news, journals and articles from all over the world.
To celebrate Hubble’s 34th launch anniversary, NASA released the telescope’s new observation of the Little Dumbbell Nebula. Also known as Messier 76, or M76, it is composed of a ring, seen edge-on as the central bar structure, where a central red giant star burned out, and two lobes of gas and dust that are on either opening of the ring.
Astronomers and volunteer citizen scientists used Hubble’s unique capabilities to identify a largely unseen population of very small asteroids. The treasure hunt required perusing 37,000 archived Hubble images spanning 19 years. The payoff? Finding 1,701 asteroid trails, with 1,031 of the asteroids previously uncatalogued. About 400 of these uncatalogued asteroids are smaller than 1 kilometer.
Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is among eight university teams in the United States selected to work with NASA and the U.S. military to foster innovation and expertise in the small satellite sector.
You may have flown a flight simulator in a computer game or at a science museum. Landing without crashing is always the hardest part. But that’s nothing compared to the challenge that engineers are facing to develop a flight simulation of the very large vehicles necessary for humans to explore the surface of Mars. The Red Planet poses innumerable challenges to astronauts, not the least of which is getting there. That’s where the Department of Energy Office of Science’s user facility supercomputers come in. Researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are working with NASA engineers and scientists to simulate the process of slowing down a huge spacecraft as it moves towards Mars’ surface.
A solar-powered aircraft being developed by a University of Miami aerospace engineer could fly on Mars to help answer questions about the red planet.
A Hubble telescope survey has found that brown dwarfs—objects smaller than stars but bigger than planets—live a lonely life as they age. Over time they lose the companion brown dwarf that was born alongside them and the objects drift their separate ways.
Nobel Laureate Brian Kobilka, MD, and NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir, PhD, are among the highlighted speakers who will attend the American Physiology Summit, the American Physiological Society’s (APS) flagship annual meeting. The Summit will be held April 4–7, 2024, in Long Beach, California.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a prototype for an instrument for a future Moon mission with support from a nearly $3 million grant from NASA.
A new Webb study of two protostars, so young that they have not yet formed planets, has found a variety of molecules ranging from relatively simple ones like methane to complex compounds like acetic acid (familiar to cooks as an ingredient in vinegar). These molecules constitute key ingredients for worlds that might one day host life.
The best measurements from Hubble show the universe is now expanding faster than predicted based on observations of how it looked shortly after the big bang. Some scientists suggested that Hubble observations are wrong due to some creeping inaccuracy in its deep-space yardstick. However, Webb’s sharp infrared views of milepost markers known as Cepheids agree with Hubble data.
In the astronomy field, the term “nearby” is quite relative. Neighboring galaxies to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, are a few million light-years away. In contrast, some of the most distant galaxies ever detected, closer to the Big Bang, are billions of light-years away.
Dan Goldberg, an assistant research professor at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health is an expert on climate change, environmental occupational health and global environmental health. He will lead a panel discussion along with NASA specialists at…
Space Telescope Live provides an interactive way to explore the most accurate, up-to-date, publicly available information on current, past, and upcoming observations by NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.
Delivering on its promise to transform our understanding of the early universe, the James Webb Space Telescope is probing galaxies near the dawn of time. One of these is the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when the universe was just a tiny fraction of its current age. One of the youngest and most distant galaxies ever observed, it is also one of the most enigmatic. Why is it so bright? Webb appears to have found the answer.
Spacecraft engineering experts from Missouri University of Science and Technology are available to discuss the first U.S. spacecraft successfully landing on the moon in over five decades. Dr. Hank Pernicka, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of aerospace engineering, has been a…
When galaxies go bump in the night, they cook-up new generations of stars that might otherwise have never been born. These close encounters between galaxies cause a gravitational tug-of-war.
El Observatorio Vera C. Rubin ayudará a los científicos a identificar objetivos intrigantes para dar prioridad a futuras misiones espaciales, mediante la detección de millones de nuevos objetos en el Sistema Solar y revelar, con el mayor detalle jamás visto, el contexto más amplio en el que existen.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help scientists identify intriguing targets to prioritize for future space missions by detecting millions of new Solar System objects, and by revealing — in more detail than we’ve ever seen — the broader context in which these objects exist.
With a panoramic view 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared view, the sheer amount of data captured by the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will change the landscape of astronomy.
A surgeon’s hands could stretch 250 miles above Earth, should an upcoming test of a miniaturized surgical robot aboard the International Space Station prove successful.
The next generation of advanced telescopes could sharpen the hunt for potential extraterrestrial life by closely scrutinizing the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets, new research suggests.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Lotz as the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Dr. Lotz will begin her five-year appointment as STScI Director starting February 12, 2024.
Using Webb’s spectacular sensitivity, scientists captured the first mid-infrared spectrum from space of a kilonova, which marked Webb’s first direct look at an individual heavy element from such an event.
NASA sensors scattered across land, sea, and space have collected hundreds of terabytes of Earth science data over the past four decades. Imagine if a digital assistant like Alexa or Siri, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), could quickly and easily sift through that data to answer scientific questions for researchers.
Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, have supported a ground-breaking measurement that is helping solve a 60-year-old cosmic mystery that involves the question of why the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, is so much hotter than the surface of the Sun itself.
If West Virginia University research pays off, debris that litters the planet’s orbit and poses a threat to spacecraft and satellites could get nudged off potential collision courses by a coordinated network of space lasers.
Hubble zoomed in for a close-up look at one sliver of the Cygnus Loop nebula–a huge bubble of glowing gasses. Gossamer filaments resembling wrinkles in a bedsheet stretched across two light-years were found.
For as long as humans have gazed into the night sky, we have wondered about life beyond the Earth. Scientists now know that several places in our solar system might have conditions suitable for life.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a high-resolution look at Herbig-Haro 211 (HH 211), a bipolar jet traveling through interstellar space at supersonic speeds.
Astronomers have uncovered a link between Neptune’s shifting cloud abundance and the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle that increases the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the planet. This discovery is based on three decades of observations by Hubble.
The atmosphere was out of this world as a NASA astronaut returned to her former university to receive an honorary doctorate.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, will highlight its extensive capabilities in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, directed energy, information systems, rotorcraft systems, supply chain management and hypersonics during the Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala.
All stories start somewhere – even the incomprehensibly vast expanse above us has a beginning. Scientists have long studied the cosmos, searching for answers to the “how’s” and “why’s” of life, and that effort continues to this day. From concepts such as ‘Cosmic Dawn’ and ‘redshift,’ UNLV astronomer and computer scientist Paul La Plante focuses on topics that improve our understanding of where it all began.
Michaela Hemming, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), is using a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) fellowship to make advances in propulsion under the guidance of NASA engineers.Hemming has designed a small-scale rotating detonation engine (RDE) manufactured by NASA as part of a joint research effort.
Georgia Tech researchers have been selected by NASA to lead a $7.5 million center that will study the lunar environment, and explore the generation and properties of volatiles and dust.
Mae Jemison, the first woman of color in the world to go into space, will address the graduates at the University of Delaware’s Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 27.
Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso will help build a robotic device for welding in space, prepare astronauts for a mission to the Moon and more, thanks to a slew of new grants from NASA.
A team consisting of mechanical and aerospace engineering majors at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) competed in the 2023 NASA Student Launch, hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Supported by the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and U.S. aerospace industry, the event is a NASA-conducted engineering design challenge that involves the design, documentation, fabrication and testing of a rocket and payload in support of a particular NASA mission.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) notched a record $169.5 million in research and development expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2022, a 13% increase over FY21. This announcement accompanies the National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey findings which cover FY21 and mark the 10th year in a row UAH has had five or more research programs ranked in the top 25 nationally for federal research funding.
A team from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) placed first in the 2023 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) this year. The competition, held April 20-22 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) Aviation Challenge area, tasks college and high school teams from around the nation and the world to design, develop, build and test human-powered rovers capable of negotiating difficult terrain, as well as a task tool for completion of various mission tasks.
In support of coming Artemis missions to the moon and beyond, HERC encourages research and development of new technology for future mission planning and crewed space missions to other worlds. The UAH rover is nicknamed ‘HERCules,’ and was guided by a two-person crew, competing with 49 teams from 20 states and eight countries.
A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet’s formation and evolution.
The AAAS’s inaugural Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award honors recognizes Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden Jr., USMC (Ret), a former administrator of NASA; John Mather, senior project scientist of the JWST since 1995; and Bill Ochs, JWST project manager from 2011 through the telescope’s launch. The award selection committee seeks to acknowledge not only the winners’ individual contributions, but also the teams they inspired, whose collective work has given us all a completely different view of the universe.
Astronomers are celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 33rd launch anniversary with an ethereal photo of the star-forming region NGC 1333. Hubble’s colorful view unveils an effervescent cauldron of glowing gasses and dust stirred up and blown around by several hundred newly forming stars embedded within the dark cloud.
NASA scientists are using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study moon rocks collected from the Apollo space missions. The samples are made of dust and rock fragments that combined and struck the moon’s surface possibly billions of years ago. As plans to travel to Mars progress, insights into the rocks could reveal more about the formation of the solar system and where water might be found on the moon.
Hubble has found a rare pair of quasars inside two merging galaxies. These brilliant beacons are powered by supermassive black holes. The galaxies will eventually merge—and so will the quasars. This will result in an even more powerful black hole.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working together to develop a science instrument that will survive the harsh and unforgiving environment of the nighttime lunar surface on the far side of the Moon to attempt first-of-its-kind measurements of the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe.
A time-lapse movie from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the impact of asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA’s DART spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The movie shows three overlapping stages of the impact aftermath: the formation of an ejecta cone; the spiral swirl of debris caught up along the asteroid’s orbit about its companion asteroid; and the tail swept behind the asteroid by the pressure of sunlight. Later on, Hubble records the tail splitting in two.
Scientists suspect that the red streaks crossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa is a frozen mixture of water and salts, but its chemical signature matches no known substance on Earth. Now researchers have discovered a new type of solid crystal that forms when water and table salt combine in cold, pressurized conditions. Researchers believe the new substance created in a lab on Earth could form at the surface and bottom of these worlds’ deep oceans.
Astronomers using Hubble have recorded a star getting swallowed by a giant black hole. Hubble didn’t observe the mayhem directly, but captured spectral fingerprints that provide clues as to how a star gets shredded as it is devoured.
These are Hubble Space Telescope images of two massive clusters of galaxies. The artificially added blue color is translated from Hubble data that captured a phenomenon called intracluster light. This extremely faint glow traces a smooth distribution of light from wandering stars scattered across the cluster. Billions of years ago, the stars were shed from their parent galaxies and now drift through intergalactic space alone.
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