China OrienSpace Gravity-1 Commercial Rocket Qianfan Constellation Sea Launch

China OrienSpace Gravity-1 Commercial Rocket Qianfan Constellation Sea Launch

A China OrienSpace Gravity-1 Y3 carrier rocket successfully placed nine satellites into planned orbits during an East China Sea launch off Shanghai at 6:00am China standard time on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, setting new records for payload weight and orbit altitude in a single mission. Gravity-1 is the world's most powerful solid-fuel carrier rocket and China's most powerful commercial launch vehicle to date.

The mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried a new group of Qianfan Constellation satellites and an ‘Enhanced Ultra High Throughput (EUHT) technology test satellite.

Gravity-1 is a solid-fuel rocket developed by a Chinese commercial aerospace company, OrienSpace, with a maximum payload capacity of 6.5 tons. This launch was the second time Gravity-1 conducted a far-sea maneuver and launch, following the first on July 22, when the Gravity-1 Y4 rocket lifted off from the same area and sent nine satellites into the planned orbits.

OrienSpace once again fully tested the rocket's adaptability to high temperature, high humidity, and high salt fog at sea, further verifying its reliability, according to experts.

"We've fully used the rocket's entire carrying capacity, just leaving a ballistic margin of slightly more than 100 kilograms with everything else devoted to launch payload. For the 800-kilometer orbit, our current utilization has exceeded three tons," said Xu Guoguang, chief designer of Gravity-1 at OrienSpace.

The mission also marked the world's first solid rocket launch of stacked satellites, designed to meet the networking needs of large-scale constellations. Gravity-1 adopted a stacked arrangement, placing multiple satellites on top of one another like "stacking blocks" to improve the utilization of space inside the fairing and the payload ratio.

"In the past, when it came to multi-payload launch, the satellites were usually mounted on a load-bearing cylinder in a wall-mounted way, so the rocket's space utilization was not particularly high. The biggest advantage of stacked satellites is that they significantly boost rocket efficiency. For the satellites, the average launch cost is correspondingly lower," Xu said.

Today’s launch was the 4th mission for Gravity-1. This was also the 64th launch from China in 2026.

The Qianfan satellites were made by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number deployed to 256. Costing under 10 million RMB (1.47 million United States dollars) apiece, each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms and has a ‘flat pack’ design with a single solar array to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton to generate 20 millinewtons of thrust with a specific impulse of 1,385 seconds.

The Qianfan mega-constellation is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. that aims to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, around the fourth quarter of this year.

Video Credit: OrienSpace
Duration: 38 seconds
Date: Sept. 16, 2026

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Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Progress MS-35 cargo spacecraft was launched successfully today, September 16, 2026, at 13:34 UTC/ 9:33 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The unpiloted Roscosmos cargo spacecraft will autonomously dock to the Russian Poisk module's space-facing port on the International Space Station. This is scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 13:47 UTC/9:46 a.m. EDT. The Russian cargo spacecraft has 842 kilograms of fuel, 420 kilograms of water and 50 kilograms of oxygen. Progress 96 is delivering about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the orbiting laboratory in total.

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Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

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.

Image Credit: Roscosmos
Release Date: Sept. 16, 2026

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Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

Russian Soyuz Rocket Launches Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Progress MS-35 cargo spacecraft was launched successfully today, September 16, 2026, at 13:34 UTC/ 9:33 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The unpiloted Roscosmos cargo spacecraft will autonomously dock to the Russian Poisk module's space-facing port on the International Space Station. This is scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 13:47 UTC/9:46 a.m. EDT. The Russian cargo spacecraft has 842 kilograms of fuel, 420 kilograms of water and 50 kilograms of oxygen. Progress 96 is delivering about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the orbiting laboratory in total.

Follow Expedition 75:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

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.

Video Credit: Roscosmos/NASA
Duration: 2 minutes, 28 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 16, 2026

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Southern Hemisphere View of Milky Way with Airglow | International Space Station

Southern Hemisphere View of Milky Way with Airglow | International Space Station

Expedition 75 commander, flight engineer, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir: "Southern Hemisphere Milky Way galaxy view from the International Space Station cupola. This 3s exposure series captured two of my favorite cupola views, the particularly dense Milky Way galaxy as seen from the Southern Hemisphere, and the bright, colorful lights of squid fishing boats (here, the bright blue and green lights off the coast of China, Thailand and India). Look at what the light did now!"

"These colors [orange, green and yellow] on the horizon are airglow, a faint emission of light caused by chemical reactions and interactions between UV radiation and gases in our atmosphere (unlike aurora, which is caused by solar wind particles interacting with Earth’s magnetic field, airglow is present everywhere, all of the time. "

Follow Expedition 75:

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Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

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.

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center/J. Meir
Duration: 6 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 16, 2026

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Stars #Planets #Earth #SouthernHemisphere #Airglow #MilkyWayGalaxy #Astronauts #JessicaMeir #AstronautVideography #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition75 #InternationalCooperation #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

China Donates Sample from Far Side South Pole of The Moon to United Nations

China Donates Sample from Far Side South Pole of The Moon to United Nations

China officially donated a lunar sample collected by the Chang'e-6 Mission to the United Nations (UN) at a handover ceremony on September 14, 2026, at the UN Office in Vienna, Austria, marking the first time that a lunar sample from the far side of the Moon has been presented to the organization.

In 2024, the Chang'e-6 probe made history by collecting humanity's first-ever sampling of 1,935.3 grams of lunar far-side samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest, deepest, and oldest basin on the Moon, and bringing them back to Earth.

The mission carried scientific payloads from France, Italy, Sweden, and Pakistan, including the French radon gas detector (CNES), the European Space Agency/Swedish ion analyzer, and the Italian laser corner reflector (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana).

Chang'e-6 successfully deployed Pakistan's ICUBE-Q satellite, releasing it into lunar orbit on May 8, 2024. The 15.4-pound (7 kilogram) small satellite captured images of the Moon and Sun and collected magnetic field data.

China's Chang'e-5 probe landed in 2020 on the northwest region of the Ocean of Storms, a vast lunar plain on the western edge of the near side of the Moon, where it collected ~1731 g (61.1 oz) of lunar samples (including from a core ~1 meter deep).

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 53 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #CNSA #Change6  #嫦娥六号 #Space #Astronomy #Science #China #中国 #Moon #LunarSampleReturn #Geology #LunarNearSide #LunarFarSide #SouthPole #SpaceTechnology #LunarExploration #CLEP #InternationalCooperation #Pakistan #SouthAfrica #France #Italy #ASI #Sweden #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Planet Mars Images: Sept. 14-16, 2026 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

Planet Mars Images: Sept. 14-16, 2026 | NASA's Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

MSL - sol 5013

MSL - sol 5013

MSL - sol 5016

MSL - sol 5016

MSL - sol 5016

MSL - sol 5013

MSL - sol 5013

Mars 2020 - sol 1978

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Celebrating 14+ Years on Mars (2012-2026)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

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

Celebrating 5+ Years on 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 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 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Release Dates: Sept. 14-16, 2026

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Nebula IC 348 in Perseus: A Panorama of Star Formation | Webb Telescope

Nebula IC 348 in Perseus: A Panorama of Star Formation | Webb Telescope

One of the James Webb Space Telescope’s largest images to date showcases the hunt for the smallest brown dwarfs. 

IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus located about 1,000 light years from the Sun. This is one of the largest images from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs that are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.

In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create impressively varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars that are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.

The smallest stars weigh in at around 8% of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange and intriguing class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way that stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds, but unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).

What is still not clear—and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to probe IC 348—is how small are the smallest objects created by the star-formation progress. 

In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?

Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter. Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs. 

The team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars that we see in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colors and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.

These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable—brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter—just 0.19% of the Sun’s mass. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.

In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disc, suggesting that planets could be forming around it despite the brown dwarf being the mass of a planet itself.

While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature that they attributed to hydrocarbons, molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.

The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 are not the only attractions in this photo. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper-right corner of the image. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects. These are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.

The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally in this corner is HH 797. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211. It features both narrow jets and broader outflows.

The data used to create this image come from the Webb observing program #4866 (PIs: K. Luhman, C. Alves de Oliveira). The aims of this program are to study the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, as described here; to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions; and to probe the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, JPL-Caltech, DSS2, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), A. Kamkar, L. Cieza, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 1 minute, 39 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Galaxies #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Features of Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Features of Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Features of star-forming region IC 348

Stars and faint outflows of nebula IC 348

Central star cluster of nebula IC 348

Stars and faint outflows of nebula IC 348

Herbig-Haro objects of nebula IC 348

Gravitational Lensing in the background of nebula IC 348

Spiral galaxies behind nebula IC 348

This collage features a collection of cutouts from the massive star-forming region IC 348. Each of these six panels showcase features of interest that are visible throughout the field.

1: Star embedded in a nebula—This small portion of the field contains two stars deeply embedded in a cloud of gas and dust. The large star’s shorter-wavelength infrared light, colored orange, is absorbed by the dust, leaving it brightest at longer wavelengths; the same dust absorption creates the silhouettes in the image.

2: Central star cluster—The center of IC 348 is dominated by wispy curtains of gas that form a large loop. Winds from the many stars sculpt the clouds of interstellar gas and dust, and the clouds reflect the light from the cluster’s stars—what is known as a reflection nebula.

3: Stars and faint outflows—Here on the outskirts of the field, two stars shine out of clouds of gas and dust. The stars appear equally bright, but the orange one is more deeply embedded. Thin red arcs and blotches near the stars are hot, glowing shockwaves created by fast-moving outbursts from the stars.

4: Herbig-Haro objects—This relatively small region near the top of the image is packed with long, glowing outflows and bold colors in the waves of gas and dust. The outflows, known as Herbig-Haro objects, are created by stellar winds or jets from protostars ploughing into the thick clouds around them. No less than three objects in this area have previously been the subjects of their own images, demonstrating how rich an area of star formation this is.

5: Gravitational lensing—This tiny object, at first glance appearing almost like a planet with a ring, is in fact two galaxies. The blue one is closer to us, and the orange galaxy is very far away behind it but lined up just right. This causes the light from the orange galaxy to be bent by the gravity of the blue galaxy, creating a magnified, warped image.

6: Spiral galaxies—Examples of the more prominent galaxies that can be seen behind the clouds of gas and dust. While the IC 348 region is around 1000 light-years from Earth, these galaxies are millions of light-years away, and the even smaller galaxies that appear as colored dots in the background are up to billions of light-years distant.

Image Description: A collage with three large panels along the top and four smaller ones on the bottom. The middle panel on top shows star-forming region IC 348. Six boxes are drawn around features in the region, numbered 1–6. The other six panels are numbered and show these features enlarged. They include bright stars throughout the nebula, protostars shooting jets of gas, a distant spiral galaxy, and a gravitational lens.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #GravitationalLensing #Galaxies #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Stars and Faint Outflows within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | Webb Telescope

Stars and Faint Outflows within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | Webb Telescope

This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars among the outskirts of the nebula. These two stars appear equally-sized, because they are similarly bright, but one is orange while the other is blue. The reason for this is that the orange star is more deeply embedded in the clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Colored orange in this image, these clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the star emits, leaving the longer wavelengths. The other star is less shrouded, so the shorter and longer infrared wavelengths combine to make it appear whitish-blue. While it does not look like there is a lot of gas or dust here, the thin red arcs and faint blotches that can be seen around the stars are shockwaves made in that gas. Outbursts from the young stars crash into the interstellar gas, compressing and heating it up until it glows.

The bright lines appearing to radiate out from these stars are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved target is bent (“diffracted”) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. This distinctive six-plus-two-pointed pattern is the same for any image taken by Webb. For diffraction spikes to appear, the light source has to be very bright and very concentrated, so they are most often seen on stars.

Image Description: Two bright stars, one golden and one more white in color, in a mostly-dark area of space. Diffuse, dark blue gas clouds curl around the stars, with dark bands of empty space cutting through the clouds. Thin red arcs near the stars are hot shockwaves in the gas. The background is filled with many small objects in blue, green or yellow; most are distant galaxies.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Herbig-Haro Objects within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Herbig-Haro Objects within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

This image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope shows stars and protostars in the vicinity of the star cluster IC 348. The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally on the left side of this image is HH 797. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. To the right and oriented diagonally is the propeller-shaped source HH 211. It features both narrow jets and broader outflows.

The glowing orange area directly above HH 797, named LLRL 54361 is thought to host two further protostars. A number of other more- and less-embedded protostars lurk in this nebula, contributing to the edges and wave-like patterns in the clouds, as well as further spectacular glowing outflows.

The wispy curtains in the bottom left of the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars—what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. 

Image Description: A star-forming nebula that contains young stars called protostars. Two of these protostars are shooting out long jets that are colliding with the nebula, creating glowing, colorful outflows. A few other protostars create orange and red areas in the nebula. Most of the image is covered by blue gas with brighter areas, denser clouds and dark gaps; the bottom-left corner contains greenish-yellow gas.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Central Star Cluster of Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Central Star Cluster of Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

This image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar gas and dust reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars—what is known as a reflection nebula. The material also includes carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The bright star closest to the center of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.

Image Description: Wispy, criss-crossing filaments fill the scene, creating dense and highly textured layers of gas in colors from green to yellow to orange and pink. Above the center, the filaments join into a large loop, while below they bend and create wave-like curves. Dozens of bright stars are layered atop the gas, a pair in the center being particularly bright; all sport six long and two short spikes of light, created by the telescope’s optics.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #ReflectionNebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Stars Embedded within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Stars Embedded within Nebula IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

This image showcases a portion of the larger IC 348 field to highlight two stars embedded within a cloud of gas and dust. The central star, despite being brighter and appearing larger than its companion to the lower-right, is in fact more deeply wrapped in the clouds of gas and dust. These clouds block more of the shorter-wavelength infrared light that the star emits, leaving it brightest in the longer wavelengths that in this image are colored orange. The smaller star is less shrouded, so the shorter and longer infrared wavelengths combine to make it appear whitish-blue. The galaxies seen in the background are thousands of times further away from Earth than these two stars.

The bright lines appearing to radiate out from these stars are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved target is bent (“diffracted”) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. This distinctive six-plus-two-pointed pattern is the same for any image taken by Webb. For diffraction spikes to appear, the light source has to be very bright and very concentrated, so they are most often seen on stars.

Image Description: A star embedded within a cloud of gas and dust. The star is a very bright point in the center of the image. It radiates six long and two short orange spikes of light, caused by the telescope's optics. Most of the gas behind it is blue and wispy, but below the star is a patch of bold yellow and red gas in a butterfly-shape. A few glowing shockwaves made by fast-moving gas surround the star. Small, whitish galaxies appear in the distance.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Highlights of Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Highlights of Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

This video showcases features from the massive star-forming region IC 348. The cutout images shown here highlight bright stars throughout the nebula, protostars shooting jets of gas, a distant spiral galaxy, and a gravitational lens.

IC 348 is located in the constellation Perseus about a 1,000 light years from the Sun. This is one of the largest images from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs that are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.

In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create impressively varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars that are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.

The smallest stars weigh in at around 8% of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange and intriguing class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way that stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds, but unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).

What is still not clear—and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to probe IC 348—is how small are the smallest objects created by the star-formation progress. 

In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?

Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter. Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs. 

The team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars that we see in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colors and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.

These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable—brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter—just 0.19% of the Sun’s mass. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.

In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disc, suggesting that planets could be forming around it despite the brown dwarf being the mass of a planet itself.

While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature that they attributed to hydrocarbons, molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.

The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 are not the only attractions in this photo. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper-right corner of the image. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects. These are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.

The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally in this corner is HH 797. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211. It features both narrow jets and broader outflows.

The data used to create this image come from the Webb observing program #4866 (PIs: K. Luhman, C. Alves de Oliveira). The aims of this program are to study the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, as described here; to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions; and to probe the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Video Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 1 minute, 45 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Universe #JWST #NIRCam  #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #NASAJPL #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Close-up: Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus | James Webb Space Telescope

Image Description: A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometers across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds with the densest cluster situated in the center of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material.

IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus located about 1,000 light years from the Sun. This is one of the largest images from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs that are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.

In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create impressively varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars that are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.

The smallest stars weigh in at around 8% of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange and intriguing class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way that stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds, but unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).

What is still not clear—and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to probe IC 348—is how small are the smallest objects created by the star-formation progress. 

In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?

Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter. Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs. 

The team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars that we see in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colors and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.

These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable—brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter—just 0.19% of the Sun’s mass. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.

In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disc, suggesting that planets could be forming around it despite the brown dwarf being the mass of a planet itself.

While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature that they attributed to hydrocarbons, molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.

The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 are not the only attractions in this photo. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper-right corner of the image. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects. These are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.

The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally in this corner is HH 797. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211. It features both narrow jets and broader outflows.

The data used to create this image come from the Webb observing program #4866 (PIs: K. Luhman, C. Alves de Oliveira). The aims of this program are to study the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, as described here; to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions; and to probe the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Video Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus: Brown Dwarf Stars | Webb Telescope

Star-forming Region IC 348 in Perseus: Brown Dwarf Stars | Webb Telescope

Image Description: A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometers across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds with the densest cluster situated in the center of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material.

IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus located about 1,000 light years from the Sun. This is one of the largest images from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope released to the public so far. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs that are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range.

In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create impressively varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars that are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.

The smallest stars weigh in at around 8% of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange and intriguing class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way that stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds, but unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).

What is still not clear—and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to probe IC 348—is how small are the smallest objects created by the star-formation progress. 

In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?

Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter. Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs. 

The team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars that we see in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colors and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.

These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable—brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter—just 0.19% of the Sun’s mass. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known, and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.

In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disc, suggesting that planets could be forming around it despite the brown dwarf being the mass of a planet itself.

While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature that they attributed to hydrocarbons, molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.

The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 are not the only attractions in this photo. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper-right corner of the image. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects. These are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.

The long, narrow object that is oriented horizontally in this corner is HH 797. Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211. It features both narrow jets and broader outflows.

The data used to create this image come from the Webb observing program #4866 (PIs: K. Luhman, C. Alves de Oliveira). The aims of this program are to study the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, as described here; to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions; and to probe the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Release Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNurseries #IC348 #BrownDwarfs #Protostars #HerbigHaroObjects #PerseusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #NIRCam #InfraredAstronomy #SpaceTelescopes #Europe #NASAGoddard #STScI #UnitedStates #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

SpaceX Starship Flight 14: First Orbital Flight Planned | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship Flight 14: First Orbital Flight Planned | Starbase Texas

"Starship is preparing to go to orbit. Flight 14 is targeting to launch as early as Tuesday, September 22, pending regulatory approval. The 75-minute launch window will open at 7:15 a.m. CT."

Follow updates and watch the event here → https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-14

The upcoming flight is planned to be the first to send Starship into orbit around Earth. Flight tests until this point have intentionally flown passively safe suborbital trajectories to maximize public safety while allowing for maximum learning. By going to orbit, the next phase of developing Starship to be fully and rapidly reusable can begin.

This will also mark the first time we plan to deploy Starlink V3 satellites into the constellation, delivering a payload that will dramatically expand connectivity speeds and reliability around the world.

Starship’s initial orbital mission is expected to fly at an altitude approximately 275 km above Earth and complete approximately six orbits around the planet over the course of a nearly 10-hour flight, with splashdown targeted in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Chile.

A live webcast of the flight will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff. Coverage is planned to continue through splashdown with the potential for hours of live views from Starship as it orbits Earth. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned for updates.

The booster’s primary test objective on Flight 14 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of Mexico. There have been several modifications to hardware and software to address issues seen on the previous flight.

After stage separation and flip on Flight 13, the Super Heavy booster was able to use all 33 engines on its boostback burn for the first time. In the terminal phase of the burn, the three center engines showed signs of ice clogging that triggered an early end to the maneuver. The booster went on to attempt a landing burn, with 8 of the 13 planned engines reigniting before the booster made a hard splashdown in the Gulf. The Super Heavy on this upcoming flight has hardware modifications to improve filtering to the engines and software changes to enhance relight reliability.

The Starship upper stage’s primary objectives include the first orbital insertion maneuver, the deployment of 26 Starlink V3 satellites, a deorbit burn using a single Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry, descent, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Starship will only execute a burn to enter orbit after the flight control team has ensured there is sufficient redundancy on hardware critical to doing the subsequent deorbit burn at the end of the mission.

Starship will deliver 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit for the first time. They aim to greatly expand the network's capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 Tbps of capacity to the constellation, for a total of 26 Tbps of capacity added on this mission alone. That’s ~10x the capacity compared to a single launch of V2 mini Starlink satellites on Falcon 9.

After deploying from Starship, the Starlink V3 satellites will unfold their antennas and deploy their solar arrays and make initial contact with the ground and the rest of the Starlink constellation via radio frequency and laser links. The satellites will then begin raising their orbits with their onboard thrusters. Following their on-orbit checkouts, the satellites should begin serving customers as soon as a few weeks after launch.

Three of the satellites have been modified with a suite of cameras to scan Starship’s heatshield and transmit imagery down to operators to continue testing methods of analyzing Starship’s heatshield readiness for return to launch site on future missions.

Several upgrades and experiments related to Starship’s heatshield will also be tested, with some improvements derived directly from data gathered from the Flight 13 Starship as it floated in the Indian Ocean. They include additional retention mechanisms added to tiles in areas deemed to be at highest risk of falling off during ascent, addressing recently discovered areas that offer flow paths behind tiles for plasma, and flying multiple areas with a curved tile design that has shown the ability to reduce heating in the gaps between tiles. And finally, two tiles recovered from Ship 40 are planned to be reflown on Ship 41, marking the first tile reuse for Starship.

NASA plans to use a lunar lander version of Starship to deliver astronauts and cargo to the Moon during the Artemis IV mission and beyond through the Human Landing System (HLS) Program.

Learn more about Starship:
https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):
https://www.spacex.com/media/starship_users_guide_v1.pdf

Video Credit: SpaceX
Duration: 51 seconds
Date: Sept. 15, 2026

#NASA #SpaceX #Space #Earth #Mars #Moon #MoonToMars #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisIII #ArtemisIV #Starship #StarshipV3 #FlightTest13 #ReusableSpacecraft #SuperHeavy #SuperHeavyV3 #ElonMusk #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #CommercialSpace #SpaceExploration #StarbaseTexas #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video