Pic of the Week: Space Shuttle Finds a New Home

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Ongoing construction work assembling the Space Shuttle Endeavor and related stack elements at the planned Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. (California Science Center)

This week’s image comes from California and shows the construction of a new giant exhibit at the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. What you are seeing is a covered Space Shuttle Endeavour, which flew its final mission back in May 2011.

You can view more images and videos related to the creation of this new exhibit by visiting the California Science Center site. The site notes:

This will be the only complete stack of authentic space shuttle flight hardware in existence, making the Endeavour exhibit even more significant than before. In addition to allowing the public unprecedented, unique vantage points, this configuration retains a complete flight stack for engineers and historians to examine in the future. NASA and aerospace companies frequently visit museums to look at hardware from previous programs in order to design for the future projects.

Pic of the Week: The End of Ingenuity

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Shadow of the Ingenuity helicopter’s rotor blade on the surface of Mars. (NASA, JPL-Caltech)

This week’s image shows the shadow of little helicopter that could and continued to do so for 72 flights on Mars. The photo taken by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter shows one of its rotor blades after it finished its last flight on January 18, 2024. During the landing, one of the blades was damaged, permanently grounded the helicopter forever more.

The amazing little helicopter surpassed all expectations and became a very helpful buddy to the Perseverance rover. It may be the end of Ingenuity, but it should also be seen as the start of more missions that pair rovers and helicopters on Mars.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has some final words regarding this unique helicopter in a video that you can watch here.

In addition, Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager at NASA JPL, had this to say:

It’s humbling Ingenuity not only carries onboard a swatch from the original Wright Flyer, but also this helicopter followed in its footsteps and proved flight is possible on another world.

Pic of the Week: Surfboards in Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): JWST image showing an array of odd shapes when the universe was only 600 million to 6 billion years old. The elongated shape in the left bottom part of the image is one of the most common identified shapes so far in Webb’s survey. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin))

This week’s image is one from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showing galaxies from long ago. Many of these galaxies have an elongated shape similar to a surfboard. Again, JWST is opening our eyes everyday to the wonder and weirdness of the universe.

Here is more about the image from NASA:

Researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like surfboards and pool noodles – and are rarely round, like volleyballs or frisbees. “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we studied appear to be flattened in two dimensions,” explained lead author Viraj Pandya, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York. “Galaxies that look like pool noodles or surfboards seem to be very common in the early universe, which is surprising, since they are uncommon nearby.”

The team focused on a vast field of near-infrared images delivered by Webb, known as the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, plucking out galaxies that are estimated to exist when the universe was 600 million to 6 billion years old.

Pic of the Week: Dwarf Irregular Galaxy UGC 8091

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Hubble Space Telescope’s view of Galaxy UGC 8091. ( ESA/Hubble, NASA Y. Choi (NOIRLab), K. Gilbert (Space Telescope Science Institute), J. Dalcanton (Flatiron Institute and University of Washington))

The image this week is from the NASA/European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. It shows an irregular dwarf galaxy, UGC 8091, that is about seven million light-years away. What I see appears to be jellyfish within some cloudy water. I also the variety of other galaxies you can see throughout the image (see below).

Here is a little more about the image from ESA:

A collection of stars and galaxies fill the scene against a dark background. The image is dominated by a dense collection of stars that make up the irregular galaxy UGC 8091. The stars span a variety of colours, including blue and orange, with patches of blue occupying the central part of the galaxy. There are also visible circular regions of red/pink gas within the galaxy.

Image (Credit): Section of the above image – upper left hand corner. (ESA/Hubble, NASA Y. Choi (NOIRLab), K. Gilbert (Space Telescope Science Institute), J. Dalcanton (Flatiron Institute and University of Washington))

Pic of the Week: The Last Full Moon of 2023

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The last full Moon of 2023. (Gianni Tumino from Ragusa, Sicily, Italy)

This week’s image is from Astronomy magazine’s Picture of the Day, labeled “The year’s last Full Moon.”

Here is what the caption states:

The last Full Moon of 2023 rises over the Mediterranean as seen from Aci Castello on Dec. 26. The ten frames in this composite image ranged from 1/800 to 1/100 second at ISO 400 with a zoom lens at 200 mm and f/13.