Webb notices a Globular Cluster with Individual Stars.

The James Webb Space Telescope spent slightly over an hour on June 20, 2022, peering at Messier 92 (M92), a globular cluster 27,000 light-years away in the Milky Way halo. The discovery, one of Webb's very first science observations, is part of Early Release Science (ERS) program 1334, one of 13 ERS programs meant to help astronomers understand how to use Webb and maximize its scientific capabilities.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI).

Webb's NIRCam sensor obtained this detail of the globular cluster M92. This field of vision encompasses the lower left quarter of the image's right half. Globular clusters are dense clumps of closely packed stars that formed all at once. M92 contains approximately 300,000 stars packed into a ball roughly 100 light-years across. The night sky of a planet in the center of M92 would be illuminated by thousands of stars thousands of times brighter than those in our own sky. The image depicts stars at various distances from the cluster's core, which aids scientists in understanding the motion of the stars and the mechanics of that motion.

M92 is a typical globular cluster with implications for star evolution and stellar systems. It is one of the Milky Way's oldest globular clusters, estimated to be between 12 and 13 billion years old, and contains some of the galaxy's oldest stars. It is also exceedingly dense, allowing Webb to measure stars that are extremely close together.

 

Webb and Hubble operate at longer wavelengths, allowing us to observe very cool stars. We were able to reach down to the lowest mass stars, which is close to the boundary where stars stop being stars. Webb is also faster than Hubble, taking just a few hours to detect these faint stars. This is encouraging to see that we were still able to detect such small, faint stars without trying too hard.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI).

 

The NIRCam instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope acquired this image of the globular cluster M92. The black strip in the center represents a chip gap caused by the separation of NIRCam's two long-wavelength detectors. The gap covers the cluster's dense center, which is too bright to capture at the same time as the fainter, less dense surrounds.  The image covers around 5 arcminutes or 39 light-years.

 

Webb's NIRCam sensor obtained this detail of the globular cluster M92. This field of vision encompasses the lower left quarter of the image's right half. Globular clusters are dense clumps of closely packed stars that formed all at once. M92 contains approximately 300,000 stars packed into a ball roughly 100 light-years across. The night sky of a planet in the center of M92 would be illuminated by thousands of stars thousands of times brighter than those in our own sky. The image depicts stars at various distances from the cluster's core, which aids scientists in understanding the motion of the stars and the mechanics of that motion.

NASA is planning to launch Israel's first space telescope.

The UV Transient Astronomy Satellite, Israel's first space telescope mission, will be launched by NASA (ULTRASAT). ULTRASAT, a large field-of-view ultraviolet observatory, will examine the mysteries of short-duration phenomena in the universe, such as supernova explosions and neutron star mergers.

This time-lapse video from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope depicts the fading light of supernova SN 2018gv. ULTRASAT will observe not only the late fading of such cosmic events but also their early brightness.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and A. Riess (STScI/JHU) and the SH0ES team; acknowledgment: M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

ULTRASAT, led by the Israel Space Agency and the Weizmann Institute of Science, is set to fly into geostationary orbit around Earth in early 2026. NASA will participate in the mission's science program in addition to providing launch services.

"We are honored to be a part of this multinational collaboration that will help us better comprehend the secrets of the hot, transitory cosmos," said Mark Clampin, director of NASA Headquarters in Washington. "ULTRASAT will provide the worldwide science community with an additional essential tool for making new observations in the emerging field of time domain and multimessenger astrophysics projects."

The large field of vision of ULTRASAT will allow it to quickly detect and capture ultraviolet light from sources in the universe that shift on short timescales. The observations of these short-term events by ULTRASAT will be combined with data from other missions, including those studying gravitational waves and particles - a subject is known as time domain and multimessenger astronomy. The findings will shed light on everything from black holes and gravitational wave sources to supernovae and active galaxies.

"Amazing research necessitates cutting-edge technology," said Uri Oron, director of the Israel Space Agency within the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology. "Our expectations from ULTRASAT, such as a large field of vision, increased ultraviolet sensitivity, and real-time data control and transfer are at the forefront of technological breakthroughs. The Israeli space industry can provide these capabilities. The Israel Space Agency is proud of its collaboration with NASA as a direct illustration of the agencies' strong partnership, as well as the Israeli space industry's technological work engaged in the telescope's development."

An illustration of the ULTRASAT satellite
Credits: Weizmann Institute

"This is a game-changing project that propels Israel to the forefront of global research," said Eli Waxman, an astrophysicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the project's lead researcher. "Major international agencies such as NASA and the DESY research center have joined this Israeli-led project as partners, having recognized its scientific value. They are investing significant resources in the satellite's construction and launch in order to become active participants in this mission and gain access to its scientific products. It's a scientific collaboration."

NASA and the Israel Space Agency have agreed that NASA will supply the launch opportunity, Flight Payload Adapter, and other launch-related obligations for ULTRASAT. The completed observatory will be delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.

A study discovered that Venus' 'squishy' outer shell may be resurfacing the planet.

The study employs archival NASA data to demonstrate that Venus may be losing heat due to geologic activity in locations known as coronae, similar to early tectonic activity on Earth.

This depiction of Venus's enormous Quetzalpetlatl Corona exhibits active volcanism and a subduction zone, where the foreground crust plunges into the planet's interior. According to a new study, coronae identify regions where active geology is altering Venus' surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin

Because Earth and Venus are rocky planets with similar sizes and rock compositions, they should lose interior heat to space at roughly the same rate. The process by which Earth loses heat is generally understood, while Venus' heat flow mechanism has remained a mystery. A new study using three-decade-old data from NASA's Magellan mission has examined how Venus cools and discovered that thin portions of the planet's uppermost layer may hold the solution.

Our planet has a hot core that heats the surrounding mantle, which then transports that heat up to Earth's stiff outer rocky layer, known as the lithosphere. The heat is then lost to space, cooling the mantle's highest area. This mantle convection drives surface tectonic processes, keeping a patchwork of mobile plates in motion. Because Venus lacks tectonic plates, planetary scientists have long wondered how the planet loses heat and what mechanisms form its surface.

The investigation is based on observations of quasi-circular geological landforms on Venus known as coronae made by the Magellan probe in the early 1990s. The researchers found that coronae tend to be located where the planet's lithosphere is thinnest and most active by taking fresh measurements of coronae visible in Magellan photos.

This composite radar image of Quetzalpetlatl Corona was made by superimposing data from about 70 orbits of NASA's Magellan mission onto an image collected by Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory radio telescope. The corona's rim implies likely tectonic activity.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"We've been locked into this assumption for so long that Venus' lithosphere is static and thick, but our view is suddenly altering," said Suzanne Smrekar, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the study published in Nature Geoscience.

A thin lithosphere, like a thin bedsheet, permits more heat to escape from the planet's interior via buoyant plumes of molten rock rising to the outer layer, just as a thin bedsheet releases more body heat than a heavy comforter. If there is higher heat movement, there is usually more volcanic activity beneath the surface. Coronae are expected to disclose sites where active geology is now sculpting Venus' surface.

The researchers concentrated on 65 previously unstudied coronae that can span hundreds of kilometers. They measured the depth of the trenches and ridges around each corona to compute the thickness of the lithosphere surrounding them. They discovered that ridges are more closely spaced together in locations where the lithosphere is more flexible, or elastic. Using a computer model of how an elastic lithosphere bends, scientists discovered that the lithosphere around each corona is roughly 7 miles (11 kilometers) thick on average - significantly thinner than earlier research suggested. These locations have a higher estimated heat flux than the Earth's average, indicating that coronae are geologically active.

Planetary scientists count the number of visible impact craters to determine the age of a celestial body's surface material. Impact craters on a tectonically active planet like Earth are erased by continental plate subduction and covered by molten rock from volcanoes. Venus should be covered in old craters if it lacks tectonic activity and the regular churn of Earth-like geology. Scientists assume that the surface of Venus is relatively new by calculating the number of Venusian craters.

The circular fracture patterns surrounding Venus's "Aine" corona are visible in this radar image from NASA's Magellan mission. The corona is approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) broad and contains a variety of phenomena that may be related to volcanic activity.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Current research indicates that the young aspect of Venus's surface is most likely due to volcanic activity, which is responsible for regional resurfacing today. This discovery is reinforced by fresh studies revealing increased heat movement in coronae zones - a state that Earth's lithosphere may have resembled in the past.

The upcoming Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy project from NASA will follow up where Magellan left off, improving on the data from that mission, which was low resolution and had huge margins of error. The mission, which is expected to launch within a decade, will utilize a cutting-edge synthetic aperture radar to build 3D global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to determine what the surface is comprised of. VERITAS will also measure Venus' gravitational field in order to discover the structure of the planet's innards. The instruments will help to fill in the gaps in the story of the planet's geologic processes, both past and current.

NASA's Chandra Space Telescope Discovers Massive Black Holes on a Collision Course

As detailed in our most recent press release, a new study utilizing NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory monitored two pairs of supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies on collision courses. This is the first evidence of such an impending collision, providing scientists with crucial knowledge regarding the early Universe's proliferation of black holes.

Dwarf galaxies, by definition, have stars with a total mass of fewer than 3 billion Suns – roughly 20 times less than the Milky Way. Scientists have long hypothesized that dwarf galaxies combine, particularly in the early Universe, to form the more giant galaxies we observe today. Current technology, however, cannot witness the initial generation of dwarf galaxy mergers because they are so weak at such enormous distances. Another strategy, hunting for dwarf galaxy mergers closer to home, had failed thus far.

The researchers overcome these obstacles by conducting a systematic examination of deep Chandra X-ray observations and comparing them to infrared data from NASA's Wide Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and optical data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT).

Chandra was especially useful for this investigation because the material surrounding black holes can be heated to millions of degrees, resulting in massive volumes of X-rays. The researchers looked for pairs of strong X-ray sources in colliding dwarf galaxies as evidence of two black holes and found two.

One pair may be seen in the composite image on the left in the galaxy cluster Abell 133, which is about 760 million light-years from Earth. Pink represents Chandra X-ray data, whereas blue represents CFHT optical data. This pair of dwarf galaxies appear to be merging and has a long tail created by tidal effects from the collision. The current study's authors dubbed it "Mirabilis" after an endangered species of hummingbird known for its extraordinarily long tails. Because the merging of two galaxies into one is nearly complete, just one name was chosen. The two Chandra sources show X-rays from material surrounding black holes in their respective galaxies.

The other pair was identified in Abell 1758S, a 3.2 billion light-year galaxy cluster. On the right is a composite image created by Chandra and CFHT using the same colors as Mirabilis. The researchers called the merging dwarf galaxies "Elstir" and "Vinteuil," after imaginary artists from Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Vinteuil is the top galaxy, and Elstir is the bottom galaxy. Both have Chandra sources, which are X-rays from material surrounding black holes in each galaxy. The researchers believe these two are in the early stages of merging, causing a bridge of stars and gas to form from the gravitational attraction of the two converging galaxies.

The features of merging black holes and dwarf galaxies may reveal information about our Milky Way's past. Astronomers believe that nearly all galaxies began as dwarf or other types of tiny galaxies and developed through mergers over billions of years. Follow-up observations of these two systems will enable astronomers to investigate mechanisms critical to understanding galaxies and their black holes in the early phases of the Universe.

Perseverance Rover of NASA to Continue Third Year in Jezero Crater

Saturday, Feb. 18, NASA's Perseverance rover will mark its second anniversary on Mars' surface. Since its arrival in Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet as part of the first step in the NASA/ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to analyze Martian samples in powerful labs on Earth in order to look for traces of ancient microbial life and better understand the processes that have sculpted Mars' surface.

This image of the floor of Jezero Crater was taken by one of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Feb. 5, the 698th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Since arrival at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been investigating geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet as part of the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to examine Martian materials in powerful labs on Earth in order to look for traces of ancient microbial life and better understand the processes that created Mars' surface.

“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created the first sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on Feb. 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”

Perseverance has gathered two regolith samples and one atmosphere sample, in addition to the rock cores, and has sealed three "witness" tubes.

Statistics are important in the life of a Mars rover mission, not only because the crew contains a large number of scientists (who don't mind numbers) and engineers (who love them), but also because statistics provide the greatest and most efficient view of vehicle trends and performance.

For example, the mission can tell you not only how far the rover has traveled (9.3 miles/14.97 kilometers), but also how many revolutions its left front wheel has made as of Feb. 14. They can tell you that the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration produced 3.25 ounces (92.11 grams) of oxygen, but also that the Gas Dust Removal Tool (gDRT) - the little gas-puffing device on the robotic arm - puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrasive activities.

After that, here are some of the most recent statistics on Perseverance's first two Earth years of Jezero surface activities. Some will appear subtle, while others will appear more immediate, but they all highlight how fruitful the mission has been.

The rover carries seven scientific instruments, and they've been making progress.

• Laser shots fired by the SuperCam science instrument: 230,554
• Soundings performed by the RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) ground-penetrating radar to study underground rock layers: 676,828
• Mars audio recordings taken by SuperCam’s microphone: 662
• Hours of Mars weather data recorded by MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer): 15,769.1
• Hours the X-ray filament on the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instrument has operated: 298.2
• Laser shots by the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument: 4,337,010
• SHERLOC spectroscopy observations: 33

The rover features a small sample handling arm inside its belly, in addition to the large drill-toting robotic arm.

• Times the rover’s main robotic arm has been unstowed and stowed: 64
• Times the drill on that arm has touched Mars: 39
• Times drill bits have been exchanged: 48
• Abrasions performed by the drill: 17
• Distance the rover’s sample handling arm’s z-stage has traveled up and down: 676.1 feet (206.1 meters).

Persistence comes with seven scientific cameras and nine engineering cameras. More than 166,000 photos have been captured by these cameras. Here are the image totals for a few of them.

• Mastcam-Z: 86,660
• Navigation Cameras: 21,571
• Front Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 3,909
• Rear Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 474
• Sampling and Caching System Camera:1,321
• SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager: 2,825
• SHERLOC WATSON: 5,754
• SHERLOC Context Imager: 2,260
• MEDA SkyCam: 1,831
• PIXL Micro-Context Camera: 1,012
• Entry, Descent, and Landing Cameras: 33,279

The descent stage holding NASAs Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An ellipse indicates where Perseverance touched down.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

“Behind each number is a lot of thought and effort from a very talented group of women and men on the Perseverance team,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at JPL. “We have come a long way together, and I can’t think of a better group to work with as we go even farther.”

In fact, Perseverance will be 97 million miles (156 million kilometers) from Earth on its second landing anniversary. The weather forecast for Jezero Crater is sunny with a high of roughly 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius). The rover is programmed to conduct remote science and acquire photographs of "Jenkins Gap" in Jezero Crater. Now the mission team is anticipated to pause for at least a moment to remember where they were and how they felt two years ago, when Perseverance landed on Mars.

Roscosmos Evaluations Science and cargo operations keep the crew busy on the Soyuz and Progress vehicles.

Engineers at the Roscosmos Mission Control Center are still investigating a coolant leak from the Progress 82 cargo spacecraft discovered on February 11. Since October 2022, the cargo spacecraft has been docked to the station's Poisk module. Using the Canadarm-2, NASA has been assisting Roscosmos in collecting imagery of the Progress 82.

The date of the uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 replacement spacecraft's launch to the International Space Station is being reconsidered. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on February 19 to replace the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which had its own external coolant loop leak in December. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin arrived at the space station in October aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft and are now scheduled to return to Earth later this year aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.

Roscosmos engineers are still looking into the cause of coolant loss on both the Progress 82 and the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The crew is carrying on with normal space station operations and scientific research.

The Expedition 68 crew of seven residents was hard at work midweek aboard the space station. The orbital septet completed a variety of space science, cargo operations, and laboratory maintenance tasks.

Configuration of the International Space Station. The space station currently has five spaceships docked, including the Cygnus space freighter, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance, Russia's Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, and the Progress 82 and 83 resupply ships.

On Wednesday, station scientists investigated a wide range of microgravity's effects on humans and physics in order to better understand the long-term implications of living and working in space. NASA and its international partners are continuing to plan missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond that will necessitate astronauts surviving with less assistance from flight controllers and visiting cargo missions.

NASA Flight Engineer Josh Cassada strapped himself to a specialized device and lay down inside the Columbus laboratory module on wednesday. He then used a controller to respond to pre-programmed stimuli while a computer and video cameras recorded his actions. The data will be used by researchers to better understand how astronauts regulate their grip force and move their arms when manipulating objects in microgravity.

Cassada also shared a periodic health exam with fellow flight engineers Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Wednesday. The trio measured vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate in the Destiny laboratory module. The data was recorded using wearable sensors on a computer tablet and then downloaded to doctors on Earth. Wakata also continued to load the Cygnus space freighter with trash and obsolete hardware in preparation for its departure.

For a space fire investigation, Rubio replaced hardware components and experiment samples inside the Combustion Integrated Rack. This study investigates fuel temperatures in microgravity and how they affect the flammability of materials. The findings could help advance fire suppression techniques for both space missions and terrestrial facilities.

The three cosmonauts on the orbital outpost continued to conduct research and maintenance operations. Prokopyev investigated how a future crew member might control a spacecraft or a robot on planetary missions. Petelin investigated how to keep biological research sterile in space, as well as how international crews and mission controllers can communicate more effectively. Finally, Flight Engineer Anna Kikina spent her day working on electronics and battery maintenance before setting up a student-controlled Earth observation camera.

NASA's Webb Discovers Complex Gas and Dust Networks in Nearby Galaxies

Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are getting an unprecedented look at star formation, gas, and dust in nearby galaxies at infrared wavelengths. The data has enabled an initial collection of 21 research papers that provide new insight into how some of our universe's smallest-scale processes - the beginnings of star formation - impact the evolution of our cosmos' largest objects: galaxies.

New imagery from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope provides scientists with their first look at the fine structure of nearby galaxies and how it is influenced by the formation of young stars. NGC 1433 is a barred spiral galaxy with a bright core surrounded by rings of double stars. For the first time, scientists can see cavernous bubbles of gas where forming stars have released energy into their surroundings in Webb's infrared images. Blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb's MIRI data at 7.7, 10, 11, and 21 microns in the image of NGC 1433.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

The Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, which includes more than 100 researchers from around the world, is conducting the largest survey of nearby galaxies in Webb's first year of science operations. Janice Lee, Gemini Observatory chief scientist at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab and affiliate astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson, is leading the Webb observations.

The team is studying a diverse sample of 19 spiral galaxies, and observations of five of those targets - M74, NGC 7496, IC 5332, NGC 1365, and NGC 1433 - have taken place in Webb's first few months of science operations. Astronomers are already astounded by the results.

"The clarity with which we are seeing the fine structure took us by surprise," team member David Thilker of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, said.

"We're directly seeing how the energy from young star formation affects the gas around them, and it's just remarkable," said team member Erik Rosolowsky of the University of Alberta in Canada.

In this MIRI image, the spiral arms of NGC 7496 are filled with cavernous bubbles and shells that overlap one another. These filaments and hollow cavities are evidence of young stars releasing energy and, in some cases, blowing out the gas and dust that surrounds them in the interstellar medium. Blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb's MIRI data at 7.7, 10, 11, and 21 microns in this image of NGC 7496.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) images show the presence of a network of highly structured features within these galaxies, including glowing cavities of dust and huge cavernous bubbles of gas that line the spiral arms. This web of features appears to be built from both individual and overlapping shells and bubbles where young stars are releasing energy in some regions of the nearby galaxies observed.

“Areas which are completely dark in Hubble imaging light up in exquisite detail in these new infrared images, allowing us to study how the dust in the interstellar medium has absorbed the light from forming stars and emitted it back out in the infrared, illuminating an intricate network of gas and dust,” said team member Karin Sandstrom of the University of California, San Diego. 

“The PHANGS team has spent years observing these galaxies at optical, radio, and ultraviolent wavelengths using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, and the Very Large Telescope’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer,” added team member Adam Leroy of the Ohio State University. “But, the earliest stages of a star’s lifecycle have remained out of view because the process is enshrouded within gas and dust clouds.”

Webb's powerful infrared abilities can cut through the dust and reconnect the puzzle pieces.

Specific wavelengths observable by MIRI (7.7 and 11.3 microns) and Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (3.3 microns), for example, are sensitive to emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which play an important role in star and planet formation. Webb discovered these molecules during the first PHANGS observations.

Investigating these interactions at the atomic level can help shed light on the larger picture of how galaxies have evolved over time.

“Because these observations are taken as part of what's called a treasury program, they are available to the public as they are observed and received on Earth,” said Eva Schinnerer of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and leader of the PHANGS collaboration.

During the MIRI observations of NGC 1365, clumps of dust and gas in the interstellar medium absorbed light from forming stars and emitted it back out in the infrared, illuminating an intricate network of cavernous bubbles and filamentary shells influenced by young stars releasing energy into the galaxy's spiral arms. Blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb's MIRI data at 7.7, 10, 11, and 21 microns in this image of NGC 1356.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

To help the broader astronomical community accelerate discovery, the PHANGS team will work to create and release data sets that align Webb's data with each of the complementary data sets obtained previously from the other observatories.

“Thanks to the telescope's resolution, for the first time we can conduct a complete census of star formation, and take inventories of the interstellar medium bubble structures in nearby galaxies beyond the Local Group,” Lee said. “That census will help us understand how star formation and its feedback imprint themselves on the interstellar medium, then give rise to the next generation of stars, or how it actually impedes the next generation of stars from being formed.”

Pandora's Cluster

This picture from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reportedly shows 50,000 sources of near-infrared light. To get to the telescope's detectors, their light had to travel over a variety of distances, which allowed it to capture the expanse of space in a one picture. To the right of the image center is a foreground star in our own galaxy that exhibits Webb's recognizable diffraction spikes. The galaxies of Pandora's Cluster, a collection of existing huge clusters of galaxies merging to form a megacluster, are bright white objects surrounded by a hazy haze. Since there is such a high concentration of mass, gravity distorts spacetime, which makes the area of particular interest to astronomers since it acts as a "gravitational lens" that allows them to observe extremely far-off light sources that would otherwise be invisible, even to Webb.

SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)
IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

In the picture, these lensed sources are red and frequently appear as elongated arcs that have been warped by the gravitational lens. Many of these galaxies are from the early cosmos, and astronomers may examine their contents because they have been stretched out and enlarged. In order to identify the real nature of the other red sources in the picture, more observations with Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument are required. One noteworthy instance is a very compact source that, despite the gravitational lens's enlarging effect, appears as a small red dot. The dot may be a gigantic black hole from the early cosmos, for example. There will be a lot of previously unobtainable knowledge about the cosmos and how it has changed over time thanks to the NIRSpec data, which will offer distance measurements and compositional information on a few chosen sources.

Perseverance Rover Displays Mars Sample Collection

The Perseverance Mars rover shared a panorama of its recently finished sample store, marking a significant achievement for the mission and the first sample collection by humans on an alien planet. The picture, which was assembled from 368 photographs delivered to Earth, shows the meticulous positioning and mapping of 10 titanium tubes over the course of more than a month.

One of the tubes is an air sample, while the other two are "witness" tubes. Of those tubes, eight are filled with rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). On January 31, 2023, the rover took a picture of the depot using the Mastcam-Z camera mounted atop its mast, or "head." The hue has been altered to roughly depict how the Martian surface might seem to the human eye.

Perseverance's Portrait of the Sample Depot: An annotated version of the portrait captured by NASA’s Perseverance shows the location of the 10 sample tubes in the depot. The “Amalik” sample closest to the rover was about 10 feet (3 meters) away; the “Mageik” and “Malay” samples farthest away were approximately 197 feet (60 meters) from the rover. 
Credits: NASA/JPL-

The Mars Sample Return program, a collaboration between NASA and ESA, seeks to return samples from Mars to Earth for closer examination. The depot is a backup collection of materials that might be collected in the future by the campaign. On December 21, 2022, the rover started constructing the depot, carefully spacing the tubes in case they were to be recovered at a later time.

The main tubes are located in Perseverance's belly, and as part of the campaign, Perseverance would transmit these, along with any other samples collected throughout the mission, to a Sample Retrieval Lander. Samples might be recovered from the depot in the event that the rover's ability to transport tubes to the lander directly were to be compromised. 

The depot was constructed by Perseverance at "Three Forks," a place inside Jezero Crater. The crater was formed by a river flowing into it billions of years ago, delivering silt that resulted in the steep, fan-shaped delta that the rover will drive up in the coming months.

WATSON's Photomontage of Mars Sample Depot: This photomontage shows each of the sample tubes shortly after they were deposited onto the surface by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, as viewed by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera on the end of the rover’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Shown, from left, are “Malay,” “Mageik,” “Crosswind Lake,” “Roubion,” “Coulettes,” “Montdenier,” “Bearwallow,” “Skyland,” “Atsah,” and “Amalik.” Deposited from Dec. 21, 2022, to Jan. 28, 2023, these samples make up the sample depot Perseverance built at “Three Forks,” a location within Mars’ Jezero Crater.

The surface of Mars is now cold, dry, and generally unfriendly to life, but in its prehistoric past, it was probably more like Earth and may have sustained microbial life, if it had ever existed on the Red Planet. The samples that Perseverance is gathering could enable researchers to ascertain whether life has ever existed in places like Jezero Crater.

NASA Missions: Advanced Composition Explorer

Overview

The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) monitors particles with origins from the sun, planets, stars, and galaxies. These particles are observed at energies ranging from solar wind ions to galactic cosmic ray nuclei.

A continuous stream of accelerated particles, not only from the Sun but also from interstellar and galactic sources, bombards the Earth. The investigation of these powerful particles will advance our knowledge of the astrophysical processes involved in the formation and evolution of the solar system. With a collecting power 10 to 1000 times greater than previous or planned experiments, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft samples low-energy solar particles and high-energy galactic particles with six high-resolution sensors and three monitoring instruments. ACE conducts measurements over a wide range of energy and nuclear mass, under all solar wind flow conditions, and during both large and small particle events, including solar flares, from a vantage point about 1/100 of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

NASA's ACE spacecraft

Over brief time intervals, ACE offers solar wind data that is nearly real-time. When predicting space weather, ACE can give a one-hour head start on geomagnetic storms that could overwhelm power grids, interfere with communications on Earth, and endanger astronauts.

Measurement and comparison of the chemical composition of various samples of matter, including the solar corona, solar wind, and other populations of interplanetary particles, the local interstellar medium (ISM), and galactic matter, is the main goal of ACE. Even though these goals have made great progress, new opportunities have arisen as a result of the solar cycle's changing conditions. As NASA's and the Sun-Solar-System Connection (S3C) Theme's goals change, new observations, theoretical advancements, missions, and other factors have also created new difficulties. One of these is gaining the scientific knowledge required to predict space weather in the years to come, when people will begin to leave Earth's magnetosphere for the first time.

In Depth

NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft was created to study spaceborne energetic particles from the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, about 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) from Earth, The spacecraft was specifically launched to look into the material that the Sun ejected in order to determine the similarities and interactions between the Sun, Earth, and the Milky Way galaxy.

Additionally, ACE offers up-to-date information on the space weather as well as geomagnetic storm advance warning. The nine instruments that make up ACE have a collecting power that is 10–10,000 times greater than anything that has ever been launched.
A month after launch, ACE reached apogee and then entered a Lissajous orbit near the L1 point. On January 21, 1998, the spacecraft was deemed operational. As of 2015, it was still measuring solar energetic particle intensities and providing near-real-time 24/7 coverage of solar wind parameters.
Since all of the instruments on ACE are still operational as of mid-2017, the mission could theoretically last until around 2024 with the exception of the SEPICA instrument (data from which were no longer received after February 4, 2005).

Scientific Instruments in ACE spacecraft:

• Solar Wind Ion Mass Spectrometer (SWIMS) and Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS)
  
• Ultra-Low Energy Isotope Spectrometer (ULEIS)
• Solar Energetic Particle Ionic Charge Analyzer (SEPICA)
•  Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS)
• Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS)
• Solar Wind Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM)
• Electron, Proton, and Alpha-Particle Monitor (EPAM)
• Magnetometer (MAG)
• Real Time Solar Wind Experiment (RTSW)

Powerful Solar Flare Emerges

On February 11, 2023, a powerful solar flare that peaked at 10:48 a.m. EDT was released by the Sun. The event was photographed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which continuously monitors the Sun.

On February 11, 2023, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare, which can be seen as the bright flash in the center-left. The image depicts a subset of extremely ultraviolet light that is colorized in red and orange and highlights the extremely hot material in flares.
Credit: NASA &Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

Solar flares are huge energy explosions. Solar flares and eruptions can affect radio communications, power grids, navigation signals, and seriously harm astronauts and spacecraft. An X1.1 flare is what this one is. The designation X-class designates the strongest flares, and the number tells you more about how powerful they are.

With a fleet of spacecraft that monitor everything from the Sun's activity to the solar atmosphere to the particles and magnetic fields in the space around Earth, NASA constantly monitors the Sun and our space environment.

NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment Completes Space Environment Tests

The crucial space environment tests for NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) have been completed successfully. Atmospheric Waves Experiment will investigate gravity waves in Earth's atmosphere during its planned launch to the International Space Station in order to learn more about the connections caused by climate systems both within our atmosphere and between the atmosphere and space.

Atmospheric Waves Experiment will examine how gravity waves move through the upper atmosphere by looking directly down into Earth's atmosphere from its exceptional vantage point on the International Space Station. Scientists will be able to learn from the data gathered by AWE how terrestrial weather affects the ionosphere, which can interfere with satellite communication, as well as the physics and characteristics of atmospheric gravity waves. Dinkinesh, an asteroid, will act as a bridge between these two populations.

On August 9, 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly took this picture of our galaxy and our home planet posing together outside the International Space Station. In the image, which also captures a faint red band of airglow, the Milky Way can be seen extending beneath the curvature of Earth's pole. 
Credit: NASA & Scott Kelly

The goal of the AWE mission is to better understand gravity waves in the ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere system, which is the region of Earth's atmosphere between 50 and 500 kilometers in altitude. Because of the high concentration of electrically charged particles in this region's ionosphere, space weather there has the potential to seriously interfere with the space-based communication systems on which we rely. Researchers will learn more about how Earth's weather affects upper atmospheric properties by examining atmospheric gravity waves.

According to Burt Lamborn, project manager for AWE at Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), where the tests were carried out, "AWE is a highly sensitive, precise science instrument designed to be fitted on the International Space Station and operate in the harsh space environment." "SDL put AWE through its paces on the ground to make sure that it will survive launch turbulence and operate as designed once in space."

To make sure the AWE instrument doesn't produce or emit electromagnetic signals that could interfere with other equipment onboard the space station, as well as to make sure that interference from the space station won't affect AWE's ability to produce data, it underwent electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility testing. On a shaker table that replicated the anticipated launch vibration that AWE will experience, AWE was also put through vibration testing. AWE was exposed to a simulated flight environment, including cycling between extremely hot and cold temperatures, while undergoing thermal vacuum testing. To ensure that the instrument satisfies the mission's requirements and to demonstrate its capabilities and constraints under operational circumstances, engineers calibrated the entire system.

Name Given to NASA's Lucy Asteroid Target

The name of the first asteroid that NASA's Lucy mission encountered has been revealed. The tiny main belt asteroid that Lucy will encounter on November 1, 2023, has been given the name (152830) Dinkinesh by the International Astronomical Union. The Ethiopian name for the fossilized human ancestor known as Lucy, which was discovered there and is now housed there, is "Dinkinesh," or in Amharic. Dinkinesh is Amharic for "you are wonderful."

The asteroid Dinkinesh was given the proviso designation 1999 VD57 when it was first discovered in 1999. Later, when the orbit was sufficiently well understood, it was allotted the official number (152830). It was not given a name, though, like the great majority of the millions of small asteroids in the main asteroid belt. But after choosing this asteroid as a target, the Lucy team suggested this new name, drawing inspiration from Lucy's mission to investigate relics of the early solar system.

“This mission was named for Lucy because just as that fossil revolutionized our understanding of human evolution, we expect this mission to revolutionize our understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar system” said Keith Noll, Lucy project scientist, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We are excited to have another opportunity to honor that connection.”

To test the cutting-edge terminal tracking system, which is essential for accurate imaging during these fast encounters, the team has added Dinkinesh to Lucy's already packed tour of 10 asteroids, including the recently discovered satellites. The asteroid is less than a km in diameter, but it is a great chance to test Lucy's systems before the mission's main scientific objectives—learning about the unexplored Jupiter Trojan asteroids, which are essentially fossils of our early solar system.

“This is really a tiny little asteroid,” said Hal Levison, Lucy principal investigator, from Southwest Research Institute’s (SwRI) Boulder office. “Some of the team affectionately refer to it as ‘Dinky.’ But, for a small asteroid, we expect it to be a big help for the Lucy mission.”

A size comparison of (152830) Dinkinesh (shown in blue in the artist concept) to the main belt asteroid (2867) Steins and the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Steins is currently the smallest, independently-orbiting main belt asteroid whose surface has been well imaged by a spacecraft (ESA Rosetta). The near-Earth asteroid Bennu was recently explored by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a sample return expected this September. As a tiny main belt asteroid, Dinkinesh will serve as a link between these two populations.
Credits: Montage by NASA Goddard, Image of Steins: ESA/OSIRIS team, Image of Bennu: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Scientists on the mission are enthusiastic for what this tiny asteroid might teach us despite the fact that the primary goal of this encounter is to test the engineering. This will be the smallest main belt asteroid ever explored, and in comparison to other main belt asteroids that have been explored in the past, it is considerably smaller than recent studies of near-Earth asteroids.

“At closest approach, if all goes smoothly, we expect Dinkinesh to be 100s of pixels across as seen from Lucy’s sharpest imager,” says Simone Marchi, deputy principal investigator, also from SwRI. “While we won’t be able to see all the details of the surface, even the general shape may indicate whether near-Earth asteroids – which originate in the main belt – change significantly once they enter near-Earth space.”

Hubble Discovers a Mysterious Galaxy

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Mutlu-Pakdil; Acknowledgment: G. Donatiello

The recently found dwarf galaxy known as Donatiello II is located right in the center of this view acquired with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, nestled among a scattering of far-off stars and even further-off galaxies. You are not alone if you can't quite make out Donatiello II's cluster of flimsy stars in this photograph. One of the three newly found galaxies is Donatiello II. An algorithm created to examine astronomical data for prospective galaxy candidates missed all three. When it comes to separating very faint galaxies from individual stars and background noise, even the greatest algorithms have their limitations. Identification in these difficult circumstances must be done manually by a committed person searching through the material.

These discoveries were made possible by the data gathered by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a six-year-long, intensive observational project. Giuseppe Donatiello, an amateur astronomer, discovered three extremely weak galaxies that have now been given the names Donatiello II, III, and IV using DES data. All three are gravitationally connected to their more massive partner because they are satellites of the famous Sculptor Galaxy (also known as NGC 253).

In a separate search, a group of scientists used Hubble to acquire long-exposure pictures of a number of inconspicuous galaxies, including Donatiello II. They were able to validate their target galaxies' relationship with NGC 253 using Hubble photos, giving Donatiello's finding independent corroboration in addition to this new image.