Pan of Region around ZS7 Galaxy System Black Hole Merger | Webb Telescope

Pan of Region around ZS7 Galaxy System Black Hole Merger | Webb Telescope

This image shows the environment of the galaxy system ZS7 from the JWST PRIMER program (PI: J. Dunlop) as seen by Webb's NIRCam instrument. New research using the NIRSpec instrument on the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope has determined the system to be evidence of an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe. 

The team has found evidence for very dense gas with fast motions in the vicinity of the black hole, as well as hot and highly ionised gas illuminated by the energetic radiation typically produced by black holes in their accretion episodes. Webb also allowed the team to spatially separate the two black holes and determined that one of the two black holes has a mass that is 50 million times the mass of the Sun. The mass of the other black hole is likely similar, although it is harder to measure because this second black hole is buried in dense gas.

Video Credit:

ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, J. Dunlop, D. Magee, P. G. Pérez-González, H. Übler, R. Maiolino, et. al, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: May 15, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Galaxies #BlackHoles #ZS7 #BlackHole #GalacticMerger #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #Infrared #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Most Distant Black Hole Merger to Date Detected | James Webb Space Telescope

Most Distant Black Hole Merger to Date Detected | James Webb Space Telescope 

This image shows the environment of the galaxy system ZS7 from the JWST PRIMER program (PI: J. Dunlop) as seen by Webb's NIRCam instrument.

This image shows the location of the galaxy system ZS7 from the JWST PRIMER program (PI: J. Dunlop).

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.

Astronomers have found supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions times that of the Sun in most massive galaxies in the local Universe, including in our Milky Way galaxy. These black holes have likely had a major impact on the evolution of the galaxies they reside in. However, scientists still do not fully understand how these objects grew to become so massive. The finding of gargantuan black holes already in place in the first billion years after the Big Bang indicates that such growth must have happened very rapidly, and very early. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is shedding new light on the growth of black holes in the early Universe.

The new Webb observations have provided evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was just 740 million years old. The system is known as ZS7.

Massive black holes that are actively accreting matter have distinctive spectrographic features that allow astronomers to identify them. For very distant galaxies, like those in this study, these signatures are inaccessible from the ground and can only be seen with Webb. 

“We found evidence for very dense gas with fast motions in the vicinity of the black hole, as well as hot and highly ionised gas illuminated by the energetic radiation typically produced by black holes in their accretion episodes,” explained lead author Hannah Übler of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “Thanks to the unprecedented sharpness of its imaging capabilities, Webb also allowed our team to spatially separate the two black holes.”

The team found that one of the two black holes has a mass that is 50 million times the mass of the Sun. “The mass of the other black hole is likely similar, although it is much harder to measure because this second black hole is buried in dense gas,” explained team member Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge and University College London in the United Kingdom.

“Our findings suggest that merging is an important route through which black holes can rapidly grow, even at cosmic dawn,” explained Übler. “Together with other Webb findings of active, massive black holes in the distant Universe, our results also show that massive black holes have been shaping the evolution of galaxies from the very beginning.”

"The stellar mass of the system we studied is similar to that of our neighbor the Large Magellanic Cloud," shared team member Pablo G. Pérez-González of the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC/INTA, in Spain. "We can try to imagine how the evolution of merging galaxies could be affected if each galaxy had one super massive black hole as large or larger than the one we have in the Milky Way". 

The team also notes that once the two black holes merge, they will also generate gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Events like this will be detectable with the next generation of gravitational wave observatories, such as the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission that was recently approved by the European Space Agency. It will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves.

“Webb’s results are telling us that lighter systems detectable by LISA should be far more frequent than previously assumed,” shared LISA Lead Project Scientist Nora Luetzgendorf of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. “It will most likely make us adjust our models for LISA rates in this mass range. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

This discovery was from observations made as part of the Galaxy Assembly with NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy program. The team has recently been awarded a new Large Program in Webb’s Cycle 3 of observations, to study in detail the relationship between massive black holes and their host galaxies in the first billion years. An important component of this program will be to systematically search for and characterise black hole mergers. This effort will determine the rate that black hole merging occurs at early cosmic epochs and will assess the role of merging in the early growth of black holes and the rate at which gravitational waves are produced from the dawn of time.

These results have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, J. Dunlop, D. Magee, P. G. Pérez-González, H. Übler, R. Maiolino, et. al

Release Date: May 16, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Galaxies #BlackHoles #ZS7 #BlackHole #GalacticMerger #Cosmos #Universe #JWST #Infrared #SpaceTelescopes #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Europa Clipper Science Mission: Why Explore Jupiter’s Ocean Moon?

NASA's Europa Clipper Science Mission: Why Explore Jupiter’s Ocean Moon?

Everywhere there is water on Earth, there is life. Does that hold true elsewhere in our solar system? NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. With its subsurface ocean, Europa is one of the most promising places in our solar system to find environments capable of supporting life.

While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will be the first to conduct a detailed survey of this icy moon to answer questions about Europa’s potential habitability and composition. The mission’s main goals are to determine the thickness of Europa’s icy shell; confirm the presence of an ocean; investigate the make-up of that ocean; and characterize the geology of the surface. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and make approximately 50 flybys of Europa. It is equipped with an extensive suite of instruments that will work in sync to gather measurements and high-resolution images. 

Europa Clipper is expected to launch in October 2024 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030. 

For more information on the mission, visit: https://europa.nasa.gov/

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/APL

Duration: 5 minutes

Release Date: May 15, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Europa #Moon #Ocean #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #Habitability #Radiation #EuropaClipper #Spacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #APL #MSFC #JPL #Caltech #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sun Releases Largest Flare in Nearly a Decade | NASA Goddard

Sun Releases Largest Flare in Nearly a Decade | NASA Goddard

On May 14, 2024, the Sun emitted a strong solar flare. This solar flare is the largest of Solar Cycle 25 and is classified as an X8.7 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation, or light, on the Sun. Flares are our solar system’s most powerful explosive events. Light only takes about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, so that’s how long it would take the energy from a flare to reach our planet. Stronger solar flares—those rated class M5 or above—can have impacts on technology that depends on Earth’s ionosphere (our electrically charged upper atmosphere), like high-frequency radio used for navigation and GPS.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured these images of the flare, which peaked at 12:51 p.m. ET on May 14. The X8.7 flare appears on the lower right edge of the Sun. (A small eruption appears afterward in the upper left.) SDO sees the Sun in more than 10 distinct wavelengths of light, showing solar material at different temperatures. Different wavelengths are shown in this video to highlight different features of the flare.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio

Scott Wiessinger (MORI Associates): Producer

Abbey Interrante (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Writer

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Visualizer

Duration: 1 minute, 12 seconds

Release Date: May 15, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlares #Ultraviolet #Plasma #MagneticField #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellites #ElectricalGrids #SDO #SolarSystem #NASAGoddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Jupiter’s Tiny Moon Amalthea | NASA Juno Mission

Jupiter’s Tiny Moon Amalthea | NASA Juno Mission

NASA’s Juno mission captured these views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet on March 7, 2024. They provide a good look at Jupiter’s colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot. Close examination reveals something more: two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea.

With a radius of just 52 miles (84 kilometers), Amalthea has a potato-like shape, lacking the mass to pull itself into a sphere. In 2000, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed surface features, including impact craters, hills, and valleys. Amalthea circles Jupiter inside Io’s orbit, which is the innermost of the planet’s four largest moons, taking 0.498 Earth days to complete one orbit.

Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, and observations indicate it gives out more heat than it receives from the Sun. This may be because, as it orbits within Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, electric currents are induced in the moon’s core. Alternatively, the heat could be from tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity.

At the time that the first of these two images was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator.

Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt made these images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying processing techniques to enhance the clarity of the images.

More information about Juno is at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu 

For more about this finding and other science results, see:

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings

Image Credits:

Image Data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Image Processing: Gerald Eichstädt

Release Date: May 13, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Planet #Moons #Amalthea #Moon #JunoMission #JunoSpacecraft #GalileoSpacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JPL #MSFC #SwRI #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #GeraldEichstädt #CitizenScientist #Infographic #STEM #Education

Sun Releases Strong X3.4 Solar Flare | NASA SDO

Sun Releases Strong X3.4 Solar Flare | NASA SDO

The Sun emitted a strong X3.4 solar flare from active region 3664, peaking at 4:37 a.m. ET on May 15, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event. It observes the sun continuously.

Image Description: The Sun, shown in teal, against a black background. Swirling across the Sun are many bright teal active regions. On the right, a bright flash of teal and white light, forming an "X" shape, can be seen against the Sun and the black background.

The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. It is colorized in teal. 

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X3.4 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. 

NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.

Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Image Date: May 15, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlares #Ultraviolet #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellites #ElectricalGrids #SDO #SolarSystem #NASAGoddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Young Triple-star System: HP Tau, HP Tau G2 & HP Tau G3 | Hubble

Young Triple-star System: HP Tau, HP Tau G2 & HP Tau G3 | Hubble

Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. HP Tau is known as a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that has not begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun. T Tauri stars tend to be younger than 10 million years old―in comparison, our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old―and are often found still swaddled in the clouds of dust and gas they were formed from.

As with all variable stars, HP Tau’s brightness changes over time. T Tauri stars are known to have periodic and random fluctuations in brightness. The random variations may be due to the chaotic nature of a developing young star, such as instabilities in the accretion disk of dust and gas around the star, material from that disk falling onto the star and being consumed, and flares on the star’s surface. The periodic changes may be due to giant sunspots rotating in and out of view.

Curving around the stars, a cloud of gas and dust shines with their reflected light. Reflection nebulae do not emit visible light of their own, but shine as the light from nearby stars bounces off the gas and dust, like fog illuminated by the glow of a car’s headlights.

HP Tau is located approximately 550 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Hubble studied HP Tau as part of an investigation into protoplanetary disks, the disks of material around stars that coalesce into planets over millions of years.

Image Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), G. Duchene (Universite de Grenoble I); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Release Date: May 15, 2024

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #VariableStar #TTauriStar #HPTau #HPTauG2 #HPTauG3 #ReflectionNebula #Taurus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Solar X8.7 Flare Erupts from Sun: Largest of Current Solar Cycle | NASA SDO

Solar X8.7 Flare Erupts from Sun: Largest of Current Cycle | NASA SDO

The Sun emitted a strong solar flare from active region 3664, peaking at 12:51 p.m. ET on May 14, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an image of the event. It observes the sun constantly. This image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. It is colorized in red and yellow.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

This flare is classified as an X8.7 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

Image Description: The red and yellow Sun against a black background. The Sun is primarily red with several bright yellow active regions swirling across its surface. On the right, a bright yellow burst is seen cascading off the Sun against the black background.

To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. 

NASA works as a research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.

Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Image Date: May 14, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Moon #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlares #Ultraviolet #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellites #ElectricalGrids #SDO #SolarSystem #NASAGoddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

New Views of The Horsehead Nebula | James Webb Space Telescope

New Views of The Horsehead Nebula | James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to survey the Horsehead Nebula in incredible detail. The Horsehead Nebula is an iconic area in the constellation Orion where massive stars are being born. Combining views from many telescopes allows astronomers to understand the inner workings of this nebula like never before. From Euclid, to Hubble, and now Webb, we can learn more about our universe thanks to these amazing machines. 

Read more about Webb's observations of the Horsehead Nebula: 

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-captures-top-of-iconic-horsehead-nebula-in-unprecedented-detail/

For more information about Webb, visit https://webb.nasa.gov/

Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Paul Morris: Lead Producer 

Liz Landau: Script

Isabelle Yan: Producer

Image Credits:

NASA/Webb, CSA, ESA, ESA/Euclid, Euclid Consortium, ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), E. Slawik, N. Risinger, D. De Martin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), K. Misselt (University of Arizona) and A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS)

Image of Williamina Fleming as part of the Public Domain

Image of Photographic Plate courtesy of Harvard College Observatory, Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection    

Duration: 2 minutes, 52 seconds

Release Date: May 14, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #Nebula #Barnard33 #HorseheadNebula #PDR #Orion #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #Infrared #Hubble #Euclid #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #CSA #GSFC #STSc #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Aurora Generator: Active Solar Region AR 3664 at Sunset in Rome, Italy

Aurora Generator: Active Solar Region AR 3664 at Sunset in Rome, Italy

A distant Sun is seen over water and between foreground trees. On the lower part of the setting Sun is the gigantic active region AR 3664 visible by its dark sunspots a few days ago from Civitavecchia, Rome, Italy. Active region AR 3664 is larger than the Earth. It is so big you could actually see it on the Sun's surface without magnification. It contains powerful and tangled magnetic fields, as well as numerous dark sunspots. Labelled AR 3664, it developed into one of the most energetic areas seen on the Sun in recent years, unleashing a series of explosions that led to a surge of energetic particles striking the Earth. This created beautiful auroras. It may continue. 

The Sun rotates (once every 27 days). AR 3664 is now rotating away from the Earth, although the region may survive long enough to come around again. Active regions on the Sun, like AR 3664, can be quite dangerous. However, this region's coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have not created, as of yet, much damage to Earth-orbiting satellites or to electrical grids on the Earth's surface.  

This composite image includes a very short exposure taken of just the Sun's surface. It mimics what was actually visible. 

Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Meniero

Marco's website: https://www.meniero.it

Release Date: May 13, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Star #Sun #ActiveRegion #AR3664 #SolarWind #MagneticLoops #SpaceWeather #GeomagneticStorm #Planets #Earth #Aurorae #Aurora #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #MarcoMeniero #Astrophotographer #Heliophysics #Physics #Astrophysics #STEM #Education #APoD

The Largest Telescope Dome Ever Built | European Southern Observatory

The Largest Telescope Dome Ever Built | European Southern Observatory

With a 39-meter mirror, the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will be the largest optical telescope ever built. 

How will we protect it from the harsh conditions of the Atacama Desert?

Join European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomer Suzanna Randall in this episode of Chasing Starlight, where she travels to Chile to tell us about the amazing engineering behind the ELT’s gigantic dome.

00:00 Introduction

00:44 Why do we need a dome?

02:28 Aerodynamic design

04:20 Solar powered air conditioning

04:57 What next?

Video Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Duration: 6 minutes

Release Date: May 3, 2024

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #ExtremelyLargeTelescope #ELT #OpticalTelescope #Nebulae #Stars #Exoplanets #Galaxies #Cosmos #Universe #CerroArmazones #AtacamaDesert #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #ChasingStarlight #HD #Video

Gum 46: A Bubblegum-pink Nebula | European Southern Observatory

Gum 46: A Bubblegum-pink Nebula | European Southern Observatory

This picture shows Gum 46, a stunning gas cloud 5,500 light-years away, observed in brand new detail with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. 

Why does it glow pink?

At the heart of Gum 46 there’s a young, hot, and blue star called HD311999. Its intense radiation excites atoms in the surrounding gas. It then re-emits this energy at very specific colors or wavelengths. The pink shade that dominates this image is due to hydrogen atoms, the most abundant element in this nebula and the Universe as a whole.

The dark wispy clouds that surround the nebula make for a stunning sight too. These clouds are not intrinsically dark. They are extremely dense regions of dust that block light passing through them, enshrouding the glowing heart of Gum 46.

This image was created as part of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: May 13, 2024

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #Gum46 #Star #HD311999 #Vela #Puppis #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

The Milky Way puts on a show (May 13-19, 2024) | BBC Sky at Night Magazine

The Milky Way puts on a show (May 13-19, 2024) | BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Catch the Milky Way this month before it disappears into the twilight. Find out how to catch these and more stargazing highlights in this week’s podcast guide, Star Diary, May 13 to 19, 2024 for the northern hemisphere.

Video Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Duration: 21 minutes

Release Date: May 12, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Planets #SolarSystem #Comets #Stars #Constellations #StarClusters #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxies #Universe #Skywatching #BBC #UK #Britain #Europe #UnitedStates #Canada #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #Podcast #HD #Video

Advice for Graduates from NASA-trained Astronauts

Advice for Graduates from NASA-trained Astronauts

Recent astronaut graduates share advice and encouragement for students graduating this year and taking off on their next big adventures.

Learn more about NASA's Artemis Program: 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/artemis/

Video Credit: NASA STEM

Duration: 2 minutes, 21 seconds

Release Date: May 13, 2024

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Earth #Moon #ArtemisII #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisGeneration #Students #Graduates #Astronauts #HumanSpaceflight #OrionSpacecraft #DeepSpace #Mars  #MoonToMars #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #Aerospace #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA’s New Mobile Launcher for Artemis Moon Missions | Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s New Mobile Launcher for Artemis Moon Missions | Kennedy Space Center

The foundation is set at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launching crewed missions aboard the agency’s larger and more powerful Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B rocket in support of Artemis IV and future missions. On May 9, 2024, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program and contractor Bechtel National Inc. transferred the primary base structure of the mobile launcher 2 to its permanent mount mechanisms using the spaceport’s beast-mode transporter—the crawler for assembly.

The 355-foot-tall mobile launcher 2 with a two-story base and a tower will be used to assemble and process the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft in the Vehicle Assembly Building on NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon beginning with Artemis IV.

“Seeing mobile launcher 2 take shape has been incredible,” said Shawn Quinn, program manager for NASA’s EGS Program. “Anytime we can see the manifestation of our work into physical hardware means a lot to the EGS team. It is also inspiring for the future of Artemis, with each bolt and truss put in place signifying the next phase of humanity’s return to the Moon.” 

Why is the “Jack & Set” process necessary?

Teams at Bechtel fabricated temporary pedestals 8 feet off the ground, facilitating a much more efficient and safer initial steel build process by sitting lower to the ground. These extremely large steel truss subassemblies, a number weighing over 100,000 pounds each, sat on temporary bases. Once the entire 2.6 million-pound skeleton of the base was fully torqued and welded, teams used a specialized heavy-duty jacking system to raise the base to allow sufficient space for the spaceport’s crawler to be situated underneath the structure ahead of repositioning. 

Four self-propelled modular transporters were driven underneath the sides of the steel assembly and then lowered the base onto eight surrounding jacks. Once secured, teams removed the transporters and used jacks to raise the base 18 feet to allow for crawler access underneath the structure. The crawler was then positioned under the new base skeleton, raised the structure a few inches higher, and repositioned it about 200 feet to the six permanent pedestals, called mount mechanisms, completing the “jack and set” operation.  

“The jack & set milestone is a huge accomplishment for the NASA and Bechtel team,” said Darrell Foster, ground systems integration manager for NASA’s EGS Program.  “It represents the hard work of hundreds of people—not only in the field putting the pieces together, but engineers and analysts who custom designed this structure, subcontracting buyers and delivery managers who drove the process to get the materials to the site, and the several offsite fabrication shops across the country.”  

Now poised atop the new launch mount mechanisms at its park site near the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building, teams will begin installing critical piping and electrical equipment inside the base. The mobile launcher will remain at the park site throughout the build and commissioning phases of the project. 

The mobile launcher serves as the primary interface between the ground launch systems, SLS rocket, and Orion spacecraft that will launch the SLS Block 1B rocket, with its enhanced upper stage, to the Moon, allowing the agency to send astronauts and heavier cargo into lunar orbit than its predecessor, SLS Block 1. With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and establish long-term exploration for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.  

Image Credit: NASA/Madison Tuttle

Image Date: May 9, 2024

Release Date: May 10, 2024

#NASA #Space #Moon #ArtemisProgram #ArtemisII #MobileLauncher2 #CrawlerTransporter #OrionSpacecraft #SLS #Rocket #DeepSpace #Astronauts #HumanSpaceflight #Mars #MoonToMars #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #KSC #NASAKennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Planet Mars Images: May 2024 | NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

Planet Mars Images: May 2024 | NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

MSL - sol 4176

MSL - sol 4180

MSL - sol 4178

MSL - sol 4182

MSL - sol 4178

MSL - sol 4180

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Celebrating 11+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: Nov. 6, 2011

Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Processing: Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Dates: May 8-12, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #JPL #Caltech #ASU #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education