DESI – The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is only about 10 percent of the way through its five-year operation, but its team, led by astronomers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has already produced the largest ever three-dimensional map of the Universe.… Continue reading.
Hydrogen Filament – A group of astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has identified the radio signature of a giant filament of atomic hydrogen 3,900 light-years long and 130 light-years wide, located near the far side of our Milky Way galaxy.… Continue reading.
James Webb Space Telescope Launched – Shortly after noon local time, December 25, the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guyana. The infrared telescope is now starting its month-long journey towards its ultimate home, orbiting Earth’s L2 Lagrange point, about a million miles away.… Continue reading.
Hubble Resumes Observing – In late October, a computer onboard the Hubble Space Telescope detected that communications between computers and instruments were missing critical synchronization messages. All instruments were placed in safe mode so ground controllers could troubleshoot the problem. They tested each instrument independently and found all operating correctly, meaning the fault was likely somewhere in the communications, though they’re still investigating the root cause.… Continue reading.
Mars Floods – The Mars rover Perseverance has been studying the western delta fan, which was built up by layers of sediment dropped into Jezero Crater by a river, back when the crater was a lake, about 3.7 billion years ago.… Continue reading.
Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources
Ingenuity – The Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its planned five test flights. The final one of these included landing at a new site that it had not touched before (though it took images of the site during its previous flight), and climbing to a record altitude of 33 feet.… Continue reading.