Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Discovery made its last flight around Washington, D.C. before heading to its permanent home at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.
Video transcript
CAROLINE, 4TH GRADE STUDENT: I’m here to see the space shuttle fly in.
INTERVIEWER: What is your favorite planet?
CAROLINE: Saturn.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, why Saturn?
CAROLINE: Because I like to study its rings.
INTERVIEWER: When the shuttle gets to the museum do you plan to go visit?
CAROLINE and HER DAD: Yes.
[Background noise of people talking and cameras going off as the shuttle flies by.]
INTERVIEWER: Where did you see the shuttle in the sky?
CAROLINE: I saw it there, and there and there and there.
INTERVIEWER: What did you think? Was it big? Was it small?
CAROLINE: It was huge!
INTERVIEW: Can you believe it’s been up in space so many times?
For more information about space and science, visit Kids.gov.
Image description: NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six mirror segments from the James Webb Space Telescope are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Photo by David Higginbotham, NASA
Image description: An Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of the Atlantic coast. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area are visible. Long Island and the New York City area can be seen in lower right area. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are near the center.
Photo by NASA
Aurora Borealis over Northern North America and Canada
Video description:
This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station on January 29, 2012. This video begins as the space station is passing over the dark waters of the North Pacific Ocean northeast towards Vancouver Island. The Aurora Borealis can be seen far north, where both the under side and top of the aurora are visible. They continue to pass over Canada until the sun begins to come up in the east while over Quebec.
Video from NASA
Image description: On May 19, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover’s 489th Martian day, or sol.
Sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the Martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long Martian twilight (compared to Earth’s) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.
