Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
Hybrid Observatory Concept Could Find Earth-like Worlds | NASA
Researchers are working on a new concept that could help us search for Earth-like exoplanets like never before. By combining the light-blocking capability of an in-space starshade with the immense power of the largest ground-based telescopes, the Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets concept could change the way we hunt for Earth-like planets beyond our own.
We take a look at the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) that could help us hunt for Earth-like worlds. To learn more visit: https://go.nasa.gov/3EdqgRa
To watch the in-depth presentation about this topic please visit the 2022 NIAC Symposium Vimeo site:
This video represents a research study within the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. NIAC is a visionary and far-reaching aerospace program, one that has the potential to create breakthrough technologies for possible future space missions. However, such early-stage technology developments may never become actual NASA missions.
NASA Artemis Updates: Orion Assembly + Mobile Launcher | Kennedy Space Center
Here's the latest update for NASA's Artemis program. Learn about Orion spacecraft mating and new sound suppression testing on the Mobile Launcher.
The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.
Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:
Nearby Galaxies: The Large & Small Magellanic Clouds | International Space Station
The Large Magellanic Cloud (center) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (upper left), dwarf galaxies in close proximity with the Milky Way galaxy, are pictured from the International Space Station. NASA astronaut and Expedition 71 Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick took this long-duration photograph with a station camera increasing its sensitivity to account for low light conditions.
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:
Farewell to NEOWISE: NASA’s Asteroid-Hunting Telescope | JPL
NASA's NEOWISE mission ended on Aug. 8, 2024, after more than a decade of discovering and tracking near-Earth objects—asteroids and comets that come close to Earth’s orbit. The mission team gathered at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California as the spacecraft received its final command to turn off its transmitter, concluding the mission.
Launched in 2009 as Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the space telescope completed its primary mission to conduct an all-sky survey in the infrared spectrum. The spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011, then re-awakened in 2013 for a second career as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer).
NEOWISE is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and safely burn up in late 2024.
Views of Galaxy Messier 106 by Hubble & Webb Space Telescopes
This collage features three views of Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258. The first two images show the target in visible light as seen by the Kitt Peak National Observatory's Mayall Telescope and the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The image on the right is a new image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope in the infrared.
This is a nearby spiral galaxy that resides roughly 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, practically a neighbor by cosmic standards. Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own and two supernovae have been observed in this galaxy in 1981 and 2014.
Image Description: A graphic with three images. The leftmost image shows a spiral galaxy in full on a dark background, seen in visible light by a ground-based telescope. A box over an area in the center of the galaxy links by a pullout to the two right images. They both display this area larger and in more detail. The center image shows it in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope, the right in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Glenn, KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), R. Gendler, M.T. Patterso, T.A. Rector, D. de Martin & M. Zamani
Pan of Galaxy Messier 106 | James Webb Space Telescope
Featured in this new image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope is Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258. This is a nearby spiral galaxy that resides roughly 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, practically a neighbor by cosmic standards. Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own and two supernovae have been observed in this galaxy in 1981 and 2014.
At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the center of the Milky Way that pulls in wisps of gas only occasionally, Messier 106’s black hole is actively gobbling up material. As the gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation.
This image was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). The observation was taken as part of a dedicated program to study the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus, the galaxy’s bright central region that is dominated by the light emitted by dust and gas as it falls into the black hole. The blue regions in this image reflect stellar distribution throughout the central region of the galaxy. The orange regions indicate warmer dust and the stronger red hues represent colder dust. The teal, green and yellow tones near the center of the image depict varying gas distributions throughout the region.
The galaxy has a remarkable feature—it is known to have two ‘anomalous’ extra arms visible in radio and X-ray wavelengths, rather than in the visible. Unlike the normal arms, these are composed of hot gas instead of stars. Astronomers believe these extra arms result from the black hole’s activity, a feedback effect seen in other galaxies as well. They are likely caused by outflowing material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon analogous to a wave crashing up out of the ocean when it hits a rock near the shore.
Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor cataloged by the renowned 18th century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the catalogue in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the Messier catalogue in the 20th century.
Image Description: The central region of a spiral galaxy. Its core is a small bright point radiating bright, bluish-white light over the scene. The white light is diffuse and many point-like stars in the galaxy (and even background galaxies) can be seen through it. The galaxy’s arms can be seen as broad, swirling streaks of glowing gas and dust, colored red and orange. Two additional arms are revealed in green.
Video Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Glenn; M. Zamani, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
The Hidden Intricacies of Galaxy Messier 106 | James Webb Space Telescope
Featured in this new image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope is Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258. This is a nearby spiral galaxy that resides roughly 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, practically a neighbor by cosmic standards. Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own and two supernovae have been observed in this galaxy in 1981 and 2014.
At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the center of the Milky Way that pulls in wisps of gas only occasionally, Messier 106’s black hole is actively gobbling up material. As the gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation.
This image was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). The observation was taken as part of a dedicated program to study the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus, the galaxy’s bright central region that is dominated by the light emitted by dust and gas as it falls into the black hole. The blue regions in this image reflect stellar distribution throughout the central region of the galaxy. The orange regions indicate warmer dust and the stronger red hues represent colder dust. The teal, green and yellow tones near the center of the image depict varying gas distributions throughout the region.
The galaxy has a remarkable feature—it is known to have two ‘anomalous’ extra arms visible in radio and X-ray wavelengths, rather than in the visible. Unlike the normal arms, these are composed of hot gas instead of stars. Astronomers believe these extra arms result from the black hole’s activity, a feedback effect seen in other galaxies as well. They are likely caused by outflowing material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon analogous to a wave crashing up out of the ocean when it hits a rock near the shore.
Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor cataloged by the renowned 18th century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the catalogue in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the Messier catalogue in the 20th century.
Image Description: The central region of a spiral galaxy. Its core is a small bright point radiating bright, bluish-white light over the scene. The white light is diffuse and many point-like stars in the galaxy (and even background galaxies) can be seen through it. The galaxy’s arms can be seen as broad, swirling streaks of glowing gas and dust, colored red and orange. Two additional arms are revealed in green.
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Glenn; CC BY 4.0
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 3:35 p.m. ET on August 8, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun constantly and it captured an image of the event as seen in the bright flash on the right. This image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. It is colorized in teal. This flare is classified as an X1.3 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
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.
The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. CMEs are sometimes associated with flares but can occur independently.
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.
Image Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
China's Shenzhou-18 Astronauts Celebrate Paris Olympics with Microgravity Games
The three Shenzhou-18 crew members aboard China's orbiting Tiangong space station—Ye Guangfu, Li Cong, and Li Guangsu—celebrated the Paris Summer Olympics and China's 16th National Fitness Day in microgravity via a video released by China Manned Space Agency on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. It showed the astronauts participating in exercises reminiscent of the sports played during the Games.
The activity started with the passing of a torch from Ye Guangfu to Li Cong to Li Guangsu, then finally back to Ye, the commander.
Following this, the orbital games began. Li Guangsu demonstrated impressive skills in the men's singles table tennis match. While watching a thrilling group stage match of China's women's volleyball team, Ye Guangfu and Li Cong began playing volleyball in zero gravity.
A men's medley in the 16-meter-long Tianhe core module was also included in the light-hearted video, with Ye eventually winning the competition with a slight advantage.
Ye also did some weightlifting, lifting a bar that Li Guangsu and Li Cong were clutching off the "ground."
In addition, the crew gave their best wishes to the Olympic athletes.
"May the medals of Chinese Olympic athletes line up from one end of a street to the other. Enjoy the journey and create remarkable moments!" said Ye.
"Going all out to progress towards your dreams. At the space station, we will witness the endless potential in you," said Li Cong.
"Wishing you all to surpass your limits, achieve greater success, and create new brilliance!" said Li Guangsu.
China launched the Shenzhou-18 crewed spaceship to send the three astronauts to its orbiting Tiangong space station for a six-month mission on April 25, 2024. This is the 32nd flight mission of the country's crewed space program.
Shenzhou-18 Crew:
Ye Guangfu (叶光富, commander)
Li Cong (李聪, mission specialist)
Li Guangsu (李广苏, mission specialist)
Video Credit: China Central Television (CCTV) Video News Agency
NASA's Space to Ground: "Delivery" | Week of Aug. 9, 2024
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The Northrop Grumman Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station on Aug. 6, 2024. It carried 8,200 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for Northrop Grumman’s 21st commercial resupply mission for NASA.
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:
Orbital Sunrise over Pacific Ocean | International Space Station
An orbital sunrise colorfully illuminates the Earth's atmosphere and highlights the boundary between night and day, also known as the terminator, in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 267 miles above the Pacific Ocean north of Auckland, New Zealand.
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:
The Most Distant Known Galaxy: JADES-GS-z14-0 | James Webb Space Telescope
A field of thousands of small galaxies of various shapes and colors on the black background of space. A bright, foreground star with diffraction spikes is at lower left. Near image center, a tiny white box outlines a region and two diagonal lines lead to a box in upper right. Within the box is a banana-shaped blob that is blueish-red in one half and distinctly red in the other half. An arrow points to the redder portion and is labeled "JADES GS z 14 0."
Scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) to obtain a spectrum of the distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 in order to accurately measure its redshift and therefore determine its age. The redshift can be determined from the location of a critical wavelength known as the Lyman-alpha break. This galaxy dates back to less than 300 million years after the big bang.
Over the last two years, scientists have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn—the period in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang where the first galaxies were born. These galaxies provide vital insight into the ways in which the gas, stars, and black holes were changing when the universe was very young. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers used Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), they obtained a spectrum of a record-breaking galaxy observed only two hundred and ninety million years after the Big Bang. This corresponds to a redshift of about 14, a measure of how much a galaxy’s light is stretched by the expansion of the universe.
The NIRCam data was used to determine which galaxies to study further with spectroscopic observations. One such galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0 (shown in the pullout), was determined to be at a redshift of 14.32 (+0.08/-0.20), making it the current record-holder for the most distant known galaxy. This corresponds to a time less than 300 million years after the Big Bang.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA), J. Olmsted (STScI). Science: S. Carniani (Scuola Normale Superiore), JADES Collaboration
GOODS-South Visualization: 9,500+ Galaxies | James Webb Space Telescope
Thousands of small galaxies are scattered on a black background. There are noticeable spirals, either face-on or edge-on, while others are blobby ellipticals. Many are too small to discern any structure. A few spirals are bluish, but most of the galaxies appear yellow or red. A handful of stars display eight-point diffraction spikes.
The final view is of distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0. It is the current record-holder for the most distant known galaxy. This corresponds to a time less than 300 million years after the Big Bang.
These infrared images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were taken for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, program. It shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, which has been well studied by the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. More than 45,000 galaxies are visible here.
Using these and other data, the JADES team has discovered hundreds of galaxies that existed when the universe was less than 600 million years old. The sheer number of these galaxies was far beyond predictions from observations made before Webb’s launch.
The team also has identified galaxies that existed during a time known as the Epoch of Reionization, when the universe underwent a transformation from opaque to transparent. Many of these galaxies shown unusually strong emission line signatures due to the creation of multitudes of hot, massive stars.
Credits:
Image: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA)
Zooming to Irregular Dwarf Galaxy Sextans A | Mayall Telescope
This video zooms to the glittering image captured by the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. It shows the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A that lies around 4.4 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy, only a fraction of the size of the Milky Way, has been contorted by successive waves of supernova explosions into the roughly square shape we see from Earth—a cosmic jewelry box filled with bright young stars.
Sextans A is displayed in style in this gorgeous image, which showcases the irregular shape of this dwarf galaxy. Irregular galaxies such as Sextans A do not have the regular appearance of spiral or elliptical galaxies, but instead display a range of weird and wonderful shapes. These galaxies are relatively small, and they are often susceptible to distortions resulting from close encounters or collisions with larger galaxies—sometimes leading to their irregular shapes. Sextans A is particularly small, measuring only about 5,000 light-years across.
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Data Obtained & Processed by: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, & C. Smith (AURA/NSF)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
The Cat’s Eye Nebula | Hubble’s Inside the Image | NASA Goddard
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image of the Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the most complex planetary nebulae known, with its intricate structure of concentric rings and high-density knots. In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter delves into the beauty of this cosmic jewel and discusses the critical role Hubble plays in unraveling the secrets of stellar evolution and the lifecycle of stars.
The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 and Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco, discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. It was the first planetary nebula whose spectrum was investigated by the English amateur astronomer William Huggins, demonstrating that planetary nebulae were gaseous and not stellar in nature. Structurally, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed knots, jets, bubbles and complex arcs, being illuminated by the central hot planetary nebula nucleus (PNN).
Zooming in on Calcium-rich Supernova SN 2019ehk in Spiral Galaxy Messier 100
Zooming in on the calcium-rich supernova SN 2019ehk in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
Astronomers have for the first time used X-ray imaging to examine a calcium-rich supernova located 50 million light-years away. Their findings, published in the Astrophysical Journal, show that a calcium-rich supernova is a compact star that sheds an outer layer of gas during the final stages of its life; when the star explodes, its matter collides with the loose material in that outer shell, emitting bright X-rays; the overall explosion causes intensely hot temperatures and high pressure, driving a chemical reaction that produces calcium. A supernova is the largest explosion that humans have ever seen.
Half of all the calcium in the Universe—including the calcium in our teeth and bones—was created in stellar explosions called calcium-rich supernovae. These events are so rare that astrophysicists have struggled to find and subsequently study them.
“Calcium-rich supernovae are so few in number that we have never known what produced them,” said Dr. Wynn Jacobson-Galan, a researcher at Northwestern University.
“By observing what this star did in its final month before it reached its critical, tumultuous end, we peered into a place previously unexplored, opening new avenues of study within transient science.”
Dr. Jacobson-Galan and colleagues studied a calcium-rich supernova dubbed SN 2019ehk in Messier 100, a star-forming spiral galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
This stellar explosion was first spotted on April 29, 2019 by amateur astronomer Joel Shepherd.
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Lick Observatory and the W. M. Keck Observatory immediately examined SN 2019ehk in optical wavelengths.
Swift also observed the event in X-rays and ultraviolet. The X-ray emission only lingered for five days before completely disappearing.
“Before this event, we had indirect information about what calcium-rich supernovae might or might not be. Now, we can confidently rule out several possibilities,” said Dr. Raffaella Margutti, also from Northwestern University.
Typical stars create small amounts of calcium slowly through burning helium throughout their lives. Calcium-rich supernovae produce massive amounts of calcium within seconds.
Credits:
A. M. Geller/Northwestern University/CTIO/SOAR/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen, C. C. Thöne and C. Féron; A. Fujii and Z. Levay (STScI); C. Kilpatrick/University of California Santa Cruz/NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope
.jpg)
RD.jpg)
.jpg)
