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By NASA
Insights into metal alloy solidification
Researchers report details of phase and structure in the solidification of metal alloys on the International Space Station, including formation of microstructures. Because these microstructures determine a material’s mechanical properties, this work could support improvements in techniques for producing coatings and additive manufacturing or 3D printing processes.
METCOMP, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, studied solidification in microgravity using transparent organic mixtures as stand-ins for metal alloys. Conducting the research in microgravity removed the influence of convection and other effects of gravity. Results help scientists better understand and validate models of solidification mechanisms, enabling better forecasting of microstructures and improving manufacturing processes.
Image from the METCOMP investigation of how a metal alloy could look like as it solidifies. E-USOC Measuring the height of upper-atmospheric electrical discharges
Researchers determined the height of a blue discharge from a thundercloud using ground-based electric field measurements and space-based optical measurements from Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM). This finding helps scientists better understand how these high-altitude lightning-related events affect atmospheric chemistry and could help improve atmospheric models and climate and weather predictions.
ESA’s ASIM is an Earth observation facility that studies severe thunderstorms and upper-atmospheric lighting events and their role in the Earth’s atmosphere and climate. Upper-atmospheric lightning, also known as transient luminous events, occurs well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. The data collected by ASIM could support research on the statistical properties of many upper atmosphere lightning events, such as comparison of peak intensities of blue and red pulses with reports from lightning detection networks.
An artist’s impression of a blue jet as observed from the International Space Station.Mount Visual/University of Bergen/DTU Modeling a complex neutron star
Scientists report that they can use modeling of neutron star PSRJ1231−1411’s X-ray pulses to infer its mass and radius and narrow the possible behaviors of the dense matter at its core. This finding provides a better understanding of the composition and structure of these celestial objects, improving models that help answer questions about conditions in the universe.
The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer provides high-precision measurements of pulses of X-ray radiation from neutron stars. This particular neutron star presented challenges in finding a fit between models and data, possibly due to fundamental issues with its pulse profile. The authors recommend a program of simulations using synthetic data to determine whether there are fundamental issues with this type of pulse profile that could prevent efforts to obtain tighter and more robust constraints.
Concentrators on the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer instrument.NASAView the full article
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By NASA
Hubble Space TelescopeHubble Home OverviewAbout Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & BenefitsHubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts ScienceHubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky ObservatoryHubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb TeamHubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts NewsHubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources MultimediaMultimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More35th Anniversary 7 Min Read NASA Celebrates Edwin Hubble’s Discovery of a New Universe
The Cepheid variable star, called V1, in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Credits: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: R. Gendler For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don’t go looking for it — the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye.
Yet, a century ago, its discovery by Edwin Hubble, then an astronomer at Carnegie Observatories, opened humanity’s eyes as to how large the universe really is, and revealed that our Milky Way galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe ushered in the coming-of-age for humans as a curious species that could scientifically ponder our own creation through the message of starlight. Carnegie Science and NASA are celebrating this centennial at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
The seemingly inauspicious star, simply named V1, flung open a Pandora’s box full of mysteries about time and space that are still challenging astronomers today. Using the largest telescope in the world at that time, the Carnegie-funded 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Hubble discovered the demure star in 1923. This rare type of pulsating star, called a Cepheid variable, is used as milepost markers for distant celestial objects. There are no tape-measures in space, but by the early 20th century Henrietta Swan Leavitt had discovered that the pulsation period of Cepheid variables is directly tied to their luminosity.
Many astronomers long believed that the edge of the Milky Way marked the edge of the entire universe. But Hubble determined that V1, located inside the Andromeda “nebula,” was at a distance that far exceeded anything in our own Milky Way galaxy. This led Hubble to the jaw-dropping realization that the universe extends far beyond our own galaxy.
In fact Hubble had suspected there was a larger universe out there, but here was the proof in the pudding. He was so amazed he scribbled an exclamation mark on the photographic plate of Andromeda that pinpointed the variable star.
In commemoration of Edwin Hubble’s discovery of a Cepheid variable class star, called V1, in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy 100 years ago, astronomers partnered with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) to study the star. AAVSO observers followed V1 for six months, producing a plot, or light curve, of the rhythmic rise and fall of the star’s light. Based on this data, the Hubble Space Telescope was scheduled to capture the star at its dimmest and brightest light. Edwin Hubble’s observations of V1 became the critical first step in uncovering a larger, grander universe than some astronomers imagined at the time. Once dismissed as a nearby “spiral nebula” measurements of Andromeda with its embedded Cepheid star served as a stellar milepost marker. It definitively showed that Andromeda was far outside of our Milky Way. Edwin Hubble went on to measure the distances to many galaxies beyond the Milky Way by finding Cepheid variables within those levels. The velocities of those galaxies, in turn, allowed him to determine that the universe is expanding.NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: R. Gendler As a result, the science of cosmology exploded almost overnight. Hubble’s contemporary, the distinguished Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley, upon Hubble notifying him of the discovery, was devastated. “Here is the letter that destroyed my universe,” he lamented to fellow astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who was in his office when he opened Hubble’s message.
Just three years earlier, Shapley had presented his observational interpretation of a much smaller universe in a debate one evening at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington. He maintained that the Milky Way galaxy was so huge, it must encompass the entirety of the universe. Shapley insisted that the mysteriously fuzzy “spiral nebulae,” such as Andromeda, were simply stars forming on the periphery of our Milky Way, and inconsequential.
Little could Hubble have imagined that 70 years later, an extraordinary telescope named after him, lofted hundreds of miles above the Earth, would continue his legacy. The marvelous telescope made “Hubble” a household word, synonymous with wonderous astronomy.
Today, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope pushes the frontiers of knowledge over 10 times farther than Edwin Hubble could ever see. The space telescope has lifted the curtain on a compulsive universe full of active stars, colliding galaxies, and runaway black holes, among the celestial fireworks of the interplay between matter and energy.
Edwin Hubble was the first astronomer to take the initial steps that would ultimately lead to the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing a seemingly infinite ocean of galaxies. He thought that, despite their abundance, galaxies came in just a few specific shapes: pinwheel spirals, football-shaped ellipticals, and oddball irregular galaxies. He thought these might be clues to galaxy evolution – but the answer had to wait for the Hubble Space Telescope’s legendary Hubble Deep Field in 1994.
The most impactful finding that Edwin Hubble’s analysis showed was that the farther the galaxy is, the faster it appears to be receding from Earth. The universe looked like it was expanding like a balloon. This was based on Hubble tying galaxy distances to the reddening of light — the redshift – that proportionally increased the father away the galaxies are.
The redshift data were first collected by Lowell Observatory astronomer Vesto Slipher, who spectroscopically studied the “spiral nebulae” a decade before Hubble. Slipher did not know they were extragalactic, but Hubble made the connection. Slipher first interpreted his redshift data an example of the Doppler effect. This phenomenon is caused by light being stretched to longer, redder wavelengths if a source is moving away from us. To Slipher, it was curious that all the spiral nebulae appeared to be moving away from Earth.
Two years prior to Hubble publishing his findings, the Belgian physicist and Jesuit priest Georges Lemaître analyzed the Hubble and Slifer observations and first came to the conclusion of an expanding universe. This proportionality between galaxies’ distances and redshifts is today termed Hubble–Lemaître’s law.
Because the universe appeared to be uniformly expanding, Lemaître further realized that the expansion rate could be run back into time – like rewinding a movie – until the universe was unimaginably small, hot, and dense. It wasn’t until 1949 that the term “big bang” came into fashion.
This was a relief to Edwin Hubble’s contemporary, Albert Einstein, who deduced the universe could not remain stationary without imploding under gravity’s pull. The rate of cosmic expansion is now known as the Hubble Constant.
Ironically, Hubble himself never fully accepted the runaway universe as an interpretation of the redshift data. He suspected that some unknown physics phenomenon was giving the illusion that the galaxies were flying away from each other. He was partly right in that Einstein’s theory of special relativity explained redshift as an effect of time-dilation that is proportional to the stretching of expanding space. The galaxies only appear to be zooming through the universe. Space is expanding instead.
Compass and scale image titled “Cepheid Variable Star V1 in M31 HST WFC3/UVIS.” Four boxes each showing a bright white star in the center surrounded by other stars. Each box has a correlating date at the bottom: Dec. 17, 2020, Dec. 21, 2010, Dec. 30, 2019, and Jan. 26, 2011. The center star in the boxes appears brighter with each passing date.NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Project (STScI, AURA) After decades of precise measurements, the Hubble telescope came along to nail down the expansion rate precisely, giving the universe an age of 13.8 billion years. This required establishing the first rung of what astronomers call the “cosmic distance ladder” needed to build a yardstick to far-flung galaxies. They are cousins to V1, Cepheid variable stars that the Hubble telescope can detect out to over 100 times farther from Earth than the star Edwin Hubble first found.
Astrophysics was turned on its head again in 1998 when the Hubble telescope and other observatories discovered that the universe was expanding at an ever-faster rate, through a phenomenon dubbed “dark energy.” Einstein first toyed with this idea of a repulsive form of gravity in space, calling it the cosmological constant.
Even more mysteriously, the current expansion rate appears to be different than what modern cosmological models of the developing universe would predict, further confounding theoreticians. Today astronomers are wrestling with the idea that whatever is accelerating the universe may be changing over time. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope, with the ability to do large cosmic surveys, should lead to new insights into the behavior of dark matter and dark energy. Roman will likely measure the Hubble constant via lensed supernovae.
This grand century-long adventure, plumbing depths of the unknown, began with Hubble photographing a large smudge of light, the Andromeda galaxy, at the Mount Wilson Observatory high above Los Angeles.
In short, Edwin Hubble is the man who wiped away the ancient universe and discovered a new universe that would shrink humanity’s self-perception into being an insignificant speck in the cosmos.
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, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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Edwin Hubble Hubble Views the Star That Changed the Universe The History of Hubble Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Jan 15, 2025 EditorAndrea GianopoulosLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Andromeda Galaxy Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Stars The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Discovering a Runaway Universe
Our cosmos is growing, and that expansion rate is accelerating.
The History of Hubble
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
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By European Space Agency
Three InCubed satellites have launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, highlighting ESA’s role as partner to industry and its support for business and technology innovation.
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By NASA
Creating a golden streak in the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 15, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The Blue Ghost lander will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the lunar surface to further understand the Moon and help prepare for future human missions.Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux A suite of NASA scientific investigations and technology demonstrations is on its way to our nearest celestial neighbor aboard a commercial spacecraft, where they will provide insights into the Moon’s environment and test technologies to support future astronauts landing safely on the lunar surface under the agency’s Artemis campaign.
Carrying science and tech on Firefly Aerospace’s first CLPS or Commercial Lunar Payload Services flight for NASA, Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched at 1:11 a.m. EST aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The company is targeting a lunar landing on Sunday, March 2.
“This mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA’s Artemis campaign – a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Each flight we’re part of is vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Each scientific instrument and technology demonstration brings us closer to realizing our vision. Congratulations to the NASA, Firefly, and SpaceX teams on this successful launch.”
Once on the Moon, NASA will test and demonstrate lunar drilling technology, regolith (lunar rocks and soil) sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation methods. The data captured could also benefit humans on Earth by providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact our home planet.
“NASA leads the world in space exploration, and American companies are a critical part of bringing humanity back to the Moon,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We learned many lessons during the Apollo Era which informed the technological and science demonstrations aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 – ensuring the safety and health of our future science instruments, spacecraft, and, most importantly, our astronauts on the lunar surface. I am excited to see the incredible science and technological data Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 will deliver in the days to come.”
As part of NASA’s modern lunar exploration activities, CLPS deliveries to the Moon will help humanity better understand planetary processes and evolution, search for water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration of the Moon in preparation for the first human mission to Mars.
There are 10 NASA payloads flying on this flight:
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) will characterize heat flow from the interior of the Moon by measuring the thermal gradient and conductivity of the lunar subsurface. It will take several measurements to about a 10-foot final depth using pneumatic drilling technology with a custom heat flow needle instrument at its tip. Lead organization: Texas Tech University Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) is designed to collect regolith samples from the lunar surface using a burst of compressed gas to drive the regolith into a sample chamber for collection and analysis by various instruments. Additional instrumentation will then transmit the results back to Earth. Lead organization: Honeybee Robotics Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) serves as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the Moon. The retroreflector that will fly on this mission could also collect data to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and address fundamental physics questions. Lead organization: University of Maryland Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon’s environment throughout the lunar day. The RAC instrument will measure accumulation rates of lunar regolith on the surfaces of several materials including solar cells, optical systems, coatings, and sensors through imaging to determine their ability to repel or shed lunar dust. The data captured will allow the industry to test, improve, and protect spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive regolith. Lead organization: Aegis Aerospace Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) will demonstrate a computer that can recover from faults caused by ionizing radiation. Several RadPC prototypes have been tested aboard the International Space Station and Earth-orbiting satellites, but now will demonstrate the computer’s ability to withstand space radiation as it passes through Earth’s radiation belts, while in transit to the Moon, and on the lunar surface. Lead organization: Montana State University Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) is an active dust mitigation technology that uses electric fields to move and prevent hazardous lunar dust accumulation on surfaces. The EDS technology is designed to lift, transport, and remove particles from surfaces with no moving parts. Multiple tests will demonstrate the feasibility of the self-cleaning glasses and thermal radiator surfaces on the Moon. In the event the surfaces do not receive dust during landing, EDS has the capability to re-dust itself using the same technology. Lead organization: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) will capture a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field that drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms. Deployed and operated on the lunar surface, this instrument will provide the first global images showing the edge of Earth’s magnetic field for critical insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding our planet impact it. Lead organizations: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Boston University, and Johns Hopkins University Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) will characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by measuring electric and magnetic fields. This investigation will help determine the Moon’s temperature structure and thermal evolution to understand how the Moon has cooled and chemically differentiated since it formed. Lead organization: Southwest Research Institute Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) will demonstrate the possibility of acquiring and tracking signals from Global Navigation Satellite System constellations, specifically GPS and Galileo, during transit to the Moon, during lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface. If successful, LuGRE will be the first pathfinder for future lunar spacecraft to use existing Earth-based navigation constellations to autonomously and accurately estimate their position, velocity, and time. Lead organizations: NASA Goddard, Italian Space Agency Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will use stereo imaging photogrammetry to capture the impact of rocket plume on lunar regolith as the lander descends on the Moon’s surface. The high-resolution stereo images will aid in creating models to predict lunar regolith erosion, which is an important task as bigger, heavier payloads are delivered to the Moon in close proximity to each other. This instrument also flew on Intuitive Machine’s first CLPS delivery. Lead organization: NASA’s Langley Research Center “With 10 NASA science and technology instruments launching to the Moon, this is the largest CLPS delivery to date, and we are proud of the teams that have gotten us to this point,” said Chris Culbert, program manager for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We will follow this latest CLPS delivery with more in 2025 and later years. American innovation and interest to the Moon continues to grow, and NASA has already awarded 11 CLPS deliveries and plans to continue to select two more flights per year.”
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander is targeted to land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. The NASA science on this flight will gather valuable scientific data studying Earth’s nearest neighbor and helping pave the way for the first Artemis astronauts to explore the lunar surface later this decade.
Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Amber Jacobson / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
nataila.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
Antonia Jaramillo
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-8425
antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 15, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis Earth's Moon Johnson Space Center Kennedy Space Center Lunar Science Science & Research Science Mission Directorate View the full article
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