Astronomers studying a stellar cluster within the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) have found young stars spiraling in towards the center of the cluster. The cluster, NGC 346, is an open cluster embedded within a glowing cloud of gas, which is typical of stellar nurseries – places where new stars are formed. The outer spiral arm of this star forming region appears to be funneling gas, dust and new stars into the center, which researchers describe as an efficient way to fuel the birth of new stars.
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3D sky: How astronomers measure the size, luminosity and distance of stars
Stars differ in size, luminosity and distance from us. We discuss how astronomers measure these three values to understand the three-dimensional sky.
See the crescent moon shine above the red star Antares tonight (Sept. 30)
The brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius, Antares will appear below the moon on Friday evening.
Behold! Our closest view of Jupiter's ocean moon Europa in 22 years
NASA's Juno spacecraft skimmed close above the surface of icy Europa Thursday (Sept. 29), capturing a view of the crust that is just the start of our new study of this ocean world.
Moon science generation
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What do you call three or more space fanatics? Interns.
Europe’s new weather satellite sets sail
The first of Europe’s Meteosat Third Generation satellites is now safely aboard a ship and making its way across the Atlantic to French Guiana where it will be readied for liftoff in December. Once launched into geostationary orbit, 36 000 km above Earth, this new satellite, which carries two new extremely sensitive instruments, will take weather forecasting to the next level.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 30 – October 8
The Moon poses with Antares at dusk. A few nights later, lunar sunrise unveils the sharp black line of the Straight Wall in Mare Nubium for small-telescope users. Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars span the evening sky. Mercury climbs onstage at dawn.
Firefly Aerospace aborts orbital test flight just after engine ignition
Firefly planned to send its Alpha rocket to orbit on a test flight early Friday morning (Sept. 30), and it ticked off a lot of boxes along the way — including engine ignition.
Earth from Space: Melt ponds in West Greenland
During spring and summer, as the air warms up and the sun beats down on the Greenland Ice Sheet, melt ponds pop up. Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image.
New weather satellite on its way to launch
Video: 00:04:04
The final pre-launch preparations for the first Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite are underway. The first satellite, called MTG-I1, built by a European industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space carries two imagers: an advanced Flexible Combined Imager and, in a first for Europe, a Lightning Imager that will allow the earlier detection of storms and extreme weather events, as well as improve aviation safety.
Mysterious Europa Gets an Extreme Closeup From NASA’s Juno Probe
Over the course of a brief two-hour opportunity, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a rare close look at Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter that’s thought to harbor a hidden ocean — and perhaps an extraterrestrial strain of marine life.
The Moon was Pummeled by Asteroids at the Same Time the Dinosaurs Died. Coincidence?
It only takes a quick look at the Moon to see its impact-beaten surface. There are craters everywhere. Some of those impact sites apparently date back to the same time some very large asteroids were whacking Earth. One of them formed Chixculub Crater under the Yucatan Peninsula. That impact set in motion catastrophic events that wiped out much of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
Live coverage: Firefly ready for middle-of-the-night launch from California
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of Firefly’s Alpha rocket on the “To the Black” test flight with seven small nanosatellites and picosatellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX, NASA look at launching Dragon to service Hubble Space Telescope
Astronauts could visit the Hubble Space Telescope again someday, this time on a SpaceX Dragon.
SpaceX, NASA studying commercial crew mission to Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis during the last servicing mission in May 2009. Credit: NASA
NASA and SpaceX will study the potential use of a commercial Dragon crew spacecraft to reboost and service the Hubble Space Telescope, a 32-year-old observatory last upgraded by a space shuttle in 2009, officials announced Thursday.
DART Impact Seen by Hubble and Webb
What happens when you whack a little asteroid with an even littler spacecraft? People around the world watched on the 26th of September when the DART mission smashed into the side of Dimorphos. This tiny worldlet is a companion asteroid to Didymos. It was the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid by modifying its orbit. Amateur observer networks and professional observatories tracked the meetup from the ground. In a first, both Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took simultaneous images and data.
NASA and SpaceX Will Study Low-Cost Plan to Give Hubble a Boost
NASA and SpaceX say they’ll conduct a feasibility study into a plan to reboost the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to a more sustainable orbit, potentially at little or no cost to NASA.
The First Telescope Images of DART's Impact are Starting to Arrive
On September 26th, at 23:14 UTC (07:14 PM EST; 04:14 PM PST), NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) spacecraft successfully struck the 160-meter (525 ft) moonlet Dimorphos that orbits the larger Didymos asteroid. The event was live-streamed all around the world and showed footage from DART’s Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) as it rapidly approached Dimorphos. In the last few seconds, DART was close enough that individual boulders could be seen on the moonlet’s surface.
Firefly ready for another try to launch test flight of smallsat rocket
Firefly’s Alpha rocket stands on its launch pad Sept. 29 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: Brian Sandoval / Spaceflight Now
After a delay of several weeks due to technical issues, bad weather, and a busy launch range, Firefly Aerospace is set to try again early Friday to send its commercial small satellite launcher into orbit on a test flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
Ingenuity Mars helicopter notches 33rd Red Planet flight
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has taken flight again, staying aloft for nearly a minute this past weekend on its 33rd extraterrestrial sortie.
Russian Soyuz brings three cosmonauts home from space station
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
