#AceNewsDesk – NASA has released two spectacular new images of the Tarantula Nebula taken by the James Webb Telescope, shedding light on a nearby region of the universe that could give astronomers new insight into how stars are formed.
The Tarantula Nebula star-forming region is shown in a new light, including tens of thousands of young stars previously shrouded in cosmic dust.(Supplied: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO production team)none
The Tarantula Nebula, officially known as 30 Doradus, is in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, a stone’s throw away from Earth at a mere 161,000 light-years and part of the Local Group of galaxies closest to the Milky Way.
But the new images, produced using the James Webb Telescope’s infrared sensors, provide a more complex and detailed picture of what is happening at the nebula’s centre, where stars are born at a furious pace.
The first image, taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), covers an area 340 light years across, and shows a cluster of massive stars making space for themselves at the nebula’s centre by eroding the surrounding matter with what NASA labelled “blistering radiation”.
Smaller points of light visible in the gas and dust clouds are “protostars”, young stars that are still gaining mass as they emerge from the nebula’s “web” and take their place at its centre.
The protostars have never been photographed before, as the surrounding matter is too dense for visible light to travel through.
A second image released by NASA, taken with the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), gives the region a whole new look, with the cooler gas and dust glowing blue but the hot stars fading into the background.The area surrounding the Tarantula Nebula’s central star cluster as taken by the James Webb Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).(Supplied: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)none
The Tarantula Nebula is of particular interest to astronomers because its chemical composition and behaviour is similar to what would have occurred in regions of the early universe when star formation was at its peak — what is known as the universe’s “cosmic noon”.
The new pictures are the latest in a series of spectacular images produced by the James Webb Telescope, a joint venture led by NASA along with the European and Canadian space agencies.
The six-tonne telescope, the successor to the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, was launched into orbit in December last year, arriving at a point of equilibrium between the Sun and the Earth in January and producing its first image for public release in July.
Allowing astronomers to see through the massive clouds of dust and gas that visible-light observatories like Hubble are unable to is one of the four main goals of the James Webb project.
The other three goals are to witness the first stars and galaxies forming near the beginning of the early universe, to further our understanding of how galaxies assemble over billions of years, and to tell us more about the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system, perhaps even furthering the search for extraterrestrial life.
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#AceNewsDesk – For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable.
Editor’s Note: This post highlights images from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb’s powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets.This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks within each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks out the host star’s light so that the planet can be seen. The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing. The bar shapes in the NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope’s optics, not objects in the scene. (Unlabeled version.) Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI).
“This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally,” said Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, who led these observations with a large international collaboration. Webb is an international mission led by NASA in collaboration with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
The exoplanet in Webb’s image, called HIP 65426 b, is about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter, and these observations could help narrow that down even further. It is young as planets go — about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5-billion-year-old Earth.
Astronomers discovered the planet in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and took images of it using short infrared wavelengths of light. Webb’s view, at longer infrared wavelengths, reveals new details that ground-based telescopes would not be able to detect because of the intrinsic infrared glow of Earth’s atmosphere.
Researchers have been analyzing the data from these observations and are preparing a paper they will submit to journals for peer review. But Webb’s first capture of an exoplanet already hints at future possibilities for studying distant worlds.
Since HIP 65426 b is about 100 times farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun, it is sufficiently distant from the star that Webb can easily separate the planet from the star in the image.
Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are both equipped with coronagraphs, which are sets of tiny masks that block out starlight, enabling Webb to take direct images of certain exoplanets like this one. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, slated to launch later this decade, will demonstrate an even more advanced coronagraph.
“It was really impressive how well the Webb coronagraphs worked to suppress the light of the host star,” Hinkley said.
Taking direct images of exoplanets is challenging because stars are so much brighter than planets. The HIP 65426 b planet is more than 10,000 times fainter than its host star in the near-infrared, and a few thousand times fainter in the mid-infrared.
In each filter image, the planet appears as a slightly differently shaped blob of light. That is because of the particulars of Webb’s optical system and how it translates light through the different optics.
“Obtaining this image felt like digging for space treasure,” said Aarynn Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the analysis of the images. “At first all I could see was light from the star, but with careful image processing I was able to remove that light and uncover the planet.”
While this is not the first direct image of an exoplanet taken from space – the Hubble Space Telescope has captured direct exoplanet images previously – HIP 65426 b points the way forward for Webb’s exoplanet exploration.
“I think what’s most exciting is that we’ve only just begun,” Carter said. “There are many more images of exoplanets to come that will shape our overall understanding of their physics, chemistry, and formation. We may even discover previously unknown planets, too.”
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceBreakingNews – NASA calls off launch of Artemis 1 rocket to the moon due to ‘engine bleed’ issue according to AP News
NASA’s new moon rocket will not be launched before September 2.(AP: Chris O’Meara)none
Fuel leaks have forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket Artemis 1 on a no-crew test flight: The next launch attempt will not come before Friday, September 2 at the earliest.
Two manikins are installed in the passenger seats inside the Artemis I Orion crew module atop the Space Launch System rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 8, 2022. As part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) investigation, the two female manikins – Helga and Zohar – are equipped with radiation detectors, while Zohar also wears a radiation protection vest, to determine the radiation risk on its way to the Moon. Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
Engineers are conducting the last integrated test before the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft roll out to Launch Pad 39B next week for the launch of the Artemis I flight test. This week, teams began the second part of the flight termination system (FTS) test. The first part of the test was conducted earlier this year prior to the wet dress rehearsal.
For safety purposes, all rockets are required to have a system that the Space Launch Delta 45 can use to terminate the flight if necessary. Following completion of the FTS testing, the Eastern Range requires SLS to launch within a certain timeframe. In order to meet the Aug. 29 launch attempt and backup attempts on Sept. 2 and 5, NASA has received an extension from the Space Launch Delta 45 on the validation of the FTS from 20 to 25 days before the system would need to be retested. The waiver will be valid throughout the Artemis I launch attempts.
Once the flight termination system testing is complete, teams will complete final closeouts on SLS and Orion before it rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building, including closing out the core stage and solid rocket boosters and retracting the remaining access platforms. The Orion crew module and launch abort system hatches were closed earlier this week, and Orion is in the final preparations for roll.
The Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment torsos, Helga and Zohar, outfitted with sensors to measure radiation levels future crew will be exposed to, have joined Commander Campos and are now installed inside the Orion spacecraft. The final payloads, including the agency’s Biology Experiment-1, will be installed once the rocket and spacecraft are at the pad for launch.
The agency is targeting Thursday, Aug. 18 to roll SLS and the Orion spacecraft to the spaceport’s Launch Pad 39B and will provide a live stream beginning at 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 17 on the NASA Kennedy You Tube channel.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceNewsDesk – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This observation of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet.
The finding, accepted for publication in Nature, offers evidence that in the future Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.
WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter (about the same as Saturn) and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter. Its extreme puffiness is related in part to its high temperature (about 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit or 900 degrees Celsius). Unlike the cooler, more compact gas giants in our solar system, WASP-39 b orbits very close to its star – only about one-eighth the distance between the Sun and Mercury – completing one circuit in just over four Earth-days. The planet’s discovery, reported in 2011, was made based on ground-based detections of the subtle, periodic dimming of light from its host star as the planet transits, or passes in front of the star.
Previous observations from other telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, revealed the presence of water vapor, sodium, and potassium in the planet’s atmosphere. Webb’s unmatched infrared sensitivity has now confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide on this planet as well.
A series of light curves from Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) shows the change in brightness of three different wavelengths (colors) of light from the WASP-39 star system over time as the planet transited the star July 10, 2022.
Credits: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI); Science: The JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team
Filtered Starlight
Transiting planets like WASP-39 b, whose orbits we observe edge-on rather than from above, can provide researchers with ideal opportunities to probe planetary atmospheres.
During a transit, some of the starlight is eclipsed by the planet completely (causing the overall dimming) and some is transmitted through the planet’s atmosphere.
Because different gases absorb different combinations of colors, researchers can analyze small differences in brightness of the transmitted light across a spectrum of wavelengths to determine exactly what an atmosphere is made of. With its combination of inflated atmosphere and frequent transits, WASP-39 b is an ideal target for transmission spectroscopy.
First Clear Detection of Carbon Dioxide
The research team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) for its observations of WASP-39b. In the resulting spectrum of the exoplanet’s atmosphere, a small hill between 4.1 and 4.6 microns presents the first clear, detailed evidence for carbon dioxide ever detected in a planet outside the solar system.
“As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me,” said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and member of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team, which undertook this investigation. “It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences.”
No observatory has ever measured such subtle differences in brightness of so many individual colors across the 3 to 5.5-micron range in an exoplanet transmission spectrum before. Access to this part of the spectrum is crucial for measuring abundances of gases like water and methane, as well as carbon dioxide, which are thought to exist in many different types of exoplanets.
“Detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, terrestrial-sized planets,” said Natalie Batalha of the University of California at Santa Cruz, who leads the team.
Understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere is important because it tells us something about the origin of the planet and how it evolved. “Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of the story of planet formation,” said Mike Line of Arizona State University, another member of this research team. “By measuring this carbon dioxide feature, we can determine how much solid versus how much gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet. In the coming decade, JWST will make this measurement for a variety of planets, providing insight into the details of how planets form and the uniqueness of our own solar system.”
Early Release Science
This NIRSpec prism observation of WASP-39 b is just one part of a larger investigation that includes observations of the planet using multiple Webb instruments, as well as observations of two other transiting planets. The investigation, which is part of the Early Release Scienceprogram, was designed to provide the exoplanet research community with robust Webb data as soon as possible.
“The goal is to analyze the Early Release Science observations quickly and develop open-source tools for the science community to use,” explained Vivien Parmentier, a co-investigator from Oxford University. “This enables contributions from all over the world and ensures that the best possible science will come out of the coming decades of observations.”
Natasha Batalha, co-author on the paper from NASA’s Ames Research Center, adds that “NASA’s open science guiding principles are centered in our Early Release Science work, supporting an inclusive, transparent, and collaborative scientific process.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
Banner Image: This illustration shows what exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like, based on current understanding of the planet. WASP-39 b is a hot, puffy gas-giant planet with a mass 0.28 times Jupiter (0.94 times Saturn) and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter, orbiting just 0.0486 astronomical units (4,500,000 miles) from its star. The star, WASP-39, is fractionally smaller and less massive than the Sun. Because it is so close to its star, WASP-39 b is very hot and is likely to be tidally locked, with one side facing the star at all times. Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)
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#AceNewsDesk – With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.
Alise FisherAugust 22, 2022Webb NIRCam composite image of Jupiter from three filters – F360M (red), F212N (yellow-green), and F150W2 (cyan) – and alignment due to the planet’s rotation. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said.
The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images.
In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud.
The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight.
“The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at AURA. “The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.” By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.
Webb NIRCam composite image from two filters – F212N (orange) and F335M (cyan) – of Jupiter system, unlabeled (top) and labeled (bottom). Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.
In a wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.
“This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing Webb data to get new science results about our solar system’s largest planet.
Data from telescopes like Webb doesn’t arrive on Earth neatly packaged. Instead, it contains information about the brightness of the light on Webb’s detectors. This information arrives at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb’s mission and science operations center, as raw data. STScI processes the data into calibrated files for scientific analysis and delivers it to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes for dissemination. Scientists then translate that information into images like these during the course of their research (here’s a podcast about that). While a team at STScI formally processes Webb images for official release, non-professional astronomers known as citizen scientists often dive into the public data archive to retrieve and process images, too.
Judy Schmidt of Modesto California, a longtime image processor in the citizen science community, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the tiny satellites, she collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, a co-investigator on these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. Citizen scientist Judy Schmidt of Modesto, California, processes astronomical images from NASA spacecraft, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. An example of her work is Minkowski’s Butterfly, right, a planetary nebula in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus.
Schmidt has no formal educational background in astronomy. But 10 years ago, an ESA contest sparked her insatiable passion for image processing. The “Hubble’s Hidden Treasures” competition invited the public to find new gems in Hubble data. Out of nearly 3,000 submissions, Schmidt took home third place for an image of a newborn star.
Since the ESA contest, she has been working on Hubble and other telescope data as a hobby. “Something about it just stuck with me, and I can’t stop,” she said. “I could spend hours and hours every day.”
Her love of astronomy images led her to process images of nebulae, globular clusters, stellar nurseries, and more spectacular cosmic objects. Her guiding philosophy is: “I try to get it to look natural, even if it’s not anything close to what your eye can see.” These images have caught the attention of professional scientists, including Hammel, who previously collaborated with Schmidt on refining Hubble images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’s Jupiter impact.
Jupiter is actually harder to work with than more distant cosmic wonders, Schmidt says, because of how fast it rotates. Combining a stack of images into one view can be challenging when Jupiter’s distinctive features have rotated during the time that the images were taken and are no longer aligned. Sometimes she has to digitally make adjustments to stack the images in a way that makes sense.
Webb will deliver observations about every phase of cosmic history, but if Schmidt had to pick one thing to be excited about, it would be more Webb views of star-forming regions. In particular, she is fascinated by young stars that produce powerful jets in small nebula patches called Herbig–Haro objects. “I’m really looking forward to seeing these weird and wonderful baby stars blowing holes into nebulas,” she said.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceBreakingNews – America’s NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos have signed a long-sought agreement to integrate flights to the International Space Station.
Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina will join two Americans and one Japanese aboard a SpaceX rocket flying from Florida.(AP: Roscosmos/Andrew Shelepin)none
This allows Russian cosmonauts to fly on US-made spacecraft in exchange for American astronauts being able to ride on Russia’s Soyuz, the agencies said on Friday.
“The agreement is in the interests of Russia and the United States and will promote the development of cooperation within the framework of the ISS program,” Roscosmos said in a statement, adding it would facilitate the “exploration of outer space for peaceful purposes”.
NASA and Roscosmos, the core partners in the two-decade-old space station, have sought for years to renew routine integrated crewed flights as part of the agencies’ long-standing civil alliance, now one of the last links of cooperation between the United States and Russia as tensions flare over the war in Ukraine.
The first integrated flights under the new agreement will come in September, NASA said, with US astronaut Frank Rubio launching to the space station from the Moscow-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan alongside two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin.
In exchange, cosmonaut Anna Kikina will join two US astronauts and a Japanese astronaut on a SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the orbital laboratory, launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The two agencies had previously shared astronaut seats on the US shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
After the shuttle’s retirement in 2011, the US relied on Russia’s Soyuz for sending American astronauts to the space station until 2020, when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule revived NASA’s human spaceflight capability and began routine ISS flights from Florida.
Ms Kikina, an engineer and the only woman in Russia’s active cosmonaut corps, is set to be the first Russian to fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
She has been training for the mission at NASA’s astronaut headquarters in Houston while the agreement was under negotiation.
The US space agency says having at least one Russian and one American aboard the space station is crucial to keeping the laboratory running.
“Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks,” NASA said in a statement on Friday.
Shortly before the agreement was announced, Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, with Yuri Borisov, a former deputy prime minister and deputy defence minister.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
NASA’s Webb Captures Dying Star’s Final ‘Performance’ in Fine Detail
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed details of the Southern Ring planetary nebula that were previously hidden from astronomers. Planetary nebulae are the shells of gas and dust ejected from dying stars.
Webb’s powerful infrared view brings this nebula’s second star into full view, along with exceptional structures created as the stars shape the gas and dust around them.
New details like these, from the late stages of a star’s life, will help us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments.
These images also reveal a cache of distant galaxies in the background. Most of the multi-colored points of light seen here are galaxies – not stars.
The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.
Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.
Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one – clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.
This observation shows the Southern Ring Nebula almost face-on, but if we could rotate it to view it edge-on, its three-dimensional shape would more clearly look like two bowls placed together at the bottom, opening away from one another with a large hole at the center.
Two stars, which are locked in a tight orbit, shape the local landscape. Webb’s infrared images feature new details in this complex system. The stars – and their layers of light – are prominent in the image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the left, while the image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the right shows for the first time that the second star is surrounded by dust. The brighter star is in an earlier stage of its stellar evolution and will probably eject its own planetary nebula in the future.
In the meantime, the brighter star influences the nebula’s appearance. As the pair continues to orbit one another, they “stir the pot” of gas and dust, causing asymmetrical patterns.
Each shell represents an episode where the fainter star lost some of its mass. The widest shells of gas toward the outer areas of the image were ejected earlier. Those closest to the star are the most recent. Tracing these ejections allows researchers to look into the history of the system.
Observations taken with NIRCam also reveal extremely fine rays of light around the planetary nebula. Starlight from the central stars streams out where there are holes in the gas and dust – like sunlight through gaps in a cloud.
Since planetary nebulae exist for tens of thousands of years, observing the nebula is like watching a movie in exceptionally slow motion. Each shell the star puffed off gives researchers the ability to precisely measure the gas and dust that are present within it.
As the star ejects shells of material, dust and molecules form within them – changing the landscape even as the star continues to expel material. This dust will eventually enrich the areas around it, expanding into what’s known as the interstellar medium. And since it’s very long-lived, the dust may end up traveling through space for billions of years and become incorporated into a new star or planet.
In thousands of years, these delicate layers of gas and dust will dissipate into surrounding space.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; and others.
NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Comparing NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope images to Hubble’s pictures
The view of Stephan’s Quintet is around 290 million years old.(Reuters: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)none
New images released by NASA have captured an astonishing level of detail of the universe never seen before.
The images, taken by NASA’s $13 billion James Webb Space Telescope, have previously been captured by the Hubble Telescope, but show a much more complex picture of the universe.
The reason for the difference between the two come down to their different-sized mirrors and different capabilities.
Webb’s mirror is nearly three times bigger than Hubble’s, and Webb is able to capture the universe in the infrared spectrum, while Hubble largely captures images at visible and ultraviolet light.
The “Cosmic Cliffs” captured by Webb have built on Hubble’s imagery of the Carina Nebula.
The striking image shows the mountains and valleys of the region that’s 7,600 light-years away where stars are born.
Stephan’s Quintet
This cluster was first discovered in 1877, but Webb’s image captures five galaxies, including a black hole, that’s from 290 million years ago.
The image captured by Hubble appeared to show the galaxies surrounded by darkness — but Webb has turned that on its head, and could provide insights into how early galaxies formed at the start of the universe.
Southern Ring Nebula
The incredible detail captured by Webb shows the nebula cloaked in dust and emitting gas, giving scientists a greater insight into the process a star goes through when it dies.
SMACS 0723
The deepest view of the cosmos was the first image released from Webb, providing a glittering view of stars and galaxies from about 4.6 billion years ago — the farthest humanity has ever seen in time and distance.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson gave an insight into the scale of the cluster when the image was released on Monday.
“If you held a grain of sand on the tip of your finger at arm’s length, that is the part of the universe you are seeing.
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#AceBreakingNews – NASA and SpaceX are targeting 8:44 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 14, to launch the agency’s next investigation to monitor climate change to the International Space Station. The mission, NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), will fly aboard SpaceX’s 25th commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory.
*Editor’s note: The Climate Conversation prelaunch event on Wednesday, July 13, begins at 2 p.m.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including a new climate research investigation.
Live coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting Wednesday, July 13.
Dragon will carry more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations like EMIT, which will identify the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions and analyze dust carried through the atmosphere from deserts to see what effects it has on the planet, further advancing NASA’s data contributions to monitoring climate change.
Other investigations include studying the aging of immune cells and the potential to reverse those effects during postflight recovery, a CubeSat that will monitor cloud top and ocean surface temperatures which could help scientists understand Earth’s climate and weather systems, and a student experiment testing a concrete alternative for potential use in future lunar and Martian habitats.
Arrival to the station is scheduled for approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT on Saturday, July 16. Dragon will dock autonomously to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module, with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines monitoring operations from the station.
The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
The deadline has passed for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch. More information about media accreditation is available by emailing: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy for on-site and virtual activities is available online. The agency will provide further details to those credentialed media, including COVID-19 safety protocols.
Full coverage of this mission is as follows (all times Eastern). Coverage is subject to change based on real-time operational activities. Follow the International Space Station blog for updates.
Wednesday, July 13
2 p.m. – Climate Conversation on NASA TV with the following participants:
Kate Calvin, NASA chief scientist and climate advisor
Heidi Parris, associate scientist, International Space Station Program, NASA
Mike Roberts, chief scientist, ISS National Lab
Rob Green, JPL senior research scientist and EMIT principal investigator
Paula do Vale Pereira, BeaverCube, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A limited number of seats inside the auditorium at Kennedy will be available to on-site journalists on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional journalists wishing to participate may dial in. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
8 p.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference (no earlier than one hour after completion of the Launch Readiness Review) with the following participants:
Dana Weigel, deputy program manager, International Space Station Program, NASA
Heidi Parris, associate scientist, International Space Station Program, NASA
SpaceX representative
Launch weather officer representative, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron
The teleconference will stream live at https://www.nasa.gov/live. Media may ask questions via phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13 at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
Thursday, July 14
8:15 p.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins
8:44 p.m. – Launch
9:30 p.m. – Postlaunch media teleconference
Dina Contella, operations integration manager, International Space Station Program, NASA
SpaceX representative
The teleconference will livestream on the agency’s website at:
Media may ask questions via phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 14 at: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.
Saturday, July 16
10 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for Dragon docking to space station
11:20 a.m. (approximately) – Docking
NASA TV launch coverage
Live coverage of the launch on NASA TV will begin at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, July 14. For downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit:
Audio only of the news conferences and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, -1260 or -7135. On launch day, the full mission broadcast can be heard on -1220 and -1240, while the countdown net only can be heard on -1260 and -7135 beginning approximately one hour before the mission broadcast begins.
On launch day, a “clean feed” of the launch without NASA TV commentary will be carried on the NASA TV media channel.
NASA website launch coverage
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the NASA website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 8 p.m. Thursday, July 14, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the Kennedy newsroom: at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on our launch blog at:
Attend the launch virtually
Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. Registrants will receive mission updates and activities by email. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities, and a virtual guest passport stamp following a successful launch.
Watch and engage on social media
Let people know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by using the hashtags #Dragon and #NASASocial. You can also stay connected by following and tagging these accounts:
Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo at: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov or 321-501-8425.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
#AceBreakingNews – NASA successfully launches its first rocket from newly created Arnhem Space Centre
The rocket successfully launched from the Arnhem Space Centre.
After rain and wind delayed the launch by more than an hour, the suborbital sounding rocket took off just after midnight on Monday morning from the newly constructed Arnhem Space Centre, on the remote eastern edge of the Northern Territory.
It marks the first commercial space launch in Australia’s history and NASA’s first rocket launch from a commercial spaceport outside of the United States.
The rocket — which is expected to fly about 300 kilometres into space above Arnhem Land — is conducting astrophysics studies that can only be undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere, NASA said.
It was NASA’s first space launch from a commercial spaceport outside the United States. (Michael Franchi)none
Sky lights up ‘in the blink of an eye’
Around 100 VIPs — scientists, politicians, local community members, Indigenous leaders and the media — were shuttled out to watch the launch, from a viewing platform about 800 metres away and not far from the site of the annual Garma Festival.
One person watching on was Yirrkala School co-principal Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, who said it was “unbelievable for something like this to happen here on Yolngu country”.
“It was in the blink of an eye, but to me, it was like it was in slow motion because the whole area just lit up,” she said.
“It went up, and then the sound, it was just like a rumbling boom, like nothing I’ve ever heard.
“And I just shook with amazement.”
The rocket was visible for about 10 seconds, until just before it exited the earth’s atmosphere.
Others in the nearby township of Nhulunbuy also had a chance to catch a brief glimpse of the rocket on its journey skyward, as did residents in nearby remote Yolngu communities and homelands.
ELA owns and operates the Arnhem Space Centre near Nhulunbuy.
Before the launch, dignitaries from both the United States and Australia gathered to speak about the historic moment.
US Consul-General Kathleen Lively said it reaffirmed the “deep partnership” between the two nations.
“Our collaboration is furthering space exploration, to improve our understanding of the solar system and the universe,” she said.
“Today marks a moment that will go down in history for the United States and Australia, in our space collaboration efforts.”
The launch happened from land owned by the Yolngu people.(Michael Franchi )none
The launch happened from land owned by the Yolngu people and was heralded by a senior leader of the Gumatj clan, Djawa Yunupingu.
“I’ve always thought this was going to be a new beginning [for the region],” he said.
Two more launches scheduled from Arnhem Land
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, who was among the VIPs flown in for the occasion, said it was an “extremely proud” moment for Australia.
“Here on Yolngu land, young Territorians can look up at the sky and know what can be done,” Ms Fyles said.
“When we see the oldest living culture combining with the science of space, as we have here, it’s something we can all reflect on and be very proud.”
The inaugural launch was the first of three NASA launches scheduled to take place during June and July this year, with the next expected to blast off on July 4.
Seventy-five NASA personnel travelled to Australia for the launches.(Supplied: ELA)none#AceNewsDesk report ………..Published: June.27: 2022:
NASA/ ABC NEWS
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#AceBreakingNews – Each year, strong winds carry more than a billion metric tons – or the weight of 10,000 aircraft carriers – of mineral dust from Earth’s deserts and other dry regions through the atmosphere. While scientists know that the dust affects the environment and climate, they don’t have enough data to determine, in detail, what those effects are or may be in the future – at least not yet.
Called EMIT, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigationwill analyze dust carried through the atmosphere from dry regions to see what effects it has on the planet.
Launching to the International Space Station on June 9, NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument will help fill in those knowledge gaps. EMIT’s state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer, developed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, will collect more than a billion dust-source-composition measurements around the globe over the course of a year – and in doing so, significantly advance scientists’ understanding of dust’s influence across the Earth system.
Here are five things to know about EMIT:
It will identify the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions.
Desert regions produce most of the mineral dust that makes its way into the atmosphere. They’re also largely remote, making it difficult for scientists to collect soil and dust samples over these vast areas by hand.
From its perch on the space station, EMIT will map the world’s mineral dust source regions. The imaging spectrometer will also provide information on the color and composition of dust sources globally for the first time. This data will help scientists understand which kinds of dust dominate each region and advance their understanding of dust’s impact on climate and the Earth system today and in the future.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Using image spectrometer technology developed at JPL, EMIT will map the surface composition of minerals in Earth’s dust-producing regions, helping climate scientists better understand the impact of airborne dust particles in heating and cooling Earth’s atmosphere.
It will clarify whether mineral dust heats or cools the planet.
Right now, scientists don’t know whether mineral dust has a cumulative heating or cooling effect on the planet. That’s because dust particles in the atmosphere have different properties. For instance, some particles may be dark red, while others may be white.
The color matters because it determines whether the dust will absorb the Sun’s energy, as dark-colored minerals do, or reflect it, as light-colored minerals do. If more of the dust absorbs the Sun’s energy than reflects it, it’ll warm the planet, and vice versa.
EMIT will provide a detailed picture of how much dust comes from dark versus light minerals. That information will allow scientists to determine whether dust heats or cools the planet overall, as well as regionally and locally.
It will help scientists understand how dust affects different Earth processes.
Mineral dust particles vary in color because they’re made of different substances. Dark red mineral dust gets its color from iron, for example. The composition of dust particles affects how they interact with many of Earth’s natural processes.
For instance, mineral dust plays a role in cloud formation and atmospheric chemistry. When mineral dust is deposited in the ocean or forests, it can provide nutrients for growth, acting like fertilizer. When it falls on snow or ice, the dust accelerates melting, leading to more water runoff. And for humans, mineral dust can be a health hazard when inhaled.
EMIT will collect information on 10 important dust varieties, including those that contain iron oxides, clays, and carbonates. With this data, scientists will be able to assess precisely what effects mineral dust has on different ecosystems and processes.
Its data will improve the accuracy of climate models.
In the absence of more specific data, scientists currently characterize mineral dust in climate models as yellow – a general average of dark and light. Because of this, the effects that mineral dust may have on climate – and that climate may have on mineral dust – are not well represented in computer models.
Color and composition information gathered by EMIT will change that. When the instrument’s data is incorporated, the accuracy of climate models is expected to improve.
It will help scientists predict how future climate scenarios will affect the type and amount of dust in our atmosphere.
As global temperatures rise, arid regions may become even dryer, possibly resulting in larger (and dustier) deserts. To what extent this might happen depends on several factors, including how much temperatures rise, how land use changes, and how rainfall trends change.
By incorporating EMIT’s global dust source composition data into models and predictions, scientists will gain a better understanding of how the amount and composition of dust in arid regions may change under different climate and land-use scenarios. They’ll also gain a better understanding of how these changes may impact climate in the future.
More About the Mission
EMIT is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. It will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s 25th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. Once EMIT begins operation, its data will be delivered to the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for use by other researchers and the public.
Editor says …Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
