Suggested Searches

4 min read

In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

The headshot image of Beth Ridgeway

Beth Ridgeway

Sep 23, 2022
Article

Contents

Week of September 19 – September 23

A cropped composite of a DRACO image centered on Jupiter taken during one of SMART Nav’s tests.
A cropped composite of a DRACO image centered on Jupiter taken during one of SMART Nav’s tests. DART was approximately 16 million miles (26 million km) from Earth when the image was taken, with Jupiter approximately 435 million miles (700 million km) away from the spacecraft. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

DART Tests Autonomous Navigation System Using Jupiter, Europa

After capturing images of one of the brightest stars in Earth’s night sky, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test’s (DART) camera recently set its sights on another eye-catching spectacle: Jupiter and its four largest moons. As NASA’s DART spacecraft cruises toward its highly anticipated Sept. 26 encounter with the binary asteroid Didymos, the spacecraft’s imager has snapped thousands of pictures of stars.

This collage shows three other meteoroid impacts that were detected by the seismometer on NASA’s InSight lander and captured by the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera.
This collage shows three other meteoroid impacts that were detected by the seismometer on NASA’s InSight lander and captured by the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA’s InSight ‘Hears’ Its First Meteoroid Impacts on Mars

NASA’s InSight lander has detected seismic waves from four space rocks that crashed on Mars in 2020 and 2021. Not only do these represent the first impacts detected by the spacecraft’s seismometer since InSight touched down on the Red Planet in 2018, it also marks the first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact have been detected on Mars.

An image of an artist's illustration of an Artemis astronaut stepping from a Moon lander onto the lunar surface
An image of an artist’s illustration of an Artemis astronaut stepping from a Moon lander onto the lunar surface Credits: NASA

NASA Pursues Astronaut Lunar Landers for Future Artemis Moon Missions

NASA is seeking proposals for sustainable lunar lander development and demonstration as the agency works toward a regular cadence of Moon landings. Through the Artemis missions, NASA is preparing to return humans to the Moon, including the first woman and first person of color, for long-term scientific discovery and exploration.

This photo of Jupiter, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope on June 27, 2019, features the Great Red Spot, a storm the size of Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years.
This photo of Jupiter, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope on June 27, 2019, features the Great Red Spot, a storm the size of Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)

Jupiter to Reach Opposition, Closest Approach to Earth in 59 Years

Stargazers can expect excellent views of Jupiter the entire night of Monday, Sept. 26, when the giant planet reaches opposition. From the viewpoint of Earth’s surface, opposition happens when an astronomical object rises in the east as the Sun sets in the west, placing the object and the Sun on opposite sides of Earth.

Webb’s first images of Mars, captured by its NIRCam instrument Sept. 5, 2022
Webb’s first images of Mars, captured by its NIRCam instrument Sept. 5, 2022 [Guaranteed Time Observation Program 1415]. Left: Reference map of the observed hemisphere of Mars from NASA and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Top right: NIRCam image showing 2.1-micron (F212 filter) reflected sunlight, revealing surface features such as craters and dust layers. Bottom right: Simultaneous NIRCam image showing ~4.3-micron (F430M filter) emitted light that reveals temperature differences with latitude and time of day, as well as darkening of the Hellas Basin caused by atmospheric effects. The bright yellow area is just at the saturation limit of the detector. Credits: Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST/GTO team

Mars Is Mighty in First Webb Observations of Red Planet

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured its first images and spectra of Mars Sept. 5. The telescope, an international collaboration with the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency, provides a unique perspective with its infrared sensitivity on Earth’s neighboring planet, complementing data being collected by orbiters, rovers, and other telescopes.

For more information or to learn about other happenings at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit NASA Marshall. For past issues of the ICYMI newsletter, click here.