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Latest by G. Torbet

A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hercules.

See a stunning field of galaxies captured by James Webb Space Telescope

Stunning images from James Webb continue to entrance, and recently the researchers using the telescope have shared a gorgeous image of a field of galaxies.
A single bright blue star dominates the scene against a dark background with many small stars visible in the distance.

Hubble measures the mass of a lonely dead star for the first time

Recent research using the Hubble Space Telescope has measured the mass of a lone white dwarf for the first time.
Comet ZTF stuns in this image taken two weeks before its Earth close approach, on 19 January 2023. Look closely, and you’ll spot that comets have two tails, one made of ionised gas and another of dust. As a comet approaches the inner Solar System, solar radiation causes volatile materials within the comet to vaporise into gas and stream out of the nucleus – the comet’s ‘head’ – carrying dust away with them.

How to see the green comet this week before it leaves us for good

This weekend will see a special visitor to the skies over our planet, as a 50,000-year-old comet will be passing by.
(Jan. 20, 2022) --- Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) points the camera toward himself and takes a "space-selfie" during a seven-hour and 21-minute spacewalk to install a modification kit on the International Space Station's starboard truss structure preparing the orbital lab for its next roll-out solar array.

How to watch this week’s spacewalk from the ISS

This Thursday, February 2, two astronauts will be performing a spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS). Here's how to watch.
The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has also captured a smaller companion star in the upper left of this image. Both stars lie in the Orion Nebula, a colossal region of star formation roughly 1,450 light-years from Earth.

Stars sparkle in Orion Nebula in this week’s gorgeous Hubble image

Hubble has captured a scene from the Orion Nebula, located 1,450 light-years away and famous as a stellar nursery where large numbers of new stars are born.
The researchers with their 16.7-pound find. White helmet: Maria Schönbächler. Green helmet: Maria Valdes. Black helmet: Ryoga Maeda. Orange helmet: Vinciane Debaille.

Scientists discover monster 17-pound meteorite in Antarctica

A team of researchers working in Antarctica have discovered a massive meteorite, weighing in at a hefty 17 lbs.
Artist impression of BepiColombo flying by Venus on 10 August 2021. The spacecraft makes nine gravity assist maneouvres (one of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury) before entering orbit around the innermost planet of the Solar System.

Two spacecraft worked together to learn about Venus’ magnetic field

A pair of spacecraft happened to be passing by Venus on their way somewhere else, but they managed to grab some bonus data about the planet.
starlink mega constellation satellite network spacex mission 3

How to watch SpaceX’s Starlink launch tomorrow

Tomorrow, Sunday January 29, SpaceX will launch a further batch of Starlink satellites. Here's how to watch.
This image by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) features the central region of the Chameleon I dark molecular cloud, which resides 630 light years away. The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, centre) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left). The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them.

James Webb peers into icy cloud to learn about exoplanet formation

Researchers using James Webb have peered into a molecular cloud to look for these ices which could be formed into future exoplanets.
Illustration of Lucy passing by an asteroid.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft to visit a bonus asteroid later this year

NASA's Lucy spacecraft was to make its first close approach to an asteroid in 2025, but a new plan will see a flyby of a bonus asteroid later this year.
The radio telescope array ALMA has pin-pointed the exact cosmic age of a distant JWST-identified galaxy, GHZ2/GLASS-z12, at 367 million years after the Big Bang. ALMA’s deep spectroscopic observations revealed a spectral emission line associated with ionized Oxygen near the galaxy, which has been shifted in its observed frequency due to the expansion of the Universe since the line was emitted. This observation confirms that the JWST is able to look out to record distances, and heralds a leap in our ability to understand the formation of the earliest galaxies in the Universe.

Age of ancient galaxy discovered by Webb confirmed using ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, an array of telescopes located in Chile, has confirmed the age of a very distant galaxy using oxygen.
The James Webb Space Telescope.

One of James Webb’s four instruments is offline following error

The James Webb Space Telescope is experiencing an issue with one of its instruments, the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph or NIRISS.
The European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft will explore Jupiter's icy moons.

Juice spacecraft heading to spaceport ahead of mission to study Jupiter’s moons

Out solar system will soon be getting a new explorer, as a mission to study the moons of Jupiter readies for launch.
An artist's concept of the Geotail spacecraft.

30-year-old mission to study the magnetosphere comes to a close

A 30-year-old NASA-JAXA mission has come to an end with the closing of operations on the Geotail satellite.
A host of astronomical objects throng this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Background galaxies ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals are strewn across the image, and bright foreground stars much closer to home are also present, surrounded by diffraction spikes. In the centre of the image, the vague shape of the small galaxy UGC 7983 appears as a hazy cloud of light. UGC 7983 is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo, and is a dwarf irregular galaxy — a type thought to be similar to the very earliest galaxies in the Universe.

There’s an asteroid surprise in this week’s Hubble image

This week's Hubble image shows the small but intriguing galaxy UGC 7983, thought to be similar to some of the earliest galaxies that existed in the universe.
The planet Venus.

How to watch the conjunction of Venus and Saturn online today

There's a close conjunction of Venus and Saturn in the sky tonight, which you can watch online from the warmth of your home.
Ingenuity sits on a slightly inclined surface with about 6-degree tilt at the center of the frame, just north of the southern ridge of “Séíitah” geologic unit. The Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument took this image on Dec. 1, 2021, when the rotorcraft was about 970 feet (295 meters) away.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity marks 40 flights and is still going strong

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has made its third flight of the year, which also marks its 40th flight since it landed in the Jezero crater.
Astronomers have released a gargantuan survey of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data for this unprecedented survey were taken with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at the NSF’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NOIRLab.

Browse through 3B celestial objects in Milky Way survey

A new survey of the Milky Way has been released containing more than 3 billion objects, making it one of the largest astronomical catalogs ever produced.
Spacewalkers (from left) Koichi Wakata and Nicole Mann are pictured installing hardware on the space station preparing the orbiting lab for its next roll-out solar array.

First spacewalk of the year sees astronauts dealing with a sticky foothold

Two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday performed the first spacewalk of the year, working to upgrade the ISS power system.
A startling analysis from Globe at Night — a citizen science program run by NSF’s NOIRLab — concludes that stars are disappearing from human sight at an astonishing rate. The study finds that, to human eyes, artificial lighting has dulled the night sky more rapidly than indicated by satellite measurements. The study showcases the unique contributions that citizen scientists can make in essential fields of research. This graphic illustrates how the greater the amount of light pollution, and therefore skyglow, the fewer the stars that are visible. The numeric scale is similar to the one used by Globe at Night participants. 

Light pollution is cutting off views of the night sky for many

The problem of light pollution could be even worse than we thought, as what is visible to the human eye is even less than satellite measurements indicate.
see lucy spacecraft slingshot past earth fly by

Still no joy for Lucy’s stuck solar array, NASA is giving up for now

NASA will not be making any further attempts to fix the solar array of its Lucy spacecraft, at least for now - but the mission should still work as planned.
A photo of Expedition 68 Flight Engineer and NASA spacewalker Josh Cassada on Dec. 22, 2022, preparing a roll-out solar array for its deployment on the International Space Station's Port-4 truss segment as the orbiting lab flew 264 miles above the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa.

How to watch two astronauts perform their first spacewalk on Friday

This Friday two astronauts from the International Space Station will perform a spacewalk to install new hardware to the station's exterior. Here's how to watch.
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus. LEDA 48062 is the faint, sparse, amorphous galaxy on the right side of the image, and it is accompanied by a more sharply defined neighbor on the left – the large, disk-like lenticular galaxy UGC 8603. A smattering of more distant galaxies litter the background while a handful of foreground stars shine brightly throughout the image.

Hubble snaps an image of a galaxy in our cosmic backyard

An image from Hubble shows one of our galactic neighbors, collected as part of a project called Every Known Nearby Galaxy.
Image showing the disruption of astronomical observations caused by a previous Starlink launch

SpaceX reaches agreement with astronomers to limit Starlink interference

This week, National Science Foundation announced it had reached an agreement with SpaceX to limit the effects of its Starlink satellites on astronomy.
Members of the public can help astronomers observe and study the night sky through NASA’s Universe of Learning Exoplanet Watch program.

NASA is asking for your help to study exoplanets

NASA is asking for the public's help in learning more about exoplanets in a citizen science program called Exoplanet Watch.
Illustration of a planet on a black background. The planet is large and rocky. Roughly two-thirds of the planet is lit, while the rest is in shadow.

How James Webb peers into the atmospheres of far-off exoplanets

The James Webb Space Telescope recently detected its first exoplanet, but its real promise is in studying exoplanet atmospheres.
The Falcon Heavy is seen at Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

How to watch the classified SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch tomorrow

Tomorrow will see the fifth launch of SpaceX's heavy-lift vehicle, the Falcon Heavy, performing a classified launch for the US military.
Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look deep into the heart of the pair of merging galaxies known as UGC 4211 discovered two black holes growing side by side, just 750 light-years apart. This artist’s conception shows the late-stage galaxy merger and its two central black holes. The binary black holes are the closest together ever observed in multiple wavelengths.

These supermassive black holes are cozying up close together

Two supermassive black holes have been spotted nestled close together in the heart of merging galaxy UGC4211.
This illustration shows NASA’s Lunar Flashlight carrying out a trajectory correction maneuver with the Moon and Earth in the background. Powered by the small satellite’s four thrusters, the maneuver is needed to reach lunar orbit.

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission hindered by thruster issue

NASA's Lunar Flashlight spacecraft, a briefcase-sized satellite on its way to the moon, is experiencing difficulties with its thrusters.
NGC 346, shown here in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a dynamic star cluster that lies within a nebula 200,000 light years away. Webb reveals the presence of many more building blocks than previously expected, not only for stars, but also planets, in the form of clouds packed with dust and hydrogen. 

James Webb captures stunning image of star formation in nearby galaxy

A stunning new image from James Webb is also leading astronomers to rethink their theories about how stars and planets could have formed in the early universe.
(Nov. 27, 2022) --- The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, loaded with over 7,700 pounds of science, supplies, and cargo, approaches the International Space Station while orbiting 259 miles above the African continent.

How to watch a SpaceX Dragon depart the ISS on Monday

This week will see a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft depart from the International Space Station (ISS) and head back to Earth. Here's how to watch.
mars 2020 perseverance rover

Perseverance rover celebrates its first Martian birthday

The Perseverance rover recently celebrated a milestone: its first Martian year since landing, which marks the end of its primary mission.
The scattered stars of the globular cluster NGC 6355 are strewn across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 6355 is a galactic globular cluster that resides in our Milky Way galaxy's inner regions. It is less than 50,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Hubble snaps a cluster in our galaxy bursting with stars

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a grand image of thousands of densely packed stars in a globular cluster within the Milky Way.
unprocessed image from the WISPR instrument on board NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shows comet NEOWISE

Earth to be visited by once-in-50,000-year comet

Skywatchers will soon be in for a special treat, as a comet which passes our planet just once every 50,000 years should be visible in the skies this month.