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Latest by G. Torbet

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An arrangement of 10 distant galaxies marked by eight white circles in a diagonal, thread-like line.

James Webb spots clues to the large-scale structure of the universe

If you look at the universe on a big enough scale, galaxies aren't randomly scattered. Instead, they form a structure known as the cosmic web.
Space News
This spectacular picture of the Sh2-284 nebula has been captured in great detail by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Sh2-284 is a star formation region, and at its centre there is a cluster of young stars, dubbed Dolidze 25. The radiation from this cluster is powerful enough to ionise the hydrogen gas in the nebula’s cloud. It is this ionisation that produces its bright orange and red colours.

Stunning nebula 15,000 light-years away imaged by VLT Survey Telescope

A gorgeous new image of a distant nebula has been captured by the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s VLT Survey Telescope.
Space News
This artist impression shows Euclid leaving Earth and on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. This equilibrium point of the Sun-Earth system is located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the opposite direction of the Sun. L2 revolves around the Sun along with Earth. During Euclid’s orbit at L2, Euclid’s sunshield always blocks the light from the Sun, Earth and Moon while pointing its telescope towards deep space, ensuring a high level of stability for its instruments.

How to watch the Euclid dark matter telescope launch this Saturday

Astronomers are getting a new instrument to probe the mysteries of dark matter with the launch of the Euclid telescope this Saturday. Here's how to watch.
Space News
This image is NIRCam’s view of the Orion Bar region studied by the team of astronomers. Bathed in harsh ultraviolet light from the stars of the Trapezium Cluster, it is an area of intense activity, with star formation and active astrochemistry. This made it a perfect place to study the exact impact that ultraviolet radiation has on the molecular makeup of the discs of gas and dust that surround new stars. The radiation erodes the nebula’s gas and dust in a process known as photoevaporation; this creates the rich tapestry of cavities and filaments that fill the view. The radiation also ionises the molecules, causing them to emit light — not only does this create a beautiful vista, it also allows astronomers to study the molecules using the spectrum of their emitted light obtained with Webb’s MIRI and NIRSpec instruments.

James Webb detects important molecule in the stunning Orion nebula

The molecule, called methyl cation, is important for the development of the complex carbon-based molecules on which life depends.
Space News
Bands of high-altitude haze forming above cyclones in an area of Jupiter known at Jet N7.

Gorgeous images of Jupiter’s cloud tops snapped by Juno spacecraft

The Juno spacecraft made its 49th close flyby of Jupiter earlier this year, and NASA has shared stunning images taken as it whizzed by the planet's cloud tops.
Space News
Rendering of a a spacecraft slowing down in the Venus atmosphere.

The art and science of aerobraking: The key to exploring Venus

Slowing a spacecraft down takes tons of fuel, so scientists are eager to try something different on Venus: slowing down with the help of the planet's atmosphere
Space Features
A new visualization explores the galaxy group Stephan's Quintet by using observations in visible, infrared, and X-ray light. The sequence contrasts images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Webb Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory to provide insights across the electromagnetic spectrum.

See and hear Stephan’s Quintet in a whole new way with NASA visualizations

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has been combined with data from other telescopes to create a new way to see and hear a famous galaxy group.
Space News
mars maven ultraviolet seasons orbit16863 apo ladfit localff png

See seasonal changes on Mars in two stunning images from MAVEN

Two images from the MAVEN spacecraft, taken six months apart, show how the environment of Mars changes with both season and the planet's orbit.
Space News
Artist impression of BepiColombo flying by Mercury. The spacecraft makes nine gravity assist manoeuvres (one of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury) before entering orbit around the innermost planet of the Solar System in 2025.

European BepiColombo spacecraft makes its third Mercury flyby today

BepiColombo is set to enter the orbit of Mercury in 2025, but in the meantime, it will be making several flybys of the planet, including a close approach today.
Space News
This artist' concept shows what the hot rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c could look like based on this work. TRAPPIST-1 c, the second of seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, orbits its star at a distance of 0.016 AU (about 1.5 million miles), completing one circuit in just 2.42 Earth-days. TRAPPIST-1 c is slightly larger than Earth, but has around the same density, which indicates that it must have a rocky composition. Webb’s measurement of 15-micron mid-infrared light emitted by TRAPPIST-1 c suggests that the planet has either a bare rocky surface or a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere.

James Webb telescope searches for habitability in the famous TRAPPIST-1 system

James Webb peered into the atmosphere of what was thought to be a Venus-like planet, and saw something unexpected.
Space News
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) making observations in the night sky on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

This one instrument has surveyed 2 million objects to understand dark energy

An early release of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument contains nearly 2 million astronomical objects.
Space News
This artist impression illustrates how astronomers using the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have made multiple detections of rock-forming elements in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized exoplanet, WASP-76b. The so-called “hot Jupiter” is perilously close to its host star, which is heating the planet’s atmosphere to astounding temperatures and vaporized rock-forming elements such as magnesium, calcium and iron, providing insight into how our own Solar System formed.

This exoplanet is over 2,000-degrees Celsius, has vaporized metal in its atmosphere

The puffy, scorching-hot planet has elements in its atmosphere that would normally form rocks, but are so hot that they have vaporized.
Space News
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of “Marker Band Valley” at two times of day on April 8. Color was added to a combination of both panoramas for an artistic interpretation of the scene.

See a postcard from Mars taken by the Curiosity rover

The image combines two different views of the same area and is colorized to show off the undulating martian landscape in a region called the Marker Band Valley.
Space News
During a 2005 flyby, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took high-resolution images of Enceladus that were combined into this mosaic, which shows the long fissures at the moon’s south pole that allow water from the subsurface ocean to escape into space.

The search for habitable moons in the solar system is heating up

Recent research has found phosphorus, one of the building blocks for life, at Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
Space News
An artist's illustration shows that the stars in the TOI 1338 system make an eclipsing binary — they circle each other in our plane of view.

Tatooine-like exoplanet orbits two stars in rare astronomical discovery

Astronomers recently discovered a planet which orbits two stars, meaning it would have two suns in its sky like Tatooine.
Space News
NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Steve Bowen is pictured outside the International Space Station during his eighth career spacewalk, during which he routed cables and installed insulation to ready the orbital outpost for its next set of roll-out solar arrays.

How to watch ISS astronauts install a new solar array tomorrow

Tomorrow two astronauts will head out of the International Space Station to install a new solar array. Here are the details on how to watch the spacewalk.
Space News
a woman peering into a telescope

NASA’s latest method for hunting exoplanets? Enlisting amateurs

NASA has a new program that gathers data from millions of amateur astronomers, and it could be a game-changer for astronomy.
Space Features
The jellyfish galaxy JO206 trails across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, showcasing a colorful star-forming disk surrounded by a pale, luminous cloud of dust. A handful of foreground bright stars with crisscross diffraction spikes stands out against an inky black backdrop at the bottom of the image. JO206 lies over 700 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius.

Hubble image of the week shows an unusual jellyfish galaxy

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows an unusual type of galaxy named for its aquatic look-alike: a jellyfish.
Space News
Astronaut Woody Hoburg watches as a new roll-out solar array deploys after he and fellow NASA spacewalker Stephen Bowen (out of frame) successfully installed it on the space station.

Astronauts install a fifth new solar array at the International Space Station

Two astronauts performed a spacewalk yesterday, heading outside the International Space Station (ISS) to install a new solar array.
Space News
Artist's impression of Cheops, ESA's Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, in orbit above Earth.

CHEOPS planet-hunter detects four rarely seen mini-Neptunes

Though they are thought to be the most common planet type in our galaxy, mini-Neptunes are rarely spotted because they are hard to detect.
Space News
This image captures the streak of an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite crossing Hubble's field of view during an observation of "The Mice" interacting galaxies (NGC 4676). A typical satellite trail is very thin and will affect less than 0.5% of a single Hubble exposure. Though in this case the satellite overlaps a portion of the target galaxy, the observation quality is not affected. That's because multiple exposures are taken of the same target. And the satellite trail is not in other frames. Developers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, have software that identifies the bad pixels from the satellite photobombing, the extent to which they affect the image, and then flags them. When flagged, scientists can recover the full field of view. Even as the number of satellites increases over the decade, these tools for cleaning the images will still be applicable.

Hubble scientists create tool for erasing satellite trails from images

Astronomers worry about how satellites could impact scientific research. Now, researchers have created a tool to deal with satellite streaks in Hubble images.
Space News
Gemini North, part of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, is back observing the night sky following the repair and refurbishment of its primary mirror. The telescope’s debut observation captured the supernova dubbed SN 2023ixf (lower left), which was discovered on 19 May by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki. This dazzling point of light, the closest supernova seen in the past five years, is located along one of the spiral arms of the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101).

Gemini North telescope’s chipped mirror has been repaired

The large Gemini North telescope suffered damage last year when its primary mirror was chipped. Now it's back and has captured an image of the Pinwheel Galaxy.
Space News
A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image. NGC 5068 lies around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

Peer inside the bar of a barred spiral galaxy in new James Webb image

The newest image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a stunning display of dust and stars that form the bar of the barred spiral galaxy NCG 5068.
Space News
Saturn's geologically active moon, Enceladus.

James Webb spots huge plumes of water from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

The entire moon of Enceladus is just over 300 miles across. And yet the plume Webb observed spanned more than 6,000 miles.
Space News
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

NASA lost contact with Mars Ingenuity helicopter for a week — but it’s OK now

NASA recently lost contact with the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars for a week, and the team had to work fast to avoid a collision with the rover.
Space News
An artist's impression of the Juice spacecraft fully deployed.

Juice spacecraft has overcome its stuck antenna issue and is ready for Jupiter

The European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft is now fully deployed and on its way to study the icy moons of Jupiter.
Space News
An artist's concept of the Kepler spacecraft.

Astronomers discover three exoplanets in final data from Kepler Space Telescope

The Kepler Space Telescope was retired in 2018, after discovering 2,600 confirmed exoplanets. But now there are three more to add to the mission's total,
Space News
An artist's impression of the MBR Explorer spacecraft approaching an asteroid.

UAE to send its first mission to solar system’s main asteroid belt

Following its mission to Mars, the United Arab Emirates plans to send spacecraft to the asteroid belt to investigate the history of the solar system.
Space News
The Axiom Mission-2 and Expedition 69 crew members pose for a portrait together during dinner time aboard the International Space Station. In the center front row, is Expedition 69 crew member and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi flanked by (from left) Axiom Mission-2 crew members Commander Peggy Whitson, Mission Specialist Ali Alqarni, Pilot John Shoffner, and Mission Specialist Rayyanah Barnawi. In the back (from left) are, Expedition 69 crew members Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitri Petelin, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev and Sergey Prokopyev, and NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg. Not pictured is NASA astronaut Frank Rubio.

How to watch the Axiom-2 mission depart from the ISS on Tuesday

This Tuesday, the crew of the second ever all-private mission to the International Space Station will be returning to Earth. Here's how to watch the departure.
Space News
This image reveals the fine structures of a sunspot in the photosphere. Within the dark, central area of the sunspot’s umbra, small-scale bright dots, known as umbral dots, are seen. The elongated structures surrounding the umbra are visible as bright-headed strands known as penumbral filaments. Umbra: Dark, central region of a sunspot where the magnetic field is strongest. Penumbra: The brighter, surrounding region of a sunspot’s umbra characterized by bright filamentary structures.

Horrifying up-close images of a sunspot captured by the Inouye Solar Telescope

A new set of images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows the surface of the sun -- including frankly disturbing images of sunspots seen up close.
Space News
james webb chandra images chandrawebb2 1

See stunning images combining James Webb and Chandra X-ray data

NASA has shared a new view of some famous space images, by combining infrared data from Webb with X-ray data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
Space News
NASA scientists used microwave observations to spot the first polar cyclone on Uranus, seen here as a light-colored dot to the right of center in each image of the planet. The images use wavelength bands K, Ka, and Q, from left. To highlight cyclone features, a different color map was used for each.

Astronomers spot cyclones at Uranus’ pole for the first time

Uranus is usually portrayed as a generally featureless blue ball, but when seen using radio telescopes, the pole reveals a swirling cyclone. 
Space News
A Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular star cluster, Messier 4. The cluster is a dense collection of several hundred thousand stars. Astronomers suspect that an intermediate-mass black hole, weighing as much as 800 times the mass of our Sun, is lurking, unseen, at its core.

Hubble goes hunting for elusive medium-sized black holes

There's something odd about the black holes discovered to date. We've found hardly any black holes in the intermediate mass range, and it's not clear why.
Space News
A snippet of the mosaic of Belva Crater taken by the Perseverance rover.

See a 3D view of a martian crater captured by the Perseverance rover

The Perseverance rover recently used its Mastcam-Z instrument to collect over 150 images of Mars' Belva Crater, which have been stitched into a mosaic.
Space News
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