NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

August 27, 2024

Moon Eclipses Saturn

What if Saturn disappeared? Sometimes, it does. It doesn't really go away, though, it just disappears from view when our Moon moves in front. Such a Saturnian eclipse, more formally called an occultation, was visible along a long swath of Earth from Peru, across the Atlantic Ocean, to Italy only a few days ago. The featured color image is a digital fusion of the clearest images captured during the event and rebalanced for color and relative brightness between the relatively dim Saturn and the comparatively bright Moon. Saturn and the comparative bright Moon. The exposures were all taken from Breda, Catalonia, Spain, just before occultation. Eclipses of Saturn by our Moon will occur each month for the rest of this year. Each time, though, the fleeting event will be visible only to those with clear skies – and the right location on Earth.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

NASA Image Reveals Hurricane Gilma Bearing Down on Hawaii in Hone's Wake

Updated Aug 27, 2024 at 8:42 AM EDT

Hurricane Gilma, flanked by Tropical Storm Hone and Tropical Storm Hector, are all creeping westward across the Pacific, with Hone having sideswiped Hawaii as a Category 1 hurricane over the weekend.

The three powerful storms can be seen blustering their way across the Pacific Ocean in images snapped from space.

The images, taken by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-21 satellite, were captured on August 25, just as Hone skirted around 50 miles south of Hawaii.

Hone, which has now decreased in strength back down to a tropical storm, resulted in over 24,000 homes being left without power—mostly on Hawaii Island—and several schools being closed due to flash flooding and intense winds. Up to 10 inches of rain fell in some areas of the archipelago.

Hone is now moving out into the open ocean west of Hawaii, and is expected to significantly weaken in the coming days.

"Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts.

Only gradual weakening is expected the next couple of days.

Hone is expected to become a post-tropical low on Thursday, then dissipate on Friday," the National Hurricane Center said in a public advisory on Monday.

Hurricane Gilma, around a thousand miles behind Hone, was a Category 3 storm when the satellite image was taken.

However, the hurricane has since weakened, and is expected to downgrade to a tropical storm and potentially a tropical depression by the time it makes landfall on the northern Hawaiian islands on Thursday or Friday.

"Maximum sustained winds have decreased to 105 mph (165 km/h) with higher gusts.

Steady weakening is forecast over the next few days," the NHC said in a public advisory on Monday.

This weakening is expected due to the hurricane encountering higher wind shear, cooler water temperatures, and dry air, all of which are not favorable to powerful hurricanes.

"While Gilma has fought off the marginal environment and maintained hurricane status longer than anticipated, it seems the atmospheric and oceanic conditions are becoming increasingly unfavorable," they said in a forecast discussion.

Behind both of these storms is Tropical Storm Hector, located about 1,200 miles southwest of Baja California, Mexico, which is also expected to weaken in the next few days.

"Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts. Some slight strengthening is possible on Tuesday, but gradual weakening is forecast after that," the NHC said in a further public advisory.

This is because Hector is moving into areas where Gilma has just passed through and left cooler waters in its wake.

"The storm is ingesting some dry air and appears to be feeling some influences of cool upwelled waters from Hurricane Gilma that passed through the area a few days ago.

It is starting to look increasingly likely that Hector is missing its window to strengthen any further.

Weakening will likely commence in a day or so when the shear begins to increase," the NHC explained in a forecast discussion.

https://www.newsweek.com/three-hurricanes-tropical-storms-hawaii-pacific-ocean-hone-gilma-hector-1944810

NASA Develops Pod to Help Autonomous Aircraft Operators

Aug 26, 2024

For self-flying aircraft to take to the skies, they need to learn about their environments to avoid hazards.

NASA aeronautics researchers recently developed a camera pod with sensors to help with this challenge by advancing computer vision for autonomous aviation.

This pod is called the Airborne Instrumentation for Real-world Video of Urban Environments (AIRVUE).

It was developed and built at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

Researchers recently flew it on a piloted helicopter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida for initial testing.

The team hopes to use the pod to collect large, diverse, and accessible visual datasets of weather and other obstacles.

They will then use that information to create a data cloud for manufacturers of self-flying air taxis or drones, or other similar aircraft, to access.

Developers can use this data to evaluate how well their aircraft can “see” the complex world around them.

“Data is the fuel for machine learning,” said Nelson Brown, lead NASA researcher for the AIRVUE project.

“We hope to inspire innovation by providing the computer vision community with realistic flight scenarios.

Accessible datasets have been essential to advances in driver aids and self-driving cars, but so far, we haven’t seen open datasets like this in aviation.”

The computer algorithms that will enable the aircraft to sense the environment must be reliable and proven to work in many flight circumstances.

NASA data promises that fidelity, making this an important resource for industry.

When a company conducts data collection on their own, it’s unlikely they share it with other manufacturers.

NASA’s role facilitates this accessible dataset for all companies in the Advanced Air Mobility industry, ensuring the United States stays at the forefront of innovation.

Once the design is refined, through evaluation and additional testing, the team hopes to make more pods that ride along on various types of aircraft to collect more visuals and grow the digital repository of data.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/nasa-develops-pod-to-help-autonomous-aircraft-operators/

NASA Seeks Input for Astrobee Free-flying Space Robots

Aug 26, 2024

NASA is seeking input from American companies for the operation and use of a system of free-flying robots aboard the International Space Station as the agency continues to foster scientific, educational, and technological developments in low Earth orbit for the benefit of all.

The colorful, cube-shaped robots – named “Bumble,” “Honey,” and “Queen” – are part of the Astrobee system helping astronauts and researchers perform technology demonstrations, scientific research, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities in the unique environment of space since 2018.

“Dozens of institutions collaborate with NASA to use the Astrobee system to test new hardware and software technologies,” said Jose Benavides, project manager for the Astrobee facilities at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, where the system was designed and built.

“I’m excited to hear how respondents think Astrobee can continue to advance robotics in space.”

NASA issued a Request for Information to inform strategic planning, inviting industry to provide information to help shape the maturation of robotics in zero gravity to achieve the greatest scientific and exploration value.

Responses are due Sept. 27, 2024. To learn more about the Request for Information, visit:

The battery-powered robots in the Astrobee system fly around the space station’s modules using electric fans for propulsion and “see” their surroundings using lights, cameras, and other sensors.

They have interchangeable “arms” that provide ways for the robots to hold objects or keep steady for tasks requiring stability, and magnets to ensure they stay securely docked when recharging.

Working autonomously, or via remote control by astronauts, flight controllers, or researchers on the ground, the robots can be used to off-load time-consuming tasks.

For instance, the robots can work independently or collaboratively to assist with routine chores like space station monitoring, maintenance, inventory, experiment documentation, or moving cargo throughout the station.

This allows astronauts more time to tackle complex work that only humans can perform.

Astrobee’s versatile design has allowed thousands of hours of testing on hundreds of microgravity experiments.

Many have involved astronauts, but the facility also is regularly used by researchers and student teams across the world competing for the opportunity to run their programs on the robots in space.

For example, NASA’s ISAAC (Integrated System for Autonomous and Adaptive Caretaking) project, used the Astrobees to study how robots could assist spacecraft, vehicle systems, and ground operators.

The technology could help NASA use robot caretakers for critical spacecraft in the agency’s Moon-to-Mars plans, including the Gateway lunar space station and Mars transit habitat vehicle, especially during the months-long periods when these spacecraft will be uncrewed.

“Our ISAAC work has proved out its technology in a high-fidelity space environment because of the ready availability of the capable Astrobee robots,” said Trey Smith, project manager for ISAAC at NASA Ames.

The project demonstrated using multiple Astrobees to autonomously collect the first robot-generated survey of a spacecraft interior.

Other ISAAC firsts include the first use of a robot to locate the source of a sound in space, in collaboration with the Bosch USA SoundSee payload team, and the first time robots navigated between modules of a space station.

Future robots could use ISAAC technology to transfer cargo between space vehicles or respond to a time-critical fault like a leak due to a micrometeoroid impact, all without human assistance.

“With Astrobee, we’ve learned about flying multiple robots in space alongside humans,” said Jonathan Barlow, project manager for Astrobee at NASA Ames.

“Further developing human-robotic technology will pave the way for future crewed and uncrewed spacecraft maintenance and exploration tasks done by robots both off-planet and in deep space.”

The Astrobee Facility, operated out of NASA’s Ames Research Center, provides a free-flying robotic system for space station research and STEM outreach.

NASA’s Game Changing Development Program, part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, funded Astrobee. NASA’s International Space Station Utilization Office provides ongoing funding.

https://www.nasa.gov/technology/robotics/nasa-seeks-input-for-astrobee-free-flying-space-robots/

NASA at Dragon Con 2024

August 27, 2024

NASA will be represented in more than 20 panels during Dragon Con 2024 in Atlanta. You will also find us at our information station at the Hilton Grand Salon Mezzanine. Stop by to grab a selfie, talk to our friendly and knowledgeable team members, and learn about our exciting programs and missions and the frontier science and exploration! Here are the main events with NASA participation:

cont.

https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-at-dragon-con-2024/

https://www.dragoncon.org/

NASA Invites Public Input on Low Earth Orbit Microgravity Strategy

Aug 26, 2024

As NASA and its partners continue to conduct groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station, the agency announced Monday it is seeking U.S. industry, academia, international partners, and other stakeholders’ feedback on newly developed goals and objectives that will help guide the next generation of human presence in low Earth orbit.

“From the very beginning, NASA’s flagship human spaceflight programs have built upon each other, expanding our knowledge and experience of humans living and working in space,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

“As commercial industry is constructing new human-enabled platforms for low Earth orbit, NASA must answer the question: what should our goals and objectives be to advance our future science and exploration missions?”

NASA published draft high-level goals and objectives outlining 42 key points in six main areas: science, exploration-enabling research and technology development, commercial low Earth orbit infrastructure, operations, international cooperation, and workforce and engagement.

“Feedback is essential for shaping our long-term microgravity research and development activities,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are committed to refining our objectives with input from both within NASA and external partners, ensuring alignment with industry and international goals. After reviewing feedback, we will finalize our strategy later this year.”

The agency will conduct two invite-only workshops in September to discuss feedback on the draft goals and objectives.

The first workshop is with international partners, and the second will engage U.S. industry and academic representatives.

NASA employees also are invited to provide input through internal agency channels.

This approach reflects NASA’s commitment to harnessing diverse perspectives to navigate the rapidly evolving low Earth orbit environment.

“Organizations are increasingly recognizing the transformative benefits of space, with both governments and commercial activities leveraging the International Space Station as a testbed,” said Robyn Gatens, International Space Station director and acting director of commercial spaceflight at NASA Headquarters.

“By developing a comprehensive strategy, NASA is looking to the next chapter of U.S. human space exploration to help shape the agency’s future in microgravity for the benefit of all.”

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-public-input-on-low-earth-orbit-microgravity-strategy/

https://nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-08-lms-draft-goals-and-objectives-1.pdf?emrc=2ef059

Hubble Captures Unique Ultraviolet View of a Spectacular Star Cluster

Aug 26, 2024

Roughly 210,000 light-years away, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of our Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors.

In fact, this small galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s “satellite” galaxies, which orbit our home spiral galaxy.

Nested within the SMC is this spectacular star cluster, known as NGC 346.

Its hot stars unleash a torrent of radiation and energetic outflows, which erode the denser portions of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula, N66.

Dozens of hot, blue, and high-mass stars shine within NGC 346, and astronomers believe this cluster contains more than half of the known high-mass stars in the whole SMC.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed this cluster before, but its new view shows NGC 346 in ultraviolet light, along with some visible-light data.

Ultraviolet light helps scientists understand more about star formation and evolution, and Hubble – with its combined sharp resolution and position above our UV-blocking atmosphere – is the only telescope with the ability to make sensitive, ultraviolet observations.

These specific observations were gathered to learn more about how star formation shapes the interstellar medium, which is the gas distributed throughout seemingly empty space, in a low-metallicity galaxy like the SMC.

Astronomers call elements heavier than hydrogen and helium “metals,” and the SMC contains fewer metals when compared to most parts of our Milky Way.

This condition helps make it an excellent example of a galaxy similar to those that existed in our early universe, when very few heavy elements were around to incorporate.

https://science.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/hubble-captures-unique-ultraviolet-view-of-a-spectacular-star-cluster/

Webb Finds Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All

Aug 26, 2024

When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders.

Some galaxies appeared to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them.

Some researchers suggested this meant that something might be wrong with the theory that explains what the universe is made of and how it has evolved since the big bang, known as the standard model of cosmology.

According to a new study in the Astronomical Journal led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Katherine Chworowsky, some of those early galaxies are in fact much less massive than they first appeared.

Black holes in some of these galaxies make them appear much brighter and bigger than they really are.

“We are still seeing more galaxies than predicted, although none of them are so massive that they ‘break’ the universe,” Chworowsky said.

The evidence was provided by Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led by Steven Finkelstein, a professor of astronomy at UT Austin and study co-author.

According to this latest study, the galaxies that appeared overly massive likely host black holes rapidly consuming gas.

Friction in the fast-moving gas emits heat and light, making these galaxies much brighter than they would be if that light emanated just from stars.

This extra light can make it appear that the galaxies contain many more stars, and hence are more massive, than we would otherwise estimate.

When scientists remove these galaxies, dubbed “little red dots” (based on their red color and small size), from the analysis, the remaining early galaxies are not too massive to fit within predictions of the standard model.

“So, the bottom line is there is no crisis in terms of the standard model of cosmology,” Finkelstein said.

“Any time you have a theory that has stood the test of time for so long, you have to have overwhelming evidence to really throw it out. And that’s simply not the case.”

Although they’ve settled the main dilemma, a less thorny problem remains: There are still roughly twice as many massive galaxies in Webb’s data of the early universe than expected from the standard model.

One possible reason might be that stars formed more quickly in the early universe than they do today.

“Maybe in the early universe, galaxies were better at turning gas into stars,” Chworowsky said.

Star formation happens when hot gas cools enough to succumb to gravity and condense into one or more stars. But as the gas contracts, it heats up, generating outward pressure.

In our region of the universe, the balance of these opposing forces tends to make the star formation process very slow.

But perhaps, according to some theories, because the early universe was denser than today, it was harder to blow gas out during star formation, allowing the process to go faster.

Concurrently, astronomers have been analyzing the spectra of "little red dots" discovered with Webb, with researchers in both the CEERS team and others finding evidence of fast-moving hydrogen gas, a signature of black hole accretion disks.

This supports the idea that at least some of the light coming from these compact, red objects comes from gas swirling around black holes, rather than stars – reinforcing Chworowsky and their team’s conclusion that they are probably not as massive as astronomers initially thought.

However, further observations of these intriguing objects are incoming, and should help solve the puzzle about how much light comes from stars versus gas around black holes.

Often in science, when you answer one question, that leads to new questions.

While Chworowsky and their colleagues have shown that the standard model of cosmology likely isn’t broken, their work points to the need for new ideas in star formation.

“And so there is still that sense of intrigue,” Chworowsky said. “Not everything is fully understood.

That’s what makes doing this kind of science fun, because it’d be a terribly boring field if one paper figured everything out, or there were no more questions to answer.”

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-finds-early-galaxies-werent-too-big-for-their-britches-after-all/

SpaceX delays Polaris Dawn astronaut launch to Aug. 28 due to helium leak

August 27, 2024

We'll have to wait at least another day to see SpaceX's historic Polaris Dawn astronaut mission lift off.

Polaris Dawn, which will conduct the first-ever private spacewalk, had been scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (Aug. 27) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

But a helium leak has forced a delay of at least 24 hours.

"Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical. Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission to low Earth orbit.

Next launch opportunity is no earlier than Wednesday, August 28," SpaceX announced in an X post on Monday evening (Aug. 26).

The launch, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, is now targeted for 3:38 a.m. EDT (0738 GMT) on Wednesday, though there are two backup opportunities on that day as well — 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT) and 7:09 a.m. EDT (1109 GMT).

You can watch the action via a SpaceX webcast, which will begin at around midnight EDT (0400 GMT).

A "quick disconnect umbilical" is an interface connecting the Falcon 9 with a line coming from the launch tower.

Helium is not a propellant for the Falcon 9's Merlin engines — they burn kerosene and liquid oxygen — but SpaceX uses helium to pressurize fuel lines.

Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program, a human-spaceflight project funded and organized by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman will command Polaris Dawn.

He'll be joined aboard the mission's Crew Dragon capsule by three crewmates: pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are SpaceX engineers.

Isaacman and Gillis will conduct a spacewalk on Day 3 of the mission — the first extravehicular activity ever performed on a commercial mission.

Polaris Dawn also aims to get a maximum of about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) from Earth.

That will be farther away than any crewed mission since Apollo 17 back in 1972.

https://www.space.com/spacex-polaris-dawn-launch-delay-helium-leak

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=polarisdawn