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Everything that happens on the International Space Station revolves around one thing: Earth, sixteen times a day! So for Earth Day 2021, NASA offers a gift you can’t get anywhere else with this leisurely view of our home planet, from 250 miles up, rendered in extraordinary ultra-high definition video. Hit play, relax and enjoy. This 4K footage was recorded between 2019 and 2020.

Paul Smith is a night-sky fanatic and photographer. His obsession is sprites: immense jolts of light that flicker high above thunderstorms. Last October, he guided NASA scientist Dr. Burcu Kosar through the backroads of Oklahoma to catch one herself. Although she’d studied sprites for more than 15 years, she hadn’t yet chased one.

Moon phases are the different stages the Moon goes through as it orbits the Earth. These phases are a result of the changing relative positions of the Moon, Earth, and the Sun. The lunar cycle takes about 29.5 days to complete, leading to the familiar sequence of moonlit appearances in the night sky. Moon Phases: In the Northern Hemisphere, the Moon goes through the following phases during 2022: New Moon: Date: January 2, January 31, March 2, March 31, April 30, May 30, June 28, July 28, August 26, September 24, October 24, November 23, December 22. Description: The side of the Moon facing Earth is not illuminated by the Sun, making it appear completely dark. It rises and sets roughly with the Sun. Waxing Crescent: Description: A small, illuminated portion of the Moon becomes visible shortly after sunset in the western sky. The crescent shape gradually becomes more prominent as days pass. First Quarter (Half Moon): Date: January 9, February 7, March 9, April 7, May 7, June 5, July 5, August 3, September 2, October 1, October 31, November 30, December 29. Description: The right half of the Moon is illuminated and visible in the evening sky. It's often referred to as a half moon. Waxing Gibbous: Description: More than half, but not yet fully, of the Moon is illuminated. The illuminated part continues to grow, leading up to the full moon. Full Moon: Date: January 17, February 15, March 17, April 16, May 15, June 14, July 13, August 12, September 10, October 9, November 8, December 7. Description: The entire side of the Moon facing Earth is fully illuminated by the Sun. It rises as the Sun sets and is visible throughout the night. Waning Gibbous: Description: The illuminated portion starts to decrease after the full moon, slowly transitioning back to a crescent shape. Last Quarter (Half Moon): Date: January 24, February 22, March 24, April 22, May 21, June 20, July 19, August 18, September 17, October 16, November 15, December 14. Description: The left half of the Moon is illuminated, and it appears as a half moon in the morning sky. Waning Crescent: Description: A small, shrinking crescent of the Moon becomes visible in the eastern sky before sunrise. It gets thinner each day until it eventually becomes a new moon again. Conclusion: Observing the Moon phases can be a fascinating way to understand the dynamics of our solar system. Each phase has its own beauty and significance, contributing to the ever-changing celestial panorama we can witness from the Northern Hemisphere throughout 2022.

A new Earth science mission, led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatulas (CNES), will help communities plan for a better future by surveying the planet’s salt and freshwater bodies. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will measure the height of water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the oceans. As climate change accelerates the water cycle, more communities around the world will be inundated with water while others won’t have enough. SWOT data will be used to improve flood forecasts and monitor drought conditions, providing essential information to water management agencies, civil engineers, universities, the U.S. Department of Defense, disaster preparedness agencies, and others who need to track water in their local areas. In this video, examples of how SWOT data will be used in these communities are shared by a National Weather Service representative in Oregon, an Alaska Department of Transportation engineer, researchers from the University of Oregon and University of North Carolina, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist working with the Department of Defense, and a JPL scientist working with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Agency. :30 - Flood Watches & Warnings - Portland, Oregon 1:08 - Water Management - Fern Ridge Lake, Oregon 2:05 - Protecting Infrastructure - Alaska 2:54 - National Security - Department of Defense 3:24 - Coastal Protection - Mississippi River Delta SWOT is expected to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in December 2022. The mission is a collaboration between NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and UK Space Agency. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project

This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system. With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection. While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments. SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe. The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Editor This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines. Video Description: On the left side of the frame is the full circle of the Sun. It appears in a golden yellow color, but splotchy and with thin yellow wisps extending from the surface. Some areas are very bright and others almost black. The whole Sun rotates steadily, with one full rotation taking 12 minutes in this time lapse. There are usually only a few bright regions visible at a time and they shift and flash like small fires. From these regions there are wispy loops reaching up above the surface that rapidly change shape and size. On the right side of the frame are two white-outlined squares with enlargements of interesting regions of the Sun.

This trend just took my hole night to get done