Supernova hides in new Hubble Telescope galaxy ‘light show’ image (photo)

NeRD

A celestial light show illuminates a distant spiral galaxy, where a hidden supernova briefly outshines its stellar neighbors in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy, called NGC 1672, is a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. Billions of stars fueled by hydrogen gas in the swirling arms glow brightly across the galaxy, with newly formed and extremely hot stars emitting powerful radiation that creates a vibrant red light, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA). (Hubble…

Read More

Sols 4355-4356: Weekend Success Brings Monday Best

NeRD

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read Sols 4355-4356: Weekend Success Brings Monday Best NASA’s…

Read More

NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope sees ‘knots’ blasting from nearby black hole jets

NeRD

Astronomers have scoured decades-old data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, finding bright, lumpy features dotting a jet of energy spit out by a nearby black hole. Puzzlingly, the “knots” clock a faster speed when seen in X-rays than they do in radio wavelengths. scientists said. “The X-ray data traces a unique picture that you can’t see in any other wavelength,” study lead author David Bogensberger, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan, who led the new study, said in a recent news release. “We’ve shown a new approach to studying…

Read More

World’s 1st wooden satellite arrives at ISS for key orbital test

NeRD

This new spaceflight tech has a very retro feel. The world’s first wooden satellite, a tiny Japanese spacecraft called LignoSat, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) today (Nov. 5) aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. LignoSat measures just 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, but it could end up having a big impact on spaceflight and exploration down the road. “While some of you might think that wood in space seems a little counterintuitive, researchers hope this investigation demonstrates that a wooden satellite can be more sustainable and…

Read More

Beyond the Console: Kenneth Attocknie’s Mission to Bridge Cultures at NASA

NeRD

From the Mission Control Center to community celebrations, Kenneth Attocknie blends safety expertise with a commitment to cultural connection.  For the past 25 years at NASA, Attocknie has dedicated his career to safeguarding the International Space Station and supporting real-time mission operations at Johnson Space Center in Houston.   As a principal safety engineer in the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate, Attocknie ensures the safe operation of the space station’s environmental control and life support system. This system is vital for maintaining the life-sustaining environment aboard the orbiting laboratory— a critical…

Read More

Bundling the Best of Heliophysics Education: DigiKits for Physics and Astronomy Teachers

NeRD

Learn Home Bundling the Best of… For Educators Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science   3 min read Bundling the Best of Heliophysics Education: DigiKits for Physics and Astronomy Teachers For nearly a decade, the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has been working to bring together resources through its DigiKits–multimedia collections of vetted high-quality resources for teachers and their students. These resources are toolkits, allowing teachers to pick and choose interesting content to support their instruction. As a partner with…

Read More

Contract Specialist Miranda Meyer

NeRD

“[Now that I work for Safety and Mission Assurance,] it’s really cool to read everything about the different types of the scenarios. I always get to see the task orders and the type of work that is going on to keep people safe on the ground and in the air.” — Miranda Meyer, Contract Specialist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Read More

Save $300 on the HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset, the best high-resolution option

NeRD

Save $300 on the HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset when you get it from Walmart. We rate it as the best high-resolution VR headset on the market in our best VR headsets guide and you can save big before Black Friday by grabbing it now. The HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset is now $300 off at Walmart ahead of Black Friday. This deal is also available on Vive’s website. In our review of the HTC VIVE Pro 2, we found a lot to like, especially now it’s heavily…

Read More

Asteroid-mining company AstroForge gets 1st-ever FCC license for commercial deep-space mission

NeRD

Asteroid prospecting company AstroForge has been awarded the first-ever commercial license for operating and communicating with a spacecraft in deep space, ahead of its Odin mission that’s set to launch and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid in early 2025. The license, granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Oct. 18, pertains specifically to setting up a communication network with radio ground stations on Earth, to enable commands to be sent up to Odin and data to be transmitted back to Earth. In this case, deep space is defined…

Read More

Watch 31st SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule arrive at the ISS today

NeRD

The space station will receive a new shipment of supplies this morning (Nov. 5), and you can watch the event live. A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft laden with 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of food, equipment and experiments will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today around 10:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), if all goes according to plan. Coverage will run live on NASA+ and, if possible, Space.com will simulcast the events here. NASA’s broadcast will begin at 8:45 a.m. EST (1245 GMT). SpaceX launched the robotic Dragon aboard a…

Read More