TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 3 2023
Centaurus A: A Peculiar Island of Stars
Galaxies are fascinating. In galaxies, gravity alone holds together massive collections of stars, dust, interstellar gas, stellar remnants and dark matter. Pictured is NGC 5128, better known as Centaurus A. Cen A is the fifth brightest galaxy on the sky and is located at a distance of about 12 million light years from Earth. The warped shape of Cen A is the result of a merger between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy. Its active galactic nucleus harbors a supermassive black hole that is about 55 million times more massive than our Sun. This central black hole ejects a fast jet visible in both radio and X-ray light. Filaments of the jet are visible in red in the upper left. New observations by the Event Horizon Telescope have revealed a brightening of the jet only towards its edges – but for reasons that are currently unknown and an active topic of research.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
NASA Selects Emily Nelson as Chief Flight Director
May 2, 2023
NASA has named Emily Nelson its new chief flight director, leading the group that directs human spaceflight missions from the Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Norm Knight, the agency’s director of flight operations, selected Nelson to replace Holly Ridings, who held the position from 2018 to 2022, and now helps lead the agency’s Gateway Program, an international partnership to establish humanity’s first space station orbiting the Moon. Nelson has been the acting chief flight director since Riding's departure.
“Being a flight director is about accepting great responsibility and exercising excellent leadership and judgment – responsibility for the mission, for your team, and for the astronauts we fly,” Knight said. “Emily’s tenure leading our flight control teams has proven that she is remarkably knowledgeable on the realities of human spaceflight and eminently composed when facing daunting challenges. She is unequivocally the right person to lead our flight director office as we endeavor to push the boundaries of human spaceflight exploration.”
In this role, Nelson manages 31 active flight directors and flight directors-in-training who oversee a variety of human spaceflight missions involving the International Space Station, including integrating American-made commercial crew spacecraft into the fleet of spacecraft servicing the orbiting laboratory, as well as Artemis missions to the Moon.
“We are thrilled to announce Emily as chief fight director as her program and operations experience will continue to ensure the safe and successful completion of every mission as we prepare to transition to a commercialized low Earth orbit where NASA will be a customer of many,” said NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche. “Emily’s dedication to mission excellence makes her the ideal choice to lead the teams that will send our astronauts around the Moon on Artemis II, and as we prepare for operations on the lunar surface via the Artemis campaign that will land the first woman and person of color on the Moon.”
Nelson, born in Okinawa, Japan, and raised in Austin, Texas, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. She joined NASA in 1998 as a flight controller in the space station’s thermal operations group.
She was selected as a flight director in 2007, becoming the 70th flight director in NASA’s history. Since then, she has served as the lead flight director for several missions including the station’s fourth utilization and logistics flight with the space shuttle, Atlantis, in 2010, a complex series of spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, and five space station long-duration expeditions. She previously served as deputy chief flight director while continuing to support real-time operations from mission control.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-emily-nelson-as-chief-flight-director
NASA’s Webb Science Team Wins Wernher Von Braun Memorial Award
May 2, 2023
The National Space Society (NSS) has awarded the Wernher von Braun Memorial Award to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's science team. The award will be accepted at the NSS's 23rd annual International Space Development Conference, to be held on May 25-28, 2023, in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
The Wernher von Braun Memorial Award is given in odd-numbered years to recognize excellence in management of and leadership for a space-related project that is significant and successful and shows strong management skills and team cohesion.
Accepting the award will be Dr. Eric Smith, the associate director for research in the Science Mission Directorate's Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington and program scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
“On behalf of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team, we are honored by this prestigious award,” said Dr. Eric Smith, associate director for research in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters and program scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. “Webb has exceeded all expectations and captured awe-inspiring images and amazing spectra of the distant universe, objects in our solar system and everything in between that will inspire generations to come.”
Launched in late 2021 after more than a decade of preparation, Webb successfully performed a complex series of deployments shortly after leaving Earth orbit. The process required over 400 specific mechanical actions, none of which had been tested in microgravity.
Six months later, the telescope reached its working orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, a stable orbit in space well beyond that of the Moon. Once there and fully commissioned, the 21-foot (6.5-meter) telescope began its record-breaking work.
Webb operates at infrared frequencies. The combination of sensitive instrumentation with its massive primary mirror the telescope can see farther and more clearly than any previous observatory of its kind. Discoveries from existing and newly identified targets began to accumulate almost immediately. The first images were unveiled on July 12, 2022.
The ever-growing list of Webb discoveries includes direct imaging of exoplanets and the identification of key gases in their atmospheres; tracking clouds on Saturn's moon Titan; identifying new details in a cluster of galaxies; imaging the incredibly faint rings around Uranus; capturing the galactic merger of Arp 220; discovering sand-bearing clouds on a remote exoplanet; measuring the temperature of a rocky exoplanet; and observing galaxies seen in their earliest years, when the universe was just 350 million years old – about two percent of its current age.
"The JWST has transformed how we look at the universe in a remarkably short period of time," said Anita Gale, CEO of the NSS. "After its very nearly flawless deployment, a major feat in itself, the Webb has returned incredible science from the furthest reaches of the universe to never-before-seen details of our own solar system, with NASA coordinating research teams and partners from around the world. I can't think of a more worthy recipient for this prestigious award."
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-science-team-wins-wernher-von-braun-memorial-award
Hubble Gazes at the Home of an Enormous Black Hole
May 2, 2023
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4395 looks at a small section of the larger galaxy. As galaxies go, NGC 4395 has a very low surface brightness, meaning it is diffuse and emits less light than normal galaxies. Sitting about 14 million light-years away from Earth, this spiral is also a Seyfert galaxy, or a galaxy that has a very bright core. NGC 4395 is one of the closest and dimmest known Seyfert galaxies.
Seyfert galaxies contain active galactic nuclei, or AGNs, powered by supermassive black holes. AGNs are extremely bright, as radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum is produced as the black hole devours material that gets too close to it. Seyfert galaxies are distinct from other types of AGNs because the galaxy surrounding the black hole is detectable. The brightness of AGNs can often wash out the glow of their host galaxies. The galactic nucleus in NGC 4395 has a comparably low luminosity to other AGNs and the black hole is about 10,000 times the mass of our Sun!
NGC 4395, a dwarf galaxy, is also a unique Seyfert galaxy due to its lack of galactic bulge, the tightly packed group of stars often found at the center of a galaxy.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/hubble-gazes-at-the-home-of-an-enormous-black-hole
NASA Black Hole Week 2023
May 1 - May 5th
Grab your telescopes and get ready for a week of Black Hole Exploration!
Celebrate Black Hole Week with us! Come and learn about these strange balls of gravity here and on social media.
Check out the links below to find our latest content and follow the #BlackHoleWeek hashtag on social media for even more content!
No matter where you go this week, we hope that you’ll run into a black hole. (figuratively, of course!)
https://universe.nasa.gov/black-hole-week/overview/
https://twitter.com/NASAUniverse
>Russia says Ukraine tried to hit Kremlin with drones overnight in an assassination attempt on Putin.
That's real nice
NASA Welcomes Czech Foreign Minister for Artemis Accords Signing
May 3, 2023
During a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington Wednesday, the Czech Republic became the 24th country to sign the Artemis Accords. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the signing ceremony for the agency and Foreign Minister Jan LipavskĂ˝ signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the Czech Republic.
The Artemis Accords establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA’s Artemis program.
“We are living through a golden age of exploration. Gone are the days of one nation exploring the cosmos alone,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Along with our fellow Artemis Accords signatories, the United States and Czech Republic are setting a standard for 21st century exploration and use of space. As we explore together, we will explore peacefully, safely, and transparently.”
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn and Czech Ambassador to the United States Miloslav Stašek also took part in the ceremony.
"I see it as a historic signature. We are joining our likeminded partners in advancing peaceful, cooperative, and sustainable exploration of space,” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. “Czechia’s space ecosystem has a lot to offer. We believe that this signature will kick-start the development of an institutional and industrial cooperation within the Artemis community, as well as directly between Czechia and the U.S., in the field of space activities.”
NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, established the Artemis Accords in 2020 along with the other eight original signatories. The Artemis Accords reinforce and implement the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. They also reinforce the commitment by the United States and partner nations to the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.
“The Artemis Accords guide us towards a future of optimism and promise,” stated Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn. “They encourage cooperation and responsible behavior in space. This is a vital foundation for space exploration. Congratulations to the Czech Republic!”
Additional countries will sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues to work with its international partners to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space. Working with both new and existing partners will add new energy and capabilities to ensure the entire world can benefit from our journey of exploration and discovery.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-welcomes-czech-foreign-minister-for-artemis-accords-signing
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-accords/index.html