Stellary Starry Universe

The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft arrived by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March, 31, 2010. The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft with Expedition 23 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov, Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko and NASA Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson is scheduled for Friday, April 2, 2010 at 12:04 a.m. Eastern. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

This new composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star, the dust from which is flying past and engulfing a nearby family of stars. Scientists believe the stars in the image are part of a stellar cluster in which a supernova exploded. Material ejected in the explosion now blows past these stars at high velocities. In this image of G54.1+0.3, X-ray data from Chandra are shown in blue, and data from Spitzer in green (a shorter wavelength) and red-yellow (a longer one). The white source near the center of the image is a dense, rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, all that remains of a core-collapse supernova explosion. The pulsar generates a wind of high-energy particles — seen in the Chandra data — that expands into the surrounding environment, illuminating the material ejected in the supernova explosion. The unique environment into which this supernova exploded makes it possible for astronomers to observe the condensed dust from the supernova that is usually too cold to emit in the infrared. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/T. Temin et al. Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech

NASA has contracted with ERC Inc., of Huntsville, Ala., for space technology research and development activities at the agency’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

A specialized transporter brought the payload canister to Launch Pad 39A in preparation for the STS-131 mission. The canister, which is the same dimensions as the shuttle’s cargo bay, held the Leonardo supply module during the move from processing to the shuttle. Leonardo will be packed inside space shuttle Discovery for launch. In this image, the payload canister holding the Leonardo supply module is hoisted to the clean room at Launch pad 39A. Image Credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

When Ajay Ramesh and Prithvi Aiyaswamy, two seventh graders from Chaboya Middle School, San Jose, Calif., visited the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center they found that the principles of fluid mechanics are not such a ‘drag’ after all. The two youngsters both showed up for their experiment with a half dozen toy cars they found at home. “Our project is to find the best design shape that has the least amount of drag,” said Aiyaswamy. “As we began the experiment, we realized that cars with a sloping shape perform better.” The orange liquid behind the car illustrates the wake, which can be used to determine drag for the car. The green lines across illustrate the air moving across the car. The boys were fortunate to request their visit when the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory was uniquely set up to accommodate their request. Kurtis Long, test engineer at the Fluid Mechanics Lab received permission for the boys to visit and donated his lunch hour to help the boys perform their test. The boys placed the cars in a pool of water. Dye was added to the water and photos were taken of the dye flowing around the toy cars. “Air and water have the same flow characteristics, but by using water we can slow down time and see the flow more clearly,” explained Long. With these photos, the boys could measure the drag of each car. The orange liquid behind the car illustrates the wake, which can be used to determine the car’s drag. The green lines across illustrate air moving across the car. Image Credit: NASA/Eric James