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This exercise was designed to evaluate and refine tactical movements that have been instilled over the past several months, ensuring security forces Airmen are prepared for a deployed environment.
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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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Media Contacts
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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Last Updated Apr 02, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
Based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, or ARES, curates the most extensive collection of extraterrestrial materials on Earth, ranging from microscopic cosmic dust particles to Apollo-era Moon rocks. Soon, ARES’ team of world-leading sample scientists hopes to add something new to its collection – lunar samples from the Moon’s South Pole region.
As the Artemis campaign sample curation lead, Dr. Juliane Gross is helping ARES and NASA prepare to collect and return those samples safely. “I’m responsible for representing the voice of the Moon rocks and advocating for their protection, preservation, and maintaining their integrity during the planning and execution of all stages of the different Artemis sample return missions,” she said.
Juliane Gross leads a geology lesson for Artemis II crew members as part of their field training in Iceland in 2024.NASA Her multifaceted role includes preparing the Johnson facility that will receive new lunar samples, developing curation strategies, and collaborating with mission teams to plan sampling operations, which encompass collection, handling, transport, and storage processes for all stages of Artemis missions. She trains program managers and engineers on the importance of sample return and teaches crew members how to identify lunar samples and collect them without contamination. She also works with the different programs and teams that oversee the vehicles used at different stages of lunar missions – collaborating with the human landing system team around tool storage and delivery to the lunar surface, the Orion Program to coordinate sample stowage for the return to Earth, and Exploration Ground Systems to plan sample recovery after splashdown.
Once samples are returned to Earth, Gross and the ARES curation team will conduct a preliminary examination of the materials and release a sample catalog from which members of the global scientific community may request loans to carry out their respective research.
Working across Artemis teams raised an unexpected but fun challenge for Gross – learning to communicate effectively with colleagues who have different academic and professional backgrounds. “Scientists like me speak a different language than engineers, and we all speak a different language than managers or the general public,” she said. “I have worked hard to find common vocabulary and to ‘translate’ science needs into the different types of languages that exist within the Artemis campaign. I’m trying to use our differences as strengths to enable mission success and to connect and build relationships with all these different teams through my love and passion for the Moon and rocks from the Moon.”
That passion emerged shortly after Gross completed her Ph.D. in geology, while working on lunar samples with the Lunar and Planetary Institute. She went on to become a research scientist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and then a tenured professor of planetary sciences at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.
In 2019, NASA asked Gross to join the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program. Under the program, NASA preserved some of the 382 kilograms of lunar samples returned by Apollo missions, keeping them sealed for future generations to open and analyze. “NASA had the foresight to understand that technology would evolve and our level of sophistication for handling and examining samples would greatly increase,” Gross said.
She and two other scientists had the incredible opportunity to open and examine two samples returned by Apollo 17. Their work served as a practice run for Artemis sample returns while building upon the fundamental insights into the shared origin and history of Earth and the Moon that scientists previously derived from other Apollo samples. For example, the team extracted gas from one sample that will provide information about the volatiles that future lunar missions may encounter around the Moon’s South Pole.
“The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program linked the first generation of lunar explorers from Apollo with future explorers of the Moon with Artemis,” Gross said. “I’m very proud to have played such an important role in this initiative that now feeds forward to Artemis.”
Juliane Gross examines lunar samples returned by Apollo 17 in Johnson Space Center’s Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility. NASA Gross’ connection with NASA began even earlier in her career. She was selected to join the agency-sponsored Antarctic Search for Meteorites team and lived in the deep ice fields of Antarctica for two months with seven other people. “We lived in tiny two-person tents without any support and recovered a total of 263 space rocks under challenging conditions,” she said. “I experienced the powerful forces of Antarctica and traveled 332 miles on skidoos. My body changed in the cold – I stuffed my face with enough butter, chocolate, and peanut M&Ms to last a lifetime and yet I lost weight.”
This formative experience taught Gross to find and celebrate beauty, even in her toughest moments. “I drank tea made with Antarctic glacier ice that is thousands to millions of years old. I will never forget the beautiful bell-like sounds that snow crystals make when being blown across the ice, the rainbow-sparkling ice crystals on a really cold day, the vast expanses of ice sheets looking like oceans frozen in eternity, and the icy bite of the wind on any unprotected skin that made me feel so alive and reminded me how vulnerable and precious life is,” she said. “And I will never ever forget the thrill and utter joy of finding a meteorite that you know no one on this planet has ever seen before you.”
Gross ultimately received the Antarctica Service Medal of the United States Armed Forces from the U.S. Department of Defense for her work.
Juliane Gross returns to McMurdo Station in Antarctica after working in the deep field for two months as part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites team.Image courtesy of Juliane Gross Transitioning from full-time academia to her current position at NASA has been a big adjustment for Gross, but she has learned to love the change and the growth opportunities that come with it. “Being part of this incredible moment in history when we are about to return to the Moon with Artemis, our Apollo of today, feels so special and humbling that it made the transition easier,” she said.
The job has also increased Gross’ love and excitement for space exploration and reminds her every day why sample return missions are important. “The Moon is a museum of planetary history,” she said. “It has recorded and preserved the changes that affected the Earth-Moon system and is the best and most accessible place in the solar system to study planet-altering processes that have affected our corner of the universe.”
Still, “The Moon is only our next frontier,” she said. “Keep looking up and never give up. Ad astra!”
Watch below to learn about NASA’s rich history of geology training and hear how scientists and engineers are getting ready to bring back samples that will help us learn about the origins of our solar system.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
For Anum Ashraf, Ph.D., the interconnectedness of NASA’s workforce presents the exciting opportunity to collaborate with a multitude of people and teams. With more than 11 years at the agency, Ashraf has played a fundamental role in leading efforts that actively bridge these connections and support NASA’s mission.
Ashraf serves as the mission commitment lead for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) Program, which is managed through the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. SCaN provides communications and navigation services that are essential to the operation of NASA’s spaceflight missions, including enabling the success of more than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions through the Near Space Network and Deep Space Network. Whether she is supporting missions involving astronauts in space or near-Earth missions monitoring the health of our planet, Ashraf ensures that critical data is efficiently transferred between groups.
Near Space Network antennas at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico.NASA
“I am the ‘front door’ for all missions that are requesting space communication through the SCaN program,” said Ashraf. “My job is to understand the mission requirements and pair them with the right assets to enable successful back and forth communication throughout their mission life cycle.”
Prior to her current role, Ashraf served as the principal investigator for the DEMETER (DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for measuring the Earth’s Radiation) project at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. DEMETER is the next-generation observational platform for measuring Earth’s radiation. Leading a team of engineers and scientists across NASA’s multifaceted organizations, Ashraf helped develop an innovative solution that will allow future researchers to assess important climate trends affecting the planet.
Outside of work, Ashraf finds a creative outlet through hobbies like knitting, cross stitching, and playing piano. She brings her ambitious, passionate, and authentic qualities to caring for her two children, who are also her daily source of inspiration.
“Inspiration is a two-way street for me; my kids inspire me to be my best, and, in turn, I inspire them,” said Ashraf. “My kids love telling their friends that we are a NASA family.”
Anum Ashraf, Ph.D., mission commitment lead for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation Program
Looking toward the future, Ashraf is excited to see a collaboration between NASA, industry, academia, and international space enthusiasts working together towards a common goal of space exploration. As a devoted and collaborative leader, Ashraf will continue to play an important role in advancing the agency’s missions of space research and exploration.
NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate maintains a continuous human presence in space for the benefit of people on Earth. The programs within the directorate are the hub of NASA’s space exploration efforts, enabling Artemis, commercial space, science, and other agency missions through communication, launch services, research capabilities, and crew support.
To learn more about NASA’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations
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Last Updated Mar 27, 2025 Related Terms
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Sols 4491-4492: Classic Field Geology Pose
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam), showing the rover’s right-front wheel perched on a small, angular block, where it ended its weekend drive of about 75 feet (23 meters). In the interest of stability, the Curiosity team prefers to have all six rover wheels on the ground before deploying its 7-foot-long robotic arm (2.1 meters), so they opted for remote sensing observations instead, then another drive higher in the canyon. Curiosity captured this image on March 23, 2025 — sol 4489, or Martian day 4,489 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 15:24:49 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Lauren Edgar, Planetary Geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center
Earth planning date: Monday, March 24, 2025
If you’ve ever seen a geologist in the field, you may have seen a classic stance: one leg propped up on a rock, knee bent, head down looking at the rocks at their feet, and arm pointing to the distant stratigraphy. Today Curiosity decided to give us her best field geologist impression. The weekend drive went well and the rover traversed about 23 meters (about 75 feet), but ended with the right front wheel perched on an angular block. In the Front Hazcam image above, you can see the right front wheel on a small block, and the rover’s shadow with the mast staring out at all the exciting rocks to explore. Great pose, but not what we want for planning contact science! We like to have all six wheels on the ground for stability before deploying the robotic arm. So instead of planning contact science today, the team pivoted to a lot of remote sensing observations and another drive to climb higher in this canyon.
I was on shift as Long Term Planner today, and it was fun to see the team quickly adapt to the change in plans. Today’s two-sol plan includes targeted remote sensing and a drive on the first sol, followed by an untargeted science block on the second sol.
On Sol 4491, ChemCam will acquire a LIBS observation of a well-laminated block in our workspace named “Big Narrows,” followed by long-distance RMI observations coordinated with Mastcam to assess an interesting debris field at “Torote Bowl.” The team planned a large Mastcam mosaic to characterize the stratigraphy at Texoli butte from a different viewing geometry than we have previously captured. Mastcam will also be used to investigate active surface processes in the sandy troughs nearby, and an interesting fracture pattern at “Bronson Cave.” Then Curiosity will drive further to the south and take post-drive imaging to prepare for the next plan. On the second sol the team added an autonomously selected ChemCam AEGIS target, along with Navcam movies to monitor clouds, wind direction, and dust.
Keep on roving Curiosity, and please watch your step!
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Last Updated Mar 26, 2025 Related Terms
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