Astronomy & Space News

Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli captured this image of New Zealand, dotted by white clouds, on Sept. 12, 2023, as the International Space Station orbited 230 miles above the island nation.

The Artemis II crew and teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program successfully completed on Sept. 20, the first in a series of integrated ground system tests at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the upcoming mission around the Moon.

"The stars aligned – I was working at Johnson Space Center in Houston about six months later. That’s how I got here, in a roundabout way.” — Isidro Reyna, Strategic Communications Manager, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters

"It's amazing when I get a chance to see the space station fly over. I am very fortunate to be able to say that my hands were on a lot of the hardware that is up there. I’m very proud to have been part of the International Space Station program.” — Liliana Villarreal, Artemis Landing and Recovery Director, Exploration Ground Systems

This dream-like image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy known as NGC 3156.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the NOAA-20 satellite captured this image of fragmented ice in Hudson Bay on June 28, 2023.

Justin Hall lands the Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone 2 (DROID 2) aircraft at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Aug. 22, 2023.

In this image from July 24, 2023, astronaut Frank Rubio completes a session on the Surface Avatar Remote Control Terminal, which investigates how haptic controls, user interfaces, and virtual reality could command and control surface-bound robots from long distances.

A snowy egret, identifiable by its slender black bill, black legs and yellow feet, marches through a pond near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, looking for food in this image from March 29, 2007.

Support teams onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN work to open the hatch of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed in the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 4, 2023, with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev aboard.

Hubble's colorful image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is a spectacular example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects.

A recovery team member takes part in field rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission in this image from Aug. 29, 2023.

Voyager 1 Lifts Off Toward an Interstellar Journey

Hurricane Idalia is pictured in the Gulf of Mexico from the International Space Station.

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to peer so far back in time that we are approaching the epoch where we think that the first galaxies were created. Throughout most of the history of the Universe, galaxies seemingly tend to follow a tight relation between how many stars they have formed, and how many heavy elements they have formed. But for the first time we now see signs that this relation between the amount of stars and elements does not hold for the earliest galaxies. The reason is likely that these galaxies simply are in the process of being created, and have not yet had the time to create the heavy elements.

Galaxies from the early Universe are more like our own Milky Way than previously thought, flipping the entire narrative of how scientists think about structure formation in the Universe, according to new research.

Astronomers using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have identified carbon dioxide in a specific region on the icy surface of Europa.

An international research team has used the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to observe the most distant galaxy protocluster to date, 13.14 billion light-years away. The team has successfully captured the 'core region' of the galaxy protocluster, which corresponds to a metropolitan area with a particularly high number density of galaxies. The team has revealed that many galaxies are concentrated in a small area and that the growth of galaxies is accelerated. Furthermore, the team used simulations to predict the future of the metropolitan area and found that the region will merge into one larger galaxy within tens of millions of years. These results are expected to provide important clues regarding the birth and growth of galaxies.

While previous researchers have hypothesized that black holes eat slowly, new simulations indicate that black holes scarf food much faster than conventional understanding suggests. Some quasars brighten and disappear within months -- a time scale that aligns with the new findings.

A team recently calculated that most of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are at most around 3.4 billion years old and can contain relatively young deposits of water ice. Water resources are considered key for sustainable exploration of the Moon and beyond, but these findings suggest that current estimates for cold-trapped ices are too high.

Scientists have used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey to change the way we think about the universe and its distant galaxies. Astronomers authored a paper confirming very bright galaxies in the early universe, while also disproving the identification of what would have been the most distant galaxy ever found.

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This image of HH 211 from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveals an outflow from a Class 0 protostar, an infantile analog of our Sun when it was no more than a few tens of thousands of years old and with a mass only 8% of the present-day Sun (it will eventually grow into a star like the Sun).

Planetary scientists have discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface.

One of the most interesting and important questions in cosmology is, 'How much matter exists in the universe?' An international team has now succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter for the second time. The team determined that matter makes up 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, with the remainder consisting of dark energy.

These new detections suggest polar ring galaxies might be more common than previously believed.

At the center of every galaxy is a supermassive black hole. Beyond a certain size, these become active, emitting huge amounts of radiation, and are then called quasars. It is thought these are activated by the presence of massive dark matter halos (DMH) surrounding the galaxy, directing matter towards the center, feeding the black hole. A team has now surveyed hundreds of ancient quasars and found this behavior is very consistent throughout history. This is surprising, as many large-scale processes show variation throughout the life of the universe, so the mechanism of quasar activation could have implications for the evolution of the entire universe.

As the universe evolves, scientists expect large cosmic structures to grow at a certain rate: dense regions such as galaxy clusters would grow denser, while the void of space would grow emptier.

A new investigation with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. Webb's discovery adds to recent studies suggesting that K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface.

A new article hints at the existence of several black holes in the Hyades cluster -- the closest open cluster to our solar system -- which would make them the closest black holes to Earth ever detected.

In space science, India is going from strength to strength, from the recent Moon landing of Chandrayaan-3 to the launch of the solar observing satellite Aditya-L1. That growth also extends to the amateur community: In the past few years, the astroimaging scene in India has taken off — and the nation’s largest astrophotography contest reflectsContinue reading "Entries open for Indian astrophotography contest"

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Imagine arriving back at Earth after traveling through space for seven years, tirelessly transmitting images and hauling back rock samples from the diamond-shaped asteroid 101955 Bennu. Time for vacation, right? Hardly for intrepid OSIRIS-REx. This Sunday, Sept. 24, the craft’s primary mission will culminate when it swings by Earth and drops off the largest setContinue reading "OSIRIS-REx prepares to deliver Bennu asteroid samples — and start its next mission"

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Kombucha may be more than just a trendy drink. The fermented tea may also benefit spacefaring humans living on the Moon and Mars. Kombucha is a combination of sugar, tea, yeast, and Symbiotic Culture Of acetic acid Bacteria, or SCOBY. The bacterium then breaks down the sugars and yeast, resulting in an acidic fizzy drink.Continue reading "Kombucha: Popular drink or space mission innovation?"

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Friday, September 22Mercury reaches greatest western elongation (18°) at 9 A.M. EDT. The solar system’s smallest planet is visible in the early-morning sky just before sunrise for the next several days, though now it will start to sink back toward the horizon earlier and earlier. If you’re up early this week, you can catch itContinue reading "The Sky This Week from September 22 to 29: It’s time for autumn"

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently imaged Supernova 1987A (also called SN 1987A), revealing a keyhole structure at its center. The supernova resides within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), about 168,000 light-years from Earth, and was first noticed when researchers saw a new source of light in the LMC created by the death of a massiveContinue reading "JWST views Supernova 1987A"

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The future red giant sun bakes planet Earth. Fsgregs/Wikimedia Commons In roughly 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of energy and drastically alter the solar system. Oceans will be baked dry. Entire planets will be consumed. And long-icy worlds will finally enjoy their day in the Sun. Our star is powered by nuclearContinue reading "The Sun’s death could mean new life in the outer solar system"

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The most common features on the surfaces of most of the solar system’s rocky bodies are impact craters. Many measure hundreds of kilometers across and have remained relatively unchanged for several billion years. On Earth, however, the majority of ancient impact sites have disappeared due to plate tectonics and the erosive effects of wind, water,Continue reading "Researchers race to find Earth’s oldest craters"

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When 17 people were in orbit around the Earth all at the same time on May 30, 2023, it set a record. With NASA and other federal space agencies planning more manned missions and commercial companies bringing people to space, opportunities for human space travel are rapidly expanding. However, traveling to space poses risks toContinue reading "Spending time in space can harm the human body − but scientists are working to mitigate these risks before sending people to Mars"

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The New Horizons spacecraft is perhaps most famous for revealing the icy world Pluto in 2015, flying by the distant dwarf planet and sending back stunning imagery of a dynamic world. But the spacecraft’s mission was far from over. This week, New Horizons and the Hubble Space Telescope are teaming up to observe Uranus andContinue reading "NASA needs you to observe Uranus and Neptune this week"

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Founded in 1843, the Cincinnati Observatory is dedicated to both preserving the history of astronomy in the U.S. and the inspiration of future generations of skywatchers, astronomers, and scientists. Now, the observatory is seeking a new astronomer to serve as a resident expert and science communicator. The position is responsible for leading observatory programming, informalContinue reading "Cincinnati Observatory is looking for a new staff astronomer"

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