Two Years Since Webb’s First Images: Celebrating with the Penguin and the Egg
The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. This near- and mid-infrared image combines data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), and marks the telescope’s second year of science. Webb’s view shows that their interaction is marked by a glow of scattered stars represented in blue. Known jointly as Arp 142, the galaxies made their first pass by one another between 25 and 75 million years ago, causing “fireworks,” or new star formation, in the Penguin. The galaxies are approximately the same mass, which is why one hasn’t consumed the other.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
To celebrate the second science anniversary of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the team has released a near- and mid-infrared image on July 12, 2024, of two interacting galaxies: The Penguin and the Egg.
Webb specializes in capturing infrared light – which is beyond what our own eyes can see – allowing us to view and study these two galaxies, collectively known as Arp 142. Their ongoing interaction was set in motion between 25 and 75 million years ago, when the Penguin (individually cataloged as NGC 2936) and the Egg (NGC 2937) completed their first pass. They will go on to shimmy and sway, completing several additional loops before merging into a single galaxy hundreds of millions of years from now.
NASA Marshall Engineers Unveil Versatile, Low-cost Hybrid Engine Testbed
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Paul Dumbacher, right, lead test engineer for the Propulsion Test Branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, confers with Meredith Patterson, solid propulsion systems engineer, as they install the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed into its cradle in Marshall’s East Test Stand. The new testbed, offering versatile, low-cost test opportunities to NASA propulsion engineers and their government, academic, and industry partners, reflects the collaboration of dozens of team members across multiple departments at Marshall.
NASA/Charles Beason
In June, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, unveiled an innovative, 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed.
The new hybrid testbed, which features variable flow capability and a 20-second continuous burn duration, is designed to provide a low-cost, quick-turnaround solution for conducting hot-fire tests of advanced nozzles and other rocket engine hardware, composite materials, and propellants.
Solid rocket propulsion remains a competitive, reliable technology for various compact and heavy-lift rockets as well as in-space missions, offering low propulsion element mass, high energy density, resilience in extreme environments, and reliable performance.
“It’s time consuming and costly to put a new solid rocket motor through its paces – identifying how materials perform in extreme temperatures and under severe structural and dynamic loads,” said Benjamin Davis, branch chief of the Solid Propulsion and Pyrotechnic Devices Branch of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. “In today’s fast-paced, competitive environment, we wanted to find a way to condense that schedule. The hybrid testbed offers an exciting, low-cost solution.”
Initiated in 2020, the project stemmed from NASA’s work to develop new composite materials, additively manufactured – or 3D-printed – nozzles, and other components with proven benefits across the spacefaring spectrum, from rockets to planetary landers.
After analyzing future industry requirements, and with feedback from NASA’s aerospace partners, the Marshall team recognized that their existing 24-inch rocket motor testbed – a subscale version of the Space Launch System booster – could prove too costly for small startups. Additionally, conventional, six-inch test motors limited flexible configuration and required multiple tests to achieve all customer goals. The team realized what industry needed most was an efficient, versatile third option.
“The 11-inch hybrid motor testbed offers the instrumentation, configurability, and cost-efficiency our government, industry, and academic partners need,” said Chloe Bower, subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead at Marshall. “It can accomplish multiple test objectives simultaneously – including different nozzle configurations, new instrumentation or internal insulation, and various propellants or flight environments.”
“That quicker pace can reduce test time from months to weeks or days,” said Precious Mitchell, solid propulsion design lead for the project.
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, assess components of the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed in the wake of successful testing in June. Among Marshall personnel leading in-house development of the new testbed are, from left, Chloe Bower, subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead; Jacobs manufacturing engineer Shelby Westrich; and Precious Mitchell, solid propulsion design lead.
NASA/Benjamin Davis
Another feature of great interest is the on/off switch. “That’s one of the big advantages to a hybrid testbed,” Mitchell continued. “With a solid propulsion system, once it’s ignited, it will burn until the fuel is spent. But because there’s no oxidizer in hybrid fuel, we can simply turn it off at any point if we see anomalies or need to fine-tune a test element, yielding more accurate test results that precisely meet customer needs.”
The team expects to deliver to NASA leadership final test data later this summer. For now, Davis congratulates the Marshall propulsion designers, analysts, chemists, materials engineers, safety personnel, and test engineers who collaborated on the new testbed.
“We’re not just supporting the aerospace industry in broad terms,” he said. “We’re also giving young NASA engineers a chance to get their hands dirty in a practical test environment solving problems. This work helps educate new generations who will carry on NASA’s mission in the decades to come.”
For nearly 65 years, Marshall teams have led development of the U.S. space program’s most powerful rocket engines and spacecraft, from the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle to today’s cutting-edge propulsion systems, including NASA’s newest rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA technology testbeds designed and built by Marshall engineers and their partners have shaped the reliable technologies of spaceflight and continue to enable discovery, testing, and certification of advanced rocket engine materials and manufacturing techniques.
Vivid Portrait of Interacting Galaxies Marks Webb’s Second Anniversary
6 Min Read
Vivid Portrait of Interacting Galaxies Marks Webb’s Second Anniversary
Webb’s view of the interacting galaxies of Arp 142 that combines Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instrument images. Full image below.
Two for two! A duo of interacting galaxies commemorates the second science anniversary of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which takes constant observations, including images and highly detailed data known as spectra. Its operations have led to a “parade” of discoveries by astronomers around the world.
“Since President Biden and Vice President Harris unveiled the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope two years ago, Webb has continued to unlock the mysteries of the universe,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With remarkable images from the corners of the cosmos, going back nearly to the beginning of time, Webb’s capabilities are shedding new light on our celestial surroundings and inspiring future generations of scientists, astronomers, and explorers.”
“In just two years, Webb has transformed our view of the universe, enabling the kind of world-class science that drove NASA to make this mission a reality,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Webb is providing insights into longstanding mysteries about the early universe and ushering in a new era of studying distant worlds, while returning images that inspire people around the world and posing exciting new questions to answer. It has never been more possible to explore every facet of the universe.”
The telescope’s specialization in capturing infrared light — which is beyond what our own eyes can detect — shows these galaxies, collectively known as Arp 142, locked in a slow cosmic dance. Webb’s observations, which combine near- and mid-infrared light from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), respectively, clearly show that they are joined by a haze represented in blue that is a mix of stars and gas, a result of their mingling.
Their ongoing interaction was set in motion between 25 and 75 million years ago, when the Penguin (individually cataloged as NGC 2936) and the Egg (NGC 2937) completed their first pass. They will go on to shimmy and sway, completing several additional loops before merging into a single galaxy hundreds of millions of years from now.
Image A: Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI)
The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. This near- and mid-infrared image combines data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), and marks the telescope’s second year of science. Webb’s view shows that their interaction is marked by a glow of scattered stars represented in blue. Known jointly as Arp 142, the galaxies made their first pass by one another between 25 and 75 million years ago, causing “fireworks,” or new star formation, in the Penguin. The galaxies are approximately the same mass, which is why one hasn’t consumed the other.
Let’s Dance!
Before their first approach, the Penguin held the shape of a spiral. Today, its galactic center gleams like an eye, its unwound arms now shaping a beak, head, backbone, and fanned-out tail.
Like all spiral galaxies, the Penguin is still very rich in gas and dust. The galaxies’ “dance” gravitationally pulled on the Penguin’s thinner areas of gas and dust, causing them to crash in waves and form stars. Look for those areas in two places: what looks like a fish in its “beak” and the “feathers” in its “tail.”
Surrounding these newer stars is smoke-like material that includes carbon-containing molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which Webb is exceptional at detecting. Dust, seen as fainter, deeper orange arcs also swoops from its beak to tail feathers.
In contrast, the Egg’s compact shape remains largely unchanged. As an elliptical galaxy, it is filled with aging stars, and has a lot less gas and dust that can be pulled away to form new stars. If both were spiral galaxies, each would end the first “twist” with new star formation and twirling curls, known as tidal tails.
Another reason for the Egg’s undisturbed appearance: These galaxies have approximately the same mass or heft, which is why the smaller-looking elliptical wasn’t consumed or distorted by the Penguin.
It is estimated that the Penguin and the Egg are about 100,000 light-years apart — quite close in astronomical terms. For context, the Milky Way galaxy and our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are about 2.5 million light-years apart. They too will interact, but not for about 4 billion years.
Now, look to the top right to spot a galaxy that is not at this party. This edge-on galaxy, cataloged PGC 1237172, is 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It’s also quite young, teeming with new, blue stars.
Want one more party trick? Switch to Webb’s mid-infrared-only image to see PGC 1237172 practically disappear. Mid-infrared light largely captures cooler, older stars and an incredible amount of dust. Since the galaxy’s stellar population is so young, it “vanishes” in mid-infrared light.
Image B: Interacting Galaxies Arp 142 (MIRI Only)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of interacting galaxies Arp 142 seems to sing in primary colors. The Egg shows up as a tiny, teal-colored oval, because it is made up of old stars and has lost or used up most of its gas and dust. At right, the Penguin’s star-forming regions are represented in pink and purple, and contain smoke-like material known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Also take a moment to scan the background. Webb’s image is overflowing with distant galaxies. Some take spiral and oval shapes, like those threaded throughout the Penguin’s “tail feathers,” while others scattered throughout are shapeless dots. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of the telescope’s infrared instruments. (Compare Webb’s view to the 2018 observation that combines infrared light from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and near-infrared and visible light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.) Even though these observations only took a few hours, Webb revealed far more distant, redder, and dustier galaxies than previous telescopes – one more reason to expect Webb to continue to expand our understanding of everything in the universe.
Want more? Take a tour to the image, “fly through” it in a visualization, and compare Webb’s image to the Hubble Space Telescope’s.
Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI)
Image C: Compare Hubble/Webb
Image Before/After
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy NGC 3810.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, R. J. Foley
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early universe, but it’s a difficult one to complete. We can only measure the distances to a few nearby objects like the Sun, planets, and some nearby stars directly. Beyond that, astronomers need to use various indirect methods; one of the most important examines Type Ia supernovae, and this is where the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope excels.
NGC 3810, the galaxy featured in this image, was the host of a Type Ia supernova in 2022. In early 2023, Hubble focused on this and a number of other galaxies to closely examine recent Type Ia supernovae. Type Ia supernovae are the result of a white dwarf exploding, and their peak brightness is very consistent. This attribute allows astronomers to use Type Ia supernovae to measure distances: we know how bright a Type Ia supernova should be, so we can tell how far away it must be by how dim it appears. One snag with this method is intergalactic dust. Because intergalactic dust blocks some of the supernova’s light, astronomers need to determine how much light the dust reduces to accurately measure the supernova’s brightness and calculate its distance. Hubble’s unique capabilities offer them a clever way of doing this.
Astronomers use Hubble to take images of the same Type Ia supernovae in ultraviolet light, which the dust almost completely blocks out, and in infrared light, which passes through dust nearly unaffected. By carefully noting how much light comes through at each wavelength, astronomers can determine how much dust lies between Hubble and the supernova, letting them confidently calibrate the relationship between a supernova’s brightness and its distance. Hubble’s unique capability to observe in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths of light in great detail with the same instrument makes it the perfect tool for these types of observations. Indeed, some of the data used to make this beautiful image of NGC 3810 focused on its 2022 supernova. You can see it as a point of light just below the galactic nucleus in the annotated image below.
This annotated Hubble image of NGC 3810 denotes the location of the Type Ia supernovae SN 2022zut, It was the eighteen thousand, one hundred and forty-second supernova found in 2022!
ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, R. J. Foley
There are many ways to measure cosmic distances, but Type Ia supernovae are one of the most useful and accurate tools because they are so bright. Astronomers must use other methods as well, either as an independent check against other distance measurements, or to measure at much closer or farther distances. One such method, that also works for galaxies, is comparing their rotation speed to their brightness; based on that method, NGC 3810 is about 50 million light-years from Earth.
Cargo Craft Packed for Departure, Crews Work Science and Spacesuits
The Canadarm2 robotic arm reaches out to capture Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter on Feb. 1, 2024.
A U.S. cargo craft is being readied for its departure on Friday from the International Space Station after a five-and-a-half-month resupply mission. In the meantime, the nine orbital residents comprising the Expedition 71 and Starliner crews studied space biology and 3D printing while servicing a pair of spacesuits on Thursday.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus resupply ship will end its stay at the orbital outpost at 7 a.m. EDT on Friday. Robotics controllers will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to remove Cygnus from Harmony then release it into orbit where it will descend into the Earth’s atmosphere above the South Pacific.
Watch Cygnus’s departure live beginning at 6:30 a.m. Friday on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app. Departure coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
NASA Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick finished packing Cygnus with trash and obsolete gear on Thursday. Afterward, the duo exited Cygnus, closed the hatch, and prepared the spacecraft for its depressurization and separation early Friday. Cygnus arrived at the orbital outpost on Feb. 1 replenishing the crew with over 8,200 pounds of science experiments and crew supplies.
Advanced biology research also was underway aboard the orbiting lab on Thursday with a pair of astronauts exploring how living in space affects the human body and mind. NASA Flight Engineer Mike Barratt started his day drawing his blood samples and stowing them in a science freezer for future analysis. Next, he took a cognition test measuring space-caused changes in brain structure and function. NASA astronaut and Boeing Starliner Pilot Suni Williams extracted DNA to identify microbe samples collected from station water systems. Results from the genetic biotechnology experiment may improve ways to keep crews healthy and spacecraft systems clean on future missions.
Barratt also assisted Starliner Commander Butch Wilmore from NASA who spent all day servicing a pair of spacesuits in the Quest airlock. The duo cleaned the suits’ cooling loops and checked the communication systems ahead of a spacewalk planned for July 29.
NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps worked Thursday morning in the Kibo laboratory module replacing carbon dioxide bottles that supply payload racks inside Kibo. During the afternoon, Epps worked inside the Tranquility module replacing life support components and servicing orbital plumbing gear.
Working from the Roscosmos segment of the orbital outpost, cosmonaut Nikolai Chub started the morning studying ways future crews might pilot spacecraft and robots on planetary missions. In the afternoon, Chub powered on the Nauka science module’s 3D printer and continued testing its ability to manufacture space hardware on demand. Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin worked throughout the day on orbital plumbing while Commander Oleg Kononenko deconfigured scientific gear to access Zvezda service module panels for maintenance and cleaning.
