Questions and Answers about
NASA
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in ScienceWhat cosmic treasure is contained in this NASA container, recently opened after a stellar journey?
Answer: These samples were gathered by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which embarked on its grand cosmic adventure on Sept. 8, 2016. OSIRIS-REx made history on Oct. 20, 2020, by grabbing a piece of the space rock. The Sample Return Capsule landed back on Earth, specifically in Utah, on Sept. 24, 2023.
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in SpaceWhat was NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s primary mission?
Answer: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft embarked on a seven-year mission to explore the asteroid Bennu. Its primary goal was to collect samples of the asteroid’s rocky fragments and dust and safely return them to Earth. These samples, believed to be around 4.6 billion years old, will provide invaluable insights into the early solar system.
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in SpaceWhere was the first place outside Earth where scientists detected phosphorus?
Answer: Scientists found traces of phosphorus in water plumes squirting through the ice crust of Enceladus, a tiny ocean-bearing moon that orbits Saturn. The discovery was announced in June 2023, based on 2008 data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Enceladus has all six elements needed for life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and, apparently, phosphorus in…
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in ScienceWhat is the cosmic dawn?
Answer: The cosmic dawn is what astronomers call the time when galaxies first formed in the universe, about 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently spotted six massive galaxies from this era that are so huge they shouldn’t exist. As reported on Feb. 22, 2023, these…
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in SpaceWhat’s Stephan’s Quintet?
Answer: Stephan’s Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies best known for being featured in the classic holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The Quintet was part of the first batch of images released from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.
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in ScienceWhat’s a solar flare?
Answer: Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy from the Sun. According to NASA, flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of a mid-level solar flare on Jan. 20, 2022.
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in SpaceWhat’s NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope?
Answer: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope, successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The $10-billion observatory rocketed from French Guiana on South America’s northeastern coast on Dec. 25, 2021. The Webb Telescope is on a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) search to find light from the first…
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in SpaceWhere is the Red Velvet crater?
Answer: The Red Velvet crater is a 4 km-wide crater in Mars’s north polar region of Vastitas Borealis. The crater is partially filled with water ice. The dark material on the crater rim likely consists of volcanic materials such as basalt, giving the Marsian crater its red velvety look. The image was taken Jul. 5, 2021,…
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in ScienceWho is Jessica Watkins?
Answer: Jessica Watkins, 33, is the first Black woman to live and work at the International Space Station. She will join a SpaceX crew-4 mission after April 2022, marking her first flight into space. More answers inside!
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in ScienceWhat’s the 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor skeleton’s name, found in Ethiopia in 1974?
The name Lucy was given to a 3.2 million-year-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in 1974. An expedition member suggested naming the skeleton after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” played at the team camp repeatedly during the night of the discovery.
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in TVWhich TV channel launched in 1981 with NASA footage of the historic moon landing?
NASA footage of the historic Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969, with footage of the 1981 launch countdown of the Columbia space shuttle, and the MTV flag, were the first images to appear on MTV when it launched, on August 1, 1981. The moon landing images were shown right before airing the then…
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in ScienceWhere is Utopia Planitia?
Utopia Planitia (loosely, the plain of paradise) is the largest recognized impact basin on Mars, with an estimated diameter of 3300 km – The Martian region where the Viking 2 lander touched down and began exploring on September 3, 1976._x000D_
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in ScienceWhat’s in the center of this galaxy?
You’re looking at the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3254. Seyfert galaxies have a supermassive black hole in them._x000D_
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in ScienceWho are Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi?
Crew-1 commander Michael Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi were the astronauts on the first operational flight of SpaceX’s space taxi SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience._x000D_
