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NASA Ames Fire Department Aircraft Firefighting Training

2026-09-04 19:51

The fire department at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will perform training on the Moffett Federal Airfield beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8 through Friday, Sept. 11. The training will involve the use of a propane-fueled aircraft fire simulator and be conducted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. PDT.

Because the aircraft simulator is fueled by propane, very little smoke should be produced during the controlled training fires. However, flames may be visible to drivers on U.S. Highway 101. The training is intended to prepare Ames’ first responders to respond to a variety of realistic aircraft firefighting scenarios.

For more information about NASA’s Ames Research Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ames

-end-

Jeanne Neal
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
650-604-4789
Jeanne.c.neal@nasa.gov

To receive local NASA Ames news, email local-reporters-request@lists.arc.nasa.gov with “subscribe” in the subject line. To unsubscribe, email the same address with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

NASA Hosts Virtual Artemis Webinar for Blind, Low-Vision Community

2026-09-04 16:48

Two technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans stand around one of the four RS-25 engines for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on Sept. 8, 2023. The RS-25 engine looks like a bell-shaped nozzle attached to a network of pipes. The engine is being lifted by the horizontal engine installer so it appears to be lying on its side. The RS-25 engine is about the size of a large pickup truck. The technicians are wearing hard hats and safety harnesses.

Credit: NASA/Michael Democker

NASA will host a virtual webinar at 2 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 2, titled “The RS-25 Engine and the Future of Artemis Missions: An Accessible Webinar for the Blind and Low-Vision Community.” This webinar is open to the public, however it is tailored specifically for a blind and low-vision audience.

The webinar will last about two hours and include an audio-described video of an RS-25 engine test, a Q&A session with an Artemis engineer, and a panel about accessibility in space and science. The event will be hosted on the Zoom platform.

Participants in the session include:

Dr. Kimberly Arcand, visualization scientist, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Josh Greiner, test director, NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Dr. Craig Moore, materials engineer, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama
Dr. Robert Shelton, lead simulation engineer, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
Christine Malec, freelance writer and consultant

Those interested in attending the webinar must RSVP using this form by Friday, Sept. 25. Any questions can be directed to thalia.k.patrinos@nasa.gov. The details of the webinar will be emailed to registrants in the days leading up to the event.

NASA’s Artemis program will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore the Moon and establish a Moon Base on the lunar surface. For additional information on the Artemis missions, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

Details

Last Updated

Sep 04, 2026

Location

NASA Headquarters

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Lunar Occultation of Venus

2026-09-04 14:14

Venus is seen as it disappears behind the Moon at the start of the occultation on June 17, 2026, from the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington

NASA/Joel Kowsky

On Wednesday, June 17, skywatchers across the United States—and parts of Canada—enjoyed a rare event: a daytime lunar occultation of Venus. A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon moves directly in front of another celestial object from our viewpoint on Earth, briefly hiding it from sight.

This time, the Moon slipped in front of Venus for the first of three occultations happening this year, creating a striking daylight moment for those who caught it. If you missed it, there will be two more opportunities to see Venus disappear behind the Moon in 2026: Sept. 14, visible from parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and western Russia; and Nov. 7, visible from southern South America.

APOD: 2026 September 4 – Na Uhane Mahoe Huki Pu i ke Ola

2026-09-04 04:05

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola

Explanation: Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, is the Hawaiian name given to this image of a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a mutual gravitational embrace. Some 200 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus their spectacular, galactic scale merger is captured in sharp detail in the image from the 8.1 meter Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i. The galaxy pair, known as NGC 7253 and Arp 278, was chosen as a target, researched, and given an Hawaiian name by high school students in the joint Gemini Observatory and University of Hawaiʻi Project Hōkūlani internship program. The name translates to “The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life”. That’s both culturally and astronomically appropriate for galaxy collisions that trigger a cosmic maelstrom of star formation from galactic reservoirs of elemental building blocks of life. These merging galaxies are found within a region of Pegasus identified as the Hawaiian navigational constellation Ka Lupe o Kawelo.

APOD’s main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Tomorrow’s picture: chasing shadows

Date	September 4, 2026
Credit:	Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Authors & editors:	Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

Yesterday’s Image

APOD: 2026 September 3 – The Eclipse and the Stork

Tomorrow’s Image

A Trio of Tropical Cyclones in the Pacific

2026-09-04 04:01

In a full-disk satellite view of Earth, three tropical cyclones—named Lowell, Karina, and Marie—swirl above the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and to the west of Central America.

When hurricane forecasters released their seasonal outlooks in spring 2026, the El Niño brewing in the Pacific contributed to predictions of below-normal activity in the Atlantic basin but above-normal activity in the northeastern and central Pacific basins. In early September, near the climatological peak of hurricane season, those spring outlooks were on target, with the eastern Pacific buzzing with activity and the Atlantic notably quiet.

As of September 3, the Northeast Pacific had produced 15 named storms and six hurricanes, well above the norm for that point in the season. The Atlantic basin, meanwhile, laboring under unfavorable wind shear conditions, had produced just five named storms and no hurricanes. El Niño typically enhances hurricane activity in the eastern and central Pacific basins because of the unusually warm water temperatures it brings to those parts of the ocean. It tends to suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin by shifting large-scale circulation patterns in a way that makes it harder to sustain storms there.

At 1:14 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (20:14 Universal Time) on September 1, NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite captured an image of three tropical cyclones churning simultaneously in the Pacific, along with one in the Atlantic. A band of clouds and thunderstorms associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is visible to the south of the storms. The spacecraft was nearly 1 million miles from Earth and just shy of 93 million miles from the Sun when the image was acquired.

The trio of storms in the Pacific were Lowell, Karina, and Marie. Of the three, Lowell became the strongest, with winds reaching category 5 strength for several hours on September 2. Around the same time, Karina, spinning a few thousand kilometers to the east, achieved category 4 strength, a rare case of category 4 and 5 hurricanes occurring simultaneously in the area. Marie, spinning southwest of Baja California, was still a tropical storm when the image was acquired but was strengthening as it moved northwest.

In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Edouard was visible to EPIC over Louisiana and Texas, shortly after the short-lived storm made landfall. It brought torrential rains and strong winds that downed trees and power lines. Some areas received 15 to 24 inches (38 to 61 centimeters) of rain, according to National Weather Service meteorologists.

As of September 3, the Atlantic basin’s total accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index was 4.4, about 9 percent of normal for that date, according to statistics compiled by Colorado State University meteorologists. Meanwhile, the Northeast Pacific basin’s ACE was 130, about 50 percent above normal. The ACE index incorporates both the intensity and longevity of storms, making it easier to compare individual storms and seasons.

Several NASA Earth-observing platforms provide data that can aid in emergency preparedness before landfall and damage assessment and response afterward. Use the “Events” tab on NASA’s Worldview browser to track current hurricanes and explore related NASA data products.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using data from DSCOVR EPIC. Story by Adam Voiland.

Downloads

September 1, 2026

JPEG (1.49 MB)

References & Resources

AccuWeather (2023, June 6) Experts say this metric is a more reliable way to quantify the true strength of hurricane season. Accessed September 3, 2026.
Colorado State University (2026, September 3) Northern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Activity for 2026. Accessed September 3, 2026.
NASA Earthdata, Hurricanes. Accessed September 3, 2026.
NASA, El Niño. Accessed September 3, 2026.
NASA Space Place (2025, April 3) How Do Hurricanes Form? Accessed September 3, 2026.
National Hurricane Center (2026, September 3) Top News of the Day. Accessed September 3, 2026
Newsweek (2026, September 2) El Niño is Reshaping this Year’s Hurricane Season. Accessed September 3, 2026.
NOAA (2026, June 2) How does El Niño Impact Atlantic Hurricane Season. Accessed September 3, 2026.
NOAA (2026, May 21) NOAA 2026 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Outlook. Accessed September 3, 2026.
Yale Climate Connections (2026, September 2) Edouard delivers an outsized flash-flood punch to eastern Texas. Accessed September 3, 2026.

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