Pic of the Week: Another Lunar View of Earth

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Apollo 17’s flag on the lunar surface. (NASA)

NASA is sharing a 51-year old photo from Apollo 17 showing both the American flag placed on the lunar surface by the crew as well as their home planet. It is a great shot that gives us plenty to thing about as the U.S. plans a return to the moon (with at least one other national flag to be planted, as noted the other day by Vice President Harris).

Here is more on the image from NASA:

Fifty-one years ago, one of the Apollo 17 astronauts on the Moon took this close-up of the U.S. flag they deployed with the Earth visible in the distance.⁣
⁣
The lunar module crew spent 75 hours on the lunar surface, deploying a U.S. flag early in EVA-1 — their mission’s first walk on the Moon. This particular flag had flown in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) in Houston during Apollo and was noticeably larger than the flags deployed on the previous missions.⁣
⁣
You may notice the support rod in the top part of the flag. The support rod ensured that the flag was extended and visible in photographs, despite there being no wind on the lunar surface to make the flag wave.⁣
⁣
Six U.S. flags in total were planted on the lunar surface, one during each Apollo mission. Experts believe it’s highly unlikely the Apollo flags could have endured the decades of exposure to vacuum, temperature swings from 242 °F (117 °C) during the day to -280 °F (-173 °C) during the night, micrometeorites, radiation, and ultraviolet light.⁣
⁣
While the flags are likely no longer there, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery taken decades later showed that the flagpoles were still standing and casting shadows.⁣

Pic of the Week: Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent))

This week’s image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope is both violent yet beautiful. It is also NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for today.

Here are some details about the image from NASA:

Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth’s sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. Light echoes from the massive star’s cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb’s detailed image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.

Pic of the Week: Progress 86 Approaches the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Progress 86 resupply ship approaches the ISS. (NASA)

This week’s image shows the Roscosmos Progress 86 cargo craft approaching the International Space Station (ISS) last Sunday with three tons of needed supplies. The space craft almost appears to be performing ballet. I expect everyone one on board the station was happy to see it arriving, hopefully loaded with some holiday treats.

The Russian cargo craft needed to be guided in manually by cosmonauts after the auto system failed. Backup systems are great, but fully functioning space systems are better. I guess the Russians got some practice that day.

Pic of the Week: Odyssey Over Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Martian horizon courtesy of NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

The image this week is what the International Space Station might see if it were traveling over Mars. Instead, this is the view of NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.

You can learn more about this image by watching this video with Laura Kerber, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. You can also read more about the orbiter’s mission and the video of Phobos by visiting this NASA site.

Pic of the Week: The Core of Our Galaxy

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): JWST’s view of the Milky Way. (NASA)

With the Thanksgiving holiday almost over, you may be thinking of Christmas lights after seeing the image above. Think larger, such as the size of a galaxy. You are looking at approximately 500,000 stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and it is pretty amazing.

The Webb telescope site has this to say about the image (and even more to say at the linked site):

A bright field of gas sweeps around the edge of a dark, dense cloud where young stars are bursting out to take their place in the universe. They join an estimated 500,000 other stars in the scene, of various ages, sizes, and colors. It’s the hub of our Milky Way galaxy, a city center at rush hour, making our solar system’s calm corner a frontier outpost by comparison. Discover the new features – and mysteries – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed with its unprecedented infrared-light view of the chaotic region, and what it means for astronomy.