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This image is so beautiful that it could almost be a painting, but it is real. It has been produced using observations made at the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. It features a reflection nebula known as NGC 2626. It lies 3,300 light-years from Earth.
Reflection nebulae are not luminous themselves, but they reflect light from a nearby star or stars. The light scatters off the dust particles in the nebulae. This often results in reflection nebulae having a blue tint, because blue light scatters more efficiently. This is the same phenomenon that makes the sky on Earth appear blue—the laws of physics are the same throughout our Universe! The red nebulosities are glowing hydrogen gas.
Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/SMARTS Consortium
Image Processing: T. A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
China Commercial Rocket Launch: ZhuQue-2 Successfully Launches 3 Satellites
LandSpace’s ZhuQue-2 launch vehicle (朱雀二, ZQ-2, 朱雀二号遥三, ZhuQue-2 Y3) launched three satellites, Honghu (鸿鹄卫星), Honghu-2 (鸿鹄二号卫星) and Tianyi-33 (天仪33卫星,TY-33), from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, China, on Dec. 8, 2023, at 23:39 UTC (Dec. 9, at 07:39 local time). LandSpace Technology Corporation (蓝箭, Blue Arrow) is a private company located in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. ZhuQue-2 is powered by four 80-tons thrust TQ-12 (天鹊, Tianque) liquid oxygen and liquid methane (LOX+LCH4) rocket engines.
Note: Passive thermal control tiles are discarded upon liftoff (normal procedure).
Credit: China Central Television (CCTV) / LandSpace / SPACETY
Sewing Spacecraft Blankets for NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission to Planet Jupiter
See how a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sews and installs thermal blankets to protect the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from the cold and harsh environment it will face around Jupiter as it investigates the planet’s ice-encrusted ocean moon Europa.
In this episode of the Spacecraft Makers video series, Mark Duran and Morgan Betsill provide a behind-the-scenes look at JPL’s “Shield Shop,” where layers of the thermal blankets come together before they are installed on the spacecraft. Then, these custom blankets are carefully fitted onto the spacecraft in a clean room at JPL.
Spacecraft Makers is a video series that takes audiences behind the scenes to learn more about how space missions, like Europa Clipper, come together. Europa Clipper will explore this icy moon of Jupiter to see if there are conditions suitable for life. The spacecraft needs to be hardy enough to survive a 1.6 billion-mile, six-year journey to Jupiter—and sophisticated enough to perform a detailed science investigation of Europa once it arrives at the Jupiter system in 2030.
Europa Clipper is expected to launch in October 2024 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Nebula NGC 6164-5 in Norma | Gemini South Observatory
Nebula NGC 6164-5 imaged by the Gemini South Observatory in Chile, South America. The emission nebula NGC 6164-5 is a rectangular, bipolar cloud with rounded corners and a diagonal bar producing an inverted S-shaped appearance. It lies about 4,200 light-years away in the constellation Norma.
The nebula measures about 4.2 light-years across, and contains gases ejected by the star HD 148937 at its heart. This star is 40 times more massive than the Sun, and at about three to four million years of age, is past the middle of its life span. Stars this massive usually live to be only about six million years old, so HD 148397 is aging fast. It will likely end its life in a violent supernova explosion.
NASA's Psyche Spacecraft: The First Images | This Week @NASA
The first images from NASA's Psyche spacecraft, celebrating the International Space Station's 25th anniversary, and a new tool to help fight climate change . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The waning gibbous Moon is pictured just above Earth's horizon in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above a cloudy central Asia.
Artemis II will be NASA’s first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft around the Moon to verify today’s capabilities for humans to explore deep space and pave the way for long-term exploration and science on the lunar surface.
Celebrating the International Space Station's 25th Anniversary (1998-2023)
Twenty-five years ago this week, the first two modules of the International Space Station—Zarya and Unity—were mated during the STS-88 mission of space shuttle Endeavour. The shuttle’s Canadarm robotic arm reached out and grappled Zarya that had been on orbit just over two weeks, and attached it to the Unity module stowed inside Endeavour’s payload bay. Endeavour would undock from the young dual-module station one week later beginning the space station assembly era.
The seven-member Expedition 70 crew poses for a portrait inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. In the front row (from left) are, Commander Andreas Mogensen of Denmark from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara. In the back are, Roscosmos Flight Engineers Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov, and Oleg Kononenko of Russia; and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa.
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
NASA's Space to Ground: Igniting the Future | Week of Dec. 8, 2023
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Twenty-five years ago this week, the first two modules of the International Space Station—Zarya and Unity—were mated during the STS-88 mission of space shuttle Endeavour. The shuttle’s Canadarm robotic arm reached out and grappled Zarya that had been on orbit just over two weeks, and attached it to the Unity module stowed inside Endeavour’s payload bay. Endeavour would undock from the young dual-module station one week later beginning the space station assembly era.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
What We Learn | International Space Station's 25th Anniversary (1998-2023)
We are celebrating 25 years of International Space Station operations! The International Space Station advances scientific knowledge in Earth, space, physical, and biological sciences, for the benefit of people living on our home planet.
Through this global endeavor, 273 people from 21 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from people in 108 countries and areas.
The International Space Station is a proving ground for long-duration spaceflight, including how humans will live and work around the Moon as part of Artemis.
Learn more about the International Space Station, including its assembly:
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. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
International Space Station's 25th Anniversary (1998-2023): The First Segments
The mated Russian-built Zarya (left) and U.S.-built Unity modules are backdropped against the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon shortly after leaving Endeavour’s cargo bay on Dec. 13, 1998. A few days earlier, on Dec. 6, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour, mission STS-88, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the Unity connecting module and two pressurized mating adapters. The same day, the STS-88 crew captured the Russian Zarya module, launched Nov. 20, and mated it with the Unity node. Unity was the first piece of the International Space Station provided by the United States.
The components in the current space station were built in countries around the world with each piece performing once connected in space by complex robotics systems and humans in spacesuits—a testament to teamwork and cultural coordination.
Learn more about the space station, including its assembly:
SpaceX Starship | Second Flight Test | SpaceX Starbase in Texas
"On November 18, 2023, Starship successfully lifted off at 7:02 a.m. CT from Starbase on its second integrated flight test. While it didn’t happen in a lab or on a test stand, it was absolutely a test. What we did with this second flight will provide invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship. The test achieved a number of major milestones, helping us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary. The team at Starbase is already working final preparations on the vehicles slated for use in Starship’s third flight test."
"Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting second flight test of Starship!"
Starship lifted off from Starbase in Texas and achieved a number of major milestones, including all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster starting up successfully and, for the first time, completed a full-duration burn during ascent.
Watch the liftoff of the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry up to 150 metric tonnes to Earth orbit reusable, and up to 250 metric tonnes expendable.
"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."
Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 120m/394ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100 – 150 t (fully reusable)
Capabilities:
Satellites: "Starship is designed to deliver satellites further and at a lower marginal cost per launch than our current Falcon vehicles. With a payload compartment larger than any fairing currently in operation or development, Starship creates possibilities for new missions, including space telescopes even larger than the James Webb."
Orion Spacecraft & The Moon's Ocean of Storms | NASA Artemis I Mission
On Dec. 5, 2022, a camera on board the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured this view as Orion approached its return powered flyby of the Moon. Beyond one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. Prominent on the lunar nearside Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, is the largest of the Moon's lava-flooded maria.
The lunar terminator, shadow line between lunar night and day, runs along the left of this frame. The 41 kilometer diameter crater Marius is top center, with ray crater Kepler peeking in at the edge, just right of the solar array wing. Kepler's bright rays extend to the north and west, reaching the dark-floored Marius. By Dec. 11, 2022, the Orion spacecraft had reached its home world. The historic Artemis 1 mission ended with Orion's successful splashdown in planet Earth's water-flooded Pacific Ocean.
Image Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Espacio a Tierra | Noticias candentes sobre los átomos fríos: 1 de diciembre de 2023
Espacio a Tierra, la versión en español de las cápsulas Space to Ground de la NASA, te informa semanalmente de lo que está sucediendo en la Estación Espacial Internacional.
Spiral Galaxy M106 in Canes Venatici | Schulman Telescope
A popular target for amateur astronomers, spiral galaxy Messier 106 can be spotted with a small telescope in the constellation Canes Venatici. This view captures the entire galaxy, detailing the glowing spiral arms, wisps of gas, and dust lanes at the center of Messier 106, as well as the leisurely twisting bands of stars at the galaxy’s outer edges. Dwarf galaxy UGC 7358 appears in the lower left.
Distance: over 20 million light-years
Technical Details
Optics: Schulman 32-inch RCOS Telescope
Camera: SBIG AC4040BSI
The 0.81 m (32 in) Schulman Telescope is a Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by RC Optical Systems and installed in 2010. It is operated by the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter and is Arizona's largest dedicated public observatory. The Schulman Telescope was designed from inception for remote control over the Internet by amateur and professional astrophotographers worldwide. It is currently the world's largest telescope dedicated for this purpose.
Image Credit & Copyright: Travis Deyoe / Mount Lemmon SkyCenter / University of Arizona
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