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Follow-up research on a 2023 image of the Sagittarius C stellar nursery in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, has revealed ejections from still-forming protostars and insights into the impact of strong magnetic fields on interstellar gas and the life cycle of stars.

“A big question in the Central Molecular Zone of our galaxy has been, if there is so much dense gas and cosmic dust here, and we know that stars form in such clouds, why are so few stars born here?” said astrophysicist John Bally of the University of Colorado Boulder, one of the principal investigators. “Now, for the first time, we are seeing directly that strong magnetic fields may play an important role in suppressing star formation, even at small scales.”

Detailed study of stars in this crowded, dusty region has been limited, but Webb’s advanced near-infrared instruments have allowed astronomers to see through the clouds to study young stars like never before.

The same dirt that clings to astronauts’ boots may one day keep their lights on. In a study published in Device, researchers created solar cells made out of simulated moon dust. The cells convert sunlight into energy efficiently, withstand radiation damage, and mitigate the need for transporting heavy materials into space, offering a potential solution to one of space exploration’s biggest challenges: reliable energy sources.

“The solar cells used in space now are amazing, reaching efficiencies of 30% to even 40%, but that efficiency comes with a price,” says lead researcher Felix Lang of the University of Potsdam, Germany. “They are very expensive and are relatively heavy because they use glass or thick foil as cover. It’s hard to justify lifting all these cells into space.”

Instead of hauling solar cells from Earth, Lang’s team is looking at materials available on the moon itself. They aim to replace Earth-made glass with glass crafted from —the moon’s loose, rocky surface debris. This change alone could cut a spacecraft’s launch mass by 99.4%, slash 99% of transport costs, and make long-term lunar settlements more feasible.

Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has detected a new warm Jupiter exoplanet located more than 1,000 light years away. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-2005 b, is about the size of Jupiter and orbits its host star on a highly eccentric orbit. The discovery was reported March 25 on the arXiv pre-print server.

NASA’s TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified over 7,500 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which 620 have been confirmed so far.

Located some 1,070 light years away from the Earth, TOI-2005 is a rapidly rotating F-type star. It has recently been monitored with TESS and a transit signal was detected in its light curve. Now, a group of astronomers led by Allyson Bieryla of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reports that this transit signal is of planetary nature.

Returning to Earth would be nothing without a warm welcome from (wo)man’s best friend.

Heartwarming footage captured the moment stranded Boeing Starliner astronaut Sunita Williams received a joyous reunion with her excited dogs after being stuck in space for 264 days.

Williams and fellow astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore finally departed the International Space Station, where they were stuck for more than nine months, and returned to Earth on March 18.

(https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1907056808730235247)


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This Product is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team (NASA HEAT), part of NASA’s Science Activation portfolio.
The material contained in this document is based upon work supported by a National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) grant or cooperative agreement. Any questions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this materials are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.

Without eclipses, our world would be a lot different because eclipses give us the ability to do science we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

LEARN MORE
******
To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Corona: the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere.
- General Relativity: a theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein that says that the observed gravitational effect between masses results from their warping of spacetime.
- Lunar Eclipse: an eclipse in which the moon appears darkened as it passes into the earth’s shadow.
- Solar Eclipse : an eclipse in which the sun is obscured by the moon.
- Tidal Friction: strain produced in a celestial body (such as the Earth or Moon) that undergoes cyclic variations in gravitational attraction as it orbits, or is orbited by, a second body.

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NASA scientists are using space-based imaging technology to unlock the hidden world of flowers. By tracking wildflower blooms across California nature preserves using advanced spectrometers, researchers are uncovering how flower color and timing reflect broader environmental changes. This new met