NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

September 4, 2024

NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula

Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula.

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

NASA Invites Media to View Launch of Jupiter Moon Mission

Sep 03, 2024

NASA and SpaceX are targeting a launch period opening Thursday, Oct. 10, for the agency’s Europa Clipper mission, which will help scientists determine if one of Jupiter’s icy moons could support life.

The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Europa Clipper will carry nine instruments and a gravity science experiment aboard to gather detailed measurements as it orbits Jupiter and conducts multiple close flybys of its moon, Europa.

Research suggests an ocean twice the volume of all of Earth’s oceans exists under Europa’s icy crust.

Media interested in covering the Europa Clipper launch must apply for media accreditation.

Deadlines for accreditation are as follows:

U.S. citizens representing domestic or international media must apply for accreditation by 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, Sept. 27.

International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m., Friday, Sept. 20.

Media requiring special logistical arrangements, such as space for satellite trucks, tents, or electrical connections, should email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov by Tuesday, Oct. 1.

A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.

For other mission questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at 321-867-2468.

Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo: 321-501-8425, o Messod Bendayan: 256-930-1371.

Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel, including a briefing the week of Sept. 9.

NASA will communicate additional details regarding the media event schedule as the launch date approaches.

NASA also will post updates on spacecraft launch preparations on NASA’s Europa Clipper blog.

Clipper’s primary science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Europa that could support life.

The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.

The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-view-launch-of-jupiter-moon-mission/

https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-invites-social-creators-to-experience-launch-of-europa-clipper-mission/

New NASA Sonifications Listen to the Universe’s Past

Sep 03, 2024

A quarter of a century ago, NASA released the “first light” images from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

This introduction to the world of Chandra’s high-resolution X-ray imaging capabilities included an unprecedented view of Cassiopeia A, the remains of an exploded star located about 11,000 light-years from Earth.

Over the years, Chandra’s views of Cassiopeia A have become some of the telescope’s best-known images.

To mark the anniversary of this milestone, new sonifications of three images – including Cassiopeia A (Cas A) – are being released.

Sonification is a process that translates astronomical data into sound, similar to how digital data are more routinely turned into images.

This translation process preserves the science of the data from its original digital state but provides an alternative pathway to experiencing the data.

This sonification of Cas A features data from Chandra as well as NASA’s James Webb, Hubble, and retired Spitzer space telescopes.

The scan starts at the neutron star at the center of the remnant, marked by a triangle sound, and moves outward.

Astronomers first saw this neutron star when Chandra’s inaugural observations were released 25 years ago this week.

Chandra’s X-rays also reveal debris from the exploded star that is expanding outward into space.

The brighter parts of the image are conveyed through louder volume and higher pitched sounds.

X-ray data from Chandra are mapped to modified piano sounds, while infrared data from Webb and Spitzer, which detect warmed dust embedded in the hot gas, have been assigned to various string and brass instruments.

Stars that Hubble detects are played with crotales, or small cymbals.

Another new sonification features the spectacular cosmic vista of 30 Doradus, one of the largest and brightest regions of star formation close to the Milky Way.

This sonification again combines X-rays from Chandra with infrared data from Webb. As the scan moves from left to right across the image, the volume heard again corresponds to the brightness seen.

Light toward the top of the image is mapped to higher pitched notes. X-rays from Chandra, which reveal gas that has been superheated by shock waves generated by the winds from massive stars, are heard as airy synthesizer sounds.

Meanwhile, Webb’s infrared data show cooler gas that provides the raw ingredients for future stars.

These data are mapped to a range of sounds including soft, low musical pitches (red regions), a wind-like sound (white regions), piano-like synthesizer notes indicating very bright stars, and a rain-stick sound for stars in a central cluster.

The final member of this new sonification triumvirate is NGC 6872, a large spiral galaxy that has two elongated arms stretching to the upper right and lower left, which is seen in an optical light view from Hubble. Just to the upper left of NGC 6872 appears another smaller spiral galaxy.

These two galaxies, each of which likely has a supermassive black hole at the center, are being drawn toward one another.

As the scan sweeps clockwise from 12 o’clock, the brightness controls the volume and light farther from the center of the image is mapped to higher-pitched notes.

Chandra’s X-rays, represented in sound by a wind-like sound, show multimillion-degree gas that permeates the galaxies. Compact X-ray sources from background galaxies create bird-like chirps.

In the Hubble data, the core of NGC 6872 is heard as a dark low drone, and the blue spiral arms (indicating active star formation) are audible as brighter, more highly pitched tones.

The background galaxies are played as a soft pluck sound while the bright foreground star is accompanied by a crash cymbal.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/new-nasa-sonifications-listen-to-the-universes-past/

https://chandra.si.edu/sound/.

NASA’s Mini BurstCube Mission Detects Mega Blast

Sep 03, 2024

The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months.

“We’re excited to collect science data,” said Sean Semper, BurstCube’s lead engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“It’s an important milestone for the team and for the many early career engineers and scientists that have been part of the mission.”

The event, called GRB 240629A, occurred on June 29 in the southern constellation Microscopium.

The team announced the discovery in a GCN (General Coordinates Network) circular on August 29.

BurstCube deployed into orbit April 18 from the International Space Station, following a March 21 launch.

The mission was designed to detect, locate, and study short gamma-ray bursts, brief flashes of high-energy light created when superdense objects like neutron stars collide.

These collisions also produce heavy elements like gold and iodine, an essential ingredient for life as we know it.

BurstCube is the first CubeSat to use NASA’s TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, a constellation of specialized communications spacecraft.

Data relayed by TDRS (pronounced “tee-driss”) help coordinate rapid follow-up measurements by other observatories in space and on the ground through NASA’s GCN.

BurstCube also regularly beams data back to Earth using the Direct to Earth system — both it and TDRS are part of NASA’s Near Space Network.

After BurstCube deployed from the space station, the team discovered that one of the two solar panels failed to fully extend.

It obscures the view of the mission’s star tracker, which hinders orienting the spacecraft in a way that minimizes drag.

The team originally hoped to operate BurstCube for 12-18 months, but now estimates the increased drag will cause the satellite to re-enter the atmosphere in September.

“I’m proud of how the team responded to the situation and is making the best use of the time we have in orbit,” said Jeremy Perkins, BurstCube’s principal investigator at Goddard.

“Small missions like BurstCube not only provide an opportunity to do great science and test new technologies, like our mission’s gamma-ray detector, but also important learning opportunities for the up-and-coming members of the astrophysics community.”

https://science.nasa.gov/burstcube/nasas-mini-burstcube-mission-detects-mega-blast/

Carbon Nanotubes and the Search for Life on Other Planets

Sep 03, 2024

A NASA-developed material made of carbon nanotubes will enable our search for exoplanets—some of which might be capable of supporting life.

Originally developed in 2007 by a team of researchers led by Innovators of the Year John Hagopian and Stephanie Getty at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, this carbon nanotube technology is being refined for potential use on NASA’s upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)—the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on planets orbiting other stars.

As shown in the figure below, carbon nanotubes look like graphene (a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice) that is rolled into a tube.

The super-dark material consists of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (i.e., nested nanotubes) that grow vertically into a “forest.”

The carbon nanotubes are 99% empty space so the light entering the material doesn’t get reflected.

Instead, the light enters the nanotube forest and jiggles electrons in the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms, converting the light to heat.

The ability of the carbon nanotubes to eliminate almost all light is enabling for NASA’s scientific instruments because stray light limits how sensitive the observations can be.

When applied to instrument structures, this material can eliminate much of the stray light and enable new and better observations.

Viewing exoplanets is incredibly difficult; the exoplanets revolve around stars that are 10 billion times brighter than they are.

It’s like looking at the Sun and trying to see a dim star next to it in the daytime.

Specialized instruments called coronagraphs must be used to block the light from the star to enable these exoplanets to be viewed.

The carbon nanotube material is employed in the coronagraph to block as much stray light as possible from entering the instrument’s detector.

The image below depicts a notional telescope and coronagraph imaging an exoplanet. The telescope collects the light from the distant star and exoplanet.

The light is then directed to a coronagraph that collimates the beam, making the light rays parallel, and then the beam is reflected off the apodizer mirror, which is used to precisely control the diffraction of light.

Carbon nanotubes on the apodizer mirror absorb the stray light that is diffracted off edges of the telescope structures, so it does not contaminate the observations.

The light is then focused on the focal plane mask, which blocks the light from the star but allows light from the exoplanet to pass.

The light gets collimated again and is then reflected off a deformable mirror to correct distortion in the image.

Finally, the light passes through the Lyot Stop, which is also coated with carbon nanotubes to remove the remaining stray light.

The beam is then focused onto the detector array, which forms the image.

Even with all these measures some stray light still reaches the detector, but the coronagraph creates a dark zone where only the light coming from the exoplanet can be seen.

The final image on the right in the figure below shows the remaining light from the star in yellow and the light from the exoplanet in red in the dark zone.

HWO will use a similar scheme to search for habitable exoplanets. Scientists will analyze the spectrum of light captured by HWO to determine the gases in the atmosphere of the exoplanet.

The presence of water vapor, oxygen, and perhaps other gases can indicate if an exoplanet could potentially support life.

But how do you make a carbon-nanotube-coated apodizer mirror that could be used on the HWO?

Hagopian’s company Advanced Nanophotonics, LLC received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding to address this challenge.

Carbon nanotubes are grown by depositing catalyst seeds onto a substrate and then placing the substrate into a tube-shaped furnace and heating it to 1382 degrees F, which is red hot!

Gases containing carbon are then flowed into the heated tube, and at these temperatures the gases are absorbed by the metal catalyst and transform into a solution, similar to how carbon dioxide in soda water fizzes.

The carbon nanotubes literally grow out of the substrate into vertically aligned tubes to form a “forest” wherever the catalyst is located.

cont.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/carbon-nanotubes-and-the-search-for-life-on-other-planets/

SpaceX Starlink Mission

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, September 4 for a Falcon 9 launch of 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 12:07 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available at 12:59 p.m. ET. If needed, additional launch opportunities are available on Thursday, September 5 starting at 8:35 a.m. ET.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.

This is the 15th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, Intelsat G-37, NG-20, and eight Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read The Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-8-11

How Space Travel Really Changes Astronauts – From the Inside Out

September 4, 2024

Scientists have uncovered how spaceflight profoundly alters the gut microbiome, revealing previously unknown effects on host physiology that could shape the future of long-duration space missions.

Led by University College Dublin (UCD) and McGill University, Canada, in collaboration with NASA and an international consortium, the research offers the most detailed profile to date of how space travel impacts the gut microbes we carry into space.

Published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, the study used advanced genetic technologies to examine changes in the gut microbiome, colons, and livers of mice aboard the International Space Station (ISS) over three months.

The findings reveal significant shifts in specific bacteria and corresponding changes in host gene expression associated to immune and metabolic dysfunction commonly observed in space, offering new insights into how these changes may affect astronaut physiology during extended missions.

Dr. Emmanuel Gonzalez, McGill University, and first author of the study, said: “Spaceflight extensively alters astronaut physiology, yet many underlying factors remain a mystery.

By integrating new genomic methods, we can simultaneously explore gut bacteria and host genetics in extraordinary detail and are beginning to see patterns that could explain spaceflight pathology.

It’s clear we’re not just sending humans and animals to space, but entire ecosystems, the understanding of which is crucial to help us develop safeguards for future space exploration.”

The international collaboration, spearheaded by UCD with NASA GeneLab’s Analysis Working Groups, is part of the recent Nature Portfolio package: The Second Space Age: Omics, Platforms and Medicine across Space Orbits – the largest coordinated release of space biology discoveries in history.

These findings highlight Ireland’s growing role in microbiome and space life sciences research and demonstrate how understanding biological adaptations to spaceflight can not only advance aerospace medicine but also have significant implications for health on Earth.

Professor Nicholas Brereton, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, and senior author of the study, said: “These discoveries highlight the intricate dialogue between specific gut bacteria and their mouse hosts, critically involved in bile acid, cholesterol, and energy metabolism.

They shed new light on the importance of microbiome symbiosis to health and how these Earth-evolved relationships may be vulnerable to the stresses of space.

“We hope this research exemplifies how cooperative Open Science can drive discoveries with clear medical benefits on Earth, while also supporting the upcoming Artemis missions, the deployment of the Gateway deep space station, and a crewed mission to Mars.”

https://scitechdaily.com/how-space-travel-really-changes-astronauts-from-the-inside-out/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-024-00545-1