Rain Clouds, New Molecule Found on Saturn's Moon Titan | Webb Telescope

Rain Clouds, New Molecule Found on Saturn's Moon Titan | Webb Telescope

Of all the alien worlds in our solar system, one in particular resembles our home planet. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only other place we know of where you could walk along the seashore or stand in the rain. However, Titan’s exotic seas and its oily raindrops are not made of water, but of the natural gases methane and ethane, super-chilled into liquid form. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a crucial, missing step in how ethane is formed, and its discovery could tell us about the future of Titan’s atmosphere.

Video Credit: James Webb Space Telescope
Duration: 5 minutes
Release Date: May 14, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #JWST #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #Planet #Saturn #Moon #Titan #Atmosphere #Precipitation #Lakes #Seas #Hydrocarbons #SolarSystem #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

    

SpaceX Starship Static Fire Test Before Ninth Flight | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship Static Fire Test Before Ninth Flight | Starbase Texas

Starship completed a long duration six-engine static fire and is undergoing final preparations for the ninth flight test. 

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry 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.

Key Starship Parameters:

Height: 123m/403ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100–150t (fully reusable)

"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."

Learn more about Starship:

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):

https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf

Image Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Release Date: May 13, 2025

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #Spacecraft #Starship9 #StarshipTestFlight9 #SuperHeavyBooster #SuperHeavyRocket #Mechazilla #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #Starbase #BocaChica #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

SpaceX Starship: Preparing for Ninth Flight Test | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship: Preparing for Ninth Flight Test | Starbase Texas

Static fire test of Starship at Starbase Texas ahead of Flight Test#9.

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.

Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 123m/403ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100–150t (fully reusable)

"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."

Learn more about Starship:

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):

https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf

Video Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: May 13, 2025

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #Spacecraft #Starship9 #StarshipTestFlight9 #SuperHeavyBooster #SuperHeavyRocket #Mechazilla #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #Starbase #BocaChica #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Artemis III Moon Rocket Core Stage: Thermal Protection System Applied

NASA Artemis III Moon Rocket Core Stage: Thermal Protection System Applied

In February 2025, NASA crews from the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) and from Boeing, the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage prime contractor, completed the thermal protection system on the external structure of the rocket’s liquid hydrogen propellant fuel tank, using a robotic tool in what is now the largest single application in spaceflight history. MAF is an 832-acre manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, Louisiana.

The robotically controlled operation coated the tank with spray-on foam insulation, distributing 107 feet of the foam to the tank in 102 minutes. When the foam is applied to the core stage, it gives the rocket a canary yellow color. The Sun's ultraviolet rays naturally “tan” the thermal protection, giving the SLS core stage its signature orange color, like the space shuttle external tank. Overall, the rocket’s core stage is 212 feet with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the same diameter as the space shuttle’s external tank. 

The liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks feed four RS-25 engines for approximately 500 seconds. This produces more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit and to the lunar surface for Artemis. The core stage of SLS is the largest NASA has ever built by length and volume, and it was manufactured at Michoud using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. 

Over the course of about 30 days, the Artemis III astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, where two crew members will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the Moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth. Launch is currently scheduled for mid-2027.

Learn more about the Artemis campaign: 
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/

Follow updates on the Artemis blog: 
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)
https://www.nasa.gov/sls

NASA's Artemis III Mission:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-iii/

Read the Artemis Plan (74-page PDF Free Download): 
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF)
https://www.nasa.gov/michoud-assembly-facility/

Video Credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: May 13, 2025

#NASA #Space #Earth #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisIII #SLS #SLSRocket #CoreStage #LiquidHydrogenTank #LH2Tank #Boeing #ULA #CrewedMissions #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #MSFC #MAF #NewOrleans #Louisiana #UnitedStates #STEM #Education 

Arches National Park: A Red Rock Wonderland in Utah | Landsat-8 Earth Satellite

Arches National Park: A Red Rock Wonderland in Utah | Landsat-8 Earth Satellite

Utah’s Arches National Park Landsat-8 Earth satellite image - April 9, 2025

A USGS Landsat-8 satellite image shows Arches National Park from above. Several features including Balanced Rock, Devils Garden, Landscape Arch, The Windows, and Courthouse Towers are labeled. All of these features are made of sandstone and appear as narrow orange features flanked by dark shadows.

This more detailed view shows the Park Avenue and Courthouse Towers section of the park. The 400-foot (122-meter) Queen Victoria Rock and 500-foot Tower of Babel stand out clearly and are labeled.

Park Avenue and Courthouse Towers - 2019 photo

Balanced Rock - NPS/Kait Thomas

Balancing Rock - 2025 photo

Landscape Arch - 2002 photo

Arches National Park is celebrated for its many natural arches, pillars, and windows formed from towering monoliths of red sandstone. The striking rock features, a photographer’s dream, jut from flat, arid landscapes found north of Moab in southeastern Utah. In an area twice the size of Washington, D.C., time, water, and erosion sculpted more than 2,000 sandstone arches, giving this area the highest concentration of rock arches in the world.

Most of these arches—including the iconic Delicate Arch—were chiseled from blocks of Entrada Sandstone, a rock type formed 150 million years ago from dunes within a large coastal desert. Standing as steep cliffs and huge blocks of rock that make up many of the park’s tallest features, the erosion-resistant layer stands out in satellite imagery, appearing as distinct wrinkle-like ridges flanked by dark shadows.

These images were captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat-8 satellite on April 9, 2025 with Entrada Sandstone features visible in several parts of the park.

In the center of this satellite image, shadows cast by Balanced Rock and several arches in the Windows section of the park are also visible. In the upper part of the image, more Entrada Sandstone features jut up in the Devils Garden portion of the park, which is home to Landscape Arch.

Salt Valley, visible as the wide band of gray and orange across the center of the satellite image, exposes rocks from the Paradox Formation, an underlying layer of salt and other evaporites that are among the oldest rocks in the park. In the Salt Valley area, the weight of the overlying rock formations caused these buried evaporites to liquefy and flow at times, squeezing the salt upward into a dome-shaped bulge called a salt anticline. When the protrusion fractured and collapsed, it formed the modern-day valley and exposed some of the evaporites to the surface.

Paradox Formation evaporites also played a key role in the development of the park’s arches. As salt beneath the surface bulged upward into domes, the overlying sandstone fractured into a distinctive pattern of parallel lines, as seen in the Devils Garden area. Over time, erosion of these narrow sandstone walls of rock, or fins, produced windows, hoodoos, and arches. Water is the key ingredient that fuels erosion at Arches, infiltrating cracks, dissolving minerals, and chiseling away at sandstone as it freezes and expands during the winter and melts during the spring.

In 1956 and 1957, the writer Edward Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger in what was then Arches National Monument, living in what he described as “a little tin government house trailer.” The trailer was located near Balanced Rock, a towering boulder of sandstone (below) precariously perched on an eroding pedestal of mudstone. 

During those two years, Abbey immersed himself in the park’s remarkable landscapes. That nature had formed objects as “weird, lovely, and fantastic” as Delicate Arch, he later wrote in Desert Solitaire, “has the curious ability to remind us that—like rock and sunlight and wind and wildflowers—that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which sustains the little world of man as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship.”

Arches National Park
https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm

Landsat-8: https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/landsat-8

Satellite Image Credit: Michala Garrison/USGS Landsat data
Additional Photos: Michala Garrison (Courthouse Towers), Adam Voiland (Balancing Rock), and Neal Herbert/NPS (Landscape Arch)
Article Credit: Adam Voiland
Satellite Image Date: April 9, 2025
Release Date: May 10, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #Satellite #Landsat8 #Landsat #Planet #Earth #Geology #Utah #ArchesNationalPark #NPS #ParadoxFormation #EarthObservation #RemoteSensing #Environment #GSFC #USGS #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Earth's Atmosphere | International Space Station

Earth's Atmosphere | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi: "When I look at Earth from the ISS, I’m always overwhelmed by the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. Recalling the meteorology knowledge I studied during my pilot days, I find it interesting to imagine the movement of the troposphere’s atmosphere, thinking things like (there’s a front forming over there)." 😃

This is Onishi’s second trip to the International Space Station. After being selected as an astronaut by JAXA in 2009, he flew as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49, becoming the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese experiment module. After his first spaceflight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo.

JAXA astronaut Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi Biography:
https://humans-in-space.jaxa.jp/en/astronaut/onishi-takuya/

Follow Expedition 73:

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

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Image Credit: JAXA/T. Onishi
Release Date: May 11, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Atmosphere #Meteorology #Weather #Astronauts #TakuyaOnishi #Japan #日本 #JAXA #AnneMcClain #NicholeAyers #JonnyKim #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #JSC #Expedition73 #STEM #Education

New Illustrations of The Milky Way Galaxy from Europe's Gaia Mission Data

New Illustrations of The Milky Way Galaxy from Europe's Gaia Mission Data

Image 1: What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side? Of course, because we are on the inside, humanity cannot obtain an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from the European Space Agency’s Gaia Mission. The resulting illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies, our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March 2025 after a successful mission.

Image 2: This illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies, our Milky Way has distinct spiral arms. Our Sun and most of the bright stars we see at night are in just one arm: Orion. Gaia data bolsters previous indications that our Milky Way has more than two spiral arms. Our Galaxy's center sports a prominent bar. The colors of our Galaxy's thin disk derive mostly from dark dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebula.

Learn more about ESA's Gaia Mission:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia_overview

Illustration Credit: ESA, Gaia, DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar
Stefan Payne-Wardenaar's website: https://bsky.app/profile/stefanpw.bsky.social
Release Dates: May 12-13, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #GaiaMission #GaiaSpaceTelescope #Stars #Nebulae #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxies #Cosmos #Universe #Illustrations #Art #Europe #UnitedStates #GSFC #STEM #Education #APoD

Rocket Launch Dazzles Visitors at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona

Rocket Launch Dazzles Visitors at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lights up the sky as seen in this image taken last summer from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, near Tucson, Arizona. Although the rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base about 890 kilometers (550 miles) away in California, the recently set Sun lit up the rocket’s exhaust plume for miles as the plume dramatically expanded in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

With 23 optical and two radio telescopes, Kitt Peak National Observatory is the largest, most diverse gathering of astronomical instruments in the northern hemisphere. The observatory is located in Arizona’s Quinlan mountains in the Schuk Toak District on the Tohono O'odham Nation. In the foreground of this image is the 0.9-meter SARA Kitt Peak Telescope operated by the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA). KPNO offers daytime and nighttime public tours where visitors can explore facilities, observe through telescopes, and even stay all night to image deep-sky objects under clear, dark skies.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is used, among other things, to put Starlink satellites in orbit around Earth. These satellites provide Internet connectivity to remote areas, but also have the unfortunate effect of adding to the light pollution at night. NOIRLab is actively engaged with industry to mitigate the effects of this light pollution. 

Rob Sparks, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.

Learn more about KPNO:
https://kpno.noirlab.edu/

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks
Release Date: May 7, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SpaceX #Falcon9Rocket #Falcon9Launch #Starlink #Satellites #LightPollution #DarkSkies #KPNO #KittPeakNationalObservatory #Arizona #NOIRLab #NSF #AURA #Astrophotographer #RobSparks #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Panorama Collection | Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Panorama Collection | Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Panorama 1: Curiosity Looks Downslope from the Sulfate Unit

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view looking back down at the floor of Gale Crater from its location on Mount Sharp on Feb. 7, 2025, the 4,447th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Curiosity was continuing its climb through a region of the mountain called the sulfate-bearing unit.

Mount Sharp is a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain made up of a number of layers, all formed in different eras of Martian history. By studying each layer, the rover's team can learn more about how the Martian environment changed over time from a warmer, wetter, and more Earthlike world to the freezing desert it is today.

The mountain is inside of Gale Crater, formed by an ancient asteroid impact. What appears to be a mountain range in the distance of this scene is in fact the crater's rim.

The color in these images has been adjusted to match the lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

Panorama 2: Curiosity Surveys the 'Ubajara' Sampling Site

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree panorama at a site nicknamed "Ubajara" on April 30, 2023, the 3,815th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Taken by the rover's Mastcam, this panorama was stitched together from 141 images after they were sent to Earth. Dark rover tracks recede into the distance in the center of the scene.

Curiosity used the drill on the end of its robotic arm to take a sample from Ubajara, then dropped the pulverized rock into instruments within the rover's body. One of those instruments, called CheMin (Chemistry & Mineralogy), used X-ray diffraction to discover the presence of an iron carbonate mineral called siderite in samples from this site and two others: one above and one below Ubajara in a region enriched with salty minerals called sulfates.

The discovery of siderite may help solve one of Mars' mysteries: There is strong evidence that liquid water coursed over the planet's surface billions of years ago, suggesting Mars had a thick, carbon-rich atmosphere rather than the wispy one it has today (a thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere is required to provide enough pressure and warmth for water to remain liquid on a planet's surface; otherwise, it rapidly vaporizes or freezes—which is the case on Mars today).

That carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with Martian rocks to create carbonate minerals. However, when scientists study the planet with satellites that ample carbonate has not been apparent—even at Curiosity's site.

It is possible that other minerals may be masking carbonate from satellite near-infrared analysis, particularly in sulfate-rich areas. If other such layers across Mars also contain hidden carbonates, the amount of stored carbon dioxide would be part of that needed in the ancient atmosphere to create conditions warm enough to support liquid water. The rest could be hidden in other deposits or have been lost to space over time.

Panorama 3: Curiosity on the Road to Boxwork Formations

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this panorama in morning light on March 9, 2025, the 4,476th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Steep hills on the left side of the panorama enclose wind-carved valleys on Mount Sharp, the mountain that Curiosity has been climbing for over a decade. Broken-up, rounded rocks throughout the foreground are part of the mountain's sulfate-bearing unit.

The butte in the distance at right is nicknamed "Gould Mesa." A band of cliffs and dark ridges near the top of the butte may be the first glimpses of boxwork formations, a kind of feature created by groundwater flowing through large bedrock fractures in the ancient past. Assuming that is how they formed, these could represent the last gasps of water found on this region of Mars before the planet dried out completely.

Before now, these features had only been viewed from orbiting spacecraft, to which they appeared as spiderweb-like fractures. This pattern of fractures stretches as long as 6 to 12 miles (10 to 20 kilometers) across the side of Mount Sharp. The rover's team expects to study these formations up close throughout the rest of 2025.

The color in this image has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth.

Celebrating 12+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Release Dates: April 17-24, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Building a Moon Rocket🚀Artemis II Core Stage Integration | Kennedy Space Center

Building a Moon Rocket🚀Artemis II Core Stage Integration | Kennedy Space Center

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) have lifted and moved the gigantic core stage booster onto the Mobile Launcher platform, followed closely by the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) and interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS). The core stage, with the twin side boosters, will generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, and the LVSA will support the upper stage of the Moon rocket during launch and ascent. The four-story propulsion system will enable the Orion spacecraft to build up enough speed for the push toward the Moon during the Artemis II crewed test flight.

The Artemis II test flight will be sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a ten-day journey around the Moon and back.

Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026.

Learn more about NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket: nasa.gov/sls

Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Follow updates on the Artemis blog: 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/

Video Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Duration: 1 minute, 16 seconds
Release Date: May 12, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Science #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisII #Boeing #ULA #LockheedMartin #NASASLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #Astronauts #CrewedMission #DeepSpace #MoonToMars #SpaceEngineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #NASAKennedy #KSC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

New Details & Mysteries in Planet Jupiter’s Aurora | Webb Telescope

New Details & Mysteries in Planet Jupiter’s Aurora | Webb Telescope

Webb Space Telescope aurora observations on Jupiter

Close-up observations of auroras on Jupiter (December 2023)

The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our Solar System’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth. With Webb’s advanced sensitivity, astronomers have studied the phenomena to better understand Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

The auroras are created when high-energy particles enter a planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms of gas. Not only are the auroras on Jupiter huge in size, they are also hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth. Here, auroras are caused by solar storms—when charged particles rain down on the upper atmosphere, excite gases and cause them to glow colours of red, green and purple. Meanwhile, Jupiter has an additional source for its auroras; the strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabs charged particles from its surroundings. This includes not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by its orbiting moon Io, known for its numerous and large volcanoes. Io’s volcanoes spew particles that, remarkably, escape the moon’s gravity and orbit Jupiter. A barrage of charged particles unleashed by the sun during solar storms also reaches the planet. Jupiter’s large and powerful magnetic field captures charged particles and accelerates them to tremendous speeds. These speedy particles slam into the planet’s atmosphere at high energies, which excites the gas and causes it to glow.

Now, Webb’s unique capabilities are providing new insights into the auroras on Jupiter. The telescope’s sensitivity allows astronomers to increase the shutter speed in order to capture fast-varying auroral features. New data was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) on Christmas Day 2023 by a team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

“What a Christmas present it was—it just blew me away!” shared Nichols. “We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting it to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.”

The team’s data found that the emission from the trihydrogen ion, known as H3+, is far more variable than previously believed. The observations will help develop scientists’ understanding of how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is heated and cooled. 

The team also uncovered some unexplained observations in their data.

“What made these observations even more special is that we also took pictures simultaneously in the ultraviolet with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,” added Nichols. “Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble’s pictures. This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have an apparently impossible combination of high quantities of very low energy particles hitting the atmosphere—like a tempest of drizzle! We still don’t understand how this happens.” 

The team now plans to study this discrepancy between the Hubble and Webb data and to explore the wider implications for Jupiter’s atmosphere and space environment. They also intend to follow up this research with more Webb observations, which they can compare with data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft to better explore the cause of the enigmatic bright emission. These insights may also support the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, which is en route to Jupiter to make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons—Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Juice will take a look at Jupiter's auroras with seven unique scientific instruments, including two imagers. These close-up measurements will help us understand how the planet's magnetic field and atmosphere interact, as well as the effect that charged particles from Io and the other moons have on Jupiter's atmosphere.

These results were obtained from data using Webb’s Cycle 2 observing program #4566 and Hubble’s observing program #17471. The results were published today in Nature Communications.

More information

Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Under an international collaboration agreement, the European Space Agency (ESA) provided the telescope’s launch service, using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. ESA also provided the workhorse spectrograph NIRSpec and 50% of the mid-infrared instrument MIRI, that was designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, J. Nichols (University of Leicester), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Release Date: May 12, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #HST #JWST #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #Planet #Jupiter #Atmosphere #Aurora #SolarSystem #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Infographics #STEM #Education

Observations of Jupiter’s Aurora | James Webb Space Telescope

Observations of Jupiter’s Aurora | James Webb Space Telescope

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a spectacular light show on Jupiter—an enormous display of auroras unlike anything seen on Earth. These infrared observations reveal unexpected activity in Jupiter’s atmosphere, challenging what scientists thought they knew about the planet’s magnetic field and particle interactions. Combined with ultraviolet data from Hubble, the results have raised surprising new questions about Jupiter’s extreme environment.

Credit:
Producer: Paul Morris
Writer: Thaddeus Cesari
Narrator: Professor Jonathan Nichols
Images: NASA, ESA, CSA, STSci

Duration: 2 minutes, 47 seconds
Release Date: May 12, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #HST #JWST #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #Planet #Jupiter #Atmosphere #Aurora #SolarSystem #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

'Candyfloss' Clouds in Nearby Large Magellanic Cloud Dwarf Galaxy | Hubble

'Candyfloss' Clouds in Nearby Large Magellanic Cloud Dwarf Galaxy | Hubble

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies.

This view of dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud is possible thanks to Hubble’s cameras, such as the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that was used to collect the observations for this image. WFC3 is equipped with a variety of filters, each lets through only specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. This image combines observations made with five filters, including ones that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see. 

The wispy gas clouds in this image resemble brightly colored candyfloss. When viewing such a vividly colored cosmic scene, it is natural to wonder whether the colors are ‘real’. After all, Hubble, with its 2.4 meter-wide mirror and advanced scientific instruments, does not bear resemblance to a typical camera! When image-processing specialists combine raw filtered data into a multi-colored image like this one, they assign a color to each filter. Visible-light observations are typically matched to the color that the filter allows through. Shorter wavelengths of light such as ultraviolet are usually colored blue or purple, while longer wavelengths like infrared are typically colored red.

This color scheme closely represents reality while adding new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see. However, there are endless possible color combinations that can be employed to achieve an especially aesthetically pleasing or scientifically insightful image.

Image Description: A part of a nebula in space. It is made of layers of gas and dust clouds in a range of colors, from blue and green shades to pink, red and black, indicating light emitted by distinct molecules. The background cloud layers are thicker and puffier, though still translucent, and the upper layers are thin and bright at the edges. Behind the clouds are very many small, mostly orange and some blue, stars.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
Release Date: May 12, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Hubble35 #Galaxies #Galaxy #LMC #Dorado #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Happy Mother's Day from NASA! | International Space Station

Happy Mother's Day from NASA! | International Space Station

"From all of us at NASA, Happy Mother’s Day!" 💌💫💐

"The Expedition 73 crew currently on board the International Space Station, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir on the ground, recorded a special message for all of the superheroes we call Mom."

Follow Expedition 73:

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

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: May 11, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #MothersDay #MothersDay2025 #Astronauts #AnneMcClain #NicholeAyers #JonnyKim #JessicaMeir #UnitedStates #TakuyaOnishi #Japan #日本 #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #JSC #Expedition73 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

First Experiment on Planarian Regeneration Conducted | China Space Station

First Experiment on Planarian Regeneration Conducted | China Space Station

Planarians, flatworms with an evolutionary history spanning over 520 million years, are one of the widely used experimental animal models in biological research. These organisms demonstrate an exceptional capacity for tissue repair: when bisected, planarians can regenerate lost muscles, skin, intestines, and even an entire brain from each segment—a process that can be repeated indefinitely.

Researchers aim to investigate how the space environment affects the regenerative processes and physiological behavior of planarians. They will also explore the molecular mechanisms behind space-induced effects on planarian regeneration, thereby advancing scientists' understanding of regenerative biology.

Inside the Wentian laboratory module, the Shenzhou-20 crew observed samples in the biotechnology experiment cabinet and used the scientific glovebox to collect solid culture samples. The collected data and samples will assist researchers on Earth in studying the microbial mechanisms affecting cell tissue culture modules.

This initiative follows the successful inclusion of zebra fish and fruit flies in science experiments conducted aboard China's space station.

The Shenzhou-20 crew will carry out 59 additional space science experiments and technology tests in fields, such as space life science, microgravity physics, and new space technologies, with potential breakthroughs in cultivation of vascularized brain organoid chips, soft matter non-equilibrium dynamics, and high-temperature superconducting material preparation.

Shenzhou-20 Crew

Chen Dong (陈冬) - Commander - Third spaceflight
Chen Zhong Rui (陈中瑞) - Operator - First spaceflight
Wang Jie (王杰) - Flight Engineer - First spaceflight

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: May 11, 2025

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Surface of Planet Venus: March 1982 | Soviet Union's Venera 14 Robotic Lander

Surface of Planet Venus: March 1982 | Soviet Union's Venera 14 Robotic Lander

If you could stand on Venus—what would you see? Pictured is the view from Venera 14, a robotic Soviet lander that parachuted and air-braked down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in March 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus' equator. On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is part of an ejected lens-cap. Enduring temperatures near 465 degrees Celsius and pressures 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera 14 lander lasted 57 minutes (its planned lifespan was 32 minutes). Telemetry was maintained by means of the Venera 14 bus in orbit that carried signals from the lander's uplink antenna and then on to Earth. Although data from Venera 14 was beamed across the inner Solar System over 40 years ago, digital processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today. Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by the European Space Agency's orbiting Venus Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist on Venus.

Venera 14 landed at 13.25°S 310°E, about 950 kilometers (590 mi) southwest of Venera 13, near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio on a basaltic plain.

After launch and following a four-month cruise to Venus, the descent vehicle separated from the bus and plunged into the Venusian atmosphere on March 5, 1982. A parachute deployed after the lander entered the atmosphere. The parachute released once the lander reached an altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 mi); simple air braking was used in the final descent.

The Venera 14 spacecraft was launched on November 4, 1981, at 05:31:00 UTC. Venera 14 was equipped with a gamma-ray spectrometer, UV grating monochromator, electron and proton spectrometers, gamma-ray burst detectors, solar wind plasma detectors, and two-frequency transmitters. 

The Venera 14 descent lander was a hermetically sealed pressure vessel that contained most of the instrumentation and electronics. The lander was mounted on a ring-shaped landing platform and topped by an antenna. Designed similar to the earlier Venera 9–12 landers, Venera 14 carried instruments to take chemical and isotopic measurements, to monitor the spectrum of scattered sunlight, and to record electric discharges during its descent phase through the Venusian atmosphere. The spacecraft used a camera system, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, a screw drill and surface sampler, a dynamic penetrometer, and a seismometer to conduct investigations on the surface.

Image Credit: Soviet Planetary Exploration Program/Venera 14
Processing & Copyright: Donald Mitchell & Michael Carroll (used with permission)

Release Date: May 11, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SolarSystem #Planets #Venus #Atmosphere #Geology #Venera14 #Venera14Mission #Venera14Lander #SovietUnion #History #Russia #SpaceExploration #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD