NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
April 8, 2025
Moon Visits Sister Stars
Sometimes, the Moon visits the Pleiades. Technically, this means that the orbit of our Moon takes it directly in front of the famous Pleiades star cluster, which is far in the distance. The technical term for the event is an occultation, and the Moon is famous for its rare occultations of all planets and several well-known bright stars. The Moon's tilted and precessing orbit makes its occultations of the Seven Sisters star cluster bunchy, with the current epoch starting in 2023 continuing monthly until 2029. After that, though, the next occultation won't occur until 2042. Taken from Cantabria, Spain on April 1, the featured image is a composite where previous exposures of the Pleiades from the same camera and location were digitally added to the last image to bring up the star cluster's iconic blue glow.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
New Crew Lifts Off Aboard Soyuz Rocket Toward Station
April 8, 2025
The crewed Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft is safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following a launch at 1:47 a.m. EDT on April 8 (10:47 a.m. Baikonur time) with NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky aboard.
After a two-orbit, three-hour trajectory to the station, the spacecraft will dock automatically to the station’s Prichal module at approximately 5:03 a.m. NASA’s live coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 4:15 a.m. on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms.
The trio will spend approximately eight months aboard the orbital laboratory before returning to Earth in December. This is the first flight for Kim and Zubritsky, and the third for Ryzhikov.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/08/new-crew-lifts-off-aboard-soyuz-rocket-toward-station/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/08/new-station-crew-counting-down-to-launch-live-on-nasa/
Launch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC807gzD9l8
Docking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Kk4r9DomA
Hatch Opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83VU509bbKQ
Wildfires seen from space amid 'extreme risk' alert across Scotland
April 8, 2025
NASA satellites caught images of plumes of smoke from wildfires raging across Scotland amid an “extreme risk” alert.
Firefighters have been battling blazes across the country over the last week, responding to reports of around 90 outdoor fires over the weekend.
A “very high risk” alert for wildfires from Scottish Fire and Rescue Service remains in place for the whole of Scotland until Wednesday after a period of dry warm weather.
The latest wildfire update also includes an “extreme risk” alert across the southwest, eastern, central, and north of Scotland for Thursday.
A fire broke out at Galloway Forest Park, near Glentrool in Dumfries and Galloway, last Thursday and burned for at least four days.
At its height, there were two appliances at the scene, assisted by two helicopters dousing the area with water.
In the north of Scotland, six appliances are dealt with grass on fire at Stac Pollaidh, Inverpolly Forest, north of Ullapool.
Due to heavy smoke in the area, the SFRS asked members of the public to stay away for the area.
More warm weather is set to continue in the days ahead with SFRS urging the public to exercise caution when out in rural areas during the Easter holidays.
Deputy assistant chief officer Kenny Barbour said: “Wildfires have the potential to burn for days, as we’ve seen this week in Dumfries and Galloway, and they spread through vast areas of land in our countryside, which is devastating for those who live nearby.
“Our firefighters will continue to work with local landowners and other partners to bring these fires under control.
“As the warm and dry weather continues, so too does the risk of wildfire, and so we are asking the public to exercise extreme caution and think twice before using anything involving a naked flame.
“Responsible human behaviour can significantly lower the chance of a wildfire starting, so it is crucial that people act safely in rural environments and always follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.”
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/wildfires-seen-from-nasa-space-satellite-amid-extreme-risk-alert-across-scotland
NASA Shares Video Of Orbital Sunrise As Soyuz Spacecraft Approaches ISS
Updated April 8th 2025, 16:00 IST
The International Space Station (ISS) has shared breathtaking visuals of an orbital sunrise over South America, just as the Soyuz MS-27 rocket carrying three astronauts approached the station.
The video, posted by ISS on its X (formerly known as Twitter), shows a stunning mix of colours lighting up the sky from space, a moment captured as the crew neared their destination.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy safely arrived at the ISS after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:17 am IST.
The spacecraft completed its journey in about three hours before docking with the station.
US-Russian Crew to Spend 8 Months in Space, Here's What They Will Do
Jonny Kim, along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky from Russia, will be spending approximately eight months aboard the International Space Station.
According to NASA, Kim will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations to support future space missions and bring benefits to life on Earth.
Kim, Ryzhikov, and Zubritsky will join NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers, along with Takuya Onishi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Kirill Peskov aboard the space station.
https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1909525145393176883
https://www.republicworld.com/science/nasa-shares-video-of-orbital-sunrise-as-soyuz-spacecraft-approaches-iss
What would William Wallace do?
Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate
Apr 07, 2025
Earth planning date: Friday, April 4, 2025
We continue to make progress driving up Mount Sharp, each day gaining new perspectives on the spectacular, towering buttes surrounding our path.
To get to the next canyon we can ascend, we have to swing around the north end of a small ridgeline, “Devil’s Gate,” which is on the right side of the image above.
The blocks scattered around the base of Devil’s Gate are ripe with interesting structures, which motivated the acquisition of an RMI mosaic across the ridge.
Those blocks are also inconvenient for driving and parking the rover with all six wheels firmly on the ground, the latter of which is needed to be able to unstow the arm for APXS and MAHLI observations.
Our last drive ended with our front wheels not quite on solid ground, so we had to forego arm work this weekend.
But as you can imagine with the view around us, Devil’s Gate was not the only feature that the team was excited to image.
ChemCam added a second RMI mosaic along the base of “Texoli” butte, which you can see the flank of on the left side of the image above.
Mastcam planned a mosaic across an expanse of bedrock that looks like rolling waves frozen in place at "Maidenhair Falls.”
The rocks right in front of the rover were also wonderfully complex in their textures and structures.
ChemCam targeted two different textures expressed in the workspace — one across fine layers at “Arroyo Burro” and one across rough, platy, and gray material at “Arroyo Conejo.”
Mastcam documented the block containing both these targets with a stereo mosaic that will give us a three-dimensional view of its structures.
We planned a drive to get us further around the base of Devil’s Gate, after which we will acquire an autonomously-targeted ChemCam LIBS raster and early morning Navcam and Mastcam mosaics looking back on the path we have recently traveled.
DAN is scheduled for about seven hours of data collecting across the plan, both during science blocks and our drive.
The sky gets a lot of attention in this plan with suites of observations taken at two different times — near midday and early morning — to assess variability across the day.
Each window of time had Navcam dust-devil and cloud movies, and measurements of the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
The early morning block of observations also had multiple cloud movies cover the full sky. REMS and RAD have regular measurements across the sols.
See you Monday, when we are a bit farther past Devil’s Gate!
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4502-4504-sneaking-past-devils-gate/
Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand
Apr 07, 2025
Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Wow, sol 4500. What an impressive number of sols (Martian days) exploring the Red Planet!
This delightfully even sol number made me wonder where the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity was at this point in her mission (Opportunity’s twin rover, Spirit, explored Gusev crater on Mars for roughly 2210 sols).
As it turns out, Opportunity was driving over fairly smooth terrain on sol 4500 and was approaching a light-toned rounded hill named “Spirit Mound” on the western rim of Endeavour crater in Meridiani Planum.
I am always so impressed and proud when I stop to think about the incredible fleet of rovers we have safely landed and operated on Mars, and the amazing scientific discoveries that have resulted from these missions!
Today I served on science operations as the “keeper of the plan” for the geology and mineralogy theme group. In this role, I assembled the activities in our team planning software for this two-sol plan.
Our small plan becomes part of a much larger set of instructions that will be relayed up to the rover later today.
Currently, the Curiosity rover is driving up Mount Sharp over broken-up blocks of bedrock and sand through a small canyon en route to the boxwork structures ahead.
This bumpy terrain can sometimes make it hard to pass the "Slip Risk Assessment Process" (SRAP) where all six wheels are required to be stable on the ground before we can unstow our robotic arm to use the contact science instruments.
After our successful 8-meter drive (about 26 feet) from yestersol we passed SRAP and got to work selecting targets for contact and remote observations.
The team chose to characterize a bedrock target in front of us called “Chuckwalla” using the dust removal tool (DRT), APXS, and MAHLI.
ChemCam used its LIBS instrument to analyze the chemistry of a nearby bedrock target with a knobby texture, “Pechacho,” and took a long distance RMI image to study the interesting layering in the “Devil’s Gate” butte.
Mastcam assembled an impressive portfolio of observations in this two-sol plan. The team imaged variations in bedrock textures at “Jalama” and “Julian" and documented the nature of the “Mishe Mokwa” ridgeline.
In addition, Mastcam imaged darker rocks within a previously acquired mosaic of Devil’s Gate and investigated narrow troughs (small depressions) within the sand in the workspace.
The environmental theme group, with their eye on the sky, included activities to measure the optical depth of the atmosphere, constrain aerosol scattering properties, and observe clouds.
A very busy day of planning for sols 4500-4501, with many more to come!
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4500-4501-bedrock-with-a-side-of-sand/
Philippines' Kanlaon Volcano: Timelapse Video Shows Explosive Eruption
Apr 08, 2025 at 7:23 AM EDT
Apowerful eruption of Mount Kanlaon in the central Philippines on Monday sent ash and hot gases soaring nearly 2 miles into the sky, prompting evacuations, school closures and a curfew in surrounding areas.
While no injuries were immediately reported, volcanic ash blanketed nearby villages and significantly reduced visibility, complicating transport and raising health concerns.
Authorities raised the alert level, warning of the potential for further hazardous volcanic activity.
Officials ordered evacuations for those living within a 6-kilometer radius (nearly 4-mile) of the volcano's crater as emergency shelters began filling.
A time-lapse video posted to X by the country's seismological agency showed the huge plume of ash bursting from the volcano.
Mount Kanlaon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, a country situated along the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where seismic and volcanic activity is common.
The eruption adds to the compounding natural threats faced by the archipelago, which also contends with up to 20 tropical storms and typhoons annually.
Mount Kanlaon, located on Negros Island and standing 2,435 meters (7,988 feet) tall, last erupted in December, prompting similar evacuations.
Monday's eruption, which began in the mid-afternoon, lasted over six minutes and sent an ash plume approximately 3 kilometers into the air, the Philippines' Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said.
PHIVOLCS raised the danger status to Alert Level 3 on its five-tier scale. This level signifies that a magmatic eruption is underway and could escalate into more powerful explosions.
The agency confirmed the eruption generated a pyroclastic density current—a fast-moving stream of superheated ash, debris and gases capable of destroying everything in its path.
Ashfall affected at least 14 villages in Canlaon, with residents reporting breathing difficulties and limited visibility on the roads.
In response, local authorities suspended classes and imposed a nighttime curfew to minimize exposure to volcanic ash and facilitate emergency operations.
The Department of Health warned residents to stay indoors and wear masks, citing the potential for respiratory problems.
Canlaon City Mayor Jose Chubasco Cardenas said about 100 people had taken shelter by nightfall, but warned the number could surpass 2,000 if eruptions intensify.
Cardenas said authorities had begun distributing face masks and water supplies to evacuation centers. "We are now assessing the needs of the affected families and coordinating with provincial and national agencies for support," he said.
PHIVOLCS has urged residents to avoid river channels where volcanic materials may accumulate, warning that heavy rain could trigger lahars—destructive volcanic mudflows.
The agency is closely monitoring seismic activity to assess whether more eruptions are likely in the coming days.
Canlaon Mayor Cardenas told the Associated Press: "It sounded like a cannon. There have been quiet eruptions before, but this was one very loud."
Resident Maria Therese Villanueva told DZRH radio: "It's difficult to breathe outside because of the ash. We had to close all the windows and doors and use wet rags to block the gaps."
PHIVOLCS director Teresito Bacolcol confirmed to local media that "there is an increased likelihood of further explosive eruptions, hence the heightened alert level and evacuation advisories."
Authorities said they are bracing for the possibility of prolonged volcanic activity.
https://www.newsweek.com/philippines-kanlaon-volcano-eruption-video-map-2056724
https://twitter.com/phivolcs_dost/status/1909373079815680096
NASA Tech Developed for Home Health Monitoring
Apr 07, 2025
Even before we’re aware of heart trouble or related health issues, our bodies give off warning signs in the form of vibrations.
Technology to detect these signals has ranged from electrodes and patches to watches. Now, an innovative wall-mounted technology is capable of monitoring vital signs.
Advanced TeleSensors Inc. developed the Cardi/o Monitor with an exclusive license from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Over the course of five years, NASA engineers created a small, inexpensive, contactless device to measure vital signs, a challenging task partly because monitoring heart rate requires picking out motions of about one three-thousandth of an inch, which are easily swamped by other movement in the environment.
By the late 1990s, hardware and computing technology could meet the challenge, and the NASA JPL team created a prototype the size of a thick textbook.
It would emit a radio beam toward a stationary person, working similarly to a radar, and algorithms differentiated cardiac and respiratory activity from the “noise” of other movements.
When Sajol Ghoshal, now CEO of Austin, Texas-based Advanced TeleSensors, participated in a demonstration of the prototype, he saw the potential for in-home monitoring.
By then, developing an affordable device was possible due to the miniaturization of sensors and computing technology.
The Cardi/o Monitor is 3 inches square and mounts to a ceiling or wall. It can detect vital signs from up to 10 feet.
Multiple devices can be scattered throughout a house, with a smartphone app controlling settings and displaying all data on a single dashboard.
The algorithms NASA developed detect heartbeat and respiration, and the company added heart rate variability detection that indicates stress and sleep apnea.
If there’s an anomaly, such as a dramatic heart rate increase, an alert in the app calls attention to the situation. Up to six months of data is stored in a secure cloud, making it accessible to healthcare providers.
This limits the need for regular in-person visits, which is particularly important for conditions such as infectious diseases, which can put medical professionals and other patients at risk.
Through the commercialization of this life-preserving technology, NASA is at the heart of advancing health solutions.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/nasa-tech-developed-for-home-health-monitoring/
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Space-Based_Tech_for_Home_Health_Monitoring
A day at Uranus just got 28 seconds longer
Updated 7:56 AM PDT, April 7, 2025
Scientists reported Monday that observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed it takes Uranus 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds to complete a full rotation.
That’s 28 seconds longer than estimates by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s.
A French-led team studied a decade’s worth of aurora observations at the ice giant to track its magnetic poles.
That long-term tracking provided a more precise rotation period for Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun.
From that distance, it takes about 84 Earth years for Uranus to orbit the sun.
“The continuous observations from Hubble were crucial,” lead author Laurent Lamy of the Paris Observatory said in a statement.
Lamy and his international team said this new approach can help pinpoint the rotation of any world with auroras and a magnetosphere.
Published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the findings come a few weeks before the 35th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.
NASA’s space shuttle Discovery delivered the space telescope to orbit on April 24, 1990.
https://apnews.com/article/uranus-nasa-hubble-19a4d69e0778704a4fd01e6a6f6bd814
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02492-z
Exclusive: House Democrats probe Elon Musk's conflicts of interest with NASA
April 7, 2025
House Democrats Monday launched an investigation into potential conflicts of interest between NASA and Elon Musk, who has inserted himself into the federal government under President Trump.
Why it matters: The billionaire's SpaceX is one of the agency's largest private sector contractors, and Musk has been overhauling federal spending at the helm of DOGE.
Rep Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) and Rep. Gery Connolly (D-Va.) sent a letter to Iris Lan, NASA's chief legal officer, requesting information and documents by April 21.
They asked how NASA is ensuring that Musk isn't exploiting the agency to enrich himself and his companies, which they said would violate ethics rules for his position as a special government employee.
What they're saying: "At NASA, where Mr. Musk has both benefited from significant contracts and has the potential to receive vast amounts of new business, his defiance of recusal laws and control of operations directly benefit his businesses," the letter said.
"The known conflicts of interest presented by this arrangement are illegal and must be addressed immediately." SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
They requested a list of actions NASA is taking to ensure Musk isn't permitted access to information that would give his businesses an advantage over competitors.
By the numbers: SpaceX has received more than $15 billion in funding from NASA, the Washington Post reported last month.
The agency has slated more than $525 million to SpaceX since President Trump took office and Musk began slashing other federal funding.
Context: The Federal Aviation Administration has investigated and fined SpaceX multiple times, including for alleged safety violations.
Trump tapped Jared Isaacman, a billionaire commercial astronaut and close associate of Musk, as the next head of NASA.
Zoom out: Musk's favorability ratings have dipped considerably since Trump took office, with a mass nationwide protest over the weekend targeting his involvement in the federal bureaucracy.
A separate movement, #TeslaTakedown, targeting another one of his companies, urges people to sell their vehicles and get rid of their stock.
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/07/house-democrats-investigation-elon-musk-nasa-space-x-conflicts
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25881141-2025-04-07gec-frost-to-nasa-iris-lan-re-musk-conflicts/
NRO director calls for leveraging full potential of cutting-edge space capabilities
April 8, 2025
One year ago, the NRO made several public commitments to ensure that our nation remains ahead of the national security challenges that we face.
Listen to Director Scolese’s update to find out how the NRO has met – and in many cases, exceeded – those objectives, and what Scolese is calling on the community to do next.
Video transcript:
Hello. I’m Chris Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office.
The NRO is on a mission. Today, we’re accelerating the build-out of the world’s most capable, resilient, and technologically advanced satellite constellation. We’re strengthening the capabilities and security of our ground architecture.
And deepening our partnerships across the whole of government, and with commercial space enterprises, academia, and our allies to ensure we push the boundaries of innovation.
The NRO’s first mission in response to our commitment to build the world’s most capable, resilient, and technologically advanced satellite architecture launched in May 2024 from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
NROL-146 was not only carrying into orbit the first operational system in what we call our “proliferated architecture,” it was also setting a new standard for data collection, speed, and responsiveness.
Over the past year, we’ve launched eight missions supporting our proliferated architecture, with a ninth and tenth coming within days of one another in April.
Future launches in support of our proliferated architecture are expected at this rapid cadence through 2029. And yet another launch – also in April – will carry a separate national security mission.
This enhanced constellation is already shortening revisit times and increasing observational persistence; delivering enhanced coordination; and empowering faster data processing, fusion, and transmission speeds. All with greater resilience and security.
Most profoundly, we’re making it harder for our adversaries to hide, while reducing time to insights for our customers from minutes to seconds – strengthening national security with improved prospects for lethality, when it’s necessary.
Altogether, over the last two years, we’ve launched more than 150 satellites creating the largest and most capable government constellation on orbit in our nation’s history.
Investments in ground systems – my second commitment – are enhancing capability, resilience, data processing, and cyber security.
We’re deploying advanced data and analytics, machine learning, and deep learning to support the entire range of satellite tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination.
Of course, we’re not realizing these achievements on our own.
My third commitment was to expand the NRO’s partnerships across the whole of government, and with commercial space enterprises, academia, and our allies to marshal the phenomenal levels of expertise that exist within each group.
These partnerships are yielding enhanced capabilities in areas from electro-optical to radar and other phenomenologies.
We’re benefitting from our exposure to world-class expertise in areas such as AI, machine learning, quantum sensing, computing, cybersecurity, and launch.
Today, we can see, hear, and sense better than any other nation on earth. Used wisely and effectively, these capabilities will help to solve some of the toughest intelligence challenges of our time – while enhancing strategy, planning, and decision making; improving lethality; and saving lives.
It’s an incredibly exciting and challenging time, which makes it especially important that I share a call to action with you…
To our customers – especially those within the Defense and Intelligence communities – I encourage you to collaborate on the highest and best use of the outstanding space-based ISR capabilities that we’ve built.
To our current and prospective partners, we must empower our talented people to innovate and share their ideas to better utilize the data being provided.
We all stand to benefit from a stronger collective commitment to advance the science we need to succeed.
We’re moving fast – faster than ever before. And with the best technical talent – and a culture that values integrity, trust, and hard work – the NRO will continue to go above and beyond; ensuring our customers – warfighters, policymakers, government agencies, and others – have the information they need to make decisions that enhance stability, preserve life, and ensure freedom.
Thanks for listening.
https://www.nro.gov/news-media-featured-stories/news-media-archive/News-Article/Article/4148782/nro-director-calls-for-leveraging-full-potential-of-cutting-edge-space-capabili/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15bDU4pZ2Jk