NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

June 10, 2025

Enceladus in True Color

Do oceans under the ice of Saturn's moon Enceladus contain life? A reason to think so involves long features some dubbed tiger stripes that are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space. These surface cracks create clouds of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and create Saturn's mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown in true color from a close flyby. The deep crevasses are partly shadowed. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size, appears quite dead. An analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules exist inside Enceladus. These large carbon-rich molecules bolster but do not prove that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain life.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Close watch on weather at NASA's Florida spaceport ahead of Axiom-4 launch

Tuesday, 10 June 2025

SpaceX, NASA and Axiom Space are closely watching weather patterns at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida where Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others look forward to their travel to the International Space Station (ISS), now scheduled for Wednesday.

Addressing a pre-launch press conference, SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier said engineers had fixed some snags in the Falcon-9 rocket that were discovered during the static fire test and had gone unnoticed during the post-flight refurbishment of boosters.

The Axiom-4 commercial mission to the ISS had to be put off by a day to Wednesday evening due to inclement weather conditions in the flight path of the SpaceX rocket that would lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Gerstenmaier said engineers had discovered a locks leak that was previously seen on the booster during its entry on the last mission and was not fully repaired during the refurbishment.

"We are continuing to troubleshoot that. We should get that completed today and we will have that back in configuration. We are installing a purge that will essentially mitigate the leak if it still continues… On the launch day," he said.

Gerstenmaier said engineers also discovered an engine 5 thrust vector control problem and the components associated with that have already been changed.

"We will be complete with all our work this (Tuesday) evening and we will be ready to support launch as early as Wednesday," he said.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan said on Monday that due to weather conditions, the launch of the Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to the ISS was postponed from June 10 to June 11.

"The targeted time of launch is 5:30 PM IST on 11th June 2025," Narayanan said in a post on X on Monday.

Jimmy Tager, the Launch Weather Officer, 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force, said there was surface high pressure to the south east of central Florida, which typically produces south west flow across the area.

"Now over the next couple of days, the surface high pressure is going to move further towards the north and that is going to switch our primary flow towards the south east.

South east flow does tend to create some more isolated scattered showers to thundershowers in the morning time," he said.

He added that even though the Probability of Violation (POV) was lower for the initial attempt (June 10), for the next attempt on Wednesday, the POV does increase to 20 per cent.

"And as we get to Thursday (June 12), the backup opportunity POV increases a little bit more to about 25 per cent. So though it is on the lower end, it does look like there could be a possibility of isolated scattered thunderstorms near the area at the launch time," Tager said.

"But for the ascent corridor, even though the winds are pretty strong right now, it does look like winds are going to be improving over the next couple of days. As we get to Wednesday, winds will be even better, and Thursday, even better than Wednesday," he added.

Dana Weigel, Manager, International Space Station Programme, NASA, said that there are launch opportunities till June 30. She was responding to questions on the launch window for the Axiom-4 mission due to unfavourable weather conditions.

"I think we will have the vehicle ready, the crews trained and the cargo loaded. I think we're ready from a hardware standpoint.

It is just kind of waiting for the weather to get there. In terms of launch opportunities, we have launch opportunities all the way through June 30," Weigel said.

She said the Russian cargo vehicle 'Progress' will undock from the ISS later and a new one will dock for which there would be a brief cut-off for other launches.

"Then, we have a brief cut-off for high Solar Beta. Then we pick up again like in the middle of July. So, plenty of opportunities to fly the vehicle," Weigel said.

The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission comprises Commander Peggy Whitson, pilot Shukla and specialists Tigor Kapu of Hungary and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland.

The 14-day mission will "realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary.

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2025/trending-news/close-watch-on-weather-at-nasa-s-florida-spaceport-ahead-of-axiom-4-launch.html

Comet-Catching NASA Technology Enables Exotic Works of Art

Jun 09, 2025

Consisting of 99% air, aerogel is the world’s lightest solid. This unique material has found purpose in several forms — from NASA missions to high fashion.

Driven by the desire to create a 3D cloud, Greek artist Ioannis Michaloudis learned to use aerogel as an artistic medium.

His journey spanning more than 25 years took him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge; Shivaji University in Maharashtra, India; and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

A researcher at MIT introduced Michaloudis to aerogel after hearing of his cloud-making ambition, and he was immediately intrigued.

Aerogel is made by combining a polymer with a solvent to create a gel and flash-drying it under pressure, leaving a solid filled with microscopic pores.

Scientists at JPL chose aerogel in the mid-1990s to enable the Stardust mission, with the idea that a porous surface could capture particles while flying on a probe behind a comet.

Aerogel worked in lab tests, but it was difficult to manufacture consistently and needed to be made space-worthy.

NASA JPL hired materials scientist Steve Jones to develop a flight-ready aerogel, and he eventually got funding for an aerogel lab.

The Stardust mission succeeded, and when Michaloudis heard of it, he reached out to JPL, where Jones invited him to the lab.

Now retired, Jones recalled, “I went through the primer on aerogel with him, the different kinds you could make and their different properties.”

The size of Jones’ reactor, enabling it to make large objects, impressed Michaloudis. With tips on how to safely operate a large reactor, he outfitted his own lab with one.

In India, Michaloudis learned recipes for aerogels that can be molded into large objects and don’t crack or shrink during drying. His continued work with aerogels has created an extensive art portfolio.

Michaloudis has had more than a dozen solo exhibitions. All his artwork involves aerogel, drawing attention with its unusual qualities. An ethereal, translucent blue, it casts an orange shadow and can withstand molten metals.

In 2020, Michaloudis created a quartz-encapsulated aerogel pendant for the centerpiece of that year’s collection from French jewelry house Boucheron. Michaloudis also captured the fashion and design world’s attention with a handbag made of aerogel, unveiled at Coperni’s 2024 fall collection debut.

NASA was a crucial step along the way. “I am what I am, and we made what we made thanks to the Stardust project,” said Michaloudis.

https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/comet-catching-nasa-technology-enables-exotic-works-of-art/

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Aerogel_Art_Attracts_Attention

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/earth-science/nasas-tropics-mission-offering-detailed-images-and-analysis-of-tropical-cyclones/

https://proceedingsoftheieee.ieee.org/satellite-remote-sensing-of-the-earth/

https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA’s TROPICS Mission: Offering Detailed Images and Analysis of Tropical Cyclones

Jun 09, 2025

Introduction

Tropical cyclones represent a danger to life, property, and the economies of communities.

Researchers who study tropical cyclones have focused on remote observations using space-based platforms to image these storms, inform forecasts, better predict landfall, and improve understanding of storm dynamics and precipitation evolution – see Figure 1.

The tropical cyclone community has leveraged data from Earth observing platforms for more than 30 years.

These data have been retrieved from numerous instruments including: the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)–Series R satellites; the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI); the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI); the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite (DMSP) satellites; the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on Aqua; AMSR2 on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission–Water (GCOM-W) mission; the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on Aqua and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on the NASA–NOAA Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), NOAA-20, and NOAA-21; the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua platforms; and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP, as well as on the first two Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) missions (i.e., NOAA-20 and NOAA-21).

Despite having decades of data at their disposal, scientists lack data from instruments placed in low-inclination orbits that provide more frequent views within tropical regions.

This limitation is especially pronounced in the tropical and subtropical latitudes, which is where tropical storms develop and intensify.

The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) grew from the Precipitation and All-weather Temperature and Humidity (PATH) to address a need for obtaining three-dimensional (3D) temperature and humidity measurements as well as precipitation with a temporal revisit rate of one hour or better – see Figure 2.

TROPICS uses multiple small satellites flying in a carefully engineered formation to obtain rapid revisits of measurements of precipitation structure within the storms, as well as temperature and humidity profiles, both within and outside of the storms, including the intensity of the upper-level warm core.

In addition, the instruments provide a median revisit time of about one hour. The data gathered also informs changes in storm track and intensity and provides data to improve weather prediction models.

The imagery is focused on inner storm structure (near 91 and 205 GHz), temperature soundings (near 118 GHz), and moisture soundings (near 183 GHz).

Spatial resolution at nadir is approximately 24 km (16.8 mi) for temperature and 17 km (10.6 mi) for moisture and precipitation, covering a swath of approximately 2000 km (1243 mi) in width.

Researchers can use TROPICS data to create hundreds of high-resolution images of tropical cyclones throughout their lifecycle.

This article provides an overview of the two years of successful science operations of TROPICS, with a focus on the suite of geophysical Level-2 (L2) products (e.g., atmospheric vertical temperature and moisture profiles, instantaneous surface rain rate, and tropical cyclone intensity) and the science investigations resulting from these measurements.

The complete article, available in the Proceedings of the IEEE: Special Issue on Satellite Remote Sensing of the Earth, provides more comprehensive details of the results.

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From Pathfinder to Constellation

A single TROPICS satellite was launched as a Pathfinder vehicle on June 30, 2021, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.

TROPICS was originally conceived as a six-satellite constellation, with two satellites launched into each of three low-inclination orbits. Regrettably, the first launch, on June 22, 2022, aboard an Astra Rocket 3.3, failed to reach orbit.

While unfortunate, the mission could still proceed with four satellites and meet its baseline revisit rate requirement (with no margin), with the silver lining of an extra year of data gathered from TROPICS Pathfinder that allowed the tropical cyclone research community to prepare and test communications systems and data processing algorithms before the launch of the four remaining constellation satellites.

These satellites were deployed on two separate launches – May 8, 2023 and May 26, 2023 – aboard a Rocket Lab launch vehicle. The early testing accelerated calibration and validation for the constellation.

Collecting Data Critical to Understanding Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclone investigations require rapid quantitative observations to create 2D storm structure information.

The four radiance data products in the TROPICS constellation [i.e., antenna temperature (L1a), brightness temperature (L1b), unified brightness temperature, and regularized scan pattern and limb-adjusted brightness temperature (L1c)] penetrate below the cloud top to gather data at greater frequency for a lower cost than current operational systems.

The constellation data has been used to evaluate the development of the warm core and evolution of the ice water path within storms – two indicators of storm formation and subsequent changes in intensity.

The upper-level warm core is key to tropical cyclone development and intensification.

Precipitation may instigate rapid intensification through convective bursts that are characterized by expanding cold cloud tops, increasing ice scattering, lightning, and towers of intense rain and ice water that are indicative of strong updrafts.

TROPICS frequencies provide a wealth of information on scattering by precipitation-sized ice particles in the eyewall and rainbands that will allow for researchers to track the macrostructure of convective bursts in tropical cyclones across the globe.

In addition, TROPICS data helps clarify how variations in environmental humidity around tropical cyclones affect storm structure and intensification.

Upper-level Warm Core

Analysis of the upper-level warm core of a tropical cyclone reveals valuable information about the storm’s development.

The tropical cyclone community is using data from TROPICS to understand the processes that lead to precipitating ice structure and the role it plays in intensification – see Figure 3.

While the warm core has been studied for decades, TROPICS provides a new opportunity to get high-revisit rate estimates of the atmospheric vertical temperature profile.

By pairing the temperature profile with the atmospheric vertical moisture profile, researchers can define the relative humidity in the lower-to-middle troposphere, which is critical to understanding the impact of dry environmental air on storm evolution and structure.

Ice Water Path and Precipitation

Another variable that helps to provide insight into the development of tropical cyclones is the ice water path, which details the total mass of ice present in a vertical column of the atmosphere and is therefore useful for characterizing the structure and intensity of these storms.

Increasing ice water path can reflect strengthening convection within a storm and thereby can be an indicator of likely intensification – see Figure 4.

TROPICS is the first spaceborne sensor equipped with a 205 GHz channel that, along with the traditional 89, 118, and 183 GHz channels, is more sensitive to detecting precipitation-sized ice particles.

In addition, the TROPICS Precipitation Retrieval and Profiling Scheme (PRPS) provides an estimate of precipitation.

This scheme is based solely on the satellite radiances linked to precipitation rates, which can be used to generate products across time scales, from near-real-time to climatological scales.

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Collaborations and TROPICS Data in Action

To evaluate and enhance the data gathered by TROPICS, the TROPICS application team enlisted the assistance of operational weather forecasters that formed the TROPICS Early Adopters program.

In 2018, the program connected the application team to stakeholders interested in using TROPICS data for research, forecasting, and decision making. This collaboration improved approaches to diagnose and predict tropical cyclones.

For example, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) found that the new TROPICS channel at 204.8 GHz offered the best approach to capture convective storm structure, followed by the more traditionally used 91-GHz channel.

In addition, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has been using TROPICS data to center-fix tropical cyclones and identify cloud formations.

In particular, the JTWC team found that the 91 GHz channel was most useful for identifying cloud structure. Both NHC and JTWC found the TROPICS high revisit rate to be beneficial.

In 2024, the TROPICS applications team developed the TROPICS Satellite Validation Module as part of the NOAA Hurricane Research Division’s annual Advancing the Prediction of Hurricanes Experiment (APHEX).

The module coordinated data collection from NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft beneath TROPICS satellite overpasses to provide data to calibrate and validate TROPICS temperature, moisture, and precipitation measurements.

Using this approach, the Hurricane Hunter team tracked Hurricane Ernesto over the central North Atlantic on August 15 and 16, 2024, and used the data to characterize the environment of Ernesto’s rain bands – see Figure 5.

In addition, the team used TROPICS observations in combination with GPM constellation precipitation estimates to characterize the lifecycle of Hurricane Franklin, which formed on August 19, 2023, and underwent a period of rapid intensification about eight days later.

Intensification of the storm, in particular the period of rapid intensification (45 knot increase in maximum winds in 24 hours), occurred in association with a decrease in environmental vertical wind shear, a contraction of the radius of maximum precipitation, and an increase in the precipitation rate. Intensification ended with the formation of secondary rainbands and an outward shift in the radius of maximum precipitation.

Conclusion

TROPICS data offer the potential for improving forecasts from numerical weather prediction models and operational forecasts using its high spatial resolution and high revisit rates that enable enhanced characterization of tropical cyclones globally.

To date, the TROPICS mission has produced a high-quality aggregate data record spanning 10 billion observations and 10 satellite years, using relatively low-cost microwave sounder constellations. All L1 (i.e., radiances) and L2 (i.e., geophysical products) data products and Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents are available to the general public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).

The GES DISC data discussed in this article include L1 and L2 products for TROPICS-1, TROPICS-3, TROPICS-5, and TROPICS-6.

TROPICS data has aided hurricane track forecasting for multiple storms as forecasters have used the data at multiple operational tropical cyclone forecast centers.

Data gathered by TROPICS will soon be complemented by multiple commercial constellations that are coming online to improve the revisit rate and performance.

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NASA’s Chandra Sees Surprisingly Strong Black Hole Jet at Cosmic “Noon”

Jun 09, 2025

A black hole has blasted out a surprisingly powerful jet in the distant universe, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and discussed in our latest press release.

This jet exists early enough in the cosmos that it is being illuminated by the leftover glow from the big bang itself.

Astronomers used Chandra and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study this black hole and its jet at a period they call “cosmic noon,” which occurred about three billion years after the universe began.

During this time most galaxies and supermassive black holes were growing faster than at any other time during the history of the universe.

The main graphic is an artist’s illustration showing material in a disk that is falling towards a supermassive black hole. A jet is blasting away from the black hole towards the upper right, as Chandra detected in the new study.

The black hole is located 11.6 billion light-years from Earth when the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the leftover glow from the big bang, was much denser than it is now.

As the electrons in the jets fly away from the black hole, they move through the sea of CMB radiation and collide with microwave photons.

These collisions boost the energy of the photons up into the X-ray band (purple and white), allowing them to be detected by Chandra even at this great distance, which is shown in the inset.

Researchers, in fact, identified and then confirmed the existence of two different black holes with jets over 300,000 light-years long. The two black holes are 11.6 billion and 11.7 billion light-years away from Earth, respectively.

Particles in one jet are moving at between 95% and 99% of the speed of light (called J1405+0415) and in the other at between 92% and 98% of the speed of light (J1610+1811).

The jet from J1610+1811 is remarkably powerful, carrying roughly half as much energy as the intense light from hot gas orbiting the black hole.

The team was able to detect these jets despite their great distances and small separation from the bright, growing supermassive black holes — known as “quasars” — because of Chandra’s sharp X-ray vision, and because the CMB was much denser then than it is now, enhancing the energy boost described above.

When quasar jets approach the speed of light, Einstein’s theory of special relativity creates a dramatic brightening effect. Jets aimed toward Earth appear much brighter than those pointed away.

The same brightness astronomers observe can come from vastly different combinations of speed and viewing angle. A jet racing at near-light speed but angled away from us can appear just as bright as a slower jet pointed directly at Earth.

The researchers developed a novel statistical method that finally cracked this challenge of separating effects of speed and of viewing angle.

Their approach recognizes a fundamental bias: astronomers are more likely to discover jets pointed toward Earth simply because relativistic effects make them appear brightest.

They incorporated this bias using a modified probability distribution, which accounts for how jets oriented at different angles are detected in surveys.

Their method works by first using the physics of how jet particles scatter the CMB to determine the relationship between jet speed and viewing angle.

Then, instead of assuming all angles are equally likely, they apply the relativistic selection effect: jets beamed toward us (smaller angles) are overrepresented in our catalogs.

By running ten thousand simulations that match this biased distribution to their physical model, they could finally determine the most probable viewing angles: about 9 degrees for J1405+0415 and 11 degrees for J1610+1811.

These results were presented by Jaya Maithil (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian) at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, AK, and are also being published in The Astrophysical Journal.

A preprint is available here. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-chandra-sees-surprisingly-strong-black-hole-jet-at-cosmic-noon/

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09676

NASA astronaut’s first ISS time-lapse is a real stunner

June 9, 2025 9:15 PM

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has shared his first-ever time-lapse from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — and it’s a real stunner.

The dramatic 68-second clip shows a changing view of Earth as the space-based facility orbits our planet at an altitude of about 250 miles.

“My first time-lapse,” Kim wrote in a social media post that included the video (below). Kim said he managed to nail it thanks to some time-lapse tips shared by fellow astronaut Nichole Ayers.

“After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing,” Kim wrote. “Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a catch.

And after catching my first fish, I think I’m hooked.”

The video shows the space station flying into the night, with city lights in Asia and Australia visible far below, and bright stars shining in the far distance.

A short while later, a gorgeous aurora appears over the horizon before filling much of the frame. Toward the end of the clip, one of the station’s solar arrays also come into view.

Auroras are natural light displays in Earth’s sky, caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere.

While also viewable from parts of Earth, astronauts on the ISS can also enjoy a unique view of this natural wonder. Indeed, for most astronauts, witnessing auroras is one of the highlights of their time in orbit.

Earlier this year, another NASA astronaut, Don Pettit, shared a dramatic view of an aurora, captured as the ISS flew directly over it.

Kim arrived at the space station with two Russian cosmonauts after launching aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in April this year.

With another four months of his mission left to run, hopefully the American will have time to create more clips similar to his first outstanding effort.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/space/nasa-astronauts-first-iss-time-lapse-is-a-real-stunner/

https://twitter.com/JonnyKimUSA/status/1931076458304385343

NASA Spots Dramatic Shrinkage in Africa: Major Water Source on the Brink of Extinction

June 9, 2025 05:48 PM ET

NASA became the latest agency to offer its employees an opportunity to accept a deferred resignation as a form of a buyout, a move the agency said will help reduce its headcount.

Eligible employees will also have access to early retirement and regular buyout payments, an agency spokesperson said.

While the deferred resignation offers at all agencies to date placed employees on paid administrative leave through Sept. 30, NASA’s new offer—which takes effect much later than its predecessors—would keep employees on the rolls through Jan. 9, 2026.

The Trump administration is pushing to dramatically slash the space agency’s budget and is expected to significantly cut its workforce, even as it hopes to avoid layoffs.

“Looking ahead, we’re taking steps to streamline operations and ensure we're aligned with mission priorities,” acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro said in a message to staff on Friday.

“Starting next week, we'll introduce voluntary separation tools, including a new Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to help manage workforce transitions thoughtfully and transparently.”

She added that despite the cuts to the workforce, NASA would “remain focused on maintaining the technical excellence and capability our mission demands.”

Petro appears likely to remain as NASA’s acting leader for the foreseeable future, as President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead the agency.

Elon Musk originally suggested Isaacman for the role, but Trump allegedly soured on the pick over the entrepreneur’s previous donations to Democrats.

Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokesperson, said the separation incentive offers went out to all civil servants at the agency but eligibility would ultimately depend on each employee’s situation.

“NASA is continuing its phased approach to streamline its workforce and reduce its overall headcount,” Warner said.

“This affords employees the opportunity to depart while ensuring the agency remains fully capable to pursue its mission.”

Some employees deemed to be filling a critical need will not begin their paid leave until April 1, 2026 and will depart the agency on Sept. 30 of that year.

Leaders at facilities such as Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland have told employees they already expected to lose 18% of staff before accounting for additional incentives.

The first round of deferred resignations, the ongoing hiring freeze and historical attrition rates would lead to such a reduction, they said.

Those same officials have said they are hopeful to avoid large-scale reductions in force.

In his fiscal 2026 budget proposal, Trump suggested slashing NASA’s budget by 24% and cutting 29% of its workforce.

The latter reductions would be among the most significant of any large federal agency under Trump’s blueprint.

NASA has already gone through one round of RIFs: the agency closed its Office of the Chief Scientist and the Office of Technology Policy and Strategy and sent RIF notices to their roughly 20 employees on March 10.

The latter office included the Office of the Chief Economist, which helped NASA increase engagement with commercial space companies and understand the economic potential of space.

Petro told staff at the time the cuts were “difficult adjustments,” but the agency viewed them as “an opportunity to reshape our workforce.”

https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/06/nasa-renews-its-push-slash-its-workforce/405937/

>>23153591

Made a boo boo. Wrong headline. Should be

NASA renews its push to slash its workforce

Proper headline and article

https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/06/nasa-spots-dramatic-shrinkage-in-africa/

NASA Spots Dramatic Shrinkage in Africa: Major Water Source on the Brink of Extinction

June 9, 2025 05:48 PM ET

Lake Chad, once one of the largest natural lakes in the world, has seen a dramatic decline in its size over the past several decades.

The lake, straddling the borders of Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon, was a critical source of water for millions of people and a hub for agriculture, fishing, and trade.

However, due to a combination of droughts, climate change, and increasing demand for water, Lake Chad is rapidly shrinking, leading to widespread economic and environmental impacts across the region.

In this article, we will explore the past, present, and future of this vital body of water, drawing insights from NASA Earth Observatory’s observations, including recent imagery that reveals the lake’s diminished waters and fragile wetlands.

The Shocking Decline of Lake Chad

Lake Chad was once one of the largest freshwater bodies in Africa, but over the past 60 years, it has lost more than 90% of its surface area.

According to NASA, “Ongoing droughts and the rising demand for fresh water have shrunk the lake to less than a tenth of the area it covered in the middle of the last century.”

This dramatic shrinkage has turned the vast expanse of water into a fragmented series of wetlands and scattered pools, altering the entire ecosystem and threatening the livelihoods of millions of people dependent on it.

In the early 1960s, Lake Chad covered an area of roughly 25,000 square kilometers. Today, that size has been reduced to less than 2,000 square kilometers, a change that has led to a cascade of consequences for the region.

The shrinking lake is a result of several factors, including climate change, which has brought about changes in rainfall patterns, and human activities like irrigation and overfishing.

These conditions have made the region increasingly vulnerable to water scarcity, food insecurity, and conflict.

Environmental and Ecological Impact

The ecological toll of the lake’s shrinkage is staggering. As the waters recede, ecosystems that once thrived around the lake have been decimated.

Fish populations, vital for both local economies and food security, have been severely impacted by the shrinking water levels and overfishing.

Species such as tilapia, catfish, and Nile perch have seen a dramatic reduction in numbers, disrupting the local fishing industry that many communities depend on for survival.

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Moreover, the changing conditions have had a significant impact on wildlife in the region.

The wetlands surrounding the lake once served as vital habitats for migratory birds, including species like herons, storks, and geese, which use the lake as a stopover on their migration routes.

With the lake shrinking, these birds are increasingly struggling to find suitable habitats. Mammals, too, face challenges; hippos and antelope species, once abundant in the region, now face habitat loss due to the shrinking floodplains and wetlands.

Historical Record: A Glimpse Into Lake Chad’s Past

The dramatic transformation of Lake Chad has been documented through NASA’s astronaut photography, which has captured the lake over the past several decades.

A key turning point in the visual record occurred during the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, when an astronaut aboard the spacecraft captured an image of the lake as one large body of water.

This photo showed the vastness of Lake Chad in its prime, before the impact of environmental changes started to take hold.

By 1982, NASA recorded another photograph from the Space Shuttle mission STS-5, which revealed the first signs of the lake’s receding water levels and the growing presence of sand dunes around its perimeter.

As the decades passed, the shrinking lake became increasingly visible in satellite images, with 2015’s photograph from Expedition 42 on the International Space Station capturing the lake’s reduced size and fragmented wetlands.

This image, showing the lake in dark green, blue, and brown, starkly contrasts with the surrounding sandy land, highlighting the ongoing environmental changes.

The Geopolitical Implications of Lake Chad’s Decline

Lake Chad is not only a geographic and ecological landmark; it is also a political and economic focal point for the region.

The lake serves as a vital resource for the four countries it borders, and its shrinking has exacerbated tensions and conflict, particularly in areas where water scarcity is already a pressing issue.

The insurgency led by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria has displaced millions of people and further complicated efforts to manage and protect the fragile ecosystem of Lake Chad.

As the water recedes, competition for the remaining resources—primarily water and fertile land—has intensified. Local communities have faced increasing challenges, and food insecurity has become a growing concern.

This has led to both internal and cross-border tensions, as local groups vie for access to the lake’s diminishing resources.

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Deadly Tornado's Impact on Kentucky So Big It's Visible From Space

Updated Jun 10, 2025 at 10:46 AM EDT

The path of a recent tornado that tore across the state of Kentucky has been photographed from above, revealing the massive scar it left across the land.

On May 16, a deadly tornado ravaged three counties in Kentucky, taking 20 lives, destroying hundreds of houses and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake just over 55 miles long and up to a mile wide.

The image of the devastation was captured the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) instrument aboard NASA's Landsat 9 Earth-imaging satellite.

The track of the twister was made particularly clear in the images as it passed through the Daniel Boone National Forest, where it ripped up trees in its path

According to NASA and the National Weather Service (NWS), the tornado was one of the strongest ever recorded in the area, peaking at a four on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale.

This is the second-highest ranking on the scale, with three-second gusts between 166 to 200 miles per hour. In fact, the tornado in question was estimated to have reached speeds as high as 170 miles per hour.

The Kentucky tornado was part of a severe weather outbreak over several days which hit multiple states, including Alabama, Kansas, Missouri and Virginia.

At least 20 people were killed in Kentucky alone, with the office of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear reporting that 17 people died in Laurel County, one in McCracken County, one in Pulaski County and one in Russell County.

"This is another incredibly tough time for Kentucky. And it's another reminder that life is short and it's our duty to be kind and do good. As always—we will get through this together."

A 2024 study on the National Land Cover Database (which is based on Landsat observations) has found that tornado damage to forests in the southeastern U.S. is on the rise, despite a slight decrease in tornado activity across the states as a whole.

https://www.newsweek.com/kentucky-satellite-image-nasa-tornado-weather-2083371

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168192324001023?via%3Dihub

>>23153675

In the article and on X the video shows 1:08. When you throw it into the twitter/x video downloader, it trimmed a second off of it.

I don't know why it does that. Happens a lot with youtube videos too.