JIM DUFFY, 2011 CFC CHAIRPERSON ADDRESSES CROWD AT "THANKS FOR GIVING" PROGRAM

SIRAN STACY RELATES DETAILS OF HIS PERSONAL LOSSES DURING "THANKS FOR GIVING" PROGRAM

MSFC DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENE GOLDMAN AND SIRAN STACY, KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR CFC "THANKS FOR GIVING" PROGRAM, WITH HANDS ON HEART DURING SINGING OF NATIONAL ANTHEM

Vice President Pence Tours Jet Propulsion Laboratory

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, thanks JPL Deputy Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Larry James, JPL Director Michael Watkins, JPL Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Spouse of UAG Chairman James Ellis, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell , UAG Chairman, Admiral (Ret) James Ellis , and California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum, right, for giving him a tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

$This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the northeastern rim of Urvara Crater on Ceres at lower left. To the right of the crater, the long, narrow feature that appears to jut out toward the north is called Pongal Catena, which is about 60 miles (96 km) long. Catenae are large grooves or troughs that can have various origins. They refer to chains of closely connected craters formed by a series of impacts, as found on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. They can also represent large faults created by internal forces, for example in this example found on Mars. The mechanism that formed Pongal Catena is not understood yet, but it likely formed as a consequence of the stresses generated by the large impacts that resulted in the formation of the Urvara and Yalode craters. Pongal catena is one of several types of fractures found in this region that reflect a complex history. A feature called Nar Sulcus is another example. Studying the geometry of these features and their relationships can help shed light on the nature of Ceres' subsurface. This image was obtained on September 28, 2015, from an altitude of about 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). Pongal Catena is centered at 37.4 degrees south latitude, 267.7 degrees east longitude. This feature gets its name from the Tamil (Sri Lanka and southern India) harvest festival observed in mid-January. It is a time for giving thanks to nature, and we thank Ceres for all the wonders it has offered us so far. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21408$

Pongal Catena on Ceres

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the northeastern rim of Urvara Crater on Ceres at lower left. To the right of the crater, the long, narrow feature that appears to jut out toward the north is called Pongal Catena, which is about 60 miles (96 km) long. Catenae are large grooves or troughs that can have various origins. They refer to chains of closely connected craters formed by a series of impacts, as found on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. They can also represent large faults created by internal forces, for example in this example found on Mars. The mechanism that formed Pongal Catena is not understood yet, but it likely formed as a consequence of the stresses generated by the large impacts that resulted in the formation of the Urvara and Yalode craters. Pongal catena is one of several types of fractures found in this region that reflect a complex history. A feature called Nar Sulcus is another example. Studying the geometry of these features and their relationships can help shed light on the nature of Ceres' subsurface. This image was obtained on September 28, 2015, from an altitude of about 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). Pongal Catena is centered at 37.4 degrees south latitude, 267.7 degrees east longitude. This feature gets its name from the Tamil (Sri Lanka and southern India) harvest festival observed in mid-January. It is a time for giving thanks to nature, and we thank Ceres for all the wonders it has offered us so far. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21408

Hubble Captures Bubbles And Baby Stars

Image release June 22, 2010 A spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image — one of the largest ever released of a star-forming region — highlights N11, part of a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star formation is one of the most active in the nearby Universe. The Large Magellanic Cloud contains many bright bubbles of glowing gas. One of the largest and most spectacular has the name LHA 120-N 11, from its listing in a catalogue compiled by the American astronomer and astronaut Karl Henize in 1956, and is informally known as N11. Close up, the billowing pink clouds of glowing gas make N11 resemble a puffy swirl of fairground candy floss. From further away, its distinctive overall shape led some observers to nickname it the Bean Nebula. The dramatic and colourful features visible in the nebula are the telltale signs of star formation. N11 is a well-studied region that extends over 1000 light-years. It is the second largest star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud and has produced some of the most massive stars known. It is the process of star formation that gives N11 its distinctive look. Three successive generations of stars, each of which formed further away from the centre of the nebula than the last, have created shells of gas and dust. These shells were blown away from the newborn stars in the turmoil of their energetic birth and early life, creating the ring shapes so prominent in this image. Beans are not the only terrestrial shapes to be found in this spectacular high resolution image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In the upper left is the red bloom of nebula LHA 120-N 11A. Its rose-like petals of gas and dust are illuminated from within, thanks to the radiation from the massive hot stars at its centre. N11A is relatively compact and dense and is the site of the most recent burst of star development in the region. Other star clusters abound in N11, including NGC 1761 at the bottom of the image, which is a group of massive hot young stars busily pouring intense ultraviolet radiation out into space. Although it is much smaller than our own galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud is a very vigorous region of star formation. Studying these stellar nurseries helps astronomers understand a lot more about how stars are born and their ultimate development and lifespan. Both the Large Magellanic Cloud and its small companion, the Small Magellanic Cloud, are easily seen with the unaided eye and have always been familiar to people living in the southern hemisphere. The credit for bringing these galaxies to the attention of Europeans is usually given to Portuguese explorer Fernando de Magellan and his crew, who viewed it on their 1519 sea voyage. However, the Persian astronomer Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi and the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci recorded the Large Magellanic Cloud in 964 and 1503 respectively. Credit: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain) To learn more about Hubble go to: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html" rel="nofollow">www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.