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NASA Ames’ Contributions to OSIRIS-REx

by Gianine Figliozzi

Extraterrestrial rocks and dust – material scooped up from an asteroid – were delivered to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. A safe landing in the Utah desert for the spacecraft carrying this bounty marked the end of a seven-year journey for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx – short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer – and the start of two intensive years of sample analysis activities for mission scientists on Earth. 

Over the coming decades, scientists around the world will study the rocks and dust collected from the asteroid Bennu to learn about the formation of the solar system and the delivery of organic molecules to early Earth.

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Artist’s conception of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx about to land on asteroid Bennu.
Credit: NASA

Bennu is also one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids for Earth impact, although the chances of impact in the 22nd century are only one in 1,750. Understanding the physical and chemical properties of asteroids like Bennu will be critical, should humanity need to mitigate impact hazards in the future.

Teams at NASA Ames have played critical roles in preparing the mission for success and will continue to work on the OSIRIS-REx samples once they arrive. They helped design ways for the mission to collect high-quality samples, preserve them in pristine form, and develop a plan for the scientific community to study the essentially irreplaceable asteroid material. Ames experts also advised the mission on its thermal protection system – notably the heat shield that will protect the sample return capsule from the blistering heat of passing through Earth’s atmosphere.

Read on for more details of Ames’ contributions to OSIRIS-REx.

Preparing for an Asteroid Sample: From Canister to Curation 

Ames researcher Scott Sandford has been involved with OSIRIS-REx since the earliest days of the mission. A major area of his work was in the design and testing of the air filter system on the sample return canister that has housed the precious asteroid material during its journey to Earth and will protect it from contamination when it lands on the surface. 

The canister’s air filter was tested in Sandford’s lab before the mission launched. It will keep earthly contaminants out of the sample and, if the asteroid material is releasing any gases, the filter will trap them. If that’s happening, scientists could identify some components of Bennu. Sandford will coordinate a group of scientists in labs around the world to analyze the air filter after its return to Earth.

Sandford also leads the effort to analyze many components of the sample return capsule, both to assess potential sources of contamination in the samples and to assess the performance of the capsule.

Sandford’s sample curation work helped plan how the unique material from Bennu will be used. Three-quarters of it will be made available for study over the coming decades, while the remaining 25% may be distributed to researchers in efficient ways that let them address the mission’s scientific questions.

Withstanding the Heat of Earth Entry

The heat shield thermal protection system (TPS) is made of a material developed at Ames: phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). PICA was first flown on NASA’s Stardust mission, which also delivered extraterrestrial material to Earth – from a comet.

The Stardust sample return capsule was nearly identical to that of OSIRIS-REx, so the latter mission was able to use the Earth-entry, descent, and landing systems successfully demonstrated by the earlier mission. Reusing many features of the Stardust capsule design, adjusted for the specific needs of the mission to Bennu, allowed OSIRIS-REx to reduce costs and the thermal protection team to leverage what they had learned from Stardust.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's heat shield is made of a material developed at Ames: phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). In this photo, PICA is undergoing testing in Ames' arc jet facility, which simulates atmospheric re-entry conditions, to confirm thermal protection performance for the heat shield's design.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s heat shield is made of a material developed at Ames: phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA). In this photo, PICA is undergoing testing in Ames’ arc jet facility, which simulates atmospheric re-entry conditions, to confirm thermal protection performance for the heat shield’s design.
Credit: NASA

They then worked with mission partner Lockheed Martin Space – who designed and built the spacecraft and capsule – to integrate the air filter and PICA elements onto the mission. 

Ames helped qualify the PICA to withstand the extremely high temperatures experienced upon entering Earth’s atmosphere. They provided guidance to the mission on the PICA thickness needed to protect the samples and tested the heat shield material under simulated atmospheric re-entry conditions in Ames’ arc jet facilities to confirm thermal protection performance for the design. Ames experts in computational fluid dynamics supplied analysis that validated the aerothermal environments used in those tests. 

Soon after the spacecraft returns, members of Ames’ thermal protection team also plan to laser-scan the OSIRIS-REx heat shield in coordination with colleagues at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Lockheed Martin, or both. What they learn about PICA’s performance, relative to predictions, can support future missions such as Mars Sample Return, that will return samples collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover to Earth in the future.

Asteroid Sample Science 

When the OSIRIS-REx capsule lands in the Utah desert, researcher Scott Sandford will be on the ground to help retrieve it. The chances of contaminants like soil and water entering the sample canister inside are extremely low. But, to be absolutely certain no one accidentally studies terrestrial materials thinking they are samples from Bennu, he will help collect samples from the environment where the capsule lands, for comparison with the asteroid material. 

Later, Sandford will perform scientific studies of the Bennu samples themselves. His study will focus on two areas. He’ll assess what, if any, spacecraft-related contaminants got into the samples, such as material coming off the heat shield as it ablated, or “burned off,” during atmospheric entry. Sandford will also probe the samples for any organic compounds. Scientists estimate that Bennu is 4.5 billion years old and contains well-preserved materials, including complex organics, from the early solar system. Finding organics could tell us something about what roles materials of the early solar system may have played in delivering organic “ingredients of life” to the early Earth.

The techniques Sandford uses will allow him to search for compounds inside the Bennu samples. At Ames he’ll use infrared microspectroscopy to detect various kinds of organics in the samples that contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. He will also work with colleagues to study samples using the Advanced Light Source facility, a specialized particle accelerator that generates bright beams of X-ray light for scientific research, located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Both techniques provide information about the kinds of chemical bonds present in the samples’ organic compounds. 

HORIS: A Study of Atmospheric Entry

NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will manage an experiment taking advantage of the OSIRIS-REx sample arrival to study characteristics of re-entry through an atmosphere. 

Four aircraft and teams at three ground sites will track the capsule’s trajectory on its way to the surface, using imaging and spectroscopy instruments. Data from the project, called Hypervelocity OSIRIS-REx Reentry Imaging & Spectroscopy (HORIS), will be used to validate and develop planetary entry models. 

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Recovery teams participate in field rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the asteroid sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. NASA Ames researcher Scott Sandford, second from left, who has been involved with OSIRIS-REx since the earliest days of the mission, will participate in retrieval of the capsule when it lands in the desert on Sep. 24 and, later, will perform scientific studies of the samples from asteroid Bennu.
Credit: NASA Ames/Keegan Barber

NASA’s Earth Science Project Office (ESPO), based at Ames, will provide operational and shipping support to two international ground teams by setting up work sites at three different locations in northern Nevada.  

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrives on Earth, will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Congratulations to the 2023 Ames Honor Awards Recipients

The honorees will be recognized at the center’s annual Ames Honor Awards ceremony to be held in person on Nov. 1, in the Syvertson Auditorium (N201) at 11 a.m. PDT.  Employees are invited to attend as we celebrate, recognize, and honor the achievements of our colleagues. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination for this prestigious award, and congratulations to the deserving recipients

Recipients of the 2023 Ames Honor Awards:

Administrative Assistant Support/Secretary
Lyn C. Bartlett

Administrative Professional
Erin K. Contreras
Trincy D. Lewis
Vanessa R. Westmoreland

Best First Paper
Dahlia D. Pham
Evan T. Kawamura

Contractor Employee
Sonja M. Caldwell, KBR
Athena Chan, Science and Technology Corporation
David Garcia Perez, Science and Technology Corporation
Dominic Hart, MORI Associates
Ignacio Gonzalo Lopez-Francos, KBR
Taejin Park, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Sasha V. Weston, Millennium Engineering & Integration Co.
Louis W. Wust, InuTeq, LLC.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility
Kevin L. Jones
Garrett G. Sadler
Dorsa Shirazi
Juan L. Torres-Perez

Education and Outreach
Sarah A. Conley
Denise R. Snow

Engineer
Rodolphe De Rosee
Jesse C. Fusco
Scott T. Miller

Group/Team
Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) Project Team
BioSentinel Mission Operations Team
CapiSorb Visible System ISS Payload & Experiment
ICEE Facility Team
NASA Ames Utility Team
Starling Team
TechEdSat Nano Orbit Workshop
TOSS 4 and RHEL8 Migration Team
VIPER MGRU Rover Team
Voluntary Protection Program Recertification Team

Mentor
Misty D. Davies
Marcie A. Smith
Gloria K. Yamauchi

Partnerships
Sigrid Reinsch

Project Management
Craig D. Burkhard
Kelly E. Kwan

Scientist or Researcher
Thomas P. Greene

Special Appreciation (Non-Ames Employees)
Jeffrey F. Haught, NASA Headquarters

Student
Avraham S. Gileadi, NIFS Intern
Stephanie I. Pass, Intern
Shivang M. Shelat, SJSU Research Foundation

Supervisor/Manager
Susie Go
Lynne H. Martin
Kerry Zarchi

Technical Support/Professional
Randal L. Hobbs
Robert W. Koteskey
Yonghong Shen

Technician
Kevin B. Gregory

Face of NASA: Protocol Officer Carolina Rudisel

“I never would have imagined myself here at NASA. I’m an immigrant. I was originally a Mexican citizen. I was actually born in Mexico, but my parents came over to the U.S. [and I got my green card] when I was two. … My parents originally came over on a worker visa, and so we were migrant workers [when I was] growing up.

Carolina Rudisel
“… I try to tell folks that it’s not where you started. It’s not the mistakes you’ve made. It’s what you do with it, and you can make that change not only for yourself but [also] so others can see you making the change and [know] that anything is possible.” — Carolina Rudisel, Protocol Officer, NASA’s Ames Research Center

“… It was a rough upbringing, and so I knew what my life held for me if I stayed in [my] small town. I knew that I would be stuck, as even now, looking back, some of the people I knew are still stuck. So, I decided that I would join the military because I knew that, for myself, I needed to make a radical change. And so I joined the military, and my life completely turned around. … That’s where I met my husband. We’ve been together 32 years; we’ve been married for 29 years.

“… [Before I joined] the military … I was on the wrong end of the law. I was literally standing in front of a judge who had my fate in their hands. … My recruiter happened to be at my hearing, and so we did a plea bargain and I was let off with a fine. But my life could have been completely different. So I knew the radical change was absolutely necessary for my life.

“… Fast forward: [I] joined the military, got out, and ended up spending most of the time overseas. I lived in Japan — as a matter of fact, both our kids together were born in Japan. [We] lived in Japan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Belgium, and our last post was London.

“… I worked for the Defense Attaché Office, and my co-worker was in the Navy and she was like, ‘There’s a job in NASA in Northern California! You’re from California, right? … You should apply.’ And I [thought], ‘There is no way.’ You know, I’m a businessperson, my background is in business. I was a finance budget analyst. And so, I was like, ‘There’s no way.’ She [said], ‘You should apply. Apply, apply, apply! The worst thing they could say is no.’ And I’m like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ I applied, came to NASA, [and] actually started off here as the secretary for the center director.

Clues to Psyche Asteroid’s Metallic Nature Found in SOFIA Data

When the asteroid Psyche has its first close-up with a NASA spacecraft, scientists hypothesize they will find a metal-rich asteroid. It could be part or all of the iron-rich interior of a planetesimal, an early planetary building block, that was stripped of its outer rocky shell as it repeatedly collided with other large bodies during the early formation of the solar system.

New research from scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley suggests that is exactly what the agency’s Psyche mission will find.

An artist’s concept depicting the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
An artist’s concept depicting the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Led by Anicia Arredondo, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and Maggie McAdam, Ames research scientist and principal investigator, the team observed Psyche in Feb. 2022 using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The now-retired observatory was a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a reflecting telescope. As a flying telescope, SOFIA collected data that was not affected by Earth’s lower atmosphere and made observations from all over the world, including over the oceans.

For the first time, SOFIA was able to gather data from every part of Psyche’s surface. It also allowed the team to collect data about the materials that make up Psyche’s surface – information that could not be gathered from ground-based telescopes.

The Ames team studied the way different wavelengths of light bounce off Psyche. Researchers used a mid-infrared camera, which detects wavelengths in the middle of the electromagnetic spectrum, to observe the asteroid. They measured its emissivity(the amount of energy it radiates) and porosity (how many tiny holes or spaces an object has). Both characteristics can provide clues about the materials that make up an object.

The team observed that Psyche’s emissivity data was mostly flat, meaning there were no spikes or other notable features in its spectra – that is, a chart or a graph that shows the intensity of light the asteroid emits over a range of energies. Similarly flat spectra have been found in laboratory settings when mid-infrared instruments are used on metal objects. This led the researchers to conclude that Psyche is likely a metallic body.

Notably, the team did not observe a spectral feature called the 10-micron plateau, which typically indicates a “fluffy” surface, like lunar regolith. Previous studies of Psyche had observed this feature, which suggests there may be differences between the surface at Psyche’s north pole, which was facing the Earth at the time of the Ames team’s study, and the surface at its south pole, which was the focus of previous studies. The team also proposed that the south pole regolith observed by other researchers could have been ejected from a collision elsewhere on Psyche’s surface. This idea is supported by past observations of Psyche, which found evidence of huge depressions and impact craters across the asteroid.

“With this analysis and the previous studies of Psyche, we have reached the limit of what astronomical observations can teach us about this fascinating asteroid,” said McAdam. “Now we need to physically visit Psyche to study it up close and learn more about what appears to be a very unique planetary body.” NASA’s mission to Psyche will provide that opportunity. The spacecraft is set to launch on Oct. 12, 2023. It will arrive at the asteroid in 2029 and orbit it for at least 26 months.

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NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

Psyche’s potential to answer many questions about planet formation is a key reason why it was selected for close observation by a spacecraft. Scientists believe that planets like Earth, Mars, and Mercury have metallic cores, but they are buried too far below the planets’ mantles and crusts to see or measure directly. If Psyche is confirmed to be a planetary core, it can help scientists understand what is inside the Earth and other large planetary bodies.

Psyche’s size is also important for advancing scientific understanding of Earth-like planets. It is the largest M-type (metallic) asteroid in our solar system and is long enough to cover the distance from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland. This means Psyche is more likely to show differentiation, which is when the materials inside a planet separate from one another, with the heaviest materials sinking to the middle and forming cores.

“Every time a new study of Psyche is published, it raises more questions,” said Arredondo, who was a postdoctoral researcher at Ames on the SOFIA mission when the Psyche observations were collected. “Our findings suggest the asteroid is very complex and likely holds many other surprises. The possibility of the unexpected is one of the most exciting parts of a mission to study an unexplored body, and we look forward to gaining a more detailed understanding of Psyche’s origins.”

More about the Psyche and SOFIA missions:

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.

Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is managing the launch service.

SOFIA was a joint project of NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR. DLR provided the telescope, scheduled aircraft maintenance, and other support for the mission. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley managed the SOFIA program, science, and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft was maintained and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California. SOFIA achieved full operational capability in 2014 and concluded its final science flight on Sept. 29, 2022.

President Biden Lands at NASA Ames, Greeted by Deputy Director

President Joe Biden arrived in California’s Silicon Valley on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, where he was welcomed by Dr. David Korsmeyer, acting deputy center director at NASA Ames and Santa Clara County Supervisor, District 4, Susan Ellenberg. Biden landed aboard Air Force One  at Moffett Federal Airfield, located at Ames, before departing for a campaign event in the area.

Preside Biden Visit
President Joe Biden  arrived  in California’s Silicon Valley on Tuesday,  Sept. 26, 2023, where he was welcomed by  Dr. David Korsmeyer, acting deputy center director at NASA’s Ames Research Center and Santa Clara County Supervisor, District 4, Susan Ellenberg.
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

New Simulations Shed Light on Origins of Saturn’s Rings and Icy Moons

by Frank Tavares

On a clear night, with a decent amateur telescope, Saturn and its series of remarkable rings can be seen from Earth’s surface. But how did those rings come to be? And what can they tell us about Saturn and its moons, one of the potential locations NASA hopes to search for life? A new series of supercomputer simulations has offered an answer to the mystery of the rings’ origins – one that involves a massive collision, back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

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Still image from a computer simulation of an impact between two icy moons in orbit around Saturn. The collision ejects debris that could evolve into the planet’s iconic and remarkably young rings. The simulation used over 30 million particles, colored by their ice or rock material, run using the open source SWIFT simulation code.
Credit: NASA/Durham University/Glasgow University/Jacob Kegerreis/Luís Teodoro

According to new research by NASA and its partners, Saturn’s rings could have evolved from the debris of two icy moons that collided and shattered a few hundred million years ago. Debris that didn’t end up in the rings could also have contributed to the formation of some of Saturn’s present-day moons.

“There’s so much we still don’t know about the Saturn system, including its moons that host environments that might be suitable for life,” said Jacob Kegerreis, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “So, it’s exciting to use big simulations like these to explore in detail how they could have evolved.”

NASA’s Cassini mission helped scientists understand just how young – astronomically speaking – Saturn’s rings and probably some of its moons are. And that knowledge opened up new questions about how they formed.

To learn more, the research team turned to the Durham University location of the Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) supercomputing facility in the United Kingdom. They modeled what different collisions between precursor moons might have looked like. These simulations were conducted at a resolution more than 100 times higher than previous such studies, using the open-source simulation code, SWIFT, and giving scientists their best insights into the Saturn system’s history.

Saturn’s rings today live close to the planet, within what’s known as the Roche limit – the farthest orbit where a planet’s gravitational force is powerful enough to disintegrate larger bodies of rock or ice that get any closer. Material orbiting farther out could clump together to form moons.

By simulating almost 200 different versions of the impact, the team discovered that a wide range of collision scenarios could scatter the right amount of ice into Saturn’s Roche limit, where it could settle into rings.

And, while alternative explanations haven’t been able to show why there would be almost no rock in Saturn’s rings – they are made almost entirely of chunks of ice – this type of collision could explain that.

“This scenario naturally leads to ice-rich rings,” said Vincent Eke, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics/Institute for Computational Cosmology, at Durham University and a co-author on the paper. “When the icy progenitor moons smash into one another, the rock in the cores of the colliding bodies is dispersed less widely than the overlying ice.” 

Ice and rocky debris would also have hit other moons in the system, potentially causing a cascade of collisions. Such a multiplying effect could have disrupted any other precursor moons outside the rings, out of which today’s moons could have formed.

But what could have set these events in motion, in the first place? Two of Saturn’s former moons could have been pushed into a collision by the usually small effects of the Sun’s gravity “adding up” to destabilize their orbits around the planet. In the right configuration of orbits, the extra pull from the Sun can have a snowballing effect – a “resonance” – that elongates and tilts the moons’ usually circular and flat orbits until their paths cross, resulting in a high-speed impact.

Saturn’s moon Rhea today orbits just beyond where a moon would encounter this resonance. Like the Earth’s Moon, Saturn’s satellites migrate outward from the planet over time. So, if Rhea were ancient, it would have crossed the resonance in the recent past. However, Rhea’s orbit is very circular and flat. This suggests that it did not experience the destabilizing effects of the resonance and, instead, formed more recently.

The new research aligns with evidence that Saturn’s rings formed recently, but there are still big open questions. If at least some of the icy moons of Saturn are also young, then what could that mean for the potential for life in the oceans under the surface of worlds like Enceladus? Can we unravel the full story from the planet’s original system, before the impact, through to the present day? Future research building on this work will help us learn more about this fascinating planet and the icy worlds that orbit it.

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      “I like to think of the Milky Way as this giant hairdryer, and it’s blowing gas off the LMC as it comes into us,” said Fox. “The Milky Way is pushing back so forcefully that the ram pressure has stripped off most of the original mass of the LMC’s halo. There’s only a little bit left, and it’s this small, compact leftover that we’re seeing now.”
      As the ram pressure pushes away much of the LMC’s halo, the gas slows down and eventually will rain into the Milky Way. But because the LMC has just gotten past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the whole halo will be lost.
      Only with Hubble
      To conduct this study, the research team analyzed ultraviolet observations from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, so it cannot be observed with ground-based telescopes. Hubble is the only current space telescope tuned to detect these wavelengths of light, so this study was only possible with Hubble.
      The team surveyed the halo by using the background light of 28 bright quasars. The brightest type of active galactic nucleus, quasars are believed to be powered by supermassive black holes. Shining like lighthouse beacons, they allow scientists to “see” the intervening halo gas indirectly through the absorption of the background light. Quasars reside throughout the universe at extreme distances from our galaxy.
      This artist’s concept illustrates the Large Magellanic Cloud’s (LMC’s) encounter with the Milky Way galaxy’s gaseous halo. In the top panel, at the middle of the right side, the LMC begins crashing through our galaxy’s much more massive halo. The bright purple bow shock represents the leading edge of the LMC’s halo, which is being compressed as the Milky Way’s halo pushes back against the incoming LMC. In the middle panel, part of the halo is being stripped and blown back into a streaming tail of gas that eventually will rain into the Milky Way. The bottom panel shows the progression of this interaction, as the LMC’s comet-like tail becomes more defined. A compact LMC halo remains. Because the LMC is just past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the residual halo will be lost. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
      Download this image

      The scientists used data from Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to detect the presence of the halo’s gas by the way it absorbs certain colors of light from background quasars. A spectrograph breaks light into its component wavelengths to reveal clues to the object’s state, temperature, speed, quantity, distance, and composition. With COS, they measured the velocity of the gas around the LMC, which allowed them to determine the size of the halo.
      Because of its mass and proximity to the Milky Way, the LMC is a unique astrophysics laboratory. Seeing the LMC’s interplay with our galaxy helps scientists understand what happened in the early universe, when galaxies were closer together. It also shows just how messy and complicated the process of galaxy interaction is.
      Looking to the Future
      The team will next study the front side of the LMC’s halo, an area that has not yet been explored.
      “In this new program, we are going to probe five sightlines in the region where the LMC’s halo and the Milky Way’s halo are colliding,” said co-author Scott Lucchini of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. “This is the location where the halos are compressed, like two balloons pushing against each other.”
      The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
      Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
      Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
      Ann Jenkins, Ray Villard
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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      Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
      Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Hubble Space Telescope Irregular Galaxies Spiral Galaxies The Milky Way Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      Hubble Space Telescope


      Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.


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    • By NASA
      This photo shows the Optical Telescope Assembly for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which was recently delivered to the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.NASA/Chris Gunn NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is one giant step closer to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The mission has now received its final major delivery: the Optical Telescope Assembly, which includes a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) primary mirror, nine additional mirrors, and supporting structures and electronics. The assembly was delivered Nov. 7. to the largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the observatory is being built.
      The telescope will focus cosmic light and send it to Roman’s instruments, revealing many billions of objects strewn throughout space and time. Using the mission’s Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera, astronomers will survey the cosmos all the way from the outskirts of our solar system toward the edge of the observable universe. Scientists will use Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument to test new technologies for dimming host stars to image planets and dusty disks around them in far better detail than ever before.
      “We have a top-notch telescope that’s well aligned and has great optical performance at the cold temperatures it will see in space,” said Bente Eegholm, optics lead for Roman’s Optical Telescope Assembly at NASA Goddard. “I am now looking forward to the next phase where the telescope and instruments will be put together to form the Roman observatory.”
      In this photo, optical engineer Bente Eegholm inspects the surface of the primary mirror for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. This 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) mirror is a major component of the Optical Telescope Assembly, which also contains nine additional mirrors and supporting structures and electronics.NASA/Chris Gunn Designed and built by L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, the assembly incorporates key optics (including the primary mirror) that were made available to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office. The team at L3Harris then reshaped the mirror and built upon the inherited hardware to ensure it would meet Roman’s specifications for expansive, sensitive infrared observations.
      “The telescope will be the foundation of all of the science Roman will do, so its design and performance are among the largest factors in the mission’s survey capability,” said Josh Abel, lead Optical Telescope Assembly systems engineer at NASA Goddard.
      The team at Goddard worked closely with L3Harris to ensure these stringent requirements were met and that the telescope assembly will integrate smoothly into the rest of the Roman observatory.
      The assembly’s design and performance will largely determine the quality of the mission’s results, so the manufacturing and testing processes were extremely rigorous. Each optical component was tested individually prior to being assembled and assessed together earlier this year. The tests helped ensure that the alignment of the telescope’s mirrors will change as expected when the telescope reaches its operating temperature in space.
      Then, the telescope was put through tests simulating the extreme shaking and intense sound waves associated with launch. Engineers also made sure that tiny components called actuators, which will adjust some of the mirrors in space, move as predicted. And the team measured gases released from the assembly as it transitioned from normal air pressure to a vacuum –– the same phenomenon that has led astronauts to report that space smells gunpowdery or metallic. If not carefully controlled, these gases could contaminate the telescope or instruments.
      Upon arrival at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Optical Telescope Assembly for the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was lifted out of the shipping fixture and placed with other mission hardware in Goddard’s largest clean room. Now, it will be installed onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a structure that will keep the telescope and Roman’s two instruments optically aligned. The assembly’s electronics box –– essentially the telescope’s brain –– will be mounted within the spacecraft along with Roman’s other electronics.NASA/Chris Gunn Finally, the telescope underwent a month-long thermal vacuum test to ensure it will withstand the temperature and pressure environment of space. The team closely monitored it during cold operating conditions to ensure the telescope’s temperature will remain constant to within a fraction of a degree. Holding the temperature constant allows the telescope to remain in stable focus, making Roman’s high-resolution images consistently sharp. Nearly 100 heaters on the telescope will help keep all parts of it at a very stable temperature.
      “It is very difficult to design and build a system to hold temperatures to such a tight stability, and the telescope performed exceptionally,” said Christine Cottingham, thermal lead for Roman’s Optical Telescope Assembly at NASA Goddard.
      Now that the assembly has arrived at Goddard, it will be installed onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a structure that will keep the telescope and Roman’s two instruments optically aligned. The assembly’s electronics box –– essentially the telescope’s brain –– will be mounted within the spacecraft along with Roman’s other electronics.
      With this milestone, Roman remains on track for launch by May 2027.
      “Congratulations to the team on this stellar accomplishment!” said J. Scott Smith, the assembly’s telescope manager at NASA Goddard. “The completion of the telescope marks the end of an epoch and incredible journey for this team, and yet only a chapter in building Roman. The team’s efforts have advanced technology and ignited the imaginations of those who dream of exploring the stars.”
      Virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
      By Ashley Balzer
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      ​​Media Contact:
      Claire Andreoli
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      301-286-1940
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      Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      4 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Coastal locations, such as Drakes Bay on the Point Reyes peninsula in Northern California, are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise.NOAA/NMFS/WCR/CCO The information will help people who live in coastal areas prepare for impacts caused by rising sea levels.
      Earth’s ocean is rising, disrupting livelihoods and infrastructure in coastal communities around the world. Agencies and organizations are working to prepare people as their world changes around them, and NASA information is helping these efforts.
      The agency’s global data is now available in the sea level section of the Earth Information Center. NASA developed the global sea level change website in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of State, and the United Nations Development Programme.  
      The site includes information on projected sea level rise through the year 2150 for coastlines around the world, as well as estimates of how much flooding a coastal community or region can expect to see in the next 30 years. The projections come from data collected by NASA and its partners and from computer models of ice sheets and the ocean, as well as the latest sea level assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and other sources.
      “NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity. Our cutting-edge instruments and data-driven information tools help communities and organizations respond to natural hazards and extreme weather, and inform critical coastal infrastructure planning decisions,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
      Information to Action
      International organizations such as the World Bank will use the data from the global sea level change site for tasks including the creation of Climate Risk Profiles for countries especially vulnerable to sea level rise.
      The Defense Department will continue to incorporate sea level rise data into its plans to anticipate and respond to hazards posed to its facilities by the effects of rising oceans. Similarly, the State Department uses the information for activities ranging from disaster preparedness to long-term adaptation planning to supporting partners around the world in related efforts.
      “We are at a moment of truth in our fight against the climate crisis. The science is unequivocal and must serve as the bedrock upon which decision-making is built. With many communities around the world already facing severe impacts from sea-level rise, this new resource provides a vital tool to help them protect lives and livelihoods. It also illustrates what is at stake between a 1.5-degree-Celsius world and a current-policies trajectory for all coastal communities worldwide,” said Assistant Secretary-General Selwin Hart, special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general on climate action and just transition.
      Rising Faster
      NASA-led data analyses have revealed that between 1970 and 2023, 96% of countries with coastlines have experienced sea level rise. The rate of that global rise has also accelerated, more than doubling from 0.08 inches (0.21 centimeters) per year in 1993 to about 0.18 inches (0.45 centimeters) per year in 2023.
      As the rate of sea level rise increases, millions of people could face the related effects sooner than previously projected, including larger storm surges, more saltwater intrusion into groundwater, and additional high-tide flood days — also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods.
      “This new platform shows the timing of future floods and the magnitude of rising waters in all coastal countries worldwide, connecting science and physics to impacts on people’s livelihoods and safety,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director of the ocean physics program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
      Data released earlier this year found that Pacific Island nations will experience at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise in the next 30 years. The number of high-tide flood days will increase by an order of magnitude for nearly all Pacific Island nations by the 2050s.
      “The data is clear: Sea levels are rising around the world, and they’re rising faster and faster,” said Ben Hamlington, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and head of the agency’s sea level change science team. “Having the best information to make decisions about how to plan for rising seas is more crucial than ever.”
      To explore the global sea level change site:
      https://earth.gov/sealevel
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    • By NASA
      5 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Note: The following article is part of a series highlighting propulsion testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. To access the entire series, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/propulsion-powering-space-dreams/.
      NASA engineers conduct a test of the liquid oxygen/liquid methane Morpheus lander engine HD4B on the E-3 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center during the week of Sept. 9, 2013. The fourth-generation Project Morpheus engine was a prototype vertical takeoff and landing vehicle designed to advance innovative technologies into flight-proven systems that may be incorporated into future human exploration missions. NASA/Stennis The work of NASA has fueled commercial spaceflight for takeoff – and for many aerospace companies, the road to launch begins at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. 
      Already the nation’s largest propulsion test site and a leader in working with aerospace companies to support their testing needs, NASA Stennis aims to continue growing its commercial market even further.  
      “The aerospace industry is expanding rapidly, and we are here to support it,” said NASA Stennis Director John Bailey. “NASA Stennis has proven for more than two decades that we have the versatile infrastructure and reliable propulsion test experts to meet testing needs and accelerate space goals for a whole range of customers.” 
      The central hub for meeting those needs at the south Mississippi center is the E Test Complex. It features four stands with 12 test cells capable of supporting a range of component and engine test activities. NASA operates the E-1 Test Stand with four cell positions and the E-3 Test Stand with two cells. Relativity Space, based in Long Beach, California, leases the E-2 and E-4 stands to support some of its test operations. 
      Operators conduct a hot fire for Relativity Space’s Aeon R thrust chamber assembly on the E-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in 2024.  NASA/Stennis Virgin Orbit, a satellite-launch company, conducts a Thrust Chamber Assembly test on the E-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in 2021. The company partnered with NASA Stennis to conduct hot fire tests totaling a cumulative 974.391 seconds.NASA/Stennis Launcher’s 3D-printed Engine-2 rocket engine completes a 5-second hot fire of its thrust chamber assembly on Aug. 20, 2021, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The company was just one of several conducting test projects on site in 2021. Launcher, Virgin Orbit, Relativity Space, and L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) made significant strides toward their space-project goals while utilizing NASA Stennis infrastructure.Launcher/John Kraus Photography An image from November 2021 shows a subscale center body diffuser hot fire on the E-3 Test Stand during an ongoing advanced diffuser test series at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.  NASA/Stennis A team of engineers from NASA, Orbital Sciences Corporation and L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) conduct an engine acceptance test on the E-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Jan. 18, 2013. The successful test of AJ26 Engine E12 continued support of Orbital Sciences Corporation as the company prepared to provide commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station.  NASA/Stennis Developed during the 1990s and early 2000s, the E Test Complex can deliver various propellants and gases at high and low pressures and flow rates not available elsewhere. The versatility of the complex infrastructure and test team allows it to support projects for commercial aerospace companies, large and small. NASA Stennis also provides welding, machining, calibration, precision cleaning, and other support services required to conduct testing.  
      “NASA Stennis delivers exceptional results in a timely manner with our capabilities and services,” said Duane Armstrong, manager of the NASA Stennis Strategic Business Development Office. “Our commercial partnerships and agreements have proven to be true win-win arrangements. NASA Stennis is where customers have access to unique NASA test support infrastructure and expertise, making it the go-to place for commercial propulsion testing.”  
      Companies come to the south Mississippi site with various needs. Some test for a short time and collect essential data. Others stay for an extended period. The stage of development and the particular test article, whether a component or full engine, determine where testing takes place within the E Complex. 
      NASA Stennis also offers a variety of test agreements. Companies may lease a stand or area and perform its own test campaign. They also may team with NASA Stennis engineers and operators to form a blended test team. And in some cases, companies will turn over the entirety of test work to the NASA Stennis team. Current companies conducting work at NASA Stennis include: Blue Origin; Boeing; Evolution Space; Launcher, a Vast company; Relativity Space; and Rolls-Royce. They join a growing list who conducted earlier test projects in the complex, including SpaceX, Stratolaunch, Virgin Orbit, and Orbital Sciences Corporation. 
      In addition, three companies – Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, and Evolution Space – are establishing production and/or test operations onsite. 
      “We may work with a customer brand new to the field, so we help them figure out how to build their engine,” said Chris Barnett-Woods, E-1 electrical lead and instrumentation engineer. “Another customer may know exactly what they want, and we support them to make it happen. We focus on customer need. Given our expertise, we know how testing needs to be conducted or can figure it out quickly together, which can help our customer save money toward a successful outcome.” 
      NASA engineers conduct a test of a methane-fueled 2K thruster on the E-3 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center during a four-day span in May 2015. NASA/Stennis NASA records a historic week Nov. 5-9, 2012, conducting 27 tests on three different rocket engines/components across three stands in the E Test Complex at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Inset images show the types of tests conducted on the E-1 Test Stand (right), the E-2 Test Stand (left) and the E-3 Test Stand (center). The E-1 image is from an October 2012 test and is provided courtesy of Blue Origin. Other images are from tests conducted the week of Nov. 5, 2012. NASA/Stennis Operators at the E-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center conduct a test of the oxygen preburner component developed by SpaceX for its Raptor rocket engine on June 9, 2015. NASA/Stennis Operators conduct a hot fire on the E-3 Test Stand during ongoing advanced diffuser test series in October 2015 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Subscale testing was conducted at NASA Stennis to validate innovative new diffuser designs to help test rocket engines at simulated high altitudes, helping to ensure the engines will fire and operate on deep space missions as needed.  NASA/Stennis NASA’s Stennis Space Center and  L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) complete a successful round of AR1 preburner tests on Cell 2 of the E-1 Test Stand during the last week of June 2016. The tests successfully verified key preburner injector design parameters for the company’s AR1 engine being designed to end use of Russian engines for national security space launches. NASA/Stennis Capabilities to benefit NASA and the aerospace industry have grown since the center entered its first commercial partnership in the late 1990s. The test team also has grown in understanding the commercial approach, and the center has committed itself to adapting and streamlining its business processes. 
      “Time-to-market is key for commercial companies,” said Joe Schuyler, director of the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate. “They want to test as efficiently and economically as possible. Our goal is to meet them where they are and deliver what they need. And that is exactly what we focus our efforts on.”
      As stated in the site’s latest strategic plan, the goal is to operate as “a multi-user propulsion testing enterprise that accelerates the development of aerospace systems and services by government and industry.” To that end, the site is innovating its operations, modernizing its services, and demonstrating it is the best choice for propulsion testing. 
      “NASA Stennis is open for business as the preferred propulsion provider for aerospace companies,” Bailey said. “Companies across the board are realizing they can achieve their desired results at NASA Stennis.”  
      For information about NASA’s Stennis Space Center, visit: 
      Stennis Space Center – NASA 
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      Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
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