2024

Photo of the area where a river delta entered the lake that existed in Jezero Crater (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

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An article published in the journal “Science Advances” reports new evidence that Jezero Crater on Mars was a lake when the red planet was young and much more Earth-like. A team of researchers coordinated by UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) and the University of Oslo used data collected by the RIMFAX radar (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) mounted on NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance, exploiting its ability to carry out detections underground to a depth of 20 meters.

Data collected between May 20 and December 8, 2022, in a contact area between the crater floor and the delta of an ancient river, made it possible to map that area and reconstruct the sequence of erosions and sediment deposits. Conditions were favorable for the development of life forms and there may still be traces of them in the samples collected by Perseverance.

The Cygnus S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson cargo spacecraft captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm (Image NASA TV)

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Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft, launched last Tuesday, January 30, has just reached the International Space Station and was captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Loral O’Hara, assisted by his colleague Jasmin Moghbeli, will soon begin the slow maneuver to move the Cygnus until it docks with the Station’s Unity module after about two hours.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson cargo spacecraft blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (Photo courtesy SpaceX)

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A few hours ago, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on its NG-20 or CRS NG-20 mission. After about 15 minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and set on its course. This is the first of at least three resupply missions to the International Space Station with various payloads launched using the Falcon 9 rocket while waiting for the new version of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket to be ready.

Mosaic of the 19 spiral galaxies studied by the PHANGS project

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The images of 19 spiral galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been released as part of the PHANGS (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS) project. These are galaxies up to 65 million light-years away that we see face-on, and this allows to better observe the stars inside them, an optimal situation for a project focused on star formation processes. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments were employed to cover the near and mid-infrared resulting in many new details.

LEDA 60847 (Image NASA/ESA/A. Barth (University of California - Irvine)/M. Koss (Eureka Scientific Inc.)/A. Robinson (Rochester Institute of Technology)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))

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An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows LEDA 60847, a group of interacting galaxies. The largest galaxy has an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a supermassive black hole surrounded by materials that are heated to the point of generating the electromagnetic emissions behind its luminosity. This galaxy is interacting with its neighbors and in a very long time, they will form a single larger galaxy.