NASA announced today that it has partnered with DARPA to develop DRACO (Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations), a nuclear-powered rocket that could be used for future manned missions to Mars. A nuclear thermal rocket makes sense because it allows for faster transit time and increased science payload capacity, all the while reducing risk for astronauts.
This isn’t a massive Martian dust storm, but rather the unusual Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AEMC) that returns to Mars each year. Why? Well, the 1,100-mile cloud returns every spring because 5% – 10% of the planet’s atmosphere has the perfect conditions to make recreate it, although a probe would need to study the water ice contain within to confirm this.
Sure, it’s not a duck-shaped rock, but Tissint is just one of five known Mars meteorites that have crash landed right here on Earth. This particular specimen was found in Morocco over 11-years ago and believed to have formed hundreds of million of years ago before being launched into space by a vicious event.
You’ve heard JWST images turned into sound, now check out an image of the Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, created with NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory data and an infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The X-rays appear as royal blue and purple, revealing gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by shock waves, similar to sonic booms, generated by the winds from massive stars.
NASA has just released a proposal for building an oxygen pipeline in the Moon’s lunar south pole region for future Artemis astronauts. This oxygen will be used for human habitats, rovers, life support systems, and an oxidizer for launch vehicles departing the Moon. These oxygen extraction technologies are set to be demonstrated at large scale on the Moon as early as 2024, while supporting Artemis astronauts as early as 2026.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured countless galaxies over the years, but this one of UGC 7983 has a cosmic intruder. This small irregular dwarf galaxy located 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo, is being photobombed by a minor asteroid streaking across the upper left-hand side of the image.
Another day, another perplexing Hubble Space Telescope observation. This time, the space telescope observed a star’s final moments, classified as AT2022dsb, in which it passes near a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy. Its outer gasses are then pulled into the black hole’s gravitational field and shredded as tidal forces pull it apart.
We know that Pluto may have a liquid ocean beneath its surface, but how many have seen the dwarf planet’s icy mountains? NASA’s New Horizons space probe captured amazing images of mountains at the edge of Pluto’s heart-like region Tombaugh Regio that measure up to 11,000-feet high and can be best compared to North America’s Rocky Mountains.
There’s Ross 508 b, and then TOI 700 e, a recently discovered habitable Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the Goldilocks Zone of its star. The rocky planet is 95% of Earth’s size and may also be tidally locked, which means it takes 28 days to orbit its star, placing it in between planet c and d, or the habitable zone.
Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
ESA has Shaun the Sheep for their missions, while NASA’s Snoopy astronaut plush has just returned from the Artemis I mission. This zero-gravity indicator flew aboard Orion after being unpacked from his specially designed transport case. The beagle was secured inside Orion during the journey to the Moon and back to prepare for crewed missions.