Space Stories: Dragon Docks with ISS, a Braille Astronomy Book, and an Exoplanet with No Atmosphere

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Image (Credit): The Dragon cargo capsule approaching the ISS. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—NASA: “SpaceX Dragon Docks to Station Delivering New Science, Supplies“

At 7:05 a.m. EDT, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module.  The spacecraft carried over 5,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory on SpaceX’s 33rd commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The mission launched at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 24 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. 

—Cincinnati Enquirer: “New Braille Book from Cincinnati Astronomer Lets You See Constellations Without Your Eyes“

Longtime readers will recognize the name Dean Regas, astronomy contributor to The Enquirer and former cohost of the PBS series “Star Gazers,” but they may not know that Regas is also the author of seven books about astronomy. His latest foray into the world of writing, “All About Orion,” is a children’s book focused on its namesake, Orion, with a twist: the book features braille writing and textile constellations as well as large print for blind and visually impaired children.

—Universe Today: “Another Earth-like Exoplanet Crossed Off the List: JWST Shows that GJ 3929b Has No Atmosphere“

The JWST’s latest exoplanet atmosphere target is GJ 3929 b. Astronomers discovered it in TESS data in 2022. “Our analysis confirms the planetary nature of the transiting planet GJ 3929 b,” the authors of the 2022 paper wrote. “Its mass and radius (~ 0.43 Earth masses and ~1.15 Earth radii) put it into the regime of small Earth-sized planets.” Earth-like planets attract attention for obvious reasons. Now the JWST’s results are in, and the once-promising planet appears to be barren.

We Welcome S/2025 U1 to the Family of Moons

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho)

Uranus has a new moon. Voyager missed it, but the James Webb Space Telescope discovered it earlier this year.

Named S/2025 U1 for the time being, it is the 29th known moon of Uranus. It is also quite small, being only six miles in diameter. Even the Martian Deimos is 7.5 miles in diameter.

Given the names of the other local moons, such as Puck, Cupid, Ophelia, and Juliet, one can guess that a few astronomers are brushing up on their Shakespeare at the moment. However, the International Astronomical Union will have the final say.

It’s just nice to have something simple to acknowledge in the space realm given all the politics mucking things up here on Earth. We all need to look up from the news once in a while to appreciate the bigger picture.

Space Stories: Gas Giant Exoplanet Found Orbiting Alpha Centauri A, New Jesuit Heads Vatican Observatory, and Crew-10 Mission Astronauts Return from ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Alpha Centauri. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Astronomy.com: “Webb Telescope Discovers Potential New World in Neighboring Star System“

A team of astronomers has found evidence of a candidate gas giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, a Sun-like star in the closest stellar system to our own. Initial observations hinting at the planet’s existence were made in August 2024 using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The Alpha Centauri system is located just 4 light-years from Earth. The findings, detailed in two papers accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could represent a major milestone. As Charles Beichman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted in a JWST news release, “With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own.”

—News Nation: “Pope Leo Appoints New Head Astronomer to Run the Vatican Observatory“

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a new head astronomer to run the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest scientific observatories in the world. Rev. Richard D’Souza, 47, will succeed Guy Consolmagno, an American physicist who was known as the “pope’s astronomer” for ten years. Both men are members of the Jesuit Order.

—ISS National Laboratory: “NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Returns Safely After Completing Dozens of ISS National Lab-Sponsored Investigations“

After nearly six months onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the four astronauts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission have safely returned to Earth. This weekend’s splashdown off the coast of California concludes a long-duration science expedition that supported dozens of investigations sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov played a vital role in advancing science in space, contributing to biomedical research, physical and materials sciences, technology demonstrations, and student-led experiments. Their work helped push the boundaries of discovery in low Earth orbit (LEO) The orbit around the Earth that extends up to an altitude of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Earth’s surface. The ISS’s orbit is in LEO, at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. to benefit life on Earth and support a sustainable and robust space economy.

Pic of the Week: Open Clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456

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Image (Credit): Open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. (NASA, ESA, and C. Lindberg (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))

This week’s image combines images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope to create a compressive view of open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456, which are located within the Small Magellanic Cloud orbiting the Milky Way. If you go to the NASA website hosting this image, you can see the original JWST and Hubble images that were combined to create that you see above.

Here is a little more from NASA explaining what you are seeing:

A riotous expanse of gas, dust, and stars stake out the dazzling territory of a duo of star clusters in this combined image from NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes.

Open clusters NGC 460 and NGC 456 reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Open clusters consist of anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand young stars loosely bound together by gravity. These particular clusters are part of an extensive complex of star clusters and nebulae that are likely linked to one another. As clouds of gas collapse, stars are born. These young, hot stars expel intense stellar winds that shape the nebulae around them, carving out the clouds and triggering other collapses, which in turn give rise to more stars.

In these images, Hubble’s view captures the glowing, ionized gas as stellar radiation blows “bubbles” in the clouds of gas and dust (blue), while Webb’s infrared vision highlights the clumps and delicate filamentary structures of dust (red). In Hubble images, dust is often seen silhouetted against and blocking light, but in Webb’s view, the dust – warmed by starlight – shines with its own infrared glow. This mixture of gas and dust between the universe’s stars is known as the interstellar medium.

JWST Spots Saturn-Like Exoplanet

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Image (Credit): JWST image subtracting light from the star TWA 7 (marked with a circle and a star symbol) to highlight the exoplanet identified as TWA 7 b. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Anne-Marie Lagrange (CNRS, UGA), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb))

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST ) continues to amaze us with its discoveries. It has now captured the image of an exoplanet with the mass of Saturn orbiting star TWA 7, representing the first exoplanet captured by JWST in this way. TWA 7 is a young red dwarf star located about 34 light-years away.

JWST used its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) coronograph to mask the light of the star so that the light from orbiting exoplanets could be detected. Astronomers are pretty confident that what they are seeing is an orbiting planet rather than a star or galaxy in the background. For example, the smaller orange orb on the left represents a background star.

Anne-Marie Lagrange, CNRS researcher at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL and Université Grenoble Alpes in France as well as lead author of the Nature paper, stated.

Our observations reveal a strong candidate for a planet shaping the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, and its position is exactly where we expected to find a planet of this mass.

NASA’s investments are paying off as we attempt to learn more about this strange universe of ours. Hopefully, members of Congress are paying attention.