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A Stellar Bouquet for Valentine's Day: Nebula 30 Doradus | NASA Chandra
A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus.
By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope, infrared data from Spitzer, and radio data from ALMA, this stellar arrangement comes alive.
Otherwise known as the Tarantula Nebula, 30 Doradus is located about 160,000 light-years away in a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC for short. As one of the brightest and crowded star-forming regions close to Earth, 30 Doradus is a frequent target for scientists trying to learn more about how stars are born.
With enough fuel to have powered the manufacturing of stars for at least 25 million years, 30 Doradus is the most powerful stellar nursery in the local group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, the LMC, and our neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
The massive young stars in 30 Doradus send cosmically strong winds out into space. Along with the matter and energy ejected by stars that have previously exploded, these winds have carved out an eye-catching display of arcs, pillars, and bubbles.
A dense cluster in the center of 30 Doradus contains the most massive stars astronomers have ever found, each only about one to two million years old. For comparison, our Sun is over a thousand times older with an age of about 5 billion years.
This new image includes the data from a large Chandra program that involved about 23 days of observing time, greatly exceeding the 1.3 days of observing that Chandra previously conducted on 30 Doradus. The roughly 3,600 X-ray sources detected by Chandra include a mixture of massive stars, double-star systems, bright stars that are still in the process of forming, and much smaller clusters of young stars.
There is a large quantity of diffuse, hot gas seen in X-rays, arising from different sources including the winds of massive stars and from the gas expelled by supernova explosions. This data set will be the best available for the foreseeable future for studying diffuse X-ray emission in star-forming regions.
A Fiery Rose: Nebula & Star Cluster NGC 2040 in Dorado | Gemini South Telescope
Cosmoview Episode 96: Happy Valentine's Day! Displaying wispy layers of red, orange and yellow, the nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This nebulous flower showcases the dramatic story of stellar life, death and rebirth.
NGC 2040 is a young open cluster of stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light-years from Earth. It is a type of star cluster known as an OB association because it contains more than a dozen stars of the O and B spectral types. These stars lead short lives of only a few million years, during which they burn very hot before exploding as supernovae. The energy released by the explosions of these massive stars feeds the formation of NGC 2040’s structure, while the expelled material seeds the growth of the next generation of stars.
NGC 2040 contains mostly hydrogen and oxygen atoms. As these atoms are excited by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, they emit light. This emitted light spans a range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet, through the visible, and into the infrared. Special filters on Gemini South then allow specific wavelengths, or colors, of this emitted light to pass through, like the deep red and orange of glowing hydrogen and the light blue of glowing oxygen. The bright white represents areas where there is an abundance of both.
Credits: Images and Videos: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Matsopoulos/N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab) Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds Release Date: Feb. 14, 2025
Journey to Nebula & Star Cluster NGC 2040 in Dorado | Gemini South Telescope
Happy Valentine's Day! Displaying wispy layers of red, orange and yellow, the nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This nebulous flower showcases the dramatic story of stellar life, death and rebirth.
NGC 2040 is a young open cluster of stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light-years from Earth. It is a type of star cluster known as an OB association because it contains more than a dozen stars of the O and B spectral types. These stars lead short lives of only a few million years, during which they burn very hot before exploding as supernovae. The energy released by the explosions of these massive stars feeds the formation of NGC 2040’s structure, while the expelled material seeds the growth of the next generation of stars.
NGC 2040 contains mostly hydrogen and oxygen atoms. As these atoms are excited by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, they emit light. This emitted light spans a range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet, through the visible, and into the infrared. Special filters on Gemini South then allow specific wavelengths, or colors, of this emitted light to pass through, like the deep red and orange of glowing hydrogen and the light blue of glowing oxygen. The bright white represents areas where there is an abundance of both.
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), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Close-up: Nebula & Star Cluster NGC 2040 in Dorado | Gemini South Telescope
Happy Valentine's Day! Displaying wispy layers of red, orange and yellow, the nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This nebulous flower showcases the dramatic story of stellar life, death and rebirth.
NGC 2040 contains mostly hydrogen and oxygen atoms. As these atoms are excited by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, they emit light. This emitted light spans a range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet, through the visible, and into the infrared. Special filters on Gemini South then allow specific wavelengths, or colors, of this emitted light to pass through, like the deep red and orange of glowing hydrogen and the light blue of glowing oxygen. The bright white represents areas where there is an abundance of both.
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), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Nebula & Star Cluster NGC 2040 in Dorado | Gemini South Telescope
Happy Valentine's Day! Displaying wispy layers of red, orange and yellow, the nebula encasing NGC 2040 resembles a vibrant rose in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory. It is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This nebulous flower showcases the dramatic story of stellar life, death and rebirth.
NGC 2040 is a young open cluster of stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light-years from Earth. It is a type of star cluster known as an OB association because it contains more than a dozen stars of the O and B spectral types. These stars lead short lives of only a few million years, during which they burn very hot before exploding as supernovae. The energy released by the explosions of these massive stars feeds the formation of NGC 2040’s structure, while the expelled material seeds the growth of the next generation of stars.
NGC 2040 contains mostly hydrogen and oxygen atoms. As these atoms are excited by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, they emit light. This emitted light spans a range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet, through the visible, and into the infrared. Special filters on Gemini South then allow specific wavelengths, or colors, of this emitted light to pass through, like the deep red and orange of glowing hydrogen and the light blue of glowing oxygen. The bright white represents areas where there is an abundance of both.
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), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) Release Date: Feb. 14, 2025
Expedition 72 Crew Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
NASA "Espacio a Tierra" | Frecuencias de llamada: 07 de febrero de 2025
Espacio a Tierra, la versión en español de las cápsulas Space to Ground de la NASA, te informa semanalmente de lo que está sucediendo en la Estación Espacial Internacional.
In this week's recap, we walk-through our latest burns that propelled us beyond Earth's orbit toward the Moon. Get a behind-the-scenes look at mission ops during a burn and discover the unique relationship between flight directors and flight controllers.
A trans-lunar injection (TLI) is a propulsive maneuver used to send a spacecraft to the Moon.
The Blue Ghost lander is currently on its 45-day journey to the Moon. Blue Ghost is seeking to land in Mare Crisium to deliver ten NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon. They will perform numerous science and technology demonstrations, including lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, and X-ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field to advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet. Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was formed by the flooding of basaltic lava that filled an ancient asteroid impact.
The RCW 38 Star Cluster in Vela: Visible light view | Digitized Sky Survey 2
This image covers a small section of the night sky centered around the star cluster RCW 38. The sky in this image is mostly black with dark red tones. The entire image is covered by countless stars, most of them tiny, while a couple are seen as larger orange or blue-white lights. At the center are the clouds of RCW 38, here seen in a bright deep-red color. Other darker clouds create chaotic shapes across the image.
This image shows the RCW 38 stellar cluster in visible light. Dust absorbs most light at these wavelengths, hiding large areas of this cluster from us.
Distance: 5,500 light years
The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) / Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin Release Date: Feb. 13, 2025
Journey to Star Cluster RCW 38 in Vela | Paranal Observatory's VISTA
From a wide view of the Milky Way, zoom-in to the dramatic star forming region RCW 38 in the constellation Vela. The images shown here were taken with telescopes at distinct time intervals. They have been blended together to create this zoom. We begin with a view of the night sky in visible light, and finish with an infrared image of the RCW 38 region captured by the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope.
The final detailed image shows the star cluster RCW 38. This entire section of the dark sky is covered in stars of all sizes and colors: white, blue, orange or yellow. A nebula occupies most of the image; its shape perhaps resembles a balloon dog, but does not have a clearly defined shape. Inside, the clouds change in density and color, from dark brown to faintly visible purple areas. Part of the cluster is of a bright yellow, adjacent to a red and pink section that could resemble a small lobster. The entire star cluster is similarly covered in stars of all shapes and colors in a truly colorful extravaganza.
The final image is an 80-million-pixel picture of the star cluster RCW 38, located 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Vela. RCW 38 is a young cluster containing about 2,000 stars, and is bursting with star-forming activity.
The final picture shows a mixture of gas, dust and stars, creating an extravagant, yet spectacular landscape. As VISTA observes infrared light, it is able to peer through most of the dust in this region that would block our view when observing in visible light. Behind the dust, VISTA is showing young stars within dusty cocoons and cold ‘failed’ stars known as brown dwarfs, thus revealing the secrets within these young stellar nurseries.
Close-up: Star Cluster RCW 38 in Vela | Infrared view | Paranal Observatory
This incredibly detailed image shows the star cluster RCW 38. This entire section of the dark sky is covered in stars of all sizes and colors: white, blue, orange or yellow. A nebula occupies most of the image; its shape perhaps resembles a balloon dog, but does not have a clearly defined shape. Inside, the clouds change in density and color, from dark brown to faintly visible purple areas. Part of the cluster is of a bright yellow, adjacent to a red and pink section that could resemble a small lobster. The entire star cluster is similarly covered in stars of all shapes and colors in a truly colorful extravaganza.
This is an 80-million-pixel picture of the star cluster RCW 38, located 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Vela. RCW 38 is a young cluster containing about 2,000 stars, and is bursting with star-forming activity.
The picture was taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), operating in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It shows a mixture of gas, dust and stars, creating an extravagant, yet spectacular landscape. As VISTA observes infrared light, it is able to peer through most of the dust in this region that would block our view when observing in visible light. Behind the dust, VISTA is showing young stars within dusty cocoons and cold ‘failed’ stars known as brown dwarfs, thus revealing the secrets within these young stellar nurseries.
The RCW 38 Star Cluster in Vela: Infrared view | Paranal Observatory's VISTA
This incredibly detailed image shows the star cluster RCW 38. This entire section of the dark sky is covered in stars of all sizes and colors: white, blue, orange or yellow. A nebula occupies most of the image; its shape perhaps resembles a balloon dog, but does not have a clearly defined shape. Inside, the clouds change in density and color, from dark brown to faintly visible purple areas. Part of the cluster is of a bright yellow, adjacent to a red and pink section that could resemble a small lobster. The entire star cluster is similarly covered in stars of all shapes and colours in a truly colorful extravaganza.
This is an 80-million-pixel picture of the star cluster RCW 38, located 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Vela. RCW 38 is a young cluster containing about 2,000 stars, and is bursting with star-forming activity.
The picture was taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), operating in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It shows a mixture of gas, dust and stars, creating an extravagant, yet spectacular landscape. As VISTA observes infrared light, it is able to peer through most of the dust in this region that would block our view when observing in visible light. Behind the dust, VISTA is showing young stars within dusty cocoons and cold ‘failed’ stars known as brown dwarfs, thus revealing the secrets within these young stellar nurseries.
SpaceX Starship Long Duration Static Fire Test | Starbase Texas
A long duration static fire test of Starship ahead of the eighth flight test with the Super Heavy Booster. SpaceX is going through prelaunch preparations as "we continue a rapid iterative development process to build a fully and rapidly reusable space transportation system."
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.
"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."
Jupiter - NASA Juno spacecraft - PJ40-39 | The shadow is from Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Ganymede is the largest and most massive natural satellite of Jupiter, and in the Solar System.
Since it arrived at Jupiter in 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been probing beneath the dense, forbidding clouds encircling the giant planet—the first orbiter to peer so closely. It seeks answers to questions about the origin and evolution of Jupiter, our solar system, and giant planets across the cosmos. Each perijove passes near a new part of Jupiter's cloud tops. A perijove indicates the point in the Juno spacecraft's orbit when it comes closest to planet Jupiter's center. If we measure by volume, approximately 1,300 Earths could fit inside Jupiter.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program. This is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
NASA’s Polar Ice Experiment for Future Moon Missions | Kennedy Space Center
An innovative NASA experiment is preparing for its journey to the Moon as part of Intuitive Machines’ second launch to the lunar surface. The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) will be delivered through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative on the next lunar flight.
Designed to investigate the Moon’s subsurface, PRIME-1 will demonstrate groundbreaking technology to extract and analyze lunar soil, paving the way for sustainable human exploration under NASA’s Artemis campaign. In this video, Jackie Quinn explains how PRIME-1’s two key instruments—the Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrains (TRIDENT) and the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO)—will work together to search for resources beneath the lunar surface.
The Athena lander, carrying PRIME-1 and other NASA technology demonstrations and science investigations, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than Feb. 26, 2025.
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is captured here in all its beauty by Cesar Briceño, Director of the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR), a part of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Comets form from a nucleus of dust, water, and gas in the farthest-known regions of our Solar System. This close-up of the Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) cleanly shows the vaporized material of the nucleus creating the iconic cometary shape. In the lower left corner, the diffuse coma shines bright white as it obscures the nucleus. Emanating from the nucleus are the twin tails. The upper stream is the dust tail made of the heavier dust particles, illuminated by reflected sunlight. The lower stream is composed of gases, glowing as a result of ionization of the gas atoms. This tail is affected by the Sun’s magnetic field, and so is pointing in the direction of the solar wind.
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) may be one of the brightest comets to pass by Earth in 2025.
Comet C/2024 G3 was found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. ATLAS is funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Office. ATLAS was developed and is operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.
Polar Stratospheric Clouds in Moonlight over Finland
Unusual weather in the stratosphere has set the stage for rare nighttime displays of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). Marianne Bergli took this picture on February 11, 2025, in Kilpisjervi, Finland: "The PSCs were even more colorful than auroras," says Bergli. "The full Moon lit them beautifully."
This kind of display is unusual for two reasons. First, Earth's stratosphere usually has no clouds at all. Only when the temperature drops to a staggeringly-low -85 C can widely-spaced water molecules assemble into icy PSCs. Second, on rare occasions PSCs appear, they are usually seen only during the day. This is when bright sunlight causes them to blossom in color. On Feb. 11th the full Moon did the job of the sun.
According to NASA's MERRA2 climate model, the polar stratosphere has been exceptionally cold this winter with temperatures dropping to 45-year lows. What's going on? Researchers are not certain, but the reason might be the stratospheric polar vortex. This winter's vortex has been strong, keeping cold air bottled up over the Arctic Circle.
If you live in the Arctic, keep an eye on this week's bright Moon. It may come with PSCs!
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Kilpisjervi is located in Finland's northwestern "arm" near the northwesternmost point of the country.
Astrophotographer Greg Parker: "One night this past October, I had an unexpected clear night for observing so was able to capture the appropriately named Coathanger star cluster from the New Forest Observatory in Hampshire, U.K. The Coathanger is actually an asterism in the dim, little constellation of Vupecula. It's a happenstance alignment of stars and not a true open star cluster. The nearest stars in this tight grouping are over 4,000 light years distant."
Alternatively called Brocchi's Cluster, the Coathanger can be seen with the naked eye from very dark skies, but a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope affords a particularly inviting view.
Image Details: ASI 2600MC Pro OSC CMOS cameras on the MiniWASP array (Wide-field Astronomical Survey Platform); 200 mm lenses; 30 x 10-minute subs
Image Credit: Greg Parker Caption Credit: Greg Parker; Jim Foster Capture Location: New Forest Observatory, U.K. Coordinates: 50.819444, -1.59
Why Does the Moon Look Larger at the Earth's Horizon? We Asked a NASA Expert
Ever noticed how the Moon seems "HUGE" when it is near the horizon but smaller when it is overhead? Trick of the eye or something more? Scientists have debated this for 2,000+ years, and we still do not have a definitive answer!
Find out what we do know and learn more about the Moon illusion:
China Releases Names of Moon-Landing Spacesuit & Crewed Lunar Rover
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, unveiled the names of the Moon-landing spacesuit and crewed lunar rover for the country's crewed lunar exploration missions. The Moon-landing spacesuit is named "Wangyu", meaning "gazing into the cosmos", and it echoes the name of the country's extravehicular spacesuit, "Feitian." It means "flying into space", according to the CMSA.
"'Feitian' has realized the Chinese people's dream of flying into space, and 'Wangyu' means efforts to look into deep space and the universe and explore the unknown. China's crewed space program has embarked on a new journey of landing on the Moon and heading into deep space," said Zhang Wanxin, the director of the spacesuit engineering office at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
"Wangyu" also showcases China's adherence to the peaceful use of space and contribution to building a community with a shared future for humanity.
The crewed lunar rover is called "Tansuo", meaning "to explore the unknown". The agency said that the name reflects the lunar rover's mission and practical value in aiding the Chinese people to uncover the mysteries of the Moon, and that it is highly consistent with China's yearning to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build itself into a space power.
"'Tansuo' not only means that we are going to the Moon, exploring new areas and seeing unknown places in the universe, but also showcases our further exploration of science and technology. 'Long as the way is, I will keep on searching high and low.' I think this is an important opportunity for us to explore the vast universe and build China into a space power," said Zhang Chongfeng, deputy chief designer of the crewed spacecraft for China's Crewed Space Program.
After for the first time soliciting from the public for the new vehicles of future crewed lunar exploration missions in 2023, from September to October 2024, the CMSA successively launched a campaign to solicit names for the Moon-landing spacesuit and crewed lunar rover. It has attracted widespread attention and enthusiastic participation from the entire society.
A total of more than 9,000 submissions were received from organizations specializing in the fields of aerospace, science and technology, and cultural communication, as well as people from all walks of life.
"During the early stages of development, we have mastered key technologies such as the manufacture of lightweight and smaller-sized Moon-landing spacesuits, as well as comprehensive protection against complex environments. We have now fully entered the prototype development stage, and are currently conducting comprehensive performance and function assessments and verifications of the prototype products. In the future, we will turn the attention of the people across the country into our driving force for work, and fully promote the development of the Moon-landing suits," said Zhang Wanxin.
"The (crewed lunar rover) prototype we made has completed experiments in a simulated lunar surface test site and has also carried out a large amount of experimental work in a field test site. Currently, the crewed lunar rover has entered the prototype stage and is undergoing detailed design and subsequent engineering tests," said Zhang Chongfeng.
China has been steadily pressing ahead the development and construction of equipment for its crewed lunar landing mission progressing as planned. The key technical research and in-depth demonstration in the early stage have been completed, and the prototypes of the equipment are now in their initial development phases.
China aims to achieve crewed lunar landing by 2030 to carry out scientific exploration and technical experiments, make breakthroughs in and master critical technologies, such as crewed Earth-Moon round trips, short-term stays on the lunar surface, and human-robot collaborative exploration. The mission will encompass a range of tasks, including landing, roving, sampling, research and returning to Earth, with an aim to form an independent capability of crewed lunar exploration.
By utilizing pre-crewed flight tests and crewed lunar missions, China plans to conduct large-scale space science experiments targeting three key areas, including lunar science, lunar-based science, and resource exploration and utilization.
Production and ground tests of prototypes of the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the crewed spacecraft Mengzhou, the lunar lander Lanyue, the spacesuit to be worn by astronauts, and the lunar rover are underway as planned.
Ground facilities and equipment for the production and tests have been completed and are operational, and the construction of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site is proceeding as planned.
Is this the largest hummingbird ever? Although it may look like a popular fluttering nectarivore, what is pictured is actually a beautifully detailed and colorful aurora, complete with rays reminiscent of feathers. This aurora was so bright that it was visible to the unaided eye during blue hour—just after sunset when the sky appears a darkening blue. However, the aurora only looked like a hummingbird through a sensitive camera able to pick up faint glows. As reds typically occurring higher in the Earth's atmosphere than the greens, the real 3D shape of this aurora would likely appear unfamiliar. Auroras are created when an explosion on the Sun causes high energy particles to flow into the Earth's atmosphere and excite atoms and molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The featured image was captured about two weeks ago above Lyngseidt, Norway.
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Central and South America.
The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, but they typically originate with activity on the Sun. Occasionally, during explosions called coronal mass ejections, the Sun releases charged particles that speed across the solar system.
Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]
Solid Colored Aurora
Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.
Element Emission Colors
Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.
Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.
Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.
Shenzhou-18 Astronaut Shares Fun Surprises in Space | China Space Station
During their time in space between April 25 and November 4, 2024, the Shenzhou-18 crew was from time to time treated to unexpected gifts aboard China's Tiangong Space Station, adding fun and excitement to their six-month mission in orbit, according to astronaut Li Cong, one of the Shenzhou-18 trio.
The three astronauts from the Shenzhou-18 crewed mission—Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu—met the press and public on January 8, 2025, more than 60 days after returning to the Earth.
In a recent interview, Li Cong recalled the playful moments of space life, particularly the excitement of hunting for surprise packages and unboxing them with his fellow astronauts.
These gifts were carefully prepared by the support team of the Astronaut Center of China (ACC) to bring more surprises and fun moments to the astronauts' time in space.
"Before the spacecraft was loaded, the surprise boxes were hidden in various concealed corners of the cargo ship. We couldn't always find them when moving the supplies. But whenever it was the start of a new month, a major holiday, or someone's birthday, we would be told to search for surprises. It's like a treasure hunt. Once we found them, we would gather and open the boxes together," the astronaut said.
Li Cong also mentioned that the boxes contained a variety of items, including birthday gifts like longevity noodles, specially prepared for the astronaut celebrating his birthday.
After savoring the surprise treats, the astronauts would rate the food.
"At the start of each month, we would receive the most popular foods, those rated highly by the previous crew, like beef sauce. Whatever tastes good, we score it highly, and the next crew will get it as a surprise," he added.
Shenzhou-18's return capsule, carrying the three astronauts, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on November 4, 2024, after completing its six-month space station mission.
Prior to the end of the Shenzhou-18 mission, China launched into space the Shenzhou-19 mission on October 30, 2024 also for a six-month stay on the Tiangong Space Station.
Shenzhou-18 Crew: Ye Guangfu (叶光富, commander) Li Cong (李聪, mission specialist) Li Guangsu (李广苏, mission specialist)
Three small lunar rovers were packed up at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the first leg of their multistage journey to the Moon. These suitcase-size rovers, along with a base station and camera system that will record their travels on the lunar surface, make up NASA’s Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) technology demonstration.
CADRE aims to prove that a group of robots can collaborate to gather data without receiving direct commands from mission controllers on Earth, paving the way for potential future multirobot missions.
Seen here are tests of the CADRE software in January 2024 and scenes of a rover getting flipped over, attached to an aluminum plate for transit, and sealed into a protective metal-frame enclosure that was later packed into a metal shipping container a year later, in January 2025.
The hardware was transported from JPL to Intuitive Machines’ Houston facility, where it will be integrated with the company’s Nova-C lander. Intuitive Machines’ third lunar mission (IM-3). It has a mission window extending into early 2026, will deliver CADRE and other NASA payloads to the Moon’s Reiner Gamma region.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages CADRE for the Game Changing Development program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. IM-3 is a mission under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. It is managed by the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
Through the CLPS initiative and Artemis campaign, NASA is leveraging American companies to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon, advancing our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future crewed missions.
Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life | NASA/CSA/CNES
The origin of life is one of the deepest mysteries in science, but the clues to solving it have been buried by plate tectonics, the water cycle, and even life itself. For answers, scientists are looking beyond Earth to primitive asteroids like Bennu, the target of NASA’s daringOSIRIS-REx sample return mission conducted in cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and France (CNES). OSIRIS-REx gathered pristine material from Bennu in 2020 and delivered it to Earth in 2023. Now, rocks from Bennu are revealing a lost world from the dawn of the solar system with the right conditions to foster the building blocks of life.
OSIRIS-REx delivered 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu; the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and over twice the mission’s mass requirement. Several samples have already been distributed to members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team. They have found evidence of organic molecules and minerals bearing phosphorous and water that together could indicate the building blocks essential for life may be found in these rocks.
Canada contributed technical and scientific expertise to the OSIRIS-REx mission. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) provided the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA), a LIDAR system able to scan the asteroid from up to 7 km away, and supports: --Scientists and engineers on OLA's development and operations team --Scientists from Canadian institutions that are part of the broader OSIRIS-REx science team
French space agency CNES did not provide instruments for this mission but is supporting the work of several co-investigators involved in the project.