詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜在岩石行星形成区探测到水蒸气
NASA的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的MIRI（中红外仪器）进行的新测量发现，该系统的内盘距离恒星不到1亿英里（1.6亿公里），可能是岩质类地行星形成的区域发现了水蒸气。（地球的轨道距离太阳9,300万英里。）
一朵野花的特写
Elaborate Passiflora incarnata, or purple passionflower, sit pretty in a field at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 13, 2023. Kennedy and the National Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge share a border and are home to more than 330 native and migratory bird species, 65 amphibian and reptile species, and more than 1,000 different types of plants including the purple passionflower. Kennedy is responsible for more protected species than any other federal property in the continental United States, and there are diverse and varied efforts to protect and preserve ecological systems at the center while simultaneously supporting the NASA mission. Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux 2023年6月13日，在佛罗里达州的NASA肯尼迪航天中心，精致的西番莲，或紫色西番莲漂亮地坐落在田野里。肯尼迪航天中心和国家梅里特岛野生动物保护区接壤，共有330多种本土和候鸟、65种两栖动物和爬行动物，以及包括紫色西番莲在内的1,000多种不同类型植物的家园。肯尼迪航天中心负责的受保护物种比美国大陆上任何其他联邦财产都要多，在支持NASA任务的同时，该中心有各种各样的努力来保护和维护中心的生态系统。 图片来源: NASA/Frank Michaux
流星解体时的元素发光
2023年7月24日 Chemicals Glow as a Meteor Disintegrates Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kleinburger Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured here is a fireball, a disintegrating meteor that was not only one of the brightest the photographer has ever seen, but colorful. The meteor was captured by chance in mid-July with a camera set up on Hochkar Mountain in Austria to photograph the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. The radiant grit, likely cast off by a comet or asteroid long ago, had the misfortune to enter Earth’s atmosphere. Colors in meteors usually originate from ionized chemical elements released as the meteor disintegrates, with blue-green typically originating from magnesium, calcium radiating violet, and…
OSIRIS-REx任务在犹他沙漠彩排
In preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, recovery teams tour the projected landing ellipse in the Utah desert on July 17, 2023. The sample, collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, will return to Earth on September 24, 2023. The rocks and dust collected from the asteroid will offer scientists a window into the time when the Sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago. The team has rehearsed portions of the recovery operation many times this year, but this was the most realistic rehearsal yet. See highlights from the rehearsal on the OSIRIS-REx blog. Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber 2023年7月17日，为了准备从NASA的OSIRIS-REx任务中取回样本回收舱，回收团队在犹他州沙漠的预计着陆椭圆中巡视。该样本于2020年10月由NASA的OSIRIS-REx航天器从小行星贝努上采集，将于2023年9月24日返回地球。从小行星上收集到的岩石和尘埃将为科学家们提供一扇了解大约45亿年前太阳和行星形成的窗口。 该团队今年已经多次排练了部分恢复操作，但这是迄今为止最真实的一次排练。在OSIRIS-REx博客上查看彩排集锦。 影像来源：NASA/Keegan Barber
安提凯希拉天体仪
2023年7月23日 The Antikythera Mechanism Image Credit & License: Marsyas, Wikipedia Explanation: It does what? No one knew that 2,000 years ago, the technology existed to build such a device. The Antikythera mechanism, pictured, is now widely regarded as the first computer. Found at the bottom of the sea aboard a decaying Greek ship, its complexity prompted decades of study, and even today some of its functions likely remain unknown. X-ray images of the device, however, have confirmed that a main function of its numerous clock-like wheels and gears is to create a portable, hand-cranked, Earth-centered, orrery of the sky, predicting future star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The corroded core of the Antikythera mechanism‘s largest gear is featured, spanning about…
阿波罗11号：阿姆斯特朗的自拍照
2023年7月22日 Apollo 11: Armstrong’s Lunar Selfie Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong; Processing: Michael Ranger Explanation: A photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon taken by Neil Armstrong, was digitally reversed to create this lunar selfie. Captured in July 1969 following the Apollo 11 moon landing, Armstrong’s original photograph recorded not only the magnificent desolation of an unfamiliar world, but Armstrong himself reflected in Aldrin’s curved visor. In the unwrapped image, the spherical distortion of the reflection in Aldrin’s helmet has been reversed. The transformed view features Armstrong himself from Aldrin’s perspective. Since Armstrong took the original picture, today the image represents a fifty-four year old lunar selfie. Aldrin’s visor reflection in the original image appears here on the left. Bright (but distorted)…
银河卷云：Mandel Wilson 9
2023年7月21日 Galactic Cirrus: Mandel Wilson 9 Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Rodrigues Santos Explanation: The combined light of stars along the Milky Way are reflected by these cosmic dust clouds that soar 300 light-years or so above the plane of our galaxy. Known to some as integrated flux nebulae and commonly found at high galactic latitudes, the dusty galactic cirrus clouds are faint. But they can be traced over large regions of the sky toward the North and South Galactic poles. Along with the reflection of starlight, studies indicate the dust clouds produce a faint reddish luminescence as interstellar dust grains convert invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Also capturing nearby Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies, this remarkably deep, wide-field image explores…
NASA的毅力号火星车以新的视角观察火星
一台名为SHERLOC的尖端仪器在最近的一项研究中发挥了关键作用，该仪器用于寻找与古代生命潜在相关的分子。
54年前：阿波罗11号宇航员在月球上行走
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during a walk on the lunar surface. The lunar module is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, mission commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. Image Credit: NASA 首次登月任务阿波罗11号的登月舱飞行员、宇航员巴兹·奥尔德林在月球表面行走时，在展开的美国国旗旁摆出姿势拍照。登月舱在左边，宇航员的脚印在月球的土壤中清晰可见。任务指挥官、宇航员尼尔·A·阿姆斯特朗用70毫米的哈苏月球表面相机拍摄了这张照片。 影像来源：NASA
M64：黑眼星系特写
2023年7月20日 M64: The Black Eye Galaxy Close Up Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing: Jonathan Lodge Explanation: This magnificent spiral galaxy is Messier 64, often called the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its dark-lidded appearance in telescopic views. The spiral’s central region, about 7,400 light-years across, is pictured in this reprocessed image from the Hubble Space Telescope. M64 lies some 17 million light-years distant in the otherwise well-groomed northern constellation Coma Berenices. The enormous dust clouds partially obscuring M64’s central region are laced with young, blue star clusters and the reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star forming regions. But imposing clouds of dust are not this galaxy’s only peculiar feature. Observations show that M64 is actually composed of two…