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The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope provides a striking observation of the carbon star CW Leonis, which resembles a baleful orange eye glaring from behind a shroud of smoke.
CW Leonis glowers from deep within a thick shroud of dust in this image. Lying roughly 400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo, CW Leonis is a carbon star—a luminous type of red giant star with a carbon-rich atmosphere. The dense clouds of sooty gas and dust engulfing this dying star were created as the outer layers of CW Leonis itself were thrown out into the void.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, Digitized Sky Survey 2, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, M. Zamani
The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope provides a striking observation of the carbon star CW Leonis, which resembles a baleful orange eye glaring from behind a shroud of smoke.
CW Leonis glowers from deep within a thick shroud of dust in this image. Lying roughly 400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo, CW Leonis is a carbon star—a luminous type of red giant star with a carbon-rich atmosphere. The dense clouds of sooty gas and dust engulfing this dying star were created as the outer layers of CW Leonis itself were thrown out into the void.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, T. Ueta, H. Kim
NASA's SpaceX Crew-5: Cosmonaut Anna Kikina with U.S. & Japanese Astronauts
SpaceX Crew-5 are suited up and ready to participate in a crew equipment interface test (CEIT) at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Aug. 13, 2022. From left are Anna Kikina, mission specialist; Josh Cassada, pilot; Nicole Mann, spacecraft commander; and Koichi Wakata, mission specialist with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). During the CEIT, the astronauts will practice launch and docking in a high-fidelity simulator of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. They also will practice getting into position inside the capsule.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 will be the fifth crew rotation mission of the company’s human space transportation system and its sixth flight with astronauts to the International Space Station for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Crew-5 will launch on the Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Sept. 29, 2022.
NASA Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada are going to the International Space Station no earlier than Sept. 29, 2022 alongside their crewmates, Koichi Wakata of JAXA, and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.
Anna Yuryevna Kikina (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Кикина, born August 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk) is a Russian engineer and test cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only woman cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. [Wikipedia]
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.
Spiral Galaxy NGC 2276: Wide-field View | Steward Observatory
This image shows a wide-field view of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. At first glance, the delicate tracery of bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes resembles countless other spiral galaxies. A closer look reveals a strangely lopsided galaxy shaped by gravitational interaction and intense star formation.
Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
This spectacular image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope shows the trailing arms of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy 120 million light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. At first glance, the delicate tracery of bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes resembles countless other spiral galaxies. A closer look reveals a strangely lopsided galaxy shaped by gravitational interaction and intense star formation.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, P. Sell
NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket Rollout for Launch Timelapse | Boeing
The NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis I mission arrived at Launch Pad 39B this morning after its 10-hour rollout of the NASA Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The rocket will undergo final systems checks before its Aug. 29 launch.
Watch our rollout recap, and follow along with us as humanity prepares to journey back to the Moon.
For more info on SLS and the Artemis mission, visit:
NASA's Artemis I Moon Mission: Science Experiments
When Artemis I launches to the Moon and back there will be a great amount of science hitching a ride! From CubeSats designed to hunt for water deposits on the lunar surface to experiments on how life responds to space—and so much more.
The Artemis I mission consists of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth to check out spacecraft systems before crew fly aboard on Artemis II. The Artemis I mission is one more step toward taking the next giant leap—sending the first astronauts to Mars. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29, 2022.
NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket Mission: Communications with Earth Explained
NASA’s Artemis I mission will need communications and navigation services during its journey to the lunar region. NASA’s Deep Space Network and Near Space Network will be there to support all phases of the mission, using direct-to-Earth and space relay capabilities. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29.
NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: European Service Module Perspective | ESA
The Orion spacecraft with the European Service Module (ESM) will fly farther from Earth than any human-rated vehicle has ever flown before. This video gives an overview of the first mission—without astronauts—for Artemis I, focusing on the European Space Agency’s European Service Module that powers the spacecraft.
The spacecraft will perform a flyby of the Moon, using lunar gravity to gain speed and propel itself 70,000 km beyond the Moon, almost half a million km from Earth—further than any human has ever travelled, where it will inject itself in a Distant Retrograde Orbit around the Moon.
On its return journey, Orion will do another flyby of the Moon before heading back to Earth.
The total trip will take around 20 days, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean without the European Service Module—it separates and burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere.
The second Artemis mission will have a simplified flight plan with only a flyby of the Moon but with four astronauts. The third Artemis mission will see astronauts taken to the lunar surface.
The European Service Module is the European Space Agency’s contribution to NASA's Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond. It provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as keeping the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course.
The European Service Module has 33 thrusters, 11 km of electrical wiring, four propellant and two pressure tanks that all work together to supply propulsion and everything needed to keep astronauts alive far from Earth—there is no room for error.
NASA Artemis I Moon Rocket Rollout: August 2022 | Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher as it moves up the ramp at Launch Pad 39B, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29.
The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.
Nebulas NGC 2014 & NGC 2020 in Large Magellanic Cloud: Wide-field View | ESO
This wide-field view captures the pair of nebulae NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 in the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish). These two glowing clouds of gas, in the center of the frame, are located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. Both are sculpted by powerful winds from hot young stars.
This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2
Glowing Nebulas NGC 2014 & NGC 2020 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a detailed view of a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud—one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two glowing clouds of gas. NGC 2014 (right) is irregularly shaped and red and its neighbor, NGC 2020, is round and blue. These odd and very different forms were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.
This science visualization presents the dramatic landscape of two nebulas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The video, based on images by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, takes viewers on a close-up tour of the nebulas' three-dimensional structures, as envisioned by scientists and artists.
The video begins with the Hubble view of NGC 2014 (lower left) and NGC 2020 (upper right). The region has been nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef," because of its resemblance to an undersea world. The camera then flies past myriad stars for a close-up look at NGC 2014. The first stop is the bubble of hot gas on the left that has a coral-like appearance. Energetic ultraviolet light from the system's most massive stars has heated the gas, while strong stellar winds (streams of charged particles) help create its bubble structure.
The journey continues into the heart of the nebula, home to extraordinarily massive and bright stars. The glowing gas in this region is bathed in the stars' intense luminosity. In contrast, the dark, denser gas is resisting that radiation, and is blown back to form craggy, mountainous shapes. The virtual flight moves past ridges, valleys, and pockets of new star formation.
The camera then rises up and over a ridge of NGC 2014, revealing the three-dimensional structure of neighboring NGC 2020. The Wolf-Rayet star at its core is the mammoth, intensely hot source of this nebula. Episodes of outbursts from the young star have produced cloudy rings and clumps in the bright blue gas. While Hubble views NGC 2020 looking down the axis of the stellar outflows, the visualization finishes with a side view that illustrates the nebula's double-lobed structure.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, G. Bacon, J. DePasquale, L. Hustak, J. Olmstead, A. Pagan, D. Player, and F. Summers (STScI)
This video pans across a diverse landscape of colorful, iridescent gases, streamers of dust, and a plethora of brilliant newborn stars in the nebula NGC 2014, located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The camera then sweeps toward a blue ring of glowing oxygen in neighboring nebula NGC 2020. The blue gas is formed by a torrential gaseous outflow from a lone, massive, super-hot star at its center.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Pagan (Space Telescope Science Institute)
