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Pan on Galaxies NGC 520 & IC 4212 | Victor Blanco Telescope
Panning on galaxies NGC 520 and IC 4212, both from the Siena Galaxy Atlas.
Credit: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)/NOIRLab/Department of Energy (DOE)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/N. Bartmann
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Barred Spiral Galaxy IC 4212 in Virgo | Victor Blanco Telescope
IC 4212 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. It is situated close to the celestial equator, meaning it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres in certain times of the year.
Credit: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)/NOIRLab/Department of Energy (DOE)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Acknowledgments: PI: J. Moustakas (Siena College)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Colliding Galaxies in Pisces Up Close: NGC 520 | Hubble
NGC 520 is the product of a collision between two disc galaxies that started 300 million years ago. It exemplifies the middle stages of the merging process. The discs of the parent galaxies have merged together, but the nuclei have not yet coalesced. It features an odd-looking tail of stars and a prominent dust lane that runs diagonally across the center of the image and obscures the galaxy. Distance: 100 million light years
NGC 520 is one of the brightest galaxy pairs on the sky, and can be observed with a small telescope toward the constellation of Pisces, the Fish, having the appearance of a comet. It is about 100 million light-years away and about 100,000 light-years across. The galaxy pair is included in Arp's catalogue of peculiar galaxies as ARP 157.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and B. Whitmore (STScI)
Colliding Galaxies in Pisces: NGC 520 | Victor Blanco Telescope
A collision of two galaxies that began over 300 million years ago, NGC 520 is actually made up of a pair of disk galaxies. They will eventually merge to form a larger, more massive system. NGC 520 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Siena Galaxy Atlas.
Credit: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)/NOIRLab/Department of Energy (DOE)/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Acknowledgments: PI: J. Moustakas (Siena College)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Liftoff | NASA Psyche Asteroid Mission
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched NASA’s Psyche Asteroid Mission spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Friday, October 13, 2023, at 10:19am EDT.
Following booster separation, Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters (B1064 and B1065) landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, having previously supported USSF-44, USSF-67 and JUPITER 3. Due to mission requirements, the core booster (B1079) was not planned to be recovered. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Destination: Only the 16th asteroid to be discovered, Psyche was found in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, who named it for the goddess of the soul in ancient Greek mythology. It has a mean diameter of approximately 220 kilometers (140 mi) and contains about one percent of the mass of the asteroid belt.
What gives asteroid Psyche great scientific interest is that it is likely rich in metal. It may consist largely of metal from the core of a planetesimal, one of the building blocks of the Sun’s planetary system. At Psyche scientists will explore, for the first time ever, a world made not of rock or ice, but rich in metal.
The spacecraft is expected to begin orbiting the asteroid Psyche in 2029.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:
The waning gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth from the International Space Station as it soared into an orbital nighttime 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean near the northeast coast of South America.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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.
It is so large, it is easy to miss. The entire Veil Nebula spans six times the diameter of the full moon, but it is so dim you need binoculars to see it. The nebula was created about 15,000 years ago when a star in the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) exploded. The spectacular explosion would have appeared brighter than even Venus for a week—but there is no known record of it. Pictured is the western edge of the still-expanding gas cloud. Notable gas filaments include the Witch's Broom Nebula on the upper left near the bright foreground star 52 Cygni, and Fleming's Triangular Wisp (formerly known as Pickering's Triangle) running diagonally up the image middle. What is rarely imaged—but seen in the featured long exposure across many color bands—is the reflecting brown dust that runs vertically up the image left, dust likely created in the cool atmospheres of massive stars.
Earth Darkened by the Moon’s Shadow | Deep Space Climate Observatory
On October 14, 2023, the Moon aligned with the Sun and Earth to produce an annular solar eclipse. The spectacle bathed millions of Americans in a lunar shadow as the Moon blocked the Sun’s rays.
An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun but is too far from Earth to completely obscure it. The Moon is at or near its farthest distance from Earth—known as its apogee—during an annular eclipse, making it look smaller in the sky. This leaves the Sun’s edges exposed in a red-orange ring, dubbed the “ring of fire.” A satellite caught an earthly view of the event, as the Moon’s shadow crossed North America.
This image was acquired during the eclipse by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) imager aboard Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCVR), a joint NASA, NOAA, and U.S. Air Force satellite. The sensor provides frequent global views of Earth from its position at Lagrange Point 1, a gravitationally stable point between the Sun and Earth about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. In this view, acquired at 16:58 Universal Time (11:58 a.m. Central Daylight Time), the shadow, or umbra, from the Moon can be seen falling across the southeastern coast of Texas, near Corpus Christi.
While the annular eclipse was partially visible across the entire United States, Mexico, and countries in Central and South America, the path of annularity—where the largest area of the Sun was covered by the Moon from the observers' point of view—was the best place to view it.
The path of annularity started in Oregon around 9:13 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, though cloudy skies blocked the view for some sky watchers. The shadow then moved southeast across Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, before passing over Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
The next annular solar eclipse visible from the United States will be on June 21, 2039. But a total solar eclipse will darken skies from Texas to Maine on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Image Credit: NASA image courtesy of the DSCOVR EPIC team
Dark Nebula LDN604 & GGD30 in Aquila | Schulman Telescope
Dark nebulae—also called absorption nebulae—are clouds of gas and dust that neither emit nor reflect light, instead blocking light coming from behind them. These nebulae tend to contain large amounts of dust. This allows them to absorb visible light from stars or nebulae beyond them. Dark nebulae are so dark that they have been referred to as “holes in the sky,” but in reality they may be full of activity with stars sometimes forming inside their dense clouds.
Technical Details:
Optics: 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
Panning across the 'Rosy' Nebula IC1284 in Sagittarius | ESO
This video sequence offers a close look at IC 1284, a nebula located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. In the center of a dark red background, the cloud of a bright red nebula glows. Meanwhile, in the bottom right corner, two smaller blue nebulae shine in contrast to the surrounding reddish hue. Dotted across the entire image, there are several large blue and white stars, as well as many faint white and yellow stars.
There are two different types of nebulae present here. Each appears with a distinct color in the visible sky and are captured here using the wide-field camera OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean desert.
The large, bright emission nebula at the center, IC1284, is a star-forming region composed primarily of hydrogen. Its rosy glow comes from electrons within the hydrogen atoms. They are excited by the radiation from young stars, but then they lose energy and emit a specific color or wavelength of light. One of the filters on OmegaCAM lets through this particular reddish color, hence the nebula’s look.
Meanwhile, another color filter highlights the blue reflection nebulae NGC6589 and NGC6590 in the lower right corner. The dust in a reflection nebula preferentially scatters shorter, bluer wavelengths of light from nearby stars, which is what gives these nebulae their eerie glow. This is the same reason why the sky is blue!
The images in this video were collected by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), which is owned by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Glowing Rosy in the Dark: Nebula IC1284 in Sagittarius | ESO
In the center of a dark red background, the cloud of a bright red nebula glows. Meanwhile, in the bottom right corner, two smaller blue nebulae shine in contrast to the surrounding reddish hue. Dotted across the entire image, there are several large blue and white stars, as well as many faint white and yellow stars.
Distance: ~5,500 light years away
There are two different types of nebulae present here. Each appears with a distinct color in the visible sky and are captured here using the wide-field camera OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean desert.
The large, bright emission nebula at the center, IC1284, is a star-forming region composed primarily of hydrogen. Its rosy glow comes from electrons within the hydrogen atoms. They are excited by the radiation from young stars, but then they lose energy and emit a specific color or wavelength of light. One of the filters on OmegaCAM lets through this particular reddish color, hence the nebula’s look. Meanwhile, another color filter highlights the blue reflection nebulae NGC6589 and NGC6590 in the lower right corner. The dust in a reflection nebula preferentially scatters shorter, bluer wavelengths of light from nearby stars, which is what gives these nebulae their eerie glow. This is the same reason why the sky is blue!
The frame of this image covers an area roughly equivalent in the sky to a full Moon. This image was captured as part of a large ESO public survey, the VST Photometric H alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+). Bulge observes nebulae and stars in visible light to help astronomers understand how stars are born, live and die.
China's Crewed Space Program Achieves Major Milestones over Past Two Decades
China reached a historic milestone on October 15, 2003, when taikonaut Yang Liwei stepped out of the Shenzhou-5 re-entry capsule after spending just over 21 hours orbiting Earth in space.
Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of his flight into space aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft. The mission made China the third country in the world to achieve human spaceflight capabilities. Yang entered the history books as the first Chinese space traveler.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Yang, who is now the deputy chief designer of China's human spaceflight projects, said that his memories of the last two decades are full of "pride and admiration."
"When I saw more colleagues realize their flight dreams and reunite in the Tiangong space station, I felt happy and so envious of them," Yang said.
He also listed several other advancements that have made him "jealous"—spaceflights have lengthened from one day to six months, the number of taikonauts in orbit has risen from one to six, and his old "space home" has become increasingly comfortable, expanding from 6 cubic meters to 110 cubic meters.
Yang also noted that several technical difficulties have been overcome, such as space-Earth shuttling and orbital docking. This enables in-orbit taikonauts to watch live sports events and make phone calls with their families at any time.
Nevertheless, many of these technological breakthroughs benefited from the contributions of taikonauts, and Yang has certainly been a contributor.
When his rocket lifted to an approximate height of 30-40 kilometers above the ground, for example, Yang felt it begin to vibrate violently. "The fierce vibration was shattering my body, and the pain grew unbearable," Yang recalled.
After his return to Earth, Yang reported the abnormal vibrations during the rocket's ascent to his fellow scientists, who resolved the issue before the Shenzhou-6 launch.
To his delight, more people are now joining the taikonaut ranks. Yang revealed that a hundred candidates for the fourth group of taikonauts have passed the preliminary selection process, with about 10 coming from Hong Kong or Macao.
"Shortly, there will be astronauts from other countries conducting scientific experiments aboard the Chinese space station," Yang said, noting that Tiangong serves as a national space experiment platform and brings benefits to humanity as a whole.
Future taikonauts will go further, as China has launched a crewed lunar exploration project and made breakthroughs in key technologies related to new-generation manned rockets and spacecraft.
When asked if he would undertake more spaceflight missions, the 58-year-old taikonaut said, "I'm always ready for the nation's call."
China launched its Shenzhou-16 crewed spacecraft on May 30, 2023, sending three astronauts to the Tiangong space station for a five-month mission.
The Shenzhou-15 crew returned to Earth at the Dongfeng landing site on June 4 after fulfilling a six-month mission and completing the in-orbit crew rotation with their Shenzhou-16 colleagues in space.
This month, Shenzhou-17 is scheduled to blast off from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
"She knew everything but the question. She was well aware that there would be a complete annular eclipse of the Sun visible from their driving destination: Lake Abert in Oregon. She knew that the next ring-of-fire eclipse would occur in the USA only in 16 more years, making this a rare photographic opportunity. She was comfortable with the plan—that she and her boyfriend would appear in front of the eclipse in silhouette, sometimes alone, and sometimes together. She knew that the annular phase of this eclipse would last only a few minutes and she helped in the many hours of planning. She could see their friend who set up the camera about 400 meters away at the bottom of a ridge. What she didn't know was the question she would be asked. However, she did know the answer: 'Yes'."
An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, but appears too small to completely cover the Sun’s surface, resulting in what appears as a ring of fire in the sky.
Annular Solar Eclipse: Moon's Shadow Darkens Earth | International Space Station
The Moon passes in front of the sun casting its shadow, or umbra, and darkening a portion of the Earth's surface during the annular solar eclipse. The International Space Station was soaring 260 miles above Canada as this picture was taken pointing southward toward Texas.
An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, but appears too small to completely cover the Sun’s surface, resulting in what appears as a ring of fire in the sky.
Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)
Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov
JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)
NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)
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 Psyche Asteroid Mission Launch from Kennedy Space Center | JPL
Highlights from the Oct. 13, 2023, launch of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which will travel 2.2 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:19 a.m PDT (10:19 a.m. EDT).
The mission, which is the first to explore a metal-rich asteroid, aims to help scientists learn more about the formation of rocky bodies—including Earth—in our solar system. The Psyche spacecraft is equipped with four scientific investigations: the magnetometer, gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, multispectral imager, and gravity science experiment. In addition, a technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) will fly on Psyche in order to test high-data-rate laser communications.
Psyche is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2029 and orbit for about 26 months.
Destination: Only the 16th asteroid to be discovered, Psyche was found in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, who named it for the goddess of the soul in ancient Greek mythology. It has a mean diameter of approximately 220 kilometers (140 mi) and contains about one percent of the mass of the asteroid belt.
What gives asteroid Psyche great scientific interest is that it is likely rich in metal. It may consist largely of metal from the core of a planetesimal, one of the building blocks of the Sun’s planetary system. At Psyche scientists will explore, for the first time ever, a world made not of rock or ice, but rich in metal.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages the mission, which is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center manages launch operations and procured the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Maxar Technologies delivered the solar electric propulsion chassis and most of its engineering hardware systems.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to nasa.gov/psyche
Video Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
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