Early Production Continues on Advanced Upper Stage for NASA Moon Rocket

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NASA/Michael DeMocker Link to full image Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have completed a major portion of a weld confidence article for the advanced upper stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The hardware was rotated to a horizontal position and moved to another part of the facility Oct. 24. The weld confidence article forms part of the liquid oxygen tank for the SLS rocket’s exploration upper stage and is the fifth of seven weld confidence articles engineers are manufacturing for the evolved SLS Block…

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7 scorching-hot exoplanets discovered circling the same star

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NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope may have saved the best for last. Astronomers combing over data collected by the telescope before its retirement in 2018 have found a system of seven planets being blasted by radiation from their parent star. Each of the seven blisteringly hot extra-solar planets — or “exoplanets“ — in the system Kepler-385 received more radiation from the sun-like star they orbit than any planet in the solar system receives from the sun. The planets all appear to be larger than Earth but smaller than the solar system ice-giant Neptune.  Excitingly, the…

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Hubble Provides Unique Ultraviolet View of Jupiter

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ultraviolet view of Jupiter. NASA, ESA, and M. Wong (University of California – Berkeley); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This newly released image from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet Jupiter in a color composite of ultraviolet wavelengths. Released in honor of Jupiter reaching opposition, which occurs when the planet and the Sun are in opposite sides of the sky, this view of the gas giant planet includes the iconic, massive storm called the “Great Red Spot.” Though the storm appears red…

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Mira cómo la NASA construye su primer vehículo lunar robótico

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Ingenieros y técnicos ensamblan y ponen a prueba el primer vehículo lunar robótico de la NASA en una sala limpia del Centro Espacial Johnson de la NASA en Houston. NASA/Robert Markowitz El público tendrá un asiento de primera fila y en directo para ver cómo el primer rover lunar robótico de la NASA cobra forma en la sala limpia de la Instalación de Pruebas de Integración de Segmentos de Superficie en el Centro Espacial Johnson de la agencia en Houston. Los integrantes de la misión del Vehículo de Exploración Polar…

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Watch NASA Build Its First Robotic Moon Rover

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Engineers assemble and test NASA’s first robotic Moon rover in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/Robert Markowitz The public now has a live, front row seat to see NASA’s first robotic Moon rover take shape in the Surface Segment Integration and Testing Facility clean room at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Members of VIPER — short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — and the Office of Communications at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, will host watch parties and answer questions…

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Native Earth, Native Sky CRS-29 Payload

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2 min read Native Earth, Native Sky CRS-29 Payload Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) and NASA’s Science Activation Program, Native Earth | Native Sky at Oklahoma State University (OSU) have partnered with Boeing to send about 500 grams of heirloom seeds from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma to the International Space Station this November. With the initial launch attempt coming up on November 7th, the seeds will take flight into space and spend several months on the space station before being returned to CNO. Five different important seeds native to…

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NASA ASTRO CAMP® Sets New Record While Providing STEM Opportunities

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3 min read NASA ASTRO CAMP® Sets New Record While Providing STEM Opportunities Another year equals another record as NASA’s ASTRO CAMP® initiative reached across the nation and beyond to help a broad spectrum of students learn about NASA and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). A NASA ASTRO CAMP® participant engages with a NASA STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activity at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizona Science Center The NASA ASTRO CAMP® Community Partners (ACCP) program surpassed previous milestone marks during fiscal year 2023 by…

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Hubble Tangos with a Dancer in Dorado

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2 min read Hubble Tangos with a Dancer in Dorado This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1566. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti and the LEGUS team, R. Chandar This vibrant Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1566, sometimes informally referred to as the ‘Spanish Dancer Galaxy’. Like the subject of another recent image, NGC 1566 is a weakly-barred or intermediate spiral galaxy. This means that it does not have a clearly present or a clearly absent bar-shaped structure at its center. The…

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Swirling gas helps scientists nail down Milky Way’s supermassive black hole mass

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At the center of our galaxy sits a dark enigma, a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*. Astronomers have known about the existence of Sgr. A* for some time, and even snagged a spectacular image of it in 2022, but getting exact measurements of its size and activity have proven elusive. But now, in new findings from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), a group of astronomers have determined, with high accuracy, the mass and radius of Sgr A*.  Specifically, Sgr A* was found to come in at…

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