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By Space Force
The discussion was part of the 40th Space Symposium, held by the Space Foundation to drive conversations on data, partnerships and innovation across the space industry.
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By NASA
Explore This Section Webb News Latest News Latest Images Blog (offsite) Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 5 Min Read NASA Webb Explores Effect of Strong Magnetic Fields on Star Formation
An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope array puts the James Webb Space Telescope’s image of the Sagittarius C region in context. Full image below. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, Samuel Crowe (UVA), John Bally (CU), Ruben Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), Ian Heywood (Oxford) Follow-up research on a 2023 image of the Sagittarius C stellar nursery in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, has revealed ejections from still-forming protostars and insights into the impact of strong magnetic fields on interstellar gas and the life cycle of stars.
“A big question in the Central Molecular Zone of our galaxy has been, if there is so much dense gas and cosmic dust here, and we know that stars form in such clouds, why are so few stars born here?” said astrophysicist John Bally of the University of Colorado Boulder, one of the principal investigators. “Now, for the first time, we are seeing directly that strong magnetic fields may play an important role in suppressing star formation, even at small scales.”
Detailed study of stars in this crowded, dusty region has been limited, but Webb’s advanced near-infrared instruments have allowed astronomers to see through the clouds to study young stars like never before.
“The extreme environment of the galactic center is a fascinating place to put star formation theories to the test, and the infrared capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provide the opportunity to build on past important observations from ground-based telescopes like ALMA and MeerKAT,” said Samuel Crowe, another principal investigator on the research, a senior undergraduate at the University of Virginia and a 2025 Rhodes Scholar.
Bally and Crowe each led a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Image A: Milky Way Center (MeerKAT and Webb)
An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT (formerly the Karoo Array Telescope) radio telescope array puts the James Webb Space Telescope’s image of the Sagittarius C region in context. Like a super-long exposure photograph, MeerKAT shows the bubble-like remnants of supernovas that exploded over millennia, capturing the dynamic nature of the Milky Way’s chaotic core. At the center of the MeerKAT image the region surrounding the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole blazes bright. Huge vertical filamentary structures echo those captured on a smaller scale by Webb in Sagittarius C’s blue-green hydrogen cloud. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, Samuel Crowe (UVA), John Bally (CU), Ruben Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), Ian Heywood (Oxford) Image B: Milky Way Center (MeerKAT and Webb), Labeled
The star-forming region Sagittarius C, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, is about 200 light-years from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. The spectral index at the lower left shows how color was assigned to the radio data to create the image. On the negative end, there is non-thermal emission, stimulated by electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines. On the positive side, thermal emission is coming from hot, ionized plasma. For Webb, color is assigned by shifting the infrared spectrum to visible light colors. The shortest infrared wavelengths are bluer, and the longer wavelengths appear more red. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, Samuel Crowe (UVA), John Bally (CU), Ruben Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), Ian Heywood (Oxford) Using Infrared to Reveal Forming Stars
In Sagittarius C’s brightest cluster, the researchers confirmed the tentative finding from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) that two massive stars are forming there. Along with infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) mission, as well as the Herschel Space Observatory, they used Webb to determine that each of the massive protostars is already more than 20 times the mass of the Sun. Webb also revealed the bright outflows powered by each protostar.
Even more challenging is finding low-mass protostars, still shrouded in cocoons of cosmic dust. Researchers compared Webb’s data with ALMA’s past observations to identify five likely low-mass protostar candidates.
The team also identified 88 features that appear to be shocked hydrogen gas, where material being blasted out in jets from young stars impacts the surrounding gas cloud. Analysis of these features led to the discovery of a new star-forming cloud, distinct from the main Sagittarius C cloud, hosting at least two protostars powering their own jets.
“Outflows from forming stars in Sagittarius C have been hinted at in past observations, but this is the first time we’ve been able to confirm them in infrared light. It’s very exciting to see, because there is still a lot we don’t know about star formation, especially in the Central Molecular Zone, and it’s so important to how the universe works,” said Crowe.
Magnetic Fields and Star Formation
Webb’s 2023 image of Sagittarius C showed dozens of distinctive filaments in a region of hot hydrogen plasma surrounding the main star-forming cloud. New analysis by Bally and his team has led them to hypothesize that the filaments are shaped by magnetic fields, which have also been observed in the past by the ground-based observatories ALMA and MeerKAT (formerly the Karoo Array Telescope).
“The motion of gas swirling in the extreme tidal forces of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, can stretch and amplify the surrounding magnetic fields. Those fields, in turn, are shaping the plasma in Sagittarius C,” said Bally.
The researchers think that the magnetic forces in the galactic center may be strong enough to keep the plasma from spreading, instead confining it into the concentrated filaments seen in the Webb image. These strong magnetic fields may also resist the gravity that would typically cause dense clouds of gas and dust to collapse and forge stars, explaining Sagittarius C’s lower-than-expected star formation rate.
“This is an exciting area for future research, as the influence of strong magnetic fields, in the center of our galaxy or other galaxies, on stellar ecology has not been fully considered,” said Crowe.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Leah Ramsay – lramsay@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Goddard Space Flight Center Protostars Science & Research Stars The Milky Way The Universe View the full article
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By Space Force
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remarked on the value of the Air Force and Space Force in both deterring and engaging in future military conflicts while speaking at the Department of the Air Force Summit.
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By NASA
Rodent Research-28 fluorescein angiogram of the microvascular circulation of the mouse retina.Image courtesy: Oculogenex Inc. Key Takeaways
A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. These publications include peer-reviewed scientific studies or other literature such as books and patents published recently or years prior. More than 80% of the publications collected in FY-24 were from research sponsored by NASA and JAXA. In FY-24, the predominant area of study for publications was Earth and Space science. The results obtained were primarily generated via Derived Results, studies that retrieve open data from online sources to make new discoveries. These Derived publications indicate a 39% return on investment. A total of 4,438 publications have been gathered since the beginning of station, and about 16% of this literature has been published in top-tier journals. The year-over-year growth of top-tier publications has been greater than the growth of regular publications. In 13 years, there was a 22% growth of top-tier publications and a 0.47% growth of regular publications. Almost 80% of top-tier results have been published in the past seven years. Station research continues to surpass national and global standards of citation impact. This year, a simplified hierarchy map showing the nested categories of station disciplines, subdisciplines, and selected keywords is presented to represent the more than 15,000 topic key words generated by the studies. Station research has seen a remarkable growth of international collaboration since its first days of assembly in 1999. Currently, about 40% of the research produced by station is the result of a collaboration between two or more countries. To date, the United States has participated in 23% of international collaborations. Of the nearly 4,000 investigations operated on station since Expedition 0, approximately 59% are identified as completed. From this subset of completed investigations, studies directly conducted on station rather than Derived Results have produced the most scientific results. This pattern differs from analyses conducted with all publication data. Introduction
The International Space Station is a state-of-the art laboratory in low Earth orbit. Since the year 2000, distinguished researchers from a myriad of disciplines around the world have been sending equipment and investigations to station to learn how space-related variables affect the human body, plant and microbial life, physical processes, equipment function, and more. Sophisticated remote sensing techniques and telescopes attached to station also observe the Earth and the universe to enhance our understanding of weather patterns, biomass changes, and cosmic events.
Investigations can be operated remotely from Earth with ground control support, directly on station with the help of crew members, or autonomously (without human assistance). The most recent science conducted on station has engaged private astronauts to advance the research endeavors of the commercial sector. The improvement of these science operations (i.e., how data is collected and returned) has led to more reliable scientific results. Additionally, extensive domestic and international collaboration bridging academic institutions, corporations, and funding agencies has produced high quality and impactful research that inspires new generations of students, researchers, and organizations looking to solve problems or innovate in emerging fields.
The studies highlighted in this report are only a small, representative sample of the research conducted on station in the past 12 months. Many more groundbreaking findings were reported in fiscal year 2024 (FY- 24), including:
Plant adaptation through the adjustment of regulatory proteins, which can lead to sustainable food production on the Moon and Mars (BRIC-LED-001). A connection between downregulated mitochondrial gene pathways and neurotransmitter signaling dysfunction that could assist the development of new pharmaceutical or nutritional therapies to prevent strength loss in neuromuscular disorders. (Microbial Observatory-1). The precise measurement of hydrogen isotopes to provide a better assessment of dark matter (AMS-02). The adaptation of a permanent flow cytometer in space that enables the examination of blood counts, hormones, enzymes, nucleic acids, proteins, and biomarkers to assess crew health in real time (rHEALTH). The behavior of oil-in-water drops in microgravity (i.e., oil drops grow over time, but drop displacement decreases). Understanding the behavior of oils, dyes, and detergents can lead to a safer environment and sustainability of emulsion technologies in the food, pharmaceutical, paint, and lubrication industries (FSL Soft Matter Dynamics-PASTA). Fundamental and applied research conducted on station improves the state of scientific understanding. Whether it is through the examination of microgravity and radiation effects, or through the testing of countermeasures, new materials, and computing algorithms; the hard work of integrating flight operations with scientific objectives is carried out to protect our planet, improve our health, and learn more about our place in the universe.
The following pages aim to demonstrate how station is revolutionizing science through cooperation, curiosity, and ingenuity. Projects that may have begun as simple ideas are now shaping the way we think about and operate in space to advance our goal of going to the Moon and beyond.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli poses in front of the Kibo laboratory module’s Advanced Plant Habitat housing tomato plants for an experiment investigating how the plant immune system adapts to spaceflight and how spaceflight affects plant production. NASA ID: iss070e073612.Credits: NASA Bibliometric Analyses: Measuring Space Station Impacts
Literature associated with space station research results (e.g., scientific journal articles, books, patents) is collected, curated, and linked to investigations. The content from these publications is classified based on how the results are obtained. The current classifications are:
Flight Preparation Results – publications about the development work performed for an investigation or facility prior to operation on space station. Station Results – publications that provide information about the performance and results of an investigation or facility as a direct implementation on station or on a vehicle to space station. Derived Results – publications that use open data from an investigation that operated on station. Access to raw data for new researchers expands global knowledge and scientific benefits. Related – publications that indirectly lead to the development of an investigation or facility. To date, over 2,200 publications have been identified as Related. This count of Related publications is not included in the analyses presented in this report.
Projects taking place on station (facilities or investigations) are assigned to one of six science disciplines:
Biology and Biotechnology: Includes plant, animal, cellular biology, habitats, macromolecular crystal growth, and microbiology. Earth and Space Science: Includes astrophysics, remote sensing, near-Earth space environment, astrobiology, and heliophysics. Educational and Cultural Activities: Includes student-developed investigations and competitions. Human Research: Includes crew healthcare systems, all human-body systems, nutrition, sleep, and exercise. Physical Science: Includes combustion, materials, fluid, and fundamental physics. Technology Development and Demonstration: Includes air, water, surface, and radiation monitoring, robotics, small satellites and control technologies, and spacecraft materials. Facilities consist of the infrastructure and equipment on station that enable the research to be conducted (e.g., workstation “racks” containing power, data and thermal control, furnaces, crystallization units, animal and plant habitats). Investigations are research projects with one or multiple science objectives. Investigations may use a facility to execute the experiments. A publicly accessible database of space station investigations, facilities, and publications can be found in the Space Station Research Explorer (SSRE) website. Through bibliometric analyses, the examination of publications and citations in different categories, we learn about research productivity, quality, collaboration, and impact. These measurements allow our organization to identify trends in research growth to better plan and support new scientific endeavors. The analyses included in this report serve to answer questions related to fiscal year data and total publication data to promote research accountability and integrity and ensure benefits to humanity.
Station research produced in FY-2024
Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, we identified a total of 361 publications associated with station research. Of these 361 publications, 52 were published in Biology and Biotechnology, 176 in Earth and Space, 5 in Educational and Cultural Activities, 40 in Human Research, 56 in Physical Science, and 32 in Technology Development and Demonstration. This publication count broken out by research discipline and space agency is shown in Figure 1A. Of the 361 publications, 41 were classified as Flight Preparation Results, 178 as Station Results, and 140 as Derived Results. Because Derived Results are new scientific studies generated from shared data, derived science is an additional return on the investment entrusted to station. In FY-24, this return on investment was 39%; a 12% increase from FY-23. Figure 1B shows this publication data broken out by research discipline and publication type.
Figure 1A. A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. Over 80% of the publications reported results in Earth and Space, primarily from investigations associated with NASA and JAXA research. Figure 1B, A total of 361 publications were collected in FY-24. Most publications in Earth and Space came from Derived Results associated with NASA and JAXA research. These Derived Results demonstrate a return on investment of 39%, a 12% increase from FY-23. Overall growth, quality, impact, and diversity of station research
Growth: A total of 4,438 publications have been collected since station began operations with 176 publications (4%) from work related to facilities on station. In Figure 2A, we show the growth of both regular and top-tier science over the years. Top-tier publications are studies published in scientific journals ranked in the top 100 according to ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM)1, a global database that compiles readership and citation standards to calculate a journal’s Eigenfactor Score2 and ranking. Regular publications include literature published in sources that may be specific to microgravity research but are not ranked.
Our data shows that over a 13-year period from 2011 to 2023, regular publications grew 0.47% per year and top-tier publications grew 22% per year. Some of the subdisciplines that have experienced most growth from station research are astrophysics (707 publications), Earth remote sensing (266 publications), fluid physics (245 publications), and microbiology (214 publications).
Quality: About 16% of station results have been published in top-tier journals. However, in Figure 2B we zoom in to examine the growth of top-tier publications given their station science discipline, showing that almost 80% of top-tier research has been published in the past seven years. Currently, a total of 696 articles have been published in top-tier journals and about 53% of this total are Derived Results from Earth and Space science investigations.
Figure 2A. Growth of regular and top-tier research publications over time. About 16% of station results have been published in top-tier journals. Inset shows the growth of microgravity- and non-microgravity-specific sources used in regular publications. Figure 2B. Growth of top-tier research publications by station research discipline (n = 696). There has been a significant
increase of top-tier articles published since 2018, with a little over 50% emerging from Derived Results in Earth and Space
science. Table inset shows the top-tier journals with most station research published. Impact: Previous analyses have demonstrated that the citation impact of station research has superseded national and global standards since 2011 (See Annual Highlights of Results FY-2023). This pattern continues today.
Diversity: Station science covers six major science disciplines, 73 subdisciplines, and thousands of topic keywords within each subdiscipline. A precise visualization of such abundant diversity would be overwhelming and impenetrable. However, plotting a few topic keywords within each sub-discipline succinctly shows the breadth of science station has to offer (Figure 3). For a better appreciation of station’s diversity, see the interactive hierarchy diagram online. Note that some topics, such as radiation, are studied from multiple perspectives (e.g., radiation measurement through physical science, radiation effects through human research, and shielding through technology development). Topic keywords were obtained using ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM).1
Station research collaboration
Previous analyses have shown the growth of collaboration between countries throughout the years based on co-authorship (See Annual Highlights of Results FY-2023). In a new analysis conducted with country data obtained through Dimensions.ai3 (n = 3,309 publications), we calculated that about 40% of the publications produced from station research are collaborations between several countries, and about 60% are intercollegiate collaborations within individual countries. As seen in the space agency networks in Figure 4, the United States participates in approximately 23% of the collaborations with other countries, making it the most collaborative country.
Figure 4: Country collaboration in station research based on publication co-authorship. Networks include up to five countries collaborating in an investigation. Nodes and links from countries that published their research independently are not included. From research ideas to research findings
Nearly 4,000 investigations have operated since Expedition 0; with a subset of 2,352 investigations (approximately 59%) marked as complete. These completed investigations have concluded their science objectives and reported findings. In Figure 5, we show the citation output from publications exclusively tied to completed investigations. In this Sankey diagram, Times Cited corresponds to the count of publications with at least one citation in each publication type (Station Results, Flight Preparation Results, and Derived Results). This citation count adequately parallels the total number of citations per publication and allows the visualization of a comprehensible chart. This analysis demonstrates that most completed investigations have reported results directly from studies conducted on station, followed by studies conducted in preparation to go to space, and finally by studies derived from open science available online. Likewise, results obtained straight from station receive more citations (e.g, over 46,000) than Flight Preparation (3,636 citations) or Derived results (936 citations). This pattern differs from analyses including all publication data in Figures 1 and 2.
Linking Space Station Benefits
Space station research results lead to benefits for human exploration of space, benefits to humanity, and the advancement of scientific discovery. This year’s Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station includes descriptions of just a few of the results that were published from across the space station partnership during the past year.
EXPLORATION: Space station investigation results have yielded updated insights into how to live and work more effectively in space by addressing such topics as understanding radiation effects on crew health, combating bone and muscle loss, improving designs of systems that handle fluids in microgravity, and determining how to maintain environmental control efficiently. DISCOVERY: Results from the space station provide new contributions to the body of scientific knowledge in the physical sciences, life sciences, and Earth and space sciences to advance scientific discoveries in multi-disciplinary ways. BENEFITS FOR HUMANITY: Space station science results have Earth-based applications, including understanding our climate, contributing to the treatment of disease, improving existing materials, and inspiring the future generation of scientists, clinicians, technologists, engineers, mathematicians, artists, and explorers. References
1Journal ranking and Figure 5 data were derived from ClarivateTM (Web of ScienceTM). © Clarivate 2024. All rights reserved.
2West JD, Bergstrom TC, Bergstrom CT. The Eigenfactor MetricsTM: A Network approach to assessing scholarly journals. College and Research Libraries. 2010;71(3). DOI: 10.5860/0710236.
3Digital Science. (2018-) Dimensions [Software] available from https://app.dimensions.ai. Accessed on October 10, 2024, under license agreement.
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By NASA
The portfolio of current NESC technical activities reaches across mission directorates and programs encompassing design, test, and flight phases.
ISS PrK Independent Assessment Orion Crew Module Heatshield Avcoat Char Investigation CFT Flight Anomaly Support Total Ionizing Dose Tolerance of Power Electronics on Europa Clipper Psyche Cold-Gas Thruster Technical Advisory Team Support X-59 Fuel Tank Assessment ISS PrK Independent Assessment
The NESC is assessing the ongoing leak in the ISS Russian segment, PrK, the segment’s remaining life, and how to manage the risk of potential failure.
ISS pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour. Orion Crew Module Heatshield Avcoat Char Investigation
The NESC provided thermal experts to the Artemis I Char Loss Team investigation of heatshield performance on the Artemis I return. The NESC is working with the team to ensure the observed material loss is understood so that decisions may be made regarding use for upcoming Artemis missions.
An artist’s illustration of Orion crew module entering the Earth’s atmosphere. View from Artemis I crew cabin window showing material loss during entry (foreground). CFT Flight Anomaly Support
NESC discipline experts provided real-time support to CCP to aid in determining the CFT flight anomaly causes and risks associated with a crewed return. The NESC performed propulsion system testing for predicted mission profiles at WSTF.
Boeing CST-100 Starliner docked to ISS during CFT mission. Total Ionizing Dose Tolerance of Power Electronics on Europa Clipper
The NESC provided power electronics and avionics expertise to JPL’s Europa Clipper tiger team to help evaluate the radiation tolerance of key spacecraft electronics, assisting in a risk-based launch decision.
Illustration depicting the Europa Clipper. Psyche Cold-Gas Thruster Technical Advisory Team Support
In support of a successful launch, NESC augmented the Psyche team’s investigation into increased understanding of the spacecraft’s cold-gas thrusters and aided the project’s risk-informed decisions regarding mitigations and readiness for launch.
Illustration of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft headed to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. X-59 Fuel Tank Assessment
The NESC is assisting in the evaluation of risks associated with the installation and operation of strain gages in the fuel storage system on X-59 hardware. The work includes analysis, modeling, and the development of mitigation strategies.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. View the full article
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