Moon and Sun Over Wyoming

The Moon passes in front of the Sun in this Aug. 21, 2017, image taken at the point of the maximum partial eclipse. This photo was taken near Banner, Wyoming, where a partial eclipse was visible. However, a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina saw a total solar eclipse.

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.

See the path of the eclipse and how to safely watch it. If you’re not in the path of the eclipse, watch with NASA from anywhere in the world. We will provide live broadcast coverage on April 8 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT (1700 to 2000 UTC).

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

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Monika Luabeya

President’s NASA FY 2025 Funding Supports US Space, Climate Leadership

The Biden-Harris Administration Monday released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which includes funding to invest in America and the American people and will allow NASA to continue advancing our understanding of Earth and space while inspiring the world through discovery.

“As history has proven, as the present has shown, and as the future will continue to demonstrate, an investment in NASA is an investment in America for the benefit of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “President Biden’s budget will fund our nation’s abilities and leadership for the future of space exploration, scientific discovery, cutting-edge technology, climate data, the next generation of aeronautics, and inspiring our future leaders – the Artemis Generation.”

The budget allows NASA to launch the Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, research Earth’s changing climate, grow commercial markets to serve America’s interests in space, and inspire the Artemis Generation of science, technology, engineering, and math professionals.

“This budget shows NASA’s value in contributing to the global leadership of the United States,” said Nelson. “Every dollar supports our ability to continue exploring new cosmic shores and making the impossible possible, all while creating competitive and good-paying jobs in all 50 states.”

At NASA, the budget request would:

• Invest in the U.S.-led Artemis campaign of lunar exploration: The budget includes $7.8 billion for the Artemis campaign, which will bring astronauts – including the first woman, first person of color, and first international astronaut –to the lunar surface starting this decade as part of a long-term journey of science and exploration.
• Enhance climate science and information: The budget invests $2.4 billion in the Earth science program for missions and activities that advance Earth systems science and increase accessibility to information to mitigate natural hazards, support climate action, and manage natural resources.
• Advance U.S. space industry technology development: The budget provides $1.2 billion for NASA’s space technology portfolio to foster innovative technology research and development to meet the needs of NASA, support the expanding U.S. space industry, which is creating a growing number of good jobs, and keep America ahead of competitors at the forefront of space innovation.
• Support highly efficient and greener commercial airliners: The budget invests $966 million in NASA’s aeronautics program, which will develop hybrid-electric jet engines, lightweight aircraft structures, and a major new flight demonstrator to pave the way for new commercial airliners that would be cheaper to operate and produce less pollution.
• Continue the transition to commercial space stations: The budget funds continued operation of the International Space Station, a vehicle to safely de-orbit the space station after it is retired in 2030, and the commercial space stations that NASA will use as soon as they become available.
• Increase STEM opportunities at minority-serving institutions: The budget provides $46 million to the Minority University Research and Education Project, to increase competitive awards to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tribal colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions, and recruit and retain underrepresented and underserved students in STEM fields.

Following historic progress made since the President took office – with nearly 15 million jobs created and inflation down two-thirds – the budget protects and builds on this progress by lowering costs for working families and reducing the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.

For more information on NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/budget

-end-

Faith McKie / Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov

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Roxana Bardan

Digital Services Governance Framework

Summary

In responding to Milestone 4.2 of the Digital Government Strategy, NASA heeded the Advisory Group’s encouragement to “build upon existing structures and processes as much as possible.” To locate the gaps in existing governance structures, NASA’s Digital Strategy response team identified all necessary decisions concerning digital services, using the three layers pointed out in the Digital Strategy-information, platform, presentation-as a guide.

This decision matrix illustrated gaps in governance that need to be addressed in order for NASA’s Digital Services to align with the Digital Government Strategy. Going forward, these gaps will be addressed by the NASA Digital Services Governance Framework. This newly established framework, in conjunction with established Agency policy and procedural requirements, encompasses the requirements for overseeing the development and delivery of enterprise digital services. It proposes a new implementation body, the Digital Services Board, reporting to the established Mission Support Council, which will serve as the policymaking body. NASA expects to charter the Digital Services Board in early 2013. In all other ways, the framework relies on existing governance and organizational responsibilities.

In the Digital Services Governance Recommendations, the discussion of an ideal digital services governance structure is set around six essential elements. The first three elements (Clearly Defined Scope of Authority, Core Principles to Guide Action, and Established Roles and Responsibilities) are addressed in this document. The next three (Stakeholder Input and Participation, Consistent Communications, and Performance Metrics) will be addressed in NASA’s follow-up in January 2013, along with reporting on performance and customer satisfaction measuring tools.

Addressing the Elements

Element A: Clearly Defined Scope of Authority

The world is connected more now than ever before, and there is an exponential growth in the number of services available online. In carrying out our missions, NASA offers a number of services both to internal customers and to the public in the form of information delivery, transactional applications, and other mechanisms across a variety of platforms.

At NASA, the governance of the Digital Strategy is shared among several key stakeholder groups, most prominently the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Office of Communications (OCOMM). These stakeholders realize the value and potential of embracing digital services to lower costs, increase citizen participation, and make it easier to collaborate and share information.

With this distribution of ownership, the question of accountability and leadership becomes critical. The proposed Digital Services Board (DSB) will represent all stakeholders within NASA and carry the authority, responsibility, and resources to gather, prioritize, and direct the implementation of Agency-wide requirements.

Element B: Core Principles to Guide Action

NASA is dedicated to a number of principles by which we guide our delivery of digital services. The Agency’s primary customers are the American public. This presents a broad service concept that can be segmented into different audiences with needs for different digital services: information for the general public, educational materials for teachers and students, procurement opportunities for businesses, and research efforts for the scientific and engineering communities. Any of these individual audiences may be best served by different elements of NASA. Each aspect of our mission is dedicated to providing the maximum value and benefit to citizens, and every NASA employee and contractor is responsible for ensuring the success of that mission.

The American public deserves nothing less than excellence in the digital services NASA offers both to the public and to its own operations. As such, the Agency is focused on creating a Digital Strategy that, much like our work in space, is bold, innovative, and lasting. We believe that the Digital Strategy is as much an exercise in quantitative measurements as it is a qualitative exercise in future-based policymaking. Thus, we have developed the following core principals that guide us:

• Every NASA service ought be created with a focus on its intended audience, which will lead to better user experience, expandability, and efficiency.
• Within the bounds of existing policies, NASA employees should be able to securely and seamlessly access and share information regardless of their location or preferred device.
• Digital Services should further NASA’s vision and purpose, including to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof”.

Element C: Established Roles and Responsibilities

Overall responsibilities of organizations with Digital Services roles can be found in NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 1000.3, “The NASA Organization.” The foundational layer of security, including roles and responsibilities, is governed under NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 2810.1, “NASA Information Security Policy,” and NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 2810.1, “Security of Information Technology.” Privacy is governed under NPD 1382.17, “NASA Privacy Policy,” and NPR 1382.1, “NASA Privacy Procedures.”

The information layer is largely governed by the NASA Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters, with supporting offices at each of the NASA Centers ensuring appropriate dissemination of information, correctness of information, style, and NASA branding protection.

Provisioning and governing the platform layer is largely the responsibility of the NASA Chief Information Officer, with support from the Service Executive for Web Services, the Web Services Board, the Enterprise Change Advisory Board, and Center Chief Information Officers at each of the NASA Centers.

Currently, governance of the presentation layer falls under existing policies for style, privacy, records management, etc., while leaving the NASA Centers, mission directorates, and mission support offices the flexibility and authority to present content in the most effective manner in consideration of the data or information, targeted audience, and means of access (mobile devices, machine to machine interfaces, etc.).

NASA Digital Services Governance Framework: Target State

In reviewing current governance of digital services, NASA identified the gaps that the new governance framework will address. Existing governance structures are built with a clearly defined scope of authority, core principles, and established roles and responsibilities; going forward, gaps in governance will be addressed with these elements, as well as stakeholder input and participation, consistent communications, and performance metrics.

Gap Proposed Process No group charged with working across NASA to develop Agency-wide requirements for digital services. The Mission Support Council will use input and recommendations from the proposed Digital Services Board to develop Agency-wide requirements for digital services and provide guidelines for their implementation. No cross-Agency group charged with policy development, implementation, and enforcement. The Mission Support Council will be the policymaking body for Digital Services, holding the Digital Services Board responsible for implementation and allocating resources for implementations. No repeatable process for the creation of new websites, the introduction of new free services to the Agency, taking successful pilot projects into Agency-wide operation, or spreading best practices across the agency. Based on policies established by the Mission Support Council, the Digital Services Board will work with stakeholders to develop and implement these processes.

Last Updated: Aug. 7, 2017

Editor: Jason Duley

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NASA’s Webb, Hubble Telescopes Affirm Universe’s Expansion Rate, Puzzle Persists

When you are trying to solve one of the biggest conundrums in cosmology, you should triple check your homework. The puzzle, called the “Hubble Tension,” is that the current rate of the expansion of the universe is faster than what astronomers expect it to be, based on the universe’s initial conditions and our present understanding of the universe’s evolution.

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes consistently find a number that does not match predictions based on observations from ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Planck mission. Does resolving this discrepancy require new physics? Or is it a result of measurement errors between the two different methods used to determine the rate of expansion of space?

Hubble has been measuring the current rate of the universe’s expansion for 30 years, and astronomers want to eliminate any lingering doubt about its accuracy. Now, Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have tag-teamed to produce definitive measurements, furthering the case that something else – not measurement errors – is influencing the expansion rate.

“With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” said Adam Riess, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Riess holds a Nobel Prize for co-discovering the fact that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, due to a mysterious phenomenon now called “dark energy.”

As a crosscheck, an initial Webb observation in 2023 confirmed that Hubble measurements of the expanding universe were accurate. However, hoping to relieve the Hubble Tension, some scientists speculated that unseen errors in the measurement may grow and become visible as we look deeper into the universe. In particular, stellar crowding could affect brightness measurements of more distant stars in a systematic way.

The SH0ES (Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy) team, led by Riess, obtained additional observations with Webb of objects that are critical cosmic milepost markers, known as Cepheid variable stars, which now can be correlated with the Hubble data.

“We’ve now spanned the whole range of what Hubble observed, and we can rule out a measurement error as the cause of the Hubble Tension with very high confidence,” Riess said.

The team’s first few Webb observations in 2023 were successful in showing Hubble was on the right track in firmly establishing the fidelity of the first rungs of the so-called cosmic distance ladder.

Astronomers use various methods to measure relative distances in the universe, depending upon the object being observed. Collectively these techniques are known as the cosmic distance ladder – each rung or measurement technique relies upon the previous step for calibration.

But some astronomers suggested that, moving outward along the “second rung,” the cosmic distance ladder might get shaky if the Cepheid measurements become less accurate with distance. Such inaccuracies could occur because the light of a Cepheid could blend with that of an adjacent star – an effect that could become more pronounced with distance as stars crowd together and become harder to distinguish from one another.

The observational challenge is that past Hubble images of these more distant Cepheid variables look more huddled and overlapping with neighboring stars at ever farther distances between us and their host galaxies, requiring careful accounting for this effect. Intervening dust further complicates the certainty of the measurements in visible light. Webb slices though the dust and naturally isolates the Cepheids from neighboring stars because its vision is sharper than Hubble’s at infrared wavelengths.

“Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. We find that the Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb farther along the cosmic distance ladder,” said Riess.

The new Webb observations include five host galaxies of eight Type Ia supernovae containing a total of 1,000 Cepheids, and reach out to the farthest galaxy where Cepheids have been well measured – NGC 5468 – at a distance of 130 million light-years. “This spans the full range where we made measurements with Hubble. So, we’ve gone to the end of the second rung of the cosmic distance ladder,” said co-author Gagandeep Anand of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which operates the Webb and Hubble telescopes for NASA.

Hubble and Webb’s further confirmation of the Hubble Tension sets up other observatories to possibly settle the mystery. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will do wide celestial surveys to study the influence of dark energy, the mysterious energy that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. ESA’s Euclid observatory, with NASA contributions, is pursuing a similar task.

At present it’s as though the distance ladder observed by Hubble and Webb has firmly set an anchor point on one shoreline of a river, and the afterglow of the big bang observed by Planck’s measurement from the beginning of the universe is set firmly on the other side. How the universe’s expansion was changing in the billions of years between these two endpoints has yet to be directly observed. “We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day,” said Riess.

These finding were published in the February 6, 2024 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations for NASA.

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 the Canadian Space Agency.

More Webb News: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Hubble News: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/hubble-news/

More Webb Images: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

More Hubble Images: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/hubble-images/

Webb Mission Page: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

Hubble Mission Page: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/

Learn More

Media Contacts:

Claire Andreoli – claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Ray Villard, Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

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Peering Into the Tendrils of NGC 604 with NASA’s Webb

4 Min Read

Peering Into the Tendrils of NGC 604 with NASA’s Webb

The formation of stars and the chaotic environments they inhabit is one of the most well-studied, but also mystery-shrouded, areas of cosmic investigation. The intricacies of these processes are now being unveiled like never before by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Two new images from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) showcase star-forming region NGC 604, located in the Triangulum galaxy (M33), 2.73 million light-years away from Earth. In these images, cavernous bubbles and stretched-out filaments of gas etch a more detailed and complete tapestry of star birth than seen in the past.

Sheltered among NGC 604’s dusty envelopes of gas are more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives. These types of stars are B-types and O-types, the latter of which can be more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun. It’s quite rare to find this concentration of them in the nearby universe. In fact, there’s no similar region within our own Milky Way galaxy.

This concentration of massive stars, combined with its relatively close distance, means NGC 604 gives astronomers an opportunity to study these objects at a fascinating time early in their life.

Image: NIRCam View NGC 604

In Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam image, the most noticeable features are tendrils and clumps of emission that appear bright red, extending out from areas that look like clearings, or large bubbles in the nebula. Stellar winds from the brightest and hottest young stars have carved out these cavities, while ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas. This ionized hydrogen appears as a white and blue ghostly glow.

The bright orange-colored streaks in the Webb near-infrared image signify the presence of carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. This material plays an important role in the interstellar medium and the formation of stars and planets, but its origin is a mystery. As you travel farther from the immediate clearings of dust, the deeper red signifies molecular hydrogen. This cooler gas is a prime environment for star formation.

Webb’s exquisite resolution also provides insights into features that previously appeared unrelated to the main cloud. For example, in Webb’s image, there are two bright, young stars carving out holes in dust above the central nebula, connected through diffuse red gas. In visible-light imaging from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, these appeared as separate splotches.

Image: MIRI View NGC 604

Webb’s view in mid-infrared wavelengths also illustrates a new perspective into the diverse and dynamic activity of this region. In the MIRI view of NGC 604, there are noticeably fewer stars. This is because hot stars emit much less light at these wavelengths, while the larger clouds of cooler gas and dust glow. Some of the stars seen in this image, belonging to the surrounding galaxy, are red supergiants – stars that are cool but very large, hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun. Additionally, some of the background galaxies that appeared in the NIRCam image also fade. In the MIRI image, the blue tendrils of material signify the presence of PAHs.

NGC 604 is estimated to be around 3.5 million years old. The cloud of glowing gases extends to some 1,300 light-years across.

Video: Explore the Images

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 the Canadian Space Agency.

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Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.
Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

Hubble’s view of NGC 604

Hubble’s view of NGC 604 host galaxy Triangulum (M33)

Star Lifecycle

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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