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A small meteoroid has entered the Earth's atmosphere and was seen lighting up the sky above the English Channel, creating a stunning shooting star effect. The 1m (3ft) meteoroid was seen shortly before 03:00 GMT on Monday morning, Feb. 13, 2023.
Gijs de Reijke: "Asteroid Sar2667, about a meter in diameter, was expected to fall near the French city of Le Havre at 02:59h UTC. I drove to a photogenic spot close to home in the south of the Netherlands to capture it, just as the sky cleared."
Gijs de Reijke is a landscape photographer, storm chaser, and geography teacher from The Netherlands.
Galactic Trio on Crash Course: SDSSCGB 10189 | Hubble
A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely alongside the collision, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background.
This colliding trio—known to astronomers as SDSSCGB 10189—is a relatively rare combination of three large star-forming galaxies lying within only 50,000 light-years of one another. While that might sound like a safe distance, for galaxies this makes them extremely close neighbors! Our own galactic neighbors are much further away; Andromeda, the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, is more than 2.5 million light-years away from Earth.
Image Description: Three galaxies stand together just right of center. They are close enough that they appear to be merging into one. Their shapes are distorted, with strands of gas and dust running between them. Each is emitting a lot of light. Further to the left is an unconnected, dimmer spiral galaxy. The background is dark, with a few smaller, dim and faint galaxies and a couple of stars.
This observation was designed to help astronomers understand the origin of the largest, most massive galaxies in the universe. These galactic behemoths are called Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) and—as the name suggests—are defined as the brightest galaxies in any given galaxy cluster. Astronomers suspect that BCGs form through the merger of large, gas-rich galaxies like the ones in this image. They turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys to investigate this galactic trio in painstaking detail, hoping to shed light on the formation of the Universe’s most massive galaxies.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun
The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017. Cassini's end involved a series of close Saturn passes, approaching within the rings, then an entry into Saturn's atmosphere to destroy the spacecraft. This method was chosen because it is necessary to ensure protection and prevent biological contamination to any of the moons of Saturn thought to offer potential habitability.
The Cassini-Huygens mission was a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, managed the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center was based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Technical details: Processed using RED, GRN, BL1 filtered images taken by Cassini's WAC on August 19, 2012.
Credit: NASA/Jet Propuslion Laboratory-Caltech/Space Science Institute (SSI)/Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS)
This sample image shows a Valentine e-card with part of the Perseverance rover on the right, against a background of Mars dirt and a few rocks, with the words "Our love will Persevere!" superimposed over the dirt area in white script writing.
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Shenzhou-15 Taikonauts Complete First Spacewalk Successfully | China Space Station
Huang Weifen, chief astronaut system designer of the Astronaut Center of China, known in China as taikonauts' head coach, said Shenzhou-15's first Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) on Feb. 10, 2023, went "very well."
"Zhang Lu had moved and covered more than 100 meters in distance. And for Fei Junlong, it's his first time spacewalking, supported by robotic arms, has moved with large equipment while covering long distances. It's challenging." She told CGTN. "The three have cooperated well together, and aced today's assignment. I would give them a thumbs up." She said.
Huang also said the Shenzhou-15 crew, now clocking some 70 days in space since arriving at the China Space Station (CSS) last November, performed very well in all tasks assigned so far, from maintenance of the space station to a large amount of scientific and technological experiments. She said that the Shenzhou 15 crew has planned three to four spacewalks altogether in their six-month tenure on CSS and the crew has been training for them both on the ground and in orbit.
Shenzhou-15 Crew Members:
Fei Junlong (commander), Zhang Lu (taikonaut), and Deng Qingming (taikonaut)
The majority of archival footage and sound used in this video are in the public domain and can be found in government records, the Internet Archive, or Wikimedia Commons.
Credit: NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC)
"Last night 2/10/2023 Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF made a very close approach to Mars in our night sky passing about 1.3 degrees away from the Red Planet from our perspective here on Earth. In this image, you can also see some dusty reflection nebula in the background which also makes this scene quite interesting."
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a long-period comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on March 2, 2022. The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus, due to the effect of sunlight on diatomic carbon and cyanogen.
Landsat 8 Earth Satellite: A Decade of Service (2013-2023) | NASA Goddard
February 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Landsat 8, launched by NASA in 2013 and operated by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Equipped with its Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) onboard instruments, Landsat 8 represented a significant advance in remote sensing technology and was the first to allow everyone in the world fully free and open access to its data from first light. In celebration of a decade of service, let us take a look back at some of the remarkable ways Landsat 8 has fundamentally altered the way we see our world.
SpaceX Starship Static-fire Test in Texas: 31 Raptor Engines
At SpaceX’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, Starship Super Heavy Booster 7 completed a successful full duration static fire test of 31 Raptor engines, producing 7.9 million lbf of thrust (~3,600 metric tons)—less than half of the booster’s capability on Feb. 9, 2023.
"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 on the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."
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.
Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 120m/394ft
Diameter: 9m/30ft
Payload to LEO: 100 – 250+ t (orbit dependent)
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."
Landing on Mars: "Starship will enter Mars’ atmosphere at 7.5 kilometers per second and decelerate aerodynamically. The vehicle’s heat shield is designed to withstand multiple entries, but given that the vehicle is coming into Mars' atmosphere so hot, we still expect to see some ablation of the heat shield (similar to wear and tear on a brake pad)."
Starship's Engines: Raptors
"The Raptor engine is a reusable methalox staged-combustion engine that powers the Starship launch system. Raptor engines began flight testing on the Starship prototype rockets in July 2019, becoming the first full-flow staged combustion rocket engine ever flown."
Raptor Engine Parameters:
Diameter: 1.3m/4ft
Height: 3.1m/10.2ft
Thrust: 230tf/500 klbf
First Lunar Private Mission
"Later this decade, Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and the crew of dearMoon will become the first civilian passengers on a lunar Starship mission, featuring a fly-by of the Moon during their week-long journey. This flight is an important step toward enabling access for people who dream of traveling to space."
Celebrating Diversity in Space & Technology | This Week at NASA
Making space for all with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, celebrating the DART Mission, and spotting a tiny asteroid with the James Webb Space Telescope . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week @NASA.
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
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.
The Himalayas & Tibetan Plateau | International Space Station
The Himalayas, pictured from the International Space Station at an altitude of 259 miles, separate China's Tibetan Plateau from the Indian subcontinent countries of Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan.
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.
Zooming into a Spiral Amongst Thousands: LEDA 2046648 | Hubble
This video takes the viewers on a journey into the field of stars and galaxies surrounding the spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648. Webb’s NIRCam instrument has picked out a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies and bright stars around this galaxy, demonstrating the telescope’s impressive resolution in infrared wavelengths. Calibration images such as this one were critical to verify the telescope’s capabilities as it was prepared for science operations, and this one doesn’t disappoint.
Credit:
European Space Agency/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, DSS, E. Slawik, N. Risinger, D. de Martin, N. Bartmann, M. Zamani
NASA's Space to Ground: A Multifaceted Module | Week of Feb. 10, 2023
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 68 crew is looking forward to a delivery mission that will arrive at the International Space Station this weekend.
Nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, is on its way to replenish the seven residents living aboard the orbital outpost. The ISS Progress 83 (83P) resupply ship launched at 1:15 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, and is orbiting Earth racing toward the space station. The 83P will automatically dock to the Zvezda module’s rear port at 3:49 a.m. on Saturday beginning a six-month stay at the station. NASA TV will cover the space freighter’s arrival live on the agency’s website.
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.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
Expedition 68 Russian Cargo Ship Launch| International Space Station
The uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 83 cargo craft launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on February 9, 2023, atop a Soyuz booster rocket. Progress is filled with almost three tons of supplies and cargo. It will dock to the Zvezda service module after completing a two-day rendezvous. The resupply spacecraft will remain docked to the space station until later this year.
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.
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