August 2023

The Progress MS-24 cargo spacecraft blasting off (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the Progress MS-24 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route. The cargo spacecraft began its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 85 or 85P. In this mission, the route used is the one that requires about two days.

The Ring Nebula as seen by MIRI (Image ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow, N. Cox, R. Wesson)

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Just a couple of weeks after the publication of an image of the Ring Nebula, one of the most iconic planetary nebulae, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument, another image arrived, this time, captured by the MIRI instrument. Several filters were used to capture the emissions at various wavelengths in the mid-infrared to offer details that complement those offered by the NIRCam. The new details also indicate the presence of various compounds and about ten concentric arcs just beyond the outer edge of the main ring. These new results offer new insights into the processes taking place in the last stages of a star’s life and, in this case, the interaction with a possible companion.

Photo of the Moon surface taken by the Luna 25 lander (Photo courtesy Roscosmos)

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The Russian space agency Roscosmos has confirmed that its Luna 25 lander crashed on the Moon following an anomaly in one of the maneuvers that was supposed to lead to its Moon landing on Monday. The problems began on Saturday, when there was the problem and communications were lost. An examination of the telemetry data received up to that point led to the conclusion that the impulse was excessive, leading to a trajectory that caused a crash. Yet another problem in the Russian space program will bring consequences yet to be assessed in the Luna-Glob program which is based on increasingly ambitious missions for the next few years and had already accumulated years of delay.

Artist's concept of the HD 45166 system with the helium star in the foreground (Image ESO/L. Calçada)

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An article published in the journal “Science” reports a study that identifies one of the stars in the binary system HD 45166 as the likely precursor of a magnetar. A team of researchers led by Tomer Shenar of the University of Amsterdam used various telescopes to study a so-called helium star, a massive star that is nearing the end of its life and has already ejected its outer layers and is left with a core formed by helium on its surface. This star revealed an extremely powerful magnetic field, estimated to be about 100,000 times the Earth’s.

Saturn seen on radio waves from the VLA (Image S. Dvello (NRAO/AUI/NSF), I. de Pater et al (Berkeley))

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An article published in the journal “Science Advances” reports a study on the megastorms active on the planet Saturn. A team of researchers used observations conducted with the VLA (Very Large Array) that allowed them to map the radio emissions coming from under Saturn’s surface and find anomalies in the distribution of ammonia gas. The conclusions of the study are that megastorms can last even a century and leave consequences that persist in the atmosphere even longer. This also shows differences from the giant storms existing on Jupiter.