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

Genesis of blue lightning into the stratosphere detected from the International Space Station

Dark clouds, the smell of rain on a hot sidewalk, the flashes of intense light followed by a loud crackling and then a low, rolling thunder – who doesn’t love a good summer thunderstorm? We’ve all seen one, heard one, or been completely soaked by one. But how much do we really know about this weather phenomenon? As a new Nature paper reports, however, the European Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory on the International Space Station is helping scientists find answers.

Space station detectors found the source of weird ‘blue jet’ lightning

Science News article by Maria Temming: A ‘blue bang’ sparks an unusual type of lightning in the upper atmosphere. Scientists have finally gotten a clear view of the spark that sets off an exotic type of lightning called a blue jet.

NATURE MAGAZINE: SIGNIFICANT SCIENCE RESULTS FROM THE ASIM MISSION

Press release from Terma: Thunderstorms monitored by the Danish-led ASIM mission delivers historical data for groundbreaking science discovery now revealed in the prestigious Nature magazine.

ASIM Nominated amongst top 5 STEM achievements of 2020

The Danish engineering monthly 'Ingeniøren' published its round-up of the year 2020, and nominated in the top five most important achievements of 2020 was ASIM and the ASIM team's explanation of how Terrestrial Gamma Flashes are formed above the world's most powerful thunderstorms. Understanding of the physics and chemistry of thunderstorms is an important part of our understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and climate.

Storm hunter turns two

ESA's Space and Exploration series highlights ASIM's two years in space

Space To Ground: The Storm Above

NASA's Space To Ground series highlights ASIM onboard the ISS

ESA: Terrestrial gamma-ray flash

ESA's Science and Exploration series highlights Terrestrial Gamma Flashes as seen and imaged by ASIM

Discover the Inner Life of Lightning from the International Space Station

You have likely seen lightning flash from a storm cloud to strike the ground. Such bolts represent only a small part of the overall phenomenon of lightning, though. The most powerful activity occurs high above the surface, in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Beyond the storm clouds

Article about the latest ASIM results that appearred ih the Science section of The Statesman newspaper, an English-language daily printed in Kolkata, New Delhi, Siliguri and Bhubaneshwar. This article appearred in the newspaper on Wednesday 29th January 2020.