It’s oh-so-easy to be mesmerized by this spiral galaxy. Follow its clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to its center, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delivered highly detailed scenes of this and other nearby spiral galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light.
Read MoreMonth: February 2024
Spiral Galaxy NGC 4254’s Dazzling Swirls
It’s oh-so-easy to be mesmerized by this spiral galaxy. Follow its clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to its center, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delivered highly detailed scenes of this and other nearby spiral galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team NGC 4254, a spiral galaxy, is resplendent in orange and blue in this Jan. 29,…
Read MoreInto the Belly of the Rover: VIPER’s Final Science Instrument Installed
A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. NASA/Bill Stafford A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover). TRIDENT, designed and developed by engineers at Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, is the fourth and…
Read MoreTeam Assessing SHERLOC Instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Rover
3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Perseverance puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in a set of images captured in June and July 2022 by the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera system. SHERLOC is mounted on the end of the arm. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS Engineers are working to stabilize a dust cover on one of the science instrument’s cameras. Data and imagery from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate one of two covers that keep dust from accumulating on the optics of…
Read MoreNASA Invites Media to SpaceX’s 30th Resupply Launch to Space Station
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company’s Dragon spacecraft atop, is raised to a vertical position at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on March 13, 2023, in preparation for the 27th commercial resupply services launch to the International Space Station. SpaceX Media accreditation is open at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for SpaceX’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-30) mission to the International Space Station for the agency. Liftoff of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted no earlier than mid-March…
Read MoreCareer Journey: Building Strength as an Astronaut Fitness Trainer
NASA astronauts must prepare their bodies for the physical stresses of living and working in microgravity before they launch on a spaceflight. Fortunately, they get customized training programs and plenty of help from astronaut fitness trainer Corey Twine, who shares decades of strength and conditioning expertise with astronauts every day at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Twine’s official title is “astronaut strength, conditioning, and rehabilitation specialist.” He works with a team dedicated to ensuring NASA’s space explorers are in top shape before launch day and know how to stay…
Read MoreAstronaut Charles Bolden Preps for Deorbit
STS-60 commander Charles F. Bolden is seen at the commander’s station on the forward flight deck of the space shuttle Discovery. He is wearing the orange launch and entry suit. Bolden and his crewmates performed proximity operations with the Russian Mir space station.
Read MoreCollins Aerospace Tests NASA Space Station Suit in Weightlessness
A key NASA design milestone was recently completed by Collins Aerospace as the company works to develop a next-generation spacesuit for use on the International Space Station. The milestone – a pressure garment system fit and functionality test in a microgravity-like environment – marked an important step toward developing a suit for NASA that can be used for continuing operations and advancing scientific discovery in low Earth orbit. The agency selected Collins to develop a new spacesuit that can replace the current space station spacesuit, known technically as an extravehicular…
Read MoreCanadian astronaut reveals Indigenous art patch for Artemis 2 moon mission
The first Canadian who will fly to the moon now has a patch to represent his own mission, as well as the knowledge passed on by his country’s original explorers. Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who in 2025 will fly as a member of NASA’s Artemis 2 crew on a flight around the moon, revealed the new emblem while meeting with students from First Nations University of Canada on Thursday (Feb. 8). The insignia reflects Hansen’s appreciation for Indigenous “ways of knowing.” “For the past decade, Jeremy has…
Read MoreOrbital resonance — the striking gravitational dance done by planets with aligning orbits
Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances – in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a region the size of a football field. The time that planets take to orbit their suns have no specific relationship to each other. But sometimes, their orbits display striking patterns. For example, astronomers studying six planets orbiting a star 100 light years away have just found that they orbit their star with an almost rhythmic beat, in perfect synchrony. Each pair of planets completes their orbits in…
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