Space Thread

[spaminator]

Astronomers create dazzling, elaborate map of nearby galaxy in thousands of colours
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Jun 18, 2025 • 1 minute read

This handout provided by the European Southern Observatory shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT).
This handout provided by the European Southern Observatory shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Photo by European Southern Observatory /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have revealed a nearby spiral galaxy in all its brilliant glory, shining in thousands of colours.


The dazzling panoramic shot released Wednesday of the Sculptor galaxy by a telescope in Chile is so detailed that it’s already serving as a star-packed map.


Scientists used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to observe the galaxy for some 50 hours, stitching together more than 100 exposures to create the picture. The image spans 65,000 light-years, almost the entire galaxy. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

Sculptor — officially labelled NGC 253 — is considered a starburst galaxy, one heavy with stellar action. It’s located 11 million light-years away in the Southern Hemisphere’s constellation Sculptor, and easy to view with binoculars or small telescopes.

“The Sculptor galaxy is in a sweet spot,” the observatory’s Enrico Congiu, who led the research, said in a statement. “It is close enough that we can resolve its internal structure and study its building blocks with incredible detail, but at the same time, big enough that we can still see it as a whole system.”

The more shades of colour from stars, gas and dust in a galaxy, the more clues to their age, composition and motion, according to the scientists. Sculptor’s latest snapshot contains thousands of colours — a glowing montage of purples, pinks and yellows — compared with just a handful for traditional pictures.

The team has already discovered 500 planetary nebulae, clouds of gas and dust from dying stars that can serve as cosmic mile markers. Their research has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Astronomers create dazzling, elaborate map of nearby galaxy in thousands of colours

Astronomers have revealed a nearby spiral galaxy in all its brilliant glory, shining in thousands of colours.

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[Tecumsehsbones]

Elon Schmuck blew up another rocket.

 

[spaminator]

Elon Schmuck blew up another rocket.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes on test stand in yet another setback
SpaceX said the Starship 'experienced a major anomaly' during preparations for a 10th flight test

Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Angus Whitley, Kate Duffy and Loren Grush
Published Jun 19, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas explodes June 18, 2025 in Texas.
A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas explodes June 18, 2025 in Texas. Photo by Screengrab /AP
A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded on a test stand in Texas, adding to a series of setbacks to Elon Musk’s space ambitions that include trips to Mars.


The huge blast enveloped the craft as it stood upright on a test stand, before massive plumes of flames and smoke mushroomed into the night sky, video footage late Wednesday showed. The incident shook windows and rattled dishes, according to local media reports. It was the first Starship failure in years during a ground test.


The rocket appeared to be undergoing a routine “static fire test” of its engines. A static fire test is a pre-launch procedure in which a rocket’s engines are fired while the rocket remains securely held down on the ground — essentially a rehearsal for the real launch, allowing engineers to test the rocket’s systems without sending it into space.

Starship was in the process of loading cryogenic propellant for a static fire when “a sudden energetic event” led to its complete loss, SpaceX said Thursday in a statement. Initial analysis indicates the potential failure of a pressurized tank containing gaseous nitrogen in Starship’s nose cone area, according to the company.

No one was injured and local residents aren’t at risk, the company said, calling the incident “a major anomaly” as the rocket program prepared for its 10th flight test.

Musk said earlier on X that a specialized bottle that holds nitrogen likely failed.

“If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,” he said.



The apparent destruction of the rocket extends the string of mishaps for a spaceship program that’s central to NASA’s plans to put American boots back on the moon — and also to Musk’s grander ambitions to send cargo and people to Mars. The incident comes at a moment when Musk’s business empire is faced with falling demand for Tesla Inc.’s electric vehicles, and after Musk engaged in a public feud with President Donald Trump.

Musk’s company holds contracts with NASA worth around $4 billion to land the agency’s astronauts on the moon using Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful launch system.

SpaceX has experienced Starship mishaps during ground testing before. The earliest Starship prototypes either collapsed or exploded during propellant tests on the ground, well before the company began conducting routine test flights with the vehicle.


The company has also suffered explosive events ahead of static fire testing before. In 2016, one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded as it was being loaded with propellant, a rare failure for a rocket that now boasts a more than 99% mission success rate.

SpaceX is rapidly building and testing new Starship prototypes at its Starbase test site in South Texas, meaning the company can probably slot in another craft relatively soon for the next mission. SpaceX also follows a test flight regimen that entails pushing vehicles until they break to learn how they can fail, lessening the loss of any one vehicle.

However, it’s another failure after a string of in-flight setbacks, making it unclear when SpaceX will start achieving many of the milestones it needs to meet to unlock the promises Musk has made for Starship’s future.


Last month, SpaceX’s Starship disintegrated mid-flight after spinning out of control. That loss was its third consecutive setback after flights in January and March were cut short just minutes after takeoff when the spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico, sending debris raining down from the sky and disrupting air travel.

January’s explosion was caused by a propellant leak while the March failure was triggered by a hardware problem with one of Starship’s Raptor engines, according to SpaceX.

Starship 10 hadn’t been assigned an official launch date, and it’s now unclear when the next flight will take place. Following the failure of the ninth launch, SpaceX said it would carry out a data review and make improvements to the rocket system before the next test.


Aside from the failures, SpaceX celebrated some key achievements last year when Starship’s booster was first caught at the launchpad using large mechanical arms, referred to as “chopsticks.” Designed to be reusable, Starship is meant to serve as the primary spacecraft for carrying humans to Mars and then bringing them back to Earth.

Musk has said he plans to send a Starship rocket to the Red Planet carrying robots built by Tesla as early as 2026.

As the world’s richest person steps back from his political work in Washington to refocus on his business empire, it remains unclear how much time he’ll spend on Starship and SpaceX, and what changes he’ll make inside the company to get the program back on track.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1935660973827952675

SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes on test stand in yet another setback

In a statement, SpaceX said the Starship 'experienced a major anomaly' during preparations for a 10th flight test. No one was injured.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Largest digital camera ever built releases first glamour shots of universe
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is located on a mountaintop in Chile

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Jun 23, 2025 • 1 minute read

This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows 678 separate images taken by the observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.
This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows 678 separate images taken by the observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth. Photo by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory /AP
NEW YORK — The largest digital camera ever built released its first glamour shots of the universe Monday — including colourful nebulas, stars and galaxies.


The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years.


This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows 678 separate images taken by the observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.
This image provided by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory shows another small section of the observatory’s total view of the Virgo cluster. Photo by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory /AP
The observatory’s first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster were also captured, including two bright blue spirals.

The observatory hopes to image 20 billion galaxies and discover new asteroids and other celestial objects.

The effort is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious force called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the observatory’s discerning camera may yield clues about this elusive entity along with another called dark energy.

Largest digital camera ever built releases first glamour shots of universe

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Earth's satellites at risk if asteroid smashes into moon: study
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
by Daniel Lawler
Published Jun 23, 2025 • 2 minute read

Handout/European Southern Observatory/AFP/File
Handout/European Southern Observatory/AFP/File Photo by Handout /European Southern Observatory/AFP/File
PARIS — If a huge asteroid smashes into the moon in 2032, the gigantic explosion would send debris streaming towards Earth that would threaten satellites and create a spectacular meteor shower, according to researchers.


Earlier this year there were briefly fears that the 60-metre-wide (200-foot-wide) asteroid called 2024 YR4, which is big enough to level a city, would strike Earth on December 22, 2032.


It was given the highest chance — 3.1 percent — of hitting our home planet that scientists have ever measured for such a giant space rock.

Subsequent observations from telescopes definitively ruled out a direct hit on Earth.

However, the odds that it will crash into the moon have risen to 4.3 per cent, according to data from the James Webb space telescope in May.

A new preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed, is the first to estimate how such a collision could affect Earth.

It would be the largest asteroid to hit the moon in around 5,000 years, lead study author Paul Wiegert of Canada’s University of Western Ontario told AFP.


The impact would be “comparable to a large nuclear explosion in terms of the amount of energy released”, he added.

Up to 100 million kilograms (220 million pounds) of material would shoot out from the moon’s surface, according to a series of simulations run by the researchers.

If the asteroid hit the side of the moon facing Earth — which is roughly a 50% chance — up to 10% of this debris could be pulled in by Earth’s gravity over the following days, they said.

‘LIKE A BULLET’
Earth’s atmosphere would protect the surface from the millimetre- to centimetre-sized lunar rocks, Weigert said. 0.04-2.54

But these meteors could be capable of destroying some satellites — and there are expected to be a lot more of those orbiting the planet by 2032.


“A centimetre-sized rock travelling at tens of thousands of metres per second is a lot like a bullet,” Wiegert said.

In the days after the impact, there could be more than 1,000 times the normal number of meteors threatening Earth’s satellites, he added.

Meanwhile, those of us on the ground would be treated to a “spectacular” meteor shower lighting up the night sky, the study said.

But the current odds of a direct hit on the near side of the moon remain at just two percent, Wiegert emphasised.

The asteroid is not expected to be visible again until 2028, so the world will have to wait to find out more.

If a direct hit is eventually found to be likely, humanity probably has enough time to plan a mission to spare the Moon.

“I’m sure it will be considered,” Wiegert said.

The asteroid is half as wide and has 10% of the mass of Dimorphos, which NASA’s DART mission smashed into in 2022, successfully changing its trajectory.

If 2024 YR4 is on a collision course with the Moon, it would be “a good target” for another test of our planetary defences, Wiegert said.

But if not, trying to deflect something zooming so close to Earth could be a little “dangerous”, he added.

The preprint study, which published on the arXiv database last week, has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Earth's satellites at risk if asteroid smashes into moon: study

A huge asteroid smashing into the moon in 2032, debris that would threaten satellites, according to researchers.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

James Webb telescope discovers its first exoplanet
The telescope has turbocharged the search for planets beyond the Solar System since coming online in 2022

Author of the article:AFP
AFP
by Pierre Celerier
Published Jun 25, 2025 • 3 minute read

The star HL Tauri, surrounded by the rings of a disc of gas and dust.
The star HL Tauri, surrounded by the rings of a disc of gas and dust. Photo by ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) /EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/AFP/File
PARIS — The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first exoplanet, astronomers said Wednesday, capturing rare direct images of the relatively small world in the Earth’s galactic backyard.


The telescope, which can see farther into the universe than anything before it, has turbocharged the search for planets beyond the Solar System since coming online in 2022.


Until now, however, its deep gaze has mostly been used to probe already known exoplanets — to find out key information such as the atmospheric composition — rather than tracking down new worlds.

The discovery of exoplanet TWA 7b, revealed in a study in the journal Nature, “represents a first for the telescope,” France’s CNRS research centre said in a statement.

The large majority of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets found so far have been identified from the light they blot out when they pass in front of their star, rather than from direct images of the planet.


Webb “has spent an enormous amount of time observing planets that have never been directly imaged,” lead study author Anne-Marie Lagrange of the Paris Observatory told AFP.

‘Blinded by the light’
Capturing direct images of faraway planets is difficult because they are “very faint” due to a lack of heat, Lagrange said. Even worse, she added, “we’re blinded by the light of the star they orbit.”

But Webb has a way to get around the problem.

An attachment to Webb’s MIRI instrument called a coronagraph masks the star, creating an effect similar to a solar eclipse. The telescope’s infrared vision can then peer through and spot the planet.

Astronomers pointed Webb at the star TWA 7, which is around a hundred light years from Earth — relatively nearby in the universe.


The star, which was first spotted by the Hubble space telescope in 1999, was thought to be a promising target for two reasons.

It is just 6.4 million years old — a baby compared to the Sun’s 4.5 billion years — and still surrounded by a massive disc of gas and dust where planets are thought to form.

And from the direction of Earth, the disc is seen from above, giving a good view of its rings.

The three rings around the star, which stretch more than 100 times the distance separating the Sun and Earth, had previously been spotted by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

But inside an otherwise empty section of the second ring, the Webb telescope detected something particularly bright.

Astronomers ruled out that the light was coming from an object at the edge of the Solar System, or from a distant galaxy behind the star.


That could mean only that the light source was a relatively small and cold planet, with a mass at least 10 times lighter than any other exoplanet directly imaged so far, according to the study.

The hunt for smaller worlds
The researchers estimated that the planet’s mass was similar to that of Saturn, a gas giant that weighs only a third of Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System.

Webb has increased the ability to detect exoplanets via direct images by a factor of 10, Lagrange said.

That is important because smaller, rocky planets similar to Earth or Mars are the ultimate target in the search for habitable worlds outside of the Solar System.

Lagrange said she would be delighted to discover “Earth-like planets” one day.

But she said astronomers needed to study all kinds of planets — and to understand how planetary systems form — to know whether the life-hosting Solar System is unique.

In the future, astronomers expect the Webb telescope will be able to spot planets even smaller than TWA 7b.

But directly capturing images of faraway worlds similar to Earth will require even more telescopic power, such as from he Extremely Large Telescope that is scheduled to come online in Chile in 2028.

James Webb telescope discovers its first exoplanet

Capturing direct images of faraway planets is difficult because they are very faint due to a lack of heat

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