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NASA | ESA Space Updates

@nasaupdates.bsky.social

Space news from around the globe, all in one place Focusing on NASA & ESA Missions Artemis II 🚀🌕 Note we are not NASA just #Spacenerds #Moonjoy

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NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 21h ago

🚀 NASA’s commercial partners are prepping for Moon Base operations! Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK1 lander completed thermal-vacuum testing at NASA Johnson Space Center, verifying it can endure lunar conditions ahead of its upcoming mission. 🌕 1/4

Artist’s rendering of the Moon’s South Pole region. Glowing points of light scattered across the lunar surface represent surface assets supporting sustained human and robotic operations near the South Pole.
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2d ago

NASA’s new NavCube3-mini navigation receiver is about half the size of a shoebox and weighs only 3.5 pounds! Operating on less than 20 watts of power (like a laptop), it tracks Earth-based GPS and Galileo signals across lunar distances. 1/3

NavCube3-mini in the Space Navigation Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., prior to delivery to Intuitive Machines for integration into the Altus-1 lunar relay satellite. NASA/Dave Ryan
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 4d ago

🚀 NASA has opened the Flight Dynamics Research Facility at Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA! It marks NASA’s first major new wind tunnel in more than 40 years, giving researchers a cutting-edge platform to test future aircraft, rockets, and spacecraft. 1/4

A group of people in suits stand in front of a massive square building that has two big square openings in it that go all the way through. The people all hold big pairs of scissors, as they wait to cut a red, white, and blue ribbon placed in front of them. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · last wk.

NASA has announced CAPSTONE 02, targeted to launch in 2027! The mission will deploy two identical 400 kg (882 lbs) small spacecraft into lunar orbit to test essential infrastructure for future deep space exploration and NASA’s Moon Base. 🚀 1/4

Artist's rendering of two identical spacecraft in lunar orbit. One spacecraft appears in the foreground with extended solar arrays spanning the width of the image, while the second appears behind it. The Moon fills the left side of the background. Credit: Terran Orbital
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · last wk.

Using NASA Hubble data, astronomers found that star formation in the Andromeda galaxy has been slowing for 500M years. 500 million years ago, it formed 1 solar mass of stars per year—today, that rate has plummeted to just 1/5th of our Sun’s mass per year. 🌌✨ 1/4

An image showing countless stars in the Andromeda galaxy, with two small portions labeled "1" and "2" inset on the left side. Squares at the top and bottom of the image, which were not covered in the survey, are displayed in black. Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, Benjamin Williams (UWashington), Zhuo Chen (UWashington), L. Clifton Johnson (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2w ago

📸 Earth & Moon family portrait! NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft snapped new images of Earth and the Moon in visible and thermal infrared light. Testing its cameras on these familiar targets acts as a vital calibration check before heading off to study Mars. 1/4

Against black space, Earth appears at left as a thin white-green crescent lit along its right edge. The Moon, slightly smaller and dimmer, sits at upper right as a matching tan crescent lit on the same side. Only a sliver of each world catches sunlight; the rest of both disks is lost in darkness.
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2w ago

Did you know Mars has auroras formed by a mini version of Earth's "Dungey cycle"? 🌌 MAVEN data revealed that magnetic reconnection fires charged particles into Mars' atmosphere on a smaller scale, creating localized auroral displays! 1/4

This illustration depicts charged particles from a solar storm stripping away charged particles of Mars' atmosphere, one of the processes of Martian atmosphere loss studied by NASA's MAVEN mission. NASA/GSFC
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2w ago

NASA’s Juno mission has officially measured temperatures below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io for the first time! Using its Microwave Radiometer, scientists can now peer into the volcanic world’s shallow crust rather than just surface lava. 🌋✨ 1/4

TThe north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during the spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from that flyby and one on Feb. 3, 2024, is helping scientists understand Io’s interior. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2w ago

Did you know? The pulsar at the heart of the Lighthouse Nebula (PSR J1101−6101) spins an incredible 16 times per second! 🌌 These collapsed star cores pack more mass than our Sun into an area the size of a city—making them extreme natural physics labs. 1/4

The Lighthouse Nebula (upper left) and a pulsar (lower right) are illuminated against a spotty starfield. The part of the nebula shown in this image looks like a diffuse, purple cloud with a bright star in the center. The pulsar looks like a bright white streak of light with a purple jet extending from one end, forming the shape of a checkmark. Credits: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./J.T. Dinsmore et al.; IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J.T. Dinsmore et al., Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA; Optical: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2w ago

🪐 Astronomers using NASA's Webb Telescope studied exoplanet WD 1856 b, a gas giant that is roughly the size of Jupiter but orbits a dead white dwarf star that's only the size of Earth—making the planet 7 times larger than its star! 1/4

Exoplanet WD 1856 b, shown in this artist’s concept, is a gas giant that orbits its star at a distance 50 times closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope determined the planet’s temperature and detected molecules in its atmosphere. Credits: Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 3w ago

Before NASA puts boots back on the Moon in 2028, the Artemis III mission in 2027 will pull off an epic test run in Earth orbit! Teams will practice docking NASA’s Orion spacecraft with commercial landers to make sure everything is rock solid for the actual lunar landing. 🚀🌕 1/4

These artist's concepts depict NASA's Orion spacecraft and SpaceX's Starship human landing system test article during docking operations as part of NASA's upcoming Artemis III demonstration mission in low Earth orbit. SpaceXThese artist's concepts depict Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 human landing system test article in Earth orbit and docked with NASA's Orion spacecraft as part of NASA's upcoming Artemis III demonstration mission in low Earth orbit. Blue Origin
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 3w ago

Did you know ESA’s Hera mission got its name from the Greek goddess of marriage? 🌌 The team chose it because Hera is exploring a binary (double) asteroid system, Didymos and Dimorphos. The name perfectly captures the cosmic "marriage" binding these two space rocks together! 1/4

ESA's Hera mission for planetary defence seen approaching the boulder-strewn Dimorphos asteroid. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s approximately half-tonne DART spacecraft impacted the boulder covered Dimorphos asteroid at a speed of 6.1 km/s. This first experiment in the kinetic impact method of asteroid deflection was successful: observations from Earth show the 11 hour 55 minute orbit of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid Didymos was shortened by around 33 minutes (measured to an uncertainty level of plus or minus a minute). Hera, due to arrive in the Didymos binary asteroid system at the end of 2026, will gather close-up data including ascertaining the mass and makeup of Dimorphos to help turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. CREDIT ESA-Science Office
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 3w ago

Astronomers using NASA’s Webb Telescope have discovered a new giant planet: Beta Pictoris d! Hidden in one of the most studied planetary systems in our galaxy, it's the third planet found orbiting the young star. 🌌🔭 1/4

Artist's concept of the Beta Pictoris planetary system. One edge of a smooth, dusty disk that looks like cloud wisps extends across the upper third of the image. Just below that, in the left third of the image, the star glows white and is small. Just to the left of the star there is a tiny white dot, planet Beta Pictoris c. To the right of the star, about twice the distance between Beta Pictoris c and the star is another bright dot, representing planet Beta Pictoris b. A third planet, Beta Pictoris d is larger than the other two, and appears in the right third of the illustration. The planet has subtle orange cloud bands, and the side facing the star is illuminated. Below this planet, the other wispy edge of the dusty disk that circles the star crosses the bottom right corner of the illustration below Beta Pictoris d from 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock. The black background of space is speckled with distant stars. The words "Artist's Concept" appears at the lower left corner.
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 4w ago

To celebrate its 4th science anniversary, NASA’s Webb Space Telescope captured stunning new images of Centaurus A! Using near- and mid-infrared light, Webb cut through thick cosmic dust to expose millions of individual stars in the active galaxy for the first time. 🌟✨ 1/4

A photo of Centaurus A revealing its intricate, highly-detailed inner structure. Rings of gas and stars glow white and twist around a swirling, pinkish center. Distant stars and galaxies densely dot the background with purple light. Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 4w ago

Progress is in motion for the Artemis IV mission! Over at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, the SLS core stage liquid oxygen tank has been successfully relocated. The massive hardware is now lined up for detailed inspections before advancing to the next round of production. 🚀 #Artemis

Image shows NASA teams transporting a towering, silver, 51-foot-tall liquid oxygen tank from the main factory to a nearby high bay at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. The SLS (Space Launch System) hardware stands outside the facility beneath a vivid blue sky dotted with clouds, creating a striking backdrop. Workers positioned alongside the tank emphasize its extraordinary scale, illustrating the immense size of the flight hardware. Credit: NASA/Eric BordelonImage shows NASA teams transporting a towering, silver, 51-foot-tall liquid oxygen tank from the main factory to a nearby high bay at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. The SLS (Space Launch System) hardware stands outside the facility beneath a vivid blue sky dotted with clouds, creating a striking backdrop. Workers positioned alongside the tank emphasize its extraordinary scale, illustrating the immense size of the flight hardware. Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · last mo.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has received two of the four RS-25 engines designated for the #Artemis III moon mission. Combined, these engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of liftoff thrust, powering the Space Launch System rocket during the initial 8 minutes of its journey into space.

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · last mo.

Did you know the Moon actually has an atmosphere? 🌕 But it's extremely thin—containing about one million billion (10¹⁵) times fewer molecules per cubic centimeter than Earth's! It has just one major layer called the exosphere. 🚀 1/4

Earth’s atmosphere has five major layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The Moon’s atmosphere contains only one major layer: its exosphere. These images are not to scale; Earth is much larger than the Moon, and neither world's atmosphere has a fixed outer limit. Credit: NASA/Vi NguyenEarth’s atmosphere has five major layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The Moon’s atmosphere contains only one major layer: its exosphere. These images are not to scale; Earth is much larger than the Moon, and neither world's atmosphere has a fixed outer limit. Credit: NASA/Vi Nguyen
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2mo ago

To study auroras up close, NASA uses sounding rockets! 🚀 These rockets take measurements at altitudes between 30 and 800 miles—elevations that are too high for standard weather balloons to reach, yet too low for orbiting satellites to safely fly through. #NASA 1/4

Image credit: NASA/Jessica Meir This photo from the International Space Station shows the aurora australis arcing over Earth during an active solar event
NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Lyrids meteor shower in April, Meteoroid Environments Office captured several lunar impacts! 🌕☄️ The lunar surface provides millions of square kilometers of collecting area visible from Earth, helping scientists measure larger meteoroids and evaluate potential hazards to future spacecraft! 🌕🚀 1/4