TRACKING THE ORIGINS OF SPEEDY SPACE PARTICLES

NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interaction during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraftcombined with computer models have helped track the origin of the energetic particles in Earth's magnetic atmosphere that appear during a kind of space weather called a substorm. Understanding the source of such particles and how they are shuttled through Earth's atmosphere is crucial to better understanding the Sun's complex space weather system and thus protect satellites or even humans in space.

The results show that these speedy electrons gain extra energy from changing magnetic fields far from the origin of the substorm that causes them. THEMIS, which consists of five orbiting satellites, helped provide these insights when three of the spacecraft traveled through a large substorm on February 15, 2008. This allowed scientists to track changes in particle energy over a large distance. The observations were consistent with numerical models showing an increase in energy due to changing magnetic fields, a process known as betatron acceleration.

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NASA REMEMBERS ITS FALLEN HEROES

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger accident, Kennedy Space Center observed NASA's Day of Remembrance, Jan. 27, with a wreath-laying ceremony at the KSC Visitor Complex Space Mirror Memorial. The Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery, including the astronaut crews of Apollo 1 and shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

Kennedy's Center Director Robert Cabana, Deputy Center Director Janet Petro, and United Space Alliance's Associate Program Manager for Solid Rocket Boosters Roger Elliott laid the wreath, inscribed with the words, "Remembering our Fallen Heroes," at the memorial, and observed a moment of silence.

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NEW PROGRAM MOLDS EMERGING NASA LEADERS

A common thread ran through the first graduating class of NASA's Mid-Level Leadership Program.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke to the 2011 Mid-Level Leadership Program graduating class. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith"It was a career-changer, really," said Peter Lillehei, who works in the Advanced Structures and Materials Branch at NASA's Langley Research Center, which hosted the graduation ceremony Friday in the Reid Conference Center in Hampton, Va."Career-changing," echoed Susan McClain, a classmate who works in Langley's procurement office.

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NASA TESTING OF COMMERCIAL ENGINE FLIES HIGH

You see a lot of smiles around the E-1 Test Stand at John C. Stennis Space Center these days. Engineers involved in testing Aerojet's AJ26 rocket engine for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II space launch vehicle have good reason to smile.

In fact, they have several good reasons given that the partnership between NASA, Orbital and Aerojet is off to such an impressive start. Two successful tests of an AJ26 engine that will power the first stage of Orbital's Taurus II rocket recently wrapped up at Stennis. The two tests were so successful that Orbital engineers decided a planned third test was unnecessary. The AJ26 engine used in the testing was removed from the E-1 stand on Jan. 24, and will be returned to Aerojet in Sacramento, Calif. to be refurbished and used on an upcoming Taurus II mission.

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AN ASTRONOMER'S FIELD OF DREAMS

An innovative new radio telescope array under construction in central New Mexico will eventually harness the power of more than 13,000 antennas and provide a fresh eye to the sky. The antennas, which resemble droopy ceiling fans, form the Long Wavelength Array, designed to survey the sky from horizon to horizon over a wide range of frequencies. 

The University of New Mexico leads the project, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides the advanced digital electronic systems, which represent a major component of the observatory. 

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NASA'S HUBBLE FINDS MOST DISTANT GALAXY CANDIDATE EVER SEEN IN UNIVERSE

Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is likely to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object's light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.

The tiny, dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang. More than 100 such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. The new research offers surprising evidence that the rate of star birth in the early universe grew dramatically, increasing by about a factor of 10 from 480 million years to 650 million years after the big bang.

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Headerp one source for all erp solutions

A famous computer based application that manages the internal and external resources of the company is still not much know to people who manage the organization and it is due to lack of awareness in this implementation system. ERP is an abbreviated term for enterprise resource planning and its main purpose is to facilitate flow between business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and this business operation consolidate all business operation into a uniform and wide system environment. This implementation system came into existence in 1980s when software firms has the idea of integrating applications. There are many ERP consultant organizations and their duty is to guide an organization through ERP system.

An ERP consultant represents a contractor, firm or team of consultants that include project management, technical and functional resources. ERP systems integrate all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. It uses the unified database system to store data for various system modules. The business environment is rapidly changing and for any organization, it is impossible to maintain a custom designed software package that caters all their requirements and considering these requirements, the companies have developed erp software that provides integrated solutions to all functional process in an organization. The role of Erp consultant is essential and they ensure an effective implementation of erp system that suits your objectives and implement your demands well on time.

Apart from this the consultants also have some other duties such as imparting education and training to the users of erp system. They ensure that all users get a complete insight of erp process with communication of plans and benefits to the users.  The erp consulting organization will guarantee the success of the project and should be able to show results to the company management.  When you look for an erp consultant organization, look for the consultancy that has experience with working clients in particular industry. ERP software’s are generally designed for companies that work in a wide variety of areas. IT is an industry that combines different elements into a single unit. Manufacturing, human resources and finance are the three most important Erp tools available and each tool has its own merits in the industry.  A company gain many advantages through this software implementation and one of the main benefit is they can save a great deal of money for long term with good improvement in productivity.

Headerp solution pvt ltd is one of the leading sap consulting companies in Chennai with good facilities and implantation of sap system. They also recruit people in Erp functions through their consultancy and they have years of experience in this industry and also provide outsourcing services in IT domains and other domains. They are one of the best sap consultants and provide contract staffing and recruitment in various domains.  Headerp solution pvt ltd assists through their expertise and analyzes the requirements of your business prospective system analysis and documentation. They implement various models and make your objectives to achieve soon.

In chennai, many outsourcing companies are there and headerp solution pvt ltd is one of the best outsourcing and consulting company and provides good services in different fields. HeadERP Solutions pvt Ltd

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HeadERP provides Outsourcing to various companies and also allows companies to focus on other business issues while having the details taken care of our experts. Outsourcing work is often streamlined and it needs world class capabilities and access to new technology and outsourcing is a cost-effective way to start building foundations in other countries. We are one of the leading outsourcing companies and provide implementation and customization services for leading ERP application like SAP, Oracle Application, BaaN and PeopleSoft. HeadERP has talented and dedicated professionals who can implement the client’s software assignment in an effective way.

Many companies have highly benefited with us by our outsourcing work. We accurately assess their needs and we are the concern specialized in services like offshore software development, IT enabled services, Business process and embedded technologies. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision and it this is what we do in our organization. We work as a team and achieve the objectives of your goal in a easy way, but with quality in work.

NASA TESTS NEW PROPULSION SYSTEM FOR ROBOTIC LANDER PROTOTYPE

NASA's Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has completed a series of hot fire tests and taken delivery of a new propulsion system for integration into a more sophisticated free-flying autonomous robotic lander prototype. The project is partnered with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., to develop a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers to achieve scientific and exploration goals on the surface of the moon and near-Earth asteroids. 

The new robotic lander prototype will continue to mature the development of a robotic lander capability by bringing online an autonomous flying test lander that will be capable of flying up to sixty seconds, testing the guidance, navigation and control system by demonstrating a controlled landing in a simulated low gravity environment.

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NASA'S FIRST SOLAR SAIL NANOSAIL-D DEPLOYS IN LOW-EARTH ORBIT

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Friday, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. EST, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite deployed its 100-square-foot polymer sail in low-Earth orbit and is operating as planned. 

Actual deployment occurred on Jan. 20 at 10 p.m. EST and was confirmed today with beacon packets data received from NanoSail-D and additional ground-based satellite tracking assets. In addition, the NanoSail-D orbital parameter data set shows an appropriate change which is consistent with sail deployment. "This is tremendous news and the first time NASA has deployed a solar sail in low-Earth orbit," said Dean Alhorn, NanoSail-D principal investigator and aerospace engineer at the Marshall Center.

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WORF FIRST IMAGE WEB FEATURE

A test photo of British Columbia's snow-capped west coast mountains is the first official image taken from the International Space Station's new Window Observational Research Facility, or WORF. 

The image was taken to test the functionality of the control computer and camera associated with EarthKAM, an educational outreach project that allows Earth bound middle school students to take pictures of our home planet from the unique perspective of the space station, 220 miles above the Earth's surface. WORF was delivered to the station on the STS-131 mission of space shuttle Discovery in April 2010.

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NASA’S GLORY MISSION WILL STUDY KEY PIECES OF THE CLIMATE PUZZLE

Earth’s climate continues to change at a rapid pace. Last week, NASA announced that 2010 was tied as the warmest year on record. Likewise, the last decade was the warmest in the 130-year global temperature record maintained by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City.

Meanwhile, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, engineers are preparing NASA’s next Earth-observing mission  a satellite called Glory for launch in late February. The satellite, which contains two instruments that will monitor key parts of the climate system, aims to offer a new stream of data that climatologists will use as part of an ongoing effort to improve the accuracy of climate models.

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SWIFT SURVEY FINDS 'MISSING' ACTIVE GALAXIES

Seen in X-rays, the entire sky is aglow. Even far away from bright sources, X-rays originating from beyond our galaxy provide a steady glow in every direction. Astronomers have long suspected that the chief contributors to this cosmic X-ray background were dust-swaddled black holes at the centers of active galaxies. The trouble was, too few of them were detected to do the job.

An international team of scientists using data from NASA's Swift satellite confirms the existence of a largely unseen population of black-hole-powered galaxies. Their X-ray emissions are so heavily absorbed that little more than a dozen are known. Yet astronomers say that despite the deeply dimmed X-rays, the sources may represent the tip of the iceberg, accounting for at least one-fifth of all active galaxies.

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NASA SPACECRAFT PREPARES FOR VALENTINE'S DAY COMET RENDEZVOUS

NASA's Stardust-NExT spacecraft is nearing a celestial date with comet Tempel 1 at approximately 8:37 p.m. PST (11:37 p.m. EST), on Feb. 14. The mission will allow scientists for the first time to look for changes on a comet's surface that occurred following an orbit around the sun.

The Stardust-NExT, or New Exploration of Tempel, spacecraft will take high-resolution images during the encounter, and attempt to measure the composition, distribution, and flux of dust emitted into the coma, or material surrounding the comet's nucleus. Data from the mission will provide important new information on how Jupiter-family comets evolved and formed.

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NASA AND OPTIMUS PRIME COLLABORATE TO EDUCATE YOUTH

NASA has opened online voting for the agency's OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award student video contest. The public is invited to vote for its favorite videos, made by students in grades three through eight, developed to help educate America's youth about the benefits of NASA's technologies. 

NASA is using the correlation between Hasbro's TRANSFORMERS property and commercialized agency "spinoffs" to help students understand how technology developed for space and aeronautics "transforms" into what is used on Earth.

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A FIRST LOOK AT FLIGHT IN 2025

In late 2010, NASA awarded contracts to three teams Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman, The Boeing Company  to study advanced concept designs for aircraft that could take to the skies in the year 2025.

At the time of the award, the team gave NASA a sneak peek of the particular design they plan to pursue.Each design looks very different, but all final designs have to meet NASA's goals for less noise, cleaner exhaust and lower fuel consumption. Each aircraft has to be able to do all of those things at the same time, which requires a complex dance of tradeoffs between all of the new advanced technologies that will be on these vehicles.

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THE TWO-FACED WHIRLPOOL GALAXY

These images by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show off two dramatically different face-on views of the spiral galaxy M51, dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy.The image at left, taken in visible light, highlights the attributes of a typical spiral galaxy, including graceful, curving arms, pink star-forming regions, and brilliant blue strands of star clusters.

In the image at right, most of the starlight has been removed, revealing the Whirlpool's skeletal dust structure, as seen in near-infrared light. This new image is the sharpest view of the dense dust in M51. The narrow lanes of dust revealed by Hubble reflect the galaxy's moniker, the Whirlpool Galaxy, as if they were swirling toward the galaxy's core.

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NASA TELESCOPES HELP FIND MOST DISTANT GALAXY CLUSTER

Astronomers have uncovered a burgeoning galactic metropolis, the most distant known in the early universe. This ancient collection of galaxies presumably grew into a modern galaxy cluster similar to the massive ones seen today.

The developing cluster, named COSMOS-AzTEC3, was discovered and characterized by multi-wavelength telescopes, including NASA's Spitzer, Chandra and Hubble space telescopes and the ground-based W.M. Keck Observatory and Japan's Subaru Telescope.

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NASA SATELLITES FIND HIGH-ENERGY SURPRISES IN 'CONSTANT' CRAB NEBULA

The combined data from several NASA satellites has astonished astronomers by revealing unexpected changes in X-ray emission from the Crab Nebula, once thought to be the steadiest high-energy source in the sky.

"For 40 years, most astronomers regarded the Crab as a standard candle," said Colleen Wilson-Hodge, an astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., who presented the findings today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. "Now, for the first time, we're clearly seeing how much our candle flickers."

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IN DISTANT GALAXIES, NEW CLUES TO CENTURY-OLD MOLECULE MYSTERY

In a study that pushes the limits of observations currently possible from Earth, a team of NASA and European scientists recorded the "fingerprints" of mystery molecules in two distant galaxies, Andromeda and the Triangulum. Astronomers can count on one hand the number of galaxies examined so far for such fingerprints, which are thought to belong to large organic molecules, says the team's leader, Martin Cordiner of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Figuring out exactly which molecules are leaving these clues, known as "diffuse interstellar bands" (DIBs), is a puzzle that initially seemed straightforward but has gone unsolved for nearly a hundred years. The answer is expected to help explain how stars, planets and life form, so settling the matter is as important to astronomers who specialize in chemistry and biology as determining the nature of dark matter is to the specialists in physics.

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PLANCK MISSION PEELS BACK LAYERS OF THE UNIVERSE

PASADENA, Calif. The Planck mission released a new data catalogue Tuesday from initial maps of the entire sky. The catalogue includes thousands of never-before-seen dusty cocoons where stars are forming, and some of the most massive clusters of galaxies ever observed. Planck is a European Space Agency mission with significant contributions from NASA

"NASA is pleased to support this important mission, and we have eagerly awaited Planck's first discoveries," said Jon Morse, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "We look forward to continued collaboration with ESA and more outstanding science to come."

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ANDROMEDA IS SO HOT 'N' COLD

This mosaic of the Andromeda spiral galaxy highlights explosive stars in its interior, and cooler, dusty stars forming in its many rings. The image is a combination of observations from the Herschel Space Observatory taken in infrared light (seen in orange hues), and the XMM-Newton telescope captured in X-rays (seen in blues). NASA plays a role in both of these European Space Agency-led missions.

Herschel provides a detailed look at the cool clouds of star birth that line the galaxy's five concentric rings. Massive young stars are heating blankets of dust that surround them, causing them to glow in the longer-wavelength infrared light, known as far-infrared, that Herschel sees.

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Under Pressure: Stormy Weather Sensor for Hurricane Forecasting

It’s hard to believe that, in this day and age, we don’t have a way to measure sea-level air pressure during hurricanes. NASA researchers however, are working on a system that will improve forecasting of severe ocean weather by doing just that. The device measures sea-level air pressure, a critical component of hurricane formation – and one that has been extremely difficult to capture.

The Differential Absorption Barometric Radar (DIABAR) prototype is scheduled to make its second flight early this year.DIABAR remotely senses barometric pressure at sea level, which is important in the prediction and forecasting of severe weather, especially hurricanes over oceans.

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HOTSPOTS IN FOUNTAINS ON THE SUN'S SURFACE HELP EXPLAIN CORONAL HEATING MYSTERY

Among the many constantly moving, appearing, disappearing and generally explosive events in the sun's atmosphere, there exist giant plumes of gas as wide as a state and as long as Earth that zoom up from the sun's surface at 150,000 miles per hour. Known as spicules, these are one of several phenomena known to transfer energy and heat throughout the sun's magnetic atmosphere, or corona.

Thanks to NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Japanese satellite Hinode, these spicules have recently been imaged and measured better than ever before, showing them to contain hotter gas than previously observed. Thus, they may perhaps play a key role in helping to heat the sun's corona to a staggering million degrees or more. (A number made more surprising since the sun's surface itself is only about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.)

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EXTREME PLANET MAKEOVER

The "Extreme Planet Makeover" on the NASA/JPL Planet Quest site lets you roll up your sleeves and create your very own planet

Balance five factors to create an Earth-like habitable world, or get wild and make your own extreme exoplanet. Use the Image Gallery feature to compare your creation with those of other Earthlings. Once you've finished creating the exoplanet of your dreams, download a picture of your custom world for posterity.

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NASA RESEARCH TEAM REVEALS MOON HAS EARTH-LIKE CORE

State-of-the-art seismological techniques applied to Apollo-era data suggest our moon has a core similar to Earth's.

Uncovering details about the lunar core is critical for developing accurate models of the moon's formation. The data sheds light on the evolution of a lunar dynamo a natural process by which our moon may have generated and maintained its own strong magnetic field. The researchers used extensive data gathered during the Apollo-era moon missions. The Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment consisted of four seismometers deployed between 1969 and 1972, which recorded continuous lunar seismic activity until late-1977.

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HINODE OBSERVES ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE

On January 4, the Hinode satellite captured these breathtaking images of an annular solar eclipse.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon, slightly more distant from Earth than on average, moves directly between Earth and the sun, thus appearing slightly smaller to observers' eyes; the effect is a bright ring, or annulus of sunlight, around the silhouette of the moon. Hinode, a Japanese mission in partnership with NASA, NAOJ, STFC, ESA, and NSC, currently in Earth orbit, is studying the Sun to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that power the solar atmosphere and drive solar eruptions.

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ROVER WILL SPEND 7TH BIRTHDAY AT STADIUM-SIZE CRATER

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a Dec. 31, 2010, view of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the southwestern rim of a football-field-size crater called "Santa Maria."

Opportunity arrived at the western edge of Santa Maria crater in mid-December and will spend about two months investigating rocks there. That investigation will take Opportunity into the beginning of its eighth year on Mars. Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 24, Pacific Time) for a mission originally planned to last for three months.

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