NASA News

#NewImage from #Nasa: "" What are these strange space globs? Situated in rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas, these opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas are so large they might be able to form stars. Their home is known as IC 2944, a bright stellar nursery located about 7,600 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur (Centaurus). The largest of these dark globules, first spotted by A. D. Thackeray in 1950 using a telescope in South Africa, is likely two separate but overlapping clouds, each more than one light-year wide. Along with other data, the featured Hubble palette image from the El Sauce Observatory in Chile, indicates that Thackeray's globules are fractured and churning as a result of intense ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars already energizing and heating the bright emission nebula. These and similar dark globules known to be associated with other star forming regions may ultimately be dissipated by their hostile environment -- like cosmic lumps of butter in a hot frying pan. [May 25, 2026 at 02:00AM] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2605/ThackerayGlobs_Hayes_960.jpg

#NewImage from #Nasa: "" After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2. [May 23, 2026 at 02:00AM] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2605/potw1913aM2_1024.jpg

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Call for Creatives: NASA Seeks Help Illuminating Mission Storytelling" As NASA pushes the boundaries of exploration and innovation for the benefit of humanity, the agency is looking for partners to share mission stories covering Artemis Moon missions, nuclear propulsion, aeronautics, and more. NASA published an Announcement for Proposals on May 21 asking filmmakers, documentarians, songwriters, storytellers, poets, and others to submit proposals to partner […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/call-for-creatives-nasa-seeks-help-illuminating-mission-storytelling/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Sets Coverage for Roscosmos Spacewalk Outside Space Station" NASA will provide live coverage on Wednesday, May 27, as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT and last roughly five hours. Watch NASA’s live coverage beginning at 9:45 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-roscosmos-spacewalk-outside-space-station-2/

#NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Webb Studies Star Clusters" This near-infrared image shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51). [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/55252854454-c4ed9aa664-o.jpg

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Webb Studies Star Clusters" This near-infrared image released on May 6, 2026, shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51). M51 is one of four nearby galaxies observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in a study of nearly 9,000 star clusters. Data from the study shows that more massive star clusters emerge more […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/webb-studies-star-clusters/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Keeping NASA Flying: Ground Crews Ensure Aircraft Readiness" From high‑speed research flights to high‑altitude science campaigns, NASA depends on aircraft that perform at their best and the ground crews who keep them mission ready. At NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, specially trained maintenance crews are essential to keeping the agency’s aircraft flying safely and reliably. This year, NASA added two […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/keeping-nasa-flying-ground-crews-ensure-aircraft-readiness/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA to Compete Contract for Jet Propulsion Laboratory Management" NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to ensure continued accountability and strong value for U.S. taxpayers. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has managed the laboratory since its inception in […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-compete-contract-for-jet-propulsion-laboratory-management/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Announces Realignment to Accelerate Mission Delivery" NASA announced Friday an agencywide realignment to increase mission focus and move out on the National Space Policy. These changes position the agency to better deliver on the nation’s highest‑priority objectives with speed and efficiency. During the Ignition event in late March, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and agency leaders outlined the most pressing objectives to […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-realignment-to-accelerate-mission-delivery/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "New Material Could Help NASA Melt Moon Rocks, Harness Lunar Resources" A material recently discovered and tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland could help astronauts pack lighter for future missions to the Moon. NASA is researching ways explorers could “live off the land” by harnessing lunar resources, including melting Moon rocks to extract metals for building infrastructure and oxygen for fuel and life support. […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://www.nasa.gov/general/new-material-melt-moon-rocks/

#BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Hubble Captures Galaxy Cluster" Look closely at this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and you’ll see galaxies of various shapes and sizes clustered together toward the center-left of the image. A few foreground stars shine brightly and are easily distinguished by the spikes that appear to extend outward from each star. These spikes, called diffraction spikes, are the […] [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] Read more here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-galaxy-cluster/

#NewImage from #Nasa: "" This cosmic snapshot covers a field of view over twice as wide as the full Moon within the boundaries of the high-flying constellation Cygnus. Made using astronomical narrowband filters, the image highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen gas. Embedded in the region's expanse of interstellar clouds, the complex, glowing arcs are sections of shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, the brightest star near image center. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making this telescopic frame over 100 light-years across. Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end their final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova. Their stellar winds and final supernova explosion enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars. [May 22, 2026 at 02:00AM] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2605/WR134morrone1024.jpg