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Messier 81 (M81) is a spiral-shaped system of stars, dust, and gas clouds—the galaxy's arms wind all the way down into the nucleus. M81 is located 11.6 million light-years away. The M81 galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness make it a popular target for amateur astronomers. In the midsts of this galaxy is the supernova 1993J which was recently found to have a companion star which had been hidden in the glow of the supernova for 21 years.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: A. Zezas and J. Huchra (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
M81 is a spiral-shaped system of stars, dust, and gas clouds—the galaxy's arms wind all the way down into the nucleus. M81 is located 11.6 million light-years away. The M81 galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness make it a popular target for amateur astronomers. In the midsts of this galaxy is the supernova 1993J which was recently found to have a companion star which had been hidden in the glow of the supernova for 21 years.
Technical Details
Schulman 32-inch RCOS Telescope
Camera: SBIG STX16803
The 0.81 m (32 in) Schulman Telescope is a Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by RC Optical Systems and installed in 2010. It is operated by the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter and is Arizona's largest dedicated public observatory. The Schulman Telescope was designed from inception for remote control over the Internet by amateur and professional astrophotographers worldwide. It is currently the world's largest telescope dedicated for this purpose.
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Mars: Colors of the Undiscovered Country | NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Nili Fossae is one of our favorite places to image due to the incredibly dense terrain here where clays have been detected. For this reason, Nili Fossae has long been on the short-list for potential landings for robotic exploration. However, this image shows us how rugged (and dangerous) the landscape can be. We acquired this image to study the diverse mineralogy and gain HiRISE coverage over existing high-resolution CRISM data. (CRISM is a spectrometer also onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.)
This clip features the center swath of the full observation, utilizing the infrared-red-blue (IRB) filter of the HiRISE camera. Enhanced color can help us see details that we do not otherwise view in black and white. It would not appear like to this to our eyes if we were there.
This is a non-narrated clip with ambient sound. Image is less than 1 km (under one mile) across and the spacecraft altitude was 282 km (175 mi).
These images were acquired on April 28, 2022, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) at an altitude of 281 km from the planet's surface. The image is less than 1 km across.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
“For 17 years, MRO has been revealing Mars to us as no one had seen it before,” said the mission’s project scientist, Rich Zurek of JPL.
Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
NASA's Psyche Mission to a Metallic Asteroid: Preparing for Fall 2023 Launch
Join the journey as NASA’s Psyche mission team prepares for a launch, no earlier than Oct. 5, 2023, to explore a unique metallic asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid, likely made largely of nickel-iron metal mixed with rock, could contain metal from the core of a planetesimal (the building block of an early rocky planet) and may offer a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets like Earth. Arizona State University (ASU) leads the Psyche mission.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is managed by Caltech for NASA, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the 4-meter Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-140 is an HII emission nebula on the southwest edge of the Lynds 1204 darn nebula. It is also on the edge the Cephus Ring, a ring of molecular gas and dust.
Invisible in this image, there are about fifty young stars deeply embedded in the dark gas in the lower-left corner of the image. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.
The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after Nicholas U. Mayall. It saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest telescope in the world at that time.
Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)
Emission Nebula Sh2-140 in Cepheus | Schulman Telescope
Sh2-140 is an HII emission nebula on the southwest edge of the Lynds 1204 darn nebula located in the constellation Cepheus. This nebula is also on the edge the Cephus Ring, a ring of molecular gas and dust.
Image Data: Schulman 32-inch RCOS Telescope, Camera SBIG STX16803
The 0.81 m (32 in) Schulman Telescope is a Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by RC Optical Systems and installed in 2010. It is operated by the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter and is Arizona's largest dedicated public observatory. The Schulman Telescope was designed from inception for remote control over the Internet by amateur and professional astrophotographers worldwide. It is currently the world's largest telescope dedicated for this purpose.
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Swarm Technology in Space with NASA's Starling Mission
NASA has sent a team of four CubeSats into orbit around Earth to see if they are able to cooperate on their own, without real-time updates from mission control. While that kind of autonomous cooperation may not sound too difficult for humans, this team will be robotic—composed of small satellites to test out key technologies for the future of deep space missions.
The Rocket Labs ‘Baby Come Back’ Electron rocket mission lifted off successfully from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on July 18 (NZST), 2023, with NASA’s Starling Mission.
Starling is funded by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.
Rocket Lab's Electron Launches NASA Starling CubeSat Mission in New Zealand
The ‘Baby Come Back’ Electron rocket mission lifted off successfully from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on July 18 NZST, 2023, with NASA’s Starling Mission consisting of four CubeSats designed to advance technologies for cooperative groups of spacecraft—also known as swarms. Spacecraft swarms refer to multiple spacecraft autonomously coordinating their activities on orbit. Once positioned in orbit around Earth and spaced about 40 miles/64 km apart, Starling’s spacecraft will demonstrate the ability to autonomously fly together while keeping track of each other’s relative positions and trajectories. They also will demonstrate the ability to plan and execute activities as a group, without guidance from mission controllers, including responding to new information from onboard sensors. Starling’s spacecraft will also demonstrate creating and maintaining an inter-spacecraft communications network that automatically adjusts to changing conditions. The Starling mission will test whether the technologies work as expected, what their limitations are, and what developments are still needed for CubeSat swarms to be successful.
Baby Come Back launched a total of seven satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for three customers: NASA, Space Flight Laboratory and Spire Global. Baby Come Back is Rocket Lab’s seventh Electron launch of 2023, 39th Electron launch overall, and the Company’s second recovery mission this year. After launch, Electron’s first stage returned to Earth under a parachute and completed a soft splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Rocket Lab’s marine recovery vessel then extracted the stage from the ocean and transported it back to Rocket Lab’s production complex for analysis.
This Electron first stage features new recovery upgrades including waterproofing systems to protect key engine and avionics components. Rocket Lab’s transition to marine recovery away from mid-air capture has been informed by previous recovery missions that showed Electron components and engines passed requalification testing following ocean splashdowns. This mission represents near final maturation of the marine recovery system in preparation for reflight of a booster.
Rocket Lab's Electron Launches NASA Starling CubeSat Mission in New Zealand
The ‘Baby Come Back’ Electron rocket mission lifted off successfully from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on July 18 NZST, 2023, with NASA’s Starling Mission consisting of four CubeSats designed to advance technologies for cooperative groups of spacecraft—also known as swarms. Spacecraft swarms refer to multiple spacecraft autonomously coordinating their activities on orbit. Once positioned in orbit around Earth and spaced about 40 miles/64 km apart, Starling’s spacecraft will demonstrate the ability to autonomously fly together while keeping track of each other’s relative positions and trajectories. They also will demonstrate the ability to plan and execute activities as a group, without guidance from mission controllers, including responding to new information from onboard sensors. Starling’s spacecraft will also demonstrate creating and maintaining an inter-spacecraft communications network that automatically adjusts to changing conditions. The Starling mission will test whether the technologies work as expected, what their limitations are, and what developments are still needed for CubeSat swarms to be successful.
Baby Come Back launched a total of seven satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for three customers: NASA, Space Flight Laboratory and Spire Global. Baby Come Back is Rocket Lab’s seventh Electron launch of 2023, 39th Electron launch overall, and the Company’s second recovery mission this year. After launch, Electron’s first stage returned to Earth under a parachute and completed a soft splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Rocket Lab’s marine recovery vessel then extracted the stage from the ocean and transported it back to Rocket Lab’s production complex for analysis.
This Electron first stage features new recovery upgrades including waterproofing systems to protect key engine and avionics components. Rocket Lab’s transition to marine recovery away from mid-air capture has been informed by previous recovery missions that showed Electron components and engines passed requalification testing following ocean splashdowns. This mission represents near final maturation of the marine recovery system in preparation for reflight of a booster.
Beaver Rewilding Impacts Measured by NASA in Idaho
When beavers build dams, the changes they make to their habitat can improve everything from biodiversity to drought resilience. Researchers at Boise State University and Utah State University, in collaboration with NASA’s Applied Sciences Ecological Conservation program area, are adding remote sensing data to a suite of tools to measure what happens when beaver are reintroduced to an area.
For people managing water resources and conservation efforts, predicting which streams can support beavers and monitoring how water and vegetation change once they return is critical. Using satellite data makes it possible to monitor large areas and track changes over time.
For more information about NASA Earth Science Division’s Applied Sciences Program, visit our website: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/
Idaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. The state's capital and largest city is Boise.
Wide-field View of Monoceros R2 Molecular Cloud | ESO
This visible light wide-field image of the region around Monoceros R2 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The nebula NGC 2170, the brightest reflection nebula in this region, appears just to the right of center. The field of view is approximately three degrees across.
Distance:2,700 light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Digitized Sky Survey 2
Monoceros R2 Molecular Cloud | Victor Blanco Telescope
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic II camera on the 4-meter Victor Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile. It shows a portion of the giant Monceros R2 molecular cloud. It is a place of massive star formation, particularly in the area of the bright red nebula just below image center. This image was generated with observations in the Sulphur [SII] (blue) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, north is to the right, and east is up.
Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and N.S. van der Bliek (NOIRLab/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Colorful Cosmic Reflections: Nebula NGC 2170 | Cerro Tololo Observatory
This striking image, streaked with bright swathes of color, captures the beautiful reflection nebula NGC 2170. The diffuse clouds of interstellar dust in the nebula scatter and reflect light from nearby stars, creating this vividly colorful scene. Dust grains reflect blue light from hot stars embedded in the nebula. Warm hydrogen gas glows a deep red. Seen as dark tendrils, dust also absorbs the light from stars and gas behind it.
This particular nebula lies in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn)—a faint constellation on the celestial equator. It was observed using the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.
Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Acknowledgments: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin
Reflection Nebula NGC 2170 in Monoceros | Schulman Telescope
NGC 2170 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Monoceros. The diffuse clouds of interstellar dust in the nebula scatter and reflect light from nearby stars, creating this vividly colorful scene. Dust grains reflect blue light from hot stars embedded in the nebula. And warm hydrogen gas glows a deep red. Seen as dark tendrils, dust also absorbs the light from stars and gas behind it. This particular nebula lies in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn)—a faint constellation on the celestial equator.
NGC 2170 was discovered on October 16, 1784 by William Herschel.
A Cosmic Master of Disguise: Chamaeleon Cloud IC 2631 | ESO
This image shows the Chamaeleon Cloud, or IC 2631. It is a reflection nebula made of dust clouds that reflect the light emitted from nearby stars. The nebula is mainly illuminated by one of the youngest, most massive and brightest stars in its neighborhood, HD 97300, visible to the center-right of the image. The Chamaeleon Cloud is in fact the brightest nebula in the Chamaeleon Complex, a vast region of gas and dust clouds––much larger than what this image shows––where numerous newborn and still-forming stars live.
The cloud you see here is packed full of star-making material: gas and dust. At optical wavelengths this region contains dark patches where dust completely blocks light from background sources. However, this image was captured in infrared light, which can pass through dust almost unimpeded, allowing scientists to peer into the core of this cloud.
Bigger or smaller, a lot of bright dots crowd this image, making the dark background almost disappear. They are stars of different colors; white, yellow and reddish. However, there is something more too: some very bright stars and some brown clouds cohabit the center of this astronomical picture. The brightest star is to the right of the clouds, and is surrounded by a blue/magenta halo.
In the southern hemisphere, this cloud is visible in the sky for most of the year, and in this image, captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), you can admire it in infrared light.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Meingast et al.
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