Are you ready for an adventure? Follow the journey of a young bat named Echo as he makes his way from the high mountains of Arizona through cities and across deserts to find a bat cave to call home.
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]]>The Adventure of Echo the Bat
About
Age Level: 10+
Setting: Small group (2-4 players)
Type: Book
Topics: Land cover, natural disasters, ecosystems & biodiversity
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
Are you ready for an adventure? Follow the journey of a young bat named Echo as he makes his way from the high mountains of Arizona through cities and across deserts to find a bat cave to call home.
With beautiful artwork and Landsat satellite images of Arizona’s varied landscape, this interactive story will delight readers young and old. There are also teachable tidbits shared in the book’s back matter for interested parents and teachers.
Our home planet is a fascinating place, and we are all connected by Earth. For nearly 50 years, Landsat satellites have helped us record Earth’s changing land surfaces. Join Echo on his trek and you too can see what Landsat sees.
Echo the Bat Interactive Story
Are you ready for an adventure?
Follow the journey of a young bat named Echo as he makes his way from the high mountains of Arizona through cities and across deserts to find a bat cave to call home.
Explore
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]]>From ancient petroglyphs to satellite imagery, Geographia explores humanity's quest to map and understand our world through culture, science, and technology.
The post Geographia appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>Geographia
From ancient petroglyphs to satellite imagery, Geographia explores humanity’s quest to map and understand our world through culture, science, and technology.
From the petroglyphs of ancient societies to the stunning views of our planet from space, humans have endeavored to visualize and accurately map our world. As early geographers recorded the experiences from travelers and merchants, they created lists of places and geographic features. To spatially represent these data, geographers mapped the distances between features from the perspective of the traveler. Maps have aided navigation, settled disputes, and illustrated the extent of an Empire’s power. Beyond these and other utilitarian uses for maps, the desire to discover what was beyond the edges of the map–to venture into the unknown–brought about an Age of Exploration that continues into the 21st century with space exploration.
Many early maps were produced to help people navigate. Natives of the Marshall Islands created the so-called ‘stick charts’ to map island groups. The Egyptians mapped the journey to the afterlife; Romans mapped roads to Rome, and Christians mapped their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Often these maps focused more on a specific need than the quest for accurate geography. The embellishments, narratives, and pictures that made up such maps provide a wealth of information about a society’s history and worldview. The accuracy of early maps, however, was subject to personal accounts and charts from sailors, merchants, and travelers.
Medieval mappaemundi provide an excellent example of culturally based maps. The concept came from St. Isidore, a bishop from Seville in Spain, who wrote Etymologiae (“origins”), a 20-volume text that contained everything that Europeans knew about the world in the seventh century. He consulted numerous sources from classical writers to the teachings of Christianity to describe the physical geography of the world along with a graphic expression of the known world.
These maps, called mappaemundi– in Latin mappae means cloth and mundi means the world–captured the medieval worldview based more on religion and philosophy than geography. The world was represented as a circular disc of three continents surrounded by the Ocean based on the biblical account that the Earth was divided into three sections, one for each of Noah’s sons. European mappaemundi showed Jerusalem at the center and oriented with the Garden of Eden (east) at the top. This theological depiction of geography would dominate medieval cartography for centuries.
Centuries before these medieval maps, a more scientific view of the world was achieved. Early Greek philosophers and cosmologists began to study the physical nature of our world as early as the sixth century BCE. They approached geography using mathematical and geometrical theories and speculated that the Earth was a sphere. By 150 AD, Ptolemy created Geographia, the most comprehensive account of the world’s geography deduced from Greek and Roman knowledge. Based in science, he used the principles of geometry to create meridians and parallels (latitude and longitude) in an attempt to accurately map the known world even though there were still vast areas of the unknown world–Terra Incognita. Unfortunately, when the temples of Alexandria fell, this knowledge was lost to the western world throughout the Middle Ages.
Ptolemy’s Geographia was re-discovered and translated into Arabic the 9th century and reached European geographers by early 15th century when it was translated into Latin. Original maps drafted by Ptolemy have never been found, but his descriptions with latitude and longitude of more than 8,000 locations allowed mapmakers to reconstruct maps of Ptolemy’s view of the world. The resulting maps were dramatically different and a much more accurate depiction of world geography than the mappaemundi of the time. The concept of a global grid system re-established a scientific approach to geography and mapping.
The Age of Exploration (15th and 16th centuries) renewed the quest for accurate geography and the validation of locations. With both the passion of early mapmakers and the advancement of technology, maps became increasingly more accurate, but offered less cultural information. By the late 17th century, Giovanni Domenico Cassini included no place on his map, the “planisphere terrestre,” unless its position was determined astronomically. Employing scientific principles in mapping continued with the huge triangulation surveys of France, Britain, and India. The technology of surveying continued to advance and the mapping coastlines became more accurate as bathymetry was recorded and mapped. Cultural and artistic elements were gradually replaced with scientific elements. For example, artistic shading lines (or hachures) were used to illustrate mountains and other terrain. This practice was replaced with contour lines to provide more accurate topographic maps.
By the 20th century, map-making reached new levels of accuracy. Geographers began to use aerial and satellite imagery to create highly accurate maps and improve maps of previously surveyed areas. Unlike the earliest maps based on culture and stories, satellite-based maps are entirely empirical and impartial. The neutral information that comes from satellites is the base of international agreements that would otherwise not be possible. At the same time, satellite images also tell a story, provide context about a culture, and document changes in the natural world. By studying satellite images over time, researchers can determine the impact of human endeavors on Earth’s landscape. And by contrasting historical maps with satellite images, we can explore our changing worldview and the advances in technology that help us map the world.
What Doesn’t Stay in Vegas? Sprawl.
A view of Las Vegas over time reveals the rapid growth of a city out of a desert. Increasing demand for freshwater has an impact on the closest water source, Lake Meade, which is also a victim of prolonged drought.
Visualization Studio Geographia introduction and concept by Ginger Butcher.
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]]>A web app which allows learners to explore asteroids and comets in an interactive 3D map of the solar system.
The post NASA/JPL Eyes on Asteroids Web App appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>NASA’s Eyes is a suite of 3D visualization applications that allows everyone to explore and understand real NASA data and imagery in a fun and interactive way. The apps are all run inside a regular web browser, so any device with an internet connection and a browser can run them.
The “Eyes on Asteroids” sub-section allows users to explore the many asteroids and comets that NASA tracks orbiting the Sun in a real-time, interactive 3D model of the solar system.
Find the resource at this link. ↗
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]]>Learn more about the Landsat mission and our home planet with hands-on activities, interactives, and more.
The post Outreach appeared first on NASA Science.
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Outreach
Since 1972, Landsat satellites have orbited Earth, sending back millions of images of our changing planet. Learn more about the Landsat mission and our home planet with hands-on activities, interactives, and more.
Games & Interactives
Explore how Landsat’s view from space reveals Earth’s changing landscapes, natural resources, and more, through in-person games and online interactives.
Your Name in Landsat Interactive
Celebrate how NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to observe and understand our dynamic planet.
Age Range: All ages
Topic: Art, geography
Activity Type: online interactive, printable
Factory Earth Game
Age Range: 10+
Topic: Natural resources, disasters
Activity Type: Printable, Board Game
Landsat Activity Cards
Age Range: All ages
Topic: Change over time
Activity Type: Printable, cards
Exploring America with Landsat Game
Age Range: 7+
Topic: National trails and waterways
Activity Type: Printable, board game
Lands of Landsat Game
Age Range: 7+
Topic: Land cover, change over time, societal benefits
Activity Type: Printable, board game
Rivers: Our National Water Resource Game
Age Range: 8+
Topic: Water resources, human health, land use, disasters
Activity Type: Printable, board game
FeatureD interactive
Your Name in Landsat
Explore our planet in a way that's uniquely yours.
Type in your name to view it spelled out in Earth features found in Landsat imagery.
Try it out
Hands-on Activities
Explore a collection of activities that highlights how scientists use Landsat data to study Earth’s changing surface. From tracking forest health to monitoring urban growth, these activities investigate Landsat’s benefits to society.
Featured activity
Landsat Collage
Landsat imagery provides some of the most beautiful and unique views of our planet.
From folded red mountain ridges, yellow dunes dotted with brilliant pools of blue water, and swirling clouds of blue-green phytoplankton, these images reveal a hidden world of color, textures, patterns, and movement.
Explore
Stories & Visuals
Explore a collection of stories and visual resources that illustrate Landsat’s vital role in studying Earth’s surface and how the data benefit society.
The Adventure of Echo the Bat
Follow the journey of a young bat named Echo as he makes his way from the high mountains of Arizona through cities and across deserts to find a bat cave to call home.
Earth Day: Celebrate Earth from Space with NASA Poster
Celebrate how NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to observe and understand our dynamic planet.
Explore the Globe with NASA Poster
Explore how scientists around the world use the view from space to explore how ice, land, and sea interact with each other and impact us every day.
Sustainability of a Mission Poster
Learn how the longest continuous archive of Earth observation plays a critical role in monitoring and managing resources.
Viewing Water from Space Poster
Explore how scientists have used Landsat’s data record to better understand the interactions between climate and plants, animals, soils, and water.
Earth Resources Seen from Space Poster
Explore stunning Landsat imagery from six different sources of Earth materials: evaporation ponds, mines and quarries, water, rangelands, croplands, and forests.
Inspiration Poster
Learn how Landsat inspires us to observe, explore, and understand Earth from space.
Geoscience is Everywhere Poster
Explore how geoscientists use Landsat data to study Earth from the biosphere to the cryosphere.
Landsat Portrait of America Poster
Learn how the data collected by Landsat satellites support government, commercial, industrial, civilian, military, and educational applications throughout the United States and worldwide.
Geographia
Discover the history of how humans have mapped our earth from petroglyphs to satellite imagery.
Featured Story
The Adventure of Echo the Bat
Are you ready for an adventure?
Follow the journey of a young bat named Echo as he makes his way from the high mountains of Arizona through cities and across deserts to find a bat cave to call home.
With beautiful artwork and Landsat images of Arizona’s landscape, this interactive story will delight readers young and old.
Additional Resources
Access additional Landsat materials and resources that support education, outreach, and community programming.
STELLA: DIY Spectrometer
The STELLA (Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment) is a DIY spectrometer to help students learn about remote sensing and understand how Earth observing satellites like Landsat work.
Landsat’s Enduring Legacy
Landsat laid the foundation for the modern space-based Earth observation. Read the story behind the first satellite program designed to look at land.
Quantifying Changes in Land Over Time with Landsat
Lesson plan for grades 7-10 introduces students to identifying and quantifying changes in land cover over time using Landsat images.
Iceberg A-68 Lithograph
Discover how Landsat 8’s Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) “sees in the dark” to monitor icebergs in the Antarctic winter.
The post Outreach appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>A page from NASA's Solar System Exploration Directorate website which gives an overview of comets, with history and examples included.
The post All About Comets Animation appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>A page from NASA’s Solar System Exploration Directorate website which gives an overview of comets. The page includes links to pages about several well-known comets and provides details about them.
Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun. When frozen, they are the size of a small town. When a comet’s orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the Sun for millions of miles. There are likely billions of comets orbiting our Sun in the Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud. They are important to heliophysicists because the study of cometary tails has helped us learn about how the solar wind works, and how solar radiation affects planetary objects over time.
Find the resource at this link. ↗
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]]>Acoustic and Visual Data for Incipient Boiling at Local Heat Leaks in a Water This dataset presents raw acoustic, visual, and metadata collected during an experimentalstudy investigating incipient boiling at local heat leaks in a water tank. While theexperiments were conducted using water as the working fluid, the study was designed toexplore boiling phenomena relevant […]
The post Applied Physics Data Set appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>Acoustic and Visual Data for Incipient Boiling at Local Heat Leaks in a Water
This dataset presents raw acoustic, visual, and metadata collected during an experimental
study investigating incipient boiling at local heat leaks in a water tank. While the
experiments were conducted using water as the working fluid, the study was designed to
explore boiling phenomena relevant to cryogenic fuel tanks, with applications in
space-based thermal management and propellant storage.
Data acquisition was performed using an array of accelerometers mounted on the tank walls
to capture acoustic emissions associated with nucleation events. Simultaneous visual
recordings provide direct observation of boiling onset and bubble dynamics, while
accompanying metadata includes key experimental parameters such as heat flux, wall
temperature, pressure, and heater positioning.
This dataset is intended to support research in non-intrusive boiling detection, fluid
dynamics, and machine learning-based classification of boiling regimes. The insights
gained from this work contribute to the development of predictive models for early boiling
detection, ultimately aiding the advancement of cryogenic fluid management strategies for
space applications.
The dataset is publicly available for further analysis and experimentation in the fields
of thermophysics, acoustic sensing, and boiling heat transfer.
Download: incipient-boiling-acoustic-visual-dataset-v1-0.zip 2 GB
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]]>The resource provides a guided exploration of comets which helps students build upon their own knowledge.
The post Comparing Comets Lesson Plan appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>The resource provides a guided exploration of comets which helps learners build upon their own knowledge of these icy visitors. The guide includes step-by-step instructions for several activities that engage with learners and invite them to think about what they already know before diving into deeper knowledge.
Cometary scientists think that the surface layer of a comet’s core or “nucleus” is highly evolved. This means that in successive orbits that take it close to the Sun, the surface has been altered by exposure to sunlight. This in turn causes outgassing and sublimation of volatile substances from the surface exposed to the Sun.
In this activity, students play the role of cometary scientists, using images to observe and compare the surfaces of two comet nuclei from close range. Comets are so small that, even when viewing through a large telescope, they are just points of light in the sky. And these points of light are reflections of sunlight on the comet’s coma, the gaseous cloud surrounding the nucleus, and the dust tails of the comet, not the nucleus itself.
Download this resource with the link below. ↓
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]]>The Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) program collects, analyzes, and interprets medical, physiological, hazard exposure, and environmental data for the purpose of maintaining astronaut health and safety as well as preventing occupationally induced injuries or disease related to space flight or space flight training. It allows NASA to effectively understand and mitigate the long-term […]
The post LSAH Newsletter appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>1 min read
LSAH Newsletter
The Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) program collects, analyzes, and interprets medical, physiological, hazard exposure, and environmental data for the purpose of maintaining astronaut health and safety as well as preventing occupationally induced injuries or disease related to space flight or space flight training. It allows NASA to effectively understand and mitigate the long-term health risks of human spaceflight, as well as support the physical and mental well-being of astronauts during future exploration missions.
The LSAH Newsletter serves to inform and update former astronauts on how their medical data is being utilized by the LSAH team. It is published and distributed bi-annually.
+ October 2025 | Vol 30 Issue 2 – LSAH Newsletter
+ Past LSAH Newsletters and Publications
Explore More
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]]>A group of elementary-aged students gather outside of Oldham County Public Library in La Grange, Kentucky, United States to look at clouds in the sky. “If anyone asks what you are doing, tell them, ‘I am a citizen scientist and I am helping NASA,’” Children’s Programming Librarian, Cheri Grinnell, tells the kids. Grinnell supports an […]
The post NASA & GLOBE Connect People, Land, and Space appeared first on NASA Science.
]]>4 min read
NASA & GLOBE Connect People, Land, and Space
A group of elementary-aged students gather outside of Oldham County Public Library in La Grange, Kentucky, United States to look at clouds in the sky. “If anyone asks what you are doing, tell them, ‘I am a citizen scientist and I am helping NASA,’” Children’s Programming Librarian, Cheri Grinnell, tells the kids. Grinnell supports an afterschool program called Leopard Spot where she engages K-5 students in collecting environmental data with the GLOBE (Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program.
“One little boy really got excited about that, and I heard him tell his mom he was working for NASA as they were leaving,” says Grinnell. That idea is reinforced when the program receives an email from NASA with satellite data that align with the cloud data the students submitted. “I forwarded the NASA satellite response to the after-school coordinator, and she read it to them. That really excited them because it was evidence this is the real deal.”
This experience is one the GLOBE Observer Team (part of the NASA Science Activation program’s NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative, NESEC) hears often: GLOBE volunteers of all ages love getting an email from NASA that compares satellite data with their cloud observations. “Feedback from NASA is huge. It’s the hook,” says Tina Rogerson, the programmer at NASA Langley Research Center who manages the satellite comparison emails. “It ties NASA science into what they saw when they did the observation.”
Now, volunteers will have more opportunities to receive a satellite comparison email from NASA. GLOBE recently announced that, in addition to sending emails about satellite data that align with the cloud observations made by learners, they will now also be sending emails that compare the GLOBE Observer Land Cover observations made by learners with satellite data. The new satellite comparison for land cover builds on the system used to create cloud comparisons at NASA Langley Research Center.
When a volunteer receives the email, they will see a link for each observation they have submitted. The link will open a website with a satellite comparison table. Their observation is at the top, followed by a satellite-based assessment of the land cover at that location. The last row of the table shows the most recent Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite images of the observation site. Rogerson pulls GLOBE land cover data from the public GLOBE database to generate and send the comparison tables on a weekly basis. While users may opt out of receiving these emails, most participants will be excited to review their data from the space perspective.
These new collocated land cover observations are expected to raise greater awareness of how NASA and its interagency partners observe our changing home planet from space in order to inform societal needs. They will help every GLOBE volunteer see how their observations of the land fit in with the wider space-based view and how they are participating in the process of science. Based on the response to cloud satellite emails, seeing that bigger, impactful perspective via the satellite comparison email is motivating. The hope is to encourage volunteers to continue being NASA citizen scientists, collecting Earth system observations for GLOBE’s long-term environmental record.
“I’m excited that land cover is finally becoming part of the operational satellite comparison system,” says Rogerson. This means that GLOBE volunteers will routinely receive satellite data for both land cover and clouds. “We are bringing real science right into your world.”
NESEC, led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A, is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/.
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]]>Senior Computer Scientist, Contractor, Lidar Applications Group, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
The post Marta Fenn appeared first on NASA Science.
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Marta Fenn
Senior Computer Scientist, Contractor, Lidar Applications Group, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
Marta Fenn has supported the Langley Research Center Lidar Applications Group for 30+ years, in data acquisition, reduction, and reporting.
Publication Bibliography:
Awards:
- NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal
- United States Antarctica Service Medal
- Haban Spur (Coordinates: 73°18′S 163°0′E) named for me (nee. Marta A. Haban)
Education:
- M.S., Geology and Mineralogy, Ohio State University, 1984
- B.S., Geology and Mineralogy, Ohio State University, 1982
+ Contact Marta Fenn
+ Visit the Lidar Applications Group Home Page
+ Return to the NASA Langley Science Directorate People Page
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