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Glittering Globular Star Cluster Terzan 12 in Sagittarius | Hubble
Globular star cluster Terzan 12
This composite image shows the location of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 in Sagittarius as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The glittering globular cluster Terzan 12—a vast, tightly bound collection of stars—fills the frame of this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. This star-studded stellar census comes from a string of observations that aim to systematically explore globular clusters located towards the center of our galaxy, such as this one in the constellation Sagittarius. The locations of these globular clusters—deep in the Milky Way galaxy—mean that they are shrouded in gas and dust, which can block or alter the wavelengths of starlight emanating from the clusters.
Distance:15,000 light years
Image Description: The frame is completely filled with bright stars, ranging from tiny dots to large, shining stars with prominent spikes. In the lower-right the stars come together in the core of the star cluster, making the brightest and densest area of the image. The background varies from darker and warmer in color, to brighter and paler where there are more stars.
Here, astronomers were able to sidestep the effect of gas and dust by comparing the new observations made with the razor-sharp vision of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field Camera 3 with pre-existing images. Their observations should shed light on the relation between age and composition in the Milky Way’s innermost globular clusters.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen (Rutgers University)
Japan Launches Moon Lander & XRISM Satellite | Tanegashima Space Center
Japan launched a rocket on September 7, 2023, carrying a lunar lander and X-ray telescope to explore the origins of the universe. The HII-A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan carrying the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite. This is a joint mission between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA to study the universe. The XRISM satellite aims to pry apart high-energy light into the equivalent of an X-ray rainbow using an instrument called Resolve. The mission’s other instrument, developed by JAXA, is called Xtend. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date.
Once XRISM reaches its operating orbit 550 km above Earth’s surface, scientists and engineers will begin a ten-month phase of testing and calibrating the spacecraft’s scientific instruments and verifying the science performance of the mission. XRISM will then spend at least three years observing the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos based on proposals elaborated by scientists all over the world.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission designed to demonstrate accurate lunar landing techniques. SLIM will not take a direct route to the moon. After a lunar transfer orbit burn, it will make a lunar flyby, heading into a wide loop away from the Earth-moon system before returning to enter lunar orbit in around four months’ time. This will save on propellant.
The landed weight will be about 210 kg. The landing objective is to be within 100 meters of the target point, the ejecta blanket of Shioli crater (a crater centered at approximately 13.322 S, 25.232 E). Shioli is a small lunar impact crater that is located within the much larger Cyrillus crater on the near side of the Moon. It is a young crater with a prominent ray system.
SLIM launched on September 7, 2023, as a "ride-share" payload with the XRISM mission.
XRISM Launch in Japan: Exploring the Hidden X-ray Cosmos | NASA & JAXA
Japan successfully launched a rocket on September 7, 2023, carrying a lunar lander and X-ray telescope to explore the origins of the universe. The HII-A Launch Vehicle No. 47 lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. The H-IIA successfully launched the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) Mission. XRISM is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA. This new satellite aims to pry apart high-energy light into the equivalent of an X-ray rainbow using an instrument called Resolve.
Resolve measures tiny temperature changes created when an X-ray hits its 6-by-6-pixel detector. To measure that minuscule increase and determine the X-ray’s energy, the detector needs to cool down to around minus 460 Fahrenheit (minus 270 Celsius), just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The mission’s other instrument, developed by JAXA, is called Xtend. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full Moon.
XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by the European Space Agency. NASA’s contribution includes science participation from the Canadian Space Agency.
Once XRISM reaches its operating orbit 550 km above Earth’s surface, scientists and engineers will begin a ten-month phase of testing and calibrating the spacecraft’s scientific instruments and verifying the science performance of the mission. XRISM will then spend at least three years observing the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos based on proposals elaborated by scientists all over the world.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission designed to demonstrate accurate lunar landing techniques. SLIM will not take a direct route to the moon. After a lunar transfer orbit burn, it will make a lunar flyby, heading into a wide loop away from the Earth-moon system before returning to enter lunar orbit in around four months’ time. This will save on propellant.
The landed weight will be about 210 kg. The landing objective is to be within 100 meters of the target point, the ejecta blanket of Shioli crater (a crater centered at approximately 13.322 S, 25.232 E). Shioli is a small lunar impact crater that is located within the much larger Cyrillus crater on the near side of the Moon. It is a young crater with a prominent ray system.
SLIM launched on September 7, 2023, as a "ride-share" payload with the XRISM mission.
Image Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Astronauts Moghbeli & Rubio Talk to Texas Students | International Space Station
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 69 Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Sept. 6, 2023, with students at the South Texas Astronomical Society in Olmito, Texas. Rubio and Moghbeli are in the midst of science missions living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.
NASA Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli 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.
September 2023 Spacecraft Views| International Space Station
SpaceX Crew-7 Dragon Endurance docked to the International Space Station
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space freighter docked
SpaceX Crew-6 Dragon Endeavour undocks from the International Space Station on Sept. 3, 2023 in Earth's shadow
International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon Endurance, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship, and the Progress 84 and 85 resupply ships.
The hatch of SpaceX’s Crew-6 “Endeavour” Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren (Woody) Hoburg, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, was closed on Sept. 3, 2023, prior to undocking. Crew-6 was SpaceX’s sixth operational mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module to complete a six-month science mission.
The SpaceX Crew-7 Dragon Endurance arrived at the International Space Station on August 27, 2023, with NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of Japan, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Russia.
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.
China's Commercial CERES-1 Rocket Succeeds in First Sea Launch
China's commercial space venture, Galactic Energy, has achieved a significant milestone by successfully conducting its first sea launch, becoming the first private Chinese space enterprise to carry out both land and sea-based launches.
The historic event saw the CERES-1S Y1 carrier rocket lifting off from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off the coast of East China's Shandong province at 5:34 p.m. Beijing Time on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, carrying Tianqi Constellation satellites 21 to 24 into an 800 km orbit, in a mission named "The Little Mermaid".
This latest effort follows four successful land-based launches from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gobi Desert earlier this year. Compared to land launches, sea launches offer the advantage of selecting launch and landing locations, thereby enhancing launch efficiency and safety, while also providing greater flexibility.
Zooming-in on Galaxy 9io9 | European Southern Observatory
This video takes us on a journey from our home in the Milky Way to a galaxy far, far away, 9io9. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, astronomers have recently detected a galaxy-wide magnetic field in 9io9, making it the furthest ever detection of a galactic magnetic field. 9io9 is so far away its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us. Thus, we see it as it was when the Universe was only 2.5 billion years old.
We first see the night sky in visible light, and then switch to infrared light when we finally reach 9io9. Here, the galaxy appears as a faint reddish arc curved around a bright nearby galaxy. We then see the ALMA image of 9io9 at millimeter wavelengths, with the orientation of the magnetic field indicated by overlaid curves.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/DESI/CFHT/N. Risinger/J. Geach et al.
The Furthest Ever Galactic Magnetic Field Detected | ESO
ESOcast 267 Light: Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us. Never before have we detected a galaxy’s magnetic field this far away. This video summarizes the discovery. The field is about 1,000 times weaker than the Earth’s magnetic field, but extends over more than 16,000 light-years.
To make this detection, the science team searched for light emitted by dust grains in a distant galaxy, 9io9. Galaxies are packed full of dust grains and when a magnetic field is present, the grains tend to align and the light they emit becomes polarized. This means that the light waves oscillate along a preferred direction rather than randomly. When ALMA detected and mapped a polarized signal coming from 9io9, the presence of a magnetic field in a very distant galaxy was confirmed for the first time.
Credits: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner
Editing: Angelos Tsaousis
Web and technical support: Gurvan Bazin and Raquel Yumi Shida
Written by: Tom Howarth and Claudia Sciarma
Footage and photos: ESO / Luis Calçada, Angelos Tsaousis, B. Tafreshi (twanight.org), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. E. Geach et al., CFHT, DESI
Scientific consultant: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova
HESS Telescopes in Namibia Explore High-Energy Sky Sources
They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light—Cherenkov radiation—emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest energy photons (TeV) crossing the universe.
Operating since 2003 in Namibia, Africa, H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter and has discovered over 50 sources emitting high energy radiation including supernova remnants and the centers of galaxies that contain supermassive black holes. Pictured in June 2023, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel and stare in time-lapse sequences shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds—as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite zips by.
H.E.S.S. is a system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes that investigates cosmic gamma rays in the energy range from 10s of GeV to 10s of TeV. The name H.E.S.S. is also intended to pay homage to Victor Hess, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 for his discovery of cosmic radiation. The instrument allows scientists to explore gamma-ray sources.
H.E.S.S. is located in Namibia, near the Gamsberg mountain, an area well known for its excellent optical quality. The first of the four telescopes of Phase I of the H.E.S.S. project went into operation in Summer 2002; all four were operational in December 2003, and were officially inaugurated on September 28, 2004. A much larger fifth telescope - H.E.S.S. II - is operational since July 2012, extending the energy coverage towards lower energies and further improving sensitivity.
The H.E.S.S. observatory is operated by a collaboration of more than 260 scientists from about 40 scientific institutions and 13 different countries: Namibia and South Africa, Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Armenia, Japan, and Australia. To date, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration has published over 100 articles in high-impact scientific journals, including the top-ranked ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’ journals.
Video Credit: Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration
NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 Splashdown in Atlantic Ocean | International Space Station
Support teams work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed.
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is seen onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN.
Support teams onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN work to open the hatch of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
NASA astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg is seen inside an elevator on the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN that will take him up to a waiting helicopter to fly to Jacksonville, Florida.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia is seen inside an elevator on the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN.
Support and medical team members from NASA, the United Arab Emirates, and Roscosmos wait to board the helicopter with the astronauts and cosmonaut Fedyaev.
NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen is helped aboard a helicopter on the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN to fly to Jacksonville, Florida.
NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia splashed down safely in the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 12:17 a.m. EDT on Sept. 4, 2023, after 186 days in space.
Teams on the SpaceX recovery ship, including two fast boats, secured Dragon and ensured the spacecraft was safe for the recovery effort. As the fast boat teams completed their work, the recovery ship moved into position to hoist Dragon onto the main deck with the astronauts inside. Once on the main deck, the crew were taken out of the spacecraft and receive medical checks before taking a helicopter ride to board a plane for Houston.
Crew-6 is SpaceX’s sixth operational mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module on Sept 3, 2023, to complete a six-month science mission.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission launched March 2, 2023, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docked to the International Space Station the next day.
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.
Planet Mars: The Things that Blow Away | NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
This part of the observation gives us a view of linear dunes in northwest Argyre Planitia that appear thin as they have followed the direction of the Martian wind. This image was requested for change detection. The movement of the dunes is very slow, but inexorable. You can also see numerous meters-sized boulders throughout the scene. (This image is the center swath of the full observation using the red-green-blue filter.)
This is a non-narrated clip with ambient sound. Image is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 254 km (158 mi).
Local Mars time: 15:49
Latitude (centered): -46.900°
Longitude (East): 305.738°
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.
NASA Psyche Asteroid Mission: Power System Engineer Ben Inouye | JPL
Meet Ben Inouye, a power system engineer on NASA’s Psyche mission, which will be the first to explore a metal-rich asteroid, also named Psyche. In this video, Inouye, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explains what it was like to build the spacecraft’s power system. Inouye talks about the importance of the power system, as well as his passion for astrophotography.
Whether the asteroid Psyche is the partial core of a planetesimal (a building block of the rocky planets in our solar system) or primordial material that never melted, scientists expect the mission to help answer fundamental questions about Earth’s own metal core and the formation of our solar system.
This is the third episode in a weekly, five-part video series called “Behind the Spacecraft.” Each Psyche team member will tell the story of how they came to the mission.
Psyche’s launch period opens Oct. 5, 2023. The spacecraft will begin orbiting the asteroid Psyche in 2029.
NASA’s Moon Rover Practices its Lunar Lander Exit | NASA Ames
NASA’s Moon rover prototype has completed lunar lander egress tests. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and is scheduled to be delivered to Mons Mouton near the South Pole of the Moon in late 2024 by Astrobotic Technology’s Griffin lander as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
VIPER will inform future Artemis landing sites by helping to characterize the lunar environment and help determine locations where water and other resources could be harvested to sustain humans over extended stays.
The VIPER science team also aims to address how frozen water and other volatiles got on the Moon in the first place, where they came from, what has kept some of them preserved over billions of years, and where they go after they escape the lunar soil.
NASA’s new Human Research Program project, CIPHER, integrates 14 multi-disciplinary investigations and examines multiple astronauts across different mission durations over the course of many years.
Before astronauts embark on a multi-year venture to Mars, NASA must learn everything possible about how humans adapt to long-duration missions in space. This is why the agency developed the Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research program, or CIPHER.
CIPHER takes a full-body approach, investigating how multiple systems in the body react to spaceflight over increasingly longer mission durations. To this end, CIPHER includes:
Fourteen studies conducted across short-duration missions (less than ~3.5 months), standard-duration missions (between ~3.5 to ~8 months), and extended-duration missions (longer than ~8 months), and
As many as 30 astronauts will contribute to all 14 CIPHER studies—with up to 10 astronauts contributing to each mission-duration category.
The 14 CIPHER studies involve careful examination of how spaceflight affects:
Bone and joint health
The brain and behavior
The cardiovascular system
Exercise performance
Sensorimotor systems, including how astronauts maintain balance
Vision
Biomarkers of muscle, bone, vascular, and organ health
The studies will be performed before, during, and after flight. Data will be gathered from participating astronauts through biological samples, eye and vision exams, cognition and behavioral tests, cardiovascular exercises, ultrasounds, MRIs, and other technologies and techniques.
These data will be combined with baseline information taken from all astronauts as part of the Standard Measures project.
All data will then be fully integrated into one set, so that scientists can gain a comprehensive view of how increasingly longer missions affect the entire human body.
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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