Photos of the Day: Rise of the Raider!

Matt Hartman

Just thought I'd share these awesome images—taken by freelance photojournalist Matt Hartman—of the B-21 Raider taking its very first flight from the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 facility in Palmdale, California, today!

Had I known that this historic milestone was occurring this morning, I would've driven all the way to the Mojave Desert to capture photos of it as well! Okay, maybe I wouldn't have.

But still— It's so cool to see that the Air Force's newest stealth bomber continues to move along in its steps toward initial operational capability...which will be after 2025. I look forward to official aerial photos of the B-21 that was hopefully taken from aboard the F-16 chase plane following it to Edwards Air Force Base this morning (see the video at the very bottom of this entry).

What a way to enter the weekend. Although this isn't till tomorrow, Happy Veterans Day to my fellow Yanks!

And Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps! Is it next-level trolling by the USAF that it conducted the B-21's maiden flight on your special day?


Matt Hartman


Matt Hartman


Matt Hartman

#b21 #b21raider #usaf #usa #palmdale #ca #onassignment @reuters pic.twitter.com/2VO5tZAdBW

— David Swanson (@SwansonPhotog) November 10, 2023

#B21 #B21Raider #B21FirstFlight
A memorable day! pic.twitter.com/oeL7cuJtbK

— Robert 🌻 (@Genjo_N_Mojave) November 10, 2023

So, the first B-21 is named Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. Let’s guess the next one (must be Greek mythology creature - probably - like Chimera, Medusa, Hydra, Minotaur, Scylla, etc) pic.twitter.com/s1Rfop1e3s

— The Aviationist (@TheAviationist) November 10, 2023

B-21 RAIDER FIRST FLIGHT 11-10-23 #RAIDER33 #B21Raider pic.twitter.com/3tEKudqDiw

— Matt Hartman (@ShorealoneFilms) November 10, 2023

A Time Capsule Aboard Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander is Ready to Head to the Moon...

Arch Mission Foundation / Nova Spivack

Arch Mission Foundation Prepares Lunar Library II for December 2023 Launch (Press Release)

The second Lunar Library™ will put additional civilizational archives on the Moon with Astrobotic's first lunar mission.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Arch Mission Foundation announced today that its second installment of the historic Lunar Library will launch to the Moon's surface later this year aboard Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander. The launch is currently scheduled for December 24, 2023 from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41).

The Lunar Library is capable of lasting for up to billions of years on the Moon, and this is the second installment, expanding upon the first Lunar Library launched aboard Israel's Beresheet Lander in 2019. The Lunar Library is an instance of The Billion Year Archive initiative, which aims to build a solar-system-wide library system that can preserve, connect and share humanity's knowledge for billions of years.

The second Lunar Library archives over 60 million pages, including foundational components like the Wikipedia, collections from Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and the Long Now Foundation's Rosetta Project and PanLex datasets, which provide a linguistic key to 5000 languages with 1.5 billion cross-language translations. Additionally, the new Lunar Library will include archives of music and film.

The library also features the "Aldrin Archive" in partnership with the Aldrin Family Foundation, which includes images from the Apollo 11 mission as well as space-themed STEAM projects from K-12 Students.

Additional content partners for the Lunar Library II include the SETI Institute's The Earthling Project, CATALOG, Memory of Mankind, LifeShip, the Great Pause Project, the Molecular Information Systems Lab at the University of Washington, and more.

"We're thrilled to be launching the Lunar Library for our second attempt to land it on the Moon, this time with our partners at Astrobotic," said Arch Mission Foundation Co-founder & Chairman Nova Spivack. "After we land the Lunar Library on the Moon, we can guarantee, for the first time in human history, that humanity's heritage will be safely preserved, no matter what happens on Earth."

Astrobotic will carry the Lunar Library II to the Moon on its Peregrine Lunar Lander and store it on the lunar surface. Astrobotic's inaugural lunar mission will also include a manifest of payloads from NASA, companies, universities, nonprofits and individuals.

The Lunar Library is being deployed to deliver extremely long-duration archives containing curated collections of public and private libraries and other time-capsules to the Moon. The Library will continue to be regularly updated with additional installments to various destinations around the surface of the Moon, across a series of lunar landings by a variety of commercial entities, nonprofit organizations and governments.

"We have a moral obligation as a species to provide a backup of human civilization so that our knowledge, wisdom and culture will exist far beyond us," says Matthew Hoerl, Arch Mission Co-founder and Executive Director. "The Arch Mission is dedicated to preserving humanity's heritage for future generations and civilizations to discover. The Billion Year Archive is an ambitious project, but we now have the technology and capabilities to achieve this long-term preservation of our unique human record no matter what our future may hold."

A duplicate disc of the Lunar Library II will be donated to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, where the public will be able to see it displayed alongside other vital artifacts related to the human future in space.

The Lunar Library II consists of top layers consisting of tens of thousands of pages of text and images stored as analog NanoFiche images on thin sheets of nickel. Each page is etched by laser using patented technology provided to the Arch Mission Foundation by Stamper Technology.

In addition to the analog etchings, the library also includes 60 million pages of digital data etched into nickel as well.

"Durability is the foundation of the Arch Libraries, and the licensed NanoFiche technology provides a material base for the archives that can last for billions of years, even under the harshest environmental conditions," said Bruce Ha, the Arch Mission Foundation's Chief Scientist. "Nickel is impervious to radiation as well as the changing temperatures on the Moon, and can last for billions of years in space. The analog content of the Library can easily be read via a 100x magnification optical microscope, without needing a computer, so that it is accessible with even the most rudimentary tools."

In addition to the nickel NanoFiche technology, the Lunar Library II also utilizes other storage technologies, including data stored in molecular form using new DNA storage technology.

"In 2018, we identified Astrobotic as a key partner for the Arch Mission and one that was most likely to succeed in delivering a commercial lander to the lunar surface," says Robert Jacobson, Arch Mission Operations Lead and author of the book Space Is Open for Business. "The commercial space industry is still nascent, similar to the early days of the internet. Astrobotic is providing critical infrastructure so groups like ours can leverage with new applications. We commend the team at Astrobotic for their important work to send the first lunar lander from the United States since the Apollo missions."

The Lunar Library II follows the Arch Mission's initial Lunar Library launch in 2019, and the first Solar Library, launched aboard SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy flight earlier in 2018. In 2021, the Arch Mission Foundation's first terrestrial Earth Archive, the Lava Library, was placed in the lava tubes of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano by the Valoria I mission crew of HI-SEAS during a Mars simulation mission.

Source: PRWeb.com

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Arch Mission Foundation / Nova Spivack

Hey @archmission, have you thought about reaching out to @NASA and @JHUAPL about placing a library on the #DragonflyMission to Saturn's moon Titan? https://t.co/ai3fe9iCGb

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) November 9, 2023

DEEP SKY: My Quick Movie Review...

So I watched the new IMAX documentary Deep Sky at the California Science Center earlier today, and I must say that it was really good!

The film is pretty up-to-date in regards to the photos and exoplanetary data collected by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope since its first official images were unveiled to the public in July of 2022.

If you liked the 2010 IMAX film Hubble like I did, then you'll enjoy this one...even though Deep Sky wasn't shown in 3D like the Toni Myers documentary was when I saw it on the big screen for the first time 13 years ago.

In terms of the narration, Michelle Williams did a great job doing the voice-over in Deep Sky like Leonardo DiCaprio did for Hubble.

And just like Hubble, I intend to buy Deep Sky on DVD once it's available for purchase. Yes, DVD!

Happy Hump Day.

Europe's Newest Space Telescope Unveils Its First Official Glimpses of the Universe...

ESA

Euclid's First Images: The Dazzling Edge of Darkness (News Release)

Today, ESA’s Euclid space mission reveals its first full-colour images of the cosmos. Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe.

These five images illustrate Euclid's full potential; they show that the telescope is ready to create the most extensive 3D map of the Universe yet, to uncover some of its hidden secrets.

Euclid, our dark Universe detective, has a difficult task: to investigate how dark matter and dark energy have made our Universe look like it does today. 95% of our cosmos appears to be made of these mysterious ‘dark’ entities.

But we don’t understand what they are because their presence only causes very subtle changes in the appearance and motions of the things we can see.

To reveal the ‘dark’ influence on the visible Universe, over the next six years Euclid will observe the shapes, distances and motions of billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. By doing this, it will create the largest cosmic 3D map ever made.

What makes Euclid’s view of the cosmos special is its ability to create a remarkably sharp visible and infrared image across a huge part of the sky in just one sitting.

The images released today showcase this special capacity: from bright stars to faint galaxies, the observations show the entirety of these celestial objects, while remaining extremely sharp, even when zooming in on distant galaxies.

“Dark matter pulls galaxies together and causes them to spin more rapidly than visible matter alone can account for; dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Euclid will for the first-time allow cosmologists to study these competing dark mysteries together,” explains ESA Director of Science, Professor Carole Mundell. “Euclid will make a leap in our understanding of the cosmos as a whole, and these exquisite Euclid images show that the mission is ready to help answer one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics.”

“We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail. They are even more beautiful and sharp than we could have hoped for, showing us many previously-unseen features in well-known areas of the nearby Universe. Now we are ready to observe billions of galaxies, and study their evolution over cosmic time,” says René Laureijs, ESA’s Euclid Project Scientist.

“Our high standards for this telescope paid off: that there is so much detail in these images, is all thanks to a special optical design, perfect manufacturing and assembly of telescope and instruments, and extremely accurate pointing and temperature control,” adds Giuseppe Racca, ESA’s Euclid Project Manager.

“I wish to congratulate and thank everyone involved with making this ambitious mission a reality, which is a reflection of European excellence and international collaboration. The first images captured by Euclid are awe-inspiring and remind us of why it is essential that we go to space to learn more about the mysteries of the Universe,” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

Source: European Space Agency

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ESA


ESA


ESA


ESA

Progress Continues to be Made on Prepping Peregrine's Ride to Space for Next Month...

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance’s New Vulcan Rocket Begins Final Road to First Launch (Press Release)

ULA schedules inaugural launch for December 24, 2023

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. – The United Launch Alliance's (ULA) new innovative Vulcan rocket is beginning final processing milestones in advance of its inaugural launch. The first certification mission (Cert-1) is planned to launch on Sunday, December 24, from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

The Vulcan rocket will provide higher performance and greater affordability for ULA customers across national security, civil and commercial markets.

“This launch begins a new era for ULA and for the country,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “This rocket is transforming the future of launch. Vulcan satisfies all challenging orbital requirements essential for U.S. national defense and provides one scalable system for all missions while continuing to provide unmatched reliability and orbital precision.”

The Cert-1 mission includes two payloads, the first Peregrine Lunar Lander, Peregrine Mission One (PM1) for Astrobotic as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to deliver science and technology to the lunar service. The second payload is Celestis’ Memorial Spaceflights deep space Voyager mission, the Enterprise Flight.

“We have worked diligently to develop this evolutionary rocket and certify the first vehicle for flight,” said Mark Peller, vice president of Vulcan Development. “This next-generation launch vehicle incorporates new technology at all levels, powered by American ingenuity to meet our nation’s need for expanding space missions.”

The Cert-1 mission serves as the first of two certification flights required for the U.S. Space Force’s certification process. The second certification mission is planned for early 2024.

The Cert-1 Centaur V is en route to the ULA facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard ULA’s R/S RocketShip. Additional future processing milestones include a wet dress rehearsal (WDR), spacecraft integration and then final processing in preparation for launch.

Launch vehicle processing updates will be available at www.ulalaunch.com.

Source: United Launch Alliance

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Nice and cozy. All set for a cruise down to Florida. #CountdowntoVulcan. #CERT1 pic.twitter.com/rhiY44WUyU

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) November 5, 2023

The CERT1 Centaur V is on her way to the Cape https://t.co/I94FpWXjTn

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) November 5, 2023

A Prolific Space Telescope Makes More Celestial Discoveries 5 Years After It Retired...

NASA / Daniel Rutter

Scorching, Seven-Planet System Revealed by New Kepler Exoplanet List (News Release - November 2)

A system of seven sweltering planets has been revealed by continued study of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope: Each one is bathed in more radiant heat from their host star per area than any planet in our solar system. Also unlike any of our immediate neighbors, all seven planets in this system, named Kepler-385, are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

It is one of only a few planetary systems known to contain more than six verified planets or planet candidates. The Kepler-385 system is among the highlights of a new Kepler catalog that contains almost 4,400 planet candidates, including more than 700 multi-planet systems.

“We’ve assembled the most accurate list of Kepler planet candidates and their properties to date,” said Jack Lissauer, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and lead author on the paper presenting the new catalog. “NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the majority of known exoplanets, and this new catalog will enable astronomers to learn more about their characteristics.”

At the center of the Kepler-385 system is a Sun-like star about 10% larger and 5% hotter than the Sun. The two inner planets, both slightly larger than Earth, are probably rocky and may have thin atmospheres.

The other five planets are larger – each with a radius about twice the size of Earth’s – and expected to be enshrouded in thick atmospheres.

The ability to describe the properties of the Kepler-385 system in such detail is testament to the quality of this latest catalog of exoplanets. While the Kepler mission’s final catalogs focused on producing lists optimized to measure how common planets are around other stars, this study focuses on producing a comprehensive list that provides accurate information about each of the systems, making discoveries like Kepler-385 possible.

The new catalog uses improved measurements of stellar properties and calculates more accurately the path of each transiting planet across its host star. This combination illustrates that when a star hosts several transiting planets, they typically have more circular orbits than when a star hosts only one or two.

Kepler’s primary observations ceased in 2013 and were followed by the telescope’s extended mission, called K2, which continued until 2018. The data Kepler collected continues to reveal new discoveries about our galaxy.

After the mission already showed us there are more planets than stars, this new study paints a more detailed picture of what each of those planets and their home systems look like, giving us a better view of the many worlds beyond our solar system.

The research article, “Updated Catalog of Kepler Planet Candidates: Focus on Accuracy and Orbital Periods” is forthcoming in The Journal of Planetary Science.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Daniel Rutter

Excitement Builds for Peregrine's Flight to the Moon Next Month...

United Launch Alliance

NASA Invites Media to First Astrobotic, ULA Robotic Artemis Moon Launch (News Release)

Media accreditation is open for the first United States commercial robotic flight to the Moon’s surface as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program.

Carrying NASA and commercial payloads, Astrobotic will launch its Peregrine lander on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket no earlier than Sunday, December 24, from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is the inaugural launch of ULA’s new Vulcan rocket.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will land on the Moon in early 2024. The NASA payloads aboard the lunar lander aim to help the agency develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under Artemis ahead of sending astronauts to the lunar surface.

Media prelaunch and launch activities will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Attendance for this launch is open to U.S. citizens and international media.

U.S. media must apply by Friday, December 8, and international media must apply by Thursday, November 9. Media interested in participating in person must apply at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

For questions about accreditation or to request special logistical support such as space for satellite trucks, tents or electrical connections, please email by Wednesday, December 13, to: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact NASA Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Annotated photo courtesy of Belgium2theMoon - X.com

Hmm... Looks like some rockets are going on to the Rocket Ship in Decatur. And they are being placed in the back of the hold, leaving room up front for something. I wonder what's going on?... #CountdowntoVulcan #Cert1 #VulcanRocket pic.twitter.com/IRA9tsbZ1I

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) November 3, 2023

A Small Main Belt Asteroid Has Turned Out to be Two...

NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL / NOIRLab

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Discovers 2nd Asteroid During Dinkinesh Flyby (News Release)

On November 1, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by not just its first asteroid, but its first two. The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair.

“Dinkinesh really did live up to its name; this is marvelous,” said Hal Levison, referring to the meaning of Dinkinesh in the Amharic language, “marvelous.” Levison is principal investigator for Lucy from the Boulder, Colorado, branch of the San-Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute.

“When Lucy was originally selected for flight, we planned to fly by seven asteroids. With the addition of Dinkinesh, two Trojan moons, and now this satellite, we’ve turned it up to 11.”

In the weeks prior to the spacecraft’s encounter with Dinkinesh, the Lucy team had wondered if Dinkinesh might be a binary system, given how Lucy’s instruments were seeing the asteroid’s brightness changing with time. The first images from the encounter removed all doubt.

Dinkinesh is a close binary. From a preliminary analysis of the first available images, the team estimates that the larger body is approximately 0.5 miles (790 meters) at its widest, while the smaller is about 0.15 miles (220 meters) in size.

This encounter primarily served as an in-flight test of the spacecraft, specifically focusing on testing the system that allows Lucy to autonomously track an asteroid as it flies past at 10,000 mph, referred to as the terminal tracking system.

“This is an awesome series of images. They indicate that the terminal tracking system worked as intended, even when the universe presented us with a more difficult target than we expected,” said Tom Kennedy, guidance and navigation engineer at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado. “It’s one thing to simulate, test and practice. It’s another thing entirely to see it actually happen.”

While this encounter was carried out as an engineering test, the team’s scientists are excitedly poring over the data to glean insights into the nature of small asteroids.

“We knew this was going to be the smallest main belt asteroid ever seen up close,” said Keith Noll, Lucy project scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The fact that it is two makes it even more exciting. In some ways these asteroids look similar to the near-Earth asteroid binary Didymos and Dimorphos that DART saw, but there are some really interesting differences that we will be investigating.”

It will take up to a week for the team to downlink the remainder of the encounter data from the spacecraft. The team will use this data to evaluate the spacecraft’s behavior during the encounter and to prepare for the next close-up look at an asteroid, the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in 2025.

Lucy will then be well-prepared to encounter the mission’s main targets, the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, starting in 2027.

Source: NASA.Gov

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The #LucyMission flyby was a test run of the spacecraft’s terminal tracking system and instruments, which Lucy passed with flying colors. The team will use the data from the encounter to prepare for Lucy's next asteroid flyby in 2025. https://t.co/rLTXQV1WPG pic.twitter.com/QvIsO77ZaK

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) November 2, 2023

Astrobotic Celebrates Halloween by Safely Transporting Its Moon Lander to Cape Canaveral!

United Launch Alliance

Peregrine Arrives in Florida for Launch Preparations (Press Release)

Pittsburgh, PA – Astrobotic announced today that the Peregrine lunar lander has safely arrived in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft was unloaded at Astrotech facilities where it will be integrated with the United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Vulcan rocket for launch on December 24, 2023.

“It’s incredible to realize that we are just a short time away from our Peregrine spacecraft beginning its journey to the Moon,” says John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO, “After years of dedication and hard work, we are so close to having our moonshot. We invite you to follow along as Peregrine, with seven countries represented aboard, launches to the Moon and attempts one of the first successful landings of an American spacecraft since Apollo.”

Peregrine is carrying 21 payloads from governments, companies, universities and NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine’s full manifest can be found at www.astrobotic.com/lunar-delivery/manifest/.

“As we know, space is a difficult environment. We’re ready for launch after successfully completing a battery of industry-standard acceptance testing so Peregrine has the best chance for mission success,” says Sharad Bhaskaran, Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One Director. “Peregrine and the team are ready. After launch, we will separate from the Vulcan Centaur and establish power and communications with the spacecraft to guide it to the Moon. Then, we will attempt a historic autonomous landing on the lunar surface.”

After Peregrine’s integration with Vulcan, the launch vehicle is slated to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41). Once Peregrine separates from the ULA rocket, Astrobotic’s Mission Control Center (AMCC) will take control of Peregrine.

Astrobotic will then attempt a soft landing at the Gruithuisen Domes and support lunar surface payload operations for payload customers for approximately 10 days.

Source: Astrobotic

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United Launch Alliance


United Launch Alliance

When #VulcanRocket launches on its inaugural flight, almost half of the thrust to depart Space Launch Complex-41 comes from a pair of GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters. Today, the first solid rocket booster was installed for the #Cert1 mission in our #CountdowntoVulcan. pic.twitter.com/2ueXWmXacM

— ULA (@ulalaunch) October 31, 2023

Hubble's Successor Takes Another Beautiful Photo of a Supernova Remnant...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

The Crab Nebula Seen in New Light by NASA’s Webb (News Release)

Exquisite, never-before-seen details help unravel the supernova remnant’s puzzling history.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers, the Crab Nebula has continued to draw attention and additional study as scientists seek to understand the conditions, behavior and after-effects of supernovae through thorough study of the Crab, a relatively nearby example.

Using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), a team led by Tea Temim at Princeton University is searching for answers about the Crab Nebula’s origins.

“Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution allow us to accurately determine the composition of the ejected material, particularly the content of iron and nickel, which may reveal what type of explosion produced the Crab Nebula,” explained Temim.

At first glance, the general shape of the supernova remnant is similar to the optical wavelength image released in 2005 from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope: In Webb’s infrared observation, a crisp, cage-like structure of fluffy gaseous filaments are shown in red-orange. However, in the central regions, emission from dust grains (yellow-white and green) is mapped out by Webb for the first time.

Additional aspects of the inner workings of the Crab Nebula become more prominent and are seen in greater detail in the infrared light captured by Webb. In particular, Webb highlights what is known as synchrotron radiation: emission produced from charged particles, like electrons, moving around magnetic field lines at relativistic speeds.

The radiation appears here as milky smoke-like material throughout the majority of the Crab Nebula’s interior.

This feature is a product of the nebula’s pulsar, a rapidly-rotating neutron star. The pulsar’s strong magnetic field accelerates particles to extremely high speeds and causes them to emit radiation as they wind around magnetic field lines.

Though emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, the synchrotron radiation is seen in unprecedented detail with Webb’s NIRCam instrument.

To locate the Crab Nebula’s pulsar heart, trace the wisps that follow a circular ripple-like pattern in the middle to the bright white dot in the center. Farther out from the core, follow the thin white ribbons of the radiation.

The curvy wisps are closely grouped together, outlining the structure of the pulsar’s magnetic field, which sculpts and shapes the nebula.

At center left and right, the white material curves sharply inward from the filamentary dust cage’s edges and goes toward the neutron star’s location, as if the waist of the nebula is pinched. This abrupt slimming may be caused by the confinement of the supernova wind’s expansion by a belt of dense gas.

The wind produced by the pulsar heart continues to push the shell of gas and dust outward at a rapid pace. Among the remnant’s interior, yellow-white and green mottled filaments form large-scale loop-like structures, which represent areas where dust grains reside.

The search for answers about the Crab Nebula’s past continues as astronomers further analyze the Webb data and consult previous observations of the remnant taken by other telescopes. Scientists will have newer Hubble data to review within the next year or so from the telescope’s reimaging of the supernova remnant.

This will mark Hubble’s first look at emission lines from the Crab Nebula in over 20 years, and will enable astronomers to more accurately compare Webb and Hubble’s findings.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (Arizona State University); Webb Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)