Image (Credit): Messier 104 (M104) captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
This week’s image, released late last year, comes from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Messier 104 (M104), called the Sombrero galaxy, shines in all its blueness. It is about 31 million light-years away. It would have been interesting to see this galaxy from above (or below, for that matter).
In Webb’s mid-infrared view of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104), the signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring, which appeared smooth like a blanket in imaging from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
Note: Below is another view of the galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Image (Credit): Messier 104 (M104) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. (This image was created from data from HST program 9714: K. Noll, H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, Z. Levay, and T. Royle (STScI)).
Image (Credit): Moon rock loaned to the White House by NASA. (NASA)
As the new administration decorates the White House’s Oval Office, it was determined that a lunar rock no longer needs to be present. The rock from the last Apollo mission, labeled “Lunar Sample 76015,143.” was provided to the Biden administration back in 2021 to remind him of U.S. efforts to return to the Moon.
Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald Evans and moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, the last humans to set foot on the Moon, chipped this sample from a large boulder at the base of the North Massif in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, 3 km (almost 2 miles) from the Lunar Module. This 332 gram piece of the Moon (less than a pound), which was collected in 1972, is a 3.9-billion-year-old sample formed during the last large impact event on the nearside of the Moon, the Imbrium Impact Basin, which is 1,145 km or 711.5 miles in diameter.
The irregular sample surfaces contain tiny craters created as micrometeorite impacts have sand-blasted the rock over millions of years. The flat, sawn sides were created in NASA’s Lunar Curation Laboratory when slices were cut for scientific research. This ongoing research is imperative as we continue to learn about our planet and the Moon, and prepare for future missions to the cislunar orbit and beyond.
So does this mean the Moon is out, or did it not match the new drapes? Or is President Trump hoping to add his own Moon rock to his office after a successful Artemis mission?
It is not clear where the Moon stands in the current priorities of this White House given its ongoing efforts to push NASA employees into retirement or resignation, end scientific meetings, and eliminate all efforts at diversity at the agency.
Maybe Mars is the new target, but even that seems further off as Elon Musk burrows into government programs he know nothing about while the latest Starship disintegrated over the Caribbean.
Space missions take focus, which seems to be elsewhere at the moment.
Maybe the rock should stay in the Oval Office for the time being to remind the current administration what our country can do when it has a president with a vision that brings everyone together to accomplish an amazing task.
At NASA, officials are moving quickly to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order directing agencies to cease funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. NASA has already informed researchers supported by one high-profile program for undergraduate students that several of the agency’s spacecraft contractors will no longer take part in the program, following the agency’s guidance. And NASA has warned the researchers that it is likely to kill grants that have already been awarded.
NASA has directed a set of science committees to pause their work, citing recent Trump administration executive orders, a move that canceled one meeting and put planning for others on hold. NASA Headquarters sent memos Jan. 31 to the leaders of several committees, known as “analysis groups” or “assessment groups,” that provide input to the agency’s astrophysics and planetary science divisions. The memo said NASA needed to determine if the groups’ activities complied with new executive orders.
NASA continues to highlight goals of landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface even amid the agency’s recent shutdown of diversity, equity and inclusion programs — also known as DEI — under executive orders from President Trump. “With NASA’s Artemis campaign, we are exploring the moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars,” reads the Artemis mission statement on NASA’s website. “We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the moon. NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.” The announcement NASA would send the first woman to the moon came under Trump’s first presidency.
Last April I mentioned the pending arrival of the movie Mickey 17, based on Edward Ashton’s book Mickey 7. Well, the movie premieres in theaters on March 7 (even though the poster above has the date 1/31/25). The first trailer was released four months back, while the second trailer came out two weeks ago. Both indicate the movie will be much wilder than the book.
Here are some of the main names associated with the film:
From the Academy Award-winning writer/director of “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho, comes his next groundbreaking cinematic experience, “Mickey 17.” The unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, “Mickey 17” stars Robert Pattinson (“The Batman,” “Tenet”), Naomi Ackie (“Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker”), Academy Award nominee Steven Yeun (“Minari,” “Beef”), with Academy Award nominee Toni Collette (“Hereditary”), and Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”).
Generally, I prefer a movie to stick closely to the book. In this case, based on what I can see in the trailers, it shows much more of the alien life on the planet, which should make it interesting. The book also had a somewhat unsatisfactory ending, leaving a lot to the imagination. I expect the film makers will want to eliminate some of that uncertainty.
Given the lack of an humor in most of the recent space films, from battles on space stations to more aliens popping out of bodies, Mickey 17 should be a nice change. If not, we will always have the book.
“We do want to keep an eye on it. We do take it seriously, but we want to put it in perspective … There’s still a very low probability that it would even impact the Earth at all.”
-Statement by Kelly Fast, the acting planetary defense officer for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, as quoted by National Pubic Radio. She is referring to asteroid 2024 YR4, which is between 30 feet to about 300 feet in diameter. Scientists believe the asteroid has about a 1.6 percent chance of hitting the Earth in 2032.
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