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By NASA
In about 5 billion years, our Sun will run out of fuel and expand, possibly engulfing Earth. These end stages of a star’s life can be utterly beautiful – as is the case with this planetary nebula called the Helix Nebula. Astronomers study these objects by looking at all kinds of light.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Univ Mexico/S. Estrada-Dorado et al.; Ultraviolet: NASA/JPL; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI (M. Meixner)/NRAO (T.A. Rector); Infrared: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand This image of the Helix Nebula, released on March 4, 2025, shows a potentially destructive white dwarf at the nebula’s center: this star may have destroyed a planet. This has never been seen before – and could explain a mysterious X-ray signal that astronomers have detected from the nebula for over 40 years.
This view combines X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (magenta), optical light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (orange, light blue), infrared data from the European Southern Observatory VISTA telescope (gold, dark blue), and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple) of the Helix Nebula. Data from Chandra indicates that this white dwarf has destroyed a very closely orbiting planet.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Univ Mexico/S. Estrada-Dorado et al.; Ultraviolet: NASA/JPL; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI (M. Meixner)/NRAO (T.A. Rector); Infrared: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) imaged Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander on the Moon’s surface the afternoon of March 2, not quite 10 hours after the spacecraft landed.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander, which appears in this image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as a bright pixel casting a shadow in the middle of the white box, reached the surface of the Moon on March 2 at 3:34 a.m. EST.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University The delivery is part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. This is the first CLPS delivery for Firefly, and their first Moon landing.
LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.
More on this story from Arizona State University’s LRO Camera website
Media Contact:
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Mar 25, 2025 Related Terms
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) View the full article
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By NASA
This compressed, resolution-limited gif shows the view of lunar sunset from one of the six Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 cameras on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, which operated on the Moon’s surface for a little more than 14 days and stopped, as anticipated, a few hours into lunar night. The bright, swirly light moving across the surface on the top right of the image is sunlight reflecting off the lander. Images taken by SCALPSS 1.1 during Blue Ghost’s descent and landing, as well as images from the surface during the long lunar day, will help researchers better understand the effects of a lander’s engine plumes on the lunar soil, or regolith. The instrument collected almost 9000 images and returned 10 GB of data. This data is important as trips to the Moon increase and the number of payloads touching down in proximity to one another grows. The SCALPSS 1.1 project is funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development program. SCALPSS was developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, with support from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.NASA/Olivia TyrrellView the full article
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By NASA
This picture, captured from the surface of the Moon, shows Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, which performed operations on the Moon from March 2, to March 16, 2025, in the foreground, and Earth in the sky above it. Credit: Firefly Aerospace NASA and Firefly Aerospace will host a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, March 18, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss the company’s successful Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the Moon’s surface.
Watch the news conference on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
U.S. media interested in participating in person or remotely must request accreditation by 5 p.m., Monday, March 17, by contacting the NASA Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. To ask questions via phone, media must dial into the news conference no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the call.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down March 2, on the Moon’s Mare Crisium basin. The lander’s NASA payloads were activated, collected science data, and performed operations as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence. The mission is not designed to survive through the lunar night; however, Blue Ghost continued operations for five hours after lunar sunset on March 16.
Participants will include:
Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington Jason Kim, CEO, Firefly Aerospace Ray Allensworth, spacecraft program director, Firefly Adam Schlesinger, CLPS project manager, NASA Johnson The Blue Ghost Mission 1 mission launched at 1:11 a.m., Jan. 15, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander delivered 10 NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations including testing and demonstrating lunar drilling technology, regolith (lunar rocks and soil) sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation. The data captured will benefit humans on Earth in many ways, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact our home planet.
NASA continues to work with multiple American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface through the agency’s CLPS initiative. This pool of companies may bid on NASA contracts for end-to-end lunar surface delivery services, including all payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon.
Through the Artemis campaign, commercial robotic deliveries will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities on and around the Moon to help NASA explore in advance of Artemis Generation astronaut missions to the lunar surface, and ultimately crewed missions to Mars.
For more information about the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Karen Fox / Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 17, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Missions Artemis Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) View the full article
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Cameras on Blue Ghost Capture First-of-its-Kind Moon Landing Footage
This compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence of the Blue Ghost final descent and landing that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second. Altitude data is approximate. Credits: NASA/Olivia Tyrrell A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has captured first-of-its-kind imagery of a lunar lander’s engine plumes interacting with the Moon’s surface, a key piece of data as trips to the Moon increase in the coming years under the agency’s Artemis campaign.
The Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument took the images during the descent and successful soft landing of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon’s Mare Crisium region on March 2, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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This compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence of the Blue Ghost final descent and landing that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second. Altitude data is approximate.NASA/Olivia Tyrrell The compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second during the descent and landing.
The sequence, using approximate altitude data, begins roughly 91 feet (28 meters) above the surface. The descent images show evidence that the onset of the interaction between Blue Ghost’s reaction control thruster plumes and the surface begins at roughly 49 feet (15 meters). As the descent continues, the interaction becomes increasingly complex, with the plumes vigorously kicking up the lunar dust, soil and rocks — collectively known as regolith. After touchdown, the thrusters shut off and the dust settles. The lander levels a bit and the lunar terrain beneath and immediately around it becomes visible.
Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for…
Rob Maddock
SCALPSS project manager
“Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for in order to better understand plume-surface interaction and learn how to accurately model the phenomenon based on the number, size, thrust and configuration of the engines,” said Rob Maddock, SCALPSS project manager. “The data is vital to reducing risk in the design and operation of future lunar landers as well as surface infrastructure that may be in the vicinity. We have an absolutely amazing team of scientists and engineers, and I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them.”
As trips to the Moon increase and the number of payloads touching down in proximity to one another grows, scientists and engineers need to accurately predict the effects of landings. Data from SCALPSS will better inform future robotic and crewed Moon landings.
The SCALPSS 1.1 technology includes six cameras in all, four short focal length and two long focal length. The long-focal-length cameras allowed the instrument to begin taking images at a higher altitude, prior to the onset of the plume-surface interaction, to provide a more accurate before-and-after comparison of the surface. Using a technique called stereo photogrammetry, the team will later combine the overlapping images – one set from the long-focal-length cameras, another from the short focal length – to create 3D digital elevation maps of the surface.
This animation shows the arrangement of the six SCALPSS 1.1 cameras and the instrument’s data storage unit. The cameras are integrated around the base of the Blue Ghost lander. Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab The instrument is still operating on the Moon and as the light and shadows move during the long lunar day, it will see more surface details under and immediately around the lander. The team also hopes to capture images during the transition to lunar night to observe how the dust responds to the change.
“The successful SCALPSS operation is a key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the Moon, and this technology is already providing data that could inform future missions,” said Michelle Munk, SCALPSS principal investigator.
The successful SCALPSS operation is a key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the Moon, and this technology is already providing data that could inform future missions
Michelle Munk
SCALPSS principal investigator
It will take the team several months to fully process the data from the Blue Ghost landing. They plan to issue raw images from SCALPSS 1.1 publicly through NASA’s Planetary Data System within six months.
The team is already preparing for its next flight on Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, scheduled to launch later this year. The next version of SCALPSS is undergoing thermal vacuum testing at NASA Langley ahead of a late-March delivery to Blue Origin.
The SCALPSS 1.1 project is funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development program.
NASA is working with several American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface under the CLPS initiative. Through this opportunity, various companies from a select group of vendors bid on delivering payloads for NASA including everything from payload integration and operations, to launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon.
About the Author
Joe Atkinson
Public Affairs Officer, NASA Langley Research Center
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Last Updated Mar 13, 2025 Related Terms
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