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Record Broken: Hubble Spots Farthest Star Ever Seen | NASA
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to date. Its nickname is Earendel.
Launched in 1990, Hubble has observed the universe for nearly 32 years, contributing to incredible discoveries and changing our understanding of astronomy. After upgrades from five servicing missions, Hubble is still going strong. Hubble plans to partner with NASA’s newly launched James Webb Space Telescope to study the sky across ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths. The two observatories together will investigate distant stars like Earendel, along with galaxies, exoplanets, and our own solar system.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul Morris: Lead Producer
Music Credits:
“Beautiful Planet” by Andreas Andreas Bolldén [STIM] via Koka Media [SACEM], Universal Production Music France [SACEM], and Universal Production Music.
NGC 772: Strong-Arming a Galaxy | Gemini Observatory
Cosmoview Episode 43: The overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 772, which was created by tidal interactions with an unruly neighbor, dominates this observation made by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope located near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i. NGC 772’s peculiar appearance has earned it a place as the 78th entry in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies — a rogues’ gallery of weird and wonderful galaxy structures.
This impressive image shows the strangely lopsided spiral galaxy NGC 772, which lies over 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Aries. Captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i, one half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, the image shows NGC 772’s overdeveloped spiral arm, which stretches across toward the left-hand edge of the frame. This extra large arm is due to one of NGC 772’s unruly neighbors, the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 770. The tidal interactions between NGC 772 and its diminutive companion have distorted and stretched one of the spiral galaxy’s arms, giving it the lopsided appearance seen in this image.
NGC 772 also lacks a bright central bar. Other spiral galaxies such as the Andromeda Galaxy or our own Milky Way exhibit prominent central bars—large, linear structures composed of gas, dust, and countless stars. Without a bar, NGC 772’s spiral arms sweep out directly from the bright center of the galaxy.
The galaxy’s unusual appearance has earned it the distinction of appearing in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a careful curation by astronomer Halton Arp of some of the weird and wonderful galaxies populating the Universe. The 338 galaxies in the Atlas are a rogues’ gallery of strange and unusual galaxy shapes chosen to provide astronomers with a catalog of odd galaxy structures. Entries in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies include galaxies boasting trailing tidal tails, rings, jets, detached segments, and a host of other structural idiosyncrasies. NGC 772 is included as Arp 78.
While NGC 772’s peculiarities dominate this image, there is also a menagerie of galaxies lurking in the background. The bright smears and smudges littering this image are distant galaxies—some of the closer examples can be resolved into characteristic spiral shapes. Every direction on the sky that astronomers have pointed telescopes toward contains a rich carpet of galaxies, with an estimated 2 trillion galaxies in total in our observable Universe.
Credit:
Images and Videos: International Gemini Observatory/National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), J. Pollard/National Science Foundation (NSF)
Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab), M. Zamani & D. de Martin
NGC 772: Strong-Arming a Galaxy | Gemini Observatory
Excerpt: "Every direction on the sky that astronomers have pointed telescopes toward contains a rich carpet of galaxies, with an estimated 2 trillion galaxies in total in our observable Universe."
The overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy NGC 772, which was created by tidal interactions with an unruly neighbor, dominates this observation made by astronomers using the Gemini North telescope located near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i. NGC 772’s peculiar appearance has earned it a place as the 78th entry in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies—a rogues’ gallery of weird and wonderful galaxy structures.
This impressive image shows the strangely lopsided spiral galaxy NGC 772, which lies over 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Aries. Captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i, one half of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, the image shows NGC 772’s overdeveloped spiral arm, which stretches across toward the left-hand edge of the frame. This extra large arm is due to one of NGC 772’s unruly neighbors, the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 770. The tidal interactions between NGC 772 and its diminutive companion have distorted and stretched one of the spiral galaxy’s arms, giving it the lopsided appearance seen in this image.
NGC 772 also lacks a bright central bar. Other spiral galaxies such as the Andromeda Galaxy or our own Milky Way exhibit prominent central bars—large, linear structures composed of gas, dust, and countless stars. Without a bar, NGC 772’s spiral arms sweep out directly from the bright center of the galaxy.
The galaxy’s unusual appearance has earned it the distinction of appearing in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a careful curation by astronomer Halton Arp of some of the weird and wonderful galaxies populating the Universe. The 338 galaxies in the Atlas are a rogues’ gallery of strange and unusual galaxy shapes chosen to provide astronomers with a catalog of odd galaxy structures. Entries in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies include galaxies boasting trailing tidal tails, rings, jets, detached segments, and a host of other structural idiosyncrasies. NGC 772 is included as Arp 78.
While NGC 772’s peculiarities dominate this image, there is also a menagerie of galaxies lurking in the background. The bright smears and smudges littering this image are distant galaxies—some of the closer examples can be resolved into characteristic spiral shapes. Every direction on the sky that astronomers have pointed telescopes toward contains a rich carpet of galaxies, with an estimated 2 trillion galaxies in total in our observable Universe.
Credit: National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/National Science Foundation (NSF)
Expedition 66: Change of Command Ceremony | International Space Station
Ceremony starts at 4 minute & 37 seconds mark
March 29, 2022: Aboard the International Space Station, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov handed over command of the International Space Station to NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn during a change of command ceremony between Expedition 66 and Expedition 67 March 29. Shkaplerov is headed home with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov March 30 for a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan to wrap up their mission.
Mark Vande Hei, along with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, will close the hatch to the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft to begin the journey back to Earth. The Soyuz will undock from the Rassvet module, heading for a parachute-assisted landing Wednesday, March 30, on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.
Coverage of the crew’s farewells, undocking, and landing will air live on NASA TV: nasa.gov/nasatv, the agency’s website, and the NASA app at the following times—all Eastern Daylight Time (EDT):
11:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29 – Farewells and hatch closure (at 12 a.m., Wednesday, March 30)
2:45 a.m. Wednesday, March 30 – Undocking (at 3:21 a.m.)
6:15 a.m. Wednesday, March 30 – Deorbit burn and landing (landing at 7:28 a.m. / 5:28 p.m. Kazakhstan time)
Vande Hei and Dubrov launched April 9, 2021, on Soyuz MS-18, and will wrap up a 355-day mission spanning 5,680 orbits of Earth and more than 150 million miles. During the long-duration mission, Vande Hei broke the record for longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut, previously held at 340 days. Vande Hei will wrap up his second spaceflight with a total of 523 days in space. Shkaplerov launched on Soyuz MS-19 on Oct. 5, 2021. This was Dubrov’s first flight. Shkaplerov is ending his fourth mission with 708 cumulative days spent in space.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 67 will formally begin aboard the station, with new station Commander Tom Marshburn, NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov.
After landing, the Soyuz MS-19 crew will split up, as per standard crew return practice, with Vande Hei returning to his home in Houston, while the cosmonauts fly back to their training base in Star City, Russia.
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Expedition 66 Crew:
New Commander: Thomas Marshburn
Former Commander: Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos (Russia)
NASA Artemis II Moon Rocket Assembly | Michoud Assembly Facility
The Artemis II mission will be the first to return American astronauts to lunar orbit. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, paving the way for human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
NASA joined the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage forward assembly with the 130-foot liquid hydrogen tank for the Artemis II mission on March 18, 2022. This completes assembly of four of the five large structures that make up the core stage that will help send the first astronauts to lunar orbit on Artemis II. The 66-foot forward assembly consists of the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and the intertank, which were mated earlier. Engineers inserted 360 bolts to connect the forward assembly to the liquid hydrogen tank to make up the bulk of the stage. Only the engine section, which is currently being outfitted and includes the main propulsion systems that connect to the four RS-25 engines, remains to be added to form the final core stage. All parts of the core stage are manufactured by NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. Currently, the team is building core stages for three Artemis missions. The first core stage is stacked with the rest of the SLS rocket, which will launch the Artemis I mission to the Moon this year. Together with its twin solid rocket boosters, the core stage will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon. The SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft form the foundation for Artemis missions and future deep space exploration.
Explorando los secretos del universo en beneficio de todos | NASA
Informe State of NASA 2022: La NASA explora lo desconocido en el aire y el espacio, innova en beneficio de la humanidad e inspira al mundo a través del descubrimiento.
Para obtener más información en inglés sobre algunas de las misiones de la NASA que se muestran en este video, visita los siguientes enlaces:
NASA continues to forge ahead in humanity’s quest for knowledge as we explore the Moon and Mars. Through Artemis, we will expand our robotic and human exploration of the Moon and land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface. As we get ready to venture beyond, the technology we develop and discoveries we make on the Moon will prepare us for Mars and our next giant leap: sending humans to the Red Planet.
Exploring the Secrets of the Universe for the Benefit of All | NASA
State of NASA 2022 Highlights: NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.
To learn more about some of the NASA missions featured in this video, take a deep dive into these links:
NASA benefits all humanity and our workforce is key to making this happen. Take a look at the universe of NASA missions and projects made possible by our commitment to teamwork, collaboration, equity and inclusiveness.
Our exploration of the universe, our technology development, our work to help understand climate change, and the opportunities the agency creates make our nation more prosperous, stronger, more inclusive and inspired. NASA furthers the nation’s goals to address climate change, advance space exploration, promote equity and diversity and provide educational STEM opportunities. NASA keeps the United States at the forefront of innovation.
Learn more about Careers at NASA:
https://lnkd.in/eAXwP-tW
Interested in pursuing a career at NASA?
1) Create a USA JOBS account: www.usajobs.gov
2) Build your resume.
3) Search current vacancies here: https://lnkd.in/eCTWc-wZ
(Tip: You can create a “Saved Search” to find specific roles & you will receive emails automatically when new jobs are available.)
"NASA is more than astronauts. We are scientists, engineers, IT specialists, human resources specialists, accountants, writers, technicians, and many other kinds of people working together to break barriers to achieve the seemingly impossible."
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens and permanent residents
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Vigil Space Weather Mission | European Space Agency
It is the first mission of its kind, set to monitor our active and unpredictable Sun and to help protect us from its violent outbursts–and it has a new name.
The European Space Agency’s upcoming Vigil space weather mission will help protect Earth’s infrastructure, satellites, inhabitants and space explorers from unpredictable but violent solar events like solar flares and ‘coronal mass ejections’.
In Latin, ‘vigilis exceptus’ means sentry, or guard, while ‘vigilia’ means wakefulness and the act of keeping a devoted watch, which resonates with the mission’s role—a devoted guardian, keeping constant watch over the Sun, for Earth.
Protecting Modern Life, and Life Itself
Solar storms can damage power grids, disrupt telecommunications and threaten satellites and the vital services they provide. At the same time, as we launch ever-more satellites into orbit we are creating increasing amounts of debris—dramatically increasing the risks of collision for current and future missions.
These satellites have changed our lives and enlarged our perspective on Earth, but they—and the technologies they make possible on which modernity relies—are vulnerable.
The protection of space assets is at the heart of ESA’s Vision for the future. To do this, the new Protect ‘accelerator’ proposes the development of ‘air traffic control for space’, as well as an early warning system to help us prepare for hazardous solar activity.
Searching for Gems | European Southern Observatory
This striking star trail image was captured above the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama desert. Star trails are caused by Earth’s rotation; in this long exposure image, stars appear to circle around the south celestial pole. Almost unrecognizable are the Carina Nebula (bright magenta smudge, center-left) and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (blue smudges in the center-top and center-right, respectively).
Gazing up into the starry vortex are two of the three BlackGEM telescopes, built and operated by Radboud University, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), and KU Leuven. The third telescope on the right was still under construction at the time this photograph was taken, having only a platform and no dome. BlackGEM eventually aims to expand to 15 telescopes, capable of performing extensive surveys of the night sky.
BlackGEM will join detectors such as LIGO and Virgo in the search for the most dramatic events in space, such as merging black holes and neutron stars. Following the detection of gravitational waves from these collisions by LIGO and Virgo, BlackGEM will scan large areas of the sky looking for the visible light emitted in these events. Other facilities like ESO’s Very Large Telescope will then follow up on BlackGEM’s measurements, enabling astronomers to better understand some of our universe’s most elusive phenomena.
Credit: Zdeněk Bardon (bardon.cz)/European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Tendrils of dark dust can be seen threading across the heart of the spiral galaxy NGC 7172 in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies approximately 110 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The lane of dust threading its way across NGC 7172—which is viewed side-on in this image—is obscuring the luminous heart of the galaxy, making NGC 7172 appear to be nothing more than a normal edge-on spiral galaxy.
When astronomers inspected NGC 7172 across the electromagnetic spectrum they quickly discovered that there was more to it than meets the eye: NGC 7172 is a Seyfert galaxy—a type of galaxy with an intensely luminous active galactic nucleus powered by matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole.
This image combines data from two sets of Hubble observations, both of which were proposed to study nearby active galactic nuclei. The image also combines data from two instruments—Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFCS).
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. J. Rosario, A. Barth
Abell 1689: A Galaxy Cluster Makes Its Mark | NASA Chandra
Abell 1689, shown in this composite image, is a massive cluster of galaxies located about 2.3 billion light years away that shows signs of merging activity. Hundred-million-degree gas detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown as purple in this image, while galaxies from optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are colored yellow. The X-ray emission has a smooth appearance, unlike other merging systems such as the Bullet Cluster or MACS J0025.4-1222. The temperature pattern across Abell 1689 is more complicated, however, possibly requiring multiple structures with different temperatures.
The long arcs in the optical image are caused by gravitational lensing of background galaxies by matter in the galaxy cluster, the largest system of such arcs ever found. Further studies of this cluster are needed to explain the lack of agreement between mass estimates based on the X-ray data and on the gravitational lensing. Previous work suggests that filament-like structures of galaxies are located near Abell 1689 along our line-of-sight to this cluster, which may bias mass estimates using gravitational lensing.
Image Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/E.-H Peng et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Color Code: X-ray (Purple); Optical (Yellow)
Observation Dates: 04/15/2004 - 03/09/2006 with five pointings
The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In this perspective, the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 when it was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.
The New Horizons spacecraft is continuing its exploration of our solar system's Kuiper Belt and outer heliosphere. It is about 4.9 billion miles (7.8 billion kilometers) from home—more than 52 times farther from the Sun than Earth—in a region where a radio signal from New Horizons, even traveling at the speed of light, needs more than seven hours to reach Earth.
New Horizons was practically designed to make history. Dispatched at 36,400 miles per hour (58,500 kilometers per hour) on Jan. 19, 2006, New Horizons still holds the record for fastest launch speed from Earth. Its gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter in February 2007 not only shaved about three years from its voyage to Pluto but also allowed it to achieve the best views ever of Jupiter’s faint ring and capture the first movie of a volcano erupting anywhere in the solar system except Earth.
New Horizons successfully pulled off the first exploration of the Pluto system in July 2015, followed by the farthest flyby in history—and first close-up look at a Kuiper Belt object (KBO)—with its flight past Arrokoth on New Year’s Day 2019. From its unique perch in the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons is making observations that can’t be made from anywhere else; even the stars look different from the spacecraft’s point of view.
As New Horizons team members use giant telescopes like the Japanese Subaru observatory to scan the skies for another potential (and long-shot) KBO flyby target, New Horizons itself remains healthy, collecting data on the solar wind and space environment in the Kuiper Belt, other KBOs, and distant planets like Uranus and Neptune.
Mars Crater: Cool as Ice | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.
However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies.
Notes: Black and white images are 5 km across; enhanced color images are 1 km
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
Mars Crater: Cool as Ice | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.
However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies. (Image is less than 1 km across and was captured from 254 km above the surface.)
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
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