Lying inside our home galaxy, the Milky Way, this Herbig–Haro object is a turbulent birthing ground for new stars in a region known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away. Herbig–Haro (HH) objects are bright patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars that for […]
The solar system might be a lot hairier than we thought. This illustration shows Earth surrounded by theoretical filaments of dark matter called “hairs.” Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance that makes up about 27 percent of all matter and energy in the universe. The regular
Carol “Bird Song” Harrison is a a quality assurance specialist (QAS) working in the Mission Assurance Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center. She has degrees in mechanical technology and mechanical engineering. After graduating from the NASA Apprentice Program in 1992, she worked
What is a black hole? A black hole is an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it. A black hole’s “surface,” called its event horizon, defines the boundary where the velocity needed to escape exceeds the speed of light, which is the speed li
The first of 10 pieces of the twin Space Launch System (SLS) rocket boosters for NASA’s Artemis I mission was placed on the mobile launcher Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers used one of five overhead cranes to lif
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Nov. 21, 2020, at 12:17 p.m. EST. The Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission consists of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satel
Observed with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the faint galaxy featured in this image is known as UGC 12588. Unlike many spiral galaxies, UGC 12588 displays neither a bar of stars across its center nor the classic prominent spiral arm pattern. Instead, to a viewer, its circular, white and mostl
Marcellus Proctor is an enrolled member of the Piscataway-Conoy Nation of Southern Maryland and the assistant chief in the Electrical Engineering Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In this position, he strives “to ensure that resources are allocated to support his employees
On Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, the SpaceX Crew Dragon arrived at the International Space Station for docking, carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi. In this image the Crew Dragon spacecraft was on approach
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy LRG-3-817, also known as SDSS J090122.37+181432.3. The galaxy, its image distorted by the effects of gravitational lensing, appears as a long arc to the left of the central galaxy cluster. Gravitational lensing occurs when a large distri
