NASA’s CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed final maneuvers to place it in its target orbit around the Moon, refining its path in the orbit it arrived to last week.
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Orion Approaches Moon
On Nov. 20, the fifth day of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the tip of one of Orion’s solar array wings captured this footage of the spacecraft and the Moon as it continued to grow nearer to our lunar neighbor. via NASA https://ift.tt/41voIKS
NASA to Share Orion Update Today After Spacecraft Flies by Moon
NASA will host a news conference at 5 p.m. EST today, Monday, Nov. 21, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss Orion’s lunar flyby as part of the Artemis I mission.
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The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble
Stars can make beautiful patterns as they age — sometimes similar to flowers or insects. NGC 6302, the Butterfly Nebula, is a notable example. Though its gaseous wingspan covers over 3 light-years and its estimated surface temperature exceeds 200,000 degrees C, the aging central star of NGC 6302, the featured planetary nebula, has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in visible and ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp close-up was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is processed here to show off remarkable details of the complex planetary nebula, highlighting in particular light emitted by oxygen (shown as blue), hydrogen (green), and nitrogen (red). NGC 6302 lies about 3,500 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). Planetary nebulas evolve from outer atmospheres of stars like our Sun, but usually fade in about 20,000 years. via NASA https://ift.tt/Q4y1YSh
Airglow Ripples over Tibet
Why would the sky look like a giant target? Airglow. Following a giant thunderstorm over Bangladesh in late April, giant circular ripples of glowing air appeared over Tibet, China, as pictured here. The unusual pattern is created by atmospheric gravity waves, waves of alternating air pressure that can grow with height as the air thins, in this case about 90-kilometers up. Unlike auroras powered by collisions with energetic charged particles and seen at high latitudes, airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light in a chemical reaction. More typically seen near the horizon, airglow keeps the night sky from ever being completely dark. via NASA https://ift.tt/nGzZjJQ
Artemis 1 Moonshot
When the Artemis 1 mission’s Orion spacecraft makes its November 21 powered flyby of the Moon, denizens of planet Earth will see the Moon in a waning crescent phase. The spacecraft will approach to within about 130 kilometers of the lunar surface on its way to a distant retrograde orbit some 70,000 kilometers beyond the Moon. But the Moon was at last quarter for the November 16 launch and near the horizon in the dark early hours after midnight. It’s captured here in skies over Kennedy Space Center along with the SLS rocket engines and solid rocket boosters lofting the uncrewed Orion to space. Ragged fringes appearing along the bright edge of the sunlit lunar nearside are caused as pressure waves generated by the rocket’s passage change the index of refraction along the camera’s line of sight. via NASA https://ift.tt/6CY97Rv
NASA Awards Contract for Liquid Helium Acquisition at Kennedy
NASA has selected Air Products and Chemicals, Inc of Allentown, Pennsylvania, to supply 33 million liters of liquid helium to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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NASA Awards Extension for Space, Earth Science Data Analysis Contract
NASA has awarded a six-month extension to ADNET Systems Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, for the Space and Earth Science Data Analysis (SESDA IV) contract.
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Hubble Views a Billowing Cosmic Cloud
A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. via NASA https://ift.tt/DnTiW9y
Maryland, Oklahoma Students to Hear from Space Station Astronauts
Students from Maryland and Oklahoma will have the opportunity next week to hear from astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
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