Hubble Spots a Magnificent Barred Galaxy

The magnificent central bar of NGC 2217 (also known as AM 0619-271) shines bright in the constellation of Canis Major (The Greater Dog), in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Roughly 65 million light-years from Earth, this barred spiral galaxy is a similar size to our Milky Way at 100,000 light-years across. Many stars are concentrated in its central region forming the luminous bar, surrounded by a set of tightly wound spiral arms.

The central bar in these types of galaxies plays an important role in their evolution, helping to funnel gas from the disk into the middle of the galaxy. The transported gas and dust are then either formed into new stars or fed to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Weighing from a few hundred to over a billion times the mass of our Sun, supermassive black holes are present in almost all large galaxies.

This image was colorized with data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS).

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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NASA Finds New Homes for Artemis Generation of ‘Moon Trees’ Across US

After careful review of hundreds of applications, NASA has selected organizations from across the country to receive ‘Moon Tree’ seedlings that flew around the Moon on the agency’s Artemis I mission in 2022, to plant in their communities. Notifications to selected institutions will be made in phases, with the first beginning this spring, followed by notifications in fall 2024, spring 2025, and fall 2025.

NASA chose institutions based on criteria that evaluated their suitability to care for the various tree species and their ability to maximize educational opportunities around the life and growth of the tree in their communities.

“A new era of Moon trees will one day stand tall in communities across America,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA is bringing the spirit of exploration back down to Earth because space belongs to everyone. The Artemis Generation will carry forth these seedlings that will be fertile ground for creativity, inspiration, and discovery for years to come.”

To commemorate the Artemis I Moon Trees, Artemis II NASA astronaut Christina Koch visited her home state of North Carolina and participated in a tree dedication ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on April 24. She will be honored by her alma mater White Oak High School, one of many Moon Tree recipients, on Thursday. Since returning to Earth, the tree seeds have been germinating under the care of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Forest Service, as NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Generation STEM project and the agency’s Office of Strategic Infrastructure’s Logistics Management division worked to identify their new homes.

“Together, NASA and the Forest Service will deliver a piece of science history to communities across our nation,” said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. “Through this partnership, future explorers, scientists, and environmentalists will have the opportunity to nurture and be inspired by these Artemis artifacts in the community where they live, work, and learn.”

The Artemis I Moon Trees, rooted in the legacy of the original Moon Trees flown by NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa during Apollo 14, journeyed 270,000 miles from Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft.  A diverse array of tree species, including sycamores, sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, and giant sequoias, were flown around the surface of the Moon. The first batch of seedlings will ship to almost 50 institutions across 48 contiguous U.S. states.

“What an incredible journey these future Moon Trees have already been on, and we’re excited for them to begin the final journey to permanent homes on campuses and institutions across the country,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “We hope these trees will stand for centuries to come for the public’s enjoyment, inspiring future generations of scientists and land stewards.” 

Moon Tree recipients will be invited to share their efforts to engage with the public and K-12 learners at quarterly virtual gatherings beginning in summer 2024. Information on educational resources and activities available to educators to share the story and science of Moon Trees with their students can be found online.

Next Gen STEM is a project within NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, which develops unique resources and experiences to spark student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, and build a skilled and diverse next generation workforce.

For the latest NASA STEM events, activities, and news, visit:

https://stem.nasa.gov/

-end-

Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4637
gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov

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Lauren E. Low

NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering data to Earth.

Riding aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it’s up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away, 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

This achievement provides a glimpse into how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.

“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”

The laser communications technology in this demo is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today.

After launching on Oct. 13, 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.

Surpassing Expectations

NASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser — a bit rate comparable to broadband internet download speeds.

That was achieved on Dec. 11, 2023, when the experiment beamed a 15-second ultra-high-definition video to Earth from 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche Inspired artwork, had been loaded onto the flight laser transceiver before Psyche launched last year.

Now that the spacecraft is more than seven times farther away, the rate at which it can send and receive data is reduced, as expected. During the April 8 test, the spacecraft transmitted test data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which far surpasses the project’s goal of proving at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance.

The project team also commanded the transceiver to transmit Psyche-generated data optically. While Psyche was transmitting data over its radio frequency channel to NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), the optical communications system simultaneously transmitted a portion of the same data to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California — the tech demo’s primary downlink ground station.

“After receiving the data from the DSN and Palomar, we verified the optically downlinked data at JPL,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short time frame, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations.”

Fun With Lasers

After Psyche launched, the optical communications demo was initially used to downlink pre-loaded data, including the Taters the cat video. Since then, the project has proven that the transceiver can receive data from the high-power uplink laser at JPL’s Table Mountain facility, near Wrightwood, California. Data can even be sent to the transceiver and then downlinked back to Earth on the same night, as the project proved in a recent “turnaround experiment.”

This experiment relayed test data — as well as digital pet photographs — to Psyche and back again, a round trip of up to 280 million miles (450 million kilometers). It also downlinked large amounts of the tech demo’s own engineering data to study the characteristics of the optical communications link.

“We’ve learned a great deal about how far we can push the system when we do have clear skies, although storms have interrupted operations at both Table Mountain and Palomar on occasion,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. (Whereas radio frequency communications can operate in most weather conditions, optical communications require relatively clear skies to transmit high-bandwidth data.)

JPL recently led an experiment to combine Palomar, the experimental radio frequency-optical antenna at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, and a detector at Table Mountain to receive the same signal in concert. “Arraying” multiple ground stations to mimic one large receiver can help boost the deep space signal. This strategy can also be useful if one ground station is forced offline due to weather conditions; other stations can still receive the signal.

More About the Mission

Managed by JPL, this demonstration is the latest in a series of optical communication experiments funded by the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) program under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. Development of the flight laser transceiver is supported by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, L3 Harris, CACI, First Mode, and Controlled Dynamics Inc., and Fibertek, Coherent, and Dotfast support the ground systems. Some of the technology was developed through NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis from Palo Alto, California.

For more information about the laser communications demo, visit:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/dsoc

News Media Contacts

Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

2024-049      

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Navigating the Moon with Art

An artist uses an airbrush to recreate the lunar surface on one of the four models comprising the LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, simulator in this November 12, 1964, photo. Project LOLA was a simulator built at Langley to study problems related to landing on the lunar surface.

In “Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center From Sputnik to Apollo,” James Hansen wrote: “This simulator was designed to provide a pilot with a detailed visual encounter with the lunar surface; the machine consisted primarily of a cockpit, a closed-circuit TV system, and four large murals or scale models representing portions of the lunar surface as seen from various altitudes. The pilot in the cockpit moved along a track past these murals which would accustom him to the visual cues for controlling a spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon. Unfortunately, such a simulation–although great fun and quite aesthetic–was not helpful because flight in lunar orbit posed no special problems other than the rendezvous with the LEM, which the device did not simulate. Not long after the end of Apollo, the expensive machine was dismantled.”

Image Credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

Johnson Unveils Modern Four Nine Team Conference Center

On April 10, 2024, Johnson Space Center celebrated the opening of the Four Nine Team conference center housed in building 419. The event marked the unveiling of a dynamic hub for Johnson employees, whether for team brainstorms, meetings with offsite companies, or remote work for those not typically onsite.  

During the open house, selected vendors showcased furniture that blended modern aesthetics with the building’s historical significance, highlighting NASA’s vision for the future of work. 

“The vendors really went above and beyond to bring our workplace to life,” said Leah Galindo, lead project manager of collaborative worksites at Johnson. “We are extremely grateful for their contributions and for creating a space that inspires people to come to work every day.” 

The design center features acoustic panels in rooms and hallways to minimize distractions and maintain privacy. The amenities include TVs, projectors, and 360-degree video conferencing devices, with most rooms equipped to support various meeting needs. Employees can also choose to store their personal belongings in a locker during lunch breaks or when visiting other buildings. 

David Brownhill, Johnson’s furniture group lead and NASA’s first official interior decorator, commented, “The redesigned space is a testament to the innovative spirit of NASA. The collaborative concept shows that the center has changed, and so has the way we work.” 

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