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.
The most beautiful summertime meteor shower in the northern hemisphere, the Perseids, has been witnessed by many people in China recently. Professional photographers are among those in attendance. Among them is Jeff Dai, who talked about his experience with Zheng Yibing of CGTN.
Video Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)
NASA CubeSat Rocket Launch Recap: Noise of Summer | Firefly Aerospace
The Alpha rocket lit up the night sky across the southwest United States just before Independence Day! Relive the excitement of Firefly's Noise of Summer Mission that launched 8 NASA CubeSats.
As part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, Firefly Aerospace launched eight small satellites on July 3, 2024, aboard the company’s Alpha rocket. Named “Noise of Summer,” the rocket successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg in California at 9:04 p.m. PDT.
The CubeSat missions were designed by universities and NASA centers and cover science that includes climate studies, satellite technology development, and educational outreach to students.
Firefly Aerospace completed its Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract with this launch. The agency’s venture-class contracts offer launch opportunities for new providers, helping grow the commercial launch industry and leading to cost-effective competition for future NASA missions.
NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative provides a low-cost way for universities, non-profits, science centers, and other researchers to conduct science and technology demonstrations in space.
The Moon, Aurora & Sunrise | International Space Station
NASA Astronaut Matthew Dominick: "Timelapse of the Moon setting into streams of red and green aurora followed by a sunrise lighting up Soyuz with a light blue. The aurora have been amazing the past few days. Great timing for trying out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus."
Technical details: 15mm, T1.8, 1/3s exposure, 1/2 s interval
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:
Galaxy NGC 6902 in Sagittarius | SPECULOOS Southern Observatory
This is a first-light image from the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. This planet-hunting machine is designed to observe nearby but dim stars to locate exoplanets for other telescopes—such as European Southern Observatory's upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)—to study in detail. Comprising four one-meter telescopes, each named after one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, SPECULOOS aims to open up new frontiers in exoplanet research.
This image, however, is obviously not of a faint star, but of a galaxy called NGC 6902. Before a telescope starts its primary mission it must successfully undertake an event called “first light”: the first time it is used for a scientific observation. Astronomers typically pick well-known objects for this initial test of a telescope’s capabilities. It is half demonstration and half celebration. In this case, the team settled on NGC 6902 as the first-light target for the Ganymede telescope.
The result was this stunning image of the spiral galaxy. It is found about 120 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The galaxy’s spiral arms swirl outwards from a bright center until they dissolve into streams of blue haze at the galaxy’s edge. Discovered in the year 1836 by John Herschel, NGC 6902 is a beautiful spiral galaxy located more than 130 million light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius, the Archer.
NASA Harnesses Kraken Spinning Device to Simulate Human Spaceflight
This summer, NASA is using the Kraken, a 50-foot-long, 100-ton U.S. Navy research device, to simulate space motion sickness and test possible recovery strategies for astronauts. The Kraken, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, can rotate participants at exposures of up to 3G.
As missions stretch further to the Moon and eventually to Mars, a priority is reducing symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and vertigo so that astronauts stay healthy and ready for their missions.
Distant Edge-on Spiral Galaxy: LO95 0313-192 in Eridanus | Hubble
Despite its unassuming appearance, the edge-on spiral galaxy captured in the left half of this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image is actually quite remarkable.
Located about one billion light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus, this striking galaxy—known as LO95 0313-192—has a spiral shape similar to that of the Milky Way. It has a large central bulge, and arms speckled with brightly glowing gas mottled by thick lanes of dark dust. Its companion, sitting pretty in the right of the frame, is known rather unpoetically as [LOY2001] J031549.8-190623.
Jets, outbursts of superheated gas moving at close to the speed of light, have long been associated with the cores of giant elliptical galaxies, and galaxies in the process of merging. However, in an unexpected discovery, astronomers found LO95 0313-192 to have intense radio jets spewing out from its center! The galaxy appears to have two more regions that are also strongly emitting in the radio part of the spectrum, making it even rarer still.
The discovery of these giant jets in 2003—not visible in this image, but indicated in this earlier Hubble composite—has been followed by the unearthing of a further three spiral galaxies containing radio-emitting jets in recent years. This growing class of unusual spirals continues to raise significant questions about how jets are produced within galaxies, and how they are thrown out into the cosmos.
Testing Technology for Mars Exploration: LOFTID | NASA
On November 10, 2022, NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, successfully demonstrated a cross-cutting aeroshell—a type of heat shield—for atmospheric re-entry. Video of the mission highlights and analysis of performance of NASA’s cutting-edge entry, descent and landing technology: Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID).
How NASA Sees the Shift from La Niña to El Niño | NASA Goddard
El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), is an ocean-atmosphere coupled phenomenon that affects global weather such as rainfall and drought patterns. We use several NASA and NOAA data products (listed below) to visualize the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere during the transition from La Niña 2021 to El Niño 2023.
The visualization is a comprehensive explainer showing changes in the upper 300 meters of the Pacific Ocean (such as thermocline relaxation and eastward movement of warm temperature anomalies) and the changes in the lower atmosphere (e.g., the Walker Circulation).
It is among the first efforts in visualizing the Walker Circulation and its convective branch moving across the Pacific without schematic plots but rather with verified model outputs.
Northern Lights over Shallow Lake, Ontario, Canada
On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.
Earth auroras have different names depending on the pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.
The Colors of the Aurora (U.S. National Park Service)
Wildfire Smoke from Canada in Earth's Atmosphere | International Space Station
A wildfire in Canada and its smoke circulating in the Earth's atmosphere, pictured from the Intenational Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above North Dakota in the United States.
Visit National Wildland Fire Situation Report (Canada) for updates:
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 Hyades Star Cluster in Taurus | Digitized Sky Survey 2
Wide-field view of the Hyades star cluster in the Milky Way galaxy created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Distance: ~150 light years
The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.
Barred, Spiral Galaxy MCG+07-07-072 in Perseus | Hubble
The subject of this picture is located in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. A barred spiral galaxy has a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars.
MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape, for a spiral galaxy, with thin arms emerging from the ends of its barred core to draw a near-circle around its disc. It is classified, using a common extension of the basic Hubble scheme, as an SBc(r) galaxy: the c denotes that its two spiral arms are loosely wound, each only performing a half-turn around the galaxy, and the (r) is for the ring-like structure they create. Rings in galaxies come in quite a few forms, from merely uncommon, to rare and astrophysically important.
Lenticular galaxies are a type that sit between elliptical and spiral galaxies. They feature a large disc, unlike an elliptical galaxy, but lack any spiral arms. Lenticular means lens-shaped, and these galaxies often feature ring-like shapes in their discs.
Meanwhile, the classification of “ring galaxy” is reserved for peculiar galaxies with a round ring of gas and star formation, much like spiral arms look, but completely disconnected from the galactic nucleus—or even without any visible nucleus! They are thought to be formed in galactic collisions.
Finally, there are the famous gravitational lenses, where the ring is in fact a distorted image of a distant, background galaxy, formed by the ‘lens’ galaxy bending light around it. Ring-shaped images, called Einstein rings, only form when the lensing and imaged galaxies are perfectly aligned.
Image Description: A galaxy. It is almost circular. It has a glowing bar stretching across its core; from the ends of the bar, thin spiral arms wrap around the galaxy to form a closed disc. The arms are fuzzy from the dust and stars they contain. The galaxy is on a black, mostly-empty background. A few foreground stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes can be seen, as well as distant galaxies in the background.
Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy Captured between a Unit Telescope | ESO
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) captured between the enclosure of one of the four Unit Telescopes that forms part of the Very Large Telescope array (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile—the flagship facility for European ground-based astronomy.
The Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy above ESO Telescope in Chile
This image, taken by European Southern Observatory (ESO) Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek, captures the moment that Yepun (UT4), one of the four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes comprising ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shoots a laser beam up into the dark night sky over the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
The laser shown in this image acts as an artificial star, known as a Laser Guide Star. It is used to help astronomers adjust for the blurring and distorting effects of the Earth’s atmosphere. When observing a patch of sky, astronomers set up a laser guide star nearby and measure the tiny fluctuations in its image. The VLT’s adaptive optics system can then use this reference to correct for the changes and distortions in the intervening atmosphere and produce the sharpest images possible in the main observations.
Looming over Yepun is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a barred spiral galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. A faint white glow marks the location of older stellar populations within the LMC, while the iridescent hues of magenta and blue mark young stellar nurseries.
The LMC, as well as its smaller namesake, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), have been studied many times by ESO telescopes over the years. Its many cosmic delights, including nebulae and star clusters, can be seen in detail due to their proximity, and provide amateur and professional astronomers alike with breathtaking targets for observation.
Shenzhou-18 Crew: Maintenance & Handling Emergencies | China Space Station
China's Shenzhou-18 manned space mission crew have completed various tasks including the station's environmental and equipment maintenance and inspection, in-orbit emergency evacuation, and health monitoring and check more than halfway through their six-month mission aboard the Tiangong space station, lately released footage showed.
China's Shenzhou-18 manned space mission crew have completed various tasks including the station's environmental and equipment maintenance and inspection, in-orbit emergency evacuation, and health monitoring and check More than halfway through their six-month mission aboard the Tiangong space station, lately released footage showed.
The Shenzhou-18 crew, comprising astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, have spent more than 100 days in space since they were aboard in late April.
Last week, the trio installed a lid and replenished water for the urine processing system to facilitate water recycling and reuse inside the space station, according to a footage released by the China Manned Space Agency.
The crew also collected the station's environmental data through microbial sampling and testing on the total organic carbon, the total volatile organic compounds, and the in-cabin thermal environment. Based on these data, ground researchers can make assessment and appraisal of the station's internal environment to ensure the health and safety of astronauts.
In addition, the crew carried out a regular fire alarm drill last week to practice emergency evacuation under various working conditions while quickly putting on the space suit.
They also classified various living materials and materials for scientific experiments, and conducted garbage transfer and stocking, and the assorting and counting of medical supplies to make the space station clean and tidy.
To guarantee that their physical conditions enable them to perform various tasks, they received multiple medical checks, including the noninvasive cardiac function test which is safe, accurate, reliable and quite easy to perform.
China's Shenzhou-18 manned space mission crew have completed various tasks including the station's environmental and equipment maintenance and inspection, in-orbit emergency evacuation, and health monitoring and check More than halfway through their six-month mission aboard the Tiangong space station, lately released footage showed.
The Shenzhou-18 crew, comprising astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, have spent more than 100 days in space since they were aboard in late April.
Last week, the trio installed a lid and replenished water for the urine processing system to facilitate water recycling and reuse inside the space station, according to a footage released by the China Manned Space Agency.
The crew also collected the station's environmental data through microbial sampling and testing on the total organic carbon, the total volatile organic compounds, and the in-cabin thermal environment. Based on these data, ground researchers can make assessment and appraisal of the station's internal environment to ensure the health and safety of astronauts.
In addition, the crew carried out a regular fire alarm drill last week to practice emergency evacuation under various working conditions while quickly putting on the space suit.
They also classified various living materials and materials for scientific experiments, and conducted garbage transfer and stocking, and the assorting and counting of medical supplies to make the space station clean and tidy.
To guarantee that their physical conditions enable them to perform various tasks, they received multiple medical checks, including the noninvasive cardiac function test which is safe, accurate, reliable and quite easy to perform.
Black Hole Discovered in Next Door Galaxy's Star Cluster NGC 1850 | ESO
Astronomers discovered a small black hole outside the Milky Way by looking at how it influences the motion of a star in its close vicinity. This video summarizes the discovery.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Directed by: Herbert Zodet and Martin Wallner
Editing: Herbert Zodet
Written by: Juliet Hannay and Giulio Mazzolo
Footage and photos: ESO, L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser, N. Risinger, DSS, NASA/ESA/M. Romaniello
Acknowledgement: Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos. Gianluca Lombardi
Scientific Consultants: Paola Amico and Mariya Lyubenova
.jpg)
.jpg)
