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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

Feb 24, 2023
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A Weekly Summary of Top Content from Marshall, February 20 – February 24, 2023

Week of February 20 – February 24, 2023

The image on our left features two colliding dwarf galaxies in the late stages of merging into one larger galaxy. The image on our right features two colliding dwarf galaxies in the early stages of merging.

Chandra Discovers Giant Black Holes on Collision Course

A new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has tracked two pairs of supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies on collision courses. This is the first evidence for such an impending encounter, providing scientists with important information about the growth of black holes in the early universe.

Four male astronauts pose with arms crossed in front of a plane in blue flight suits on the tarmac.

NASA, SpaceX Announce Update to Crew-6 Mission

On Feb. 21, NASA announced that launch of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station has been moved to Monday, Feb. 27, at 12:45 a.m. CST. The launch will carry two NASA astronauts – Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren “Woody” Hoburg – as well as United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

White smoke billows to the right of the photo as NASA conducts an RS-25 hot fire test on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi on Feb. 22, 2023.

NASA Continues Testing Redesigned Artemis Moon Rocket Engines

Engineers hot fire tested a redesigned RS-25 engine Feb. 22 for future flights of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon. The test, conducted on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is part of a certification series to support production of new RS-25 engines by lead SLS engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne.

NGC 1433 is a barred spiral galaxy with a particularly bright core surrounded by double star forming rings.

Webb Reveals Intricate Networks of Gas, Dust in Nearby Galaxies

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are getting their first look at star formation, gas, and dust in nearby galaxies with unprecedented resolution at infrared wavelengths. The data has enabled an initial collection of 21 research papers which provide new insight into how some of the smallest-scale processes in our universe – the beginnings of star formation – impact the evolution of the largest objects in our cosmos: galaxies.

These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process.

Hubble Views Merging Galactic Trio

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process.

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.