Space could be a wondrous place, and we have got the images to prove it! Take a take a look at our favourite pictures from space here, and for those who’re wondering what happened today in space history don’t miss our On This Day in Space video show here!
Zero-g fun
Monday, May 29, 2023: . Flying in space may be serious work, but that doesn’t suggest there is not time to have some fun. Here, Saudi Space Commission astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi takes a break from science experiments on the International Space Station to pose for a fun snapshot during her Ax-2 mission last week. Barnawi is the primary female astronaut from Saudi Arabia to fly in space as one among two Saudi mission specialists on the Ax-2 mission by Axiom Space. – Tariq Malik
Europe’s Jupiter moon explorer JUICE completes instrument deployment
Friday, May 26, 2023: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Jupiter mission JUICE has accomplished the deployment of its instruments six weeks after its launch.
The spacecraft, officially called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, unfolded the antennas of its Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI) instrument on Friday, May 26, completing a difficult early phase of its mission. Previously, the spacecraft’s operators struggled to deploy the 52-foot-long (16 meters) antenna of the probe’s ice-penetrating radar. The instrument was jammed for 3 weeks due to a stuck pin, and it took some ingenuity to release it.
With the deployments complete, JUICE will proceed its eight-year voyage to the solar system’s largest planet where it’s scheduled to reach in 2031. – Tereza Pultarova
Virgin Galactic aces test flight
Thursday, May 25, 2023: Virgin Galactic has successfully accomplished a test flight that can pave the way in which for the corporate to begin business space tourism operations.
The flight was the fifth suborbital sortie for Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane and the primary since July 11, 2021, when Virgin Group founder Richard Branson was one among the passengers. That flight, nonetheless, deviated from its approved path during its return to Earth, prompting an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration as a consequence of concerns the mishap could have put other aircraft in danger.
The Thursday flight saw Virgin Galactic’s twin-fuselage mothership Eve carry the VSS Unity spaceplane to an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). After its release from the mothership, the spaceplane continued to the sting of space, to the altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers), treating its eight passengers to about three minutes of weightlessness. The plane successfully landed at Spaceport America in Latest Mexico about 1 hour and quarter-hour after take off. – Tereza Pultarova
LEGO sends 1,000 astronauts to space and lands them safely in a mini space-shuttle
Wednesday, May 24, 2023: One thousand LEGO astronauts traveled to the sting of space on a stratospheric balloon last weekend and returned safely to Earth on a specially designed landing platform.
The Legonauts took off from a small airport in Slovakia, seated on a 3D-printed space shuttle-like platform manufactured from a sturdy but lightweight carbon composite material. The shuttle was designed by a team of space architects and engineers from Slovakia and the Czech Republic obsessed with inspiring future generations to study space, in line with the web site Czech Crunch.
The balloon took the mini-spacefarers to the altitude of 21 miles (34 kilometers) where it burst. The landing platform then returned to Earth under a parachute. In accordance with space architect Tomas Rousek, the team needed to be sure that that not one of the astronauts fell off the roof-less shuttle throughout the early stages of the platform’s descent. Two cameras filmed the experiment throughout the ride, one monitoring the crew compartment, the opposite, attached to a boom, filming a view of the complete platform.
The LEGO astronauts will now be put up as a prize in a draw within the Czech Republic and Slovakia for those who buys and register a brand new LEGO set. – Tereza Pultarova
Hubble could have found a rare medium-sized black hole
Tuesday, May 23, 2023: The Hubble Space Telescope could have found a rare medium-sized black hole. Although scientists are usually not sure yet.
The black hole could also be lurking at the guts of a globular cluster in our Milky Way Galaxy some 6,000 light-years away from Earth.
Most known black holes are either quite small, the so-called stellar black holes, most of that are only just a few times as massive as our sun, or extremely large. The latter category are the supermassive black holes at the middle of most galaxies. These cosmic monsters have masses such as tens of millions or billions of solar masses.
A stellar black hole is born when an enormous star collapses at the top of its life. By progressively devouring matter and by merging with other black holes, the black hole grows. At the least in theory. The issue is that until now, scientists haven’t seen many medium-sized black holes, which should represent the natural step within the evolution of black holes from stellar to supermassive.
The brand new suspected black hole, which appears to reside within the globular cluster Messier 4, could have a mass of about 800 masses, in line with the European Space Agency. Although the Hubble Space Telescope cannot see the black hole directly, the motion of stars contained in the cluster tells astronomers that some invisible heavy object have to be present. – Tereza Pultarova
Shaun the Sheep to the moon and baa-ck on Baa-Temis I
Monday, May 22, 2023: A picture taken on the Mission Evaluation Room of the European Space Agency (ESA) technical center ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands shows it receiving a really distinguished visitor, Shaun the Sheep.
The primary lunar “lamb-bassador” of Europe, and doubtless of anywhere else, was on the ESA center on Thursday, May 19, to investigate cross-check the Orion spacecraft. The sheep and the spacecraft have a special bond, because it was Orion that carried Shaun to space as a part of the Artemis I mission.
During his visit, the wooliest astronaut ever to journey to space met with engineers who had monitored Orion during its 25-day mission to the moon and back. The unmanned but not unsheeped Artemis I mission carried Shaun to inside around 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the lunar surface because it gained a gravity boost taking him 267,000 miles (430,000 km) from Earth, farther than any sheep (or human) has traveled before.
Traveling back to Earth, Shaun and Orion sped through the atmosphere at a wool-raising speed 24 times faster than a bullet from the Farmer’s rifle.
After inspecting banks of computers and big screens, the VIS (Very Vital Sheep), returned to his home at Mossy Bottom Farm.
Space.com has it on good authority that despite kicking up his hooves, the sheep is prepared at a moment’s notice to step back within the breech and return to space… Even whether it is simply to get away from the Naughty Pigs. ESA isn’t considering Shaun’s request to rename the Artemis mission, Baa-Temis, nonetheless. — Rob Lea
Rocket, meet rocket
Friday, May 19, 2023: A shocking image shows the moment that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, lighting up the early morning sky. It launched inside view of a second Falcon 9 rocket, visible in front.
The space-bound SpaceX rocket lifted off today (May 19) at 02:19 EDT (0619 GMT), carrying a payload of carrying 22 second-generation Starlink satellites to orbit. After dropping off the upper stage and the units, often called “V2 minis,” the primary stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth with the duration between lift-off and landing just eight and a half minutes.
The upper stage of the rocket, meanwhile, continued into space with the payload of twenty-two satellites jettisoning them around 65 minutes after the launch. They join the over 4,400 Starlink broadband satellites in a low-Earth orbit.
Despite their name, the V2 minis are still larger than the primary generation of satellites that makes up the vast majority of the Starlink constellation. The “mini” of their name refers back to the indisputable fact that they’re smaller than the full-size Starlink V2 satellites, which will likely be launched by SpaceX’s huge Starship rocket.
The launch on Friday morning marked 30 flights for the Falcon 9 this yr and 32 orbital missions for SpaceX as a complete. — Rob Lea
Smoldering spiral galaxy
Thursday, May 18, 2023: A smoky-looking spiral galaxy glows at nighttime in a fresh image captured with the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. NGC 1808, shown on this image with the Dark Energy Camera, is a barred spiral situated within the constellation Columba.
“The core of NGC 1808 is believed to accommodate a supermassive black hole, characterised by its accretion of fabric and higher-than-normal brightness,” officials with the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) wrote in a press release. “The smoldering center is closely surrounded by a faint blue ring populated with star clusters and supernova remnants.”
Quite a few young stars litter the region, which could also be as a consequence of close encounters with one other nearby galaxy, NGC 1792. The resulting ripples of gravity would compress gas clouds, potentially resulting in the formation of stellar nurseries. — Elizabeth Howell
Baghdad’s shiny lights evoke the Islamic Golden Age
May 17, 2023: An astronaut from the United Arab Emirates paid tribute to the celebrity of Baghdad. From the International Space Station, Sultan Al Neyadi showed off the Iraqi capital in a photograph on Twitter, released earlier today.
“Here is the gorgeous and historical city of #Baghdad, the cornerstone of the Golden Age of information,” Al Neyadi said. “Scholars from this great city sparked the flames of discovery, setting the course for contemporary science. Their legacy reminds us to maintain reaching for the celebs.”
Al Neyadi is referring to what some scholars call the Islamic Golden Age, referring to how scholars within the region spread scientific knowledge through trade routes and other connections. Greek, Roman and other ancient knowledge was diffused widely, especially after the Emperor Justinian closed pagan academies in Athens in 529, in line with Britannica. Islamic scholars were among the many people translating and copying Greek texts, allowing this information to be preserved. — Elizabeth Howell
Galactic mushrooms seek for gravitational waves
Tuesday, May 16, 2023: Are these galactic mushrooms? In truth, they’re gravitational wave-hunting telescopes. The European Southern Observatory activated a brand new set of three telescopes, called BlackGEM. The trio, situated at La Silla Observatory in Chile, will seek for gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves are indications of giant events, like black holes or neutron stars merging and colliding. “With BlackGEM, we aim to scale up the study of cosmic events with each gravitational waves and visual light,” principal investigator Paul Groot of Radboud University, within the Netherlands said in a press release. “The mix of the 2 tells us way more about these events than simply one or the opposite.”
Using each gravitational waves and visual light will make it easier to locate the source of those huge cosmic events, and to search for heavy elements akin to gold and platinum, ESO officials added. — Elizabeth Howell
Stratolaunch drops Talon-0 hypersonic prototype
Monday, May 15, 2023: Stratolaunch’s first Talon-0 hypersonic vehicle prototype drops freed from its Roc carrier plane for the primary time on this stunning photo captured by the corporate’s photographer Ethan Wagner during a test on May 13. The moment marked the primary time Stratolaunch has ever conducted a drop test from its massive Roc carrier plane, which is the biggest aircraft on this planet. The test was conducted off of California’s central coast within the Western Range overseen by the U.S. Space Force’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. – Tariq Malik
Volcanic plume showcases Earth commentary acuity
Friday, May 12, 2023: This dramatic volcanic image from 2021 was highlighted today (May 12) by the European Space Agency for instance of how Earth commentary can keep populations secure in case of natural disaster.
Here a volcanic plume erupts from the Japanese island of Nishinoshima, within the northwest Pacific Ocean. The image was captured by the powerful Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite. The island continues to grow as lava and ash accrue, as Nishinoshima has been periodically erupting and contributing to growth since a minimum of 1974.
“The yellowish discolouration of the water across the island is as a consequence of volcanic minerals, gas and seafloor sediment that’s being stirred up by the volcanic activity. It stretches for about 10 km (6 miles) to the southeast, where ocean currents turn it into vivid green swirls,” ESA officials wrote.
Satellite data can track the movement of the volcanic plumes, to regulate aircraft paths to cut back corrosion of jet engines or contamination of oxygen. Gases and aerosols may also drift over large, populated areas, so satellite predictions assist with reducing hazards to humans when air quality plummets. — Elizabeth Howell
Chinese space station has a cargo shipment on its way
Thursday, May 10, 2023: A Long March 7 rocket with the robotic Tianzhou 6 cargo ship lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island Wednesday (May 10) at 9:22 a.m. EDT (1322 GMT; 9:22 p.m. local time on Hainan).
Tianzhou 6 is on its strategy to the Tiangong space station, which China finished assembling in low Earth orbit in 2022. The launch “successfully sent the spacecraft into the predetermined orbit,” in line with an update from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (Google provided the interpretation to English.)
Tianzhou 6 includes clothes, drinking water and food for Tiangong’s current crew, who’re the three astronauts of the Shenzhou 15 mission and future Shenzhou 16 astronauts, in line with the state-run Chinese broadcaster CCTV. — Elizabeth Howell
Powerful jet of starstuff blasts into space
May 10, 2023: A stellar nursery shot out a big jet of fabric into space. The item, often called 244-440, resides within the Orion Nebula and is roughly 1,350 light-years from Earth.
The powerful emanation appears to be S-shaped and was captured by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile.
The strange curve within the jet could also be as a consequence of one star orbiting one other star, in line with an ESO statement. “The S-shaped jet of 244-440 suggests that what lurks at the middle of this object isn’t one but two stars orbiting one another,” officials wrote. “This orbital motion periodically changes the orientation of the jet, just like a water sprinkler.” Elizabeth Howell
NASA’s Super Guppy ships orbital hardware to Axiom Space
Tuesday, May 9, 2023: NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 25, carrying a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) on board. MPLM was used throughout the space shuttle program to send cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS), and was carried up into space periodically inside the shuttle’s payload bay.
The MPLM on board Guppy is now getting used by Houston-based Axiom Space, which is aiming to construct a set of modules on the ISS that can eventually detach right into a free-flying space station. Axiom has already sent up one private mission of its own, Ax-1, and goals to bring its second (Ax-2) into space no sooner than May 21.
Three MPLMs were built by Thales Alenia Space Italia (TASI) for the Italian Space Agency. Two of those modules, Leonardo and Raffaello, flew to space; it’s Raffaello that Axiom plans to repurpose. Leonardo is in space permanently now after conversion into an ISS storage module. In 2017, Lockheed Martin announced it’s going to refurbish the Donatello module right into a test and training module for astronauts aiming to do deep-space missions. — Elizabeth Howell
Hubble spots a galaxy with ripples of space-time
Monday, May 8, 2023: The Hubble Space Telescope captured a shocking set of galaxies from afar, often called a galaxy cluster. The cluster is named eMACS J1823.1+7822 and is about nine billion light-years from Earth within the constellation Draco.
Hubble turned its optics to this region to learn more about gravitational lensing. That phenomenon occurs when huge wells of gravity, like this galaxy cluster, bend light around them. The sunshine creates distortions within the background and might sometimes bring other galaxies or stars into view that will otherwise be invisible.
Learning more in regards to the nature of gravitational lensing can also make clear dark matter, which is a substance that can not be sensed with traditional telescopes. We all know little about its nature or composition. Dark matter, nonetheless, makes up a lot of the universe and its effects are visible in regions of strong gravity. — Elizabeth Howell
Mars moon Deimos glows at nighttime
Friday, May 5, 2023: A spacecraft near the Mars moon Deimos captured a fresh infrared view of the tiny natural satellite. The Hope Mars mission from the United Arab Emirates used its Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS) to scan nearly the entire surface of Deimos, which is one among two small moons circling the Red Planet.
“These data reveal the surface temperature variation, describe the surface physical properties, and reveal the composition of Mars’ smallest moon,” mission officials wrote in a tweet thread, adding the observed temperatures show the surface “isn’t perfectly homogenous, but does likely have a fine-grained regolith and [centimeter]-scale roughness.”
Hope’s observations suggest that Deimos could have been formed after pieces of Mars were ejected from a big planetary impact, on condition that the moon appears to be of a basaltic composition just like to the Red Planet. — Elizabeth Howell
Europe’s flagship weather satellite captures stunning full-color image of Earth
Thursday, May 4, 2023: A stunning recent image of Earth was released by Europe’ s weather satellite agency, EUMETSAT, together with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The image, taken by one among Europe’s next-generation weather satellites, Meteosat Third Generation – Imager 1 (MTG-I1), reveals the European and African continents in stunning clarity and full true color.
As evidenced within the crystal clear detail of the image of Earth taken on March 18, 2023, MTG-I1 will enable forecasters to rapidly and accurately detect and predict severe weather events. “This remarkable image gives us great confidence in our expectation that the MTG system will herald a brand new era within the forecasting of severe weather events,” EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans said in a statement published May 4. — Brett Tingley
International Space Station gazes into the Eye of the Sahara
Wednesday, May 3, 2023: Cameras aboard the International Space Station (ISS) gazed down into the Eye of the Sahara, also often called the Richat Structure, on April 26, 2023.
The Richat Structure is a geological feature in Mauritania consisting of concentric rings of sedimentary rock left behind by a volcanic dome that formed and eroded far back in Earth’s history, exposing the ring-like layers of rock seen within the image taken by ISS.
Within the foreground of the image, the Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory and Prichal docking module may be seen, as can the Soyuz MS-23 crew capsule. MS-23 was sent to the orbital lab to interchange one other Soyuz that infamously sprang a violent leak, causing a temporary shortage of “lifeboat” seats aboard the space station. — Brett Tingley
Galactic jellyfish dazzles amongst the celebs
Tuesday, May 2, 2023: The stunning jellyfish galaxy, JO175, is awash with stars on this Hubble Space Telescope image released on May 1, 2023. The stellar scene is situated over 650 million light-years away from Earth within the constellation Telescopium.
Jellyfish galaxies get their name from the long tendrils of star-forming gas and dirt that trail behind them, just like the tendrils on a jellyfish.
The Hubble Space Telescope has recently accomplished an in-depth study into these strange jellyfish clusters in a bid to analyze the origins and fates of their stars. — Daisy Dobrijevic
SpaceX Falcon Heavy soars into the sky
Monday, May 1, 2023 — SpaceX sent its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket to space for the sixth time ever on Sunday (April 30), together with three satellites.
The Falcon Heavy blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday at 8:26 p.m. EDT (0026 GMT on Monday, May 1). The launch took place after several delays as a consequence of weather, together with a last-minute abort on April 28. (SpaceX has not stated the rationale for the abort.)
The mission deployed the three satellites as planned about 4.5 hours after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed via Twitter early Monday morning. — Elizabeth Howell