Friday, September 02, 2022

The Star Cluster Messier 7 | ESO

The Star Cluster Messier 7 | ESO

This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the bright star cluster Messier 7, also known as NGC 6475. Easily spotted by the naked eye in the direction of the tail of the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), this cluster is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars in the sky and an important research target.

Distance: 800 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: February 19, 2014


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarCluster #Messier7 #NGC6475 #Scorpius #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #LaSillaObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Outfitting a New Robotic Arm | Week of Sept. 1, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground: Outfitting a New Robotic Arm Week of Sept. 1, 2022

Two Russian cosmonauts are finalizing preparations for a spacewalk to configure the European robotic arm (ERA) for payload operations on the outside of the International Space Station. 

Roscosmos Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev have been given the go to exit the space station’s Poisk airlock on Friday, September 2, 2022, at 9:20 a.m. EDT beginning a spacewalk to continue outfitting Europe’s robotic arm. The duo was joined on Sept. 1 by Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov for a final procedures review and last minute Orlan spacesuit checks ahead of the planned six-hour spacewalk.

The spacewalkers will complete the tasks left unfinished during the previous spacewalk that took place on Aug. 17. The tasks Artemyev and Matveev are scheduled to complete include relocating the ERA’s external control panel and testing the arm’s ability to grasp payloads. Korsakov will help the two cosmonauts in and out of their spacesuits, monitor the spacewalking activities, and maneuver the ERA on Friday.


Expedition 67 Crew

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)

Learn more about the important research being operated on the International Space Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on the International Space Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation


An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the  International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 2 minutes, 46 seconds

Release Date: September 1, 2022


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #ArtemisI #Spacewalk #EVA #ERA #RoboticArm #Cosmonauts #Astronauts #Europe #Italia #Italy #Canada #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #Science #Research #International #Expedition67 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Thursday, September 01, 2022

NASA's Mars Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers: New Aug.-Sept. 2022 Images | JPL

NASA's Mars Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers: New Aug.-Sept. 2022 Images | JPL


MSL - Sol 3569 - MastCam

MSL - Sol 3569 - Mastcam

MSL - Sol 3579 - Mastcam

Mars2020 - Sol 543 - Mastcam-Z

Mars2020 - Sol 543 - Mastcam-Z

MSL - Sol 3570 - Mastcam Left


Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Celebrating 10 Years on Mars!

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


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 possible 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 Release Dates: Aug. 31-Sept. 1 , 2022

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MountSharp #GaleCrater #PerseveranceRover #JezeroCrater #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

Expedition 68 International Space Station Crew Undergoes Final Training in Russia

Expedition 68 International Space Station Crew Undergoes Final Training in Russia

Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos and NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio, along with SpaceX Crew-5 crew member Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, conducted final qualification training Aug. 30 and 31, 2022, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for their upcoming International Space Station mission. Their backups, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos and astronaut Loral O’Hara of NASA, joined them for the training sessions. Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio are scheduled to launch Wednesday, Sept. 21, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.

Cosmonaut Anna Kikina Roscosmos Info

Anna Yuryevna Kikina (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Кикина, born August 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk) is a Russian engineer and test cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. [Wikipedia]

NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/frank-rubio

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/frank-rubio/biography


Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Duration: 15 minutes

Release Date: August 31, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #ESA #Roscosmos #JAXA #SpaceX #SpacexCrew5 #CrewDragon #Cosmonauts #SergeyProkopyev #DmitriPetelin #AnnaKikina #YuryevnaKikina #Astronaut #FrankRubio #HumanSpaceflight #JSC #Japan #日本 #StarCity #Russia #Россия #UnitedStates #Canada #Science #Expedition68 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

What's Up for September 2022 | Skywatching Tips from NASA

What's Up for September 2022 | Skywatching Tips from NASA

What are some skywatching highlights in September 2022? 

Mars is on the move this month, forming a "red triangle" with bright red stars Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. Saturn and Jupiter fly with the Moon on the 9th, and then the Moon slides over closer Jupiter in the morning sky on the 11th. At the end of the month, September 23rd brings the equinox, meaning day and night are of nearly equal length, and a change of seasons is afoot.

0:00 Intro

0:12 Mars on the move in September

0:43 Jupiter at opposition

1:39 Evening planets: Jupiter and Saturn

2:07 September equinox 

2:55 September Moon phases


Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Duration: 3 minutes, 17 seconds

Release Date: Sept. 1, 2022


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #Moon #Planets #Mars #Jupiter #Saturn #SolarSystem #Stars #Aldebaran #Betelgeuse #Constellations #MilkyWay #Galaxy #JPL #California #Skywatching #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Tonight's Sky: September 2022

Tonight's Sky: September 2022

In September 2022, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing stargazers to locate globular star clusters and a nearby double star, Alpha Capricorni. Keep watching for space-based views of densely packed, spherical collections of ancient stars in visible and X-ray light.


About this Series

“Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning.


Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Duration: 5 minutes

Release Date: August 19, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #Science #Earth #Stars #GlobularStarClusters #BinaryStarSystem #AlphaCapricorni #Pegasus #Constellations #Galaxy #MilkyWay #Planets #SolarSystem #Skywatching #STScI #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Astronauts Kjell Lindgren & Jessica Watkins Answer Student Questions

NASA Astronauts Kjell Lindgren & Jessica Watkins Answer Student Questions

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event August 31 with students at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado. Lindgren and Watkins are part of the Expedition 67 mission—living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and to demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program. 

Jessica Watkins' Biography (NASA)

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jessica-watkins/biography

Kjell Lindgren Biography (NASA)

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/kjell-n-lindgren/biography


Learn more about the important research being operated on ISS: 

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on ISS: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation


Expedition 67 Crew

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Credit: NASA Video

Duration: 21 minutes 

Release Date: August 31, 2022


#NASA #ESA #ISS #Earth #Artemis #Students #ArtemisGeneration #MoonToMars #JourneyToMars #Science #Astronaut #Astronauts #FlightEngineers #JessicaWatkins #KjellLindgren #HumanSpaceflight #Colorado #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Our Star: A Week Filled with Solar Flares | NASA Goddard

Our Star: A Week Filled with Solar Flares | NASA Goddard

During the week of Friday, August 12, to Thursday, August 18, 2022, the Sun was particularly busy. Several bright active regions were present, and starting on the 15th, they were responsible for 11 M-class flares. M-class flares are one level below X-class, the highest-energy designation. This imagery is all captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 171-angstrom wavelength of extreme-ultraviolet light. This wavelength is particularly good at showing loop structures in the Sun's corona, or atmosphere. 

At times, the image of the Sun disappears from view. SDO is in a geosynchronous orbit and occasionally Earth gets in between SDO and the Sun, blocking the view. Careful observation will reveal a fuzzy edge to the blackness that travels across the solar disk. This is Earth's atmosphere.


Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)/SDO

Scott Wiessinger (KBRwyle): Producer

Scott Wiessinger (KBRwyle): Editor

Tom Bridgman (GST): Visualizer

Written and produced by Lars Leonhard

Duration: 3 minutes, 14 seconds

Release Date: September 1, 2022


#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #SpaceWeather #Star #Sun #Solar #SolarFlares #Corona #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Spacecraft #SDO #Goddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Star Cluster RCW 38: Wide-field View | ESO

Star Cluster RCW 38: Wide-field View | ESO

The wider region surrounding the star cluster RCW 38, located about 5,500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). RCW 38 is an "embedded" cluster, in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and large amount of light, helped in their devastating task by short-lived, massive stars that explode as supernovae. In some cases, this energetic onslaught cooks away the matter that may eventually form new planetary systems. Scientists think that our own Solar System emerged from such a dramatic environment.

This image was obtained with the Wide Field Imager instrument on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla, using data collected through four filters (B, V, R and H-alpha). The field of view is 30 arcminutes.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: August 19, 2009


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarFormation #StarCluster #RCW38 #Nebula #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #LaSillaObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

The Nebula around Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO

The Nebula around Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO


The wider region surrounding the star cluster RCW 38, located about 5,500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). RCW 38 is an "embedded" cluster, in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and large amount of light, helped in their devastating task by short- lived, massive stars that explode as supernovae. In some cases, this energetic onslaught cooks away the matter that may eventually form new planetary systems. Scientists think that our own Solar System emerged from such a dramatic environment.

This image was obtained with the Wide Field Imager instrument on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla, using data collected through four filters (B, V, R and H-alpha). The field of view is 30 arcminutes.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) 

Release Date: August 19, 2009


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarFormation #StarCluster #RCW38 #Nebula #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #Infrared #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Star-formation Region RCW38 Revealed: Infrared View | ESO

Star-formation Region RCW38 Revealed: Infrared View | ESO


This image displays a spectacular three-color composite image of RCW38, obtained through three near-infrared filters. This is a region in the Milky Way at a distance of about 5,000 light years, where stars which have recently formed in clouds of gas and dust are still heavily obscured and cannot be observed in the visible part of the spectrum. Contrarily, as this image shows, they are very well seen at infrared wavelengths where the obscuration is substantially lower. The diffuse radiation is a mixture of starlight scattered by the dust and gas in the area, and atomic and molecular hydrogen line emission.

Distance: 5,000 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: November 26, 1998


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarFormation #StarCluster #RCW38 #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #Infrared #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

First Exoplanet Image: Gas Giant HIP 65426 b | James Webb Space Telescope

First Exoplanet Image: Gas Giant HIP 65426 b | James Webb Space Telescope


For the first time, astronomers have used the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of an exoplanet. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb’s powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our Solar System, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets.

The exoplanet in Webb’s image, called HIP 65426 b, is about six to eight times the mass of Jupiter. It is young as planets go—about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.

Astronomers discovered the planet in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and took images of it using short infrared wavelengths of light. The Webb image, taken in mid-infrared light, reveals new details that ground-based telescopes would not be able to detect because of the intrinsic infrared glow of Earth’s atmosphere.

Researchers have been analyzing the data from these observations and are preparing a paper they will submit to journals for peer review. But Webb's first capture of an exoplanet already hints at future possibilities for studying distant worlds.

Since HIP 65426 b is about 100 times farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun, it is sufficiently distant from the star that Webb can easily separate the planet from the star in the image.

Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are both equipped with coronagraphs, which are sets of tiny masks that block out starlight, enabling Webb to take direct images of certain exoplanets like this one. 

Taking direct images of exoplanets is challenging because stars are so much brighter than planets. The HIP 65426 b planet is more than 10,000 times fainter than its host star in the near-infrared, and a few thousand times fainter in the mid-infrared. While this is not the first direct image of an exoplanet taken from space—the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured direct exoplanet images previously—HIP 65426 b points the way forward for Webb’s exoplanet exploration.

In each filter image, the planet appears as a slightly differently shaped blob of light. That is because of the particulars of Webb’s optical system and how it translates light through the different optics. Purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometres, and red shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways that the different Webb instruments capture light. The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing. The bar shapes in the NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope’s optics, not objects in the scene.

These observations were lead with a large international collaboration by Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

Notes: NIRSpec was built for ESA by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center providing its detector and micro-shutter subsystems. ESA also provided 50% of MIRI, which 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.

This image highlights Webb’s science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)

Release Date: Sept. 1, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Star #HIP65426 #Exoplanet #HIP65426b #Planet #Atmosphere #Centaurus #Constellation #Science #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #JWST #Telescope #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

The Massive Star IRS2 in Star Cluster RCW 38: Infrared View | ESO

The Massive Star IRS2 in Star Cluster RCW 38: Infrared View | ESO

Color composite image of the central part of the stellar cluster RCW 38, around the young, massive star IRS2, taken with the NACO adaptive optics instrument attached to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Thanks to this image, astronomers were able to discover that IRS2 is in fact a twin system composed of two almost equally massive stars. The astronomers also found a handful of protostars—the faintly luminous precursors to fully realized stars—and dozens of other candidate stars that have eked out an existence here despite the powerful ultraviolet light radiated by IRS2.

Distance: about 5,500 light years

The image is based on near-infrared data taken through three different filters (J, H and K). The field of view is about 1 arcminute across.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: August 19, 2009


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarCluster #RCW38 #Binary #Star #StarSystem #IRS2 #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #Infrared #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Panning across Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO

Panning across Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO

This pan video takes a close look at the dramatic star formation region RCW 38 in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). The view of this region was captured during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system, which is installed on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Distance: about 5,500 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: July 11, 2018


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarCluster #RCW38 #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zooming into Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO

Zooming into Star Cluster RCW 38 | ESO

This zoom video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up look at the dramatic star formation region RCW 38 in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). The final view of this region was captured during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system, which is installed on the European Southern Observatory 's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Distance: about 5,500 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO), DSS, N. Risinger

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: July 11, 2018


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarCluster #RCW38 #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Celestial Art: Star Cluster RCW 38 (Infrared View) | ESO

Celestial Art: Star Cluster RCW 38 (Infrared View) | ESO

Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope show the star cluster RCW 38 in all its glory. This image was taken during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system. It shows the cluster and its surrounding clouds of brightly glowing gas in exquisite detail, with dark tendrils of dust threading through the bright core of this young gathering of stars.

Distance: about 5,500 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/K. Muzic

Release Date: July 11, 2018


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarCluster #RCW38 #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #HAWKI #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education