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The Pac Man Nebula | Kitt Peak National Observatory
This wide-field view of the star-forming region NGC 281 in the constellation Cassiopeia was taken with the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ.
Distance:9,000 light years
Credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage and WIYN/AURA/NSF
Artemis I Moon Rocket Flight Test is “Go for Launch” | This Week @NASA
Our Artemis I flight test is “go for launch,” the first deep-space long-duration biology test, and the Webb Space Telescope captures new images of Jupiter . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Portrayed in this image is a picturesque dust lane obscuring some of the Milky Way stars, usually referred to as the Pipe Nebula due to its curious shape. Also known under the more technical names Barnard 59, Barnard 65-67, and Barnard 78, this dark spot is visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the Snake Holder.
Distance:600 light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Y. Beletsky
Before our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft can launch our nation into a new era of spaceflight, the duo must first undergo a wet dress rehearsal at the launch pad prior to liftoff.
Watch SLS and Orion continue on their path to the pad as they travel to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B for a full countdown rehearsal—an operation involving hundreds of engineers stationed all across the nation.
This pan video gives a close-up view of part of a vast dark cloud of interstellar dust called the Pipe Nebula. This very detailed image of what is also known as Barnard 59 was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory.
This video sequence starts with a broad panorama of the spectacular region in the direction of the center of the Milky Way. We then close in on a curious dark feature called the Pipe Nebula. Here dense clouds of interstellar dust are silhouetted against the rich star clouds in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), close to the more familiar constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). We finally focus on one end of the pipe, a strange dark feature called Barnard 59. It is shown in a very detailed new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory.
Distance:600 light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Nick Risinger/S. Guisard
This picture shows Barnard 59, part of a vast dark cloud of interstellar dust called the Pipe Nebula. This new and very detailed image of what is known as a dark nebula was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory.
Managers and engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama share their thoughts about the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis I. Van L. Strickland, SLS program operations manager; John Blevins, SLS chief engineer; and Sharon Cobb, SLS associate program manager, commend a diverse workforce for its effort and dedication to prepare the backbone of NASA’s return to the Moon. SLS will launch the Orion spacecraft on its mission beyond the Moon and back to Earth.
Artemis I is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 29, 2022, at 8:33 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in Florida.
Panning across "A Spiral Galaxy Amongst Friends" | Hubble
This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680. NGC 4680 enjoyed a wave of attention in 1997, as it played host to a supernova explosion known as SN 1997bp. Amazingly, the supernova was identified by an Australian amateur astronomer named Robert Evans, who has identified an extraordinary 42 supernova explosions.
NGC 4680 is actually a rather tricky galaxy to classify. It is sometimes referred to as a spiral galaxy, but it is also sometimes classified as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies fall somewhere in between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Whilst NGC 4680 does have distinguishable spiral arms, they are not clearly defined, and the tip of one arm appears very diffuse. Galaxies are not static, and their morphologies (and therefore their classifications) vary throughout their lifetimes. Spiral galaxies are thought to evolve into elliptical galaxies, most likely by merging with one another, causing them to lose their distinctive spiral structures.
Distance:140 light years
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680. NGC 4680 enjoyed a wave of attention in 1997, as it played host to a supernova explosion known as SN 1997bp. Amazingly, the supernova was identified by an Australian amateur astronomer named Robert Evans, who has identified an extraordinary 42 supernova explosions.
NGC 4680 is actually a rather tricky galaxy to classify. It is sometimes referred to as a spiral galaxy, but it is also sometimes classified as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies fall somewhere in between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Whilst NGC 4680 does have distinguishable spiral arms, they are not clearly defined, and the tip of one arm appears very diffuse. Galaxies are not static, and their morphologies (and therefore their classifications) vary throughout their lifetimes. Spiral galaxies are thought to evolve into elliptical galaxies, most likely by merging with one another, causing them to lose their distinctive spiral structures.
Expedition 67 NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Discusses Upcoming Mission with Media
[Note: There are long pauses between each media interview.]
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio discusses his upcoming mission to the International Space Station with media during virtual individual media interviews from Star City, Russia. Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, is scheduled to launch to the space station Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He will be a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 68 station crew.
Dr. Frank Rubio was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He reported for duty in August 2017 and having completed the initial astronaut candidate training, he has been given a mission assignment. The Florida native graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and earned a Doctorate of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Prior to attending medical school, he served as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot and flew more than 1,100 hours, including more than 600 hours of combat and imminent danger time during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Dr. Rubio is a board certified family physician and flight surgeon.
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Official NASA Biography
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: Paving the Way | Week of Aug. 26, 2022
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The fifth crewed operational mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has been given a launch date of October 3, 2022, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The four SpaceX Crew-5 crewmates, Commander Nicole Mann, Pilot Josh Cassada, and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina will dock Dragon Endurance to the forward port on the station’s Harmony module about 24 hours later.
Expedition 67 Crew
Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)
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.
Learn more about the important research being operated on the International Space Station:
Alpha Centauri & Beta Centauri: Closest Star System to Our Solar System | ESO
At the center of this image of the Centaurus constellation are Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, two triple star systems. The brightest stars of both systems orbit near to each other, making them appear as one star. Alpha Centauri is the nearest "star" to Earth except for the Sun. This photograph of the Centaurus constellation was taken at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory.
Distance: about 4 light years
Credit: Zdeněk Bardon/European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Alpha Centauri Star System: Star Size Comparisons (artist’s impression) | ESO
The relative sizes of a number of objects, including the three (known) members of Alpha Centauri triple system and some other stars for which the angular sizes have also been measured with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. The Sun and planet Jupiter are also shown for comparison.
Proxima Centauri: Closest Star to Our Solar System | Hubble
Shining brightly in this Hubble image is our closest stellar neighbor: Proxima Centauri.
Proxima Centauri lies in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), just over four light-years from Earth. Although it looks bright through the eye of Hubble, as you might expect from the nearest star to the Solar System, Proxima Centauri is not visible to the naked eye. Its average luminosity is very low, and it is quite small compared to other stars, at only about an eighth of the mass of the Sun.
However, on occasion, its brightness increases. Proxima is what is known as a “flare star”, meaning that convection processes within the star’s body make it prone to random and dramatic changes in brightness. The convection processes not only trigger brilliant bursts of starlight but, combined with other factors, mean that Proxima Centauri is in for a very long life. Astronomers predict that this star will remain middle-aged—or a “main sequence” star in astronomical terms—for another four trillion years, some 300 times the age of the current Universe.
These observations were taken using Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Proxima Centauri is actually part of a triple star system—its two companions, Alpha Centauri A and B, lie out of frame.
Although by cosmic standards it is a close neighbor, Proxima Centauri remains a point-like object even using Hubble’s eagle-eyed vision, hinting at the vast scale of the Universe around us.
