Video of the Day: Looking Ahead to Humanity's Next Journey to Interstellar Space...

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Just thought I'd share a cool video below that was recently posted by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL)...which conducted a study for NASA last year about an Interstellar Probe (IP) mission that could launch to the cosmos as soon as 2036.

New articles such as this one have just been published about IP. One tidbit that remains the same is that the spacecraft would travel at a velocity of 7.2 Astronomical Units (the Earth is 1 Astronomical Unit, or 93 million miles, from the Sun) a year during its journey out of our solar system. Also, this successor to the Pioneer, Voyager and New Horizons robotic probes—as far as JHUAPL is concerned—would ideally depart from Earth aboard a Block 2 variant of the Space Launch System rocket...which will hopefully make its first flight on Artemis 1 later next month.

It will still take at least two years before we find out if NASA gives this historic and intriguing mission the greenlight. The National Academy of Sciences will unveil its next Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey in 2024, with the IP mission one of the projects currently under review by this study.

Here's hoping that within the next fifteen years, humanity will take the next steps of its journey through interstellar space...eventually joining New Horizons in its exploration of the abyss while the twin Voyager probes fall silent for the final time. Carry on.



EDIT (12:13 PM, PDT): Rest In Peace, Bill Russell. The NBA legend—who won 11 championships as a player with the Boston Celtics—passed away today. He was 88.



EDIT #2 (3:53 PM, PDT): Rest In Peace, Nichelle Nichols. Not only did she play Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series, but Nichols was also a prominent space advocate who worked with NASA to inspire other women and people of color to apply to become astronauts. She was 89.


NASA

Dragonfly Update: Testing Continues for the Robotic Mission That Will Explore Saturn's Moon Titan Next Decade...

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Just thought I'd share this cool video showing an engineering model of NASA's Dragonfly quadcopter being tested at Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area in Southern California.

The engineering model, which is only a quarter of the size of the 990-pound (450-kilogram) aerial vehicle that will venture to Saturn's ocean moon Titan, took flight at the California national park (which was also where the Tatooine scenes for Return of the Jedi was filmed 40 years ago) last May.

Assuming that development continues to go well on this exciting endeavor, the Dragonfly mission will launch in June of 2027...and touch down at Titan's Shangri-La dune fields in 2034. Can't wait!

Ingenuity's Legacy Will Live On Through NASA and ESA's Upcoming Joint Mission to the Red Planet...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Will Inspire World When It Returns Mars Samples to Earth in 2033 (Press Release)

NASA has finished the system requirements review for its Mars Sample Return Program, which is nearing completion of the conceptual design phase. During this phase, the program team evaluated and refined the architecture to return the scientifically-selected samples, which are currently in the collection process by NASA’s Perseverance rover in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater.

The architecture for the campaign, which includes contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), is expected to reduce the complexity of future missions and increase probability of success.

“The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “There are some significant and advantageous changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance’s recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.”

This advanced mission architecture takes into consideration a recently updated analysis of Perseverance’s expected longevity. Perseverance will be the primary means of transporting samples to NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle and ESA’s Sample Transfer Arm.

As such, the Mars Sample Return campaign will no longer include the Sample Fetch Rover or its associated second lander. The Sample Retrieval Lander will include two sample-recovery helicopters, based on the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has performed 29 flights at Mars and survived over a year beyond its original planned lifetime. The helicopters will provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples cached on the surface of Mars.

The ESA Earth Return Orbiter and its NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System remain vital elements of the program architecture.

With planned launch dates for the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028, respectively, the samples are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033.

With its architecture solidified during this conceptual design phase, the program is expected to move into its preliminary design phase this October. In this phase, expected to last about 12 months, the program will complete technology development and create engineering prototypes of the major mission components.

This refined concept for the Mars Sample Return campaign was presented to the delegates from the 22 participating states of Europe’s space exploration program, Terrae Novae, in May. At their next meeting in September, the states will consider the discontinuation of the development of the Sample Fetch Rover.

“ESA is continuing at full speed the development of both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place the sample tubes aboard the Orbiting Sample Container before its launch from the surface of the Red Planet,” said David Parker, ESA director of Human and Robotic Exploration.

The respective contributions to the campaign are contingent upon available funding from the U.S. and ESA participating states. More formalized agreements between the two agencies will be established in the next year.

“Working together on historic endeavors like Mars Sample Return not only provides invaluable data about our place in the universe but brings us closer together right here on Earth,” said Zurbuchen.

The first step in the Mars Sample Return Campaign is already in progress. Since it landed at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover has collected 11 scientifically-compelling rock core samples and one atmospheric sample.

Bringing Mars samples to Earth would allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars and would enable future generations to study them. Curating the samples on Earth would also allow the science community to test new theories and models as they are developed, much as the Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done for decades. This strategic NASA and ESA partnership will fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since the 1970s and in the last three National Academy of Sciences Planetary Science Decadal Surveys.

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Here’s our updated plan to bring Mars samples to Earth:

The @NASAPersevere rover will take samples to a lander, so a robotic arm provided by @ESA can load them into an ascent vehicle. Two Mars helicopters will act as back-ups. Targeting return in 2033. https://t.co/jUMh6vMKnR pic.twitter.com/TOWFpp3sOk

— NASA (@NASA) July 27, 2022

@NASA and @ESA presented a refined, simpler concept for the Mars Sample Return campaign. @ESA continues at full speed the development the Earth Return Orbiter and the Sample Transfer Arm to bring scientific samples back from the Red Planet. https://t.co/yuETS8lWS9 pic.twitter.com/cht05i8bJT

— Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) July 27, 2022

The SERIES-2 Spacecraft Will Send NASA Payloads to the Lunar Surface in 2025...

Draper

NASA Selects Draper to Fly Research to Far Side of Moon (Press Release - July 21)

NASA has awarded Draper of Cambridge, Massachusetts a contract to deliver Artemis science investigations to the Moon in 2025. The commercial delivery is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative under Artemis.

Draper will receive $73 million for the contract, and is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and payload operations. This award is the eighth surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS vendor.

“This lunar surface delivery to a geographic region on the Moon that is not visible from Earth will allow science to be conducted at a location of interest but far from the first Artemis human landing missions,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Understanding geophysical activity on the far side of the Moon will give us a deeper understanding of our solar system and provide information to help us prepare for Artemis astronaut missions to the lunar surface.”

The experiments riding on Draper’s SERIES-2 lander are headed to Schrödinger Basin, a large lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon, close to the lunar South Pole. This interesting geological site is about 200 miles in diameter. The outer ring of the basin is made up of impact melt meteorites and the inner ring is known for its smooth floor deposits that may be a combination of both impact melt and volcanic material.

“The payload delivery location is a first for us. Operations from the far side of the Moon will help improve how we track activities from this location to address scientific goals – all while we gather data from the payloads,” said Chris Culbert, CLPS program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The vendor-provided services will prepare for future, more complex lunar surface operations.”

Schrödinger Basin is one of the youngest impact basins on the lunar surface whose impact uplifted deep crust and upper mantle of the Moon in its peak ring. Later, the inner basin was the site of a large volcanic eruption. Scientists hope to study the thermal and geophysical properties of the lunar interior as well as electric and magnetic properties in a landing location shielded from Earth’s electromagnetic fields.

Two of the three investigations selected for this flight are part of NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals.

- Draper will deliver the three investigations that will collectively weigh about 209 pounds (95 kilograms) in mass and include the Farside Seismic Suite (FSS), which aims to return NASA’s first lunar seismic data from the far side of the Moon. This new data could help scientists better understand tectonic activity on this region of the Moon, reveal how often the lunar far side is impacted by small meteorites, and provide new information on the internal structure of the Moon. The instrument consists of the two most sensitive seismometers ever built for spaceflight. FSS is one of two PRISM selections. It is funded through NASA in collaboration with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) – the French Space Agency – and is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

- The Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS), also a PRISM selection, is a suite of two instruments: the Lunar Instrumentation for Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, a subsurface heat-flow probe and pneumatic drill; and the Lunar Telluric Currents, an electric field instrument. This payload suite aims to investigate the heat flow and subsurface electrical conductivity structure of the lunar interior in Schrödinger Basin. The combination of these measurements is a way to resolve thermal and compositional structure of the surface of the Moon. LITMS is funded by NASA and is led by the Southwest Research Institute.

- The Lunar Surface ElectroMagnetics Experiment (LuSEE), which will make comprehensive measurements of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Moon. LuSEE uses DC electric and magnetic field measurements to study the conditions that control the electrostatic potential of the lunar surface, which, in turn, plays a controlling role in dust transport. LuSEE also uses plasma wave measurements to characterize the lunar ionosphere and the interaction of the solar wind and magnetospheric plasma with the lunar surface and crustal magnetic fields. In addition, this payload will make sensitive radio frequency measurements to measure solar and planetary radio emissions. LuSEE is funded by NASA in collaboration with CNES, and is led by University of California, Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory.

Multiple commercial deliveries continue to be part of NASA’s plans at the Moon. Future payloads delivered with CLPS could include more science experiments, including technology demonstrations that support the agency’s Artemis missions. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone for future astronaut missions to Mars. Artemis I is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 29,2022 with a subsequent test flight with crew scheduled to occur in 2024 in advance of NASA sending humans to the surface of the Moon no earlier than 2025.

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An Updated Architecture for the Mars 2028 Mission Will Be Unveiled Next Week...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA, ESA to Discuss Mars Sample Return Mission (Press Release)

NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 27, to discuss the architecture for its Mars Sample Return campaign.

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) recently held a systems requirement review as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign’s conceptual design phase -- a phase when the architecture is refined and solidified. The briefing will present the architecture proposal that is expected to be finalized in September 2022.

The Mars Sample Return campaign may revolutionize humanity’s understanding of Mars by returning scientifically-selected samples for study using the most sophisticated instruments around the world. This strategic partnership with ESA will be the first mission to return samples from another planet, including the first launch from the surface of another planet. The samples to be returned – currently being collected by Perseverance during its exploration of Jezero Crater, home to an ancient river-delta – are thought to be the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for life.

Teleconference participants include:

- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- David Parker, director of Human and Robotic Exploration, ESA
- Jeff Gramling, director, Mars Sample Return Program, NASA
- Francois Spoto, head of Mars exploration group, ESA

Media interested in participating in the call should send their full name, media affiliation, email address, and phone number to Alana Johnson no later than two hours before the start of the call at: alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov. A copy NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

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Two Science Instruments Arrive in Southern California to be Installed on NASA's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Plasma Detection Instrument and Europa Imaging System Wide-Angle Camera Delivered to JPL (News Release - July 18)

After years of development, assembly, and testing, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Europa Clipper team in Laurel, Maryland, delivered to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California the spacecraft’s plasma detection instrument, called the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS); the spacecraft’s Europa Imaging System wide-angle camera (EIS WAC); and its radiation monitor (RadMon), which will gauge the wave of electrons bombarding the spacecraft as it performs 40 to 50 flybys of Europa. The instruments and flight system components were delivered to JPL in June 2022.

Slated to take off in 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will explore Europa, a moon of Jupiter with an ocean containing twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined which may have the conditions to support life. The spacecraft will observe Europa’s space environment, surface, and interior, helping to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy crust, the depth and salinity of its ocean, and signs of potential plumes venting from subsurface water into space.

The instruments and flight system components APL delivered play a critical role in achieving those objectives. The team’s final instrument delivery — the Europa Imaging System narrow-angle camera (EIS NAC) — is scheduled for this fall.

Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS)

Radiation has a profound effect on Europa. As Jupiter’s enormous magnetic field washes over the moon, its interactions with the electrically-conductive salty ocean induce a magnetic field around the moon, which Europa Clipper’s magnetometer will measure to determine Europa’s ocean depth and conductivity as well as the thickness of its icy shell.

The hot soup of charged particles, or plasma, moving in tow with Jupiter’s magnetic field at 60 miles (100 kilometers) per second, however, creates its own magnetic fields, distorting Europa’s induced field and making it hard to interpret.

That’s where Europa Clipper's plasma detection instrument, called the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS), comes in. Using four metal receptacles called Faraday cups, PIMS will measure the plasma’s density, temperature, and velocity around Europa, which physicists can then use to develop computational models to subtract the plasma’s effect on Europa’s magnetic field.

PIMS’s Faraday cups were specially designed to deal with Jupiter’s radiation environment. At about 8 inches (20 centimeters) wide and 3 inches (8 centimeters) deep, each cup was designed like a little stadium, with tiers of progressively smaller metal rings and insulating spacers that lead to a flat detector plate at the bottom.

Europa Imaging System Wide-Angle Camera (EIS WAC)

Europa Clipper’s wide-angle camera (WAC) — one of two cameras in the spacecraft’s Europa Imaging System (EIS) — has one of the largest sensors to be flown in deep space: an 8-megapixel sensor that can capture color and stereoscopic images as good as about 23-feet (7-meter) per-pixel resolution.

A refractive telescope, the WAC captures light directly, passing it through a series of lenses built to withstand Jupiter’s radiation and focusing the light on a metal oxide semiconductor detector like those found in cell phones and digital cameras. The camera will capture wide swaths of Europa’s landscape on every flyby, providing new information about materials and geologic features on the surface.

In combination with its narrow-angle counterpart, the WAC will image roughly 90% of Europa’s surface at better than 330 feet (100 meters) per pixel, providing an unprecedented global dataset of Europa’s geology.

Using those images, scientists will determine what geologic processes acting in the ice shell might have created (or continue to create) Europa’s many surface features.

In coordination with the mission’s radar team, the camera will help scientists interpret structures beneath the surface and search for fresh deposits from Europa’s purported water vapor plumes, which, if found, would reveal an ongoing exchange between the subsurface water and the icy surface. Finally, the WAC could help identify ideal landing sites for a potential future lander mission.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech


NASA / JPL - Caltech

SpaceX Will Launch NASA's Next Great Observatory to a Halo Orbit Beyond Earth in 2026...

SpaceX

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Roman Space Telescope (Press Release)

NASA has awarded a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, California, to provide launch service for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission. The Roman Space Telescope is the top-priority large space mission recommended by the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

NLS II is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The total cost for NASA to launch the Roman telescope is approximately $255 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs. The telescope’s mission currently is targeted to launch in October 2026, as specified in the contract, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The telescope’s science program will include dedicated investigations to tackle outstanding questions in cosmology, including the effects of dark energy and dark matter, and exoplanet exploration. Roman also includes a substantial general investigator program to enable further studies of astrophysical phenomena to advance other science goals.

The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), but it was later renamed in honor of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman for her extraordinary work at NASA, which paved the way for large space telescopes.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch vehicle program management of the SpaceX launch service. The Roman Space Telescope project is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

VIPER Update: The Launch of NASA's Robotic Rover to the Moon Has Been Delayed by One Year...

NASA Ames / Daniel Rutter

NASA Replans CLPS Delivery of VIPER to 2024 to Reduce Risk (News Release)

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services from American companies for payloads that advance capabilities for science, exploration or commercial development of the Moon.

Through CLPS, NASA contracted Astrobotic of Pittsburgh to deliver the agency’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the lunar surface in search of ice and other potential resources. The measurements returned by VIPER will provide insight into the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and help determine how the Moon’s resources could be harvested for future human space exploration.

While VIPER was originally scheduled for lunar delivery by Astrobotic in November 2023, NASA has requested the Astrobotic and VIPER mission teams to adjust VIPER’s delivery to the Moon’s South Pole to November 2024.

NASA’s decision to pursue a 2024 delivery date results from the agency’s request to Astrobotic for additional ground testing of the company’s Griffin lunar lander, which will deliver VIPER to the lunar surface through CLPS. The additional tests aim to reduce the overall risk to VIPER’s delivery to the Moon. To complete the additional NASA-mandated tests of the Griffin lunar lander, an additional $67.8 million has been added to Astrobotic’s CLPS contract, which now totals $320.4 million.

“Through CLPS, NASA has tasked U.S. companies to perform a very challenging technological feat – to successfully land and operate on the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “VIPER is NASA’s largest and most sophisticated science payload to be delivered to the Moon through CLPS, and we've implemented enhanced lander testing for this particular CLPS surface delivery.”

CLPS is a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface will help lay the foundation for human missions on and around the Moon. The agency has made seven task order awards to CLPS providers for lunar deliveries in the early 2020s with more delivery awards expected through 2028.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Johnson Space Center / James Blair

OSIRIS-REx Update: Bennu Is More Fragile Than Scientists Thought...

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Surprise – Again! Asteroid Bennu Reveals its Surface is Like a Plastic Ball Pit (News Release - July 7)

After analyzing data gathered when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from asteroid Bennu in October 2020, scientists have learned something astonishing: The spacecraft would have sunk into Bennu had it not fired its thrusters to back away immediately after it grabbed dust and rock from the asteroid’s surface.

It turns out that the particles making up Bennu’s exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that if a person were to step onto Bennu they would feel very little resistance, as if stepping into a pit of plastic balls that are popular play areas for kids.

“If Bennu was completely packed, that would imply nearly solid rock, but we found a lot of void space in the surface,” said Kevin Walsh, a member of the OSIRIS-REx science team from Southwest Research Institute, which is based in San Antonio.

The latest findings about Bennu’s surface were published on July 7 in a pair of papers in the journals Science and Science Advances, led respectively by Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, based at University of Arizona, Tucson, and Walsh. These results add to the intrigue that has kept scientists on the edge of their seats throughout the OSIRIS-REx mission, as Bennu has proved consistently unpredictable.

The asteroid presented its first surprise in December 2018 when NASA’s spacecraft arrived at Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx team found a surface littered with boulders instead of the smooth, sandy beach they had expected based on observations from Earth- and space-based telescopes. Scientists also discovered that Bennu was spitting particles of rock into space.

“Our expectations about the asteroid’s surface were completely wrong,” said Lauretta.

The latest hint that Bennu was not what it seemed came after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft picked up a sample and beamed stunning, close-up images of the asteroid’s surface to Earth. “What we saw was a huge wall of debris radiating out from the sample site,” Lauretta said. “We were like, ‘Holy cow!’”

Scientists were bewildered by the abundance of pebbles strewn about, given how gently the spacecraft tapped the surface. Even more bizarre was that the spacecraft left a large crater that was 26 feet (8 meters) wide. “Every time we tested the sample pickup procedure in the lab, we barely made a divot,” Lauretta said. The mission team decided to send the spacecraft back to take more photographs of Bennu’s surface “to see how big of a mess we made,” Lauretta said.

Mission scientists analyzed the volume of debris visible in before and after images of the sample site, dubbed “Nightingale.” They also looked at acceleration data collected during the spacecraft’s touch down. This data revealed that as OSIRIS-REx touched the asteroid it experienced the same amount of resistance – very little – a person would feel while squeezing the plunger on a French press coffee carafe. “By the time we fired our thrusters to leave the surface we were still plunging into the asteroid,” said Ron Ballouz, an OSIRIS-REx scientist based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

Ballouz and the research team ran hundreds of computer simulations to deduce Bennu’s density and cohesion based on spacecraft images and acceleration information. Engineers varied the surface cohesion properties in each simulation until they found the one that most closely matched their real-life data.

Now, this precise information about Bennu’s surface can help scientists better interpret remote observations of other asteroids, which could be useful in designing future asteroid missions and for developing methods to protect Earth from asteroid collisions.

It’s possible that asteroids like Bennu — barely held together by gravity or electrostatic force — could break apart in Earth’s atmosphere and thus pose a different type of hazard than solid asteroids. “I think we’re still at the beginning of understanding what these bodies are, because they behave in very counterintuitive ways,” said Patrick Michel, an OSIRIS-REx scientist and director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Hubble's Successor Takes Snapshots of the Largest World in Our Solar System...

NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

Webb Images of Jupiter and More Now Available In Commissioning Data (News Release)

On the heels of Tuesday’s release of the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, data from the telescope’s commissioning period is now being released on the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. The data includes images of Jupiter and images and spectra of several asteroids, captured to test the telescope’s instruments before science operations officially began July 12. The data demonstrates Webb’s ability to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail.

Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s enormous planet in these images seen through Webb’s infrared gaze. A view from the NIRCam instrument’s short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed.

“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped plan these observations.

Clearly visible at left is Europa, a moon with a probable ocean below its thick icy crust, and the target of NASA’s forthcoming Europa Clipper mission. What’s more, Europa’s shadow can be seen to the left of the Great Red Spot. Other visible moons in these images include Thebe and Metis.

“I couldn’t believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were,” said Stefanie Milam, Webb’s deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system.”

Scientists were especially eager to see these images because they are proof that Webb can observe the satellites and rings near bright solar system objects such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Scientists will use Webb to explore the tantalizing question of whether we can see plumes of material spewing out of moons like Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Webb may be able to see the signatures of plumes depositing material on the surface on Europa. “I think that’s just one of the coolest things that we’ll be able to do with this telescope in the solar system,” Milam said.

Additionally, Webb easily captured some of Jupiter’s rings, which especially stand out in the NIRcam long-wavelength filter image. That the rings showed up in one of Webb’s first solar system images is “absolutely astonishing and amazing,” Milam said.

“The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise,” said John Stansberry, observatory scientist and NIRCam commissioning lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Webb also obtained these images of Jupiter and Europa moving across the telescope’s field of view in three separate observations. This test demonstrated the ability of the observatory to find and track guide stars in the vicinity of bright Jupiter.

But just how fast can an object move and still be tracked by Webb? This was an important question for scientists who study asteroids and comets. During commissioning, Webb used an asteroid called 6481 Tenzing, located in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, to start the moving-target tracking “speed limit” tests.

Webb was designed with the requirement to track objects that move as fast as Mars, which has a maximum speed of 30 milliarcseconds per second. During commissioning, the Webb team conducted observations of various asteroids, which all appeared as a dot because they were all small. The team proved that Webb will still get valuable data with all of the science instruments for objects moving up to 67 milliarcseconds per second, which is more than twice the expected baseline – similar to photographing a turtle crawling when you’re standing a mile away. “Everything worked brilliantly,” Milam said.

Source: NASA.Gov

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.@NASAWebb can gaze into the universe's depths, but what can it do nearby? These test images of Jupiter & some of its moons show that Webb can observe faint objects near bright ones, so it may be able to see vapor plumes spewing from ocean worlds! https://t.co/qH9VI0K2uO pic.twitter.com/z7a7JYkyCW

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) July 14, 2022

Even more Webb test data and images — like this bonus shot of Asteroid 6481 Tenzing — are now available, and this is just the beginning of Webb’s data. It’s true what they say: The data start coming and they don’t stop coming…https://t.co/73gI64CCwM pic.twitter.com/3U81zVtG8p

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 14, 2022

The Perseverance Rover Continues to Pave the Way for the Mars 2028 Mission...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s Perseverance Scouts Mars Sample Return Campaign Landing Sites (News Release - July 11)

The six-wheeled explorer has inspected a stretch of the Red Planet to see if it is flat enough for NASA’s next Mars lander.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is conducting its science campaign, taking samples at Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta, but it’s also been busy scouting. The rover is looking for locations where the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign can land spacecraft and collect sample tubes Perseverance has filled with rocks and sediment. The sites being scouted are under consideration because of their proximity to the delta and to one another, as well as for their relatively flat, lander-friendly terrain.

Mars Sample Return is a historic endeavor that would retrieve and deliver samples of that faraway terrain for intensive study in laboratories on Earth to look for signs of past microscopic life on the Red Planet. The strategic partnership between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) would involve multiple spacecraft, including a rocket that would launch from the surface of Mars.

Engineers planning a Mars landing prefer to work with flatter ground because rocks and an undulating surface are harder to land on. With that in mind, the MSR Entry, Descent, and Landing team is looking for a pancake-flat landing zone with a 200-foot (60-meter) radius.

“The Perseverance team pulled out all the stops for us, because Mars Sample Return has unique needs when it comes to where we operate,” said MSR Program Manager Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Essentially, a dull landing place is good. The flatter and more uninspiring the vista, the better we like it, because while there are a lot of things that need to be done when we arrive to pick up the samples, sightseeing is not one of them.”

Flat-Out Inspirational

The first stage of MSR is already in progress: Perseverance has cored, collected, and sealed nine samples of Mars rock to date. The ninth, collected on July 6, is the first from Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta. The plan is for Perseverance to drop, or cache, sample tubes on the surface to await later retrieval during MSR surface operations.

Choosing an area that lacks large rocks (especially those over 7 1/2 inches, or 19 centimeters, in diameter), sand dunes, and steeply-angled terrain would go a long way toward easing the path for an MSR recovery vehicle to efficiently grab tubes before heading to the MSR Sample Retrieval Lander and its Mars Ascent Vehicle.

Landing Strip

The MSR team calls the area they’ve been looking at the “landing strip” because – at least from images taken from spacecraft in orbit – it appears to be as flat and long as a runway. But they needed a rover’s-eye-view for a closer look.

“We had been eyeing these locations since before Perseverance’s landing, but imagery from orbit can only tell you so much,” said Al Chen, Mars Sample Return Systems Engineering & Integration manager at JPL. “Now we have some up-close-and-personal shots of the landing strip that indicate we were right on the money. The landing strip will more than likely make our shortlist of potential landing and caching sites for MSR.”

More About the Campaign

NASA’s Mars Sample Return Campaign promises to revolutionize humanity’s understanding of Mars by bringing scientifically-selected samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instruments around the world. The campaign would fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since the 1970s and in the last three National Academy of Sciences Planetary Decadal Surveys.

This strategic NASA and ESA partnership would be the first mission to return samples from another planet and the first launch from the surface of another planet. The samples collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover during its exploration of an ancient lakebed are thought to present the best opportunity to reveal clues about the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for past life. By better understanding the history of Mars, we would improve our understanding of all rocky planets in the solar system, including Earth.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

Big day for space science! From grand telescope views that #UnfoldTheUniverse, to extreme closeups of #SamplingMars, with rock cores barely the size of a pinky finger. I’ve now collected my 10th rock sample, seen here in the late afternoon Martian sun. pic.twitter.com/uOq5nABY8W

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) July 13, 2022

Photos of the Day #2: Hubble's Successor Unleashes More Views of the Cosmos!

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

NASA Reveals Webb Telescope’s First Images of Unseen Universe (Press Release)

The dawn of a new era in astronomy is here as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data, which uncover a collection of cosmic features elusive until now, released Tuesday, are available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

“Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it.

“The Webb team’s incredible success is a reflection of what NASA does best. We take dreams and turn them into reality for the benefit of humanity. I can’t wait to see the discoveries that we uncover – the team is just getting started!”

NASA explores the unknown in space for the benefit of all, and Webb’s first observations tell the story of the hidden universe through every phase of cosmic history – from neighboring planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.

“This is a singular and historic moment,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “It took decades of drive and perseverance to get us here, and I am immensely proud of the Webb team. These first images show us how much we can accomplish when we come together behind a shared goal, to solve the cosmic mysteries that connect us all. It’s a stunning glimpse of the insights yet to come.”

“We are elated to celebrate this extraordinary day with the world,” said Greg Robinson, Webb program director at NASA Headquarters. “The beautiful diversity and incredible detail of the Webb telescope’s images and data will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe and inspire us to dream big."

Webb’s first observations were selected by a group of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. They reveal the capabilities of all four of Webb’s state-of-the-art scientific instruments:

SMACS 0723: Webb has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far – and in only 12.5 hours. For a person standing on Earth looking up, the field of view for this new image, a color composite of multiple exposures each about two hours long, is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. This deep field uses a lensing galaxy cluster to find some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. This image only scratches the surface of Webb’s capabilities in studying deep fields and tracing galaxies back to the beginning of cosmic time.

WASP-96b (spectrum): Webb’s detailed observation of this hot, puffy planet outside our solar system reveals the clear signature of water, along with evidence of haze and clouds that previous studies of this planet did not detect. With Webb’s first detection of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it will now set out to study hundreds of other systems to understand what other planetary atmospheres are made of.

Southern Ring Nebula: This planetary nebula, an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, is approximately 2,000 light years away. Here, Webb’s powerful infrared eyes bring a second dying star into full view for the first time. From birth to death as a planetary nebula, Webb can explore the expelling shells of dust and gas of aging stars that may one day become a new star or planet.

Stephan’s Quintet: Webb’s view of this compact group of galaxies, located in the constellation Pegasus, pierced through the shroud of dust surrounding the center of one galaxy, to reveal the velocity and composition of the gas near its supermassive black hole. Now, scientists can get a rare look, in unprecedented detail, at how interacting galaxies are triggering star formation in each other and how the gas in these galaxies is being disturbed.

Carina Nebula: Webb’s look at the ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ in the Carina Nebula unveils the earliest, rapid phases of star formation that were previously hidden. Looking at this star-forming region in the southern constellation Carina, as well as others like it, Webb can see newly forming stars and study the gas and dust that made them.

“Absolutely thrilling!” said John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The equipment is working perfectly, and nature is full of surprising beauty. Congratulations and thanks to our worldwide teams that made it possible.”

The release of Webb’s first images and spectra kicks off the beginning of Webb’s science operations, where astronomers around the world will have their chance to observe anything from objects within our solar system to the early universe using Webb’s four instruments.

The James Webb Space Telescope launched Dec. 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. After completing a complex deployment sequence in space, Webb underwent months of commissioning where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were calibrated to its space environment and prepared for science.

The public can also view the new Webb images Tuesday on several digital screens in New York City’s Times Square and in London’s Piccadilly Circus beginning at 5:30 p.m. EDT and 10:30 p.m. GMT, respectively.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and others.

For a full array of Webb’s first images and spectra, including downloadable files, visit:

https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images

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NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI


NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI


NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI


NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Photo of the Day: Hubble's Successor Has Officially Begun a New Era in Astronomy!

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

President Biden Reveals First Image from NASA’s Webb Telescope (Press Release)

President Joe Biden released the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Monday, during a public event at the White House in Washington. This first image showcases the powerful capabilities of the Webb mission, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

“These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and remind the American people – especially our children – that there’s nothing beyond our capacity,” said President Biden in remarks during the event. “We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”

Webb’s first full-color image reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared.

"Webb's First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, so far. This image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s just a tiny sliver of the vast universe," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This mission was made possible by human ingenuity – the incredible NASA Webb team and our international partners at the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Webb is just the start of what we can accomplish in the future when we work together for the benefit of humanity."

This record-setting deep field provides a preview of the full set of Webb’s first images, which will be released at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12, in a live broadcast on NASA Television. The images will be available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

More information about how to watch the live reveal of the full set of Webb’s first images on Tuesday, July 12, is available online.

“Scientists are thrilled that Webb is alive and as powerful as we hoped, far beyond Hubble, and that it survived all hazards to be our golden eye in the sky,” said John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “What happened after the Big Bang? How did the expanding universe cool down and make black holes and galaxies and stars and planets and people? Astronomers see everything twice: first with pictures, and then with imagination and calculation. But there’s something out there that we’ve never imagined, and I will be as amazed as you are when we find it.”

Learn more about this deep field image.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb launched Dec. 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. After completing a complex deployment sequence in space, Webb underwent months of commissioning where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were prepared for science.

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The first image from the Webb Space Telescope represents a historic moment for science and technology. For astronomy and space exploration.

And for America and all humanity. pic.twitter.com/cI2UUQcQXj

— President Biden (@POTUS) July 11, 2022

It's here–the deepest, sharpest infrared view of the universe to date: Webb's First Deep Field.

Previewed by @POTUS on July 11, it shows galaxies once invisible to us. The full set of @NASAWebb's first full-color images & data will be revealed July 12: https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I pic.twitter.com/zAr7YoFZ8C

— NASA (@NASA) July 11, 2022

👀 Sneak a peek at the deepest & sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken — all in a day’s work for the Webb telescope. (Literally, capturing it took less than a day!) This is Webb’s first image released as we begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse: https://t.co/tlougFWg8B pic.twitter.com/Y7ebmQwT7j

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 11, 2022

Webb's First Deep Field.

NASA says this is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, showing galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.

Thousands of galaxies are visible, covering a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.https://t.co/WJmoIqMAMl pic.twitter.com/QROVpNNZes

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) July 11, 2022

Breaking News: President Biden revealed the first image from the Webb Space Telescope, the deepest view yet into our universe’s past, NASA said. https://t.co/vp00qyqNB6 pic.twitter.com/13aMd4b7KQ

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 11, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope’s first deep field view shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them, including faint, distant galaxies. https://t.co/Da5JLhOiYr pic.twitter.com/EG4KScnBDV

— CNN (@CNN) July 11, 2022

Our view of the universe just expanded.

This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope unveiled Monday is brimming with galaxies and offers the deepest look of the cosmos ever captured: https://t.co/vT6A8Feymv pic.twitter.com/J0d5eTi9Sn

— TIME (@TIME) July 11, 2022

The world got its first glimpse of that ancient light courtesy of #NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the most sophisticated and ambitious deep-space viewing tool yet assembled.https://t.co/uRgOOsjGLi

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 11, 2022

Some Exoplanets Are A Lot Weirder Than You Think...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Helps Decipher How Some Distant Planets Have Clouds of Sand (News Release - July 7)

A new study using archival observations by the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope found a common trait among distant worlds where the exotic clouds form.

Most clouds on Earth are made of water, but beyond our planet they come in many chemical varieties. The top of Jupiter’s atmosphere, for example, is blanketed in yellow-hued clouds made of ammonia and ammonium hydrosulfide. And on worlds outside our solar system, there are clouds composed of silicates, the family of rock-forming minerals that make up over 90% of Earth’s crust. But researchers haven’t been able to observe the conditions under which these clouds of small dust grains form.

A new study appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society provides some insight: The research reveals the temperature range at which silicate clouds can form and are visible at the top of a distant planet’s atmosphere. The finding was derived from observations by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope of brown dwarfs – celestial bodies that fall in between planets and stars – but it fits into a more general understanding of how planetary atmospheres work.

“Understanding the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and planets where silicate clouds can form can also help us understand what we would see in the atmosphere of a planet that’s closer in size and temperature to Earth,” said Stanimir Metchev, a professor of exoplanet studies at Western University in London, Ontario, and co-author of the study.

Cloudy Chemistry

The steps to make any type of cloud are the same. First, heat the key ingredient until it becomes a vapor. Under the right conditions, that ingredient could be a variety of things, including water, ammonia, salt, or sulfur. Trap it, cool it just enough for it to condense, and voilà – clouds! Of course, rock vaporizes at a much higher temperature than water, so silicate clouds are visible only on hot worlds, such as the brown dwarfs used for this study and some planets outside our solar system.

Although they form like stars, brown dwarfs aren’t massive enough to kick-start fusion, the process that causes stars to shine. Many brown dwarfs have atmospheres almost indistinguishable from those of gas-dominated planets, such as Jupiter, so they can be used as a proxy for those planets.

Before this study, data from Spitzer already suggested the presence of silicate clouds in a handful of brown dwarf atmospheres. (NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be able to confirm these types of clouds on distant worlds.) This work was done during the first six years of the Spitzer mission (which launched in 2003), when the telescope was operating three cryogenically-cooled instruments. In many cases, though, the evidence of silicate clouds on brown dwarfs observed by Spitzer was too weak to stand on its own.

For this latest research, astronomers gathered more than 100 of those marginal detections and grouped them by the temperature of the brown dwarf. All of them fell within the predicted temperature range for where silicate clouds should form: between about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,000 degrees Celsius) and 3,100°F (1,700°C). While the individual detections are marginal, together they reveal a definitive trait of silicate clouds.

“We had to dig through the Spitzer data to find these brown dwarfs where there was some indication of silicate clouds, and we really didn’t know what we would find,” said Genaro Suárez, a postdoctoral researcher at Western University and lead author of the new study. “We were very surprised at how strong the conclusion was once we had the right data to analyze.”

In atmospheres hotter than the top end of the range identified in the study, silicates remain a vapor. Below the bottom end, the clouds will turn into rain or sink lower in the atmosphere, where the temperature is higher.

In fact, researchers think that silicate clouds exist deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere, where the temperature is much higher than it is at the top, owing to atmospheric pressure. The silicate clouds can’t rise higher, because at lower temperatures the silicates will solidify and won’t remain in cloud form. If the top of the atmosphere were thousands of degrees hotter, the planet’s ammonia and ammonium hydrosulfide clouds would vaporize and the silicate clouds could potentially rise to the top.

Scientists are finding an increasingly varied menagerie of planetary environments in our galaxy. For example, they have found planets with one side permanently facing their star and the other permanently in shadow – a planet where clouds of different compositions might be visible, depending on the side observed. To understand those worlds, astronomers will first need to understand the common mechanisms that shape them.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The First Five Celestial Science Targets for Hubble's Successor Have Been Revealed...

NASA

NASA Shares List of Cosmic Targets for Webb Telescope’s First Images (News Release)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will soon reveal unprecedented and detailed views of the universe, with the upcoming release of its first full-color images and spectroscopic data.

Below is the list of cosmic objects that Webb targeted for these first observations, which will be released in NASA’s live broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12. Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media as well as on the agency’s website.

These listed targets below represent the first wave of full-color scientific images and spectra the observatory has gathered, and the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations. They were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

- Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun.

- WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014.

- Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light-years away from Earth.

- Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 million light-years away, Stephan’s Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.

- SMACS 0723: Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep-field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations.

The release of these first images marks the official beginning of Webb’s science operations, which will continue to explore the mission’s key science themes. Teams have already applied through a competitive process for time to use the telescope, in what astronomers call its first “cycle,” or first year of observations.

More information on how to join NASA for the release of Webb’s first images is available online. For more about Webb’s status, visit the “Where Is Webb?” tracker.

Source: NASA.Gov

It's a Wrap on THE BROKEN TABLE!

With the final event that it was an Official Selection in (the Doge Film Festival, which occurred in New York City one week ago today) now in the books, it's safe to say that The Broken Table's festival run is now at an end!

Much thanks to the 31 film festivals that made The Broken Table an Official Selection and Award Winner. This wouldn't have been possible without the wonderful cast and crew members who made this project happen!

I look forward to my next cinematic project—whatever that will be. Stay tuned!

Only 6 DAYS Before Hubble's Successor Begins Changing Our View of the Universe!

NASA, CSA, and FGS team

Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor Provides a Preview (News Release)

We are less than one week away from the release of the first full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, but how does the observatory find and lock onto its targets? Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) – developed by the Canadian Space Agency – was designed with this particular question in mind. Recently it captured a view of stars and galaxies that provides a tantalizing glimpse at what the telescope’s science instruments will reveal in the coming weeks, months, and years.

FGS has always been capable of capturing imagery, but its primary purpose is to enable accurate science measurements and imaging with precision pointing. When it does capture imagery, the imagery is typically not kept: Given the limited communications bandwidth between L2 and Earth, Webb only sends data from up to two science instruments at a time. But during a week-long stability test in May, it occurred to the team that they could keep the imagery that was being captured because there was available data-transfer bandwidth.

The resulting engineering test image has some rough-around-the-edges qualities to it. It was not optimized to be a science observation; rather, the data was taken to test how well the telescope could stay locked onto a target, but it does hint at the power of the telescope. It carries a few hallmarks of the views Webb has produced during its post-launch preparations. Bright stars stand out with their six, long, sharply defined diffraction spikes – an effect due to Webb’s six-sided mirror segments. Beyond the stars, galaxies fill nearly the entire background.

The result – using 72 exposures over 32 hours – is among the deepest images of the universe ever taken, according to Webb scientists. When FGS’ aperture is open, it is not using color filters like the other science instruments – meaning it is impossible to study the age of the galaxies in this image with the rigor needed for scientific analysis. But even when capturing unplanned imagery during a test, FGS is capable of producing stunning views of the cosmos.

“With the Webb telescope achieving better-than-expected image quality, early in commissioning we intentionally defocused the guiders by a small amount to help ensure they met their performance requirements. When this image was taken, I was thrilled to clearly see all the detailed structure in these faint galaxies. Given what we now know is possible with deep broad-band guider images, perhaps such images, taken in parallel with other observations where feasible, could prove scientifically useful in the future,” said Neil Rowlands, program scientist for Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor, at Honeywell Aerospace.

Because this image was not created with a science result in mind, there are a few features that are quite different than the full-resolution images that will be released July 12. Those images will include what will be – for a short time at least – the deepest image of the universe ever captured, as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced on June 29.

The FGS image is colored using the same reddish color scheme that has been applied to Webb’s other engineering images throughout commissioning. In addition, there was no “dithering” during these exposures. Dithering is when the telescope repositions slightly between each exposure. In addition, the centers of bright stars appear black because they saturate Webb’s detectors, and the pointing of the telescope didn’t change over the exposures to capture the center from different pixels within the camera’s detectors. The overlapping frames of the different exposures can also be seen at the image’s edges and corners.

In this engineering test, the purpose was to lock onto one star and to test how well Webb could control its “roll” – literally, Webb’s ability to roll to one side like an aircraft in flight. That test was performed successfully – in addition to producing an image that sparks the imagination of scientists who will be analyzing Webb’s science data, said Jane Rigby, Webb’s operations scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“The faintest blobs in this image are exactly the types of faint galaxies that Webb will study in its first year of science operations,” Rigby said.

While Webb’s four science instruments will ultimately reveal the telescope’s new view of the universe, the Fine Guidance Sensor is the one instrument that will be used in every single Webb observation over the course of the mission’s lifetime. FGS has already played a crucial role in aligning Webb’s optics. Now, during the first real science observations made in June and once science operations begin in mid-July, it will guide each Webb observation to its target and maintain the precision necessary for Webb to produce breakthrough discoveries about stars, exoplanets, galaxies, and even moving targets within our solar system.

Source: NASA.Gov

Photos of the Day: A Visit to the Rams' House in Inglewood...

Just thought I'd share these images that I took of SoFi Stadium when I visited the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers in the city of Inglewood last month.

This is the second National Football League arena that I've ever visited...behind the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which hosted the Rams (after the team relocated to Southern California from St. Louis in 2016) till SoFi Stadium officially opened for the 2020 NFL season. As you can see from these photos, it is an absolutely gorgeous building.

It was awesome that I had the opportunity to check out SoFi's beautiful lounges and see what this arena had to offer for season ticket holders as well as other folks who had the cash to spend on these gameday amenities. I definitely couldn't afford to walk through these shiny corridors during an actual Rams or Chargers game!

Happy Tuesday.