NASA Astrophysics: Year 2024 Highlights

NASA Astrophysics: Year 2024 Highlights

2024 was an exciting year for astrophysics. There were fascinating discoveries by missions new and old, new instruments launched, and older instruments getting ready for unprecedented repairs in space. Several upcoming NASA missions continued their steps toward completion. SPHEREx is launching in 2025 and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch no later than May 2027. Meanwhile, the Habitable Worlds Observatory is beginning its development as a next-generation space telescope. Building off this strong success, 2025 will be a great year for astrophysics at NASA.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov

SPHEREx

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/spherex/

Habitable Worlds Observatory

https://habitableworldsobservatory.org

https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/habitable-worlds-observatory/

Credit: NASA

Duration: 2 minutes, 32 seconds
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophysics #JWST #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #UnfoldTheUniverse #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #NancyGraceRoman #NASARoman #SPHEREx #Habitable Worlds Observatory#Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #JPL #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Planet Mercury: BepiColombo Spacecraft's Sixth Flyby | Timelapse views | ESA

Planet Mercury: BepiColombo Spacecraft's Sixth Flyby | Timelapse views | ESA

Fly over Mercury with BepiColombo for the final time during the mission’s epic expedition around the Sun. The European Space Agency/JAXA spacecraft captured these images of the Solar System's smallest planet on January 7 and 8, 2025, before and during its sixth encounter with Mercury. This was its final planetary flyby until it enters orbit around the planet in late 2026.  

The video begins with BepiColombo's approach to Mercury, showing images taken by onboard monitoring cameras 1 and 2 (M-CAM 1 and M-CAM 2) between 16:59 CET on January 7 and 01:45 CET on January 8. During this time, the spacecraft moved from 106,019 to 42,513 km from Mercury's surface. The view from M-CAM 1 is along a 15-meter-long solar array, whereas M-CAM 2 images show an antenna and boom in the foreground. 

After emerging into view from behind the solar array, Mercury appears to jump to the right. Both the spacecraft and its solar arrays rotated in preparation for passing through Mercury's cold, dark shadow.   

For several hours after these first images were taken, the part of Mercury’s surface illuminated by the Sun was no longer visible from the M-CAMs. BepiColombo's closest approach to Mercury took place in darkness at 06:58:52 CET on January 8, when it got as close as 295 km.  

Shortly after re-emerging into the intense sunlight, the spacecraft peered down onto the planet's north pole, imaging several craters whose floors are in permanent shadow. The long shadows in this region are particularly striking on the floor of Prokofiev crater (the largest crater to the right of center)—the central peak of that crater casts spiky shadows that exaggerate the shape of this mountain.  

Next, we have a beautiful view of Mercury crossing the field of view from left to right, seen first by M-CAM 1 then by M-CAM 2 between 07:06 and 07:49 CET. These images showcase the planet's northern plains, which were smoothed over billions of years ago when massive amounts of runny lava flowed across Mercury's cratered surface.  

The background music is The Hebrides overture, composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830 after being inspired by a visit to Fingal’s Cave, a sea cave created by ancient lava flows on the island of Staffa, Scotland. Similarly shaped by lava is Mercury's Mendelssohn crater, one of the large craters visible passing from left to right above the solar array in M-CAM 1's views, and at the very bottom of M-CAM 2's views. The Mendelssohn crater was flooded with lava after an impact originally created it. 

The end of the video lingers on the final three close-up images that the M-CAMs will ever obtain of Mercury. The cameras will continue to operate until September 2026, fulfilling their role of monitoring various parts of the spacecraft. After that point, the spacecraft module carrying the M-CAMs will separate from BepiColombo's other two parts, ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio). MPO’s much more powerful science cameras will take over from the M-CAMs, mapping Mercury over a range of colors in visible and infrared light.

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM 
Acknowledgements: Thank you to external collaborators Emanuele Simioni (INAF), Valentina Galluzzi (INAF), Jack Wright (Open University), and David Rothery (Open University) for their involvement in image sequence planning.
Duration: 1 minute, 44 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 14, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mercury #NorthPole #Craters #Lava #Flyby #BepiColomboMission #BepiColomboSpacecraft #Europe #JAXA #Japan #日本 #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #Infographic #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

Zodiacal Light, Starlinks, Milky Way Stars & Airglow | International Space Station

Zodiacal Light, Starlinks, Milky Way Stars & Airglow | International Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Don Pettit on the International Space Station: "One photo with: [the] Milky Way, Zodiacal light, Starlink satellites as streaks, stars as pin points, atmosphere on edge showing OH emission as burned umber (my favorite Crayon color), [a] soon to rise sun, and cities at night as streaks. Taken two days ago from Dragon Crew 9 vehicle port window."

The zodiacal light—also called “false dawn” when seen before sunrise—is a faint, diffuse band of light in the night sky, reaching up from the horizon. It follows the direction of the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. This plane is rich in tiny particles of dust. It scatters sunlight and creates this phenomenon. The other planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane, and therefore can be often seen within the zodiacal light. If you have never seen zodiacal light before, you are not alone. The glow is so faint that light pollution or even moonlight can outshine it.

Airglow or hydroxyl radical (OH) emissions occur when atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, excited by sunlight, emit light to shed their excess energy. Or, it can happen when atoms and molecules that have been ionized by sunlight collide with and capture a free electron. In both cases, they eject a particle of light—called a photon—in order to relax again. 

Expedition 72 Updates:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

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.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/D. Pettit

Image Date: Jan. 11, 2025

Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Airglow #ZodiacalLight #SolarSystem #Stars #MilkyWayGalaxy #Satellites #Starlink #Astronauts #DonPettit #AstronautPhotography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #SpaceLaboratory #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition72 #STEM #Education

Rapid Expansion of Carbon Dust Shells around Binary Star System Wolf-Rayet 140

Rapid Expansion of Carbon Dust Shells around Binary Star System Wolf-Rayet 140 

This video alternates between two James Webb Space Telescope observations of Wolf-Rayet 140, a two-star system 5,000 light years away that has sent out more than 17 shells of carbon-rich dust over 130 years. Mid-infrared light observations highlight them with excellent clarity.

By comparing this pair of observations, taken only 14 months apart, researchers showed the dust in the system has expanded. All the dust in every shell is moving at almost 1% the speed of light.

The stars are very bright. This led to the diffraction spikes in both images. These are artifacts, not meaningful features.

When the two massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another, their winds collide, material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. The stronger winds of the hotter Wolf-Rayet star blow behind its slightly cooler (but still hot) companion. The stars create dust for several months in every eight-year orbit.

Astronomers using the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope have identified two stars responsible for generating carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy. As the massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another on their elongated orbits, their winds collide and produce the carbon-rich dust. For a few months every eight years, the stars form a new shell of dust that expands outward—and may eventually go on to become part of stars that form elsewhere in our galaxy.

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon that are essential for life. It has become widely distributed across the Universe. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140—a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.

“The telescope confirmed that these dust shells are real, and its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.

Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 2,600 kilometers per second, almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver. “In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”

“Seeing the real-time movement of these shells between Webb’s observations that were taken only 13 months apart is truly remarkable,” said Olivia Jones, a co-author at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh. “These new results are giving us a first glimpse of the potential role of such massive binaries as factories of dust in the Universe.”

Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit. Webb also shows where dust formation stops.

Credits:
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Duration: 3 seconds
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #WolfRayet140 #CarbonDustShells #StellarWinds #JamesWebb #WebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #JPL #Caltech #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

How Binary Star Orbits Build Carbon Shells: Wolf-Rayet 140 Visualization | Webb

How Binary Star Orbits Build Carbon Shells: Wolf-Rayet 140 Visualization | Webb

When the two massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another, their winds collide, material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. The stronger winds of the hotter Wolf-Rayet star blow behind its slightly cooler (but still hot) companion. The stars create dust for several months in every eight-year orbit.

Astronomers using the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope have identified two stars responsible for generating carbon-rich dust a mere 5,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy. As the massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another on their elongated orbits, their winds collide and produce the carbon-rich dust. For a few months every eight years, the stars form a new shell of dust that expands outward—and may eventually go on to become part of stars that form elsewhere in our galaxy.

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon that are essential for life. It has become widely distributed across the Universe. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140—a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.

As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.

“The telescope confirmed that these dust shells are real, and its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.

Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 2,600 kilometres per second, almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver. “In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”

“Seeing the real-time movement of these shells between Webb’s observations that were taken only 13 months apart is truly remarkable,” said Olivia Jones, a co-author at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh. “These new results are giving us a first glimpse of the potential role of such massive binaries as factories of dust in the Universe.”

Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit. Webb also shows where dust formation stops.

Video Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Duration: 12 seconds
Release Date: January 13, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #WolfRayet140 #CarbonDustShells #StellarWinds #JamesWebb #WebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #JPL #Caltech #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

Carbon-rich dust shells forming & expanding in binary star system | Webb Telescope

Carbon-rich dust shells forming & expanding in binary star system | Webb Telescope

Webb Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI Images, annotated)

Astronomers using the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope have identified two stars responsible for generating carbon-rich dust a mere 5,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy. As the massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another on their elongated orbits, their winds collide and produce the carbon-rich dust. For a few months every eight years, the stars form a new shell of dust that expands outward—and may eventually go on to become part of stars that form elsewhere in our galaxy.

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon that are essential for life. It has become widely distributed across the Universe. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140—a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.

As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.

“The telescope confirmed that these dust shells are real, and its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.

Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 2,600 kilometres per second, almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver. “In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”

“Seeing the real-time movement of these shells between Webb’s observations that were taken only 13 months apart is truly remarkable,” said Olivia Jones, a co-author at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh. “These new results are giving us a first glimpse of the potential role of such massive binaries as factories of dust in the Universe.”

Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit. Webb also shows where dust formation stops—look for the darker region at top left in both images.

The telescope’s mid-infrared images detected shells that have persisted for more than 130 years (older shells have dissipated enough that they are now too dim to detect). The researchers speculate that the stars will ultimately generate tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.

“Mid-infrared observations are absolutely crucial for this analysis, since the dust in this system is fairly cool. Near-infrared and visible-light observations would only show the shells that are closest to the star,” explained Ryan Lau, a co-author and astronomer at the National Science Foundation (NSF) NOIRLab in Tucson, Arizona, who led the initial research about this system. “With these incredible new details, the telescope is also allowing us to study exactly when the stars are forming dust — almost to the day.”

The distribution of the dust is not uniform. Though these differences are not obvious in Webb’s images, the team found that some of the dust has ‘piled up’, forming amorphous, delicate clouds that are as large as our entire Solar System. Many other individual dust particles float freely. Every speck is as small as one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Clumpy or not, all of the dust moves at the same speed and is carbon rich.

The future of this system

What will happen to these stars over millions or billions of years, after they have finished ‘spraying’ their surroundings with dust? The Wolf-Rayet star in this system is 10 times more massive than the Sun and nearing the end of its life. In its final ‘act’, this star will either explode as a supernova—possibly blasting away part or all of the dust shells—or collapse into a black hole that would leave the dust shells intact.

Though no one can predict with any certainty what will happen, researchers are rooting for the black hole scenario. “A major question in astronomy is, where does all the dust in the universe come from?” Lau said. “If carbon-rich dust like this survives, it could help us begin to answer that question.”

“We know carbon is necessary for the formation of rocky planets and solar systems like ours,” Hoffman added. “It’s exciting to get a glimpse into how binary star systems not only create carbon-rich dust, but also propel it into our galactic neighborhood.”

These results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and were presented in a press conference at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.

Note: A Wolf-Rayet star is born with at least 25 times more mass than our Sun and is nearing the end of its life, when it will likely collapse directly to black hole, or explode as a supernova. Burning hotter than in its youth, a Wolf-Rayet star generates powerful winds that push huge amounts of gas into space. The Wolf-Rayet star in this particular pair may have shed more than half its original mass via this process.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. It is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, E. Lieb (University of Denver), R. Lau (NSF NOIRLab), J. Hoffman (University of Denver)
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #WolfRayet140 #CarbonDustShells #CarbonDustRings #StellarWinds #JamesWebb #WebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #JPL #Caltech #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

Ship-view: China's Smart Dragon-3 Commercial Rocket Navigation Satellite Launch

Ship-view: China's Smart Dragon-3 Commercial Rocket Navigation Satellite Launch

A Smart Dragon-3 (Jielong-3) rocket lifted off on Monday, January 13, 2025, in east China's Shandong Province, successfully sending the navigation satellite group CentiSpace 01 into its planned orbit. The rocket blasted off at 11 a.m. BT (Beijing Time) from the sea near the city of Haiyang. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore launch mission. This was China's second rocket launch of 2025 and the fifth Smart Dragon-3 solid propellant rocket launch. Smart Dragon-3 has a length of approximately 31 meters, a weight of 140 tons at liftoff. Its payload capacity of 1,560 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit was increased to 1,600 kg for this flight.

The flight carried 10 Microcentispace-01 (Weili Kongjian group 01) navigation enhancement satellites for commercial company Future Navigation, full name Beijing Future Navigation Technology Co., Ltd. The low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites are designed to support global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals from systems, including China's Beidou and the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), to provide higher precise navigation services. 

The Centispace system is designed to feature 190 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) at a range of altitudes and inclinations, along with a ground segment consisting of monitoring stations. Stated applications include autonomous driving, precision agriculture, geographic information systems (GIS) and assisting in emergency response and disaster management. 

The Jielong-3 rocket was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of CASC, the country’s state-owned main space contractor. The four-stage rocket is operated by China Rocket, a commercial spinoff from CASC. 

Video Credit: China Spaceflight

Caption Credit: CGTN/SpaceNews
Duration: 46 seconds
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #Space #Satellites #GNSSSatellites #Earth #China #中国 #SmartDragon3Rocket #Jielong3Rocket #捷龙三号运载火箭 #SolidFueledRocket #SeaLaunch #RocketLaunch #CALT #CASC #Spaceflight #SpaceTechnology #CommercialSpace #TSLC #Haiyang #Shandong #STEM #Education #HD #Video

China's Smart Dragon-3 Commercial Rocket Launches 10 CentiSpace Satellites

China's Smart Dragon-3 Commercial Rocket Launches 10 CentiSpace Satellites

A Smart Dragon-3 (Jielong-3) rocket lifted off on Monday, January 13, 2025, in east China's Shandong Province, successfully sending the navigation satellite group CentiSpace 01 into its planned orbit. The rocket blasted off at 11 a.m. BT (Beijing Time) from the sea near the city of Haiyang. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore launch mission. This was China's second rocket launch of 2025 and the fifth Smart Dragon-3 solid propellant rocket launch. Smart Dragon-3 has a length of approximately 31 meters, a weight of 140 tons at liftoff. Its payload capacity of 1,560 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit was increased to 1,600 kg for this flight.

The flight carried 10 Microcentispace-01 (Weili Kongjian group 01) navigation enhancement satellites for commercial company Future Navigation, full name Beijing Future Navigation Technology Co., Ltd. The low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites are designed to support global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals from systems, including China's Beidou and the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), to provide higher precise navigation services. 

The Centispace system is designed to feature 190 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) at a range of altitudes and inclinations, along with a ground segment consisting of monitoring stations. Stated applications include autonomous driving, precision agriculture, geographic information systems (GIS) and assisting in emergency response and disaster management. 

The Jielong-3 rocket was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of CASC, the country’s state-owned main space contractor. The four-stage rocket is operated by China Rocket, a commercial spinoff from CASC. 

Video Credit: CNSA-W

Caption Credit: CGTN/SpaceNews
Duration: 26 seconds
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #Space #Satellites #GNSSSatellites #Earth #China #中国 #SmartDragon3Rocket #Jielong3Rocket #捷龙三号运载火箭 #SolidFueledRocket #SeaLaunch #RocketLaunch #CALT #CASC #Spaceflight #SpaceTechnology #CommercialSpace #TSLC #Haiyang #Shandong #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Jupiter’s clouds are not made of ammonia ice | European Southern Observatory

Jupiter’s clouds are not made of ammonia ice | European Southern Observatory

Astronomers have long thought that the upper clouds of Jupiter, responsible for the planet’s iconic pale brown belts, are made of frozen ammonia. However, a new study, that brought together amateur and professional astronomers, has shown that these clouds are actually located lower in the atmosphere than we thought and are made of something completely different—most likely ammonium hydrosulphide mixed with smog.

Citizen scientist Steve Hill previously showed that he could map the planet’s atmosphere by using only specially colored filters and his backyard telescope. These results provided initial clues that the clouds were too deep within Jupiter’s warm atmosphere to be consistent with clouds made of ammonia ice. To check, Hill joined forces with Patrick Irwin at Oxford University. Irwin's team had previously used the sophisticated MUSE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study the atmosphere of gas giants.

MUSE is capable of scanning the atmosphere of Jupiter at different wavelengths, mapping out the  molecules that make up the planet’s atmosphere. This animated image, based on real MUSE data, shows how the gas giant looks at a variety of wavelengths.

The new study shows that this new approach with backyard telescopes or VLT/MUSE can map the abundance of ammonia in Jupiter’s atmosphere with surprising accuracy. As for clouds, the team concluded that Jupiter’s atmosphere is much like a layered cake. Clouds of ammonium hydrosulphide cover the upper layers, but sometimes there may be a decoration of ammonia ice clouds, brought to the top by strong vertical convection. The entire cake’s structure, though, is not yet fully known, and the work of citizen scientists will be key to uncovering it. Perhaps the next time you are looking at Jupiter or Saturn from your backyard, you may also be unravelling the secrets still lying within our Solar System.

Credit: ESO/Irwin et al.
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Jupiter #Atmosphere #Meteorology #Weather #Clouds #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #ParanalObservatory #VLT #MUSE #Chile #Europe #Astrophotography #Astrophotographers #CitizenScience #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

Jetting into Space: Protostars HOPS 150 & 153 in Orion | Hubble Space Telescope

Jetting into Space: Protostars HOPS 150 & 153 in Orion | Hubble Space Telescope

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture peers into the dusty recesses of the nearest massive star-forming region to Earth, the Orion Nebula. Just 1,300 light-years away, the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye below the three stars that form the ‘belt’ in the constellation Orion. The nebula is home to hundreds of newborn stars, including the subject of this image—the protostars HOPS 150 and HOPS 153.

These protostars get their names from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey. It was carried out with the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory. The object that can be seen in the upper-right corner of this image is HOPS 150. It is a binary system, two young protostars orbiting each other. Each has a small, dusty disc of material surrounding it that it is feeding from. The dark line that cuts across the bright glow of these protostars is a cloud of gas and dust, over 2,000 times wider than the distance between Earth and the Sun, falling in on the pair of protostars. Based on the amount of infrared versus other wavelengths of light HOPS 150 is emitting, the protostars are mid-way down the path to becoming mature stars.

Extending across the left side of the image is a narrow, colorful outflow called a jet. This jet comes from the nearby protostar HOPS 153, out of frame. HOPS 153 is a significantly younger stellar object than its neighbor, still deeply embedded in its birth nebula and enshrouded by a cloud of cold, dense gas. While Hubble cannot penetrate this gas to see the protostar, the jet HOPS 153 has emitted is brightly visible as it plows into the surrounding gas and dust of the Orion Nebula.

The transition from tightly swaddled protostar to fully fledged star will dramatically affect HOPS 153’s surroundings. As gas falls onto the protostar, its jets spew material and energy into interstellar space, carving out bubbles and heating the gas. By stirring up and warming nearby gas, HOPS 153 may regulate the formation of new stars in its neighborhood and even slow its own growth.

Image Description: An area in the Orion nebula filled with dark, puffy clouds. On the left side a large area of clouds, crossed by a dark bar, is lit up in red and whitish colors by a protostar within. At the other side a large jet of material ejected by the protostar appears, made of thin, wispy, blue and pink clouds. A couple of foreground stars shine brightly in front of the nebula.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Megeath
Release Date: Jan. 13, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Nebulae #Nebula #Protostars #HOPS150 #HOPS153 #StellarJet #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #HerschelSpaceObservatory #Europe #STEM #Education

Planet Mercury: BepiColombo Spacecraft's Close-up Flyby Images | ESA/JAXA

Planet Mercury: BepiColombo Spacecraft's Close-up Flyby Images | ESA/JAXA

Mercury's shadowy north pole revealed by BepiColombo's monitoring camera 1 (M-CAM 1)

Mercury's sunlit north viewed by BepiColombo's monitoring camera 1 (M-CAM 1)

Lava and debris brighten Mercury's surface - BepiColombo's Monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2)

BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby

BepiColombo is Europe's first mission to the planet Mercury. Launched on October 20, 2018, it is on a seven year journey to the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System. When it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its one-year nominal mission. There is a possible one-year extension. The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio). BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership.

On January 8, 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the sixth time, successfully completing the final ‘gravity assist manoeuvre’ needed to steer it into orbit around the planet in late 2026. The spacecraft flew just a few hundred kilometers above the planet's north pole. Close-up images expose possibly icy craters whose floors are in permanent shadow, and the vast sunlit northern plains.

At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo flew just 295 km above Mercury's surface on the planet's cold, dark night side. Around seven minutes later, it passed directly over the Mercury's north pole before getting clear views of the planet's sunlit north.

This flyby also marks the last time that the mission's M-CAMs get up-close views of Mercury, as the spacecraft module they are attached to will separate from the mission's two orbiters—ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter—before they enter orbit around Mercury in late 2026.

Celebrating the M-CAMs' final hurrah, here are the best three images from BepiColombo's sixth close encounter with the planet, and what they reveal about Mercury.

After flying through Mercury's shadow, BepiColombo's monitoring camera 1 (M-CAM 1) captured the first close views of Mercury's surface. Flying over the ‘terminator’—the boundary between day and night—the spacecraft had a unique opportunity to peer directly down into the forever-shadowed craters at planet's north pole.

Image 1: Mercury's shadowy north pole

The rims of craters Prokofiev, Kandinsky, Tolkien and Gordimer cast permanent shadows on their floors. This makes these unlit craters some of the coldest places in the Solar System, despite Mercury being the closest planet to the Sun!

Excitingly, there is existing evidence that these dark craters contain frozen water. Whether there is really water on Mercury is one of the key Mercury mysteries that BepiColombo will investigate once it is in orbit around the planet.

Image 2: Mercury's sunlit north viewed by M-CAM 1

Another M-CAM 1 image, taken just five minutes after the first, shows that these plains extend over a large part of Mercury's surface. Prominently visible is the Mendelssohn crater, whose outer rim is barely visible above its flooded interior. Just a handful of smaller, more recent impact craters dent the smooth surface.

Further out, but still within the Borealis Planitia, the Rustaveli crater suffered a similar fate.

On the bottom left of the image lies the massive Caloris basin, Mercury's largest impact crater, which spans more than 1,500 km. The impact that created this basin scarred Mercury's surface up to thousands of kilometers away, as evidenced by the linear troughs radiating out from it.

Above a particularly large trough, a boomerang-shaped curve brightens the surface. This bright lava flow appears to connect to a deep trough below it. It appears similar in color to both the lava on the floor of the Caloris basin and the lava of Borealis Planitia further north. Yet another mystery that BepiColombo hopes to solve is how this lava moved: into the Caloris basin, or out of it?

Image 3: Lava and debris brighten Mercury's surface

To the left of Mercury's north pole in M-CAM 1's view lie the vast volcanic plains known as Borealis Planitia. These are Mercury’s largest expanse of ‘smooth plains' and were formed by the widespread eruption of runny lava 3.7 billion years ago.

This lava flooded existing craters, such as the Henri and Lismer craters highlighted in the image. The wrinkles in the surface were formed over billions of years following the solidification of the lava, probably in response to the planet contracting as its interior cooled down.

While M-CAM's images might not always make it appear so, Mercury is a remarkably dark planet. At a first glance, the cratered planet may resemble the Moon, but its cratered surface only reflects about two-thirds as much light.

On this dark planet, younger features on the surface tend to appear brighter. Scientists do not yet know what exactly Mercury is made of, but it is clear that material brought up from beneath the outer surface gradually becomes darker with age.

BepiColombo's third image selected from this flyby, taken by M-CAM 2, shows spectacular examples of the two things that bring bright material to the surface: volcanic activity and large impacts.

The bright patch near the planet's upper edge in this image is the Nathair Facula, the aftermath of the largest volcanic explosion on Mercury. At its center is a volcanic vent of around 40 km across that has been the site of at least three major eruptions. The explosive volcanic deposit is at least 300 km in diameter.

And to the left lies the relatively young Fonteyn crater, which formed a ‘mere’ 300 million years ago. Its youth is apparent from the brightness of the impact debris that radiates out from it.

Throughout its mission, several BepiColombo instruments will measure the composition of both old and new parts of the planet's surface. This will teach us about what Mercury is made of, and how the planet formed.

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM
Image Date: Jan. 8, 2025
Release Date: Jan 9, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mercury #NorthPole #Craters #Lava #Flyby #BepiColomboMission #BepiColomboSpacecraft #Europe #JAXA #Japan #日本 #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #Infographic #STEM #Education

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Preflight: NG-1 Launch Window Approaching

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Preflight: NG-1 Launch Window Approaching

New Glenn’s inaugural NG-1 mission is now targeting Monday, January 13, 2025, from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC). View the webcast hosted by Ariane Cornell and Denisse Aranda beginning an hour before launch here:

https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-1

"The payload is our Blue Ring Pathfinder. It will test Blue Ring’s core flight, ground systems, and operational capabilities."  

"Our key objective is to reach orbit safely. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it." 

“This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” said Jarrett Jones, SVP, New Glenn. “But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.” 

"Blue Origin has several New Glenn vehicles in production and a full customer manifest. Customers include NASA, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, AST SpaceMobile, several telecommunications providers, and a mix of U.S. government customers."

About New Glenn 

New Glenn stands more than 320 feet (98 meters) high and features a seven-meter payload fairing, enabling twice the volume of standard five-meter class commercial launch systems. Its reusable first stage aims for a minimum of 25 missions and will land on Jacklyn, a sea-based platform located several hundred miles downrange. Reusability is integral to radically reducing cost-per-launch.   

The vehicle is powered by seven of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled, oxygen-rich staged combustion engine ever flown. LNG is cleaner-burning and higher-performing than kerosene-based fuels, and the seven BE-4s generate over 3.8 million lbf of thrust. The vehicle’s second stage is powered by two BE-3Us, liquid oxygen (LOX)/liquid hydrogen (LH2) engines designed to together yield over 320,000 lbf of vacuum thrust.   

In addition to the BE-4 and BE-3U, Blue Origin manufactures BE-7 engines for our Blue Moon lunar landers and New Shepard’s BE-3PM engine. 

Learn more: https://www.blueorigin.com/new-glenn

Video Credit: Blue Origin

Duration: 22 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 12, 2024

#NASA #Space #BlueOrigin #NewGlenn #NewGlennRocket #NG1 #FirstLaunch #CommercialSpace #ArtemisProgram #BlueMoonLanders #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #LC36 #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #FortheBenefitofEarth #Infographics #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Flaming Star Nebula: IC 405 & IC 410 | Kitt Peak National Observatory

The Flaming Star Nebula: IC 405 & IC 410 | Kitt Peak National Observatory

IC 405 is the red/blue nebula to the left of center. It is being illuminated by the energetic star AE Aurigae (embedded in the nebula). However AE Aurigae's story is inextricably linked to another star called Mu Columbae. Around 2.7 million years ago these two stars formed and had a close encounter with one another in the Great Orion Nebula. The encounter was so close (another star was certainly involved) that each of them was ejected from the Orion complex never to return again. Currently these stars are 66 degrees away from one another in the sky. Astronomer's discovered these two runaway stars by measuring their apparent (fast) motion and noting that if you work backwards in time—the origin is in the same place at the same time! However, AE Auriga is certainly the more glamorous of the two stars, since it just happens to be moving through a region of gas that makes it look like a "Flaming Star."

The Flaming Star Nebula (also known as IC 405, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga north of the celestial equator, surrounding the bluish, irregular variable star AE Aurigae. The nebula is about 5 light-years across.

This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program during 2014 at Kitt Peak Visitor Center.

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Adam Block
Release Date: June 6, 2014

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #FlamingStarNebula #Star #AEAurigae #ReflectionNebula #EmissionNebula #IC405 #SH2229 #Caldwell31 #IC410 #Auriga #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #KPNO #KittPeakNationalObservatory #Arizona #NOIRLab #NSF #AURA #STEM #Education

The Full Moon Meets with Mars | Week of January 13-19, 2025 | BBC Star Diary

The Full Moon Meets with Mars | Week of January 13-19, 2025 | BBC Star Diary

The bright Wolf Moon meets up with red Mars just days before the planet reaches opposition—when it lies directly opposite the Sun from Earth. Find out how you can see the spectacle as well as all the latest stargazing highlights in the latest episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of Sky at Night Magazine.

How to observe Mars: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/how-to-observe-mars

Video Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Duration: 15 minutes
Release Date: Jan. 12, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Moon #Planets #Mars #SolarSystem #Stars #StarClusters #Constellations #Nebulae #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxies #Universe #Skywatching #BBC #UK #Britain #Europe #UnitedStates #Canada #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #Podcast #HD #Video

An Evening Sky Full of Planets over Mount Etna, Italy

An Evening Sky Full of Planets over Mount Etna, Italy

Only Mercury is missing from a Solar System parade of planets in this early evening skyscape. Rising nearly opposite the Sun, bright Mars is at the far left. The other naked-eye planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, can also be spotted, with the positions of too-faint Uranus and Neptune marked near the arcing trace of the ecliptic plane. On the far right and close to the western horizon after sunset is a young crescent Moon whose surface is partly illuminated by earthshine. In the foreground of the composite panorama captured on January, 2, 2025, planet Earth is represented by Mount Etna's lower Silvestri Crater on the island of Sicily—an autonomous region of Italy. Of course Earth's early evening skies are full of planets for the entire month of January 2025. On January 13, a nearly Full Moon will appear to pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in the continental U.S. and Eastern Canada.

Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile

Dario's website: https://www.dariogiannobile.com
Release Date: Jan. 11, 2025

#NASA #FoN #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Earth #Moon #Planets #Venus #Mars #Jupiter #Saturn #Uranus #Neptune #SolarSystem #MountEtna #Sicily #Sicilia #Italy #Italia #Astrophotographer #DarioGiannobile #Astrophotography #Photography #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

Comet ATLAS C2024-G3 | International Space Station

Comet ATLAS C2024-G3 | International Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Don Pettit: "It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. ATLAS C2024-G3 is paying us a visit."

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a long-period, sungrazing comet. It will reach perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU from the Sun. It could become the brightest comet of 2025, possibly exceeding an apparent magnitude of −3.5. The comet is visible in the southern hemisphere before and after perihelion. It can only be observed in the daytime sky around perihelion in the northern hemisphere.

The comet was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile.

Expedition 72 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

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.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Sun #Planet #Earth #Comets #CometAtlasC2024G3 #SolarSystem #Astronauts #DonPettit #AstronautPhotography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #LongDurationMissions #SpaceLaboratory #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Expedition72 #STEM #Education