Image of The Day

X-ray Clues Reveal Destroyed Planet

In about 5 billion years, our Sun will run out of fuel and expand, possibly engulfing Earth. These end stages of a star’s life can be utterly beautiful – as is the case with this planetary nebula called the Helix Nebula. Astronomers study these objects by looking at all kinds of light. This images show X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (magenta), optical light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (orange, light blue), infrared data from the European Southern Observatory VISTA telescope (gold, dark blue), and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple) of the Helix Nebula.

Browse NASA Image Archive

The Incredible ASIM: Distant galaxy edition

The Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM for short, is a first-of-its-kind complement of instruments on the International Space Station. Dubbed the ‘space storm hunter’, ASIM measures electric events in Earth’s upper atmosphere with cameras, photometers and X- and gamma-ray detectors. Recently, ASIM unexpectedly detected a unique gamma-ray burst from outer space. This fortuitous observation was published in Nature magazine, less than a year after ASIM made a cover story.

AGU/EOS spotlight: Observations from Space and Ground Reveal Clues About Lightning

The American Geophysical Union journal EOS (Earth and Space Science) News has chosen an ASIM paper by Østgaard et al. as a research spotlight for June 2021. The spotlight focusses on the ASIM work that demonstrates how TGFs are triggered by lightning leaders: "In a coordinated monitoring effort, scientists have uncovered the timing and triggering of high-energy lightning events in the sky."

ASIM i Forskerzonen

Artikel på videnskab.dk s forskningsside, Forskerzonen, om ASIM missionen: Gå i Andreas Mogensens fodspor på jagt efter mystiske kæmpelyn

ESA: How space science is combating climate change

ESA web article on ASIM's link to climate change research

NASA releases video about LIS and ASIM on ISS

NASA has made a short video about how LIS and ASIM on the ISS work together to study lightning above and below the clouds

Jets bleus et elfes : des chercheurs découvrent l’origine de mystérieux phénomènes lumineux

Les années lumière avec Sophie-Andrée Blondin: Radio segment from Radio Canada about ASIM, ELVEs and other TLEs. Part of their series 'Light Years' with Sophie-Andrée Blondin. In French.

Derfor rydder dansk forskning i voldsomme kæmpe-lyn internationale forsider

'Why Danish research sweeps the front pages': A quick video in Danmarks Radio's 'Explainer' series. This video explains why ASIM's findings about TGFs and Blue Jets are so important and ground-breaking.

Nasa: Blue jet space lightning spotted by scientists from the ISS

BBC Newsround story about the blue jets seen by ASIM

Elves seen from space

Animation of an artist's impression of lightning in clouds seen from space followed by a blue flash that lasts 10 micro seconds, a blue jet lasting 400 milliseconds and an elve generated by the blue flash that lasts for 30 microseconds. The International Space Station solar panels are shown in the foreground.