Infinity Cosmos

  NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – seen as the bright flash on the left – on May 31, 2024. The image displays a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, colorized in red. On May 31, 2024, at precisely 6:03 p.m. ET, the Sun unleashed a powerful solar flare, which was observed and captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.  Solar flares are significant bursts of energy that can have widespread effects on Earth. These flares and associated solar eruptions have the potential to disrupt radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals, and they can pose substantial risks to spacecraft and astronauts operating in space. This particular flare has been classified as an X1.1 flare. The classification system for solar flares places X-class as the most intense, with the number indicating further details about the flare’s strength. To understand how such space weather phenomena m...

Over the last two years, scientists have utilized NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to explore what astronomers call Cosmic Dawn, the period in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang when the first galaxies formed. These early galaxies provide crucial insights into the evolution of gas, stars, and black holes during the universe's infancy. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers employed Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), they captured a spectrum of a record-breaking galaxy observed only 290 million years after the Big Bang.  This corresponds to a redshift of about 14, indicating how much the galaxy's light has been stretched by the universe's expansion. Stefano Carniani from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, and Kevin Hainline from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, were invited to explain h...

  Panels a, b, and c each show stereographic image pairs of asteroid Dinkinesh taken by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s L’LORRI Instrument around closest approach on Nov. 1, 2023. Yellow and rose dots indicate the trough and ridge features, respectively. These images have been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast. Panel d shows a side view of Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam taken a few minutes after closest approach. Images from the November 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft reveal a trough on Dinkinesh where a large piece, approximately a quarter of the asteroid, shifted suddenly. The images also show a ridge and a separate contact binary satellite, now known as Selam. Scientists interpret this complex structure as evidence of Dinkinesh and Selam's significant internal strength and dynamic history. “We want to understand the strengths of small bodies in our solar system because that’s critical for understanding how planets like Earth got here,” explained...

  This computer-generated 3D model of Venus’ surface shows the volcano Sif Mons, which is exhibiting signs of ongoing activity. Using data from NASA’s Magellan mission, Italian researchers detected evidence of an eruption while the spacecraft orbited the planet in the early 1990s. Direct geological evidence of recent volcanic activity on Venus has been observed for a second time. Scientists in Italy analyzed archival data from NASA’s Magellan mission to reveal surface changes indicating the formation of new rock from lava flows linked to volcanoes that erupted while the spacecraft orbited the planet. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Magellan mapped 98% of the planet’s surface from 1990 to 1992, and the images it generated remain the most detailed of Venus to date. “Using these maps as a guide, our results show that Venus may be far more volcanically active than previously thought,” said Davide Sulcanese of d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy, ...

  Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41 p.m. NZST on May 25, 2024 (3:41 a.m. EDT) carrying a small satellite for NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission. The first of two climate satellites designed to analyze heat emissions at Earth's poles has successfully entered orbit. Launched by Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand, the satellite lifted off at 7:41 p.m. NZST (3:41 a.m. EDT) on Saturday. This mission, named PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment), involves two CubeSats that will measure the heat radiated from Earth's polar regions into space. The PREFIRE mission aims to enhance predictions regarding changes in Earth’s ice, seas, and weather by providing detailed data on the far-infrared radiation emitted from the Arctic and Antarctic. This data is crucial for understanding how the energy budget of our planet influences climate...

  Voyager 1 has resumed returning science data from two of its four instruments for the first time since a computer issue arose in November 2023. The mission's science teams are now working to recalibrate the remaining two instruments, with plans to do so in the coming weeks. This marks significant progress toward restoring the spacecraft to normal operations. After five months of troubleshooting, the mission was able to begin receiving usable engineering data about the health and status of Voyager 1's onboard systems in April. On May 17, commands were sent to the 46-year-old spacecraft to resume sending science data back to Earth. Given Voyager 1's distance of over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, it takes light more than 22 1/2 hours to travel each way, requiring nearly two days to confirm the success of the commands. The plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument are now returning usable science data. Efforts are ongoing to restore the cosmic r...

A team of astronomers has studied 16 supermassive black holes that are firing powerful beams into space, tracking where these beams, or jets, are pointing now and where they were aimed in the past, as reported in our latest press release. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Radio Astronomical Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA), they found that some of the beams have changed directions by large amounts. These two Chandra images show hot gas in the middle of the galaxy cluster Abell 478 (left) and the galaxy group NGC 5044 (right). The center of each image contains one of the sixteen black holes firing beams outwards. Each black hole is located in the center of a galaxy embedded in the hot gas. In the images below, labels and the radio images appear. Ellipses show a pair of cavities in the hot gas for Abell 478 (left), while ellipses indicate two pairs of cavities for NGC 5044 (right). These cavities were carve...