Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
Artemis I Moon Mission Update for Nov. 4, 2022 | This Week @NASA
Week of November 4, 2022: Around 8:30 a.m. EDT on Nov. 4, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrived at launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a nearly nine-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Teams will continue working to configure SLS and Orion for the upcoming Nov. 14. launch attempt.
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.
On the Artemis III Mission, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
NASA Artemis I Moon Rocket Rollout: Nov. 4, 2022 | Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher as it arrives at Launch Pad 39B, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 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 Nov. 14, 2022, at 12:07 a.m. EST.
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.
On the Artemis III Mission, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
Expedition 68 Crew Celebrates Halloween: New Photos | International Space Station
Four Expedition 68 Flight Engineers celebrate Halloween
From left are, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata with NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, and Josh Cassada.
Four Expedition 68 Flight Engineers celebrate Halloween
Clockwise from left are, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Frank Rubio, and Josh Cassada with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata.
Astronaut Koichi Wakata (Japan) works on spacesuits in the Quest airlock
The Tyrrhenian Sea surrounded by Italy and islands
The waxing gibbous Moon above eastern Canada
Expedition 68 Crew
Station Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Anna Kikina & Dmitri Petelin
NASA: Flight Engineers Nicole Mann, Frank Rubio & Josh Cassada
JAXA (Japan): Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata
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.
Closest Black Hole to Earth Discovered: 1,600 Light-years Away | NOIRLab
Astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory, operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest-known black hole to Earth. This is the first unambiguous detection of a dormant stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way. Its close proximity to Earth, a mere 1,600 light-years away, offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems.
Black holes are the most extreme objects in the Universe. Supermassive versions of these unimaginably dense objects likely reside at the centers of all large galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes—which weigh approximately five to 100 times the mass of the Sun—are much more common, with an estimated 100 million in the Milky Way alone. Only a handful have been confirmed to date, however, and nearly all of these are ‘active’—meaning they shine brightly in X-rays as they consume material from a nearby stellar companion, unlike dormant black holes which do not.
Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest black hole to Earth, which the researchers have dubbed Gaia BH1. This dormant black hole is about 10 times more massive than the Sun and is located about 1,600 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, making it three times closer to Earth than the previous record holder, an X-ray binary in the constellation of Monoceros. The new discovery was made possible by making exquisite observations of the motion of the black hole’s companion, a Sun-like star that orbits the black hole at about the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun.
“Take the Solar System, put a black hole where the Sun is, and the Sun where the Earth is, and you get this system,” explained Kareem El-Badry, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, and the lead author of the paper describing this discovery. “While there have been many claimed detections of systems like this, almost all these discoveries have subsequently been refuted. This is the first unambiguous detection of a Sun-like star in a wide orbit around a stellar-mass black hole in our Galaxy.”
Though there are likely millions of stellar-mass black holes roaming the Milky Way Galaxy, those few that have been detected were uncovered by their energetic interactions with a companion star. As material from a nearby star spirals in toward the black hole, it becomes superheated and generates powerful X-rays and jets of material. If a black hole is not actively feeding (i.e., it is dormant) it simply blends in with its surroundings.
The team originally identified the system as potentially hosting a black hole by analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft. Gaia captured the minute irregularities in the star’s motion caused by the gravity of an unseen massive object. To explore the system in more detail, El-Badry and his team turned to the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument on Gemini North, which measured the velocity of the companion star as it orbited the black hole and provided precise measurement of its orbital period. The Gemini follow-up observations were crucial to constraining the orbital motion and hence masses of the two components in the binary system, allowing the team to identify the central body as a black hole roughly 10 times as massive as our Sun.
“Our Gemini follow-up observations confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that the binary contains a normal star and at least one dormant black hole,” elaborated El-Badry. “We could find no plausible astrophysical scenario that can explain the observed orbit of the system that doesn’t involve at least one black hole.”
The team relied not only on Gemini North’s superb observational capabilities but also on Gemini’s ability to provide data on a tight deadline, as the team had only a short window in which to perform their follow-up observations.
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani
NASA's Space to Ground: Scientific Ride | Week of Nov. 4, 2022
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter is scheduled to arrive next week. Cygnus, packed with 8,200 pounds of cargo, is at the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia counting down to its lift off atop the Antares rocket on Sunday, November 6, 2022, at 5:50 a.m. EST.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
Shenzhou-14 Crew Enters New Mengtian Research Lab | China Space Station
The Shenzhou-14 crew, commander Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, entered the Mengtian Laboratory Module on November 3, 2022, at 07:12 UTC (15:12 China Standard Time). The China Space Station is now in its planned T-shape configuration of the Tianhe Core Module, the Wentian Laboratory Module and the Mengtian Laboratory Module.
The Mengtian module is similar to Tianhe and Wentian in size and weight. It is 17.9 meters long with a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters. It consists of a working cabin for astronauts/taikonauts, an airlock cabin, a payload cabin and a resource cabin. Mengtian is mainly designed for scientific experiments. Unlike Tianhe and Wentian, it does not have a sleeping cabin. Instead, it is full of cabinets that can support hundreds of experiments.
The transposition of the Mengtian lab module was completed at 9:32 a.m. (BJT) on Thursday, November 3, 2022, marking the completion of the basic T-shaped structure of China's space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMS).
The T-shaped structure is formed by the Tianhe core module and Wentian and Mengtian lab modules. Tianhe provides life support for astronauts on board and functions as the control center of the space station, while Mengtian and Wentian are mainly for microgravity scientific research and space life science research, respectively.
During the transposition maneuver, Mengtian first completed its state configuration and separated from Tianhe. It then conducted the transposition and docked with the side port of the space station's node cabin. The transposition process took about one hour, according to the CMS.
Mengtian will also serve future extravehicular research projects of the space station, with its cargo airlock cabin and a deployed extravehicular platform, the CMS said earlier.
The science equipment that needs to be installed outside will first be sent to the space station by cargo craft, then transferred outside through the cargo airlock cabin, and then installed on the extravehicular platform by mechanical arms or taikonauts/astronauts.
The CMS plans to carry out functional tests and evaluation of the space station assembly in the future.
Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Central Television (CCTV)
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672 in Dorado: Wide-field View (ground-based image)
A 2.7 x 2.9 degree wide field ground-based image of NGC 1672's region in the Southern constellation of Dorado. This image is a color composite taken by the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2).
Distance:60 million light years
Credit: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), the ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator & Digitized Sky Survey 2
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, showing up clusters of hot young blue stars along its spiral arms, and clouds of hydrogen gas glowing in red. Delicate curtains of dust partially obscure and redden the light of the stars behind them. NGC 1672's symmetric look is emphasized by the four principal arms, edged by eye-catching dust lanes that extend out from the center.
Distance:60 million light years
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
Zooming on Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672 in Dorado | Hubble
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, showing up clusters of hot young blue stars along its spiral arms, and clouds of hydrogen gas glowing in red. Delicate curtains of dust partially obscure and redden the light of the stars behind them. NGC 1672's symmetric look is emphasized by the four principal arms, edged by eye-catching dust lanes that extend out from the center.
Distance:60 million light years
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
Stellar Nursery in the Arms of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672 | Hubble
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, showing up clusters of hot young blue stars along its spiral arms, and clouds of hydrogen gas glowing in red. Delicate curtains of dust partially obscure and redden the light of the stars behind them. NGC 1672's symmetric look is emphasized by the four principal arms, edged by eye-catching dust lanes that extend out from the center.
Why Does Climate Change Matter? We Asked NASA's Chief Scientist Dr. Kate Calvin
Why does climate change matter? This is because it is happening. We are already feeling its effects around the world. However, there is hope. NASA Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor Dr. Kate Calvin explains how NASA collects data and develops tools that can help us better understand and prepare for climate change: https://climate.nasa.gov
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Hubble observes the constellation Dorado and we zoom on the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We fade to Eckhard Slawik's ground-based image of the LMC and then fade to the Digitized Sky Survey 2 image of N44F, and finally fade to the Hubble Space Telescope image of N44F.
Distance: About 160,000 light years
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
A Surprisingly Bright Superbubble: Star Cluster NGC 1929 in Nebula 44 | NASA
Color Code: X-ray (Blue); Infrared (Red); Optical (Yellow)
This composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2m Max-Planck-European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.
A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure. A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of the bright X-ray emission: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls. The observations show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as an explanation for the bright X-ray emission. This is the first time that the data have been good enough to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles.
Summary:
NGC 1929 is a star cluster embedded in the N44 nebula, which is found in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Massive stars in the cluster produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and explode relatively quickly as supernovas.
Winds from the massive stars and shocks from the supernovas carve out "superbubbles" in the gas seen in X-rays by Chandra (blue).
Infrared data show dust (red) and cooler gas and optical light (yellow) reveals where ultraviolet radiation is causing the gas to glow.
Star Cluster Super Bubble NGC 1929 in Nebula 44 | NASA Hubble/Chandra
This region of star formation features a giant bubble that is blowing out from the middle of this image due to winds flowing off young stars. Chandra data (purple and pink) show this superbubble of hot gas, while Hubble data (orange and light blue) reveals the gas and dust in the system.
Distance: About 160,000 light years
Credit: Enhanced Image by Judy Schmidt (CC BY-NC-SA) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO & NASA/STScI.
At the End of the Rainbow: Star Cluster Superbubble NGC 1929 | NASA Chandra
Looking up at the night sky, you might think that space is dull, with lots of black, some white dots and just a hint of red if you are lucky. However, if we look deeper, space has a lot more to offer than what our eyes can see!
You have probably heard the phrase 'visible light'. This is what we call the range of colors that humans can see with their eyes. Visible light is just a tiny portion of all light. So astronomers have built special telescopes to see things that human eyes can't! For this picture, three telescopes were used and each picked up a different type of light.
This image shows a 'superbubble', a cloud of hot gas blown away from bright, young stars at its center. The superbubble has been captured with one of the telescopes in X-ray light, which has been colored blue. X-rays have a lot of energy, so when we look at the Universe in X-ray light, we see some of the hottest gas and most powerful explosions.
Infrared light is given off by much cooler objects than stars. For example, humans give off infrared light of our own! In this picture, infrared shows us the colder gas and dust of the superbubble, colored in red. This part of the picture was taken with the second telescope. The rest of the picture is yellow, showing us visible light. These are the parts of the image that we could see with our own eyes, if we were close enough, and if our eyes were sensitive enough!
