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THE UNIVERSE
A Supergiant Star and its Orbiting Companion
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Using new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers tracked the influence of a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, on the gas around the 10th brightest star in our night sky—Betelgeuse.
The research, from scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, reveals a trail of dense gas swirling through Betelgeuse’s vast, extended atmosphere, shedding light on why the giant star’s brightness and atmosphere have changed in strange and unusual ways.
The team detected Siwarha’s wake by carefully tracking changes in the star’s light over nearly eight years. These changes show the effects of the previously unconfirmed companion as it plows through the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse. This discovery resolves one of the biggest mysteries about the giant star, helping scientists to explain how it behaves and evolves while opening new doors to understanding other massive stars nearing the end of their lives.
DETECTING SIWARHA’S WAKE
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THE UNIVERSE
Window into the Dark Universe
A team using the Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object — a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud considered a remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed “Cloud-9,” this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the universe — a finding that furthers the understanding of galaxy formation, the early universe, and the nature of dark matter itself.
THE PRESENCE OF CLOUD-9
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NASA SCIENCE
Alien Atmospheres
Pandora—a new, small satellite designed to characterize exoplanet atmospheres and their host stars—is slated to observe at least 20 planets during its one year of science operations. Scheduled to launch no earlier than 8:19 a.m. EST on Sunday, Jan. 11, Pandora will study planets discovered by other missions using transits, events where planets passing in front of their stars cause tiny dips in starlight. Scientists are interested in further observing these worlds because transits can also reveal information about the planet’s atmosphere.
DISCOVER PANDORA
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THE UNIVERSE
Astronomy’s Platypus
After combing through the James Webb Space Telescope’s archive of sweeping extragalactic cosmic fields, a small team of astronomers at the University of Missouri says they have identified a sample of galaxies that have a previously unseen combination of features. Principal investigator Haojing Yan compares the discovery to an infamous oddball in another branch of science: biology’s taxonomy-defying platypus.
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THE UNIVERSE
Rare Kinds of Dust
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted two rare kinds of dust in the dwarf galaxy Sextans A, one of the most chemically primitive galaxies near the Milky Way. The finding of metallic iron dust and silicon carbide produced by aging stars, along with tiny clumps of carbon-based molecules, shows that even when the universe had only a fraction of today’s heavy elements, stars and the interstellar medium could still forge solid dust grains.
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| | | | What's up for January? Skywatchers can observe Jupiter at its biggest and brightest all year, the Moon and Saturn pair up, and the Beehive Cluster buzzes into view. | | NASA’s space shuttle orbiters launched into space using two solid rocket boosters and a large external tank that held super-cold fuel for the orbiter’s main engines. For the first two launches of the Space Shuttle program, the external tank was painted white, but for all 133 missions after that, the external tank was orange. | |
| What gave the space shuttle's external tank its distinctive orange color? | | | | Find out the answer in next week's NASA newsletter! 🤓 | | |
This year, four NASA astronauts will fly around the Moon and back—and NASA’s Curious Universe podcast is taking you along for the journey. Artemis II, a key test flight, will set the stage for future missions to land on the lunar South Pole for the first time and establish a long-term presence there. In this limited series, you’ll meet the Artemis II crew, go behind the scenes at NASA centers and facilities across the country, and discover the teamwork, passion, and problemsolving driving humanity’s return to the Moon—and beyond.
Four astronauts will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. The 10-day flight will help confirm systems and hardware needed for early human lunar exploration missions.
RETURN TO THE MOON
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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