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Image description: Brand new manufactured parts give off gases from chemicals and residual solvents involved in their manufacture in a process known as outgassing. These gases filling your cabin are the cause of that familiar “new car smell.”
However, if your new car were actually a new spaceship full of extremely sensitive instruments and astronauts unable to roll down the windows, those gases could be a big problem.
In this image, a NASA technologist studies a paint sample as part of research that has resulted in a low-cost technique for preventing damage from outgassed contaminants. Find out more.
Photo by Pat Izzo, NASA.

Image description: Brand new manufactured parts give off gases from chemicals and residual solvents involved in their manufacture in a process known as outgassing. These gases filling your cabin are the cause of that familiar “new car smell.”

However, if your new car were actually a new spaceship full of extremely sensitive instruments and astronauts unable to roll down the windows, those gases could be a big problem.

In this image, a NASA technologist studies a paint sample as part of research that has resulted in a low-cost technique for preventing damage from outgassed contaminants. Find out more.

Photo by Pat Izzo, NASA.

Image description: Massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth, roil and swirl on the north pole of the planet Saturn. Taken from a distance of 250,000 miles by the Cassini orbiter, this view was aided by sunlight creeping over the north pole as the Saturnian seasons change.
Unlike hurricanes on Earth that are powered by the ocean’s heat and water, Saturn’s cyclones have no body of water at their bases. Yet, the eyes of Saturn’s and Earth’s storms look strikingly similar.
Just as condensing water in clouds on Earth powers hurricane vortices, the heat released from the condensing water in Saturnian thunderstorms deep down in the atmosphere may be the primary power source energizing the vortex.
See more from Cassini and Saturn.
Photo from NASA.

Image description: Massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth, roil and swirl on the north pole of the planet Saturn. Taken from a distance of 250,000 miles by the Cassini orbiter, this view was aided by sunlight creeping over the north pole as the Saturnian seasons change.

Unlike hurricanes on Earth that are powered by the ocean’s heat and water, Saturn’s cyclones have no body of water at their bases. Yet, the eyes of Saturn’s and Earth’s storms look strikingly similar.

Just as condensing water in clouds on Earth powers hurricane vortices, the heat released from the condensing water in Saturnian thunderstorms deep down in the atmosphere may be the primary power source energizing the vortex.

See more from Cassini and Saturn.

Photo from NASA.

First Known Earth Trojan Asteroid


Video description

This animation illustrates the orbit of 2010 TK7 (green dots), the first known Earth Trojan asteroid, discovered by NEOWISE, the asteroid-hunting portion of NASA’s WISE mission.

Video courtesy of NASA.

Have a great photo of winter weather near you? Send it to NASA and they might feature it on their website. Learn more.

Image description: A map of the planet Jupiter’s south pole, constructed from 36 images by NASA’s spacecraft Cassini while on its way to Saturn. The map, the most detailed to date, includes Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane-like storm wider than three Earths that has been raging at least as long as the 400 years that humans have been observing the planet. Currently, the Juno spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter to unlock more of the giant’s secrets.
Learn more from the Juno mission website.

Image description: A map of the planet Jupiter’s south pole, constructed from 36 images by NASA’s spacecraft Cassini while on its way to Saturn. The map, the most detailed to date, includes Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane-like storm wider than three Earths that has been raging at least as long as the 400 years that humans have been observing the planet. Currently, the Juno spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter to unlock more of the giant’s secrets.

Learn more from the Juno mission website.