An image posted on NASA's Facebook and Twitter accounts may be the coolest selfie ever. The image was taken by astronaut Butch Wilmore during his spacewalk with fellow astronaut Terry Virts. 

If you look closely, you can see the reflection of Virts appear on Wilmore's visor.

The Twitter photo came with the message: #Selfie from space! #AstroButch from today's #spacewalk. @AstroTerry can be seen in the reflection of his visor. 

While the pair took a moment to snap the epic selfie, the rest of the spacewalk was all business. The astronauts routed over 300 feet of cable as part of the ongoing International Space Station overhaul project. The complicated task was handled successfully, but there is much more work to be done.

According to the Associated Press, it was the first spacewalk for Virts, who arrived at the space station in late November.

The duo will venture outside the space station again on Wednesday, Feb. 25, to deploy two more cables and lubricate the end of the station's robotic arm. 

The space selfie quickly went viral, generating nearly 45,000 likes by Sunday morning on NASA's Facebook page. The post was quickly taking off on Twitter as well, with over 3,000 retweets

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Post by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Recently named the best place to work in the United States federal government for the fourth year in a row, NASA is looking for the best candidates to work in the best job on or off the planet. The astronaut candidate application website now is live and accepting submissions through Feb. 18.

You may apply at:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000

The agency expects to announce final candidate selections in mid-2017. Those chosen may fly on any of four different U.S. spacecraft during their careers: the International Space Station, two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.

“NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars and we’re looking for talented men and women from diverse backgrounds and every walk of life to help get us there,” said NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden. “Today, we opened the application process for our next class of astronauts, extraordinary people who will take the next giant leap in exploration. This group will launch to space from U.S. soil on American-made spacecraft and blaze the trail on our journey to the Red Planet.”

NASA astronauts will again launch to the International Space Station from Florida’s Space Coast on American-made commercial spacecraft -- Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and the SpaceX Crew Dragon. These spacecraft will allow NASA to add a seventh crew member to each station mission, effectively doubling the amount of time astronauts will be able to devote to research in space, expanding scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies.

Astronauts also will lift off again from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orion spacecraft, launched on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, to unprecedented missions in lunar orbit. There, the space agency will learn more about conducting complex operations in a deep space environment before moving on to longer duration missions as it progresses on its journey to Mars.

To help accomplish this work, NASA will select qualified astronaut candidates from a diverse pool of people with a wide variety of backgrounds, including engineers, scientists and physicians. According to the professional networking site LinkedIn, some 3 million of the site’s members working in the United States appear to meet the minimum academic eligibility requirements for the job.

“NASA’s mission, and what we need from the astronauts helping to carry it out, has evolved over the years,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Some people would be surprised to learn they might have what it takes. We want and need a diverse mix of individuals to ensure we have the best astronaut corps possible.”

Astronaut candidates must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable. Candidates also must have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Astronaut candidates must pass the NASA long-duration astronaut physical.

“The Office of Personnel Management is proud to support NASA’s efforts to recruit our country’s next generation of astronauts,” said Beth Cobert, acting director of OPM. “One of this agency's primary goals is to help attract, recruit, hire and retain the best and most talented workforce to serve the American people. We stand ready to help NASA find and support the talent it needs to fulfill its exciting mission to Mars. I’m proud to help agencies across government shape the federal workforce of the future by providing such tools as USAJOBS, our one-stop source for federal job and employment information.”

For more information about a career as an astronaut, and application requirements, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

Follow NASA on LinkedIn, and find more NASA jobs, at:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/nasa

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
+1 202-358-1100
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters / Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
+1 281-483-5111
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A rare cloud formation last week amazed and stunned people in Costa Rica — they captured and put it on YouTube, where it quickly went on to become an Internet sensation.

The iridescent and multi-colored cloud had at least one person thinking it signaled the end of the world. Of course, it was not a sign of the end times, but rather a phenomenon called cloud iridescence. After a similar event happened in Colorado in 2007, NASA was able to shed some light on the science behind it.

"These clouds are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size," says NASA. "When the sun is in the right position and mostly hidden by thick clouds, these thinner clouds significantly diffract sunlight in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the observer from slightly different directions."

The recent occurrence was visible in the sky over a number of Costa Rican cities, including San Jose, Parrita, Pavas, Escazu and Hatillo.
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Definitivamente algo que NUNCA había visto!!! Increíblemente Hermoso... #Cielo #Sol #ArcoIris #Colores #Escazu #escazuceños #CostaRica #CR #Luz #RayosdelSol #Nubes #Sky #Sun #Ligth #sunlight #Cloud #Rainbow #colors #15setiembre2015

A photo posted by Natalia Delgado (@nadelgadoa) on Sep 15, 2015 at 3:58pm PDT

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The cloud formation itself is known as a "pileus" or "cap cloud" formation, and meteorologists say when this cloud formation is present, it suggests that a storm is quickly gaining strength. In this particular case, the cloud included ice crystals, which refracted light from the sun.

The best time to spot these clouds is right before a storm, but they don't tend to last very long, and won't generally be as spectacular as the one recently seen in Costa Rica.

A similarly remarkable cloud was however spotted last month in South Carolina that was dubbed the "Fire Rainbow."

Watch video below:



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NASA: We'll find Alien Life in 10 to 20 years; "we know where to look now"
Are we alone in the universe? Top NASA scientists say the answer is almost certainly “no.”...read more

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This smiley face hovering in space looks like it was beamed into the heavens by a celestial keyboard. Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, it was in fact created by a quirk of general relativity known as gravitational lensing.

The glowing eyes are bright galaxies that are part of a galaxy cluster known as SDSS J1038+4849. The massive structure warps space-time, bending light like a lens to create a stretched image of distant galaxies, called an Einstein ring. The well-positioned circular shape creates the outline of the face and the wry grin.

The happy face was uncovered by amateur astronomer Judy Schmidt in a similar image while hunting for submissions for the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Contestants were asked to search through the space telescope's vast archives for overlooked discoveries.

[Source]

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We have all read in our Geography books that the temperature is maximum around the equator and decreases as well move towards the pole. Although the statement still remains true, I certainly doubt that the temperatures will be on the descent at the same rate in the coming years.

According to two United States Government agencies, the year 2014 was by far the warmest year in at least 5000 years. The agencies also fear that things might just get worse in the near future.

The average temperature of the earth has been on the rise for more that a decade now and experts believe that it has reached dangerous extents now. Studies show that 2014 was by far the warmest year in last 5000 years

According to the statement released by the White House, studies by two major agencies, NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), show that the change in the climatic conditions is due to the excessive emissions of various greenhouse gases in the last decade of so.

Both NASA and NOAA had warned way back in the past that such a day would certainly appear where things might just get out of control.

The 10 warmest years on Earth have all been since the year 1997 which is a direct indication to the effect that Global Warming has had on the temperature of the earth. The Temperatures during the year 2014 have broken quite a few records in many parts of Africa and Europe. The temperatures were above normal in regions like the western United States, eastern Russia, parts of Australia as well as interiors of South America.

NASA and NOAA have stated it clearly that the constant rise in the temperatures will have adverse effects on the Earth as the sea levels are already on a rise endangering millions of individuals living around the coastal regions. Antarctica has also suffered adverse effects owing to the Greenhouse effect.

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Earth has a few more near-twin planets outside our solar system, tantalizing possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Astronomers announced Tuesday that depending on definitions, they have confirmed three or four more planets that are about the same size as Earth and are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold "Goldilocks Zone" for liquid water to form.

These planets are likely to be rocky like Earth, and not gas giants or ice worlds. They get about the same heat from their star as we get from the sun, according to the latest results from NASA's planet hunting Kepler telescope.

But don't book your flights yet.

They may be close to Earth in size and likely temperature in the gargantuan scale of the universe, but they aren't quite close enough for comfort.

Consider two of the new planets, the nearest to Earth discovered to date. If they have atmospheres similar to Earth's — a big if — one would be a toasty 140 some degrees and the other would hover around zero, said study lead author Guillermo Torres, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Life conceivably could evolve and adapt to those temperatures, he said.

Oh, and they aren't actually within commuting distance of Earth. Those two are 500 and 1,100 light years away; a light year is 5.9 trillion miles.

What's important, said SETI Institute astronomer Douglas Caldwell, a study co-author who presented the findings at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, is that astronomers are a bit closer to finding twins of Earth and answering the age-old question: Are we alone?

"These planets do exist; we didn't know that before," Torres said in a phone interview from Cambridge, Massachusetts. "What we're really looking for is signs of life eventually. We're not there yet. It will take many years but this is the first step."

Torres' team confirmed earlier discoveries and added new ones, bringing the total known number of planets that are no bigger than twice Earth's size and in the habitable temperature zone to eight or nine. But that's only from a short search of a small part of our galaxy, so Torres believes that Earth-like planets are common throughout the cosmos, though he cannot prove it yet.

Torres likes to include one planet that would bump the new findings from three to four, but Caldwell said that planet may or may not be habitable.

It doesn't matter much. "We do not need to talk about the one or two exoplanets that could be like Earth, we are finding so many," said Lisa Kaltenegger, director of Cornell University's Pale Blue Dot Institute. She wasn't part of the study.

Torres and Caldwell highlighted the two new planets that are closest in size to Earth. The closest, called Kepler 438-b, is only 12 percent larger than Earth and gets about 40 percent more energy from its star than we do from the sun, so it would probably be warmer, Torres said. It tightly circles a small cooler red star with its year lasting only 35 Earth days and the sun in its sky would be red, not yellow.

It may hot, but "there are bacteria on Earth that live very comfortably in those temperatures, no problem," Torres said.

The other, Kepler 442-b, is about 34 percent bigger than Earth but gets only two-thirds of the energy from its sun as we do, Torres said.

NASA also announced that its planet-hunter telescope confirmed its 1,000th planet outside the solar system, most quite unlike Earth and not in the habitable zone. Added to those discovered by other telescopes, astronomers have now discovered more than 1,800 planets that are outside the solar system.

Credit: NASA

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