F-22Raptor
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First three Moon base missions have been announced, with first launches this fall
NASA Space Program
- Thread starter Hamartia Antidote
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First three Moon base missions have been announced, with first launches this fall
Hamartia Antidote
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- Thread starter
- #287
F-22Raptor
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Artemis 3 crew announced!
F-22Raptor
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Hamartia Antidote
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NASA X-ray spacecraft catches jet erupting from 1st supermassive black hole imaged by humanity
"We could already see changes in the jet, but never with this level of detail in X-rays."
A jet erupts from M87*, the first black hole imaged by humanity. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. Laval/C. Poitras et al.; IR: NASA/CSA/STScI; Radio:NSF/NRAO/VLA; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare)
Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray spacecraft have obtained the most detailed image yet of the jet erupting from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87).
If this black hole sounds familiar, that is because it made history in 2019 when it was revealed as the first black hole to be imaged by humanity.
M87* is located around 55 million light-years from Earth and is ravenously feeding on infalling gas and dust. As it does so, matter is channeled to the poles of this black hole, which has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun. This matter is blasted out at speeds approaching the speed of light as powerful jets that stretch out for thousands of light-years.
Jets of M87* have been imaged before in other wavelengths of light, such as optical light and infrared, but this is our most detailed look at these jets in X-rays. And the X-rays revealed a complex flow of material through the jets that's more dynamic than previously seen.
"We could already see changes in the jet, but never with this level of detail in X-rays," Camille Poitras, a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Laval University and lead of the study, said in a statement. "Structures that previously appeared blended together can now be distinguished, allowing us to better follow the jet's evolution over more than a decade of observations."
Some structures in the jets appeared to be moving at speeds five times faster than the speed of light. Of course, that isn't possible; according to Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, nothing with mass can move at the speed of light or faster. This so-called superluminal motion isn't a universe-breaking discovery, but rather an optical illusion created when matter moves at near-light speed directly toward Earth.
Hamartia Antidote
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Mission To Boost NASA's Swift Launches From Marshall Islands - NASA Science
A mission to raise the orbit of NASA’s Swift observatory has reached orbit.
science.nasa.gov
Mission To Boost NASA's Swift Launches From Marshall Islands - NASA Science
A mission to raise the orbit of NASA’s Swift observatory has reached orbit.
science.nasa.gov
Mission To Boost NASA’s Swift Launches From Marshall Islands
Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer and Pegasus XL rocket, seen here at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Saturday, June 12, 2026, flew to Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, several days later. The aircraft released the rocket Friday at about 40,000 feet above the atoll, delivering LINK to low Earth
A mission to raise the altitude of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is underway after launching at 8:36 p.m. Marshall Islands Time (4:36 a.m. EDT), Friday, July 3, from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean.
LINK, a robotic servicing spacecraft built by Katalyst Space, launched into orbit on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was deployed by the company’s Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft, at an altitude of about 40,000 feet.
Our planet’s atmosphere creates drag for spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitude if they don’t have propulsion systems to maintain their positions. Recent solar activity magnified this effect on Swift, and its orbit decayed faster than anticipated.
In September, NASA contracted Katalyst to boost Swift. The company needed to design, build, test, and launch LINK and meet, grab, and lift Swift in less than a year.
Now that LINK has reached orbit, the Katalyst team’s first step is to acquire a signal from the spacecraft, confirming its solar panels have deployed and the power systems are working. NASA will continue to provide updates on the agency’s Swift blog.
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