Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) and The Orion Nebula: View from Australia

Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) and The Orion Nebula: View from Australia

Can you spot the comet? 

Astrophotographer Marco Nero: "Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) nearing the Orion Nebula (M42) just a few hours ago. The comet itself was just below visible threshold for optical viewing. The tail is still visible, even on images from my iPhone. There's a bit of fine smoke in the air due to local hazard reduction burning this week. There were a few other photographers about tonight braving the cold air to shoot this comet. This is a single exposure so I hope to stack a set of images later when I have the opportunity. I wish I had time to set up a longer lens on an EQ Mount."

C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic Oort cloud comet. It passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on April 19, 2026, when it was 0.499 AU (75 million km) from the Sun. The comet was discovered by PanSTARRS in images obtained on September 8, 2025.

The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, USA, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is surveying the sky for moving or variable objects on a continual basis, and also producing accurate astrometry and photometry of already-detected objects. The Pan-STARRS Project is a collaboration between the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Maui High Performance Computing Center and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The NASA Near Earth Object Observation Program is the main funder for the operation of the Pan-STARRS telescopes.

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. New South Wales (NSW) is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. 

Image Credit: Marco Nero
Location: Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia

Image Details: Shot with Canon EOS Ra Full Frame Mirrorless camera with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM lens. EXIF = 4 Seconds, ISO 4000, 85mm f/1.4
Photographer's website: https://www.instagram.com/nero.marco/
Date: May 10, 2026

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #OrionNebula #Planets #Earth #Comets #CometC2025R3Panstarrs #OortCloud #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #MarcoNero #Astrophotographers #AtacamaDesert #NewSouthWales #NSW #Australia #STEM #Education

Planet Earth at Night with Stars & Airglow | International Space Station

Planet Earth at Night with Stars & Airglow | International Space Station

Expedition 74 flight engineer and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot: "Did you know that you can observe the International Space Station with the naked eye? From the ground, the Station appears as a very bright star that crosses the sky at roughly the speed of a commercial airliner. But unlike an airplane, it has neither headlights nor flashing navigation lights. It's its solar panels, oriented to receive sunlight, that make it so bright when you see it from Earth."

"To find out when we're passing over your heads and where to look for us in the sky, head to the site http://spotthestation.nasa.gov… I won't be able to see you, even if you wave vigorously, but I'm thinking of you from up here!"

You will notice layers of yellow, orange, and green airglow in this video. Airglow occurs when atoms and molecules in the Earth's 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. The phenomenon is similar to auroras, but where auroras are driven by high-energy particles originating from the solar wind, airglow is energized by ordinary, day-to-day solar radiation. 

Follow Expedition 74:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Sergey-Kud Sverchkov (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Sergei Mikaev

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams

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.

Credits: NASA/ESA – S. Adenot
Duration: 45 seconds
Release Date: May 9, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #Astronomy #Stars #Planets #Earth #Airglow #ISS #Starlinks #Astronauts #SophieAdenot #AstronautVideography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #Expedition74 #JSC #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tianzhou-10 Cargo Spacecraft to Deliver Next Gen Spacesuits | China Space Station

Tianzhou-10 Cargo Spacecraft to Deliver Next Gen Spacesuits | China Space Station

China is preparing for the launch of the Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft. This will deliver a new generation of extravehicular spacesuits to the Tiangong Space Station.

The new extravehicular spacesuit F, has its operational lifespan extended from the previous 15 extravehicular activities (EVAs) over three years to 20 EVAs over four years.

Building on the design of the second-generation Feitian spacesuits, the new generation adopts airtight bearings at the elbow and knee joints, significantly improving joint durability and flexibility.

The suit also features a more robust life-support system, enhanced thermal protection, and higher reliability.

To facilitate on-orbit maintenance, the new suit adopts a modular design that improves testability and repairability. Under this design, components that reach their lifespan or malfunction can be replaced in orbit, extending the overall service life of the entire suit.

While ensuring safety and reliability, the new model has also been optimized in terms of thermal comfort, human-machine interface, and operational safety, making it more comfortable and convenient for astronauts to wear.

"The new-generation spacesuit F maintains technical baseline consistency with its predecessors D and E. We have continuously optimized the design to make it more comfortable for astronauts during EVAs," said Zheng Zehao, a staff member at the Astronaut Center of China.

The space station's D and E extravehicular spacesuits were delivered into space by the Tianzhou-9 cargo spacecraft on July 15, 2025, as part of the second-generation Feitian spacesuit series.

Currently, the two spacesuits D and E have successfully supported three EVAs by the Shenzhou-21 crew.

The combination of the Tianzhou-10 cargo craft and a Long March-7 carrier rocket was vertically transferred to the launch site on May 8, 2026, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The cargo spacecraft will be launched at a proper time in the near future, the CMSA said.

Shenzhou-21 Crew
Zhang Lu (张陆) - Commander & Pilot - 2nd spaceflight
Wu Fei (武飞)  Flight Engineer - 1st spaceflight
Zhang Hong Zhang (张洪章) - Payload Specialist - 1st spaceflight

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute, 22 seconds
Release Date: May 10, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #China #中国 #LongMarch7Rocket #Tianzhou10 #TianzhouCargoSpacecraft #CargoSpacecraft #Shenzhou21 #神舟二十一号 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #Spacesuits #CSS #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #SpaceLaboratory #LongDurationSpaceflight #CMSA #中国载人航天工程办公室 #HumanSpaceflight #WenchangSLS #Hainan #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Jellyfish Galaxy JW39 Adrift in Coma Berenices | Hubble Space Telescope

Close-up: Jellyfish Galaxy JW39 Adrift in Coma Berenices | Hubble Space Telescope

The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies over 900 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, and is one of several jellyfish galaxies that Hubble has been studying over the past two years.

Despite this jellyfish galaxy’s serene appearance, it is adrift in a ferociously hostile environment; a galaxy cluster. Compared to their more isolated counterparts, the galaxies in galaxy clusters are often distorted by the gravitational pull of larger neighbors that can twist galaxies into a variety of weird and wonderful shapes. If that was not enough, the space between galaxies in a cluster is also pervaded with a searingly hot plasma known as the intracluster medium. While this plasma is extremely tenuous, galaxies moving through it experience it almost like swimmers fighting against a current, and this interaction can strip galaxies of their star-forming gas.

This interaction between the intracluster medium and the galaxies is called ram-pressure stripping, and is the process responsible for the trailing tendrils of this jellyfish galaxy. As JW39 has moved through the cluster the pressure of the intracluster medium has stripped away gas and dust into long trailing ribbons of star formation that now stretch away from the disc of the galaxy.

Astronomers using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 studied these trailing tendrils in detail, as they are a particularly extreme environment for star formation. Surprisingly, they found that star formation in the ‘tentacles’ of jellyfish galaxies was not noticeably different from star formation in the galaxy disc.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It is large in the center with a lot of detail visible. The core glows brightly and is surrounded by concentric rings of dark and light dust. The spiral arms are thick and puffy with grey dust and glowing blue areas of star formation. They wrap around the galaxy to form a ring. Part of the arm is drawn out into a dark thread above the galaxy, and dust from the arm trails off to the right.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: May 22, 2023

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #IC4141 #JellyfishGalaxies #RamPressureStripping #InteractingGalaxies #ComaBerenicesConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Orion Spacecraft Hatch Opening: Crew Perspective | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

Orion Spacecraft Hatch Opening: Crew Perspective | NASA Artemis II Moon Mission

The Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down on Friday, April 10, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean following its approximate 10-day journey around the Moon carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The first crewed test flight of NASA’s Artemis program lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, 2026, carrying the first astronauts to travel to the Moon in more than half a century. 

The crew completed a record-setting lunar flyby, taking them 252,756 miles at their farthest distance from Earth and 4,067 miles above the lunar surface at their closest approach. 

Under Artemis, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Learn more about NASA's Artemis II Mission:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Video Credit: NASA/JSC/R. Wiseman

Duration: 11 seconds

Release Date: May 8, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisII #OrionSpacecraft #Astronauts #ReidWiseman #VictorGlover #ChristinaKoch #JeremyHansen #CSA #Canada #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #PacificOcean #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Jellyfish Galaxy JW39 Adrift in Coma Berenices | Hubble Space Telescope

Jellyfish Galaxy JW39 Adrift in Coma Berenices | Hubble Space Telescope

The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies over 900 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, and is one of several jellyfish galaxies that Hubble has been studying over the past two years.

Despite this jellyfish galaxy’s serene appearance, it is adrift in a ferociously hostile environment; a galaxy cluster. Compared to their more isolated counterparts, the galaxies in galaxy clusters are often distorted by the gravitational pull of larger neighbors that can twist galaxies into a variety of weird and wonderful shapes. If that was not enough, the space between galaxies in a cluster is also pervaded with a searingly hot plasma known as the intracluster medium. While this plasma is extremely tenuous, galaxies moving through it experience it almost like swimmers fighting against a current, and this interaction can strip galaxies of their star-forming gas.

This interaction between the intracluster medium and the galaxies is called ram-pressure stripping, and is the process responsible for the trailing tendrils of this jellyfish galaxy. As JW39 has moved through the cluster the pressure of the intracluster medium has stripped away gas and dust into long trailing ribbons of star formation that now stretch away from the disc of the galaxy.

Astronomers using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 studied these trailing tendrils in detail, as they are a particularly extreme environment for star formation. Surprisingly, they found that star formation in the ‘tentacles’ of jellyfish galaxies was not noticeably different from star formation in the galaxy disc.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It is large in the center with a lot of detail visible. The core glows brightly and is surrounded by concentric rings of dark and light dust. The spiral arms are thick and puffy with grey dust and glowing blue areas of star formation. They wrap around the galaxy to form a ring. Part of the arm is drawn out into a dark thread above the galaxy, and dust from the arm trails off to the right.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team
Release Date: May 22, 2023 

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #JW39 A#IC4141 #JellyfishGalaxies #RamPressureStripping #InteractingGalaxies #ComaBerenicesConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

First Full Stack of SpaceX Starship Version 3: Pre-Flight 12 | Starbase Texas

First Full Stack of SpaceX Starship Version 3: Pre-Flight 12 | Starbase Texas

As of October 13, 2025, the SpaceX Starship has been "launched 11 times with 6 successes and 5 failures." SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale. It aims to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, creating a mass-manufacturing pipeline and adapting it to a wide range of space missions.

"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

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
Date: May 9, 2026

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #Starship #StarshipV3 #StarshipFlight12 #ReusableSpacecraft #SuperHeavy #SuperHeavyV3 #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #StarbaseTexas #Texas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS: View from Chile

Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS: View from Chile

Astrophotographer Daniele Gasparri: "Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is finally visible here in the southern hemisphere, and it's spectacular! This is an image I took on May 2 shortly after sunset. Despite the nearly full Moon and the comet about 10 degrees above the horizon, the Atacama sky did its job."

C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic Oort cloud comet. It passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on April 19, 2026, when it was 0.499 AU (75 million km) from the Sun. The comet was discovered by PanSTARRS in images obtained on September 8, 2025.

The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, USA, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is surveying the sky for moving or variable objects on a continual basis, and also producing accurate astrometry and photometry of already-detected objects. The Pan-STARRS Project is a collaboration between the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Maui High Performance Computing Center and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The NASA Near Earth Object Observation Program is the main funder for the operation of the Pan-STARRS telescopes.

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, extending along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The country shared borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the world, and the second driest overall. This benefits astronomical observations.

Image Credit: Daniele Gasparri
Location: Atacama region, Chile

Technical Data: Skywatcher 200PDS Newtonian on NEQ6 mount. ASI 2600MC camera and average of 11X120 second exposures

Daniele's website: https://www.danielegasparri.com
Date: May 2, 2026

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comets #CometC2025R3Panstarrs #OortCloud #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #DanieleGasparri #Astrophotographers #AtacamaDesert #Chile #SouthAmerica #STEM #Education

Expedition 75 Crew Portraits: Menon, Kikina & Dubrov | International Space Station

Expedition 75 Crew Portraits: Menon, Kikina & Dubrov | International Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon poses in a spacesuit for a portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon poses in a spacesuit for a portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon poses in a spacesuit for his official portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anil Menon poses for a preflight portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Anna Kikina of Russia poses for a preflight portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov of Russia poses for a preflight portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Expedition 75 emblem

Official portraits of three members from the seven‑member Expedition 75 crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, plus Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina of Russia.

The Soyuz MS-29 mission, targeted to launch Tuesday, July 14, 2026, will carry NASA astronaut Anil Menon and his crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina of Russia, to the International Space Station for an eight-month stay as part of Expeditions 74/75. It will be Menon’s first spaceflight.

Follow Expedition 74:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Sergey-Kud Sverchkov (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Sergei Mikaev

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams

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.

Image Credits: NASA/JSC/Robert Markowitz

Image Dates: July 31, 2025-Jan. 8, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #Astronomy #Earth #ISS #Astronauts AnilMenon #Cosmonauts #PyotrDubrov #AnnaKikina #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #Expedition74 #Expedition75 #JSC #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #STEM #Education

Planet Mars Images: May 6-9, 2026 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Planet Mars Images: May 6, 2026 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Mars 2020 - sol 1852

MSL - sol 4886

Mars 2020 - sol 1854

Mars 2020 - sol 1854

MSL - sol 4889

MSL - sol 4887

MSL - sol 4887

MSL - sol 4887

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Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education. 

We depend on public donations.

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Celebrating 13+ Years on Mars (2012-2025)

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

Celebrating 5+ Years on Mars

Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

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

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Processing: Kevin M. Gill

Release Dates: May 6-9, 2026

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planets #Mars #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #PerseveranceRover #Mars2020 #JezeroCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education

Planetarium View: A Galactic Trio in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble

Planetarium View: A Galactic Trio in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble

The three pictured galaxies—NGC 7173 (middle left), NCG 7174 (middle right) and NGC 7176 (lower right)—are part of the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson that first cataloged these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. 

NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be smooth, normal elliptical galaxies without much gas and dust. In stark contrast, NGC 7174 is a mangled spiral galaxy, barely clinging to independent existence as it is ripped apart by its close neighbors. The strong tidal interaction surging through the galaxies has dragged a significant number of stars away from their home galaxies. These stars are now spread out, forming a tenuous luminous component in the galaxy group.

Distance from Earth: 120 million light years

Note: The full dome video display format is designed for projection systems in planetariums.

Credit: NASA & ESA. Acknowledgment: Theofanis N. Matsopoulos
Duration: 16 seconds
Release Date: April 16, 2014

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #HCG90 #NGC7173 #NGC7174 #NGC7176 #InteractingGalaxies #PiscisAustrinusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Journey to Galactic Trio in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble Space Telescope

Journey to Galactic Trio in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble Space Telescope

Zooming in on NGC 7173, NGC 7174 and NGC 7176, a trio of galaxies in the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson. He first cataloged these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be smooth, normal elliptical galaxies without much gas and dust. In stark contrast, NGC 7174 is a mangled spiral galaxy, barely clinging to independent existence as it is ripped apart by its close neighbors. The strong tidal interaction surging through the galaxies has dragged a significant number of stars away from their home galaxies. These stars are now spread out, forming a tenuous luminous component in the galaxy group.

Distance from Earth: 120 million light years

Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Sharples (University of Durham, U.K.)

Duration: 52 seconds
Release Date: March 3, 2009

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #HCG90 #NGC7173 #NGC7174 #NGC7176 #InteractingGalaxies #PiscisAustrinusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: A Trio of Galaxies in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble Space Telescope

Close-up: A Trio of Galaxies in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble Space Telescope

Panning on a trio of galaxies in the Hickson Compact Group 90. The three pictured galaxies—NGC 7173 (middle left), NCG 7174 (middle right) and NGC 7176 (lower right)—are part of the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson. He first cataloged these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be smooth, normal elliptical galaxies without much gas and dust. In stark contrast, NGC 7174 is a mangled spiral galaxy, barely clinging to independent existence as it is ripped apart by its close neighbors. The strong tidal interaction surging through the galaxies has dragged a significant number of stars away from their home galaxies. These stars are now spread out, forming a tenuous luminous component in the galaxy group.

Distance from Earth: 120 million light years

Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Sharples (University of Durham, U.K.)

Duration: 23 seconds
Release Date: March 3, 2009

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #HCG90 #NGC7173 #NGC7174 #NGC7176 #InteractingGalaxies #PiscisAustrinusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

A Trio of Galaxies: Hickson Compact Group 90 in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble

A Trio of Galaxies: Hickson Compact Group 90 in Piscis Austrinus | Hubble

The three pictured galaxies—NGC 7173 (middle left), NCG 7174 (middle right) and NGC 7176 (lower right)—are part of the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson. He first cataloged these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be smooth, normal elliptical galaxies without much gas and dust. In stark contrast, NGC 7174 is a mangled spiral galaxy, barely clinging to independent existence as it is ripped apart by its close neighbors. The strong tidal interaction surging through the galaxies has dragged a significant number of stars away from their home galaxies. These stars are now spread out, forming a tenuous luminous component in the galaxy group.

Distance from Earth: 120 million light years

Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Sharples (University of Durham, U.K.)
Release Date: March 3, 2009

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #HCG90 #NGC7173 #NGC7174 #NGC7176 #InteractingGalaxies #PiscisAustrinusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

The Strangest Worlds Hubble Has Seen So Far | NASA Goddard

The Strangest Worlds Hubble Has Seen So Far | NASA Goddard

Over 6,000 worlds and counting! 
NASA recently reached an incredible milestone in the search for planets beyond our solar system: more than six thousand confirmed exoplanets. From blazing hot Jupiters to mysterious super-Earths and puffy gas giants, each new discovery expands our view of the galaxy and deepens our oldest questions.

When the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, not a single exoplanet was known. Yet Hubble’s precision and ultraviolet vision helped pioneer this field, revealing the atmospheres of distant worlds, tracing escaping gases, and uncovering exotic planets unlike anything in our solar system. Its studies have shown planets that are football-shaped, evaporating into space, or as dark as fresh asphalt, each one a testament to nature’s imagination.

Today, Hubble continues to team up with NASA’s new generation of observatories like Webb and TESS to explore these alien worlds in ever greater detail. Together, they are unraveling what these planets are made of, how they evolve, and whether they might harbor life. As we celebrate 6,000 confirmed exoplanets, we look ahead to the next 6,000 and to the discoveries still waiting beyond our cosmic horizon.

For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble

Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 
Paul Morris: Lead Producer
Artist’s Impression of WASP-121b
NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)

Duration: 4 minutes, 35 seconds
Release Date: May 8, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's X-59 Flight Tests Expand to Two-Flight Days over Mojave Desert

NASA's X-59 Flight Tests Expand to Two-Flight Days over Mojave Desert

As NASA accelerates flight test operations for its quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft, its team is picking up the testing tempo. NASA recently completed two test flights of the X-59 in a single day for the first time, marking significant progress toward later phases of the Quesst Mission. Here we see the X-59's first flight of the day, and 11th overall.

The X-59 aircraft builds on decades of supersonic flight research and is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst Mission. The vast amount of data collected over the years has given designers the tools they needed to craft the shape of the X-59. The goal is to enable the aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce a loud sonic boom to a quieter “sonic thump.”

Data gathered during X-59 research flights will be shared with the U.S. and international regulators to inform the establishment of new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land.

The X-59’s engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust. This will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot–atop the aircraft—to aid in making the X-59 quieter.

The X-59's goal is to help change existing national and international aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land.

For more information about the X-59 and NASA's Quesst Mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/quesst/
www.nasa.gov/quesst

Video Credit: NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC)
Duration: 34 seconds
Release Date: May 8, 2026

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