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In August, a flock of star-studded figures soars overhead. Look for the Vega and Lyra constellations that point to Epsilon Lyrae and the Ring Nebula. You can also spot three bright summer stars: Vega, Deneb, and Altair. They form the Summer Triangle. Keep watching for space-based views of these and other stars and nebulas.
“Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning: Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University.
Tour of the Artemis Moon Rocket Mobile Launcher: Part 2 | Kennedy Space Center
Point-of-View: You are an astronaut about to launch around the Moon.
Walk the path of our NASA Artemis II astronauts onto the crew access arm of Mobile Launcher 1, explore the emergency egress system, and stand in the flame trench used to deflect the 8.8 million pounds of thrust from NASA's Space Launch System during liftoff.
Head to part 1 to start from the beginning and walk the pad surface, ride up the elevator, and stroll the highest level of the launcher tower for a stellar view of Kennedy Space Center.
Mobile launcher 1 is the ground structure that is used to assemble, process, and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for missions to deep space destinations, such as the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
During preparations for launch, the crawler-transporter picks up and moves the mobile launcher into High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The launcher is secured atop support posts and the crawler moves out. The Orion spacecraft is stacked atop the SLS rocket and processed on the mobile launcher.
The mobile launcher consists of a two-story base that is the platform for the rocket and a tower equipped with a number of connection lines, called umbilicals, and launch accessories that provide SLS and Orion with power, communications, coolant, fuel, and stabilization prior to launch. The tower also contains a walkway for personnel and equipment entering the crew module during launch preparations.
The launcher rolls out to the pad for launch on top of the crawler-transporter, carrying SLS and Orion. After the crawler-transporter makes its eight-hour trek to the pad just over four miles away, engineers lower the launcher onto the pad and remove the crawler-transporter. During launch, each umbilical and launch accessory releases from its connection point, allowing the rocket and spacecraft to lift off safely from the launch pad.
Fun Facts:
Total height above ground: 380 feet
Tower: 40 feet square, about 355 feet tall, 662 steps
Tower floor levels: every 20 feet for personnel access to vehicle and ground support equipment
Tour of the Artemis Moon Rocket Mobile Launcher: Part 1 | Kennedy Space Center
Point-of-View: You are an astronaut about to launch around the Moon.
Explore Mobile Launcher 1 by walking the Launch Complex 39B pad surface, riding up the elevator like the NASA Artemis II crew, and strolling the highest level of the launcher tower for a stellar view of the surrounding landscape.
In part two, we will walk the crew access arm, explore the emergency egress system, and stand in the flame trench used to deflect the 8.8 million pounds of thrust from NASA's Space Launch System during liftoff.
Mobile launcher 1 is the ground structure that is used to assemble, process, and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for missions to deep space destinations, such as the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
During preparations for launch, the crawler-transporter picks up and moves the mobile launcher into High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The launcher is secured atop support posts and the crawler moves out. The Orion spacecraft is stacked atop the SLS rocket and processed on the mobile launcher.
The mobile launcher consists of a two-story base that is the platform for the rocket and a tower equipped with a number of connection lines, called umbilicals, and launch accessories that provide SLS and Orion with power, communications, coolant, fuel, and stabilization prior to launch. The tower also contains a walkway for personnel and equipment entering the crew module during launch preparations.
The launcher rolls out to the pad for launch on top of the crawler-transporter, carrying SLS and Orion. After the crawler-transporter makes its eight-hour trek to the pad just over four miles away, engineers lower the launcher onto the pad and remove the crawler-transporter. During launch, each umbilical and launch accessory releases from its connection point, allowing the rocket and spacecraft to lift off safely from the launch pad.
Fun Facts:
Total height above ground: 380 feet
Tower: 40 feet square, about 355 feet tall, 662 steps
Tower floor levels: every 20 feet for personnel access to vehicle and ground support equipment
In Darkness viewing Jakarta | International Space Station
Silhouetted against the backdrop of the Earth below, is the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship docked to the Prichal docking module during an orbital nighttime pass. The International Space Station was soaring 261 miles above Jakarta on Indonesia's island of Java at the time of this photograph.
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
Shenzhou-18 Astronauts Conduct Microgravity Experiments | China Space Station
Halfway through their mission, the Shenzhou-18 crew members aboard China's orbiting Tiangong space station have recently completed a range of microgravity experiments to ensure their physical well-being in orbit, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
A significant challenge astronauts face during their space missions is adapting to the effects of weightlessness as prolonged exposure to the space environment may lead to "space adaptation syndrome," with bone loss being a key challenge confronting astronauts.
To safeguard the astronauts' health in zero gravity, researchers have developed a bone loss countermeasure device based on the principle of bone fluid flow vibration. By stimulating bone fluid flow through vibration in weightless environment, this device triggers interactions between osteoblasts and osteoclasts, therefore effectively inhibiting bone loss.
In a video footage released by the CMSA, the astronauts are trying the device, placing it on the inner side of the midsection of the tibia in both lower limbs. The high-frequency, low-amplitude, short-duration force loading stimulation enhances the activity of bone cells, increases the flow of nutrients within the bones, boosts osteoblast activity, ultimately aiming to increase bone mass.
Meanwhile, the trio has conducted muscle adaptability experiments. Using ultrasound testing to measure Achilles tendon stiffness, along with muscle structure and function measurement devices and foot pressure collection equipment for lower limb kinematic and plantar pressure testing, they are capturing changes in their' muscle structure and functionality.
Through comparative analysis of human biomechanical characteristics before and after the mission, researchers can analyze the impact of long-term weightlessness and in-orbit exercise on lower limb biomechanical characteristics. Also with non-invasive muscle function tests done before, during, and after the mission, combined with in-orbit exercise data, they can analyze the dynamic changes in exercise adaptability under long-term spaceflight conditions.
The astronauts aboard the space station also use a nerve-muscle stimulation device for muscle atrophy prevention and muscle relaxation as prescribed.
These experiments and device applications are crucial for ensuring the skeletal and muscular health of the astronauts during their stay in orbit.
The Shenzhou-18 trio was launched on April 25, 2024, to the orbiting Tiangong space station for a six-month mission as the third manned mission in the application and development stage of China's space station, and the 32nd flight mission of the country's overall crewed space program.
New Expedition 71 Crew Photos: July 2024 | International Space Station
NASA astronaut Suni Williams studies plant watering in space. Williams investigates using fluid physics techniques such as surface tension, as well as hydroponics and air circulation, to overcome the lack of gravity when watering and nourishing plants grown in space. The Plant Water Management investigation uses facilities in the International Space Station's Harmony module to promote space agricultural activities on spacecraft and space habitats.
Astronaut Tracy Dyson unpacks and examines research gear. She is working inside the NanoRacks Bishop airlock located in the port side of the International Space Station's Tranquility module. The duo installed the the ArgUS Mission-1 technology demonstration hardware inside Bishop for placement outside in the vacuum of space to test the external operations of communications, computer processing, and high-definition video gear.
NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Mike Barratt install the NanoRacks external platform inside the Kibo laboratory module's airlock. The platform from NanoRacks can host a variety of payloads placed outside the International Space Station and exposed to the external space environment for science experiments, technology demonstrations, and more.
NASA astronauts (from left) Tracy Dyson, Expedition 71 Flight Engineer, and Suni Williams, Pilot for Boeing's Crew Flight Test, work inside the NanoRacks Bishop airlock located in the port side of the International Space Station's Tranquility module. The duo installed the the ArgUS Mission-1 technology demonstration hardware inside Bishop for placement outside in the vacuum of space to test the external operations of communications, computer processing, and high-definition video gear.
NASA astronaut and Boeing's Crew Flight Test Pilot Suni Williams is pictured after conducting an exercise session on the COLBERT treadmill located inside the International Space Station's Tranquility module.
NASA astronaut and Boeing Crew Flight Test Commander Butch Wilmore investigates using fluid physics techniques such as surface tension, as well as hydroponics and air circulation, to overcome the lack of gravity when watering and nourishing plants grown in space. The Plant Water Management investigation uses facilities in the International Space Station's Harmony module to promote space agricultural activities on spacecraft and space habitats.
NASA astronaut and Boeing's Crew Flight Test Commander Butch Wilmore reviews procedures on a computer tablet for life support maintenance work aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut and Boeing Crew Flight Test Pilot Suni Williams investigates using fluid physics techniques such as surface tension, as well as hydroponics and air circulation, to overcome the lack of gravity when watering and nourishing plants grown in space. The Plant Water Management investigation uses facilities in the International Space Station's Harmony module to promote space agricultural activities on spacecraft and space habitats.
The next cargo mission to resupply the residents living and working aboard the International Space Station is counting down to a launch at 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 8,200 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for the station. Cygnus will orbit Earth for just over a day-and-a-half before approaching the orbital outpost where the Canadarm2 robotic arm will be waiting to capture the spacecraft.
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Training for International Space Station Mission
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission will carry four people to the International Space Station for a long-duration science expedition. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia trained for their mission across the world, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and international training sites as well. Once aboard the space station, the crew will become Expedition 71/72 flight engineers, spending their time conducting science experiments, doing technology demonstrations in microgravity, performing spacewalks, and maintaining the space station.
This will be Gorbunov’s first trip to space and the station. Born in Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, Russia, he studied engineering with qualifications in spacecraft and upper stages from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Gorbunov graduated from the military department with a specialty in operation and repair of aircraft, helicopters, and aircraft engines. Before being selected as a cosmonaut in 2018, he worked as an engineer for Rocket Space Corporation Energia and supported cargo spacecraft launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
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.
This is the ninth rotational mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It works with the American aerospace industry to meet the goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the orbital outpost on American-made rockets and spacecraft launching from American soil.
Find more information on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
Experience Powerful Gamma-ray Burst GRB 190829A | DESY
The most powerful events in the known universe—gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)—are short-lived outbursts of the highest-energy light. Dive into a cosmic experience in this animation about Gamma-ray Burst GRB 190829A that happened in our cosmic backyard, a "mere" billion light years away. See what happens in a GRB, and how the gamma-ray observatory High Energy Stereoscopic System H.E.S.S. in Namibia, southern Africa, followed the event.
In a distant galaxy, a massive dying star collapses and a neutron star or black hole forms. Relativistic jets break out of the collapsing star, and a supernova is produced. The jet ploughs through the surrounding gas sweeping up particles. Particles scatter on magnetic fields around the blast wave and are accelerated. The accelerated electrons emit high energy photons in the X-ray and gamma-ray regime at every deflection. This emission is called synchrotron radiation. Relativistic beaming occurs in the jet direction. When looking exactly down a jet, the event becomes visible as a gamma-ray burst (GRB).
Roughly 900 million years later, radiation from this gamma-ray burst arrives at Earth and is detected by satellites and telescopes as GRB 190829A. High-energy photons hitting Earth's atmosphere produce particle showers that emit so-called Cherenkov light for a couple of nanoseconds. This glow can be detected by telescopes such as H.E.S.S. This way, H.E.S.S. could follow GRB 190829A for three nights in a row in unprecedented detail.
Meteors over the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope in Arizona
A meteor shower puts on a dazzling show above the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NOIRLab outside of Tucson, AZ. The unique structure dominating this picture is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, renowned for its many decades as the world’s most powerful solar telescope. Now decommissioned, this impressive building is transitioning into a new role as the Windows on the Universe outreach center, designed to educate and inspire future generations. At first glance, a powerful solar telescope under a meteor shower may seem to be a strange juxtaposition. While the telescope may not enhance views of meteor showers, its presence here hints at the interconnectedness of our Universe. The Sun and meteors, though they seem unrelated, share a common heritage as they formed from the same nebula of gas and dust that also gave birth to the planets. This connection, captured brilliantly here underscores the broader mission of Kitt Peak National Observatory and the field of astronomy at large. It studies the skies and identifies our place within the cosmos while bridging the gap between astronomical research and public outreach.
The meteor shower shown here is the Geminids. It produces almost as many meteors per hour as the Perseids every year.
Zodiacal Light over Paranal Observatory in Chile | ESO
This picture takes you to the Paranal Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert, to enjoy a spectacular sunset next to the Very Large Telescope (VLT). However, that is not the only wonder displayed by the clear skies of the Atacama. See that blueish glow across the sky?
The zodiacal light—also called “false dawn” when seen before sunrise—is a faint, diffuse band of light in the night sky, reaching up from the horizon. It follows the direction of the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun. This plane is rich in tiny particles of dust. It scatters sunlight and creates this phenomenon. The other planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane, and therefore can be often seen within the zodiacal light. In this particular image, Venus is the brightest source and Mars is the faint, reddish dot to the upper-right of Venus.
If you have never seen zodiacal light before, you are not alone. The glow is so faint that light pollution or even moonlight can outshine it. Luckily, the Atacama Desert still preserves the full glory of its night skies, a heritage to be protected. How appropriate also that the VLT Unit Telescope enjoying this spectacle of sunlight in the image is the one nicknamed Antu. In the Mapudungun language of central-southern Chile, it means “The Sun”.
Image Description: A fisheye-lense photograph of a telescope against the night sky. The telescope, a light-grey cylindrical structure, takes up the right half of the image. Behind it, the sky is washed in shades of dark blue, green, pink and orange, dotted with thousands of small white and bluish stars. A blue light stretches across the sky towards the bottom left of the image. The bottom third of the image is taken up by the ground, covered in gravel and crossed by a grey walkway.
Credit: D. Gasparri/European Southern Observatory (ESO)
BBC Star Diary: Saturn’s moon casts its shadow across the planet: (July 29-Aug. 4)
Saturn’s moon Dione casts its shadow across the ringed planet this week. Find out how to see the sight for yourself by listening to this week’s episode of Star Diary, July 29 to August 4, 2024, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
Sun Releases Strong X1.5 Solar Flare | NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 10:37 p.m. on July 28, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun constantly and it captured an image of the event.
The Sun is shown in orange with dark splotches and bright yellow areas against a black background. Toward the center of the star is a bright yellow area—the solar flare.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare—seen as the bright flash in the center–on July 28, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. It is colorized in yellow and orange.
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 X1.5 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 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’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.
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. M17, also informally known as the “Omega Nebula” is one of the largest and brightest star-forming regions inside our galaxy. Its size and brightness make it one of the first nebulae to be discovered. This occurred in 1745. The hydrogen gas that gives it its distinctive red color is energized by hot, massive blue stars embedded in the nebula.
Distance: ~5,500 light years
The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen-alpha (orange), Oxygen [OIII] (green) and Sulfur [SII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.
The Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOIRLab (WIYN) Observatory is situated atop Kitt Peak National Observatory, a partnership consisting of University of California Irvine, Purdue University, the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, and NASA.
This Hubble picture reveals the subtle glow of the galaxy named IC 3430, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is part of the Virgo cluster, a rich collection of galaxies large and small. Many are very similar in type to this diminutive galaxy.
IC 3430 is a dwarf galaxy, a fact well reflected by this view from Hubble, but it is more precisely known as a dwarf elliptical or dE galaxy. Like its larger cousins, this galaxy has a smooth, oval shape lacking any recognizable features like arms or bars, and it is bereft of gas to form very many new stars. Interestingly, IC 3430 does feature a core of hot, massive blue stars, an uncommon sight in elliptical galaxies that indicates recent star-forming activity. It is believed that ram pressure from the galaxy ploughing through gas within the Virgo cluster has ignited what gas remains in IC 3430’s core to form new stars.
Dwarf galaxies are really just galaxies with not many stars, usually fewer than a billion, but that is often enough for them to reproduce in miniature the same forms as larger galaxies. There are dwarf elliptical galaxies like IC 3430, dwarf irregular galaxies, dwarf spheroidal galaxies and even dwarf spiral galaxies! The so-called Magellanic spiral is a distinct type of dwarf galaxy, too, the best example being the well-known dwarf galaxies that are the Magellanic Clouds.
Image Description: A relatively small, oval-shaped galaxy, tilted diagonally. It glows brightly at the center and dims gradually to its edge. At the center it is crossed by wisps of dark dust, and a few small, blue, glowing spots are visible, where stars are forming. The galaxy is on a dark background where many background galaxies and foreground stars can be seen.
This Hubble picture reveals the subtle glow of the galaxy named IC 3430, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is part of the Virgo cluster, a rich collection of galaxies large and small. Many are very similar in type to this diminutive galaxy.
IC 3430 is a dwarf galaxy, a fact well reflected by this view from Hubble, but it is more precisely known as a dwarf elliptical or dE galaxy. Like its larger cousins, this galaxy has a smooth, oval shape lacking any recognizable features like arms or bars, and it is bereft of gas to form very many new stars. Interestingly, IC 3430 does feature a core of hot, massive blue stars, an uncommon sight in elliptical galaxies that indicates recent star-forming activity. It is believed that ram pressure from the galaxy ploughing through gas within the Virgo cluster has ignited what gas remains in IC 3430’s core to form new stars.
Dwarf galaxies are really just galaxies with not many stars, usually fewer than a billion, but that is often enough for them to reproduce in miniature the same forms as larger galaxies. There are dwarf elliptical galaxies like IC 3430, dwarf irregular galaxies, dwarf spheroidal galaxies and even dwarf spiral galaxies! The so-called Magellanic spiral is a distinct type of dwarf galaxy, too, the best example being the well-known dwarf galaxies that are the Magellanic Clouds.
Image Description: A relatively small, oval-shaped galaxy, tilted diagonally. It glows brightly at the center and dims gradually to its edge. At the center it is crossed by wisps of dark dust, and a few small, blue, glowing spots are visible, where stars are forming. The galaxy is on a dark background where many background galaxies and foreground stars can be seen.
Examples of Our Galaxy’s Black Holes | European Southern Observatory
This artist’s animation shows the locations and distances (in light-years [ly]) to examples of our galaxy’s stellar black holes: Gaia BH3, a black hole now found to be the most massive stellar black hole ever identified; Cygnus X-1, the next most massive stellar black hole; and Gaia BH1, the closest black hole to Earth. At the center of our galaxy, lurks Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole.
Note that, due to a projection effect, Gaia BH3 looks closer to the Sun than Gaia BH1, but in reality the former is further away. It is the second-closest black hole to Earth identified to date.
Video Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/L. Calçada/Space Engine
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