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Some environmental campaigners claim that attempts to create a circular economy for plastics are doomed to fail – but the arguments can be disingenuous

Rivers swelled in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan in April 2024 following heavy rain and rapid snowmelt. This image shows Orenburg on April 13, the day river levels peaked. This scene was acquired by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9.

Rivers swelled in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan in April 2024 following heavy rain and rapid snowmelt. This image shows Orenburg on April 13, the day river levels peaked. This scene was acquired by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9. NASA/Michala Garrison, USGS

Ural River levels peak in this April 13, 2024, enhanced color image from Landsat 9; here, vegetation appears red, while water is blue-green. After heavy rain and rapid snowmelt, rivers in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan swelled, flooding homes and displacing thousands of people.

Landsat 9, the latest satellite in the Landsat series, contributes a critical component to the international strategy for monitoring the health and state of the Earth, allowing more frequent observations. Data from Landsat 9 can be used to inform decisions in key areas like urban expansion, coral reef degradation, and natural disasters.

Image Credit: NASA/Michala Garrison, USGS

The U.S. Space Force is testing a new ground-based satellite jamming weapon to help keep U.S. military personnel safe from potential "space-enabled" attacks.

A woman with life-threatening heart and kidney disease became the second person ever to receive a genetically modified pig kidney and the first person to receive a heart pump and a transplanted organ together

Japan's SLIM lunar lander has now survived three week-long nights on the moon, braving temperatures as low as minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit, despite not being designed to last one!

Image: Ariane 6 standing tall

Using genomic data from more than 9500 species, biologists have mapped the evolutionary relationships between flowering plants

Using genomic data from more than 9500 species, biologists have mapped the evolutionary relationships between flowering plants

Two important barriers to a stable, powerful fusion reaction have been leapt by an experiment in a small tokamak reactor, but we don’t yet know if the technique will work in larger devices

Two important barriers to a stable, powerful fusion reaction have been leapt by an experiment in a small tokamak reactor, but we don’t yet know if the technique will work in larger devices

The Full Pink Moon rose on April 23, 2024, putting a damper on chances of catching any Lyrid meteors but providing a gorgeous target for cameras around the globe.

The Large Hadron Collider is testing entanglement in a whole new energy range, probing the meaning of quantum theory – and the possibility that an even stranger reality lies beneath

The Large Hadron Collider is testing entanglement in a whole new energy range, probing the meaning of quantum theory – and the possibility that an even stranger reality lies beneath

China has unveiled the three-person crew for its Shenzhou 18 mission, which is set to launch toward the Tiangong space station on Thursday (April 25).

NASA is sending a technology demonstrator to the moon on the upcoming private Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 in order to test how to repel and remove lunar dust using electricity.

Several marsupial species, including sugar gliders, independently evolved a way to make membranes that allow them to glide through the air

While ESA's Integral was observing the sky, it suddenly spotted a burst of gamma-rays coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA’s XMM-Newton searched for an afterglow from the explosion but found none. Astronomers realised that the burst must have been an extra-galactic flare from a magnetar, a young neutron star with an exceptionally strong magnetic field.

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These two movies of the Cassiopeia A and Crab Nebula supernova remnants show Chandra’s capabilities of documenting changes in astronomical objects over human timeframes. Dramatic changes are apparent in the debris and radiation remaining after the explosion of these two massive stars in our galaxy. Such time-lapse movies would not be possible without Chandra’s archives that serve as public repositories for the data collected over Chandra’s nearly 25 years of operations.

New movies of two of the most famous objects in the sky — the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A — are being released from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each includes X-ray data collected by Chandra over about two decades. They show dramatic changes in the debris and radiation remaining after the explosion of two massive stars in our galaxy.

The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion seen by Chinese and other astronomers in the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth. At its center is a neutron star, a super-dense star produced by the supernova. As it rotates at about 30 times per second, its beam of radiation passes over the Earth every orbit, like a cosmic lighthouse.

As the young pulsar slows down, large amounts of energy are injected into its surroundings. In particular, a high-speed wind of matter and anti-matter particles plows into the surrounding nebula, creating a shock wave that forms the expanding ring seen in the movie. Jets from the poles of the pulsar spew X-ray emitting matter and antimatter particles in a direction perpendicular to the ring.

Over 22 years, Chandra has taken many observations of the Crab Nebula. With this long runtime, astronomers see clear changes in both the ring and the jets in the new movie. Previous Chandra movies showed images taken from much shorter time periods — a 5-month period between 2000 and 2001 and over 7 months between 2010 and 2011 for another. The longer timeframe highlights mesmerizing fluctuations, including whip-like variations in the X-ray jet that are only seen in this much longer movie. A new set of Chandra observations will be conducted later this year to follow changes in the jet since the last Chandra data was obtained in early 2022.

Crab Nebula Timelapse

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This video begins with a composite version of the Crab Nebula, combining Chandra X-ray data with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Over 22 years, Chandra has taken many observations of the Crab Nebula. With this long runtime, astronomers see clear changes in both the ring and the jets in the new movie. Previous Chandra movies showed images taken from much shorter time periods — a 5-month period between 2000 and 2001 and over 7 months between 2010 and 2011 for another. The longer timeframe highlights mesmerizing fluctuations, including whip-like variations in the X-ray jet that are only seen in this much longer movie. A new set of Chandra observations will be conducted later this year to follow changes in the jet since the last Chandra data was obtained in early 2022. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, J. Major, A. Jubett, K. Arcand)

The second billing in this doubleheader is just as spectacular. Cassiopeia A (Cas A for short) is the remains of a supernova that is estimated to have exploded about 340 years ago in Earth’s sky. While other Chandra movies of Cas A have previously been released, including one with data extending from 2000 to 2013, this new movie is substantially longer featuring data from 2000 through to 2019.

The outer region of Cas A shows the expanding blast wave of the explosion. The blast wave is composed of shock waves, similar to the sonic booms generated by a supersonic aircraft. These expanding shock waves are sites where particles are being accelerated to energies that are higher than the most powerful accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider. As the blast wave travels outwards it encounters surrounding material and slows down, generating a second shock wave that travels backwards relative to the blast wave, analogous to a traffic jam travelling backwards from the scene of an accident on a highway.

Cas A has been one of the most highly observed targets and publicly released images from the Chandra mission. It was Chandra’s official first-light image in 1999 after the Space Shuttle Columbia launched into orbit and quickly discovered a point source of X-rays in Cas A’s center for the first time, later confirmed to be a neutron star. Over the years, astronomers have used Chandra to discover evidence for “superfluid” inside Cas A’s neutron star, to reveal that the original massive star may have turned inside out as it exploded and to take an important step in pinpointing how giant stars explode. Chandra has also mapped the elements forged inside the star, which are now moving into space to help seed the next generation of stars and planets. More recently, Chandra data was combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to help determine the origin of mysterious structures within the remnant.

Cassiopeia A Timelapse

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This video begins with a composite version of the Cassiopeia A, combining Chandra X-ray data with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Cassiopeia A (Cas A for short) is the remains of a supernova that is estimated to have exploded about 340 years ago in Earth’s sky. This new Cas A movie features data from 2000 through to 2019. The images used in the latest Cas A movie have been processed using a state-of-the-art processing technique, led by Yusuke from Rikkyo University in Japan, to fully capitalize on Chandra's sharp X-ray vision. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, A. Jubett, K. Arcand)

The images used in the latest Cas A movie have been processed using a state-of-the-art processing technique, led by Yusuke from Rikkyo University in Japan, to fully capitalize on Chandra’s sharp X-ray vision. The paper describing their work was published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online.

These two movies show Chandra’s capabilities of documenting changes in astronomical objects over human timeframes. Such movies would not be possible without Chandra’s archives that serve as public repositories for the data collected over Chandra’s nearly 25 years of operations.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998

Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034

Kiyun Kim began at Goddard as a summer intern. Impressed by the center’s community bonds, Kim is now co-chair of a center resource group that champions accessibility and inclusivity.

Name: Kiyun Kim
Title: Software Engineer
Organization: Ground Software Systems Branch (Code 583)

Kiyun Kim works with aerospace technology software systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Courtesy of Kiyun Kim

What do you do at Goddard Space Flight Center?

I’m a software engineer on the ground software systems branch. We do all the software work that stays on the ground and does not go up into space. We do things like software that helps us coordinate stuff on the ground, helps us contact with the satellites, do scheduling, process data, all sorts of things like that. What I do at any given time depends on what project I’m under.

The main thing that I’ve been working on lately is a tool for database checkouts. There are different versions of the database for each satellite and what we want to be able to do is validate those databases and also to look at the changes between databases and compare them to each other.

In the past, I’ve also worked on a contact scheduling tool — when you have a bunch of different satellites, they’re kind of staggered in orbit, so normally, their signals wouldn’t run into each other, so to speak, when you’re getting the downlinks from them. But when you have a project that is sharing ground resources with other projects, other organizations, the way that Joint Polar Satellite System is, you sometimes have to work to prevent conflicts between satellites. What we’re trying to do is maximize the amount of downlinks for each mission in line with what they need.

Prior to that I was on Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center, or GMSEC. It’s a framework so that missions can take care of all the communication between all the different parts of their systems. So for example, each mission can use GMSEC and take the built in components that GMSEC offers or build their own components and just plug them into GMSEC and they’ll all talk to each other using GMSEC.

Specifically, I worked on the web interface for that and made a countdown clock for it, modeled after the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS).

What led you to working at NASA?

I was looking for internships as a college student and my dad found the NASA summer internship program and encouraged me to apply. I got in and I had a really great time.

What have you enjoyed most about working at NASA?

One thing that I’ve really appreciated is the work-life balance aspect, and also the fact that I don’t have to give up learning new things in order to fulfill my job. Obviously if I have a deadline, I can’t go to the on-center talks and stuff, but the fact that there are all these talks on different subjects, I really like that I’m able to just go, and that I’m supported in doing that.

I still consider myself early in my career and there’s so much that I just don’t know about on center. I know of the kinds of things that I’ve been working on, obviously, but I don’t necessarily get exposed to everything else in my day-to-day work. Having the opportunity to see what else is going on on-center is also good for, beyond just sating my curiosity, it’s also good for helping me figure out what I want to do with my life.

Is there anything you didn’t expect when you started as an intern?

I was surprised by how warm people would be. I remember a very defining experience for me as an intern, was I was walking to get lunch one day from the cafeteria, and I ran into someone who I didn’t know and she stopped and because she saw my intern badge started talking with me. We ended up talking like out in the hot sun for like an hour. Later she invited me to lunch while I was still an intern, and she came to my intern presentation. She was actually from the Women’s Employee Resource Group. She wasn’t explicitly trying to recruit me, but she was just so excited to see a new face and reach out to me and make sure that I felt welcome. That was just like a really defining experience for me and I think it solidified that this was the kind of place I wanted to work at.

Kiyun Kim is one of the co-chairs of the Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group at Goddard.Courtesy of Kiyun Kim

Are you involved in any groups on campus?

I’m one of the co-chairs of the Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group. I admit that sometimes my own disabilities make it difficult for me to be as active as I would like, but I feel very strongly that the strong ERG presence on center is a blessing. It’s something that we should nurture.

The Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group aims to create awareness around issues that face disabled folks in employment, as well as work to help alleviate some of the barriers that we face on center. It’s advocacy by and for the group that it represents. Obviously, you don’t need to be disabled to join and you also don’t have to disclose if you don’t want to. I think accessibility is something that we kind of take for granted until it’s not there for us. A lot of what we’re trying to do is to just make sure that the concerns of our constituents are bubbled up to leadership and make sure that accessibility is kept in mind as the center moves forward and continues to evolve.

Diversity in general contributes so much to the workforce. When we, intentionally or not, exclude entire groups of people from being able to work here and to thrive here we actually do lose a lot. Our goal is to prevent that from happening.

By Marta Hill

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

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Details Last Updated Apr 24, 2024 EditorMadison OlsonContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms

• Goddard Space Flight Center
• People of Goddard
• People of NASA

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