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Scientists spot hidden companions of bright stars
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By NASA
On Nov. 6, 2024, NASA Night brought cosmic excitement to the Toyota Center, where Johnson Space Center employees joined 16,208 fans who interacted with NASA as they watched the Houston Rockets claim victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
Energy soared as International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel stepped up to take the first shot.
International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel takes the first shot on Nov. 6, 2024, as the Houston Rockets go up against the San Antonio Spurs at Toyota Center.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas The ceremonial first shot also gave back to the community, with Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta donating $1,000 to the Clutch City Foundation to support underserved youth through education, sports, and disaster relief.
Throughout the game, Johnson employees kept the crowd engaged with NASA trivia, creating a “launch countdown” energy that had fans cheering. The arena lit up as Adam Savage narrated a video showcasing the International Space Station’s groundbreaking contributions to science. From unlocking discoveries impossible on Earth to testing critical technologies for our return to the Moon, the orbiting laboratory plays a vital role in advancing medical and social breakthroughs that enhance life on our planet.
The Artemis II crew also appeared on the jumbotron, reminding everyone of NASA’s mission to establish a long-term presence on the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to inspire a new generation of explorers.
Dana Weigel, center, shows off a Rockets jersey on the court with Rockets mascot Clutch, left, and NASA mascot Cosmo.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas In the Sky Court area of the stadium concourse, Johnson volunteers held “mission control” with an interactive exhibit that drew fans in like a gravitational pull. From exploring a Space Launch System model and handling a spacesuit helmet and glove to touching a 3.4-billion-year-old Moon rock collected during Apollo 17, NASA’s booth offered attendees a glimpse into space exploration.
Visitors had the chance to ask questions and bring home mission pins, stickers, and hands-on activities, provided by the International Space Station Program and the Artemis campaign. Seventy-five “Lucky Row” fans also received bags filled with NASA outreach materials, courtesy of the Johnson Public Engagement team.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center volunteers connect with fans at the game through an interactive exhibit.NASA The Orion Flight Simulator, with its realistic switches and displays, provided an immersive experience that allowed fans to dock the Orion spacecraft to humanity’s first lunar space station, Gateway.
More than 600 fans eagerly lined up to experience NASA’s mobile exhibit trailer in the Toyota Center parking lot—drawing lines as long as those at the box office.
Fans engage with the Orion Flight Simulator at NASA’s booth. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas Fans also tested their skills with a crew assembly activity focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, simulating the challenges astronauts face in orbit. NASA’s inflatable mascot, Cosmo, joined the action on the court, posing for photos and adding galactic fun to events like the T-shirt giveaway.
The Houston Rockets mascot Clutch and NASA mascot Cosmo team up on the court at Toyota Center in Houston.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas NASA’s presence brought together the excitement of sports with the wonder of space exploration, inspiring fans to keep shooting for the stars.
View more images from the event below.
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By NASA
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) America Reyes Wang, Sepideh Khajehei, Julie Nottage, and Ryan Felton. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the talent, camaraderie, and vision needed to explore this world and beyond.
Space Biosciences Star: America Reyes Wang
America Reyes Wang serves as the Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP) Lead in the Space Biosciences Research Branch, where she guides a team of support scientists and a logistics coordinator in planning and performing detailed, collaborative dissections to maximize the scientific return from biological investigations. Under her leadership, the BSP team has contributed over 5,000 samples to the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC), approximately half of which were collected in the last 10 months.
Earth Science Star: Sepideh Khajehei
Sepideh Khajehei is a NASA Earth eXchange (NEX) Data and Research Scientist in the Biospheric Science Branch, for the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. She is recognized for her dedicated support of the NASA Administrator’s Earth Information Center, and recently for her outstanding support for an urgent request to revise climate indices just days before the October 7, 2024, opening of NASA’s Hometown Climate Dashboard at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
Space Science & Astrobiology Star: Julie Nottage
Julie Nottage continuously goes above and beyond in her role as the Space and Earth Sciences Facilities Service Manager. She keeps a multi-use interdisciplinary science building running across all aspects of operations and is the go-to person for any problem. Her can-do approach and wealth of knowledge ensures the facility’s high-quality operation that enables scientists and engineers to focus on their research and instrument work. Her quality work and extensive coordination of the Voluntary Protection Program allowed these month-long inspections to run smoothly with an improved safety outcome.
Space Science & Astrobiology Star: Ryan Felton
Ryan Felton, a NASA Postdoctoral Management Fellow with the Exobiology Branch, is recognized for his successful coordination of an engaging community-wide seminar series focused on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML). This seminar series featured four speakers so far over six months on a variety of exciting topics to advance AI/ML knowledge and use in the branch’s research.
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By NASA
The study of X-ray emission from astronomical objects reveals secrets about the Universe at the largest and smallest spatial scales. Celestial X-rays are produced by black holes consuming nearby stars, emitted by the million-degree gas that traces the structure between galaxies, and can be used to predict whether stars may be able to host planets hospitable to life. X-ray observations have shown that most of the visible matter in the universe exists as hot gas between galaxies and have conclusively demonstrated that the presence of “dark matter” is needed to explain galaxy cluster dynamics, that dark matter dominates the mass of galaxy clusters, and that it governs the expansion of the cosmos.
X-ray observations also enable us to probe mysteries of the Universe on the smallest scales. X-ray observations of compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes allow us to use the Universe as a physics laboratory to study conditions that are orders of magnitude more extreme in terms of density, pressure, temperature, and magnetic field strength than anything that can be produced on Earth. In this astrophysical laboratory, researchers expect to reveal new physics at the subatomic scale by conducting investigations such as probing the neutron star equation of state and testing quantum electrodynamics with observations of neutron star atmospheres. At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a team of scientists and engineers is building, testing, and flying innovative optics that bring the Universe’s X-ray mysteries into sharper focus.
A composite X-ray/Optical/Infrared image of the Crab Pulsar. The X-ray image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and white), reveals exquisite details in the central ring structures and gas flowing out of the polar jets. Optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope (purple) shows foreground and background stars as pinpoints of light. Infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) traces cooler gas in the nebula. Finally, magnetic field direction derived from X-ray polarization observed by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is shown as orange lines. Magnetic field lines: NASA/Bucciantini et al; X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA-JPL-Caltech Unlike optical telescopes that create images by reflecting or refracting light at near-90-degree angles (normal incidence), focusing X-ray optics must be designed to reflect light at very small angles (grazing incidence). At normal incidence, X-rays are either absorbed by the surface of a mirror or penetrate it entirely. However, at grazing angles of incidence, X-rays reflect very efficiently due to an effect called total external reflection. In grazing incidence, X-rays reflect off the surface of a mirror like rocks skipping on the surface of a pond.
A classic design for astronomical grazing incidence optics is the Wolter-I prescription, which consists of two reflecting surfaces, a parabola and hyperbola (see figure below). This optical prescription is revolved around the optical axis to produce a full-shell mirror (i.e., the mirror spans the full circumference) that resembles a gently tapered cone. To increase the light collecting area, multiple mirror shells with incrementally larger diameters and a common focus are fabricated and nested concentrically to comprise a mirror module assembly (MMA).
Focusing optics are critical to studying the X-ray universe because, in contrast to other optical systems like collimators or coded masks, they produce high signal-to-noise images with low background noise. Two key metrics that characterize the performance of X-ray optics are angular resolution, which is the ability of an optical system to discriminate between closely spaced objects, and effective area, which is the light collecting area of the telescope, typically quoted in units of cm2. Angular resolution is typically measured as the half-power diameter (HPD) of a focused spot in units of arcseconds. The HPD encircles half of the incident photons in a focused spot and measures the sharpness of the final image; a smaller number is better.
Schematic of a full-shell Wolter-I X-ray optic mirror module assembly with five concentrically nested mirror shells. Parallel rays of light enter from the left, reflect twice off the reflective inside surface of the shell (first off the parabolic segment and then off the hyperbolic segment), and converge at the focal plane. NASA MSFC NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been building and flying lightweight, full-shell, focusing X-ray optics for over three decades, always meeting or exceeding angular resolution and effective area requirements. MSFC utilizes an electroformed nickel replication (ENR) technique to make these thin full-shell X-ray optics from nickel alloy.
X-ray optics development at MSFC began in the early 1990s with the fabrication of optics to support NASA’s Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF-S) and then continued via the Constellation-X technology development programs. In 2001, MSFC launched a balloon payload that included two modules each with three mirrors, which produced the first focused hard X-ray (>10 keV) images of an astrophysical source by imaging Cygnus X-1, GRS 1915, and the Crab Nebula. This initial effort resulted in several follow-up missions over the next 12 years, and became known as the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon program.
In 2012, the first of four sounding rocket flights of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) flew with MSFC optics onboard, producing the first focused images of the Sun at energies greater than 5 keV. In 2019 the Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) instrument on the Spectr-Roentgen-Gamma Mission launched with seven MSFC-fabricated X-ray MMAs, each containing 28 mirror shells. ART-XC is currently mapping the sky in the 4-30 keV hard X-ray energy range, studying exotic objects like neutron stars in our own galaxy as well as active galactic nuclei, which are spread across the visible universe. In 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), flew and is now performing extraordinary science with an MSFC-led team using three, 24-shell MMAs that were fabricated and calibrated in-house.
Most recently, in 2024, the fourth FOXSI sounding rocket campaign launched with a high-resolution MSFC MMA. The optics achieved 9.5 arcsecond HPD angular resolution during pre-flight test with an expected 7 arcsecond HPD in gravity-free flight, making this the highest angular resolution flight observation made with a nickel-replicated X-ray optic. Currently MSFC is fabricating an MMA for the Rocket Experiment Demonstration of a Soft X-ray (REDSoX) polarimeter, a sounding rocket mission that will fly a novel soft X-ray polarimeter instrument to observe active galactic nuclei. The REDSoX MMA optic will be 444 mm in diameter, which will make it the largest MMA ever produced by MSFC and the second largest replicated nickel X-ray optic in the world.
Scientists Wayne Baumgartner (left, crouched) and Nick Thomas (left, standing) calibrate an IXPE MMA in the MSFC 100 m Beamline. Scientist Stephen Bongiorno (right) applies epoxy to an IXPE shell during MMA assembly. NASA MSFC The ultimate performance of an X-ray optic is determined by errors in the shape, position, and roughness of the optical surface. To push the performance of X-ray optics toward even higher angular resolution and achieve more ambitious science goals, MSFC is currently engaged in a fundamental research and development effort to improve all aspects of full-shell optics fabrication.
Given that these optics are made with the Electroformed Nickel Replication technique, the fabrication process begins with creation of a replication master, called the mandrel, which is a negative of the desired optical surface. First, the mandrel is figured and polished to specification, then a thin layer of nickel alloy is electroformed onto the mandrel surface. Next, the nickel alloy layer is removed to produce a replicated optical shell, and finally the thin shell is attached to a stiff holding structure for use.
Each step in this process imparts some degree of error into the final replicated shell. Research and development efforts at MSFC are currently concentrating on reducing distortion induced during the electroforming metal deposition and release steps. Electroforming-induced distortion is caused by material stress built into the electroformed material as it deposits onto the mandrel. Decreasing release-induced distortion is a matter of reducing adhesion strength between the shell and mandrel, increasing strength of the shell material to prevent yielding, and reducing point defects in the release layer.
Additionally, verifying the performance of these advanced optics requires world-class test facilities. The basic premise of testing an optic designed for X-ray astrophysics is to place a small, bright X-ray source far away from the optic. If the angular size of the source, as viewed from the optic, is smaller than the angular resolution of the optic, the source is effectively simulating X-ray starlight. Due to the absorption of X-rays by air, the entire test facility light path must be placed inside a vacuum chamber.
At MSFC, a group of scientists and engineers operate the Marshall 100-meter X-ray beamline, a world-class end-to-end test facility for flight and laboratory X-ray optics, instruments, and telescopes. As per the name, it consists of a 100-meter-long vacuum tube with an 8-meter-long, 3-meter-diameter instrument chamber and a variety of X-ray sources ranging from 0.25 – 114 keV. Across the street sits the X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF), a 527-meter-long beamline with an 18-meter-long, 6-meter-diameter instrument chamber. These facilities are available for the scientific community to use and highlight the comprehensive optics development and test capability that Marshall is known for.
Within the X-ray astrophysics community there exist a variety of angular resolution and effective area needs for focusing optics. Given its storied history in X-ray optics, MSFC is uniquely poised to fulfill requirements for large or small, medium- or high-angular-resolution X-ray optics. To help guide technology development, the astrophysics community convenes once per decade to produce a decadal survey. The need for high-angular-resolution and high-throughput X-ray optics is strongly endorsed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.In pursuit of this goal, MSFC is continuing to advance the state of the art in full-shell optics. This work will enable the extraordinary mysteries of the X-ray universe to be revealed.
Project Leads
Dr. Jessica Gaskin and Dr. Stephen Bongiorno, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
Sponsoring Organizations
The NASA Astrophysics Division supports this work primarily through the Internal Scientist Funding Model Direct Work Package and competed solicitations. This work is also supported by the Heliophysics Division through competed solicitations, as well as by directed work from other government entities.
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Last Updated Oct 15, 2024 Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Marshall Astrophysics Marshall Space Flight Center Science-enabling Technology Technology Highlights Explore More
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2 min read
ESA/NASA’s SOHO Spies Bright Comet Making Debut in Evening Sky
The tail of comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS spanned the view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on Oct. 10, 2024. ESA/NASA The ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has captured images of the second-brightest comet to ever pass through its field of view during the spacecraft’s nearly 29-year career.
The bright comet is C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which has been garnering a lot of attention from skywatchers recently, displaying a long, dusty tail in pre-dawn skies throughout late September and early October. (Comet McNaught, viewed in 2007, holds the record as the brightest comet SOHO has seen.)
Between Oct. 7 and 11, the comet blazed through the view of SOHO’s LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment) instrument, which uses a disk to block out the bright light of the Sun so it’s easier to see details and objects near the Sun. This image, taken by SOHO on Oct. 10, 2024, shows the comet and its bright tail streaming from the upper left to the right. Mercury appears as a bright dot on the left.
After crossing through SOHO’s field of view, the comet will begin putting on an evening show for skywatchers around the world just after sunset starting Saturday, Oct. 12. Each day throughout October, the comet will gradually rise higher and higher in the western sky as it moves farther away from the Sun. But as it does, it will become fainter and fainter. Eagle-eyed skywatchers may be able to spot it with the naked eye for a few days, but after that, observers will likely need binoculars or a telescope to see it as it grows fainter.
Even if you are unable to spot this comet yourself, you can help SOHO search for others. Scientists and members of the general public have discovered more than 5,000 comets in SOHO imagery, and you can help find even more by visiting the Sungrazer Project.
By Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Oct 11, 2024 Related Terms
Comets Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Skywatching SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
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