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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ECF 2024 Quadchart Arya.pdf
Manan Arya
Stanford University
This grant will design and develop lightweight, low-cost modular solar reflectors that can be stowed for transport in a compact volume. These reflectors can potentially be used to reflect and concentrate sunlight into a permanently shadowed area of the Moon where it could power photovoltaics. These reflectors could also potentially be used for concentrated photovoltaics for deep-space missions, solar thermal propulsion, or for thermal mining. The team will use recently developed origami design algorithms to allow for compact and reversible stowage of paraboloidal shell structures without any cuts or slits.
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 4 Min Read Hubble Provides New View of Galactic Favorite
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Sombrero Galaxy, also called Messier 104. Credits:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, the European Space Agency (ESA) is sharing a new image series revisiting stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques.
ESA/Hubble published a new image of NGC 346 as the first installment in the series. Now, they are revisiting a fan-favorite galaxy with new image processing techniques. The new image reveals finer detail in the galaxy’s disk, as well as more background stars and galaxies.
Over the past two decades, Hubble has released several images of the Sombrero Galaxy, including this well-known Hubble image from October 2003. In November 2024, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope also provided an entirely new perspective on this striking galaxy.
Located around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy is instantly recognizable. Viewed nearly edge on, the galaxy’s softly luminous bulge and sharply outlined disk resemble the rounded crown and broad brim of the Mexican hat from which the galaxy gets its name.
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Sombrero Galaxy, also called Messier 104. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll Though packed with stars, the Sombrero Galaxy is surprisingly not a hotbed of star formation. Less than one solar mass of gas is converted into stars within the knotted, dusty disk of the galaxy each year. Even the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, which at nine billion solar masses is more than 2,000 times more massive than the Milky Way’s central black hole, is fairly calm.
The galaxy is too faint to spot with the unaided eye, but it is readily viewable with a modest amateur telescope. Seen from Earth, the galaxy spans a distance equivalent to roughly one-third the diameter of the full Moon. The galaxy’s size on the sky is too large to fit within Hubble’s narrow field of view, so this image is actually a mosaic of several images stitched together.
One of the things that makes this galaxy especially notable is its viewing angle, which is inclined just six degrees off of the galaxy’s equator. From this vantage point, intricate clumps and strands of dust stand out against the brilliant white galactic nucleus and bulge, creating an effect not unlike Saturn and its rings — but on an epic galactic scale.
At the same time, this extreme angle makes it difficult to discern the structure of the Sombrero Galaxy. It’s not clear whether it’s a spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way, or an elliptical galaxy. Curiously, the galaxy’s disk seems like a fairly typical disk for a spiral galaxy, and its spheroidal bulge and halo seem fairly typical for an elliptical galaxy — but the combination of the two components resembles neither a spiral nor an elliptical galaxy.
Researchers used Hubble to investigate the Sombrero Galaxy, measuring the metals (what astronomers call elements heavier than helium) in stars in the galaxy’s expansive halo. This type of measurement can help astronomers better understand a galaxy’s history, potentially revealing whether it merged with other galaxies in the past. In the case of the Sombrero Galaxy, extremely metal-rich stars in the halo point to a possible merger with a massive galaxy several billion years ago. An ancient galactic clash, hinted at by Hubble’s sensitive measurements, could explain the Sombrero Galaxy’s distinctive appearance.
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.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Explore Hubble Sombrero Galaxy Images and Science
Sombrero Galaxy
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Hubble’s Messier Catalog: M104 (Sombrero Galaxy)
Hubble easily resolves some of the Sombrero Galaxy’s roughly 2,000 globular clusters.
Beyond the Brim, Sombrero Galaxy’s Halo Suggests Turbulent Past
Surprising new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope suggests the smooth, settled “brim” of the Sombrero galaxy’s disk may be concealing a turbulent past.
Heritage Project Celebrates Five Years of Harvesting the Best Images from Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Heritage Project released more than 65 images of dazzling celestial objects, including planets, dying stars, regions of star formation, clusters of stars, individual galaxies, and even clusters of galaxies.
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Last Updated Apr 16, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
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claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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Garching, Germany
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By NASA
Scientists have hypothesized since the 1960s that the Sun is a source of ingredients that form water on the Moon. When a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind smashes into the lunar surface, the idea goes, it triggers a chemical reaction that could make water molecules.
Now, in the most realistic lab simulation of this process yet, NASA-led researchers have confirmed this prediction.
The finding, researchers wrote in a March 17 paper in JGR Planets, has implications for NASA’s Artemis astronaut operations at the Moon’s South Pole. A critical resource for exploration, much of the water on the Moon is thought to be frozen in permanently shadowed regions at the poles.
“The exciting thing here is that with only lunar soil and a basic ingredient from the Sun, which is always spitting out hydrogen, there’s a possibility of creating water,” Li Hsia Yeo, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “That’s incredible to think about,” said Yeo, who led the study.
Solar wind flows constantly from the Sun. It’s made largely of protons, which are nuclei of hydrogen atoms that have lost their electrons. Traveling at more than one million miles per hour, the solar wind bathes the entire solar system. We see evidence of it on Earth when it lights up our sky in auroral light shows.
Computer-processed data of the solar wind from NASA’s STEREO spacecraft. Download here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20278/ NASA/SwRI/Craig DeForest Most of the solar particles don’t reach the surface of Earth because our planet has a magnetic shield and an atmosphere to deflect them. But the Moon has no such protection. As computer models and lab experiments have shown, when protons smash into the Moon’s surface, which is made of a dusty and rocky material called regolith, they collide with electrons and recombine to form hydrogen atoms.
Then, the hydrogen atoms can migrate through the lunar surface and bond with the abundant oxygen atoms already present in minerals like silica to form hydroxyl (OH) molecules, a component of water, and water (H2O) molecules themselves.
Scientists have found evidence of both hydroxyl and water molecules in the Moon’s upper surface, just a few millimeters deep. These molecules leave behind a kind of chemical fingerprint — a noticeable dip in a wavy line on a graph that shows how light interacts with the regolith. With the current tools available, though, it is difficult to tell the difference between hydroxyl and water, so scientists use the term “water” to refer to either one or a mix of both molecules.
Many researchers think the solar wind is the main reason the molecules are there, though other sources like micrometeorite impacts could also help by creating heat and triggering chemical reactions.
In 2016, scientists discovered that water is released from the Moon during meteor showers. When a speck of comet debris strikes the moon, it vaporizes on impact, creating a shock wave in the lunar soil. With a sufficiently large impactor, this shock wave can breach the soil’s dry upper layer and release water molecules from a hydrated layer below. NASA’s LADEE spacecraft detected these water molecules as they entered the tenuous lunar atmosphere. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Spacecraft measurements had already hinted that the solar wind is the primary driver of water, or its components, at the lunar surface. One key clue, confirmed by Yeo’s team’s experiment: the Moon’s water-related spectral signal changes over the course of the day.
In some regions, it’s stronger in the cooler morning and fades as the surface heats up, likely because water and hydrogen molecules move around or escape to space. As the surface cools again at night, the signal peaks again. This daily cycle points to an active source — most likely the solar wind—replenishing tiny amounts of water on the Moon each day.
To test whether this is true, Yeo and her colleague, Jason McLain, a research scientist at NASA Goddard, built a custom apparatus to examine Apollo lunar samples. In a first, the apparatus held all experiment components inside: a solar particle beam device, an airless chamber that simulated the Moon’s environment, and a molecule detector. Their invention allowed the researchers to avoid ever taking the sample out of the chamber — as other experiments did — and exposing it to contamination from the water in the air.
“It took a long time and many iterations to design the apparatus components and get them all to fit inside,” said McLain, “but it was worth it, because once we eliminated all possible sources of contamination, we learned that this decades-old idea about the solar wind turns out to be true.”
Using dust from two different samples picked up on the Moon by NASA’s Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, Yeo and her colleagues first baked the samples to remove any possible water they could have picked up between air-tight storage in NASA’s space-sample curation facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Goddard’s lab. Then, they used a tiny particle accelerator to bombard the dust with mock solar wind for several days — the equivalent of 80,000 years on the Moon, based on the high dose of the particles used.
They used a detector called a spectrometer to measure how much light the dust molecules reflected, which showed how the samples’ chemical makeup changed over time.
In the end, the team saw a drop in the light signal that bounced to their detector precisely at the point in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum — near 3 microns — where water typically absorbs energy, leaving a telltale signature.
While they can’t conclusively say if their experiment made water molecules, the researchers reported in their study that the shape and width of the dip in the wavy line on their graph suggests that both hydroxyl and water were produced in the lunar samples.
By Lonnie Shekhtman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 3 Min Read Hubble Helps Determine Uranus’ Rotation Rate with Unprecedented Precision
These images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcase the dynamic aurora on Uranus in October 2022. Credits:
ESA/Hubble, NASA, L. Lamy, L. Sromovsky An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made new measurements of Uranus’ interior rotation rate with a novel technique, achieving a level of accuracy 1,000 times greater than previous estimates. By analyzing more than a decade of Hubble observations of Uranus’ aurorae, researchers have refined the planet’s rotation period and established a crucial new reference point for future planetary research.
These images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcase the dynamic aurora on Uranus in October 2022. These observations were made by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and includes both visible and ultraviolet data. An international team of astronomers used Hubble to make new measurements of Uranus’ interior rotation rate by analyzing more than a decade of the telescope’s observations of Uranus’ aurorae. This refinement of the planet’s rotation period achieved a level of accuracy 1000 times greater than previous estimates and serves as a crucial new reference point for future planetary research. ESA/Hubble, NASA, L. Lamy, L. Sromovsky Determining a planet’s interior rotation rate is challenging, particularly for a world like Uranus, where direct measurements are not possible. A team led by Laurent Lamy (of LIRA, Observatoire de Paris-PSL and LAM, Aix-Marseille Univ., France), developed an innovative method to track the rotational motion of Uranus’ aurorae: spectacular light displays generated in the upper atmosphere by the influx of energetic particles near the planet’s magnetic poles. This technique revealed that Uranus completes a full rotation in 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds — 28 seconds longer than the estimate obtained by NASA’s Voyager 2 during its 1986 flyby.
“Our measurement not only provides an essential reference for the planetary science community but also resolves a long-standing issue: previous coordinate systems based on outdated rotation periods quickly became inaccurate, making it impossible to track Uranus’ magnetic poles over time,” explains Lamy. “With this new longitude system, we can now compare auroral observations spanning nearly 40 years and even plan for the upcoming Uranus mission.”
This image of Uranus’ aurorae was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 10 October 2022. These observations were made by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and includes both visible and ultraviolet data. An international team of astronomers used Hubble to make new measurements of Uranus’ interior rotation rate by analyzing more than a decade of the telescope’s observations of Uranus’ aurorae. This refinement of the planet’s rotation period achieved a level of accuracy 1000 times greater than previous estimates and serves as a crucial new reference point for future planetary research. ESA/Hubble, NASA, L. Lamy, L. Sromovsky This breakthrough was possible thanks to Hubble’s long-term monitoring of Uranus. Over more than a decade, Hubble has regularly observed its ultraviolet auroral emissions, enabling researchers to produce magnetic field models that successfully match the changing position of the magnetic poles with time.
“The continuous observations from Hubble were crucial,” says Lamy. “Without this wealth of data, it would have been impossible to detect the periodic signal with the level of accuracy we achieved.”
Unlike the aurorae of Earth, Jupiter, or Saturn, Uranus’ aurorae behave in a unique and unpredictable manner. This is due to the planet’s highly tilted magnetic field, which is significantly offset from its rotational axis. The findings not only help astronomers understand Uranus’ magnetosphere but also provide vital information for future missions.
These findings set the stage for further studies that will deepen our understanding of one of the most mysterious planets in the Solar System. With its ability to monitor celestial bodies over decades, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to be an indispensable tool for planetary science, paving the way for the next era of exploration at Uranus.
These results are based on observations acquired with Hubble programs GO #12601, 13012, 14036, 16313 and DDT #15380 (PI: L. Lamy). The team’s paper was published in Nature Astronomy.
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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Uranus Aurorae Image Trio (October 2022)
Close-up: Uranus Aurorae (October 2022)
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Last Updated Apr 09, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
Astrophysics Communications Manager
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble Chief Science Communications Officer
Bethany.Downer@esahubble.org
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Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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