and applied for it? Or did you know somebody? Was there a connection of some kind that got you to Ames?
Not really, no. But it was a very critical moment in my life because I had just finished the PhD and it was very intense at the end, so I decided to take some months off, and I started working on a personal project which was building a house. It was in Spain, my grandma’s house. It had been abandoned for many years, so my now wife and I decided to repair it and at the same time I was applying to jobs, trying to find a position. It took six or seven months, and I wasn’t really sure exactly where to go. And then I remembered: “OK, first do the harder thing”, so I applied to NASA, ESA, and CNES. I tried to apply to the hardest things that I would probably not get. I just started sending emails to NASA, and one of the people who answered was Pamela Marcum, my supervisor here. She was very nice and we started working on a project together, to submit. And I think it was February 2019, when we submitted. Then I forgot about it and said “OK, they are never going to answer.” And it was probably in June 2019 that she sent me an email, and said: “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but they are going to offer you a position at NASA”. And I was like, “Wow”!
Wow, indeed!
It was a very scary moment because I had no, absolutely no, experience on how the immigration process for USA and NASA worked, in terms of “When should I be there?” “Can I bring my wife?” “Can she move with me, or do I have to move alone?” But after a couple of days of very scary questions, we were very happy to know we were moving to the United States!
So up until then, you hadn’t really had a reason to master English as a second language?
Well, my PhD and all my publications were in English, so it was necessary for me to learn it, although it is hard to master it from a non-English speaking country.
I saw in one of your bio’s, probably in your resume, where it described your language skills and showed English 100%, Spanish 100%, and even some Russian and some French. I’m always interested in people who are going to somewhere where they don’t speak the language. Or maybe you did at the time, I don’t know, or had but a modicum of English training, especially to an educational setting where it’s important to be able to communicate and understand.
I think that was the moment when I really started to feel more or less comfortable with English. But I must also say that my supervisor was British.
OK, that would help.
He had been living in Spain for 30 years, John Beckman, and he didn’t want to speak in English with Spanish people because to be honest, he speaks Spanish way better than we speak English. He was a lot of help in many ways but not so much for the English. However, moving to the United States teaches you not just the language but the way to express things, the way to make people comfortable with what you say. I think that in this we are way more direct, in some sense, but in another sense, I feel like the Americans don’t want to ‘put flowers’ in questions”, they just want to answer the question, which is something that I really like. So, I was very comfortable very early, although there are many layers of language to be learned.
Wonderful! That’s a great story and pretty direct as far as getting to Ames. Some of the people we interview, their road to Ames is all over the place and just sort of happened, while yours was straight on, right out of your PhD practically, so that’s great.
To be honest, I spent a few months in the European Space Agency as a visitor, but that happened after I applied to NASA, so it was just hanging there.
Good for you! So, you got your PhD, you’ve done your post doc, or at least have been doing it. So now is perhaps a good time to talk about your work, your science, and why it’s important. Because all of NASA’s research and programs are funded by the taxpayers, they have to add value. Can you talk about your work and justify it as to why it should be important to the people who are paying for it?
When I started my PhD, we were studying galaxies, basically galaxy evolution. The main idea is that galaxies are the building blocks of the universe. You have planets which are rotating around stars, and stars form groups which are galaxies, but galaxies are the basic unit that builds the universe. You look for something that could make a universe, and it’s a galaxy. It contains all the ingredients to make the universe. And when we look at the picture of a galaxy in space, we always see a bright core and then a disk, maybe with some spiral arms and that’s the end, darkness. It’s just emptiness between galaxies. And this is not really true. Now, we know that galaxies are just like icebergs, in the sense that we only see the tip of them. And when we use more powerful telescopes, they start to grow and grow and grow and become bigger and bigger and bigger, without frontiers. So, space is filled with stars, on and on. That’s it.
The bigger the telescopes, the more you find, that’s absolutely true. And I’m glad you brought up the galaxies because one of the things we will ask you toward the end of this interview is if you have some pictures that represent the things you’ve talked about in your life, your work, or your family, we would like to include those. They’re always very interesting. And I found that picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy.
Oh, yes!
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. (nasa.gov/image)
It was labeled picture of the day from some organization, and it was absolutely beautiful. I hope that we can include that picture as part of your post when we get it ready to go.
I think that picture is very beautiful, I would say it has huge emotional value to me because when I landed here at Ames, one of the dream things I wanted to do when I just arrived was to work with the Stratospheric Observatory for Far Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), although I had no relevant experience. We don’t have that kind of facility in Spain. And then I saw a picture of another galaxy called NGC 1068, which is really beautiful.
Magnetic fields in NGC 1068, or M77, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy. (https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/shaping-spiral-galaxy/)
It was observed by SOFIA. And I sent an e-mail to one of the PI’s of the article, and said: “This is really beautiful. Can I work with you?” (laughs) And just like that he said. “Yeah. I’m in the SOFIA building, just come over and we’ll have a chat”. And two years later I was flying with him in SOFIA!
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter (106-inch) reflecting telescope (with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters or 100 inches). Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet puts SOFIA above 99 percent of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. SOFIA was made possible through a partnership between NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR.
(Image courtesy nasa.gov)
It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. And I know that it would have been impossible if I had never got that position at Ames. So, it’s something that I just can’t explain with words.
That’s a great story and it’s a great picture, one that immediately someone would look at and say “that is beautiful”. And besides being beautiful, what is it? As with science everything we see or discover prompts more questions. So, it’s very interesting. And regarding astronaut training: would you like to talk a little bit about your experience as an astronaut candidate, how that came about, and what it was like?
Sure. I always wanted to be an astronaut and I’m still into it. I remember when I had just started my degree there was the latest call from the European Space Agency for astronauts in 2008. I took notes of everything: how they looked, what expertise they had, and basically with that very limited amount of information you make your way to the next call. So last year they opened this call to the next class of European astronauts in 2022, and I applied. Another friend of mine applied too, and we were like, “OK, we will get ditched in the first cut, so don’t worry about it”. But I got an invitation to the next round. The first round was just sending in the CV and answering a couple questions, very, very general information. But the second round was very interesting: you get a trip to Germany. And there is the psychometrical testing.
Well, you’re a serious candidate when you get to that point.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, when we applied there were 22,000 people in the pool, and in the next round there were like 2,000. I don’t remember exactly the number, 1,000 or 2,000. So we were doing all these psychological tests and screens. We were in a very impressive room, full of other candidates and they looked very, very serious and were answering the questions at the same time, while maybe you were hesitating with some of them. It was very impressive. But something that really got to me is that other candidates were very, very nice. They were all kind. There was no competition at all. People were trying to help each other and keeping calm. They would say “Don’t worry about this. You’ll probably get the next test right”. So then I went home and I said, OK, this time I am absolutely out because I met some people who are absolutely amazing, far better than me. I mean, there were pilots, military, people working in deep cave mines, industry, even Antarctica, who were very, very smart. But I got an invitation to the next step, and these were more personal with rounds of psychological interviews, many, many hours with the psychologists. At this point we were 400 candidates left. I got interviewed by Thomas Pesquet, one of the European astronauts, who asked questions about how you would behave in personal situations, like risk situations, when your life may be threatened and at some point, you start thinking, “I’m just an astronomer. I don’t have many experiences like that.” I mean when I was in Canary Islands, for example, I learned how to dive so I got a few experiences of “your friend is running out of air underwater”, things like that and apparently that got me and other 100 candidates through to the next round, which was very interesting: it was a medical test. Basically, you spend a week in Germany and everything that you can imagine can be tested, will be tested. Everything!
Wow!
But it’s very, very nice because we were not alone, we were eight people from all over the place, living together for a week. We had a Finnish candidate, a German, a British, one of the selected astronauts was with me in that round, and we were getting along all together, it was kind of like “back to school” and we were on a trip. But at that point the selection is completely out of your control because there’s nothing that you can do to fix anything. For example, you may have something in your heart that is perfectly fine to live on Earth, but it’s not OK to fly to high altitudes, and there’s nothing you can do to fix that. At some point you relax, and say, “OK, I’ve done everything I can to be here, to be fit, to be ready”. So, you just had to relax. I was lucky, very lucky, to pass the medical test. I mean, at that point the ones who passed the medical test were like 50 people from the initial 22,000.
That’s amazing!
Yes, it is! And then there was yet another round of interviews (Phase 5) with the head of the astronaut team, and finally the last 25 of us did another interview with the ESA Director General, in Paris (Phase 6), when the last decision was made, so I went through all the process really until the last point.
Sounds like you did, and you could get down to #2, and if they’re only choosing one then you did absolutely everything right, better than everybody else except #1, and at that point it’s somewhat subjective because all of you in the 50 were extremely well qualified.
Absolutely.
And it might have just been the luck of the draw.
I had the opportunity to be there with the best. I think it’s something that makes you feel better because, I have met many of the selected astronauts and they’re all amazing. And when you met someone like that and become friends, you could say “OK, if they had selected me, they would not have selected him or her, and we were just the same.” So that’s how I think of it. I’ll just keep training for the next astronaut selection.
You probably made a lot of friends. Talk about networking! My goodness, you’ve got a network of people from around the world that you’ve gotten to learn and to know and be close to and are probably lifelong friends with some of them. So that is great. Well, I admire your ambition to do this and the effort and determination that you showed to go all the way to the end of the sequence, and it takes away nothing from you that they wind up selecting someone else. So, are you going to age out of this or are you going to take another shot at it?
Well, it takes some time to rebuild everything but at some point, you realize, “Hey, I am 32 years old. I’m working at NASA, I made it to the last round of an astronaut selection, so I’m physically fit, I passed the psychological test, so I think I have more reasons than ever to apply again. So if another opportunity appears, sure I will apply.
Well, you’re already an impressive success in your pursuits, in your career and in your work, so congratulations on that. You mentioned your wife. Would you like to say anything about your family? I don’t know if you have children, or you have pets or . . .?
No, we don’t have kids yet! We live here in Mountain View and well, I think this story is also her story because when we moved together to the United States, she was finishing her master’s degree in psychology, and after that we would both be unemployed. So, when we moved here together, we were like, “OK, this is a huge opportunity, but we’re going to be starting from zero.” Find a job, find out how to get our transcripts from the university to the United States and everything.” She also had a really hard time to figure out the way through the American system of education. But she made it and she’s now working at Stanford Pediatrics. She’s studying brain development of preterm babies as a research coordinator.
Stanford Pediatrics, wow! That’s impressive. I would think there would be quite a competition for those jobs.
Yeah, it was a very long interview process for her.
Well, good for her.
She’s got some very good skills. She worked as a therapist with kids with autism, and she is an experienced researcher in psychology. So, at some point this group at Stanford was looking for someone who was able to work with kids and with magnetic resonance, to understand how the brain works and how it develops over time. So, she was the perfect fit. She is very happy and loves her work.
During this pandemic, you came to Ames in 2019, and you live in Mountain View, so the closing of the Center probably didn’t affect your commute? Are you able to do your job pretty much remotely? You don’t have a lab or anything that you have to come in for?
Well, most of my job, I can do remotely. I think that the impact was from a more personal point of view because when Covid hit we had been in the USA for only five months. We barely knew anyone. So, it was a more personal impact in the sense that we had just moved here and part of constructing a routine is to go to work, meet some people, friends, maybe establish a network and meet some coworkers to have coffee with. But with the pandemic everything became surreal because we were just working through our computers and at some point, it’s hard to believe that you’re working where you are working and that there are many, many people on the other side of the screen. It takes some real effort to keep your mind healthy in that environment because it’s very easy – not just for us here at NASA but for everyone, students or everyone that was working and starting a career – to be distracted and become affected by imposter syndrome. When you are working in long isolation through a computer it is not hard to start losing track about who cares about what you are doing and who is interested in it because you are just sending emails, submitting papers, and proposals. So, I think it’s very important to keep track of and keep in contact with students and people working remotely. I think without a physical place to work, you enter this university with people and a big logo in the door and I think that’s something important because you get inside and It’s like, “OK, I’m part of this community, part of this university, part of NASA, part of Stanford, part of whatever you’re working with.” You can miss some of that if you’re just working remotely, you miss a lot of that. I think it takes a lot of effort to continue working in that kind of condition but obviously we’re in an emergency and there are some priorities, but it’s not easy.
You mentioned impostor syndrome. Refresh my memory of what that is and how it affects your sense of communicating with your colleagues.
Well, imposter syndrome is a psychological condition that makes you doubt your skills or accomplishments. It happens a lot when you are working on something very specific, for example in science it is super common, you get the idea that what you’re doing is not important at all and it may not be affecting other people. I would say that 90% of the astronomers I know have been affected by this at some point, and think “OK, this is not important, what I’m doing. How do I transform this knowledge that I am working for to a real impact on the community?” That’s something that I think becomes way more common and harder when you are isolated in your house.
So, it makes you feel less important or less valued, as if you were an imposter and everybody else is real but you’re not?
Yes, exactly that. I think in astronomy it is particularly easy to get that because everything is so far away. It’s hard to keep track of what is the real impact of what you’re doing right here and now. For example, that was one of the questions in the astronaut selection process. One of the questions was “OK, you are an astronomer. Why do you think that is important? Why should we care?” My answer is I’ve been working my whole life with the Hubble Space Telescope, so I said, “Well, the Space Telescope discovered that 95% of the universe is not made of the same atoms that are here in this room. It’s like someone told you that magic exists.” And I think that’s amazing. It was a pretty honest answer. I was saying “That’s important. It may be far away, but it’s important.”
So, you’re doing well in your career and ambitions and so forth. What advice would you give to a student just starting out who would like to have a career like you’re having?
Well, it’s hard to give just one piece of advice, but I would say to find something that you really like and work on that. It may be hard, you may want to become a scientist, or a doctor or anything else, and it may be really hard, but I think it’s harder to work on something that you don’t like for your whole life.
That’s a good point.
I think it’s way, way harder, but at the same time it’s hard to land exactly where you want. In my experience, there is no plan that survives the implementation. You make a plan and think that you’re going to do something, but it never happens the way that you think it will. My strategy was to, in a more practical way, find many things that I really like and apply to all of them, starting from the hardest to the to the easiest one. Well, I succeeded in having a post doc at NASA, but before that I applied to 20 jobs, and I never got any. It was just really rejection, after rejection after rejection. So, I consider my myself very fortunate to be here, but I cannot say that it was the first shot. I think that in the time of social media it’s very easy to just see the stars, the successes of people. No one publishes “Oh, I got rejected at NASA”. But that happens obviously.
That’s good. I probably misstated it when I said that your path has been fairly direct, but you had a lot of rejections along the way and you have to not let them beat you down, but just keep going with what you’re passionate about.
Yeah, and that applies also to the astronaut process. I mean you may want to be an astronaut, then you apply, but it is true that, for example, the commander of Apollo 13, James Lovell, applied to be one of the first round of Mercury astronauts but he got cut for medical reasons and yet he applied again, and he became an astronaut. There are many examples of great people that had to apply many times.
So, we’ve talked a lot about your work. It’s fascinating, but we also want to touch on a few other things, and one of my favorite questions is: you’ve got all this stuff going on in your life with your work and all that, but what do you do for fun?
Well, I grew up in a house full of tools and I like doing things with my hands. We have a pretty old car here, a Subaru from, I think it’s 22 years old now! And I really like to spend time with it learning mechanics. It’s something that I really enjoy. And moving here to the United States was also a blessing for doing hiking and camping around. I’m still trying to comprehend the beauty of the American wilderness. California is amazing. I mean, we are planning a road trip around the United States and traveling is something that I really, really love. It’s something that I could do partly because of my job, but also just for fun. It’s just something that I really, really enjoy.
Do you have any musical talents, perhaps? Play any instruments?
I’ve never been a good musician. I like music, I like music a lot. I listen to it. I enjoy many types of music, mostly rock, electronic, but many other types of music, but I’ve never been gifted with the talent of playing an instrument with my hands.
Well, I regret that I haven’t either, but that’s the way my life has worked out. How about your taste in reading? What book might we find on your nightstand?
Well, right now I’m a lot into psychology books and essays. My wife has started sending me books to better understand her job. And there’s this book called “A Primate’s Memoir” by a professor at Stanford named Robert Sapolsky. It’s a really good book. I read it very recently. It’s an amazing story about this scientist who went to Kenya to study baboons at the age of 19 or 20, with barely any money, doing a PhD in baboon psychology and it’s just amazing. I mean, I love that book.
We also like to ask who, or perhaps what, inspires you?
Wow. Ah, well, that’s a hard question. I don’t know if it’s a single person, but well, of course there’s my PhD supervisor, John Beckman. He has been a huge inspiration to me. He’s an astronomer working at the Canary Islands, but he was also working at NASA Ames thirty years before me, working with this mission called “ASSESS”. They were flying on an airplane to train astronauts, European astronauts, before the first selection of astronauts happened, in the ‘80s. They were working with astronaut Claude Nicollier who would fly twice to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit and basically, they were training human beings to become mechanics in space, which is really hard. And after that he was working also on airborne astronomy with the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and a Concorde that was meant to observe the solar eclipse. He has done many, many things throughout his life, which to me is an inspiration because it is a demonstration that you can have many lives.
We’ve already talked about images and pictures. And we’re going to ask if you will include some pictures when you return the transcript with whatever corrections and changes you make. We do have another question: Do you have a favorite quote or saying, something that you think about or that guides your life values or philosophies?
Well, I think we may be very typical, but one thing that I think of every time we try to do something: “We do it because it is hard”. That’s from John Kennedy and I think it is very inspirational.
Yes, that’s a good one.
Because that includes many things that we do here. Sometimes, for example, when we do astronomy, we always try to justify things because there are useful, like we are going to extract energy from dark matter, but that’s not true. I mean that’s not why we do things. Sometimes it is just because it’s hard. Like why do you want to repair the Hubble Space Telescope? Because it is hard. Because you want to do something that’s really difficult and it will prepare you for the next thing, and so on. So, I will just stand with that quote.
I like that. That’s inspiring. And I did see one item that I kind of skipped past and that is: if you weren’t an astrophysicist for NASA, what would your dream job be?
I don’t know. I think I would say that my other chosen degree would have been engineering, but that’s very similar to what I do now. I think I could easily become a mechanic or a firefighter, like my dad. (laughs).
I was wondering if you were going to go back to firefighter!
Yeah, I mean, it’s not just my father and brother. It’s my cousins and half of my family are firefighters. So, I’m kind of the black sheep! (laughs)
And you said your parents are retired?
Yes, they are both retired. They are happily retired. Right now, they are starting to enjoy their retirement. They are traveling.
Well, knowing how young you are, that makes me feel old! That your parents are retired. Is there anything that we didn’t ask that you wish we had asked, as part of this interview?
No, I think I think everything was covered. It was very complete. Just to say thanks to you all and to NASA for everything.
OK. Well, thank you. This has been a delight and we’re very glad that you carved out some time to do this. I think it’ll turn out to be wonderful. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to get this on paper and get it back to you, and then you can go through it and then we’ll put it in the queue and then you’ll get your 15 minutes of fame up on our website! And after that it goes into the archive and it’s there forever. And that website is open to the public, so your friends, family, and other people can read your interview.
That’s perfect. My mom is going to love it!
Oh, I’m sure. Wonderful Alex. Thank you so much again for chatting with us this morning and we’ll get busy on it and get back to you when it’s ready for your review.
Thank you so much.
Interview conducted by Fred Van Wert and Mark Vorobetz
New ‘Eclipse Watch’ Tool Shows Eclipses from Space Any Time
4 min read
New ‘Eclipse Watch’ Tool Shows Eclipses from Space Any TimeDo you wish you could see a total solar eclipse every day? With a new online tool called Eclipse Watch, you can observe the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, in real time with eclipse-like images from space as we count down to the next total solar eclipse on Earth.
An eclipse-like image captured by the LASCO instrument on the SOHO spacecraft includes a picture of the Moon added for scale. To see the latest image, visit https://eclipse.helioviewer.org/. NASA/Eclipse WatchThe new Helioviewer Eclipse Watch data visualization tool displays images captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) mission stationed one million miles from Earth. Each time you refresh the page, you can see the latest image from the spacecraft. These images showcase some of the features of the Sun that you may also be able to see from the ground on Earth when the Moon completely covers the Sun during the total solar eclipse.
This map shows the path of totality and partial contours crossing the U.S. for the total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024. NASA’s Scientific Visualization StudioA total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. This celestial event reveals the extended atmosphere of the Sun, which is normally obscured from view by bright sunlight. Hot gas streaming from the surface of the Sun into interplanetary space can be observed during this time.
To study the Sun’s extended atmosphere when a total solar eclipse isn’t happening, scientists can use special telescopes called coronagraphs. These instruments create an artificial eclipse by using a round disk to block out the light from the Sun (the same way the Moon does during an eclipse) and reveal parts of the Sun’s atmosphere that are normally too dim to see.
The Helioviewer Eclipse Watch provides eclipse-like images that are captured over a hundred times each day by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) instrument on the SOHO spacecraft. LASCO observes the Sun’s corona and can identify clouds of material called coronal mass ejections that erupt from the Sun. These images offer a glimpse of what you could witness during the historic celestial event on April 8. LASCO’s disk obscures a larger area than the Moon will block during the total solar eclipse, as indicated by the black circular area in the Eclipse Watch tool. A picture of the Moon is overlaid on the image for scale. This means that during the total eclipse on Earth you will get to see even more of the Sun’s extended atmosphere than LASCO captures.
SOHO launched in 1995 to study our star, from the Sun’s deep core to its outer corona. LASCO is one of 12 instruments on SOHO used to study different solar regions and a constant stream of particles and energy from the Sun called the solar wind. Thousands of comets that pass close to the Sun – called sungrazing comets – have also been discovered in SOHO images.
The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was designed to study the internal structure of the Sun, its extensive outer atmosphere and the origin of the solar wind, the stream of highly ionized gas that blows continuously outward through the Solar System. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image LabCountdown to the Eclipse
The total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The path of totality in the U.S. stretches from Texas to Maine.
A countdown timer displayed on the Eclipse Watch page indicates when the eclipse will begin in North America on April 8.
If you are inside the path of totality, your views of the eclipse may be similar, or even better, than what LASCO captures every day. Remember to use specialized eye protection for solar viewing except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun.
For more information about eclipses, visit go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024.
Helioviewer
Eclipse Watch is an extension of Helioviewer – a free and open-source visualization tool supported by NASA’s Solar Data Analysis Center. It’s like using your favorite map app for the Sun! Users select spacecraft instruments and create their own movies of solar phenomena. This tool supports exploratory data analysis and enables researchers to discover, pinpoint, and monitor solar events. A downloadable version called JHelioviewer with 3D movie capability is also available.
By Rose Brunning
Communications Lead
NASA Heliophysics Digital Resource Library (HDRL)
Catch Mars and Saturn rising, and Jupiter hangs out with Comet 12P. Plus NASA has…
Article
2 hours ago
4 min read Citizen Scientists Invited to Collect Data for NASA During Eclipse
Article
5 hours ago
3 min read April’s Night Sky Notes: Participate in Eclipse Science
April is Citizen Science Month at NASA. Here are some projects that you take part…
Article
10 hours ago
Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA Langley Participates in Drone Responders Conference
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) (L-R) Joanna Schmidt, Patricia Revolinsky, Ersin Ancel, and Casey Denham from the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch were part of the NASA Langley team.NASAThe National Public Safety Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Conference was held at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, March 12-13. NASA Langley engineers presented their work at the conference and staffed a NASA information table, promoting the benefits of NASA technologies and research for drone responders.
Hundreds gathered for the keynote address from FAA UAS Integration Office Executive Director Jeffrey Vincent.NASA“It’s exciting to see the effect drones have on search and rescue operations,” said presenter Ersin Ancel, assistant branch head for the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate. “For example, rescue times have been cut from days to hours to mere minutes. The successful deployment of these aircraft systems is how NASA helps the aviation industry improve public safety.”
This annual event is hosted by DRONERESPONDERS, a non-profit created to unite aerial first responders, emergency managers, and search and rescue specialists so they can learn from one another and facilitate drone operations for public safety. DRONERESPONDERS has a Space Act Agreement with NASA Langley as part of the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP).
More than 500 attendees, representing every state in the United States, learned about NASA’s work on System-Wide Safety, Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response and Air Traffic Management Exploration.
NASA was one of more than 60 exhibitors at the conference.NASAWhat’s Up: April 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA
5 min read
What’s Up: April 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA Total Eclipse Time!A total solar eclipse sweeps across the U.S. on April 8. U.S. areas outside totality will enjoy a partial eclipse and can join NASA’s live eclipse webcast!
Highlights- All month – Jupiter is a brilliant, steady light low in the western sky following sunset.
- April 8 – Total solar eclipse across the U.S., as the Moon’s shadow moves from Texas northward through Maine. Outside the path of totality, the rest of the continental U.S. will experience a partial eclipse. The amount of the Sun covered by the Moon at maximum eclipse depends on your distance from the path of totality.
- April 8-12 – Mars and Saturn rise together in the hour or so preceding sunrise. They’re closest on April 10 & 11 – about half a degree apart, or the width of the full Moon.)
- April 10 – Find the slim lunar crescent (only 7% illuminated) hanging above brilliant Jupiter in the west after sunset. Comet 12P is visible with binoculars or a small telescope about 6 degrees below the Moon, just below and to the right of Jupiter.
- April 23 – Full moon
What’s Up for April? Some easy-to-spot planets, there’s still time to observe comet 12P, and how to enjoy this month’s solar eclipse if you’re not in the path of totality.
For several days in the first half of April, early risers can watch Mars and Saturn rising together in the morning. Taking a look about half an hour before sunrise, you can find them low in the east, about 10 degrees above the horizon. They’re at their closest on April 10th and 11th, but still really close in the sky the whole second week of April.
Now, on the evening of April 10th you can find the Moon with Jupiter in the west. Jupiter’s easy to identify as a bright, unflickering light, low in the west following sunset, all month. Being just a couple of days after its “new moon” phase, the Moon shows only 7% of its illuminated surface on this evening, making for a beautiful crescent shining there with the giant planet Jupiter.
Sky chart showing The crescent Moon above Jupiter and Comet 12P in the western sky following sunset on April 10. NASA/JPL-CaltechThis is also a good night to have a look for comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which has been getting brighter, and is easily observable with binoculars or a small telescope, especially if you can get away from bright city lights. The comet will be just beneath the Moon, and just right of Jupiter, but you’ll have to be quick, as it drops below 10 degrees elevation an hour after sunset and then sets an hour later. So you’ll want a clear view toward the horizon, and be looking for it as twilight ends. If you want to catch this comet, do it soon, because it will be too close to the Sun in the sky to observable after mid-April, and later when it makes its closest approach to Earth, it will be on its way outward from the Sun and growing fainter.
2024 Total Solar EclipseThere’s a total solar eclipse on the way, and it’s kind of a big deal. We’ve been really fortunate to have two total eclipses visible across a wide swath of the U.S. recently, first in 2017, and now on April 8th, 2024. The next time such an eclipse will cross the States is 21 years from now. If you live in or near the path of totality, or you’re traveling there to experience the eclipse, you’re in for an incredible experience.
The total solar eclipse will be visible along a narrow track stretching from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. A partial eclipse will be visible throughout all 48 contiguous U.S. states. NASA’s Scientific Visualization StudioBut what if you’re not going to be able to experience totality for this eclipse in person? What can you expect, and how can you still enjoy it? Well for starters, NASA has you covered with a live webcast, from multiple locations, as the Moon’s shadow moves across the country. So join us for the total eclipse online, whatever your plans.
If you’re anywhere in the continental U.S. outside of totality, you’ll still experience a partial solar eclipse. The amount of the Sun to be covered by the Moon at maximum eclipse depends on how far you are from the path of totality.
In observing a partial eclipse, you’ll still need to use specialized eye protection, such as eclipse glasses, a pinhole projector, or a telescope with a solar filter. One of the easiest methods is something most of us have in our kitchen – a regular colander. These make excellent pinhole cameras that project the eclipse onto the ground. And barring that, the sun dapples that filter through the tree leaves do something very similar. It’s also fun to note the eerie way the sunlight dims during the eclipse, especially in places where the Moon covers 80% or more of the Sun’s disk.
NASA has a bunch of eclipse resources to help you get ready for this awe-inspiring celestial event. There’s info on safe-viewing, citizen science opportunities, and you’ll even find our “eclipse explorer,” where you can find eclipse details for your specific zip code.
From wherever you’re observing, solar eclipses are remarkable events. So observe safely, and join our live webcast, because it’s an event you surely don’t want to miss.
Here are the phases of the Moon for April.
The phases of the Moon for April 2024 NASA/JPL-CaltechStay up to date on NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.
Skywatching Resources About the What’s Up production team“What’s Up” is NASA’s longest running web video series. It had its first episode in April 2007 with original host Jane Houston Jones. Today, Preston Dyches, Christopher Harris, and Lisa Poje are the science communicators and space enthusiasts who produce this monthly video series at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Additional astronomy subject matter guidance is provided by JPL’s Bill Dunford, Gary Spiers, Lyle Tavernier, and GSFC’s Molly Wasser.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Earns Neil Armstrong Space Flight Achievement Award
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) team received the American Astronomical Society’s Neil Armstrong Space Flight Achievement Award “for exceptional performance and extraordinary perseverance in successfully delivering a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth.” The award, named after the first person to walk on the Moon, is given annually and recognizes the extraordinary contributions made by individuals or teams in the advancement of space exploration.
From left, OSIRIS-REx team members Kenneth M. Getzandanner, flight dynamics manager, Rich Burns, project manager, Michael Moreau, deputy project manager all from NASA Goddard; Coralie Adam, lead optical navigation engineer, KinetX, Inc.; Michael Amato, manager of the Planetary Exploration line of business, NASA Goddard; Peter Antreasian, navigation team chief, KinetX, Inc. The team received the American Astronomical Society’s Neil Armstrong Space Flight Achievement Award “for exceptional performance and extraordinary perseverance in successfully delivering a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth.”NASA/Jay FriendlanderThe OSIRIS-REx team includes members from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado; the University of Arizona, Tucson; and KinetX in Tempe, Arizona.
OSIRIS-REx launched Sept. 8, 2016, and the mission had to overcome many obstacles on its seven-year journey to Bennu and back.
“Bennu’s small size presented unprecedented challenges for the team to navigate safely near the asteroid,” said Michael Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager at NASA Goddard. “In addition to these known challenges, Bennu threw a number of curveballs during the mission’s encounter between 2019-2020.”
The asteroid presented its first surprise in December 2018 when NASA’s spacecraft arrived at Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx team found a surface littered with boulders, and no areas in which the spacecraft could safely touch down to collect a sample unless navigation performance was improved significantly over what was designed before launch. The team also discovered that Bennu was ejecting particles of rock into space.
Despite the challenges, on Oct. 20, 2020, OSIRIS-REx descended to the surface of asteroid Bennu, touched down within three feet from the targeted point, collected a sample, delivering it to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. The 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) ultimately collected represents the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and over twice the mission’s mass requirement. The sample will give researchers worldwide a glimpse into the earliest days of our solar system, offering insights into planet formation and the origin of organics essential for life on Earth. Data collected by the spacecraft combined with future analysis of the Bennu sample will also aid our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.
The award was presented at the 61st Goddard Space Science Symposium, held at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. This is one of many recognitions the mission has received in the past month, including Aviation Week Network’s 66th Laureate Award, the 2024 Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, and the National Aeronautical Association’s Robert J. Collier Trophy.
NASA Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Processing and curation for OSIRIS-REx’s Bennu sample takes place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Find more information about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex
Rani Gran
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Safety First!
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station wear eclipse glasses in this image from March 26, 2024. While millions of people on Earth experience the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, the space station crew will have the opportunity to see it from 250 miles above our planet. Except during the brief period when the Moon completely blocks the Sun’s bright face, it is not safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing. On Earth, you must look through safe solar viewing glasses (“eclipse glasses”) with the ISO 12312-2 international standard or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times. If the crew has the opportunity to directly image the eclipse through space station windows, they will use a handheld camera equipped with a solar filter and will not look at the Sun directly.
Based on current orbital position and ground track predictions for the International Space Station, astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory will have three opportunities to view the ground shadow (penumbra and umbra) of the Moon as it tracks across the Earth surface during the total solar eclipse. After encountering the eclipse shadow above the Pacific Ocean, then during a pass from the New Zealand area to California and Idaho, the space station is predicted to encounter the eclipse during a time of near-to-full totality while over Maine and New Brunswick around 3:30 p.m. EDT.
For those who won’t be in the path of totality or on the space station, NASA will have live coverage of the eclipse.
Image Credit: NASA/Loral O’Hara
NASA VIPER Robotic Moon Rover Team Raises Its Mighty Mast
NASA’s VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – now stands taller and more capable than ever. And that’s thanks to its mast.
VIPER’s mast, and the suite of instruments affixed to it, looks a lot like the rover’s “neck” and “head.” The mast instruments are designed to help the team of rover drivers and real-time scientists send commands and receive data while the rover navigates around hazardous crater slopes, boulders, and places that risk communications blackouts. The team will use these instruments, along with four science payloads, to scout the lunar South Pole. During its approximately 100-day mission, VIPER seeks to better understand the origin of water and other resources on the Moon, as well as the extreme environment where NASA plans to send astronauts as part of the Artemis campaign.
The tip of VIPER’s mast stands approximately eight feet (2.5 meters) above its wheel rims and is equipped with a pair of stereo navigation cameras, a pair of powerful LED headlights, as well as a low- and high-gain antenna to transmit data to and receive data from the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas on Earth.
The stereo navigation cameras – the “eyes” of the rover – are mounted to a part of the mast that gimbals, allowing the team to pan them as much as 400 degrees around and tilt them up and down as much as 75 degrees. The VIPER team will use the navigation cameras to take sweeping panoramas of the rover’s surroundings and images to detect and further study surface features such as rocks and craters as small as four inches (10 cm) in diameter – or about the length of a pencil – from as far as 50 feet (15 meters) away. And because the navigation cameras are mounted up high, it gives the VIPER team a near human-like perspective as the rover explores areas of scientific interest around the Moon’s South Pole.
Due to the extremes of light and darkness found on the Moon, VIPER will be the first planetary rover to have headlights. The headlights will cast a narrow, long-distance beam – much like a car’s high beams – to help the team reveal obstacles or interesting terrain features that would otherwise stay hidden in the shadows. Positioned next to the rover’s two navigation cameras, the lights feature arrays of blue LEDs that the rover navigation team determined would provide the best visibility given the challenging lighting conditions on the Moon.
In order to transmit large amounts of data across the 240,000 miles (384,000 km) that separate Earth and the Moon, VIPER has a gimballing precision-pointed, high-gain antenna that will send information along a very focused, narrow beam. Its low-gain antenna also will send data but using radio waves at a much lower data rate. The ability for the antennas to maintain the correct orientation, even while driving, serves a critical function: without it, the rover cannot receive commands while in motion on the Moon and cannot transmit any of its data back to Earth for scientists to achieve their mission goals. All that data is then transferred from the DSN to the Multi-Mission Operations and Control Center at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, where rover operations are based.
NASA’s VIPER robotic Moon rover stands taller than ever after engineers integrated its mast in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA/Josh ValcarcelPrior to installation on the rover, engineers put the mast through a variety of testing. This included time in a thermal vacuum chamber to verify the white coating surrounding the mast insulates as intended. After the mast’s integration in the clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team also successfully performed check-outs of its components and for the first time sent data through the rover using its antennas.
VIPER is part of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program and is managed by the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. VIPER will launch to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole.
Citizen Scientists Invited to Collect Data for NASA During Eclipse
4 min read
Citizen Scientists Invited to Collect Data for NASA During Eclipse Argentine students gather cloud observations and temperature data to upload through the GLOBE Eclipse tool during the eclipse that crossed South America on July 2, 2019. Pablo CecchiOn April 8, 2024, as the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, thousands of amateur citizen scientists will measure air temperatures and snap pictures of clouds. The data they collect will aid researchers who are investigating how the Sun influences climates in different environments.
Among those citizen scientists are the fifth- and sixth-grade students at Alpena Elementary in northwest Arkansas. In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, these students are visiting the school’s weather station 10 times a day to collect temperature readings and monitor cloud cover. They will then upload the data to a phone-based app that’s part of a NASA-led program called GLOBE, short for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment.
The goal, according to Alpena Elementary science and math teacher Roger Rose, is to “make science and math more real” for his students. “It makes them feel like they’re doing something that’s important and worthwhile.”
The GLOBE eclipse tool is a small part of the much broader GLOBE project, through which students and citizen scientists collect data on plants, soil, water, the atmosphere, and even mosquitoes. Contributors to the eclipse project will only need a thermometer and a smart phone with the GLOBE Observer app downloaded. They can access the eclipse tool in the app.
This is not the first time the GLOBE eclipse tool has been deployed in North America. During the 2017 North American eclipse, NASA researchers examined the relationship between clouds and air temperature and found that temperature swings during the eclipse were greatest in areas with less cloud cover, while temperature fluctuations in cloudier regions were more muted. It’s a finding that would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, without the assistance of numerous amateur observers along the eclipse path, said Marilé Colón Robles, a meteorologist based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the GLOBE project scientist overseeing the cloud study portion of the project.
GLOBE program volunteers across North America uploaded data coinciding with the July 21, 2017 event to this map. A high concentration of observers make the path of totality in the western part of the U.S. stand out. Globe programThe number of weather stations along this year’s eclipse path is limited, and while satellites give us a global view, they can’t provide the same level of detail as people on the ground, said Ashlee Autore, a NASA Langley data scientist who will be conducting a follow-up to the 2017 study. “The power of citizen science is that people make the observations, and they can move.”
It’s still unclear how temperature fluctuations during a total eclipse compare across different climate regions, Colón Robles said. “This upcoming eclipse is passing through desert regions, mountainous regions, as well as more moist regions near the oceans.” Acquiring observations across these areas, she said, “will help us dig deeper into questions about regional connections between cloud cover and ground-level temperatures.” The studies should give scientists a better handle on the flow of energy from the Sun that’s crucial for understanding climate.
In many areas, citizen scientists are expected to gather en masse. “We’re inviting basically all of El Paso to campus,” said geophysicist and GLOBE partner John Olgin of El Paso Community College in Texas. The area will experience the eclipse in near totality, with about 80% of the Sun covered at the peak. It’s enough to make for an engaging event involving citizen scientists from the U.S. and Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande.
Just a few minutes of midday darkness will have the long-term benefits of increasing awareness of NASA citizen science programs, Olgin said: “It’s going to inspire people to say, ‘Hey look, you can actually do stuff with NASA.’”
More than 30 million people live along the path of the 2024 eclipse, and hundreds of millions more will see a partial eclipse. It will be another 20 years before so many people in North America experience another total solar eclipse again.
With this in mind, Colón Robles has a piece of advice: As the Moon actively blocks the Sun, set your phone and thermometer aside, and marvel at one of the most extraordinary astronomical events of your lifetime.
Visit NASA’s Citizen Science page to learn how you can help NASA scientists study the Earth during eclipses and all year round. The GLOBE Program page provides connections to communities of GLOBE participants in 127 countries, access to data for retrieval and analysis, a roadmap for new participants, and other resources.
By James Riordon
NASA’s Earth Science News Team
Share
Details Last Updated Apr 01, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 5 min read Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Moon’s Moment in the SunTo know exactly where and when the solar eclipse will cast its shadow, we study…
Article
3 weeks ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
April’s Night Sky Notes: Participate in Eclipse Science
NASA / Zooniverse
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
April is NASA’s Citizen Science Month, and there is no shortage of projects available. Here are some citizen science projects that you can participate in on April 8th, on and off the path of totality right from your smartphone!
Eclipse Soundscapes Logo ARISA Lab / NASA Eclipse SoundscapesEclipse Soundscapes will compare data from a 1932 study on how eclipses affect wildlife – in this case, crickets. There are a number of ways you can participate, both on and off the path. NOTE: you must be 13 and older to submit data. Participants 18+ can apply to receive the free Data Collector kit. Learn more at: eclipsesoundscapes.org/
GLOBE EclipseFolks that participated in the GLOBE Eclipse 2017 will be glad to see that their eclipse data portal is now open! With the GLOBE Observer smartphone app, you can measure air temperature and clouds during the eclipse, contributing data to the GLOBE program from anywhere you are. Learn more at: observer.globe.gov/
HamSCI citizen scientists. HamSCI, The University of Scranton / NASA HamSCIHamSCI stands for Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation. HamSCI has been actively engaged in scientific data collection for both the October 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse and the upcoming April 8, 2024, total eclipse. Two major activities that HamSCI will be involved in around the solar events will be the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) and the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge (GSSC) which are part of the HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science. Learn more about these experiments and others at: hamsci.org/eclipse
SunSketcher logo. SunSketcher, Western Kentucky University / NASA SunSketcherIf you’re traveling to totality, help the SunSketcher team measure the oblateness, or shape, of the Sun during the eclipse by timing the flashes of Baily’s Beads. You will need a smartphone with a working camera for this, along with something to hold the phone in place – don’t forget a spare battery! NOTE: The app will need to run from five minutes before the eclipse starts until the end of the eclipse. Any additional phone use will result in Sun Sketcher data loss. Learn more at: sunsketcher.org/
Don’t stop at the eclipse – NASA has citizen science projects you can do all year long – from cloud spotting on Mars to hunting for distant planets! By contributing to these research efforts, you can help NASA make new discoveries and scientific breakthroughs, resulting in a better understanding of the world around us, from the critters on the ground, to the stars in our sky.
We’ll be highlighting other citizen science projects with our mid-month article on the Night Sky Network page, but we want to wish all you eclipse chasers out there a very happy, and safe solar eclipse! For last minute activities, check out Night Sky Network’s Solar Eclipse Resources section!
