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Sunday, August 23, 2026

Shenzhou-23 Crew Advances Experiments, Health Monitoring | China Space Station

Shenzhou-23 Crew Advances Experiments, Health Monitoring | China Space Station

China's Shenzhou-23 astronauts have pressed ahead with a full slate of space science experiments, while also carrying out routine station upkeep and comprehensive health management tasks over the past week as they will mark their first three months in orbit, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

According to the mission schedule, the three crew members of Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying have carried out a series of hands-on scientific operations. They replaced and cleaned experimental samples, and performed electrode maintenance as well as lens cleaning. In addition, the trio completed gas cylinder replacement and vacuum pumping and exhaust removal.

On the station maintenance front, the crew conducted routine microbial monitoring aboard the space station. They collected and tested samples from cabin air, surfaces, and water systems to assess microbial growth conditions, providing critical data for in-orbit contamination prevention and control.

In terms of health management, the astronauts completed scheduled visual function assessments and non-invasive cardiac function tests, offering valuable reference data for researchers monitoring the long-term health effects of spaceflight. Meanwhile, all the three crew members have maintained regular in-orbit exercise routines and have been using specialized equipment such as bone loss countermeasure devices to mitigate the physiological impacts of microgravity.

Meanwhile, they took a well-deserved break, eating together to replenish energy, relaxing body and mind, shedding the fatigue of intense work, and recharging for the missions ahead.

China launched the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship on May 24, 2026. The mission includes a one-year in-orbit study designed to gather data for future long-duration human space missions.

Shenzhou-23 Crew
Zhu Yangzhu 朱杨柱, Commander & Flight Engineer (second spaceflight)
Zhang Zhiyuan 张志远, Pilot (first spaceflight)

Lai Ka-ying/Li Jiaying 黎家盈, Payload Specialist (first spaceflight) [Hong Kong SAR]

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute, 16 seconds
Release Date: Aug. 23, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #China #中国 #Shenzhou23Mission #神舟二十三号 #Shenzhou23 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ZhuYangzhu #ZhangZhiyuan #LiJiaying #LaiKaying #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #MicrogravityExperiments #SpaceLaboratory #CMSA #中国载人航天工程办公室 #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

View towards 'The Great Attractor' in Our Local Universe | ESO

View towards 'The Great Attractor' in Our Local Universe | ESO

The Great Attractor is a region of heightened gravitational attraction in the local universe. It lies in the general direction of the Norma Cluster and the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster, approximately 150–250 million light-years from the Milky Way. Its presence was inferred from the peculiar motions of galaxies that deviate from the motion expected solely from the expansion of the universe. The Great Attractor lies in the direction of the constellations Norma and Triangulum Australe.

The term does not refer to a single galaxy, galaxy cluster, or compact astronomical object. Instead, it describes a broad concentration of matter and an associated minimum in the local gravitational-potential and velocity fields.

This image covers a field of 0.5° x 0.5° in the Southern constellation of Norma (The Level) and in the direction of the "Great Attractor". This region is at an angular distance of about 7° from the main plane of the Milky Way, i.e. less than 15 times the width of the image shown. In this color composite, the foreground stars in the Milky Way mostly appear as whitish spots (the "crosses" around brighter stars are caused by reflections in the telescope optics). Many background galaxies are also seen. They form a huge cluster (ACO 3627) with a number of bright galaxies near the center — they stand out by their larger size and yellowish color. North is up and East is left.

Five exposures each were made in blue (B-band filter; 5 x 300 sec), red (R-band filter; 5 x 180 sec) and near-infrared (narrow-band filter centered at 816 nm; 5 x 240 sec) light and combined into a false-color composite by using blue, green, and red color for the three images, respectively. A logarithmic intensity scale is used to better show the inner as well as the outer regions of the galaxies in this field.

Learn more about the European Southern Observatory's MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope:
https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/mpg22/

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: Dec. 21, 1999

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #GreatAttractor #Abell3827 #ACO3627 #NormaCluster #HydraCentaurusSupercluster #NormaConstellation #TriangulumAustraleConstellation #Cosmology #Cosmos #Universe #MPGESOTelescope #LaSillaObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Wide-field view: Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827 | Victor Blanco Telescope

Wide-field view: Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827 | Victor Blanco Telescope

This image features Abell 3827, a galaxy cluster, about 222 million light years distant, that offers a wealth of exciting possibilities for study. Looking at this cluster of hundreds of galaxies, it is amazing to recall that until less than 100 years ago, many astronomers thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy in the Universe. The possibility of other galaxies had been debated previously, but the matter was not truly settled until Edwin Hubble confirmed that the Great Andromeda Nebula was in fact far too distant to be part of the Milky Way. The Great Andromeda Nebula became the Andromeda Galaxy, and astronomers recognized that our Universe was much, much larger than humanity had imagined. We can only imagine how Edwin Hubble—after whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named—would have felt if he had seen this spectacular image of Abell 3827.

Abell 3827 is a rich cluster of galaxies located near the center of the Great Attractor; it is about 222 million light years distant. Although it is both nearby and bright, it is difficult to observe because it is located in the Zone of Avoidance, a region near the plane of the Milky Way. Consequently, the cluster is severely obscured by interstellar dust at optical wavelengths.

This wide-field image was collected as part of the Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS), a program investigating 107 nearby galaxy clusters. It took advantage of an astrophysical phenomenon called weak gravitational lensing to measure the mass and matter distributions of these clusters.

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Release Date: June 4, 2020

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Abell3827 #GravitationalLensing #LoVoCCS #IndusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VictorBlancoTelescope #CTIO #CerroTololo #Chile #NOIRLab #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827: 'Our Giant Universe' | Victor Blanco Telescope

Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827: 'Our Giant Universe' | Victor Blanco Telescope

This image features Abell 3827, a galaxy cluster that offers a wealth of exciting possibilities for study, about 222 million light years distant. Looking at this cluster of hundreds of galaxies, it is amazing to recall that until less than 100 years ago, many astronomers thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy in the Universe. The possibility of other galaxies had been debated previously, but the matter was not truly settled until Edwin Hubble confirmed that the Great Andromeda Nebula was in fact far too distant to be part of the Milky Way. The Great Andromeda Nebula became the Andromeda Galaxy, and astronomers recognized that our Universe was much, much larger than humanity had imagined. We can only imagine how Edwin Hubble—after whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named—would have felt if he had seen this spectacular image of Abell 3827.

Abell 3827 is a rich cluster of galaxies located near the center of the Great Attractor. Although it is both nearby and bright, it is difficult to observe because it is located in the Zone of Avoidance, a region near the plane of the Milky Way. Consequently, the cluster is severely obscured by interstellar dust at optical wavelengths.

This image was collected as part of the Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS). It takes advantage of an astrophysical phenomenon called weak gravitational lensing to measure the mass and matter distributions of these clusters.

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Release Date: June 4, 2020

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Abell3827 #NormaCluster #ACO3627 #GravitationalLensing #LoVoCCS #IndusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VictorBlancoTelescope #CTIO #CerroTololo #Chile #NOIRLab #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Central Region of Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827 | Gemini South Telescope

Central Region of Distant Galaxy Cluster Abell 3827 | Gemini South Telescope

Central region of Abell 3827 as imaged using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. The central supermassive galaxy (ESO 146-IG 005) is clearly visible among its cluster companions as well as the remains of at least four nuclei that are being “digested” by the large galaxy. The central galaxy is thought to be the most massive galaxy in our local universe (out to about 1.5 billion light years). The field of view of this image is approximately 5 x 5 arcminutes and is a color composite made from g-, r- and i-band images combined and processed by Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage).

Gemini South Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/gemini-observatory/gemini-south/

Credit: R. Carrasco et al., International Gemini Observatory/AURA
Release Date: May 12, 2010

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Abell3827 #NormaCluster #ACO3627 #ESO146IG005 #IndusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiSouthTelescope #GeMS #OpticalAstronomy #GeminiObservatory #CerroPachón #Chile #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Saturday, August 22, 2026

Thermal Imaging: China Landspace Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket 1st Stage Landing

Thermal Imaging: China Landspace Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket 1st Stage Landing

Thermal imaging helps engineers monitor intense heat distribution, evaluate thermal protection systems, and analyze engine plume dynamics.

🚀China achieved its first recovery of a rocket's first stage on land after launching and recovering part of the Zhuque-3 reusable rocket on Wednesday morning, Aug. 19, 2026. The Landspace Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) Y2 rocket blasted off at 07:35 (Beijing Time) from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China, placing the Honghu03 satellite into its designated orbit. The flight mission was a complete success.

This mission followed the successful sea-based net recovery of the China Long March-10B rocket's first stage on July 10.

Today marked China's first successful land-based controlled recovery of a rocket's first stage using deployable landing legs, highlighting a major breakthrough in the country's reusable rocket technology.

Approximately 137 seconds after lift-off, the first and second stages separated. The second stage continued its flight and successfully delivered the Honghu 03 satellite, independently developed by Hongqing Technology, into its assigned orbit. At approximately 07:41, the first stage performed a successful soft touchdown at the LandSpace Landing Site#1 in Minqin County, Gansu Province, following the planned trajectory.

The Landspace ZhuQue-3 Y2 reusable launch vehicle achieved full success in orbital insertion and first-stage recovery with the power of its nine TQ-12A engines.

🎉This is China's first successful flight verification of land recovery for the first stage of a reusable launch vehicle, as well as its first successful verification of a landing using deployable landing legs.

The Honghu 03 satellite will trial its unfoldable thermal radiator, sizeable solar panels, electric propulsion system, and a 100-gigabit optical laser link ahead of mass production for connectivity constellations.

This Landspace mission was the 2nd for the partially reusable Zhuque-3, and LandSpace’s 10th orbital launch attempt in the company’s history. This was also the 59th launch from China in 2026.

Video: Landspace

Duration: 26 seconds

Date: Aug. 19, 2026

#NASA #Space #Satellites #InternetSatellites #Honghu03Satellite #HongqingTechnology #SatelliteConstellations #Earth #China #中国 #LandSpace #蓝箭 #Zhuque3Rocket #ZQ3 #Zhuque3Y2Rocket #ReusableRockets #ThermalImaging #JSLC #InnerMongolia #Gansu #CommercialSpace #STEM #Education #History #HD #Video

Journey to Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Journey to Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Among the nearly four billion objects in the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys’ map is Messier 96 (NGC 3368), a majestic spiral galaxy nestled in the constellation Leo approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. Spanning 100,000 light-years, slightly larger than our own Milky Way in size, it is the brightest member of the Messier 96 Group, the closest grouping of galaxies to our own Local Group. The Messier 96 data were extracted from the DESI Legacy Survey and captured by the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a CCD camera affixed to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab.

The asymmetrical appearance of Messier 96 hints at its history of gravitational interactions—dark dust trails are distributed unevenly throughout the spiral arms. These appear smeared in certain areas. Alhough it is not obvious in this image, astronomers agree that the bright core is not exactly at the center of the galaxy where they would expect it to be. These distorted spiral patterns and the misplaced central core point to disruption caused by the gravitational pull exerted by other galaxies in the Messier 96 Group that have drifted farther away from this preeminent group member.

Dark Energy Camera (DECam)

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/decam/

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Credit: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Image Processing: M. Rodriguez (Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

Motion Graphics: N. Bartmann
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Aug. 10, 2026

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Messier96 #M96 #NGC3368 #InteractingGalaxies #Messier96Group #LeoConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #VictorBlancoTelescope #DECam #CTIO #CerroTololo #Chile #NOIRLab #NSF #DOE #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Dark Energy Camera (DECam)

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/decam/

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Spiral Galaxy Messier 96 in Leo | Victor Blanco Telescope

Dark Energy Camera (DECam)

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/decam/

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Peering Down Deep into Earth's Green Aurora | International Space Station

Peering Down Deep into Earth's Green Aurora | International Space Station

Expedition 71/72 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Don Pettit: "Orbiting over wavy green auroras! Moments like these are some of the most surreal in spaceflight. What a view!"

Also known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras. Excited by solar energy outflows, oxygen molecules within planet Earth's atmosphere can produce green aurora colors roughly between 60 to 120 miles (100-200 km) altitude.

Learn more about auroras:
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/auroras/

NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth on April 19, 2025, concluding a seven-month science mission aboard the International Space Station. Pettit spent 220 days in space, earning him a total of 590 days in space over the course of his four spaceflights. He orbited the Earth 3,520 times, traveling 93.3 million miles in low-Earth orbit.

Follow Expedition 75:

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

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

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.

Video Credits: NASA/JSC/D. Pettit
Duration: 24 seconds
Release Date: Aug. 22, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Earth #Aurora #GreenAurora #Astronauts #DonPettit #AstronautVideography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition75 #InternationalCooperation #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Starship Six-Engine Static Fire Pre-flight Test#14

SpaceX Starship Six-Engine Static Fire Pre-flight Test#14

To prepare for SpaceX's Flight Test#14: "Starship completed a full-duration, 60-second static fire with all six Raptor engines" on Friday, August 21, 2026.

Starship Flight Test#13 Summary:

On Friday, July 24, 2026, at 5:51 p.m. CT, Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on its thirteenth flight test. This was the second flight of the Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles and the first Starship flight to deploy the next generation Starlink V3 satellites.

The flight test began with Super Heavy igniting all 33 Raptor 3 engines and ascending over the Gulf of America. The successful first-stage ascent was followed by a hot-staging maneuver with Starship’s upper stage igniting its six Raptor engines to continue its flight to space.

Following stage separation, the Super Heavy booster performed a directional flip maneuver. The startup sequence was modified for this flight to be more robust to timing variability in engine startup and flip in the desired direction. This is done to increase overall performance. The booster successfully completed the high thrust portion of the boostback burn with all 33 engines, the first time with a Super Heavy V3, before ending the burn early. It attempted to relight its engines for the landing burn with a subset successfully igniting before experiencing a hard splashdown in the Gulf.

After completing a full-duration ascent burn on all six Raptor engines, Starship achieved its planned velocity and trajectory. Starship then successfully deployed all 20 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX engineers were able to successfully communicate with every satellite using radio frequency and laser links and downloaded key telemetry from the satellites. The Starlink satellites were deployed on the pre-planned trajectory and are expected to have demised upon reentry approximately 20 minutes after deployment.

The vehicle also reignited a single Raptor engine in an in-space demonstration of a core capability for future orbital missions.

Starship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and was able to gather critical data on the performance of its heatshield before executing a dynamic banking move to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly. Starship then guided itself using its four flaps to the pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean. After relighting all three Raptor engines, Starship executed a landing flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown, coming to rest intact in the Indian Ocean and providing critical views of an intact heatshield for the first time.

NASA plans to use a lunar lander version of Starship to deliver astronauts and cargo to the Moon during the Artemis IV mission and beyond 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: SpaceX
Duration: 1 minute, 18 seconds
Date: Aug. 21, 2026

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #ArtemisIV #Starship #StarshipV3 #FlightTest13 #ReusableSpacecraft #SuperHeavy #SuperHeavyV3 #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #StarbaseTexas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Friday, August 21, 2026

Aurora Australis over IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica

Aurora Australis over IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.

Learn more about auroras:
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/auroras/

IceCube is the largest neutrino observatory in the world and consists of over five thousand optical detectors draped through a cubic kilometer of ice at the geographic South Pole. IceCube was built specifically to study cosmic neutrinos that come from outside our own solar system. Thanks to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, scientists have identified several types of cosmic structures that produce neutrinos. A new study estimates for the first time how likely a neutrino is to come from each source type, helping physicists understand more about these ghostly particles and how they are created in the universe.

Neutrinos are tiny, nearly massless elementary particles that travel through the universe at almost the speed of light. They were first made during the Big Bang and are produced today by fusion reactions inside stars (including our own Sun), by supernovae explosions when massive stars die, and by the violent transformations of matter and energy that happen around black holes.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, or IceCube as it is commonly called, has detected over 100 cosmic neutrinos since its first full science run in 2011, and scientists have figured out where a few of them came from: a flaring blazar, a nearby Seyfert galaxy, and a tidal disruption event, the term for when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and gets gobbled up by it.

IceCube is operated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and supported by the National Science Foundation.

Learn more:

https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/
https://icecube.wisc.edu/

Story Credit: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Image Credits: Matt Yoder/Ilya Bodo/NSF
Release Dates: May 12, 2025-June 25, 2026

#NASA #NSF #Space #Astronomy #Science #Astrophysics #Earth #Aurora #AuroraAustralis #IceCubeNeutrinoObservatory #NeutrinoDetectors #SolarSystem #Stars #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Research #Technology #Engineering #AmundsenScottSouthPoleStation #SouthPole #Antarctica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Sky around R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region | Digitized Sky Survey 2

The Sky around R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region | Digitized Sky Survey 2

This image shows the sky around the R Coronae Australis star-forming region in the southern constellation of Corona Australis. This part of the sky also contains interesting regions of dark and bright nebulosity surrounding the variable star R Coronae Australis (upper left), as well as the globular star cluster NGC 6723. Very close to the center of the image is the location of neutron star RX J1856.5-3754. However, the neutron star itself is too faint to be seen.

Distance from Earth: ~430 light years

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Release Date: Nov. 30, 2016

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #RCoronaeAustralis #BinaryStarSystems #NeutronStars #RXJ185653754 #HIIRegion #StellarNurseries #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #CoronaAustralisConstellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Europe #DSS2 #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region: Wide-field view

R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region: Wide-field view

This wide field image shows the area around the star R Coronae Australis. A huge dust cloud, about eight light-years across, dominates the center of the image. The bluish reflection nebula close to R Coronae Australis is right of center and the globular cluster NGC 6723 lies to the upper-right of the nebula. Corona Australis is a tiny tiara-shaped constellation, located next to the larger constellation of Sagittarius, in the direction of the center of the Milky Way. In spite of its faintness, this southern winter constellation can be easily spotted from dark sites because of its characteristic shape and position in the sky.

Distance from Earth: ~430 light years

Credit: Loke Kun Tan
Loke's website: StarryScapes.com
Release Date: June 30, 2010

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarClusters #NGC6723 #RCoronaeAustralis #BinaryStarSystems #HIIRegion #StellarNurseries #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #CoronaAustralisConstellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #LokeKunTan #Astrophotographers #STEM #Education

Close-up: R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region | ESO’s La Silla Observatory

Close-up: R Coronae Australis Star-forming Region | ESO’s La Silla Observatory

The nearby star-forming region around the star R Coronae Australis imaged by the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. R Coronae Australis (R CrA) is a variable binary star system in the constellation Corona Australis.

Distance from Earth: ~430 light years

This picture, covers a field of 33.7 x 31.9 arcminutes (about the diameter of the full Moon), is a combination of twelve CCD frames, 67 megapixels each, taken through B, V and R filters, with four exposures of five minutes each.

Learn more about the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope:
https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/mpg22/

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: June 30, 2010

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #RCoronaeAustralis #BinaryStarSystems #HIIRegion #StellarNurseries #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #CoronaAustralisConstellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #MPGESOTelescope #LaSillaObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Meir & Menon Spacewalk: Cosmonaut Anna Kikina View | International Space Station

Meir & Menon Spacewalk: Cosmonaut Anna Kikina View | International Space Station

Expedition 75 commander, flight engineer, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir: "Perspective is everything.🌍Gazing down at Earth from above offers an incredibly profound one, as does looking back at the International Space Station from a window in the Russian segment. Our crewmate Anna Kikina captured this incredible footage during NASA astronaut Anil Menon and my spacewalk on Aug. 6. Even suited up in our bulky spacesuits, we look like tiny little worker bees at the hive given the massive scale of the station."

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station at 3 p.m. EDT on August 6, 2026. It was Menon’s first spacewalk and Meir’s sixth. During the 6-hour, 27-minute spacewalk, Meir and Menon completed their primary objectives. They included preparing the 3B power channel. This work was necessary for the installation of roll-out solar arrays, called IROSA, to provide additional power for the orbiting laboratory, supporting critical systems and the safe, controlled deorbit of the space station.

This was the 281st spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

Follow Expedition 75:

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

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

Video Credit: Roscosmos/A. Kikina
Duration: 37 seconds
Release Date: Aug. 7, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Planets #Earth #Astronauts #Spacewalks #EVA #JessicaMeir #AnilMenon #CosmonautVideography #Cosmonauts #AnnaKikina #АннаЮрьевнаКикина #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition75 #InternationalCooperation #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

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