NASA

GOES-U spacecraft rendering. Credit: NOAA/Lockheed Martin

NASA is preparing to launch NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U), a mission to help improve weather observing and environmental monitoring capabilities on Earth, as well as advance space weather observations.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting a two-hour launch window opening at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25. The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The satellite will carry a suite of instruments for advanced imagery, atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and detecting approaching space weather hazards, including a new compact coronagraph that will image the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections.

Media interested in covering the GOES-U launch must apply for media accreditation. Deadlines for accreditation are as follows:

• U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media must apply for accreditation by 11:59 p.m., Friday, June 7.
• International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, May 28.

Media requiring special logistical arrangements, such as space for satellite trucks, tents, or electrical connections, should email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov by May 28.

A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other mission questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468.

Accredited media will have the opportunity to participate in a series of prelaunch briefings and interviews with key mission personnel. Details regarding the media event schedule will be communicated to accredited members as the launch date approaches.

NASA will post updates on launch preparations to prepare the spacecraft on the GOES blog.

As the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R Series, GOES-U will enhance the nation’s ability to monitor and forecast weather, ocean, and environmental dynamics in real-time. The satellite has seven instruments that will provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s Western Hemisphere, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and advanced monitoring of solar activity and space weather. Following a successful launch and on-orbit checkout, NOAA will redesignate GOES-U as GOES-19. Working in tandem with GOES-18, the satellites will continuously observe Earth from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand, providing data for weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and environmental monitoring. The GOES constellation helps protect the one billion people who live and work in the Americas.

NASA and NOAA collaborate on various missions to enhance our understanding of Earth, its climate, and its environment, enhancing the safety and well-being of all humanity. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the GOES-U mission. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees the acquisition of the spacecraft and instruments. Lockheed Martin designs, builds, and tests the GOES-R series satellites. L3Harris Technologies provides the primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager, along with the ground system, which includes the antenna system for data reception.

For further details about the GOES-U mission and updates on launch preparations, visit:

https://go.nasa.gov/48httvm

-end-

Liz Vlock
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov

Peter Jacobs
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
301-286-0535
peter.jacobs@nasa.gov

Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov

Share

Details Last Updated May 09, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

• GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite)
• GOES-U
• Missions

4 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A small team of participants in the Geology 101 field training gather on a large pile of rocks from a lava flow. NASA/Robert Markowitz

NASA engineers, managers, and flight directors recently traded their cubicles and conference rooms for an ancient volcanic field in the northern Arizona desert to participate in a field geology course aimed at arming them with first-hand experience in what Artemis astronauts will do when they explore the Moon. 

The two-and-a-half-day exercise for Artemis mission support teams was a condensed version of the rigorous training astronauts receive to prepare for Artemis missions to the lunar South Pole region, but shares an important purpose.  

“We are building a common language and a common understanding of what it will be like to do field geology on the surface of the Moon,” said Cindy Evans, Artemis geology training lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This is so the people who are building spacesuits, building tools, building software systems, the people who will be flight controllers, and the managers who direct and fund all of this, can all understand the interlocking parts of surface exploration.” 

We are building a common language and a common understanding of what it will be like to do field geology on the surface of the Moon.

Cindy Evans

Artemis Geology Training Lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Small teams led by geology experts from NASA, the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey), and academia studied maps, built hypotheses about the geologic history of the area, and trekked for miles to test whether those hypotheses match reality. This field test required smashing rocks with hammers to study their mineral makeup, and carefully selecting a few to examine further after returning from the field in the same way Artemis astronauts will return samples from the Moon.  

Geology studies help uncover the rich physical history of an area. Each rock type represents a process and the order of layering of those rocks reveals a story that could unlock a planet’s secrets, offering clues for how it was formed and evolved over time.  

“The Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere or flowing water like we have here on Earth, and doesn’t have plate tectonics, which are processes that erase a lot of the evidence from the early Earth,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist in the Exploration Systems Development Mission directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The Moon still has that evidence, so we can go to the Moon and learn lessons about our home planet that we can’t learn here on the Earth.”  

Artemis curation lead Juliane Gross, left, NASA flight controller Grant Harman, center, and imagery scientist Marco Lozano collect and examine samples during the Geology 101 field course.NASA/Robert Markowitz

In the desert, as the mission support team members practiced the fundamental methods used by geologists to study an environment, they pieced together the story of the region. The planned walking paths, known as traverses, frequently changed based on what they were finding. Teams embraced the principle of “flexecution” – or flexible execution – a practice that could come into play as astronauts explore the lunar surface and report findings to a backroom of scientists supporting the mission in the Mission Control Center at Johnson, referred to as the science evaluation room.  

“The geologists will be the science evaluation room during Artemis missions, assimilating real-time mission data to understand the observations, tracking the samples, going back to the maps that they’ve built trying to understand how all those pieces fit together on a day-by-day and traverse-by-traverse basis,” said Evans. “When the astronauts return home with the samples and with their full observations, the scientists can hit the ground running to address key science questions.” 

With Artemis, NASA will study the history of the Moon and its relationship with Earth and build a blueprint for deeper space exploration. 

NASA Flight Director Diane Dailey examines a rock at the Geology 101 field training for Artemis mission support teams in the northern Arizona desert.NASA/Robert Markowitz

“What we’re doing now is laying the groundwork for long-term exploration at the Moon,” Bleacher said. “Laying that groundwork will then help us explore other destinations like Mars. The Moon is a part of everything that we understand here on the Earth. It’s also an anchor point to help us understand how to interpret everything else in the solar system.” 

NASA conducts field tests in locations on Earth that have lunar-like landscapes to test a variety of operations and procedures, as well as new technologies, before leaving Earth for Artemis missions on the Moon. In addition to this geology training to build a foundation for mission support teams, another team will conduct simulated moonwalks in the Arizona desert this spring with mockup spacesuits to test hardware and new capabilities, like a heads-up display using augmented reality, for future Artemis missions.  

Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts – including the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut – to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before prepare for human missions to Mars for the benefit of all. 

Rachel Barry  
Johnson Space Center 

 

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics

Artemis

Artemis Science

Humans In Space

Education and Outreach

Fisher stands in front of the launch vehicle stage adapter for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The hardware will be used for the agency’s Artemis III mission that will land astronauts on the lunar surface. Fisher works with a number of teams across the agency and believes her background in music education has been an asset to her work as an engineer: “Teaching skills help you look at things from a different perspective and helps with understanding how others might approach a situation – all very helpful when I’m working with teams.”

Not many music majors get to be hands-on with building a Moon rocket, but Lauren Fisher has always enjoyed the unusual.

Now a structural materials engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Fisher works on a key adapter for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the first crewed missions of NASA’s Artemis campaign.

Manufactured at Marshall by NASA, lead contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering, and the Jacobs Space Exploration Group’s ESSCA contract, the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter partially encloses the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage and connects it to the core stage below and the Orion stage adapter above. The launch vehicle stage adapter also protects avionics and electrical devices from extreme vibration and acoustic conditions during launch and ascent.

Fisher and the thermal protection system team develop and apply the spray-on foam that acts as insulation and protects the adapter and all its systems from the extreme pressures and temperatures it’ll face during flight. The thermal protection system for the component, unlike other parts of the rocket, is applied by hand using a spray gun. When first applied, the insulation is yellow, but after time and exposure to the Sun, it turns orange.

“We’re taking the same stuff someone might use to insulate their attic, except making it for cryogenic atmospheres, and spraying it all over a giant piece of hardware that will help launch us to the Moon,” Fisher said. “With my work for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, I get to play with foam and glue. I like to call it arts and crafts engineering!”

Although engineering runs in her family, Fisher initially graduated from University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts in music performance and an interest in music education. She developed an interest in carbon-based polymers, and decided to go back to school, completing a chemical engineering degree with a polymeric materials track from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her new degree led to an opportunity to work for the thermal protection system team at Marshall.

When Fisher isn’t in the office, she likes travelling to unusual places and checking items off her self-described “Bizarre Bucket List.” Recently, she went to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to watch the famous groundhog predict an early spring.

Being part of the Artemis Generation is incredibly inspiring for Fisher, who takes pride in her work supporting the first three Artemis missions, including Artemis II, the first crewed mission under Artemis, in 2025.

“I’m literally building the hardware that will send the first woman to deep space,” Fisher says. “Watching our rocket take shape, I’m like ‘you see that thing? I did that; that’s mine. See that one? My team did that one. We did that, and see this?’” She beams with pride. “You can do that, too. Just being a part of the generation that’s changing the workforce and changing the space program — it gives me goosebumps.”

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

This image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Multiple wavelengths are shown, revealing stars (in blue and cyan), dust (red), and areas of star formation.

NASA-JPL/Caltech; image processing by IPAC/Robert Hurt

This image, released on May 9, 2024, from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope shows streams of dust flowing toward the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Andromeda Galaxy. These dust streams can help explain how black holes billions of times the mass of our Sun can satiate their big appetites but remain “quiet” eaters.

Read on to learn how data from Spitzer helped shed light on how some black holes consume gas and dust.

Image Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

(March 26, 2024) — Five NASA astronauts wear eye-protecting specs in anticipation of viewing the April 8 solar eclipse from the International Space Station’s cupola. Credits: NASA

Students from Arizona and New York will have separate opportunities next week to hear from astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

At 12:10 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 14, NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps and Tracy C. Dyson will answer prerecorded student questions from Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona, in partnership with the TRiO Upward Bound Program, PIMA Community College, Desert Vista Campus. Participating students are first-generation college bound students from underserved communities, and this opportunity is intended to help spread awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers and inspire students to pursue related degrees.

The space-to-Earth call will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

Media interested in covering the Arizona event should RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, May 10, by contacting Danny Pacheco at dapacheco@pima.edu or 520-286-7771.

At 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, May 16, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will answer prerecorded student questions from P.S. 28 The Thomas Emanuel Early Childhood Center in Corona, New York, in partnership with the New York Hall of Science. Following the live event, the center will host 200 first and second grade students for a one-hour interactive “Living in Space” learning opportunity.

Media interested in covering the New York event should RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, by contacting Nicole Casamento at ncasamento@nysco.org or 917-302-9242.

The space-to-Earth call will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

For more than 23 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts living aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.

Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the International Space station benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars. Inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States will continue to lead in space exploration and discovery.

See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

-end-

Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-384-4861
gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones 
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

Share

Details Last Updated May 09, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

• ISS Research
• Astronauts
• Humans in Space
• In-flight Education Downlinks
• International Space Station (ISS)
• Learning Resources

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins (right) takes a photo of NASA astronaut Andre Douglas (left) as he raises an American flag during a simulated moonwalk in a rock yard at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Media are invited to interact with the NASA team members practicing Artemis moonwalking operations Saturday, May 18, in the San Francisco Volcanic Fields near Flagstaff, Arizona. NASA’s in-person only event includes an opportunity to speak with subject matter experts and view various hardware stations.

The activities are the fifth in a series since April 2022 of simulated moonwalks for Artemis Generation astronauts and teams planning for future exploration of the lunar surface. The full training will take place Monday, May 13, through Monday, May 20, with NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas serving as the crew.

There are four simulated moonwalks and six advanced technology runs scheduled for this set. The media day schedule includes (all times MST):

• 2:30 p.m.: Arrival
• 2:45 p.m.: Local overview news conference and demonstrations
• 3:30 p.m.: Walk through stations and speak to subject matter experts

Reporters interested in attending must request accreditation by 5 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, May 15, by contacting Victoria Ugalde at 281-483-5111 or victoria.d.ugalde@nasa.gov.

Teams continue to evolve astronaut training, and crew will wear mockup spacesuits as they test hardware, capabilities, and technologies to conduct operations in a simulated lunar environment for the Artemis III mission and beyond.

Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts – including the first woman, the first person of color, and the first international partner astronaut – to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, technology evolution, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for crewed missions to Mars. Mission simulations on Earth help prepare humans for the challenges of deep space exploration and journeying farther into the cosmos.

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis campaign:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis/

-end-

Kathryn Hambleton
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-0213
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov

Victoria Ugalde
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
victoria.d.ugalde@nasa.gov

Share

Details Last Updated May 09, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

• Missions
• Artemis

4 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This image of the Andromeda galaxy uses data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Multiple wavelengths are shown, revealing stars, dust, and areas of star formation.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In this image of the Andromeda galaxy, also made with data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, only dust is visible, making it easier to see the galaxy’s underlying structure.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope has given scientists new insights into why some supermassive black holes shine differently than others.

In images from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, streams of dust thousands of light-years long flow toward the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy. It turns out these streams can help explain how black holes billions of times the mass of our Sun satiate their big appetites but remain “quiet” eaters.

As supermassive black holes gobble up gas and dust, the material gets heated up just before it falls in, creating incredible light shows — sometimes brighter than an entire galaxy full of stars. When the material is consumed in clumps of different sizes, the brightness of the black hole fluctuates.

But the black holes at the center of the Milky Way (Earth’s home galaxy) and Andromeda (one of our nearest galactic neighbors) are among the quietest eaters in the universe. What little light they emit does not vary significantly in brightness, suggesting they are consuming a small but steady flow of food, rather than large clumps. The streams approach the black hole little by little, and in a spiral, similar to the way the water swirls down a drain.

Hunting for Andromeda’s Food Source

A study published earlier this year took the hypothesis that a quiet supermassive black hole feeds on a steady stream of gas and applied it to the Andromeda galaxy. Using computer models, the authors simulated how gas and dust in proximity to Andromeda’s supermassive black hole might behave over time. The simulation demonstrated that a small disk of hot gas could form close to the supermassive black hole and feed it continuously. The disk could be replenished and maintained by numerous streams of gas and dust.

But the researchers also found that those streams have to stay within a particular size and flow rate; otherwise, the matter would fall into the black hole in irregular clumps, causing more light fluctuation.

This close-up view of the center of the Andromeda galaxy, taken by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, is annotated with blue dotted lines to highlight the path of two dust streams flowing toward the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center (indicated by a purple dot). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When the authors compared their findings to data from Spitzer and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, they found spirals of dust previously identified by Spitzer that fit within these constraints. From this, the authors concluded that the spirals are feeding Andromeda’s supermassive black hole.

“This is a great example of scientists reexamining archival data to reveal more about galaxy dynamics by comparing it to the latest computer simulations,” said Almudena Prieto, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University Observatory Munich, and a co-author on the study published this year. “We have 20-year-old data telling us things we didn’t recognize in it when we first collected it.”

A Deeper Look at Andromeda

Launched in 2003 and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Spitzer studied the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes. Different wavelengths reveal different features of Andromeda, including hotter sources of light, like stars, and cooler sources, like dust.

By separating these wavelengths and looking at the dust alone, astronomers can see the galaxy’s “skeleton” — places where gas has coalesced and cooled, sometimes forming dust, creating conditions for stars to form. This view of Andromeda revealed a few surprises. For instance, although it is a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, Andromeda is dominated by a large dust ring rather than distinct arms circling its center. The images also revealed a secondary hole in one portion of the ring where a dwarf galaxy passed through.

Andromeda’s proximity to the Milky Way means it looks larger than other galaxies from Earth: Seen with the naked eye, Andromeda would be about six times the width of the Moon (about 3 degrees). Even with a field of view wider than Hubble’s, Spitzer had to take 11,000 snapshots to create this comprehensive picture of Andromeda.

More About the Mission

JPL managed the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington until the mission was retired in January 2020. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive operated by IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

2024-063

Share

Details Last Updated May 09, 2024 Related Terms

• General
• Andromeda Galaxy
• Galaxies
• Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes
• Spitzer Space Telescope
• The Milky Way
• The Universe

Explore More 3 min read NASA Licenses 3D-Printable Superalloy to Benefit US Economy Article 7 hours ago 7 min read NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri…

Article 1 day ago 4 min read Johnson Celebrates AA and NHPI Heritage Month: Kimia Seyedmadani Article 1 day ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics

Missions

Humans in Space

Climate Change

Solar System

A close-up of the head of the rover’s remote sensing mast. The mast head contains the SuperCam instrument. (Its lens is in the large circular opening.) In the gray boxes beneath mast head are the two Mastcam-Z imagers. On the exterior sides of those imagers are the rover’s two navigation cameras.NASA/JPL-Caltech The Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this view of the rover’s deck on Feb. 20, 2021.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Trauma-Informed Workplace

Organized by Health 4 Life.

In today’s dynamic professional landscape, understanding and addressing the impacts of trauma is essential for fostering a supportive and inclusive work culture. Join us as we explore the principles of trauma-informed care and their practical applications within organizational settings. We will share strategies for recognizing signs of trauma, implementing trauma-sensitive policies and practices, and cultivating resilience among employees. 

This webinar is open to ALL NASA employees. To join, please click here. 

Date: Thursday, May 9, 2024 

Time: 11:00 – 12:00 PM CST 

Speakers / POCs: EAP Clinicians Dr. Carla Randolph (carla.e.randolph@nasa.gov) and Dr. Sophia Sills-Tailor (sophia.c.sills-tailor@nasa.gov) 

________________________________________________________________________________ 

Microsoft Teams Need help?  

Join the meeting now  

Meeting ID: 274 509 040 356  

Passcode: MvY23f  

Dial-in by phone  

+1 256-715-9946,,732480476# United States, Huntsville  

Find a local number  

Phone conference ID: 732 480 476#  

For organizers: Meeting options| Reset dial-in PIN 

ALERT: All meeting participants consent to, and will abide by, the terms and conditions viewable at the LEGAL link below. No ITAR/EAR content display or sharing without consent from Export Control.  

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

These images show evidence for an exhaust vent attached to a chimney releasing hot gas from a region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, as reported in our latest press release. In the main image of this graphic, X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) have been combined with radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (red).

Previously, astronomers had identified a “chimney” of hot gas near the Galactic Center using X-ray data from Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton. Radio emission detected by MeerKAT shows the effect of magnetic fields enclosing the gas in the chimney.

The evidence for the exhaust vent is highlighted in the inset, which includes only Chandra data. Several X-ray ridges showing brighter X-rays appear in white, roughly perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy. Researchers think these are the walls of a tunnel, shaped like a cylinder, which helps funnel hot gas as it moves upwards along the chimney and away from the Galactic Center.

A labeled version of the image gives the locations of the exhaust vent, the chimney, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy (called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short) and the plane of the galaxy.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

This newly discovered vent is located near the top of the chimney about 700 light-years from the center of the Galaxy. To emphasize the chimney and exhaust vent features the image has been rotated by 180 degrees from the conventional orientation used by astronomers, so that the chimney is pointed upwards.

The authors of the new study think that the exhaust vent formed when hot gas rising through the chimney struck cooler gas lying in its path. The brightness of the exhaust vent walls in X-rays is caused by shock waves — similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes — generated by this collision. The left side of the exhaust vent is likely particularly bright in X-rays because the gas flowing upwards is striking the tunnel wall at a more direct angle and with more force than other regions.

The researchers determined that the hot gas is most likely coming from a sequence of events involving material falling towards Sgr A*. They think eruptions from the black hole then drove the gas upwards along the chimneys, and out through the exhaust vent.

It is unclear how often material is falling onto Sgr A*. Previous studies have indicated that dramatic X-ray flares take place every few hundred years at or near the location of the central black hole, so those could play important roles in driving the hot gas upwards through the exhaust vent. Astronomers also estimate that the Galactic black hole rips apart and swallows a star every 20,000 years or so. Such events would lead to powerful, explosive releases of energy, much of which would be destined to rise through the chimney vent.

The paper describing these results is published in The Astrophysical Journal and a preprint is available online. The authors of the paper are Scott Mackey (University of Chicago), Mark Morris (University of California, Los Angeles), Gabriele Ponti (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Merate ), Konstantina Anastasopoulou (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo), and Samaresh Mondal (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Merate).

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/

Visual Description:

This image shows a region near the center of our Milky Way galaxy in X-ray and radio light. At the bottom of the image, near the center, is a brilliant, tangled knot of material that resembles a paint splatter. This is the brightest region in the image, and it contains the supermassive black hole at center of our galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*.

The lower third of the image resembles an angry firestorm. Streaks of red and orange are scattered in every direction, as if a legion of embers from a fire crackled and popped into the air all at once. Flame-like structures lick toward the center from our right.

Much of the image is infused with wispy blue clouds showing X-rays detected by Chandra. At a few points, the wispy blue clouds seem to form into balls of teal colored light and are known as dust halos. They are caused by X-rays from bright X-ray sources reflecting off dust surrounding the sources. These dust halos resemble underwater lights glowing in a cloudy swimming pool at night.

Rising up from Sagittarius A* in the center of the image is a pillar of blue light referred to as a chimney. This chimney of hot gas is surrounded by red clouds that are filled with stars, presenting themselves as tiny red flecks. Near the top of the blue pillar is a streak of light blue, outlined by an illustrated, gray box. This streak is referred to as the chimney exhaust vent. Just to our left is another illustrated box that shows the close-up image of the chimney vent as observed by Chandra.

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998

Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gives remarks during a NASA town hall event, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Continuing his engagement to deepen international collaboration and the peaceful use of space, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will travel to Italy and Vatican City, followed by Saudi Arabia, beginning Thursday.

Nelson will meet with key government and space officials in each country.

Italy is a longstanding partner in human spaceflight and Earth science. Nelson will meet with President Teodoro Valente, Italian Space Agency (ASI) and other officials to discuss current and future collaboration, including the Artemis campaign to return to the Moon, partnership on the International Space Station, the exploration of Mars and Venus, and Earth science missions to study our home planet.

In Saudi Arabia, Nelson will meet with Saudi Space Agency and other senior officials to discuss future collaboration and underscore the importance of civil space cooperation for the broader United States and Saudi Arabia relationship. Students will interact with Nelson about the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and their roles as members of the Artemis Generation.

For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/oiir/

-end-

Faith McKie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov

Share

Details Last Updated May 09, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms

• Opportunities For International Participants to Get Involved
• Bill Nelson
• Opportunities For Students to Get Involved

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA superalloy GRX-810 will soon be available to aviation and space industry parts manufacturers as a result of new licensing agreements with four U.S. companies. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis

NASA’s investment in a breakthrough superalloy developed for the extreme temperatures and harsh conditions of air and spaceflight is on the threshold of paying commercial dividends.

The agency is licensing its invention, dubbed “GRX-810,” to four American companies, a practice that benefits the United States economy as a return on investment of taxpayer dollars.

GRX-810 is a 3D-printable high-temperature material that will lead to stronger, more durable airplane and spacecraft parts that can withstand more punishment before reaching their breaking point.

The co-exclusive license agreements will allow the companies to produce and market GRX-810 to airplane and rocket equipment manufacturers as well as the entire supply chain.

The four co-exclusive licensees are:

• Carpenter Technology Corporation of Reading, Pennsylvania
• Elementum 3D, Inc. of Erie, Colorado
• Linde Advanced Material Technologies, Inc. of Indianapolis
• Powder Alloy Corporation of Loveland, Ohio

GRX-810 is one example of many new technologies NASA’s Technology Transfer Program managers review and file for patent protection. The team also works with inventors to find partners interested in commercialization. 

“NASA invests tax dollars into research that demonstrates direct benefit to the U.S. and transfers its technologies to industry by licensing its patents,” said Amy Hiltabidel, licensing manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

New Approach to Developing Materials

NASA engineers designed GRX-810 for aerospace applications, including liquid rocket engine injectors, combustors, turbines, and hot-section components capable of enduring temperatures over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“GRX-810 represents a new alloy design space and manufacturing technique that was impossible a few years ago,” said Dr. Tim Smith, materials researcher at NASA Glenn.

Smith co-invented the superalloy along with his Glenn colleague Christopher Kantzos using a time-saving computer modeling and laser 3D-printing process that fuses metals together, layer-by-layer. Tiny particles containing oxygen atoms spread throughout the alloy enhance its strength.

Impacts and Benefits

Compared to other nickel-base alloys, GRX-810 can endure higher temperatures and stress and can last up to 2,500 times longer. It’s also nearly four times better at flexing before breaking and twice as resistant to oxidation damage.

“Adoption of this alloy will lead to more sustainable aviation and space exploration,” said Dale Hopkins, deputy project manager of NASA’s Transformational Tools and Technologies project. “This is because jet engine and rocket components made from GRX-810 will lower operating costs by lasting longer and improving overall fuel efficiency.”

Research and development teams include those from Glenn, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, The Ohio State University, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the most recent testing included 3D-printed rocket engine parts.

NASA develops many technologies to solve the challenges of space exploration, advance the understanding of our home planet, and improve air transportation. Through patent licensing and other mechanisms, NASA has spun off more than 2,000 technologies for companies to develop into products and solutions supporting the American economy.

The NASA insignia is 3D printed using the GRX-810 superalloy. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin Explore More 4 min read NASA Images Help Explain Eating Habits of Massive Black Hole Article 4 hours ago 4 min read Johnson Celebrates AA and NHPI Heritage Month: Kimia Seyedmadani Article 1 day ago 3 min read 1942: Engine Roars to Life in First Test at Future NASA Glenn Article 1 day ago

Temperatures on Exoplanet WASP 43b

3 min read

Sols 4180-4182: Imaging fest! This Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) image shows all the features and textures we have in the area ranging from laminae to little nodules. The image was taken on May 7, 2024, Sol 4178 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 23:20:40 UTC.NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Earth planning date: Wednesday, May 8, 2024

What a wonderful sight to see all the sedimentary structures. I am a geochemist, but I hear the excitement in the voices of my sediment-specialist colleagues, discussing all those textures and things to see. Generally, it is those features that allow us to determine what has happened in terms of the physics: Was it water or wind that brought the grains here? How fast was the flow? And then… what happened next? Well, that might be in my area of expertise, as it takes new minerals to grow between grains to make a loose sediment into a rock. And that’s what we can learn from the chemical investigations. And today’s plan once again has it all, but it is especially an imaging fest looking at all the structures and textures. Stay tuned for the images to make their way from Mars to Earth in the coming days.

Today’s plan starts with the chemistry: APXS will use the cool hours of the early morning for its investigations on the brushed target “Happy Isles.” MAHLI will get images of Happy Isles and then move to start the imaging fest at a target named “Laurel Mountain.” This is to peak underneath a piece of overhanging rock to see how the layers below are actually connected – or not – to the layers that form the overhang. Spying on rocks? I guess so!

The imaging fest then continues with over 170 Mastcam frames divided into four investigations. These are mosaics on the surrounding hills and slopes, namely on “Pinnacle Ridge,” “Milestone Peak” and “Tamarack Flats.” And Mastcam looks at the area closer to the rover, off the starboard side, an area where all the structures I talked about above are nicely visible from the rover mast’s vantage point. And if that’s not enough imaging, we will add some special imaging after the drive. We always take navigation camera images for navigation and imaging purpose during the next planning, but this time, we will also take additional Mastcam images in the drive direction. It’s a complex landscape … and I am still happy I can watch the rover drive through it and don’t have to hike myself!

There are also plenty of environmental investigations in the plan. The atmospheric investigations include the usual cadence of REMS activities and DAN looks at the water in the subsurface with passive measurements. In addition to that, Curiosity will look at its top surface to look at the dust levels currently accumulated there, and a look to the crater rim will investigate the current opacity of the atmosphere (yes, that’s more images, too!). Finally, Curiosity will be on the lookout for some dust devils. We’ve managed to get a few really nice captures of those in the course of the mission, one of my favourites is this one here, taken on sol 2847, over 1300 sols ago! If you want to see some in motion, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8lfJ0c7WQ8. Time flies when you are having fun!

Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University

Share

Details Last Updated May 08, 2024 Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More 2 min read Sols 4178-4179: The Pinnacle Ridge Scarp Article 14 mins ago 3 min read Sols 4175-4177: Don’t Blink We’re Taking a Picture

Curiosity loves to drive so it’s pretty rare we stay at a location longer than…

Article 2 days ago 3 min read Sols 4173-4174: Reflections Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars

Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. It’s dry, rocky, and bitter cold. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars…

All Mars Resources

Rover Basics

Mars Exploration Science Goals

2 min read

Sols 4178-4179: The Pinnacle Ridge Scarp This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4176 (2024-05-05 22:50:10 UTC). NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth planning date: Monday, May 6, 2024

Curiosity’s set of complex activities and drive over the weekend executed perfectly and we started our planning today directly in front of a scarp, or wall, along a section of the upper Gediz Valis ridge known as “Pinnacle Ridge.” The view along this scarp did not disappoint! 

Mastcam planned a large mosaic to image the top and bottom of the Pinnacle Ridge scarp, complementing the Mastcam mosaic that was acquired over the weekend. ChemCam included a long distance RMI image of the face of the ridge with intriguing tonal and textural variations. The targeted science block on sol 4178 also includes a MAHLI mosaic of an interesting layered rock in our workspace, “El Portal,” that will be characterized and imaged by ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam. Lastly, Mastcam will take a small mosaic of a rock in the workspace, “Bairs Creek,” to investigate interesting textures and features that were created by the wind. 

In the untargeted science block on sol 4179, the environmental theme group planned several activities including a Mastcam sky survey, a dust devil movie and survey, and a suprahorizon movie to observe dust and cloud activity in Gale. ChemCam included an AEGIS activity where the rover will pick and analyze a target in the workspace after Curiosity completes a ~32-meter drive. Although the large, tilted rocks ahead make for a challenging drive, excitement is running high as we continue our ascent along the margin of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge!

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

May 08, 2024

Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4180-4182: Imaging fest!

Article


11 mins ago

3 min read Sols 4175-4177: Don’t Blink We’re Taking a Picture

Curiosity loves to drive so it’s pretty rare we stay at a location longer than…

Article


2 days ago

3 min read Sols 4173-4174: Reflections

Article


6 days ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. It’s dry, rocky, and bitter cold. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars…

All Mars Resources

Rover Basics

Mars Exploration Science Goals

6 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An artist’s rendering of astronauts working near NASA’s Artemis base camp, complete with a rover and RV.NASA Questionnaire responses due by June 7, 2024

NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) is asking members of the lunar community to respond to a new Lunar Non-Interference Questionnaire that will inform the development of a framework for further work on non-interference of lunar activities. There is no funding or solicitation expected to follow.

OTPS was created in November 2021 within the Office of the NASA Administrator to work transparently in collaboration across NASA and with the broader space community to provide NASA leadership with a trade space of data- and evidence-driven options to develop and shape NASA policy, strategy, and technology.

The purpose of the questionnaire 

As dozens of countries and private sector companies have expressed interest in establishing lunar operations by the end of the decade, including many in the South Pole region, it will be critical to determine how to minimize interference and contamination in lunar activities. Deconfliction has been identified as an area of further work in Section 11 of the Artemis Accords and will be an area of increasing importance as the number of commercial and international actors operating on the lunar surface grows. 

In 2016, the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group developed “The Lunar Exploration Roadmap: Exploring the Moon in the 21st Century: Themes, Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities, 2016”, which aimed to develop an “integrated and sustainable plan for lunar exploration.” The roadmap explored the prioritization of lunar science activities, and designated which science objectives could be adversely impacted by further lunar exploration. 

Although lunar interference and contamination concerns have been broadly identified and expanded beyond the initial findings of the 2016 report (e.g., plume surface interactions and dust, hazardous waste, propellant deposition from overflight, electromagnetic interference), there is not broad consensus in the lunar scientific or technical community on key questions such as how to understand the potential value of lunar sites, how to mitigate the impacts of interference or contamination at such sites, and how to determine the change in value of a lunar site should certain interference or contamination activities occur.

The data collected in this questionnaire will support NASA strategic decision-making on the protection needed for lunar activities. This questionnaire seeks feedback from the lunar community to determine the breadth of interference and contamination concerns and clarify community usage of the terms “interference,” “contamination,” and “deconfliction.” This questionnaire aims to contribute to the development of a framework for further deconfliction activity.

The questionnaire and how to submit responses

Please copy and paste the questions below into a searchable, unlocked Portable Document File (PDF) or Word (DocX) file with edit permissions enabled. Include electronic links to, or copies of, any comments containing references, studies, research, and other empirical data that are not widely published. Send the file via email to HQ-OTPS-Applications@nasa.gov with the subject line “Lunar Non-Interference” by Friday, June 7, 2024.

Questions

• How do you define these terms?
  • Interference
  • Contamination
  • Deconfliction

• Understanding the Potential Value of a Site
  • What attributes/characteristics are relevant to site selection in consideration of science objectives? Attributes may include time-sensitive orphysical characteristics, holds awaiting technology or science advancements, or other perspectives. Example scenarios are encouraged.
• Impacting the Potential Value of a Site
  • What human or robotic actions/events may negatively impact the value of a lunar site? Such as chemical contamination, physical contact, hardware proximity (for example Apollo hardware causing localized ‘moon quakes’ due to heating and cooling differences vs surroundings), waste hazards, etc.
    • How do the impacts of those actions/events alter the value of a site (e.g., unusable for certain missions, usable for certain missions but not others)?
    • What detrimental impacts are permanent, temporary, or still unknown?
  • What data, models, or information is needed to inform the value? Such as how to understand where contaminants are going, what they are doing that impacts science, computational models validated with ground and flight data, etc.
• Mitigation Mechanisms
  • What types of mitigation mechanisms exist to preserve the value of a site?
  • During what phases of operations are mitigation mechanisms needed? Examples include ascent/descent, overflight, traverse, contingency, experimental or construction phase, etc.
  • What technologies/capabilities need to be developed?
  • What types of communication and coordination efforts minimize concerns? Such as development/planned activity timelines for pre-coordination, operational timelines with time-critical communication mechanisms, list of materials, transparency, etc

Additional information and disclaimers

OTPS intends to use the responses to these questions to inform the development of a framework for future work. The use or inclusion of information in the development of any future OTPS work does not constitute endorsement of any entity, or any products, services, technologies, activities, or agency policy. The information contained in any future OTPS work will reflect solely the views and opinions of the authors.

Respondents are encouraged to provide information that is not constrained by limited or restricted data rights. No Personally Identifiable Information (PII) should be submitted with the response. Responses received will not be released in their submitted form outside of NASA. Anonymized information derived from the responses received (i.e., general information not attributable to any particular respondent) also may be shared within the government, but only as reasonably necessary and appropriate. Further, any anonymized, non-attributable information may also eventually be used to develop and refine the framework for future work on lunar non-interference, and therefore may be recognizable to one or more respondents. If respondents feel that proprietary or confidential/business-sensitive information is necessary for NASA’s informational purposes to be responsive to the questions presented below, and such information is provided and appropriately marked as such, NASA will not publicly disclose or disseminate it and will protect it in strict accordance with all applicable laws and agency policies. NASA will not disclose any specific feedback provided from one firm/respondent with any other interested entities.

Please note that NASA employees and its support contractors’ employees and/or their subcontractors working on behalf of NASA may review the responses. NASA contractors and subcontractors are governed by non-disclosure provisions in their applicable contracts and subcontracts, which protects the confidentiality of all information reviewed.

Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responses. Responses will not be returned, nor will respondents be contacted about their responses.

OTPS appreciates your participation and looks forward to your responses.

“The Lunar Exploration Roadmap: Exploring the Moon in the 21st Century: Themes, Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities, 2016,” Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, 2016 https://www.lpi.usra.edu/leag/LER-2016.pdf1

Share

Details Last Updated May 08, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related Terms

• Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS)

20 Min Read The Marshall Star for May 8, 2024 New Flag is in the Stars for Marshall’s Huntsville Operations Support Center

By Wayne Smith

A new flag is flying closer to the stars outside the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center following a May 2 ceremony.

The white flag features a blue logo of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and marks contributions from center team members toward the launch of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, now targeted to launch no earlier than 5:16 p.m. CDT May 17. The flag-raising ceremony was held ahead of the planned launch of the spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Chris Chiesa, left, listens as Lisa McCollum, deputy manager of the Exploration & Transportation Development Office, talks about Chiesa’s recognition as part of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center during the Starliner flag-raising ceremony May 2. NASA/Tyson Eason

The flight test will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station for about a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

The flag raising has been a tradition for missions supported at Marshall’s Huntsville Operations Support Center, or HOSC, as well as a tradition within the Commercial Crew Program to celebrate the successful conclusion of NASA’s Agency Flight Readiness Review prior to launch. The ceremony was a joint effort between the Payload and Mission Operations Division (PMOD) and Commercial Crew Program team.

“The ceremony is special because it symbolizes the successful conclusion of NASA’s Flight Readiness Review, bringing us that much closer to flight,” said Maggie Freeman, a program analyst supporting the Launch Vehicle Systems Office within the Commercial Crew Program at Marshall. “It’s also a privilege to be able to honor some of our Marshall team members who have supported the mission.”

Brandyn Rolling, left, of the Payload Missions Operation Division at Marshall, listens as George Norris, deputy manager of the Payload & Mission Operations Division, talks about Rolling’s recognition during the Starliner flag-raising ceremony outside the Huntsville Operations Support Center on May 2. NASA/Tyson Eason

Chris Chiesa and Brandyn Rolling were honored during the ceremony and raised the Starliner flag after being introduced by Lisa McCollum, deputy manager for the Exploration & Transportation Development Office, and George Norris, deputy manager for the Payload & Mission Operations Division.

“We look for team members who have displayed excellence within their fields, demonstrating their commitment to the goals of the mission,” Freeman said. “Chris and Brandyn both are phenomenal examples of that sustained commitment to excellence.”

Chiesa is the NASA engine lead for the Starliner spacecraft for the Commercial Crew Program. Rolling represented PMOD and manages all of the HOSC’s visiting vehicle ground interfaces for NASA.

McCollum and Norris display the Starliner flag before it was raised outside the Huntsville Operations Support Center. NASA/Tyson Eason

“I feel tremendously fortunate to be surrounded by such an incredible team and to have the support of so many amazing engineers and managers across Marshall, Kennedy, and Johnson (space flight centers),” Chiesa said.

Said Rolling, “I am incredibly honored to be a part of this amazing PMOD team and am excited for the future of Boeing’s crewed flights with Starliner.”

The HOSC provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

The Starliner flag flies outside the Huntsville Operations Support Center.NASA/Tyson Eason

The Commercial Crew Program support team at Marshall provides crucial programmatic, engineering, and safety and mission assurance expertise for launch vehicles, spacecraft propulsion, and integrated vehicle performance.

Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Targets New Launch Date

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is now targeted to launch no earlier than 5:16 p.m. CDT May 17 to the International Space Station. Following a thorough data review completed May 7, ULA (United Launch Alliance) decided to replace a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop illuminated by spotlights sits on the launch pad of Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. It is the first Starliner mission to send astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA/Joel Kowsky

ULA planned to roll the rocket, with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, back to its Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 8 to begin the replacement. The ULA team will perform leak checks and functional checkouts in support of the next launch attempt.

The oscillating behavior of the valve during prelaunch operations, ultimately resulted in mission teams calling a launch scrub May 6. After the ground crews and astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely exited from Space Launch Complex-41, the ULA team successfully commanded the valve closed and the oscillations were temporarily dampened. The oscillations then re-occurred twice during fuel removal operations. After evaluating the valve history, data signatures from the launch attempt, and assessing the risks relative to continued use, the ULA team determined the valve exceeded its qualification and mission managers agreed to remove and replace the valve.

Mission managers discussed the details leading to the decision to scrub the May 6 launch opportunity during a news conference shortly after the scrub call at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Wilmore and Williams will remain in crew quarters at Kennedy in quarantine until the next launch opportunity. The duo will be the first to launch aboard Starliner to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

› Back to Top

Hi-C Rocket Experiment Achieves Never-Before-Seen Look at Solar Flares

By Jessica Barnett 

After months of preparation and years since its last flight, the upgraded High Resolution Coronal Imager Flare mission – Hi-C Flare, for short – took to the skies for a never-before-seen view of a solar flare.

The low-noise cameras – built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center – are part of a suite of state-of-the-art instruments on board the Black Brant IX sounding rocket that launched April 17 from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Using the new technology, investigators hoped to study the extreme energies involved with solar flares. The Hi-C Flare experiment mission was led by Marshall.

The High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, launches aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket April 17 at Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska.NASA

“This is a pioneering campaign,” said Sabrina Savage, principal investigator at Marshall for Hi-C Flare. “Launching sounding rockets to observe the Sun to test new technologies optimized for flare observations has not even been an option until now.”

It was the third iteration of the Hi-C instrument to take flight, but its first flight with ride along instruments, including the COOL-AID (Coronal OverLapagram – Ancillary Imaging Diagnostics), CAPRI-SUN (high-CAdence low-energy Passband x-Ray detector with Integrated full-SUN field of view), and SSAXI (Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager). Following a month of payload integration and testing in White Sands, New Mexico, investigators completed final launch site integration at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska.

Each morning of the two-week launch campaign window, the team spent about five hours preparing the experiment for launch, followed by up to four hours of monitoring solar data for a flare that registers as C5-class or higher with duration longer than the rocket flight. The launch finally occurred on the penultimate day of the campaign window.

“The Sun was unusually quiet throughout the campaign despite numerous active regions,” Savage said. “Both teams were getting nervous that we would not launch, but we finally got a nice long-duration M-class flare right before the window closed.”

The Hi-C Flare mission launched at 2:14 p.m. AKDT, just one minute after the FOXSI-4 (Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager) mission led by the University of Minnesota. Once in air, sensors on the Hi-C Flare rocket pointed cameras toward the Sun and stabilized instrumentation. Then, a shutter door opened to allow the cameras to gather about five minutes of data before the door closed and the rocket fell back to Earth.

The rocket landed in the Alaskan tundra, where it remained until conditions were safe enough for the team to retrieve it and begin processing the collected data.

“For launches into the tundra, we have to wait a few days for the instrument to get back to us and then to be dried out enough to turn on,” Savage said. “It was an anxious few days, but the data are beautiful and were worth the wait.”

From left, Austin Bumbalough, Ken Kobayashi, Harlan Haight, Sabrina Savage, William Hogue, Jim Cecil, and Adam Kobelski, members of the Hi-C Flare team, gather after the payload was recovered and brought to Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Hi-C Flare, equipped with Hi-C 3, COOL-AID, CAPRI-SUN, and SSAXI, launched into a solar flare as part of the first-ever solar flare sounding rocket campaign.NASA

Investigators weren’t just testing new technology, either. They also used a new algorithm to predict the behavior of a solar flare, allowing them to launch the rocket at the ideal time.

“To catch a flare in action is really hard, because you can’t predict them,” said Genevieve Vigil, technical and camera lead for Hi-C 3 and COOL-AID at Marshall. “We had to wait around for a solar flare to start going, then launch as it’s happening. No one has tried to do that before.”

Fortunately, their method was a success.

“We are still processing the data from all four instruments, but the data from Hi-C 3 and COOL-AID already look fantastic,” Savage said.

“The COOL-AID data is the first spectrally pure image in a hot spectral line that we know of,” said Amy Winebarger, project scientist at Marshall for Hi-C Flare.

The Hi-C experiment is led by Marshall in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Launch support is provided at Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska by NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency.

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

NASA Technology Grants to Advance Moon to Mars Space Exploration

By Jessica Barnett 

NASA has awarded nearly $1.5 million to academic, non-profit, and business organizations to advance state-of-the-art technology that will play a key role in the agency’s return to the Moon under Artemis, as well as future missions to Mars.

Twenty-four projects from 21 organizations have been awarded under NASA’s Dual-Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notices, or CANs. The awardees also will receive assistance from propulsion, space transportation, and science experts at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Brandon Aguiar, a graduate student at Florida International University, works to prepare a slurry containing a lunar regolith simulant, graphene nanoplatelets, and base resin for use in FIU’s ongoing study of the enhanced electrical conductivity of additively manufactured lunar regolith components involving graphene nanoplatelets.Credit: Florida International University

“The Dual-Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notice enables NASA to collaboratively work with U.S. industry and academia to develop needed technologies,” said Daniel O’Neil, manager, NASA Marshall’s Technology Development Dual-Use CAN Program. “Products from these cooperative agreements support the closure of identified technology gaps and enable the development of components and systems for NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture.”

These innovative projects include ways to use lunar regolith for construction on the Moon’s surface, using smartphone video guidance sensors to fly robots on the International Space Station, identifying new battery materials, and improving a neutrino particle detector.

The following is a complete list of awardees:

• Auburn University in Alabama
• Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida
• Florida International University in Miami
• Fronius USA in Portage, Indiana
• Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories in Tullahoma, Tennessee
• Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge
• Morgan State University in Baltimore
• Nanoracks (Voyager Space) in Houston
• Northwestern University in Chicago
• Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana
• Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio
• Tethon 3D in Omaha, Nebraska
• University of Alabama in Huntsville
• University of California in Irvine
• University of Florida in Gainesville
• University of Illinois in Chicago
• University of North Texas in Denton
• University of Tennessee in Knoxville
• University of Tennessee Space Institute
• Victory Solutions in Huntsville, Alabama
• Wichita State University in Kansas

The Florida Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the University of Alabama were awarded funding for two projects each.

Funding was available for organizations focused on supporting entrepreneurial research and innovation ideas that could advance the commercial space sector and benefit future NASA missions.

Applications are now open for the 2024 solicitation cycle.

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

IXPE General Observer Program Opens Doors to Global X-ray Astronomy

By Rick Smith

Launched in late 2021, the science activities for NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission were directed by researchers at NASA and the Italian Space Agency through February 2024. Now, during the General Observer phase of the mission, IXPE’s observation program primarily is guided by the broader scientific community.

“We’re in the process of turning X-ray polarization into a standard part of the toolkit for X-ray astronomers around the globe,” said Philip Kaaret, IXPE principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “The response across the high-energy astrophysics community has been tremendous.”

IXPE will help researchers gain new understanding of the forces involved in a tidal disruption event, as seen in this artist’s illustration depicting what happens when a star passes fatally close to a supermassive black hole.NRAO/AUI/NSF/NASA

The General Observer Program, which officially began in February, invites astrophysicists and space scientists around the world to propose exciting new investigations of black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and other high-energy X-ray sources using the IXPE telescope.

In the spacecraft’s first two years of operation, NASA’s research partners included more than 175 scientists in 13 countries – and interest continues to swell. Proposed investigations submitted to date to the General Observer Program involve more than 1,400 researchers at 174 unique institutions in 30 countries.

“Our chief goal to enable every interested party to use, analyze, and interpret IXPE data,” said Kavitha Arur, program lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We want to maximize science outputs and cover the widest possible range of targets.”

In June 2023, NASA issued an open invitation to researchers to propose new IXPE missions and targets of observation. By the October 2023 deadline, the General Observer Program team had received 135 proposals for Cycle 1, covering the first year of the program. Each proposal was exhaustively peer-reviewed by NASA astrophysicists and associated experts in the field.

Researchers proposed studies based on the number of seconds of IXPE target observation they estimated they would need to obtain the data necessary to verify a hypothesis or model.

For Cycle 1, the team selected 39 proposals, totaling about 15 million seconds of total observation time. That figure will include some overlap among selected targets – and the targets selected included a few surprises.

“Some of the selected proposals were for types of targets we hadn’t previously considered, such as tidal disruption events,” Kaaret said. A tidal disruption event is when a star is pulled into a supermassive black hole and torn apart.

Cycle 1 researchers also will, for the first time, use IXPE to study a white dwarf, a stellar core remnant roughly the size of Earth but with a mass comparable to that of our Sun. That white dwarf is part of the binary system T Coronae Borealis, roughly 3,000 light years from our solar system. “T CrB,” as it’s known to astronomers, also includes an ancient red giant which emits a nova eruption every 80 years or so. It was last seen in 1946, and astronomers anticipate another eruption between now and September 2024. For stargazers on Earth, this nova will appear to be a star that wasn’t there before.

That wide window of time makes T CrB a “target of opportunity” for IXPE – an unpredictable wrinkle in the meticulously plotted Cycle 1 schedule. Such an event requires quick reaction on the part of the team to enable IXPE to point at it without a lot of advanced scheduling.

An artist’s illustration of the IXPE spacecraft in orbit, studying high-energy phenomena light-years from Earth.NASA

Allyn Tennant, who heads IXPE’s science operations center at Marshall, is tasked with mapping out IXPE’s timetable. He factors in the precise duration of each observation, the time needed to download its findings, and the necessary repositioning time between targets.

What does it take to execute such a complex plan? “A certain amount of thought, a certain amount of swearing, and a whole lot of replanning,” Tennant said.

“We started the program the first week of February and by late April, Allyn had already rescheduled the plan seven times,” Kaaret added. “It makes for some stressful weekends, but a lot of really exciting results come from these unanticipated events.”

IXPE spends about a week on each target, on average, so it’s not hard to schedule roughly 40 targets in a 52-week window, Tennant said – until one encounters those targets of opportunity. There’s also the challenge of managing the inflow of data from each observation. The brighter the target, the bigger the volume of incoming data that must be captured, verified, and distributed to the investigators.

The spacecraft’s busy schedule also factors in joint astronomical observations with other NASA instruments conducting their own orbiting science missions. Those joint efforts further extend the value of data gathered during IXPE’s General Observer Program studies but add another level of complexity when targets of opportunity call for reshuffling the schedule.

During Cycle 1 and Cycle 2, IXPE is teaming with NASA’s NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray observatory, which studies neutron stars, black holes, and other phenomena from its permanent vantage point aboard the International Space Station. In Cycle 2, beginning in February 2025, the program also will partner with NASA’s orbiting Swift and NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) imagers, which monitor gamma-ray bursts and high-energy cosmic X-ray events, respectively.

The growing interest in IXPE’s success led USRA’s Science and Technology Institute to announce the first IXPO (International X-ray Polarimetry Symposium), to be held in Huntsville on Sept. 16-19. Astronomers, engineers, and X-ray technologists are encouraged to attend.

View the complete list of selected IXPE Cycle 1 research proposals. Learn more about program guidelines for submitting Cycle 2 proposals.

IXPE, led by NASA Marshall, is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency. The Space & Mission Systems division of BAE Systems Inc., in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

Smith, a Manufacturing Technical Solutions Inc. employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program

NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. 

The program is planned to run every year until Europa Clipper completes its prime mission in 2034 and is open to applications from all U.S. undergraduate STEM majors, with preference given to students from non-high research activity universities and underserved institutions.

Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft.NASA/JPL-Caltech

ICONS internships may be in-person at the mentor’s institution, virtual, or hybrid, depending on the research project and needs of the mentor and intern. As part of the program, students and mentors will convene for a two-day meeting at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The first Europa ICONS internship will run June 3 through Aug. 9.

The students selected for the Europa ICONS program in 2024 are:

• Sarah Ruetschle, John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio
• Cole Anderson, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Hamza Ouriour, Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
• Ethan Piacenti, Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois
• Jared Bouck, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona
• Kayla Blair, Northern Arizona University
• Carly Davis, McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana
• Matthew Perkins, Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado
• Angela Zhang, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
• Arianna Rodriguez Ortiz, University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez
• Beverly Malugin Ayala, University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez
• Jeansel Johnson-Ayala, University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras 
• Akemi Takeuchi, University of Maryland, College Park
• Sofia Merchant-Dest, University of Maryland–University College in Adelphi
• Gradon Robbins, University of Florida in Gainesville
• Jason Sioeng, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
• Tyler Yuen, San Jose State University in San Jose, California
• Dallin Nelson, Southern Utah University in Cedar City
• Eric Stinemetz, University of Houston–Downtown
• Lucas Nerbonne, Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont
• Hope Jerris, Middlebury College
• Jacob Dietrich, Indiana University, Southeast in New Albany
• Jocelyn Mateo, Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio
• Samuel Brown, San Diego Mesa College in San Diego
• Madison Stanford, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
• Bryce McGimsey, Solano Community College in Fairfield, California
• Noah Alayon, CUNY LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York
• Trevor Erwin, University of Texas at Austin
• Ava Frost, Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts
• Brianna Casey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York
• Fatima Mendoza, Texas Tech University in Lubbock
• Daniel Voyles, Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California
• Swaroop Sathyanarayanan, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta
• Jay Patel, Louisiana State University College of Engineering in Baton Rouge
• Juliane Keiper, Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Emori Long, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee
• Scott Chang, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Hayden Ferrell, Arizona State University in Tempe
• Isabella Musto, Denison University in Granville, Ohio
• Elizabeth Kirby, College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina

The Europa Clipper mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

The Europa ICONS program is managed by the Planetary Science Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is part of a larger effort known as Clipper Next Gen, a decade-long strategy using the Europa Clipper mission to train and diversify the next generation of planetary scientists.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

› Back to Top

Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole

Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in a new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951.

Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It’s classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which means that it’s an extremely energetic type of galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, Seyfert galaxies are unique from other sorts of AGNs because the galaxy itself can still be clearly seen – different types of AGNs are so bright that it’s nearly impossible to observe the actual galaxy that they reside within.

Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951.NASA, ESA, and D. Thilker (The Johns Hopkins University); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

AGNs like NGC 4951 are powered by supermassive black holes. As matter whirls into the black hole, it generates radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, making the AGN shine brightly.

Hubble helped prove that supermassive black holes exist at the core of almost every galaxy in our universe. Before the telescope launched into low-Earth orbit in 1990, astronomers only theorized about their existence. The mission verified their existence by observing the undeniable effects of black holes, like jets of material ejecting from black holes and disks of gas and dust revolving around those black holes at very high speeds.

These observations of NGC 4951 were taken to provide valuable data for astronomers studying how galaxies evolve, with a particular focus on the star formation process. Hubble gathered this information, which is being combined with observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to support a JWST Treasury program. Treasury programs collect observations that focus on the potential to solve multiple scientific problems with a single, coherent dataset and enable a variety of compelling scientific investigations.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was the lead field center for the design, development, and construction of the space telescope.

› Back to Top

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this oblique photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan. The range resulted from the slow-motion collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that began about 60 million years ago. Peaks rise to more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level in the northern portion of the mountain range, shown in this photograph.

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this oblique photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan. The range resulted from the slow-motion collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that began about 60 million years ago. Peaks rise to more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level in the northern portion of the mountain range, shown in this photograph.NASA

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this Dec. 17, 2023, photograph of the Sulaiman Mountains in central Pakistan. The Sulaiman Mountains form a natural barrier between the plateaus to the west and the Indus River Valley to the east. Winds blowing from the Indian Ocean and Indus floodplain carry moisture and particulates inland, causing a combination of haze, mist, and clouds to form on the windward side of the mountain range.

A unique attribute of astronaut photography of Earth is the crew member’s ability to highlight features of the landscape by taking photos from perspectives other than straight-down (nadir). This photo leverages an oblique view to highlight the ruggedness of the Sulaiman Mountains by accentuating shadows created by the topography.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, NASA Earth Observatory (EO) has gathered 25 of their favorite images and data visualizations. Since EO’s launch on April 29, 1999, the site has hosted more than 18,000 image-driven stories, featuring everything from the newest satellite imagery to decades-long records of change.

Text Credit: Cadan Cummings

Image Credit: NASA

7 Min Read NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet atmosphere outside our solar system. 

Renyu Hu from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is lead author on a paper published today in Nature. “Webb is pushing the frontiers of exoplanet characterization to rocky planets,” Hu said. “It is truly enabling a new type of science.”

Super-Hot Super-Earth 55 Cancri e

55 Cancri e (image below, details/download),  also known as Janssen, is one of five known planets orbiting the Sun-like star 55 Cancri, in the constellation Cancer. With a diameter nearly twice that of Earth and density slightly greater, the planet is classified as a super-Earth: larger than Earth, smaller than Neptune, and likely similar in composition to the rocky planets in our solar system.

To describe 55 Cancri e as “rocky,” however, could leave the wrong impression. The planet orbits so close to its star (about 1.4 million miles, or one-twenty-fifth the distance between Mercury and the Sun) that its surface is likely to be molten – a bubbling ocean of magma. With such a tight orbit, the planet is also likely to be tidally locked, with a dayside that faces the star at all times and a nightside in perpetual darkness.

In spite of numerous observations since it was discovered to transit in 2011, the question of whether or not 55 Cancri e has an atmosphere – or even could have one given its high temperature and the continuous onslaught of stellar radiation and wind from its star – has gone unanswered.

“I’ve worked on this planet for more than a decade,” said Diana Dragomir, an exoplanet researcher at the University of New Mexico and co-author on the study. “It’s been really frustrating that none of the observations we’ve been getting have robustly solved these mysteries. I am thrilled that we’re finally getting some answers!”

Unlike the atmospheres of gas giant planets, which are relatively easy to spot (the first was detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope more than two decades ago), thinner and denser atmospheres surrounding rocky planets have remained elusive.

Previous studies of 55 Cancri e using data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope suggested the presence of a substantial atmosphere rich in volatiles (molecules that occur in gas form on Earth) like oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. But researchers could not rule out another possibility: that the planet is bare, save for a tenuous shroud of vaporized rock, rich in elements like silicon, iron, aluminum, and calcium. “The planet is so hot that some of the molten rock should evaporate,” explained Hu.

Image: Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e (Artist’s Concept) This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. Observations from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI suggest that the planet may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbon monoxide (CO). Researchers think the gases that make up the atmosphere could have bubbled out of an ocean of magma that is thought to cover the planet’s surface. Measuring Subtle Variations in Infrared Colors

To distinguish between the two possibilities, the team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to measure 4- to 12-micron infrared light coming from the planet.

Although Webb cannot capture a direct image of 55 Cancri e, it can measure subtle changes in light from the system as the planet orbits the star.

By subtracting the brightness during the secondary eclipse (image below, details/download), when the planet is behind the star (starlight only), from the brightness when the planet is right beside the star (light from the star and planet combined), the team was able to calculate the amount of various wavelengths of infrared light coming from the dayside of the planet.

This method, known as secondary eclipse spectroscopy, is similar to that used by other research teams to search for atmospheres on other rocky exoplanets, like TRAPPIST-1 b.

Image: Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e (MIRI Secondary Eclipse Light Curve) A light curve of 7.5- to 11.8-micron light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) in March 2023 shows the decrease in brightness of the 55 Cancri system as the rocky planet 55 Cancri e moves behind the star, a phenomenon known as a secondary eclipse. The amount of mid-infrared light given off by the planet (the difference in brightness between the star-and-planet combined and the star on its own) indicates that the planet’s dayside temperature is about 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature, which is low compared to a similar

planet with no atmosphere, indicates that heat is being distributed from the dayside to the nightside of the planet, possibly by a volatile-rich atmosphere.

Cooler than Expected

The first indication that 55 Cancri e could have a substantial atmosphere came from temperature measurements based on its thermal emission (image below, details/download), or heat energy given off in the form of infrared light. If the planet is covered in dark molten rock with a thin veil of vaporized rock or no atmosphere at all, the dayside should be around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (~2,200 degrees Celsius). 

“Instead, the MIRI data showed a relatively low temperature of about 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit [~1540 degrees Celsius],” said Hu. “This is a very strong indication that energy is being distributed from the dayside to the nightside, most likely by a volatile-rich atmosphere.” While currents of lava can carry some heat around to the nightside, they cannot move it efficiently enough to explain the cooling effect.

When the team looked at the NIRCam data, they saw patterns consistent with a volatile-rich atmosphere. “We see evidence of a dip in the spectrum between 4 and 5 microns — less of this light is reaching the telescope,” explained co-author Aaron Bello-Arufe, also from NASA JPL. “This suggests the presence of an atmosphere containing carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, which absorb these wavelengths of light.” A planet with no atmosphere or an atmosphere consisting only of vaporized rock would not have this specific spectral feature.

“We’ve spent the last ten years modelling different scenarios, trying to imagine what this world might look like,” said co-author Yamila Miguel from the Leiden Observatory and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). “Finally getting some confirmation of our work is priceless!”

Image: Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e (NIRCam + MIRI Emission Spectrum) A thermal emission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) GRISM Spectrometer (F444W) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) Low-Resolution Spectrometer, shows that the planet may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide and other volatiles, not just vaporized rock. Bubbling Magma Ocean

The team thinks that the gases blanketing 55 Cancri e would be bubbling out from the interior, rather than being present ever since the planet formed. “The primary atmosphere would be long gone because of the high temperature and intense radiation from the star,” said Bello-Arufe. “This would be a secondary atmosphere that is continuously replenished by the magma ocean. Magma is not just crystals and liquid rock; there’s a lot of dissolved gas in it, too.”

While 55 Cancri e is far too hot to be habitable, researchers think it could provide a unique window for studying interactions between atmospheres, surfaces, and interiors of rocky planets, and perhaps provide insights into the early conditions of Earth, Venus, and Mars, which are thought to have been covered in magma oceans far in the past. “Ultimately, we want to understand what conditions make it possible for a rocky planet to sustain a gas-rich atmosphere: a key ingredient for a habitable planet,” said Hu.

This research was conducted as part of Webb’s General Observers (GO) Program 1952. Analysis of additional secondary eclipse observations of 55 Cancri e are currently in progress.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing 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.

Downloads

Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.
Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The research results are published in Nature.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Margaret Carruthers mcarruthers@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

What is an Exoplanet?

VIDEO: How do we learn about a planets Atmosphere?

55 Cancri e exoplanet and 55 Cancri system simulated in 3d

Webb’s Impact on Exoplanet Research

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

Related For Kids

What is a exoplanet?

What is the Webb Telescope?

SpacePlace for Kids

En Español

Para Niños : Qué es una exoplaneta?

Ciencia de la NASA

NASA en español 

Space Place para niños

Keep Exploring Related Topics

James Webb Space Telescope

Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…

Exoplanets

Stars

Universe

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

May 08, 2024

Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Related Terms

• Astrophysics
• Exoplanet Atmosphere
• Exoplanet Science
• Exoplanets
• James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
• Science & Research
• Studying Exoplanets
• Super-Earth Exoplanets
• The Universe