Tag Archives: Space & Astronomy

The Webb Telescope’s dazzling nebula image supports a long-held theory

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The image of the Serpens Nebula you see above, taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), not only looks mesmerizing but also captures a never-before-seen phenomenon. The aligned, elongated “protostellar outflows” visible in the top left support a longstanding theory. As suspected, the jets shoot out in alignment from the swirling disks of surrounding material, showing evidence that clusters of forming stars spin in the same direction.

NASA says the bright and clumpy streaks in the image’s upper-left area, which somewhat resemble JJ Abrams-style lens flare, represent shockwaves caused by outward-shooting jets that emerge when the interstellar gas cloud collapses inwards. As forming stars condense and twirl more rapidly, some material shoots out perpendicular to the disk.

“Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction,” Klaus Pontoppidan of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post. “However, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born.”

Perpendicular jets (seen as thin beams of light, similar to lens flare) beaming out from a reddish forming cluster of stars.
The aligned jets (which look a bit like JJ Abrams-style lens flare) indicate the forming stars spin in the same direction.

The Serpens Nebula is only one or two million years old and sits around 1,300 light years from Earth. NASA says the dense cluster of protostars at the image’s center includes stars less than 100,000 years old. Serpens is a reflection nebula, meaning the gas and dust cloud shines by reflecting light from stars inside or nearby.

The JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured the image, which covers about 16 trillion miles by 11 trillion miles. The black rectangles you see at the full image’s lower left and upper left represent missing data. NASA says its next step is to use the telescope’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) to study the Serpens Nebula’s chemical breakdown.

You can check out NASA’s instructional video below for a closer look at specific details from the glorious image.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-webb-telescopes-dazzling-nebula-image-supports-a-long-held-theory-210229206.html?src=rss

NASA’s 47-year-old Voyager 1 probe is back in action after months of technical issues

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NASA engineers have managed to get the long-running Voyager 1 space probe fully back in working order after some seven months of technical difficulties. In November 2023, the spacecraft — which is more than 15 billion miles from Earth — started sending back strange, unreadable data, and the team has been working ever since to get to the root of the issue. While Voyager 1 seemed to be receiving and executing commands just fine, none of the science and engineering data it sent home made sense.

In April, the team traced the problem to some corrupted memory in the probe’s flight data subsystem (FDS) computer and was later able to get two of its instruments sending science data again. Now, all four of Voyager 1’s instruments are back to sending readable data, NASA says. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, so the fact that it’s still going in any capacity is incredible. But now, it can resume its duties directly studying interstellar space.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-47-year-old-voyager-1-probe-is-back-in-action-after-months-of-technical-issues-192057182.html?src=rss

Boeing’s Starliner overcomes last-second problems to dock with the ISS

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Boeing’s Starliner has successfully docked with the ISS — but not without some last-minute problems. The company’s first crewed test flight to the space station linked up at 1:34 PM ET after missing its first shot due to several thrusters malfunctioning. Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams plan to spend the next eight days onboard the ISS before returning to Earth.

The capsule docked with the ISS in an orbit about 260 miles over the Indian Ocean. The pair is now circling the planet at around 17,500 mph.

“Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore spoke over comms to mission control in Houston after the successful docking. The capsule carries 760 pounds of cargo, including about 300 pounds of food and other supplies requested by the four US astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts onboard.

View from the ISS of the Boeing Starliner capsule approaching. Clouded Earth seen behind it.
NASA TV

Initially scheduled for 12:15 PM ET, the link-up was delayed after five of Starliner’s 28 reaction control thrusters went down. Several were lost due to a helium propulsion leak. NASA and Boeing concluded that the loss didn’t compromise the mission, and Wilmore and Williams restarted three of them, providing enough redundancy to move forward.

On Wednesday, a small helium leak was detected during liftoff and ascent. Later, two more leaks appeared.

The problems are emblematic of Boeing’s struggles to get its capsules certified for regular flights. Various problems and delays, including orbital flight test issues, valve problems, software glitches and a bum parachute system, have plagued Starliner. Boeing's rival, SpaceX, reached the ISS for the first time in 2020, approximately when this Starliner mission was originally slated to launch.

Boeing is seeking NASA certification to join SpaceX as a regular ride to the ISS. The government agency wanted to have multiple private-sector ferries make routine trips to the space station. Despite Boeing’s troubles, it may get there in the end.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/boeings-starliner-overcomes-last-second-problems-to-dock-with-the-iss-194801249.html?src=rss

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner mission is finally heading to the ISS

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Boeing's first Starliner flight with a human crew onboard has successfully blasted off to space on top of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, almost a month after it was originally scheduled to launch. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams entered the Starliner capsule and completed necessary checks by 10:08AM ET. Less than 30 minutes after the astronauts entered the capsule, the CEO ULA tweeted that the company was "working an issue with topping valves on the ground side" and that it was running the fix through its Software Integration Lab (SIL) before it's executed. In the end, ULA was able to implement a workaround, and the spacecraft lifted off at 10:52am ET. 

Back on May 6, the companies scrubbed the flight two hours after it was originally scheduled to launch after their ground teams detected "anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle." The valve was replaced and the Starliner teams were ready to make another launch attempt when they encountered another issue: They found a "small helium leak" in the spacecraft's service module. 

NASA and Boeing had to push back Starliner's launch date in order to investigate the leak and figure out how it would affect the flight. They eventually determined that it didn't pose a threat to the mission's safety, so they scheduled a launch attempt for June 1. Last week's launch was also scrubbed last minute due to the "computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count."

Aside from the NASA astronauts, Starliner flew with 760 pounds of cargo, including 300 pounds of food and other supplies requested by the crew that's currently onboard the International Space Station. Wilmore and Williams will spend eight days on the ISS conducting tests to help determine whether the Starliner is ready for regular flights to the orbiting laboratory. NASA said that if the mission is completed successfully, it will begin the final process of "certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-mission-is-finally-heading-to-the-iss-151053557.html?src=rss

Billionaire space tourist cancels lunar flight amid changing SpaceX priorities

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Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire who signed up for a lunar orbit flight aboard SpaceX's Starship back in 2018, has cancelled his trip. The reason, he said in a series of posts on X, is that Starship is still in development and the "dearMoon" launch may not occur until well into the 2030s.

"I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023," he wrote. "It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch. I can't plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer. I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen."

Maezawa announced the dearMoon project with Elon Musk at SpaceX's Hawthorne factory in 2018. He reportedly paid the company in the order of low nine figures to help fund it and later selected eight other companions for the trip, including artists, photographers, YouTubers and a member of a Korean boy band.

However, Starship development was slower than expected, as has been the case with nearly every rocket development program ever. The first test flight was just a year ago, and the first fully successful launch (with the vehicle remaining intact) only took place a few months ago. The next flight is set to launch as early as June 5. 

In addition, SpaceX's priorities changed drastically when NASA selected Starship for its Artemis program. That forced the company to deprioritize dearMoon, which meant it was not likely to take place until the early 2030s. Maezawa's net worth as also dropped since the 2018 announcement, as Ars Technica noted. On top of all that, the billionaire has already gone to space, having spent 12 days aboard the International Space Station.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/billionaire-space-tourist-cancels-lunar-flight-amid-changing-spacex-priorities-120043594.html?src=rss

Boeing’s Starliner has two more chances this week to make its first crewed flight

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After yesterday’s launch of the first crewed Starliner mission was scrubbed, NASA, Boeing and ULA made the decision to wait a few days before making another attempt. Starliner was scheduled to finally lift off on Saturday afternoon after a series of delays, but this attempt was aborted due to a last-minute issue with a ground computer system that plays a key role in launching the rocket. While NASA and partners discussed possibly flying today following their assessment of the issue, they’ve decided to hold off until the next opportunities, either on June 5 or 6.

Saturday’s launch wasn’t scrubbed due to a problem with the Starliner craft itself, but because an automatic hold was issued by the ground launch sequencer for a then-unknown reason. In a press conference later on Saturday, Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA explained that it came down to a problem in verifying the launch sequencer’s redundancy. There are three large computers in this system, all of which are the same so it’s “triple redundant,” Bruno said. During the system health check in the minutes before launch, one of the computers came up slow, triggering an automatic hold.

NASA said the decision to forgo today’s launch attempt was made in order to “give the team additional time to assess a ground support equipment issue.” The launch window opens again on June 5, but no target liftoff time has been announced just yet. If Starliner doesn’t fly by June 6, it’ll be set back by at least another 10 days, ArsTechnica reports, as the ULA team will need to swap out the Atlas V rocket’s batteries.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/boeings-starliner-has-two-more-chances-this-week-to-make-its-first-crewed-flight-184739763.html?src=rss

Starliner’s first crewed flight gets scrubbed just before launch

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The first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule has once again been called off, this time after an automatic hold was issued by the ground launch sequencer less than four minutes before liftoff. As a launch commentator explained during NASA’s livestream, the ground launch sequencer is the computer that takes over the terminal count and essentially launches the rocket. “The reason for that hold is not known at this time,” he said. Starliner’s next chance to fly is tomorrow at 12:03PM ET, but whether it does will depend on the outcome of the team’s investigation into today’s issue.

In a brief update, NASA said the launch was scrubbed “due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count.” Why this happened, though, remains unclear. “The ULA team is working to understand the cause,” NASA said. 

It's been delay after delay for Starliner, which was initially supposed to take its first flight with astronauts on board back on May 6. If it can't launch on Sunday, it'll have other opportunities on June 5 and June 6. The mission, in which the craft will deliver astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station for a brief stay before bringing them back home, is meant to validate Starliner as a viable crew transportation system.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/starliners-first-crewed-flight-gets-scrubbed-just-before-launch-171045016.html?src=rss

NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has found the most distant galaxy ever observed

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The hits keep on coming with NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope. According to the space agency, the JWST just found the most distant known galaxy ever. The catchily-named JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy is said to have formed just 290 million years after the big bang, but it features some unique properties that are at odds with that notion.

The galaxy is incredibly large, at 1,600 light years across. It’s also very bright and features an unusual amount of starlight, given how soon it formed after the big bang. This has led researchers Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainline to ask “how can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?” In cosmic time, that’s barely a blip.

The wavelengths of light emitted from JADES-GS-z14-0, as spotted by the JWST’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), indicate the presence of strong ionized gas emissions, likely from an abundance of hydrogen and oxygen. This is also weird, as oxygen is not typically present early in the life of a galaxy. This suggests that “multiple generations of very massive stars had already lived their lives before we observed the galaxy.”

A chart of light wavelengths.
NASA

As always with distant space stuff, we are actually looking at the past, due to the speed of light, so that means that the galaxy spawned those multiple generations of massive stars in under 290 million years. Stars “only” take around ten million years to form, but can take up to 20 billion years to die. However, ultra-massive stars typically have decreased lifespans. So this finding doesn’t exactly rewrite our understanding of the cosmos, but does certainly call into question the nature of star formation in the early life of the universe.

“All of these observations, together, tell us that JADES-GS-z14-0 is not like the types of galaxies that have been predicted by theoretical models and computer simulations to exist in the very early universe,” the researchers told NASA. “It is likely that astronomers will find many such luminous galaxies, possibly at even earlier times, over the next decade with Webb.”

The Webb telescope has made a habit out of redefining our understanding of the cosmos. It has shown us stars being born in the Virgo constellation, found water for the first time orbiting a comet and discovered carbon dioxide on a distant exoplanet, which was a first. All of this has been done in under two years of operation, so who knows what the future will bring.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-has-found-the-most-distant-galaxy-ever-observed-185833121.html?src=rss

NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has found the most distant galaxy ever observed

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The hits keep on coming with NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope. According to the space agency, the JWST just found the most distant known galaxy ever. The catchily-named JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy is said to have formed just 290 million years after the big bang, but it features some unique properties that are at odds with that notion.

The galaxy is incredibly large, at 1,600 light years across. It’s also very bright and features an unusual amount of starlight, given how soon it formed after the big bang. This has led researchers Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainline to ask “how can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?” In cosmic time, that’s barely a blip.

The wavelengths of light emitted from JADES-GS-z14-0, as spotted by the JWST’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), indicate the presence of strong ionized gas emissions, likely from an abundance of hydrogen and oxygen. This is also weird, as oxygen is not typically present early in the life of a galaxy. This suggests that “multiple generations of very massive stars had already lived their lives before we observed the galaxy.”

A chart of light wavelengths.
NASA

As always with distant space stuff, we are actually looking at the past, due to the speed of light, so that means that the galaxy spawned those multiple generations of massive stars in under 290 million years. Stars “only” take around ten million years to form, but can take up to 20 billion years to die. However, ultra-massive stars typically have decreased lifespans. So this finding doesn’t exactly rewrite our understanding of the cosmos, but does certainly call into question the nature of star formation in the early life of the universe.

“All of these observations, together, tell us that JADES-GS-z14-0 is not like the types of galaxies that have been predicted by theoretical models and computer simulations to exist in the very early universe,” the researchers told NASA. “It is likely that astronomers will find many such luminous galaxies, possibly at even earlier times, over the next decade with Webb.”

The Webb telescope has made a habit out of redefining our understanding of the cosmos. It has shown us stars being born in the Virgo constellation, found water for the first time orbiting a comet and discovered carbon dioxide on a distant exoplanet, which was a first. All of this has been done in under two years of operation, so who knows what the future will bring.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-has-found-the-most-distant-galaxy-ever-observed-185833121.html?src=rss

SpaceX Raptor engine test ends in a fiery explosion

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A SpaceX testing stand at the company's McGregor, Texas facilities went up in flames during a test of its Raptor 2 engines on the afternoon of May 23. According to NASASpaceflight, the engine had an anomaly that caused vapors to seep out and lead to a secondary explosion. The news organization's livestream showed the engine shutting down before the fire started and eventually swallowed the stand in flames and smoke. 

SpaceX uses the Raptor engines for its Starship system's Super Heavy booster and upper-stage spacecraft. They use liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel, and they were designed to be powerful enough to be able to send Starship to the moon and Mars. As Gizmodo suggests, its gases mixing due to a leak or a similar anomaly could've caused the explosion, though SpaceX has yet to officially address what happened during testing. 

The company is currently preparing for Starship's fourth test flight, which is scheduled to take place on June 5, pending regulatory approval and barring poor weather or other factors that could delay the launch. This explosion likely wouldn't affect the flight's launch window. SpaceX's main goals for the fourth test flight are to make sure that the Super Heavy booster gets a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and to achieve a controlled entry of the Starship spacecraft. The company said it made several hardware and software upgrades to incorporate what it learned from its third flight test. Starship's upper stage reached space during that flight, but it burned up in the atmosphere upon reentry, while its Super Heavy booster broke apart in the final phases of its descent instead of softly splashing down into the ocean.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-raptor-engine-test-ends-in-a-fiery-explosion-110052362.html?src=rss