Did you ever look up at stars as a kid and wonder how those little twinkling stars in the sky might look up close in all their majesty.

Well, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured something really special with its image of an exploded star, that looks kind of heavenly.

Purdue University scientist Danny Milisavljevic, said via a NASA statement: “It’s really unbelievable after all these years studying Cas A to now resolve those details, which are providing us with transformational insight into how this star exploded.”

The wondrous star, Cassiopeia A, is well-known supernova remnants around 11,000 light years away from Earth’s galaxy.

The James Webb camera captured materials reacting to gas being set free as the star accelerates to its final moments.

A number of filaments are too tiny to be observed by the telescope’s NIRCam but are 10 billion miles across, according to NASA – 107 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

The image was shown recently by First Lady Jill Biden at the White House’s Advent Calendar gathering.

NASA is looking into just why previously unknown structures, the ‘Green Monster,’ inside Cassiopeia A, are now missing in this image.

Molecules and dust churn around and then transform into new stars and planets as the camera detects a glorious ending and rebirth.

Discoveries such as Cassiopeia A are a reminder of what an incredible universe we have beyond our stars!

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It’s easy enough to see why scientists back in the 60s chose to visit the moon instead of the sun.

I mean, I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of reasons, but one of them surely was that one of them had a fiery burning surface and the other didn’t.

Now, though, NASA wants us to know they are about to get closer than ever.

They’re sending the Parker Solar Probe past the sun at 435,000 mph. It will get within 3.8 million miles of the surface, and that will make it the closest any human-made object has ever been.

Project scientist Nour Raouafi wants to make sure we know what a big deal this is.

“We are basically almost landing on a star. This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is the equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969.”

To get so close (and even though 3.8 million miles seems far, it’s not), the Parker Solar Probe will have to survive temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

The probe launched in 2018 and has already made several close passes. Sadly, due to the sun’s being made of hydrogen and helium gas, actually landing on it isn’t in the cards.

When NASA or anyone else refers to the sun’s surface, they mean a “light sphere” that is simply the first layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. This photosphere is 250 miles thick and is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

They are hoping that the Parker Solar Probe might get close enough to give us some answers, though.

“As we speed closer and closer to the solar surface, we will learn more about the properties of the Sun itself, but the data will also significantly improve our knowledge of space weather and our ability to live and work in space.”

I feel like if so much awful stuff wasn’t going on down here we might be more into it.

But hey, it’s still pretty cool, right?

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16,000 light-years away from our cozy little Earth, in the vastness of space, astronomers have stumbled upon a celestial surprise—a ghostly skeleton hand.

Caught on camera by NASA’s newest space paparazzi, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), this spooky image reveals a pulsar wind nebula named MSH 15-52.

So, what’s a pulsar wind nebula? It’s best described as rapidly spinning neutron stars emitting magnetic field-powered jets of energetic particles.

In MSH 15-52’s case, these jets decided to throw a Halloween party and formed the eeriest, ghostly hand ever seen in the cosmos.

“The charged particles producing the X-rays travel along the magnetic field, determining the basic shape of the nebula, like the bones do in a person’s hand,” said Stanford University’s Roger Romani, lead author of a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, in a statement.

NASA’s IXPE went into detective mode, spying on the nebula for 17 days—the longest celestial stakeout since 2021.

“We’re all familiar with X-rays as a diagnostic medical tool for humans,” said co-author and Stanford physics PhD Josephine Wong in the statement. “Here we’re using X-rays in a different way, but they are again revealing information that is otherwise hidden from us.”

This cosmic hand revelation isn’t just about eerie visuals; it’s a deep dive into the mingling magnetic fields and pulsar wind nebula shenanigans.

“We’ve uncovered the life history of super energetic matter and antimatter particles around the pulsar,” said co-author and  Stanford postdoctoral research fellow Niccolò Di Lalla. “This teaches us about how pulsars can act as particle accelerators.”

Check out the video explaining more…

So, next time you look up at the night sky, remember, somewhere out there, a ghostly hand is giving us a starry high-five.

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NASA recently unveiled a snapshot that gives a whole new meaning to “scary skies,” capturing Jupiter’s noxious clouds forming a face straight out of a nightmare. Forget friendly ghosts; we’re talking about ammonia-packed clouds channeling their inner Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

Snapped by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its 54th flyby of the gas giant, the photo showcases Jupiter’s far north Jet N7 region, where toxic clouds decided to play dress-up.

Citizen scientist Vladimir Tarasov, armed with raw JunoCam data, processed the pic for an extra spooky effect. NASA, in its ghostly humor, shared the image on October 25, coincidentally Pablo Picasso’s birthday, labeling it a “Cubist portrait displaying multiple perspectives.”

OK. I like it. Picasso!

The #JunoMission captured this view in Jupiter's far north that resembles a Cubist portrait displaying multiple perspectives.

We present the @NASASolarSystem image to you on Oct. 25—what would have been Picasso's 142nd birthday: https://t.co/2WChdpAycc pic.twitter.com/fJkdlb974R

— NASA (@NASA) October 25, 2023

NASA assures us that seeing faces in Jupiter’s clouds is as common as spotting Elvis in your morning toast. Describing this phenomenon as pareidolia, where random patterns trick us into seeing recognizable shapes, the space agency points out that it’s not Jupiter’s first rodeo in the spooky face game.

Move over, Man on the Moon; there’s a new celestial scarecrow in town.

Taken from a hair-raising 4,800 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops, the image’s eerie lighting enhances the creepy vibe.

NASA, always the scientist, notes that the low angle of sunlight exposes the intricate topography, helping researchers understand the atmospheric theatrics on Jupiter.

Now, before you start crafting your Imhotep Sand Cloud costume, remember there’s no actual spooky figure floating around Jupiter.

But if you’re in the mood for some extremely niche space-themed cosplay, grab that blue-greige face paint, and embrace the interstellar eeriness.

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It’s been a long time since humans set foot on the moon. In fact most people who were alive to watch those first, monumental steps aren’t still with us today.

Those of us who only read about it in the history books would love to see such a feat with our own two eyes, but at least one former NASA employees doesn’t seem convinced it’s going to happen.

The employee is former NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who served in the mid-2000s under the Bush administration. He recently told lawmakers that the plans to take humans back to the moon are “too convoluted, expensive, and unrealistic.”

Honestly, given the way NASA is blowing every budget and struggling to stay on schedule, it’s not exactly a surprise.

“I will be direct. In my judgement, the Artemis Program is excessively complex, unrealistically priced, compromises crew safety, poses very high mission risk of completion, and is highly unlikely to be completed in a timely manner even if successful.”

He also thinks China might well beat us to the punch, which is another reason he says the entire program needs a “restart” – this time without commercial partners.

He does offer a plan of his own in a written testimony, but it doesn’t seem to be detailed enough to make a big difference.

It involves having NASA’s Space Launch System deliver a crew of four inside an Orion capsule to the moon’s surface, and have them stay there for a full week.

This could take place as soon as 2029.

NASA’s plans are more multifaceted and involves a partnership with SpaceX to utilize their Starship craft. It will meet with an Orion spacecraft in the moon’s orbit and set the crew down on the surface.

Griffin’s plan sounds easier, but it depends on design pieces like a lunar lander that hasn’t been conceptualized or built and the necessary and powerful Block II configuration of the Space Launch System is also still in the beginning stages.

Not only that, but his pleas to cut ties with private companies will likely continue to be ignored.

No one knows what lawmakers will do – they don’t love big price tags and many of them find science in general, and NASA in particular, a waste of time and money.

Personally, I hope they work something out.

We could all use a big, showy, unifying event.

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We all know there’s a learning curve with any new technology, right? We get something new and we expect to have to take a few hours or days (or longer) before we feel comfortable using it.

Apparently that rule also applies to the super smart astrophysicists who look at the images and data provided by the James Webb telescope.

They’re calling it one of the James Webb’s “most unexpected” discoveries to date – that tiny red dots in the oldest corners of the universe are actually “baby” supermassive black holes.

Jorryt Matthee, an astrophysics professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, explains why this is an intriguing discovery.

“Faint little red dots very far away in the universe’s distant past are small versions of extremely massive black holes. These special objects could change the way we think about the genesis of black holes.”

In their paper, they explain their intention to hone in on how these early-stage supermassive black holes change over billions of years.

“The present findings could bring us one step closer to answering one of the greatest dilemmas in astronomy: According to the current models, some supermassive black holes in the early universe have simply grown ‘too fast.’ Then how did they form?”

These supermassive black holes can reach proportions larger than our sun by the billions as far as mass. Scientists have theorized that they grow by merging with other black holes, but so far, the details of their origin and growth have remained a mystery.

There is one, dubbed Sagittarius A*, in our own Milky Way that is around 4.3 million times the mass of the Sun.

One type of supermassive black hole is called a quasar. Their hallmarks are luminous galactic cores that light up as gas and dust fall into them, making them one of the brightest objects in the universe.

One of them can emit thousands of times more light than our entire galaxy.

The authors of this paper believe those little red dots are smaller-than-average quasars.

“One issue with quasars is that some of them seem to be overly massive, too massive given the age of the universe at which the quasars are observed. If we consider that quasars originate from the explosions of massive stars and that we know their maximum growth rate from the general laws of physics, some of them look like they have grown faster than is possible.”

They theorize that these baby quasars predate the era of supermassive ones, but believe they will eventually balloon into much larger black holes themselves.

“Studying baby versions of the overly massive SMBHs in more detail will allow us to better understand how problematic quasars come to exist.”

They’re red due to dust, but will perhaps one day appear blue thanks to the bright disc of matter orbiting and feeding them.

As with all scientific discoveries, there is always more to learn.

As Mathee says, “we have probably only scratched the surface.”

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Well, this sure doesn’t sound good…

A woman who recently survived a wave of layoffs at NASA said that companies are trying to force employees into low-paying positions.

Her name is Kate and she explained that surviving the company’s layoffs was “the worst relief I’ve ever felt.”

Some parties are blaming Congress for NASA’s gridlock and layoffs, but Kate said, “Yes, I’m thankful to have a job. I also don’t feel safe because the layoffs are just going to keep coming for all of us—not just NASA, not just government employees, but everybody.”

She added, “I really want to encourage the working class—we are all the working class—that these layoffs are being done systematically to get us back into lower-paying jobs. They’re trying to counter-correct for the Great Resignation where people were leaving their jobs, they were asking for more money.”

Kate continued, “I’m not saying that NASA is consciously doing this. I’m saying the market—which we pretend is like this omnipotent force, but it’s not—the market is wanting to get us back toward people slaving away at their jobs, feeling like they’re so grateful to [be] making $15 an hour.”

She ended her video by saying, “We have to stick together. We have to demand higher wages. We have to demand better benefits.”

Let’s see what’s going on here…

@leftistmommy

This is the worst relief ive ever felt. #nasa #jpl #economy #recession #budget #politics

♬ original sound – Kate

Here’s how people reacted to this story.

One TikTokker has been there before…

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And this viewer thinks unions are the way to go.

It’s tough out there…

No doubt about it!

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This past year, the government has informed the public that aliens actually exist and have visited Earth.

Now, NASA is changing up the message they send out with their craft, just in case they run into intelligent life while tootling around outer space.

And actually, this craft is mean to search for life in the cosmos. It’s headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa to find out whether or not it could harbor life.

NASA has partnered with a nonprofit to craft the message. METI International (Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a firm that specializes in research and design for future interstellar messaging.

The founder and president of METI says the Europa Clipper mission was a natural fit for them.

“METI’s earliest contribution to the project draws on the science of linguistics, which identifies the major families of languages on Earth. This let us identify a broadly representative sampling of languages to feature on the message plate.”

NASA has inscribed a handwritten version of “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” (written specifically for this mission by Ada Limon) on a commemorative plate mounted to the exterior of the probe.

NASA Reveals ‘Message in a Bottle’ Concept for Upcoming Europa Mission https://t.co/CydAZHf4A8 pic.twitter.com/BMMoOGHVFb

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) March 11, 2024

The craft will also contain an etching of a bottle surrounded by rings – a reference to NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign – that includes more than 2.6 million names stenciled using a JPL electron beam.

On the other side of the craft, NASA and METI compiled recordings of people saying the word “water” in 103 languages. At center of a really cool starburst design is the symbol for water in American Sign Language.

They also included the “Drake equation,” a 1961 formula that attempted to determine how many advanced civilizations are out there.

In total, it’s more of a time capsule for future humans than an actual message.

“The more we developed the various parts of the message to be attached to the Europa Clipper, the clearer it became that none of these could be interpreted if they were discovered by someone who wasn’t already familiar with the contents.”

So in the end, the real message is the friends we’ve made along the way.

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Scientists have made an incredible discovery: they found a ginormous amount of water in a black hole 12 billion light-years away.

An ocean in the heart of a black hole! How much water are we talking about? Well, it’s so much that if you took all the water from Earth’s oceans and multiplied it by 140 trillion, you’d get close.

But wait, what’s a black hole? Picture it like a cosmic vacuum cleaner sucking in everything nearby, even light.

This black hole, called a quasar, is not just any black hole; it’s like a supermassive one munching on gas and dust and spewing out tons of energy.

According to NASA scientist Matt Bradford, who was involved in the discovery, the water feeds the quasar.

“The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” Bradford wrote in a statement. “It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.”

Now, why is this discovery a big deal?

Well, according to NASA, astronomers had expected to find water vapor present in the distant universe, however, it has not been detected at this range before.

It’s like finding a drop of water in the middle of a desert, but on a galactic scale.

And this water isn’t just sitting there; it’s swirling around the black hole, creating a sort of cosmic steam bath. And there’s 140 trillion times the amount of water in all of the world’s oceans.

We’d put that into context, but it’s impossible to do. That’s how much water is there.

But how did they find it? Scientists used fancy telescopes and instruments like the Z-Spec and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to peek into space.

They studied a quasar called APM 08279+5255, which sounds like a mouthful, but it’s your basic giant black hole 20 billion times bigger than the Sun with as much energy as a thousand trillion suns.

This discovery, though, isn’t just about the water. It’s about getting closer to understanding how the universe works, and finding a missing puzzle piece that helps us understand the big picture a little bit better.

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The more time NASA’s rovers spend on Mars, the more we learn about both that planet’s history and the role it played in the development of our universe. It can actually teach us about the history of Earth, too.

It seems wild to think that one asteroid could create two billion craters, but that’s exactly what scientists say happened.

Scientists at JPL say that 2.3 million years ago, an asteroid hit Mars and created a huge crater known as Corinto. It’s 8.6 miles across. It also created several billion secondary craters by sending up a huge scattering of rocks after it hit the surface.

Then those rocks triggered a chain reaction, each creating a smaller crater of its own as it crashed back to the surface.

Each of these billions of craters are at least 33 feet across. The total affected area is spread out across 540,000 square miles – including the landing spot of the InSight Mars lander, says JPL scientist Dr. Golombeck.

“Quantifying the number of secondaries is important to better understand how a relatively small crater could possibly eject that much material during the cratering process.”

This is one of many fascinating discoveries surrounding meteorite impacts on Mars’ surface. One struck so hard that it chipped off pieces of underground ice.

Every discovery and revelation about Mars helps NASA and its astronauts be more prepared if and when we finally gear up to send a manned mission to the red planet.

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