World's Largest Digital Camera Snaps Its First Photos of the Universe
The U.S.-funded observatory, perched in an area of the Chilean Andes known for exceptionally dark skies, is equipped with the world's largest digital camera and a 27.5-foot mirror that can capture light too faint for other telescopes to see.
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35 minutes ago
Astronomers track object that may have originated outside the solar system
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronomers are monitoring an object headed our way that may have wandered over from another star system. Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency said Wednesday. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of miles (kilometers) away and moving toward Mars, but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It's too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet, or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honor of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet.
Gizmodo
41 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Rocket Engines That Flew 22 Space Shuttle Missions Are Ready for NASA's Next Moon Mission
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is ready to fly with its four shuttle-era engines. The rocket, outfitted with the RS-25 engines, recently passed a critical milestone that put the integrated system to the test, using a decades-old design on a new launch vehicle. NASA teams successfully completed the RS-25 engine checkout tests at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ensuring seamless communication between the SLS core stage and its engines ahead of the first crewed mission to the lunar environment in more than 50 years. Three of the four engines being used for the upcoming Artemis 2 mission have already flown a combined 22 missions as part of NASA's iconic Shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011, while one engine will be making its launch debut. 'I learned during the Space Shuttle program to listen to the engines,' Bill Muddle, RS-25 field engineer, said in a statement. 'The engines talk to you, and you have to listen and understand what they are telling you to ensure they operate properly. They will tell you if they are in ill health and need to be tweaked or if a component is having an issue and needs to be replaced. Based on the [Program Specific Engineering Test], the engines all indicated they were healthy and ready for the pad.' The RS-25 engines were built by L3 Harris Technologies' Aerojet Rocketdyne division for the shuttle project, and NASA has a total of four contracts with the company. SLS Block 1, which launched the Artemis 1 mission in November 2022 and is meant to launch Artemis 2 and 3, is powered by four RS-25 engines in its core stage, along with two solid rocket boosters. Three of the four engines that are currently being used to power SLS for Artemis 2 were part of significant milestones in the Space Shuttle program. Engine 2047 flew on the final shuttle mission on July 21, 2011, while engine 2059 flew on the program's penultimate flight. Engine 2061 was part of the mission that assisted the assembly of the International Space Station. Engine 2062, on the other hand, is a newbie, ready to make its inaugural flight. 'Every day I come to work knowing that the RS-25 field engineering team has to take care of these engines, because we know we have humans riding in Orion on top of this vehicle and these engines have to perform flawlessly,' Muddle said. 'The lives of our astronauts are in the RS-25 team's hands for the eight and a half minutes those engines are firing during launch.' The 5.75-million-pound SLS uses components from NASA's Space Shuttle program, including solid rocket boosters built by Northrop Grumman, as a way to improve its affordability. NASA's original thought process, however, did not pan out too well. The launch vehicle has already gone $6 billion over budget, with the projected cost of each SLS rocket being $144 million more than anticipated. That would increase the overall cost of a single Artemis launch to at least $4.2 billion, according to a report released in 2024 by the office of NASA's inspector general. The giant Moon rocket faces uncertainty under the current administration's proposed budget, which laid out a plan to phase out SLS and its Orion capsule and replace them with commercial substitutes. This week, however, the Senate approved a budget reconciliation bill that would allocate an additional $6 billion to Artemis' current mission architecture. If signed into law, the legislation may just give SLS, and its shuttle-era engines, a fighting chance.
Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
NASA's next frontier is Netflix
NASA has sent astronaturs to the moon, flown through hurricanes, fetched asteroid debris, and launched a program to clean up space trash. Its next mission? Streaming on Netflix. On June 30, NASA announced that live programming from its in-home streaming service, NASA+, will be available on Netflix via a new partnership starting this summer. The move marks the most recent play in a years-long effort on NASA's part to build out its media presence by switching from traditional cable to streaming. For Netflix, the news comes as the world's largest video streaming service has continued to solidify its global dominance: In April, Netflix reported first quarter earnings of $2.9 billion, a 24% year-over-year increase. The streamer's stock is currently up nearly 45% since the beginning of 2025. For NASA, the news comes as the agency is being hit by serious budget and job cuts by the Trump administration, as well as uncertainty over its new leader. What is NASA+? NASA+ was founded in 2023 as an ad-free, no cost streaming service, available online and via NASA's app, featuring live mission coverage and original shows which offer viewers a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes efforts of scientists and engineers. The streaming service is a modern evolution of NASA TV, a traditional cable channel that began in the early '80s and continued through August 2024. NASA TV shows included a weekly segment called This Week @ NASA, a kid's program called Education File, and a historical program called NASA Gallery. In the wake of the 2010s cord cutting era and the rise of streaming (as of this June, more Americans are watching streaming platforms than both broadcast and cable combined for the first time ever), NASA decided to shift its digital focus to NASA+. Less than a year after the streaming service's founding, it already gained four times more viewership than NASA TV, per a press release. Cheryl Warner, news chief at NASA, says the NASA+ app has now been downloaded more than 40 million times. Now, it seems, NASA is looking to give viewership numbers a boost. What will NASA+ be streaming on Netflix? According to an official statement from NASA, the content set to air on Netflix will include 'rocket launches, astronaut spacewalks, mission coverage, and breathtaking live views of Earth from the International Space Station.' Rebecca Sirmons, general manager of NASA+, added that 'The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 calls on us to share our story of space exploration with the broadest possible audience'—a goal that's much more achievable for NASA through Netflix's global audience of 700 million than via its own platforms. This February, NASA astronauts also began streaming on Twitch live from space for the first time ever. 'We are excited to include broader streaming opportunities as part of our NASA coverage,' Warner says. 'We are intentionally meeting our audiences through the platforms and services they use. Our coverage with Netflix is focused on live programming at this time, and there were no funds exchanged through our agreement.'
