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The James Webb Space Telescope: Revealing the First Galaxies
Take a trip through time and space to the early universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. How will Webb reveal the never-before-seen first galaxies? What are astronomers looking for?
Video Credits: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Danielle Kirshenblat of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Designers: Greg Bacon, Leah Hustak, Joe Olmsted, Dani Player
Scientists: Quyen Hart, Dan Coe
Writer: Leah Ramsay
Educator: Holly Ryer
All images, illustrations and videos courtesy of NASA and STScI except:
First Galaxies Formation Animation: Courtesy of The SPHINX collaboration
Footage & Music: Courtesy of Pond 5, Premium Beat, Soundstripe
Countries of the "Middle East" as seen from the International Space Station and photographed by European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)
NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)
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.
Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
Close Encounters: SpaceX Cargo Dragon Backs Away | International Space Station
The SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship is pictured as it backs away from the International Space Station's forward-facing international docking adapter. The Cargo Dragon's beacon lights and a plume from one of its engines during its departure burn made for a colorful show.
This image is reminiscent of special effects used in the 1978 science fiction film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" directed by Steven Spielberg: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860
This Dragon spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Aug. 29, 2021, from Space Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and arrived at the station the following day with more than 4,800 pounds of science, supplies and cargo on SpaceX’s 23rd commercial resupply mission to the station for NASA.
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.
Auroras Streaming over Earth | International Space Station
Auroras vividly streamed over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited above.
A aurora vividly streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited 273 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica.
Image Date: October 10, 2021
A vivid aurora streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited 274 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica.
Image Date: October 12, 2021
A faint aurora beneath a starry sky is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 273 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica.
Image Date: October 10, 2021
An aurora dimly intersects with Earth's airglow as the International Space Station flew into an orbital sunrise 264 miles above the Pacific Ocean before crossing over Canada.
Image Date: October 30, 2021
A vivid aurora streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited 273 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica.
Image Date: October 11, 2021
An aurora streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited 273 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica.
Image Date: October 13, 2021
A bright aurora crowns Earth's horizon beneath a starry sky as the International Space Station flew into an orbital sunrise 264 miles above north Montana in the United States.
Image Date: October 30, 2021
An aurora is pictured below the International Space Station as it was orbiting 274 miles above the southern Pacific Ocean just south of Auckland Island, New Zealand. In the foreground (from left) are, the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship docked to the Rassvet module and the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship docked to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.
Image Date: October 9, 2021
Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity.
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 the ISS:
Why Does Boeing's Starliner Not Look Burned After Reentry?
"A simple question lead me to talk about heat shielding on many different capsules over the years. Boeing's Starliner spacecraft uses a non-ablative heatshield on the backshell partly because it has lower thermal loads, compared to SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, thanks to a shallower cone angle."
"And that's where I started . . ."
Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft have been developed and tested to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station from U.S. soil.
For more info on OFT-2 and Starliner, visit: boeing.com/starliner
Free 59-page PDF Download on NASA's Commercial Crew Program:
Supergiant star Gamma Cygni is at the center of the Northern Cross. Near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, that famous asterism flies high in northern summer night skies in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Known by the proper name Sadr, Gamma Cygni also lies just below center in this telescopic skyscape, with colors mapped from both broadband and narrowband image data. The field of view spans about 3 degrees (six Full Moons) on the sky and includes emission nebula IC 1318 and open star cluster NGC 6910. Filling the upper part of the frame and shaped like two glowing cosmic wings divided by a long dark dust lane, IC 1318's popular name is understandably the Butterfly Nebula. Right of Gamma Cygni, are the young, still tightly grouped stars of NGC 6910. The distance to Gamma Cygni is around 560 parsecs or 1,800 light-years. Estimates for IC 1318 and NGC 6910 range from 2,000 to 5,000 light-years.
Image Credit & Copyright: Min Xie, Chen Wu, Yizhou Zhang, and Benchu Tang
Congratulations to SpaceX on 3 successful launches from 3 SpaceX launchpads in less than 37 hours!
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket in the early hours of Sunday morning, June 19, 2022. Liftoff occurred at 12:27 AM EDT (04:27 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with the rocket’s official mission being the deployment of a single replacement satellite for communications operator Globalstar. The Globalstar-2 FM15 spacecraft was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space as part of Globalstar’s second-generation constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites.
European Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy: "On World Refugee Day, I want to thank and salute all countries, communities and individuals who welcome and help refugees. Because every Earthling deserves a home."
Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)
NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)
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.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center / ESA /Samantha Cristoforetti
A White Dwarf Star Consumes Its Planetary System | NASA Goddard
A star’s death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the white dwarf star left behind, is siphoning off debris from both the system’s inner and outer reaches. This is the first time astronomers have observed a white dwarf star consuming both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets.
Archival data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories were essential in diagnosing this case of cosmic "cannibalism." The findings help describe the violent nature of evolved planetary systems and can tell astronomers about the makeup of newly forming systems.
The massive galaxy cluster Abell 1351 is captured in this image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. This galaxy cluster lies in the constellation Ursa Major in the northern hemisphere.
This image is filled with streaks of light, which are actually the images of distant galaxies. The streaks are the result of gravitational lensing, an astrophysical phenomenon that occurs when a massive celestial body such as a galaxy cluster distorts spacetime sufficiently strongly to affect the path of light passing through it—almost as if the light were passing through a gigantic lens. Gravitational lensing comes in two varieties—strong and weak—and both can give astronomers an insight into the distribution of mass within a lensing galaxy cluster such as Abell 1351.
This observation is part of an astronomical album comprising snapshots of some of the most massive galaxy clusters. This menagerie of massive clusters demonstrates interesting astrophysical phenomena such as strong gravitational lensing, as well as showcasing spectacular examples of violent galaxy evolution. To obtain this astronomical album, astronomers proposed a Snapshot Program to be slotted into Hubble’s packed observing schedule. These Snapshot Programs are lists of separate, relatively short exposures which can fit into gaps between longer Hubble observations. Having a large pool of Snapshot candidates to dip into allows Hubble to use every second of observing time possible and to maximize the scientific output of the observatory.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling
Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the glowing clouds, is found about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular cloud unseen at visible wavelengths, in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar). Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association were formed in that region only a few million years ago, sculpting the dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions, from previous generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas.
Joining NGC 6188 on this cosmic canvas, visible toward the lower right, is rare emission nebula NGC 6164, also created by one of the region's massive O-type stars. Similar in appearance to many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164's striking, symmetric gaseous shroud and faint halo surround its bright central star near the bottom edge. This impressively wide field of view spans over 2 degrees (four full Moons), corresponding to over 150 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 6188.
European Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Remakes Scene from Film "Gravity"
Samantha: "Hey, Dr. Stone! Quick question for you. How did you get your hair to stay put?"
This is European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy. She is on her second space mission, known as Minerva, on the International Space Station.
The 2013 science fiction film Gravity starred Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, "a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission." The screen above Samantha shows one of the well-known scenes.
ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Official Biography
The Color of Space: A NASA Documentary Showcasing the Stories of Black Astronauts
The Color of Space captures the personal stories of seven current and former Black astronauts, each selected to become part of NASA's astronaut corps and train for space missions. Current NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson, Victor Glover, Jeanette Epps, as well as retired astronauts Leland Melvin, Bernard Harris, Robert Curbeam, and Bobby Satcher, speak about their journeys and their motivations in a panel hosted by NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche, the first Black woman to lead a NASA center.
They took the step to achieve the impossible, overcoming barriers and making space for others to follow. In this new documentary, be empowered by the remarkable stories of tenacity, courage, and motivation from the agency's most decorated heroes. Learn about their path to NASA, their sources of inspiration, experiences in space, the importance of representation, the meaning of Juneteenth, and much more.
Originally held at Space Center Houston on March 25, 2022, the panel discussion marks the first time the seven astronauts have been assembled for an official NASA event.
NASA Astronauts Attend "Color of Space" Documentary Screening
NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson and former NASA astronauts Leland Melvin and Susan Kilrain attended this special free in-person screening at Howard University’s Cramton Auditorium in Washington, Saturday, June 18, 2022, of “The Color of Space”—an inspirational 50-minute documentary that tells the stories of NASA’s Black astronauts determined to reach the stars. This documentary officially premiered on Juneteenth, June 19, the new annual federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States on the anniversary of June 19, 1865. It commemorates the emancipation of 250,000 enslaved people in Texas who were freed after a Union army took over the previously Confederate-held state.
NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, left, and former NASA astronauts Leland Melvin and Susan Kilrain pose for a photograph prior to the screening.
Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, left, and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, pose for photograph with 6-year-old Armani Bonds prior to the screening.
6-year-old Armani Bonds draws on a postcard that will be sent to space by Club for the Future on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.
6-year old Armani Bonds poses for a photograph as he exits a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule mockup prior to the screening.
Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin poses with attendees prior to the documentary screening.
9-year-old Amara Bowman smiles as her father photographs her inside a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule mockup prior to the screening.
Former NASA astronaut Susan Kilrain poses for a photograph with attendees prior to the screening.
NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche gives remarks.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster 1071-3 lands after successfully launching the SARah-1 satellite for Germany's Bundeswehr—the German Armed Forces.
Germany’s SARah-1 military radar Earth observation satellite launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday, June 18, 2022. The launch, which was the 25th flight of the Falcon 9 this year, occurred at 7:19 AM PDT (14:19 UTC)—less than 24 hours after Friday’s Starlink 4-19 launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Saturday’s launch used flight-proven Falcon 9 booster 1071-3. This booster previously flew the NROL-87 and NROL-85 missions out of Vandenberg earlier in 2022, and the SARah-1 mission marks its third flight. SpaceX was awarded the contract to launch SARah for the German government in 2013.
Lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Falcon 9 headed southward targeting a sun-synchronous polar orbit—a type of orbit commonly used by Earth observation satellites.
Unlike optical reconnaissance satellites, radar imaging satellites like SARah-1 and its sister spacecraft can image Earth in any weather and lighting conditions, such as a cloudy, rainy night, or other conditions which would limit optical observation, using a technique called synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
After the rocket’s two stages separated, the second stage proceeded to orbit with SARah-1, while B1071 conducted a boostback burn to place itself on a trajectory back towards the launch site. It subsequently made entry and landing burns before landing on the concrete pad at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), built on the site of the former SLC-4W launch pad adjacent to SLC-4E.
While B1071-3 flew back towards the launch site, Falcon 9’s second stage and its single Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine placed the SARah-1 satellite into orbit. SARah-1 will operate in a circular orbit inclined at 98.4 degrees to the equator, with an altitude of about 750 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
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