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The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope Is Complete!
Construction is complete on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and its ahead of schedule. After extensive testing, the new flagship telescope should be ready to launch in Fall, 2026.
NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA engineer Hanbong Lee demonstrates capabilities to manage busy urban airspace traffic during a recent simulation at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete
NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air taxis and drones can successfully operate within busy areas.
The demonstration, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley earlier this year, focused on a system called the Strategic Deconfliction Simulation, which helps coordinate flight plans before takeoff, reducing the risk of conflicts in busy urban environments
At the event, researchers demonstrated NASA’s Situational Viewer and Demand-Capacity Balancing Monitor, which visualizes air traffic and adjusts flight plans in real time. The simulation demonstrated traffic scenarios involving drone operations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testing how preplanned flights could improve congestion and manage the demand and capacity of the airspace – ensuring that all aircraft can operate smoothly even in crowded conditions.
Working with industry partners is critical to NASA’s efforts to develop and refine technologies needed for future air mobility. During the simulation, the company, ANRA Technologies, demonstrated its fleet and vertiport management systems, which are designed to support the coordination of multiple aircraft and ground operations.
“Simulating these complex environments supports broader efforts to ensure safe integration of drones and other advanced vehicles into the US airspace,” said Hanbong Lee, engineer at NASA Ames. “By showcasing these capabilities, we’re delivering critical data and lessons learned to support efforts at NASA and industry.”
This demonstration is another step toward the NASA team’s plan to hold a technical capability level simulation in 2026. This upcoming simulation would help shape the development of services aimed at managing aircraft flying in urban areas.
The simulation was created through a NASA team from its Air Mobility Pathfinders project, part of the agency’s continuing work to find solutions for safely integrating innovative new aircraft such as air taxis into U.S. cities and the national airspace. By developing advanced evaluations and simulations, the project supports safe, scalable, and publicly trusted air travel in urban areas, paving the way for a future where air taxis and drones are a safe and reliable part of everyday life.
The project falls under NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe and efficient aviation transportation.
Share Details Last Updated Dec 09, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 5 min read NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests Article 2 hours ago 5 min read Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics) Article 3 hours ago 5 min read New NASA Sensor Goes Hunting for Critical Minerals Article 7 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA engineer Hanbong Lee demonstrates capabilities to manage busy urban airspace traffic during a recent simulation at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.NASA/Brandon Torres-NavarreteNASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air taxis and drones can successfully operate within busy areas.
The demonstration, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley earlier this year, focused on a system called the Strategic Deconfliction Simulation, which helps coordinate flight plans before takeoff, reducing the risk of conflicts in busy urban environments
At the event, researchers demonstrated NASA’s Situational Viewer and Demand-Capacity Balancing Monitor, which visualizes air traffic and adjusts flight plans in real time. The simulation demonstrated traffic scenarios involving drone operations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testing how preplanned flights could improve congestion and manage the demand and capacity of the airspace – ensuring that all aircraft can operate smoothly even in crowded conditions.
Working with industry partners is critical to NASA’s efforts to develop and refine technologies needed for future air mobility. During the simulation, the company, ANRA Technologies, demonstrated its fleet and vertiport management systems, which are designed to support the coordination of multiple aircraft and ground operations.
“Simulating these complex environments supports broader efforts to ensure safe integration of drones and other advanced vehicles into the US airspace,” said Hanbong Lee, engineer at NASA Ames. “By showcasing these capabilities, we’re delivering critical data and lessons learned to support efforts at NASA and industry.”
This demonstration is another step toward the NASA team’s plan to hold a technical capability level simulation in 2026. This upcoming simulation would help shape the development of services aimed at managing aircraft flying in urban areas.
The simulation was created through a NASA team from its Air Mobility Pathfinders project, part of the agency’s continuing work to find solutions for safely integrating innovative new aircraft such as air taxis into U.S. cities and the national airspace. By developing advanced evaluations and simulations, the project supports safe, scalable, and publicly trusted air travel in urban areas, paving the way for a future where air taxis and drones are a safe and reliable part of everyday life.
The project falls under NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe and efficient aviation transportation.
Share Details Last Updated Dec 09, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 5 min read NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests Article 2 hours ago 5 min read Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics) Article 3 hours ago 5 min read New NASA Sensor Goes Hunting for Critical Minerals Article 7 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests
In March, NASA researchers employed a new camera system to capture data imagery of the interaction between Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-1 lander’s engine plumes and the lunar surface.
Through NASA’s Artemis campaign, this data will help researchers understand the hazards that may occur when a lander’s engine plumes blast away at the lunar dust, soil, and rocks.
The data also will be used by NASA’s commercial partners as they develop their human landing systems to safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back, beginning with Artemis III.
To better understand the science of lunar landings, a team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has initiated a series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a massive 60-foot spherical vacuum chamber.
This plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamberAshley Korzun
PSI Testing Lead at NASA Langley
“This plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamber,” said Ashley Korzun, testing lead at NASA Langley. “If I’m in a spacecraft and I’m going to move all that regolith while landing, some of that’s going to hit my lander. Some of it’s going to go out toward other things — payloads, science experiments, eventually rovers and other assets. Understanding those physics is pivotal to ensuring crew safety and mission success.”
The campaign, which will run through spring of 2026, should provide an absolute treasure trove of data that researchers will be able to use to improve predictive models and influence the design of space hardware. As Korzun mentioned, it’s a big undertaking, and it involves multiple NASA centers, academic institutions, and commercial entities both small and large.
Korzun’ s team will test two types of propulsion systems in the vacuum sphere. For the first round of tests this fall, they are using an ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and built and operated by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The ethane system generates a maximum of about 100 pounds of thrust — imagine the force necessary to lift or support a 100-pound person. It heats up but doesn’t burn.
A view of the ethane nozzle researchers are using during the first phase of testing.
NASA/Wesley Chambers
After completing the ethane tests, the second round of tests will involve a 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor developed at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and recently tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It produces around 35 pounds of thrust, igniting both solid propellant and a stream of gaseous oxygen to create a hot, powerful stream of rocket exhaust, simulating a real rocket engine but at smaller scale for this test series.
Researchers will test both propulsion systems at various heights, firing them into a roughly six-and-a-half-foot diameter, one-foot-deep bin of simulated lunar regolith, called Black Point-1 that has jagged, cohesive properties similar to lunar regolith.
“It gives us a huge range of test conditions,” Korzun said, “to be able to talk about spacecraft of all different kinds going to the Moon, and for us to understand what they’re going to do as they land or try to take back off from the surface.”
Researchers will use this 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor during the second phase of testing. The data from these tests at NASA Langley will be critical in developing and validating models to predict the effects of plume surface interaction for landing on the Moon and even Mars, ensuring mission success for the HLS landers and the safety of our astronautsDaniel Stubbs
Engineer with HLS Plume and Aero Environments Team at NASA Marshall
A number of different instruments, including a version of the specialized camera system that imaged the plume-surface interaction during the Blue Ghost landing, will capture data and imagery from the tests, which will only last about six seconds each. The instruments will measure crater formation, the speed and angle of ejecta particles, and the shapes of the engine plumes.
Korzun sees this test campaign as more than a one-shot, Moon-specific thing. The entire operation is modular by design and can also prepare NASA for missions to Mars. The lunar regolith simulant can be replaced with a Mars simulant that’s more like sand. Pieces of hardware and instrumentation can be unbolted and replaced to represent future Mars landers. Rather than take the vacuum sphere down to really low pressure like on the Moon, it can be adjusted to a pressure that simulates the atmosphere on the Red Planet. “Mars has always been in our road maps,” Korzun said.
But for now, the Moon looms large.
A number of instruments, including SCALPSS cameras similar to the ones that captured imagery of the plume-surface interaction between Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and the Moon in March, will capture data on the sphere tests.NASA/Ryan Hill
“This test campaign is one of the most flight-relevant and highly instrumented plume-surface interaction test series NASA has ever conducted,” said Daniel Stubbs, an engineer with the human landing systems plume and aero environments team at NASA Marshall. “The data from these tests at NASA Langley will be critical in developing and validating models to predict the effects of plume-surface interaction for landing on the Moon and even Mars, ensuring mission success for the human landing systems and the safety of our astronauts.”
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build upon our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
For more information about Artemis, visit:
The testing platform is engineered to accommodate the engine nozzles, simulated lunar soil and instrumentation.
NASA/Wesley Chambers
Joe Atkinson
NASA Langley Research Center
NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests
In March, NASA researchers employed a new camera system to capture data imagery of the interaction between Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-1 lander’s engine plumes and the lunar surface.
Through NASA’s Artemis campaign, this data will help researchers understand the hazards that may occur when a lander’s engine plumes blast away at the lunar dust, soil, and rocks.
The data also will be used by NASA’s commercial partners as they develop their human landing systems to safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back, beginning with Artemis III.
To better understand the science of lunar landings, a team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has initiated a series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a massive 60-foot spherical vacuum chamber.
This plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamberAshley Korzun
PSI Testing Lead at NASA Langley
“This plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamber,” said Ashley Korzun, testing lead at NASA Langley. “If I’m in a spacecraft and I’m going to move all that regolith while landing, some of that’s going to hit my lander. Some of it’s going to go out toward other things — payloads, science experiments, eventually rovers and other assets. Understanding those physics is pivotal to ensuring crew safety and mission success.”
The campaign, which will run through spring of 2026, should provide an absolute treasure trove of data that researchers will be able to use to improve predictive models and influence the design of space hardware. As Korzun mentioned, it’s a big undertaking, and it involves multiple NASA centers, academic institutions, and commercial entities both small and large.
Korzun’ s team will test two types of propulsion systems in the vacuum sphere. For the first round of tests this fall, they are using an ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and built and operated by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The ethane system generates a maximum of about 100 pounds of thrust — imagine the force necessary to lift or support a 100-pound person. It heats up but doesn’t burn.
A view of the ethane nozzle researchers are using during the first phase of testing.NASA/Wesley Chambers
After completing the ethane tests, the second round of tests will involve a 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor developed at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and recently tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It produces around 35 pounds of thrust, igniting both solid propellant and a stream of gaseous oxygen to create a hot, powerful stream of rocket exhaust, simulating a real rocket engine but at smaller scale for this test series.
Researchers will test both propulsion systems at various heights, firing them into a roughly six-and-a-half-foot diameter, one-foot-deep bin of simulated lunar regolith, called Black Point-1 that has jagged, cohesive properties similar to lunar regolith.
“It gives us a huge range of test conditions,” Korzun said, “to be able to talk about spacecraft of all different kinds going to the Moon, and for us to understand what they’re going to do as they land or try to take back off from the surface.”
Researchers will use this 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor during the second phase of testing. The data from these tests at NASA Langley will be critical in developing and validating models to predict the effects of plume surface interaction for landing on the Moon and even Mars, ensuring mission success for the HLS landers and the safety of our astronautsDaniel Stubbs
Engineer with HLS Plume and Aero Environments Team at NASA Marshall
A number of different instruments, including a version of the specialized camera system that imaged the plume-surface interaction during the Blue Ghost landing, will capture data and imagery from the tests, which will only last about six seconds each. The instruments will measure crater formation, the speed and angle of ejecta particles, and the shapes of the engine plumes.
Korzun sees this test campaign as more than a one-shot, Moon-specific thing. The entire operation is modular by design and can also prepare NASA for missions to Mars. The lunar regolith simulant can be replaced with a Mars simulant that’s more like sand. Pieces of hardware and instrumentation can be unbolted and replaced to represent future Mars landers. Rather than take the vacuum sphere down to really low pressure like on the Moon, it can be adjusted to a pressure that simulates the atmosphere on the Red Planet. “Mars has always been in our road maps,” Korzun said.
But for now, the Moon looms large.
A number of instruments, including SCALPSS cameras similar to the ones that captured imagery of the plume-surface interaction between Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and the Moon in March, will capture data on the sphere tests.NASA/Ryan Hill“This test campaign is one of the most flight-relevant and highly instrumented plume-surface interaction test series NASA has ever conducted,” said Daniel Stubbs, an engineer with the human landing systems plume and aero environments team at NASA Marshall. “The data from these tests at NASA Langley will be critical in developing and validating models to predict the effects of plume-surface interaction for landing on the Moon and even Mars, ensuring mission success for the human landing systems and the safety of our astronauts.”
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build upon our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
For more information about Artemis, visit:
The testing platform is engineered to accommodate the engine nozzles, simulated lunar soil and instrumentation.NASA/Wesley Chambers
Joe Atkinson
NASA Langley Research Center
Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics)
Galaxy clusters are the most massive objects in the universe held together by gravity, containing up to several thousand individual galaxies and huge reservoirs of superheated, X-ray-emitting gas. The mass of this hot gas is typically about five times higher than the total mass of all the galaxies in galaxy clusters. In addition to these visible components, 80% of the mass of galaxy clusters is supplied by dark matter. These cosmic giants are bellwethers not only for the galaxies, stars and black holes within them, but also for the evolution and growth of the universe itself.
It is no surprise then that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed many galaxy clusters over the lifetime of the mission. Chandra’s X-ray vision allows it to see the enormous stockpiles of hot cluster gas, with temperatures as high as 100 million degrees, with exquisite clarity. This blazing gas tells stories about past and present activity within galaxy clusters.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/H. McCall; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
Many of these galaxy clusters host supermassive black holes at their centers, which periodically erupt in powerful outbursts. These explosions generate jets that are visible in radio wavelengths, which inflate bubbles full of energetic particles; these bubbles carry energy out into the surrounding gas. Chandra’s images have revealed a wealth of other structures formed during these black hole outbursts, including hooks, rings, arcs, and wings. However, appearances alone don’t tell us what these structures are or how they formed.
To tackle this problem, a team of astronomers developed a novel image-processing technique to analyze X-ray data, allowing them to identify features in the gas of galaxy clusters like never before, classifying them by their nature rather than just their appearance. Prior to this technique, which they call “X-arithmetic,” scientists could only identify the nature of some of the features and in a much less efficient way, via studies of the amounts of X-ray energy dispersed at different wavelengths. The authors applied X-arithmetic to 15 galaxy clusters and galaxy groups (these are similar to galaxy clusters but with fewer member galaxies). By comparing the outcome from the X-arithmetic technique to computer simulations, researchers now have a new tool that will help in understanding the physical processes inside these important titans of the universe.
A new paper looks at how these structures appear in different parts of the X-ray spectrum. By splitting Chandra data into lower-energy and higher-energy X-rays and comparing the strengths of each structure in both, researchers can classify them into three distinct types, which they have colored differently. A pink color is given to sound waves and weak shock fronts, which arise from pressure disturbances traveling at close to the speed of sound, compressing the hot gas into thin layers. The bubbles inflated by jets are colored yellow, and cooling or slower-moving gas is blue. The resulting images, “painted” to reflect the nature of each structure, offer a new way to interpret the complex aftermath of black hole activity using only X-ray imaging data. This method works not only on Chandra (and other X-ray) observations, but also on simulations of galaxy clusters, providing a tool to bridge data and theory.
The images in this new collection show the central regions of five galaxy clusters in the sample: MS 0735+7421, the Perseus Cluster, and M87 in the Virgo Cluster in the top row and Abell 2052 and Cygnus A on the bottom row. All of these objects have been released to the public before by the Chandra X-ray Center, but this is the first time this special technique has been applied. The new treatment highlights important differences between the galaxy clusters and galaxy groups in the study.
The galaxy clusters in the study often have large regions of cooling or slow-moving gas near their centers, and only some show evidence for shock fronts. The galaxy groups, on the other hand, are different. They show multiple shock fronts in their central regions and smaller amounts of cooling and slow-moving gas compared to the sample of galaxy clusters.
This contrast between galaxy clusters and galaxy groups suggests that black hole feedback — that is, the interdependent relationship between outbursts from a black hole and its environment — appears stronger in galaxy groups. This may be because feedback is more violent in the groups than in the clusters, or because a galaxy group has weaker gravity holding the structure together than a galaxy cluster. The same outburst from a black hole, with the same power level, can therefore more easily affect a galaxy group than a galaxy cluster.
There are still many open questions about these black hole outbursts. For example, scientists would like to know how much energy they put into the gas around them and how often they occur. These violent events play a key role in regulating the cooling of the hot gas and controlling the formation of stars in clusters. By revealing the physics underlying the structures they leave behind, the X-arithmetic technique brings us closer to understanding the influence of black holes on the largest scales.
A paper describing this new technique and its results has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is led by Hannah McCall from the University of Chicago. The other authors are Irina Zhuravleva (University of Chicago), Eugene Churazov (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany), Congyao Zhang (University of Chicago), Bill Forman and Christine Jones (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), and Yuan Li (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, 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.
To learn more about Chandra, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/chandra
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
News Media ContactMegan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
For the first time, scientists have made a clear X-ray detection of chlorine and potassium…
Article 5 days ago 6 min read NASA’s Chandra Finds Black Hole With Tremendous Growth Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA GalaxiesGalaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain…
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics)
Galaxy clusters are the most massive objects in the universe held together by gravity, containing up to several thousand individual galaxies and huge reservoirs of superheated, X-ray-emitting gas. The mass of this hot gas is typically about five times higher than the total mass of all the galaxies in galaxy clusters. In addition to these visible components, 80% of the mass of galaxy clusters is supplied by dark matter. These cosmic giants are bellwethers not only for the galaxies, stars and black holes within them, but also for the evolution and growth of the universe itself.
It is no surprise then that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed many galaxy clusters over the lifetime of the mission. Chandra’s X-ray vision allows it to see the enormous stockpiles of hot cluster gas, with temperatures as high as 100 million degrees, with exquisite clarity. This blazing gas tells stories about past and present activity within galaxy clusters.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/H. McCall; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. WolkMany of these galaxy clusters host supermassive black holes at their centers, which periodically erupt in powerful outbursts. These explosions generate jets that are visible in radio wavelengths, which inflate bubbles full of energetic particles; these bubbles carry energy out into the surrounding gas. Chandra’s images have revealed a wealth of other structures formed during these black hole outbursts, including hooks, rings, arcs, and wings. However, appearances alone don’t tell us what these structures are or how they formed.
To tackle this problem, a team of astronomers developed a novel image-processing technique to analyze X-ray data, allowing them to identify features in the gas of galaxy clusters like never before, classifying them by their nature rather than just their appearance. Prior to this technique, which they call “X-arithmetic,” scientists could only identify the nature of some of the features and in a much less efficient way, via studies of the amounts of X-ray energy dispersed at different wavelengths. The authors applied X-arithmetic to 15 galaxy clusters and galaxy groups (these are similar to galaxy clusters but with fewer member galaxies). By comparing the outcome from the X-arithmetic technique to computer simulations, researchers now have a new tool that will help in understanding the physical processes inside these important titans of the universe.
A new paper looks at how these structures appear in different parts of the X-ray spectrum. By splitting Chandra data into lower-energy and higher-energy X-rays and comparing the strengths of each structure in both, researchers can classify them into three distinct types, which they have colored differently. A pink color is given to sound waves and weak shock fronts, which arise from pressure disturbances traveling at close to the speed of sound, compressing the hot gas into thin layers. The bubbles inflated by jets are colored yellow, and cooling or slower-moving gas is blue. The resulting images, “painted” to reflect the nature of each structure, offer a new way to interpret the complex aftermath of black hole activity using only X-ray imaging data. This method works not only on Chandra (and other X-ray) observations, but also on simulations of galaxy clusters, providing a tool to bridge data and theory.
The images in this new collection show the central regions of five galaxy clusters in the sample: MS 0735+7421, the Perseus Cluster, and M87 in the Virgo Cluster in the top row and Abell 2052 and Cygnus A on the bottom row. All of these objects have been released to the public before by the Chandra X-ray Center, but this is the first time this special technique has been applied. The new treatment highlights important differences between the galaxy clusters and galaxy groups in the study.
The galaxy clusters in the study often have large regions of cooling or slow-moving gas near their centers, and only some show evidence for shock fronts. The galaxy groups, on the other hand, are different. They show multiple shock fronts in their central regions and smaller amounts of cooling and slow-moving gas compared to the sample of galaxy clusters.
This contrast between galaxy clusters and galaxy groups suggests that black hole feedback — that is, the interdependent relationship between outbursts from a black hole and its environment — appears stronger in galaxy groups. This may be because feedback is more violent in the groups than in the clusters, or because a galaxy group has weaker gravity holding the structure together than a galaxy cluster. The same outburst from a black hole, with the same power level, can therefore more easily affect a galaxy group than a galaxy cluster.
There are still many open questions about these black hole outbursts. For example, scientists would like to know how much energy they put into the gas around them and how often they occur. These violent events play a key role in regulating the cooling of the hot gas and controlling the formation of stars in clusters. By revealing the physics underlying the structures they leave behind, the X-arithmetic technique brings us closer to understanding the influence of black holes on the largest scales.
A paper describing this new technique and its results has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is led by Hannah McCall from the University of Chicago. The other authors are Irina Zhuravleva (University of Chicago), Eugene Churazov (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany), Congyao Zhang (University of Chicago), Bill Forman and Christine Jones (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), and Yuan Li (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, 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.
To learn more about Chandra, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/chandra
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
News Media ContactMegan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
For the first time, scientists have made a clear X-ray detection of chlorine and potassium…
Article 5 days ago 6 min read NASA’s Chandra Finds Black Hole With Tremendous Growth Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA GalaxiesGalaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain…
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
RFK, Jr., Questions Safety of Approved RSV Shots for Babies
FDA officials are newly scrutinizing several approved therapies to treat RSV in babies despite the fact that these shots were shown to be safe in clinical trials
Human Missions to Mars Must Search for Alien Life, New Report Finds
A major new study lays out plans for crewed missions to Mars, with the search for extraterrestrial life being a top priority
The Longest GRB Ever Detected Is An Intriguing Puzzle
In July 2025, telescopes detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that lasted seven hours. Most GRBs last only milliseconds, or a few minutes. Only a handful have lasted longer than that, and July's GRB was the longest ever detected. It hints at a new, exotic type of explosive event, and astronomers have a few candidates.
Sprites Over Château de Beynac
A flash of lightning, and then—something else. High above a storm, a crimson figure blinks in and out of existence. If you see it, you are a lucky witness of a sprite, one of the least-understood electrical phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Sprites occur at some 50 miles (80 kilometers) altitude, high above thunderstorms. They appear moments after a lightning strike – a sudden reddish flash that can take a range of shapes, often combining diffuse plumes and bright, spiny tendrils. Some sprites tend to dance over the storms, turning on and off one after another. Many questions about how and why they form remain unanswered. Sprites are the most frequently observed type of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs); TLEs can take a variety of fanciful shapes with equally fanciful names.
This image is the NASA Science Calendar Image of the Month for December 2025. Learn more about sprites and download this photo to use as a wallpaper on your phone or computer.
Text credit: Miles Hatfield
Image credit: Nicolas Escurat
Sprites Over Château de Beynac
A flash of lightning, and then—something else. High above a storm, a crimson figure blinks in and out of existence. If you see it, you are a lucky witness of a sprite, one of the least-understood electrical phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Sprites occur at some 50 miles (80 kilometers) altitude, high above thunderstorms. They appear moments after a lightning strike – a sudden reddish flash that can take a range of shapes, often combining diffuse plumes and bright, spiny tendrils. Some sprites tend to dance over the storms, turning on and off one after another. Many questions about how and why they form remain unanswered. Sprites are the most frequently observed type of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs); TLEs can take a variety of fanciful shapes with equally fanciful names.
This image is the NASA Science Calendar Image of the Month for December 2025. Learn more about sprites and download this photo to use as a wallpaper on your phone or computer.
Text credit: Miles Hatfield
Image credit: Nicolas Escurat