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Latest by G. Torbet

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule soars upward after lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14, 2022, on the company’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:44 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space 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.

How to watch SpaceX deliver cargo and experiments to the ISS this week

This week will see a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blast off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and head for the ISS to deliver supplies and research.
OSIRIS-APEX pursues asteroid Apophis during its exceptionally close flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029.

NASA’s first asteroid-sampling mission continues on to a new target

NASA's OSIRIS-REx recently dropped off a sample from asteroid Bennu, and now it will continue on to a new target: asteroid Apophis.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula in the search for answers about the supernova remnant’s origins. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have revealed new details in infrared light.

James Webb snaps an image of the famous and beautiful Crab Nebula

Located 6,500 light-years away, the Crab Nebula is famous among astronomers for its elaborate and beautiful structure.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ultraviolet view of Jupiter.

Hubble captures a stunning ultraviolet image of Jupiter

A new image from Hubble shows Jupiter in a whole new way, highlighting the Great Red Spot - an enormous storm larger than the width of the entire Earth.
This image shows the “moonrise” of the satellite as it emerges from behind asteroid Dinkinesh as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI), one of the most detailed images returned by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby of the asteroid binary. This image was taken at 12:55 p.m. EDT (1655 UTC) Nov. 1, 2023, within a minute of closest approach, from a range of approximately 270 miles (430 km). From this perspective, the satellite is behind the primary asteroid. The image has been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft snaps not one, but two asteroids during flyby

NASA's Lucy spacecraft made its first asteroid flyby. But when it returned the images it took, there was a surprise in store: a second, even smaller asteroid.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli (center) assists astronauts Andreas Mogensen (left) from ESA (European Space Agency) and Loral O’Hara (right) from NASA as they try on their spacesuits and test the suits’ components aboard the International Space Station’s Quest airlock in preparation for an upcoming spacewalk.

How to watch the delayed ISS maintenance spacewalk this week

This Wednesday will see NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli head out from the ISS on a spacewalk to work on station maintenance.
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt collects a sample from the Moon in 1972

The moon may be 40 million years older than we thought

Researchers working on samples collected by Apollo 17 astronauts have performed an analysis that suggests the moon may be as much as 4.46 billion years old.
In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.

Map of Mars shows the location of ice beneath the planet’s surface

A NASA project called Subsurface Water Ice Mapping or SWIM has released a new set of Mars maps, showing the locations of subsurface ice on the planet.
This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument highlights GRB 230307A’s kilonova and its former home galaxy among their local environment of other galaxies and foreground stars. The neutron stars were kicked out of their home galaxy and travelled the distance of about 120,000 light-years, approximately the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy, before finally merging several hundred million years later.

James Webb observes merging stars creating heavy elements

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected heavy elements being created in a star merger for the first time.
The billion-year-old aftermath of a double spiral galaxy collision, at the heart of which is a pair of supermassive black holes.

This peculiar galaxy has two supermassive black holes at its heart

A recent image taken by the Gemini South observatory shows the chaotic result of a merger between two spiral galaxies one billion years ago.
A galactic collision of two galaxies which began more than 300 million years ago, NGC 520 is actually made up of two disk galaxies which will eventually merge together to form one larger, more massive system. NGC 520 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Siena Galaxy Atlas.

The Siena Galaxy Atlas now catalogs 400,000 nearby galaxies

A publicly available digital atlas of nearby galaxies was recently updated and now includes almost 400,000 galaxies located within our cosmic neighborhood.
This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white "spots" and "streaks" are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In Webb’s images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

Researchers discover a 320-mph jet stream around Jupiter’s equator

Researchers have used data from the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover a new feature of Jupiter's dramatic and turbulent atmosphere.
An illustration shows a rocket tossed in the air from the surface of Mars and igniting.

NASA’s wild plan to launch a rocket from Mars is ‘like something from an amusement park’

How do you launch a rocket from Mars? NASA's jaw-dropping plan involves pitching it in the air and igniting it aloft.
An artist's concept of the Lucy Mission.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon make its first flyby of an asteroid

The Lucy spacecraft is on its way to the orbit of Jupiter to study the Trojan asteroids there. But first it will make a flyby of an asteroid called Dinkinesh.
Two NASA personnel carry a container holding the sample gathered from the Bennu asteroid.

NASA mission collected at least 70 grams of material from asteroid Bennu

NASA has collected at least 70 grams of material from asteroid Bennu in its first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx.
Orionid meteors appear every year when Earth travels through an area of space littered with debris from Halley’s Comet.

How to watch the Orionid meteor shower tonight, in person or online

The Orionid meteor shower will peak tonight, Saturday October 21. Here's how to watch.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA’s Psyche mission launches to explore a metal asteroid

NASA has successfully launched its Psyche spacecraft on a mission to visit a metal asteroid.
ESA's star-surveying Gaia mission has released a treasure trove of new data as part of its ‘focused product release’. As part of this data release Gaia explored Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster that can be seen from Earth and a great example of a ‘typical’ cluster.

Gaia discovers half a million new stars in the epic Omega Centauri cluster

This week saw the release of a treasure trove of data from ESA's Gaia mission, a space-based observatory that is mapping out the Milky Way in three dimensions.
The flight transceiver for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration can be identified by its large tube-like sunshade on the Psyche spacecraft, seen here inside a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Meet the new NASA communications system that’s hitching a ride in today’s Psyche launch

The launch of NASA's Psyche mission to visit a metal asteroid will include an extra bonus, as the spacecraft will carry a test of a new communications system.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at sunset at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Psyche is targeted to launch from the Florida spaceport at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 13.

Weather conditions are looking good for today’s Psyche launch

After postponing from its original launch date due to bad weather, the conditions are now looking favorable for NASA to launch its Psyche mission today.
Two NASA personnel carry a container holding the sample gathered from the Bennu asteroid.

Measure twice, laser once. Meet the scientists prodding NASA’s first asteroid sample

Now that NASA has wrangled a chunk of asteroid back to Earth, a team of scientists is busy photographing, crushing, and even shooting lasers at the dust.
annular solar eclipse 2023 livestream m17 092 1

How to watch the annular solar eclipse this week, in person or online

This week, skywatchers across the U.S. will have the chance to see an annular solar eclipse, also known as a ring of fire eclipse. Here's how to watch.
This new infrared image of NGC 346 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) traces emission from cool gas and dust. In this image blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. More diffuse red emission shines from warm dust heated by the brightest and most massive stars in the heart of the region. Bright patches and filaments mark areas with abundant numbers of protostars. This image includes 7.7-micron light shown in blue, 10 microns in cyan, 11.3 microns in green, 15 microns in yellow, and 21 microns in red (770W, 1000W, 1130W, 1500W, and 2100W filters, respectively).

James Webb captures a gorgeous stellar nursery in nearby dwarf galaxy

A gorgeous new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a stunning sight from one of our galactic neighbors.
(June 9, 2023) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg rides the Canadarm2 robotic arm while maneuvering a roll-out solar array toward the International Space Station’s truss structure 257 miles above the Pacific Ocean. In the rear, is the SpaceX Dragon crew vehicle that docked to the Harmony module’s forward port on March 3 carrying four SpaceX Crew-6 crew members.

How to watch two astronauts spacewalk to check the ISS for microbes

Two astronauts will perform a spacewalk from the International Space Station, collecting samples from the station's exterior to use in scientific research.
An artist’s concept of one of the brightest explosions ever seen in space.

Hubble observes mysterious bright explosion in the middle of nowhere

The Hubble Space Telescope recently observed something strange: an extremely bright, extremely fast flash of light that popped up in the middle of nowhere.
This artist's-concept illustration depicts the spacecraft of NASA's Psyche mission near the mission's target, the metal asteroid Psyche.

How to watch NASA’s Psyche mission launch to a metal asteroid this week

NASA will launch its latest mission, Psyche, this week. The spacecraft will visit a strange asteroid which is thought to be made almost entirely of metal.
Dust blankets the solar panels of the Mars Insight lander, shortly before its demise.

How one NASA lander decoded secrets lying beneath the surface of Mars

Using new instruments and clever science, the Mars Insight lander left us with incredible new insight into the belly of the red planet.
Artist's impression of the Euclid mission in space.

Euclid’s navigation problems have been fixed with new software upload

A software fix has been uploaded to the Euclid space telescope, and its navigation system is now working as intended.
A short-wavelength NIRCam mosaic of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster.

Zoom into an incredibly detailed James Webb image of the Orion nebula

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the majesty of the gorgeous Orion nebula in tremendous detail.
The symmetrical, onion-like layers of shell galaxy NGC 3923 are showcased in this galaxy-rich image taken by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Dark Energy Camera mounted on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. A nearby, massive galaxy cluster is also captured exhibiting the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

A galaxy with layers like an onion shines in Dark Energy Camera image

A new image taken by the Dark Energy Camera shows a galactic onion, a shell galaxy with multiple layers that are spread out over 150,000 light-years.
mars 2020 perseverance rover

Perseverance rover catches footage of a dust devil on Mars

Many weather events we experience on Earth can be found on other planets too, including whirlwinds, and the Perseverance rover recently captured footage of one.
Tthis image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features a glistening scene in red. It reveals a small regio

Hubble snaps an autumnal nebula glowing orange from young, hot stars

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a nebula in the gorgeous colors of autumn, just in time for leaf-changing season.
Graphic rendering of the Euclipd space telescope.

Dark matter hunting telescope Euclid has a problem with its guidance system

The Euclid space telescope, launched in July this year to investigate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, has run into issues during commissioning.
The Cygnus Loop nebula forms a bubble-like shape that is about 120 light-years in diameter.

Hubble investigates the gorgeous remnants of a supernova

Scientists are using data from Hubble data of the famous Cygnus Loop supernova remnant to study how these remnants change over time.