An Ancient Celestial Traveler

In this week's newsletter, discover when an ancient celestial traveler made its closest transit past the Sun; find out what it means that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period; and take a closer look at a dramatic image of one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. Plus, more stories you might have missed.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which likely traveled from the outer reaches of our solar system, made its closest transit past the Sun on Sept. 27 and was expected to come within approximately 44 million miles of Earth on Oct. 12.

Crew aboard the International Space Station have been observing Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on its journey through the inner solar system. An astronaut captured this photo of the comet on Sept. 19. At that time, the mass of dust, ice, and rock was approaching the closest point to the Sun on its highly elliptical orbit.

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Solar Maximum

This week NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip, and the Sun transitions from being calm to an active and stormy state.

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THE UNIVERSE

Galaxies Galore

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the European Space Agency released a new, very high resolution mosaic of images taken by Euclid, a mission with NASA contributions that launched in 2023 to study why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. The mosaic accounts for 1% of the wide survey Euclid will conduct over six years. During this survey, the telescope observes the shapes, distances, and motions of billions of galaxies out to a distance of more than 10 billion light-years.

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM

A Spiral of Starbursts

The spiral galaxy NGC 5248, located 42 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes, is one of the so-called ‘grand design’ spirals, with prominent spiral arms that reach from near the core out through the disk. Features like these that break the rotational symmetry of a galaxy have a huge influence on how matter moves through it and eventually its evolution through time.

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM

A Stellar Volcano

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy. Located approximately 700 light-years away, the binary star system R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas, demonstrating how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars.

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More NASA News

On Monday, Oct. 14, NASA’s Europa Clipper began the long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life.

Hey, skywatchers! Have you spotted any night lights this month? These phenomena brighten dark skies with celestial light ranging from mild to dazzling—from the subtle light pyramid of the zodiacal light to the eerie twilight glow of noctilucent clouds and the wildly unpredictable and mesmerizing aurora.

Can meltwater beneath Martian ice support microbial life? While evidence for life on Mars has never been found, a new NASA study proposes microbes could find a potential home beneath frozen water on the planet’s surface.

Do You Know?

Since the first spacewalk in 1965, there have been 265 astronauts from around the world who have been on spacewalks.

How many women spacewalkers have there been?

A. 85

B. 41

C. 23

Find out the answer in next week's edition of the NASA newsletter 🤓

Last week we asked which musical instrument NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa took with her to space. The answer? A flute! During the STS-56 Atlas-2 mission, Ochoa took a brief time-out to play a 15-minute set of flute offerings on the space shuttle Discovery's aft flight deck.

Follow along with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team as they launch a spacecraft to an asteroid, collect a sample, and bring it home to Earth in the new NASA+ documentary, To an Asteroid and Back.

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