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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

Sep 09, 2022
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Week of September 5 – September 9

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as teams work to replace the seal on an interface, called the quick disconnect.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is seen at Launch Pad 39B Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as teams work to replace the seal on an interface, called the quick disconnect, between the liquid hydrogen fuel feed line on the mobile launcher and the rocket. Credits: NASA/Chad Siwik

Repair Work Underway, Preparations Continue for Next Artemis I Launch Opportunity 

Engineers are making progress repairing the area where a liquid hydrogen leak was detected during the Artemis I launch attempt Sept. 3, and NASA is preserving options for the next launch opportunity as early as Friday, Sept. 23.

This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope.
This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 15.5 micrometers. These images look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A set of masks within each instrument, called a coronagraph, blocks out the host star’s light so that the planet can be seen. The small white star in each image marks the location of the host star HIP 65426, which has been subtracted using the coronagraphs and image processing. The bar shapes in the NIRCam images are artifacts of the telescope’s optics, not objects in the scene. (Unlabeled version.) Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)

Webb Telescope Takes Its First Direct Image of Distant World

For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside the solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable.

This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022.
This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022. Credits: NASA JPL DART Navigation Team

DART Sets Sights on Asteroid Target

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft recently got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos. On Sept. 26, DART will intentionally crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this is the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

NASA’s Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter’s Complex Colors

NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet July 5. Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created the two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft.

The Gulf of California reflects the sun in this photograph taken as the space station orbited 258 miles above. Archangel Island, part of the Mexican state of Baja California, seems to float in the sun’s reflection.
The Gulf of California reflects the sun in this photograph taken as the space station orbited 258 miles above. Archangel Island, part of the Mexican state of Baja California, seems to float in the sun’s reflection. Credits: NASA

Space Station Weekly Science Highlights

Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations that included examining changes in muscle properties in space, testing a radiation protection garment, and studying the mechanisms behind bone loss. Learn more about some of the microgravity investigations currently taking place aboard the orbiting lab.

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.