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Astronomers using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have put together a detailed map of a rare collision between four galaxy clusters. Eventually, all four clusters – each with a mass of at least several hundred trillion times that of the Sun – will merge to form one of the most massive objects in the universe. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the cosmos that are held together by gravity. Clusters consist of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies embedded in hot gas, and contain an even larger amount of invisible dark matter. Sometimes two galaxy clusters collide, as in the case of the Bullet Cluster, and occasionally more than two will collide at the same time. The new observations show…

Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have structurally mated the first of four RS-25 engines to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will help power the first Artemis mission to the Moon. Integration of the RS-25 engines to the recently completed core stage structure is a collaborative, multistep process for NASA and its partners Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engines lead contractor. To complete the installation, the technicians will now integrate the propulsion and electrical systems. The installation process will be repeated for each of the four RS-25 engines. The four RS-25 engines used for Artemis I were delivered to Michoud from Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility at NASA’s Stennis Space…

Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks during the opening ceremony of the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The annual IAC conference covers the global space sector and presents the latest space information and developments from academia and industry. View the Flickr gallery. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky 2019年10月21日，美国副总统迈克·彭斯在华盛顿特区沃尔特·E·华盛顿会议中心举行的第70届国际宇航大会开幕式上发表讲话。一年一度的IAC大会涵盖了全球航天领域，介绍了最新的航天信息以及学术界和工业界的发展。 查看Flickr相册。 图片来源:NASA/Joel Kowsky

Amy Ross, a spacesuit engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, left, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, second from left, presented the latest generation spacesuits to the world on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Standing next to the administrator is Kristine Davis, a spacesuit engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, who wore a ground prototype of NASA’s new Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), and Dustin Gohmert, Orion Crew Survival Systems Project Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, who wore the Orion Crew Survival System suit, right, wave after being introduced. The xEMU suit improves on the suits previous worn on the Moon during the Apollo era and those currently in use for spacewalks outside the International Space Station and will be worn…

In the high desert of California, some of the most important aircraft in aviation history have been built and flown. NASA’s X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology) is an experimental piloted aircraft designed to fly faster than sound without producing the annoying – if not alarming – sonic booms of previous supersonic aircraft. It is the latest craft to take shape at Skunk Works, a renowned Lockheed Martin division that for the past 76 years has used a unique approach to design and manufacturing that has produced the nation’s most advanced airplanes. This artist’s concept of NASA’s QueSST jet reflects the airplane’s final configuration following years of research and design engineering. The jet is now under construction by Lockheed Martin at the company’s Skunk…

NASA’s Pegasus Barge arrived at the Launch Complex 39 turn basin wharf at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to make its first delivery to Kennedy in support of the agency’s Artemis missions. The upgraded 310-foot-long barge arrived Sept. 27, 2019, ferrying the 212-foot-long Space Launch System rocket core stage pathfinder. Weighing in at 228,000 pounds, the pathfinder is a full-scale mock-up of the rocket’s core stage and will be used to validate ground support equipment and demonstrate it can be integrated with Kennedy facilities. Image Credit: NASA 美国国家航空航天局的飞马号驳船抵达位于佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的发射中心39号掉头盆地码头，这是它为支持NASA的阿尔特弥斯任务首次向肯尼迪航天中心交付。升级后的310英尺长的驳船于2019年9月27日抵达，运载着212英尺长的太空发射系统火箭核心级探路者号。“探路者”重22.8万磅，是火箭核心级的全尺寸模型，将用于验证地面支持设备，并证明它可以与肯尼迪航天中心的设施整合。 图片来源: NASA

Frank Rubio was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class and reported for duty in August 2017. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and earned a Doctorate of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Before attending medical school, he served as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot and flew more than 1,100 hours, including more than 600 hours of combat and imminent danger time during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Rubio is a board certified family physician and flight surgeon. At the time of his selection, he was serving in the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). #HispanicHeritageMonth Image Credit: NASA 弗兰克·卢比奥被美国宇航局选中加入2017年宇航员候选人班，并于2017年8月报到。他毕业于美国军事学院，并在健康科学统一服务大学获得医学博士学位。在进入医学院之前，他是一名UH-60黑鹰直升机飞行员，飞行时间超过1100小时，其中包括在波斯尼亚、阿富汗和伊拉克部署期间超过600小时的战斗和迫在眉睫的危险时间。卢比奥是经董事会认证的家庭医生和飞行外科医生。他被选中的时候，他在第十特种部队(空降部队)服役。 # HispanicHeritageMonth 图片来源:NASA

In our vast universe, the heaviest black holes grew from seeds. Nourished by the gas and dust they consume, or by merging with other dense objects, these seeds grow in size and heft to form the centers of galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. But unlike in the realm of plants, the seeds of giant black holes must have been black holes, too. And no one has ever found these seeds — yet. One idea is that supermassive black holes — the equivalent of hundreds of thousands to billions of Suns in mass — grew from a population of smaller black holes that has never been seen. This elusive group, the “intermediate-mass black holes,” would weigh in somewhere between 100 and 100,000 Suns. Among…