Space Exploration

1989 (Gateway’s version) 📸

Astronaut Nicole Mann (right) tours Gateway with virtual reality, technology NASA has used since the late 80s (left) to advance exploration of the cosmos 🌌

The Apollo 9 crew received the Distinguished Service Medal from Vice President Spiro Agnew, a quarantine simulation for Apollo 11 was underway at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at what is now NASA's Johnson Space Center, and the two stages of the Apollo 12 Lunar Module had just arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

A trio of Falcon 9 Starlink launches, a Falcon 9 non-Starlink launch involving an Eutelsat communications satellite, a Chinese launch, and a Russian Soyuz launch with a Resurs Earth observation satellite are scheduled for this week. However, the launch that will likely get the most attention is the final launch ever of a Delta family rocket, a family that dates back to near the beginning of the space age.

NASA RS-25 Engine booster firing test is set to be targeted.

Total Solar Eclipse going to happen on April 8, 2024.

Sun Comparison with Stephenson 218

March 20th - on this day in 2000, Starsem launched flight ST-08, a qualification mission for the newly developed Fregat upper stage, carrying the 2,382 kg DUMSAT payload mockup.

The flight was operated from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz U rocket and paved the way for the successful launches of two batches of Cluster II magnetospheric research spacecraft for ESA - European Space Agency later that year.

To understand how far we've come, it helps to see how we started and where we've been. This is the first image of a planetary disk of dust and gas around the star Beta Pictoris (1984).

Located 10 million light-years away, this galaxy is home to a firestorm of star birth, seen in clusters along the edge-on view of a dust disk encircling Centaurus A.

40th successful Martian drill hole 👑

Analyzing the sample from the target (named after a silver mining district in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks).

Centre of Pacific Ocean, where also located Point Nemo 👉

5,599!
We've confirmed that many planets beyond our solar system. One of them, TOI-4515 b, is twice as massive as Jupiter and 631 light-years away. A year there, one orbit, is 15.3 days.

On March 14, NASA and SpaceX demonstrated a liquid oxygen propellant transfer during the Starship test flight. Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) technologies like this are critical for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Pearl Young, who graduated with honors from the University of North Dakota with a triple major in physics, math, AND chemistry, was hired by the NACA in 1922, becoming its first female technical employee.

The Arctic is getting more rainy days 🌧️

The Arctic is known for its cold temperatures, which allow precipitation to fall as snow. But as temperatures warm, that snow is being replaced by rain.
These changes can affect sea ice in the Arctic and weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere. When rain falls on snow-covered ice, it can set off a feedback loop that leads to further melting and warming in the region.

NASA scientists examined rainfall trends in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans between 1980-2016 and found that rainy days are increasing. The map shows how the average number of rainy days per year has increased since the 1980s, with deep blue indicating a larger increase in the number of rainy days compared with light blue areas.

March 18th - on this day in 2022, Роскосмос launched the crewed Soyuz MS-21 mission to the International Space Station, marking the first time three РоскосмосРоскосмос cosmonauts flew to the orbital outpost on the same Soyuz spacecraft.

Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov docked to the Prichal module less than four hours after launch and stayed on the ISS for 194 days.

A galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth is one of many forcing its way through the massive Virgo cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160.

March 19th - on this day in 2016, Роскосмос launched the final Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-20M, to the International Space Station.

Launching on a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the spacecraft carried cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, as well as NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut Jeffrey Williams to the orbital outpost.

SpaceX Starship Test Flight

Comet Leonard

This glowing emerald nebula seen by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is thought to have been sculpted by the powerful light of giant “O” stars, the most massive type of star known. RCW 120 can be found in the murky clouds encircled by the tail of the constellation Scorpius.

Super Sleuth is Bangkok, Thailand, which sits on the delta of the Chao Phraya River, approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Gulf of Thailand. Bangkok, the capital city and chief port of Thailand, covers an area of 604 square miles (1,565 square kilometers). The city center has long been densely developed, but more recent growth has pushed the edges of the city outward, into what was once agricultural areas.

Originally created by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and incorporated into NASA research and applications, the Black Marble Nighttime Blue/Yellow Composite (Day/Night Band) data product produces nighttime city lights in shades of yellow with infrared, nighttime cloud presence in shades of blue. During bright moonlit conditions, moonlight reflected from cloud tops and the land surface may also provide a yellow hue to those features. This Blue/Yellow Composite product incorporates data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band, which captures natural and anthropogenic sources of light. Lunar reflection can be used to highlight the location and features of clouds and other terrestrial features such as sea ice and snow cover when there are partial to full moon conditions. When there is no moonlight, natural and anthropogenic nighttime light emissions are highlighted such as city lights, lightning, upper-atmospheric gravity waves, auroras, fires, gas flares, and fishing fleets.

NGC 6822 is an irregular galaxy located about 1.5 million light-years away. This image combines views from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). While NIRCam is ideal for observing the myriad of stars shown here, MIRI showcases the gas-rich regions (the greenish yellow swirls).

Aurora

March 18th - on this day in 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first human to conduct an Extravehicular Activity (EVA), commonly known as spacewalk, when he went outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft through an inflatable airlock for 12 minutes.

Launched earlier that day from Gagarin's Start at Baikonur, the spacecraft was commanded by cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev, while Leonov served as the Pilot.

Voskhod 2 returned to Earth the next day.

A team of NASA-funded scientists recently discovered long-lasting radio signals above sunspots - dark regions of the Sun’s surface where magnetic field forces are extremely strong.

The radio bursts are the first of their kind to be observed at the Sun. (The picture is a computer illustration.)

The metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered on March 17, 1852. Take a simulated flight there using the Eyes on the Solar System experience: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/ #/16_psyche

Is this what it really looks like? We don't know yet! (But when our spacecraft arrives in '29, we'll find out. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/ )

Two galaxies colliding in a crash of cosmic proportions!

350 million light-years away, in the constellation of Cetus 🐋, a pair of barred spiral galaxies have started to merge. Though their nuclei are still separate, their shapes are distorted, with the galaxy in the upper half of the image having long, trailing tidal tails – extended ribbons of gas, dust and stars 💫.

March 18th - on this day in 1989, Discovery concluded the five-day STS-29 mission, which saw her crew deploying the TDRS-D Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.

The orbiter landed on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California and was returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Object Name:
GOODS-North Field, GN-z11

Object Description:
Distant galaxy

R.A. Position:
12:36:32.13

Dec. Position:
+62:15:59.98

Constellation:
Ursa Major

Dimensions:
This image is about 8 arcminutes across.

Instrument:
NIRCam

Exposure Dates:
04-05 February 2023

GOODS-North Field (NIRCam Image):

This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows a portion of the GOODS-North field of galaxies. At lower right, a pullout highlights the galaxy GN-z11, which is seen at a time just 430 million years after the big bang. The image reveals an extended component, tracing the GN-z11 host galaxy, and a central source whose colors are consistent with those of an accretion disk surrounding a black hole.

Pristine Gas Clump Near GN-z11:

This two-part graphic shows evidence of a gaseous clump of helium in the halo surrounding galaxy GN-z11. In the top portion, at the far right, a small box identifies GN-z11 in a field of galaxies. The middle box shows a zoomed-in image of the galaxy. The box at the far left displays a map of the helium gas in the halo of GN-z11, including a clump that does not appear in the infrared colors shown in the middle panel. In the lower half of the graphic, a spectrum shows the distinct “fingerprint” of helium in the halo. The full spectrum shows no evidence of other elements and so suggests that the helium clump must be fairly pristine, made of hydrogen and helium gas left over from the big bang, without much contamination from heavier elements produced by stars. Theory and simulations in the vicinity of particularly massive galaxies from these epochs predict that there should be pockets of pristine gas surviving in the halo, and these may collapse and form Population III star clusters.

GOODS-North Field (NIRCam Compass Image):

This image of the GOODS-North field, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in angular distance on the sky, where one arcsecond is one-3,600th of a degree. The scale bar is 60 arcseconds long.

This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The color of each filter name is the visible light color used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter.

Release Date:
March 04, 2024 10:00AM (EST).