China launches quantum satellite for safe communications

CASC - China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation logo.

August 16, 2016

Long March-2D rocket carrying Micius satellite launch

The world’s first quantum communications satellite has been launched into orbit aboard a Long March-2D rocket. The main task of the Chinese satellite is to potentially secure communications in an age of cyberattacks and global electronic surveillance.

The 600+kg Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gobi Desert at 1:40am local time on a two-year mission on Tuesday.

Nicknamed 'Micius', in honor of the 5th century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist, QUESS will be positioned at sun-synchronous orbit, some 600km (373 miles) above the Earth at an angle of 97.79 degrees, allowing it circle our planet once every 90 minutes.

QUESS system as illustrated by CCTV

“The newly-launched satellite marks a transition in China’s role – from a follower in classic information technology (IT) development to one of the leaders guiding future IT achievements,” said Pan Jianwei, chief scientist of QUESS project with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), as quoted by Xinhua.

The satellite has been tasked with testing out a potentially uncrackable communications system. QUESS will explore quantum teleportation by sending out keys from space to ground command using the principle of 'quantum entanglement', an act of fusing two or more particles into complementary 'quantum states'.

In practice, China hopes to send out photons from the satellite to two ground stations separated by about 1,200km (746 miles), which together form one entangled system. Operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the satellite contains a quantum key communicator, a processing unit, a laser communicator, quantum entanglement emitter, and entanglement source to transmit quantum keys to Earth.

China Launches World's First Quantum Satellite

Quantum communication encryption is a unique method of encoding the content of a message as quantum keys are theoretically impossible to crack with the system detecting any intrusion attempts. For instance, when two people share an encrypted quantum message, if a third person intercepts it, it will change in an unpredictable way.

China hopes that the experimental quantum encryption programs will be instrumental in addressing information security concerns when the government, military and financial networks are becoming prime targets for espionage.

QUESS is one of the National Space Science Center's 'Strategic Priority Programs'. If QUESS is successful, China hopes to erect an Asian-European quantum key distribution network by 2020, and a global quantum communications network in 2030.

“If China is going to send more quantum communication satellites into orbit, we can expect a global network of quantum communications to be set up around 2030,” said Pan.

For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), visit: http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: CASC/CCTV/Xinhua/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams Prepare For a Spacewalk

ISS - Expedition 48 Mission patch.

Aug. 15, 2016

Expedition 48 crew members Kate Rubins (left) and Jeff Williams (right) of NASA outfit spacesuits inside of the Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station. Rubins and Williams will conduct a spacewalk on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, to install the first International Docking Adapter (IDA), the new docking port that will enable the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. This will be the fourth spacewalk in Williams’ career, the first for Rubins, and the 194th for the space station.

The docking adapter was launched on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and arrived at the station July 20. It stands about 42 inches tall and is 63 inches in diameter on the inside. Sensors and other fittings ring the perimeter of the adapter and give it an overall diameter of about 94 inches. Spacecraft flying to the station will use the sensors on the IDA to track to and help the spacecraft's navigation system steer the spacecraft to a safe docking without astronaut involvement.

Image above: All six Expedition 48 crew members gather in the Zvezda service module sharing a light moment and a meal. From left are Anatoly Ivanishin, Oleg Skripochka, Kate Rubins, Commander Jeff Williams, Takuya Onishi and Alexey Ovchinin.

The adapter also represents the first on-orbit element built to the docking measurements that are standardized for all the spacecraft builders across the world. Its first users are expected to be the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft now in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Because the adapter is designed to an international standard, future spacecraft will be able to dock there, too.

Related links:

Commercial Resupply: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html

Docking Adapter (IDA): http://www.nasa.gov/feature/spacex-crs-9-carrying-crucial-port-to-station

NASA's Commercial Crew Program: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Sarah Loff.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Robotic Design Milestone

NASA logo.

Aug. 15, 2016

Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission’s robotic segment. ARM is a two-part mission that will integrate robotic and crewed spacecraft operations in the proving ground of deep space to demonstrate key capabilities needed for NASA’s journey to Mars.

The milestone, known as Key Decision Point-B, or KDP-B, was conducted in July and formally approved by agency management Aug. 15. It is one in a series of project lifecycle milestones that every spaceflight mission for the agency passes as it progresses toward launch. At KDP-B, NASA established the content, cost, and schedule commitments for Phase B activities.

Image above: In the Robotics Operation Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, an engineering development unit of the robotic capture system is tested at full scale. Image Credit: NASA.

Earlier this year, NASA updated the target launch date for the robotic mission to December 2021 in order to incorporate acquisition of the industry robotic spacecraft development into the project schedule. To reflect this new target date, the project's cost cap was increased at KDP-B from $1.25 billion to $1.4 billion. This figure does not include the launch vehicle or the post-launch operations phase. The crewed segment, targeted for launch in 2026, remains in an early mission concept phase, or pre-formulation.

The robotic ARM will demonstrate advanced, high-power, high-throughput solar electric propulsion; advanced autonomous high-speed proximity operations at a low-gravity planetary body; controlled touchdown and liftoff with a multi-ton mass from a low-gravity planetary body, astronaut spacewalk activities for sample selection, extraction, containment and return; and mission operations of integrated robotic and crewed vehicle stack—all key components of future in-space operations for human missions to Mars.

During Phase B of the robotic mission, the program will develop a baseline mission design to meet requirements consistent with NASA’s direction on risk, cost and schedule, and will conduct an independent review of the baseline project design.

Image above: The HERMeS (Hall Effect Rocket with Magnetic Shielding) Technology Development Unit thruster exceeds over 1300 hours of operational wear testing in a vacuum facility at GRC. Magnetic shielding protects the walls of the thruster from erosion, a major breakthrough in Hall thruster design that could hold the key to long-life, reusable electric propulsion systems. Image Credit: NASA.

“This is an exciting milestone for the Asteroid Redirect Mission,” said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot. “Not only is ARM leveraging agency-wide capabilities, it will test a number of new technologies already in development.”

Completing KDP-B is a catalyst for increased external involvement in the robotic mission development, explained Michele Gates, program director for ARM at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“Since its early formulation, NASA has invited mission concept feedback and development ideas from the planetary science community, general public, U.S. and global industry, and international partners,” said Gates. “With KDP-B under our belt, ARM can now move forward to define partnerships and opportunities for long-term engagement.”

The robotic ARM project, led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will issue a request for proposals for the spacecraft to a set of aerospace companies that previously worked with the ARM robotic design team on a six-month study of spacecraft concepts to meet mission requirements. KDP-B serves as authority for JPL to proceed with the next procurement phase.

NASA plans to issue a solicitation in September that will include a call for partner-provided payloads on the robotic flight system. This call for partner-provided payloads is in addition to potential cooperation under discussion with the Italian Space Agency. NASA will provide spacecraft integration, power, data storage and communication capabilities for selected payloads, which the agency will choose based on contributions to both partner goals and ARM objectives, with consideration for those that may support risk reduction for the mission.

Image above: In the Spacecraft Structures Lab at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Asteroid Redirect Mission robotic contact and restraint system is prototyped and tested. Image Credit: NASA.

This solicitation also will include a membership call for an ARM Investigation Team, which will be a multidisciplinary group of U.S. industry, academia, government, and international members. The Investigation Team will operate on an initial three-to-five year term, providing technical expertise to the ARM robotic and crewed project teams.

The team will conduct analyses of spacecraft and mission design, and investigate concepts to support robotic mission objectives, including overall science, planetary defense, asteroid resource use, and deep-space capability demonstrations. Led out of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, the Investigation Team work will continue some of the research conducted by the ARM Formulation Assessment and Support Team, which helped define mission concepts and inform mission requirements and risks over a three-month period in 2015.

The robotic component of the ARM will demonstrate the world’s most advanced and most efficient solar electric propulsion system as it travels to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). NEAs are asteroids that are fewer than 121 million miles (1.3 AU) from the sun at the closest point in their orbit. Although the target asteroid is not expected to be officially selected until 2020, NASA is using 2008 EV₅ as the reference asteroid while the search continues for potential alternates.

Animation above: Before beginning its trip to lunar orbit, the ARM spacecraft will demonstrate a widely supported asteroid deflection technique called a gravity tractor. The spacecraft plus the mass of the captured boulder will create a small gravitational attraction to alter the orbit of the large asteroid. Animation Credit: NASA.

A target asteroid such as 2008 EV₅ is particularly appealing to the scientific, exploration, and industrial communities because it is a primitive, C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid, believed to be rich in volatiles, water, and organic compounds. The ability to extract core samples from the captured boulder will allow us to evaluate how its composition varies with depth and could unlock clues to the origins of our solar system. Astronaut sampling and potential commercial activities could indicate the value of C-type asteroids for commercial mining purposes, which in turn could have significant impacts on how deep space missions are designed in the future.

After collecting a multi-ton boulder from the asteroid, the robotic spacecraft will slowly redirect the boulder to an orbit around the moon, using the moon’s gravity for an assist, where NASA plans to conduct a series of proving ground missions in the 2020s. There, astronauts will be able to select, extract, collect, and return samples from the multi-ton asteroid mass, and conduct other human-robotic and spacecraft operations in the proving ground that will validate concepts for NASA’s journey to Mars.

Related links:

ARM Formulation Assessment and Support Team: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-report-details-expert-team-investigation-of-asteroid-redirect-mission

ARM Investigation Team: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=31e28662756ebb8f2326fdc9fde50178

Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/initiative/index.html

2008 EV₅: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/2008EV5/2008ev5.html

NASA’s journey to Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars

Italian Space Agency (ASI): https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-italian-space-agency-explore-partnership-opportunities-on-asteroid-redirect-mission

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Erin Mahoney.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Analyzes Deadly Louisiana Flooding

NASA & JAXA - Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) logo.

Aug. 15, 2016

Record-setting rainfall and flooding in southern Louisiana have been calculated at NASA with data from satellites.

An extremely severe rainfall event hit the states of Louisiana and southern Mississippi when a very slow moving low pressure system continuously pulled tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.

Image above: NASA's IMERG data from Aug. 8 to Aug. 15, 2016 showed over 20 inches (508 mm) of rainfall was estimated in large areas of southeastern Louisiana and extreme southern Mississippi. Even greater rainfall totals of 30 inches (762 mm) were indicated in a small area of Louisiana west of Lake Pontchartrain. Image Credits: NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce.

Measurements by the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission core observatory satellite showed that rainfall intensity within the low pressure system actually increased on Aug. 12 as the low pressure area bringing the rainfall settled over southeastern Louisiana. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA.

At least 4 people have died in record flooding after the unusually heavy rainfall starting falling the week of Aug. 8. More than 27 inches (686 millimeters (mm)) of rain have been reported in the area. This is the second time this year that record flooding rainfall has hit Louisiana. At least 27 inches (686 mm) of precipitation was also reported in Louisiana during the middle of Mar. 2016 and also caused record flooding.

NASA Analyzes Deadly Louisiana Flooding

Video above: NASA's IMERG data from Aug. 8 to Aug. 15, 2016 showed over 20 inches (508 mm) of rainfall was estimated in large areas of southeastern Louisiana and extreme southern Mississippi. Even greater rainfall totals of 30 inches (762 mm) were indicated in a small area of Louisiana west of Lake Pontchartrain. Video Credits: NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA's Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data were used to make estimates of total rainfall over the northern Gulf of Mexico during the period from Aug. 8 to Aug. 15, 2016.

The IMERG data showed heavy rainfall totals moving toward the northwest from the Florida Panhandle into the central northern Gulf coast. Over 20 inches (508 mm) of rainfall was estimated in large areas of southeastern Louisiana and extreme southern Mississippi. Even greater rainfall totals of 30 inches (762 mm) were indicated in a small area of Louisiana west of Lake Pontchartrain.

Heavy rainfall and flooding is now predicted to occur northward into the Mississippi valley as tropical moisture continues to be transported northward and interacts with a nearly stationary frontal system. Heavy rainfall has also recently affected southeastern Texas and western Louisiana.

Image above: Visualization of the GPM Core Observatory and Partner Satellites. Image Credits: NASA/JAXA.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in New Orleans, Louisiana noted in a forecast discussion on Aug. 15, "As historical and devastating river flooding continues over areas between Baton Rouge and Lake Maurepas, the weather has returned to a more typical summer pattern with isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms developing with daytime heating."

NWS also noted that several of the rivers in and around the greater Baton Rouge area still remain at high levels after peaking at record or major crests. NWS noted that several points downstream and close to Lake Maurepas still have a way to go before broad cresting. NWS New Orleans cautioned that some locations will also undergo backwater flooding well away from the main streams, so this event remains in full swing.

For more information about Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/main/index.html and http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gpm/topics.html

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Hal Pierce/Rob Gutro/Lynn Jenner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's Van Allen Probes Catch Rare Glimpse of Supercharged Radiation Belt

NASA - Van Allen Probes Mission logo.


Aug. 15, 2016

Our planet is nestled in the center of two immense, concentric doughnuts of powerful radiation: the Van Allen radiation belts, which harbor swarms of charged particles that are trapped by Earth’s magnetic field. On March 17, 2015, an interplanetary shock – a shockwave created by the driving force of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, from the sun – struck Earth’s magnetic field, called the magnetosphere, triggering the greatest geomagnetic storm of the preceding decade. And NASA's Van Allen Probes were there to watch the effects on the radiation belts.

Supercharging the Radiation Belts

Video above: On March 17, 2015, an interplanetary shock – a shockwave created by the driving force of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, from the sun – struck the outermost radiation belt, triggering the greatest geomagnetic storm of the preceding decade. NASA's Van Allen Probes were there to watch it. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Genna Duberstein, producer.

One of the most common forms of space weather, a geomagnetic storm describes any event in which the magnetosphere is suddenly, temporarily disturbed. Such an event can also lead to change in the radiation belts surrounding Earth, but researchers have seldom been able to observe what happens. But on the day of the March 2015 geomagnetic storm, one of the Van Allen Probes was orbiting right through the belts, providing unprecedentedly high-resolution data from a rarely witnessed phenomenon. A paper on these observations was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research on Aug. 15, 2016.

Researchers want to study the complex space environment around Earth because the radiation and energy there can impact our satellites in a wide variety of ways – from interrupting onboard electronics to increasing frictional drag to disrupting communications and navigation signals.

“We study radiation belts because they pose a hazard to spacecraft and astronauts,” said David Sibeck, the Van Allen Probes mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved with the paper. “If you knew how bad the radiation could get, you would build a better spacecraft to accommodate that.”

Image above: Artist concept of the Van Allen Probes. Image Credits: JHUAPL.

Studying the radiation belts is one part of our efforts to monitor, study and understand space weather. NASA launched the twin Van Allen Probes in 2012 to understand the fundamental physical processes that create this harsh environment so that scientists can develop better models of the radiation belts. These spacecraft were specifically designed to withstand the constant bombardment of radiation in this area and to continue to collect data even under the most intense conditions. A set of observations on how the radiation belts respond to a significant space weather storm, from this harsh space environment, is a goldmine.

The recent research describes what happened: The March 2015 storm was initiated by an interplanetary shock hurtling toward Earth – a giant shockwave in space set off by a CME, much like a tsunami is triggered by an earthquake.

Swelling and shrinking in response to such events and solar radiation, the Van Allen belts are highly dynamic structures within our planet’s magnetosphere. Sometimes, changing conditions in near-Earth space can energize electrons in these ever-changing regions. Scientists don’t yet know whether energization events driven by interplanetary shocks are common. Regardless, the effects of interplanetary shocks are highly localized events – meaning if a spacecraft is not precisely in the right place when a shock hits, it won’t register the event at all. In this case, only one of the Van Allen Probes was in the proper position, deep within the magnetosphere – but it was able to send back key information.

Animation above: Artist concept of accelerated electrons circulating in Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Animation Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Tom Bridgman, animator.

The spacecraft measured a sudden pulse of electrons energized to extreme speeds – nearly as fast as the speed of light – as the shock slammed the outer radiation belt. This population of electrons was short-lived, and their energy dissipated within minutes. But five days later, long after other processes from the storm had died down, the Van Allen Probes detected an increased number of even higher energy electrons. Such an increase so much later is a testament to the unique energization processes following the storm.

“The shock injected – meaning it pushed – electrons from outer regions of the magnetosphere deep inside the belt, and in that process, the electrons gained energy,” said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at Goddard and the leading author of a paper on these results.

Researchers can now incorporate this example into what they already know about how electrons behave in the belts, in order to try to understand what happened in this case – and better map out the space weather processes there. There are multiple ways electrons in the radiation belts can be energized or accelerated: radially, locally or by way of a shock. In radial acceleration, electrons are carried by low-frequency waves towards Earth. Local acceleration describes the process of electrons gaining energy from relatively higher frequency waves as the electrons orbit Earth. And finally, during shock acceleration, a strong interplanetary shock compresses the magnetosphere suddenly, creating large electric fields that rapidly energize electrons.

Scientists study the different processes to understand what role each process plays in energizing particles in the magnetosphere. Perhaps these mechanisms occur in combination, or maybe just one at a time. Answering this question remains a major goal in the study of radiation belts – a difficult task considering the serendipitous nature of the data collection, particularly in regard to shock acceleration. 

Additionally, the degree of electron energization depends on the process that energizes them. One can liken the process of shock acceleration, as observed by the Van Allen Probe, to pushing a swing.

“Think of ‘pushing’ as the phenomenon that’s increasing the energy,” Kanekal said. “The more you push a swing, the higher it goes.” And the faster electrons will move after a shock.

In this case, those extra pushes likely led to the second peak in high-energy electrons. While electromagnetic waves from the shock lingered in the magnetosphere, they continued to raise the electrons’ energy. The stronger the storm, the longer such waves persist. Following the March 2015 storm, resulting electromagnetic waves lasted several days. The result: a peak in electron energy measured by the Van Allen Probe five days later.

This March 2015 geomagnetic storm was one of the strongest yet of the decade, but it pales in comparison to some earlier storms. A storm during March 1991 was so strong that it produced long-lived, energized electrons that remained within the radiation belts for multiple years. With luck, the Van Allen Probes may be in the right position in their orbit to observe the radiation belt response to more geomagnetic storms in the future.  As scientists gather data from different events, they can compare and contrast them, ultimately helping to create robust models of the little-understood processes occurring in these giant belts.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built and operates the Van Allen Probes for NASA’s Heliophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate. The Van Allen Probes are the second mission in NASA’s Living With a Star program, an initiative managed by Goddard and focused on aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect human lives and society.

Related Links:

Van Allen Probes Mission Overview: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/mission/index.html

NASA’s Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/van-allen-probes-spot-impenetrable-barrier-in-space

NASA’s Van Allen Probes Revolutionize View of Radiation Belts: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-s-van-allen-probes-revolutionize-view-of-radiation-belts

Van Allen Probes: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, By Lina Tran/Rob Garner.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Distant Moons

NASA - Cassini International logo.

Aug. 15, 2016

Saturn's moons Tethys and Hyperion appear to be near neighbors in this Cassini view, even though they are actually 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) apart here. Tethys is the larger body on the left.

These two icy moons of Saturn are very different worlds. To learn more about Hyperion (170 miles or 270 kilometers across), see PIA14583; to learn more about Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) see PIA09766.

This view looks toward the trailing side of Tethys. North on Tethys is up and rotated 1 degree to the left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 15, 2015.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Tethys. Image scale is 4.4 miles (7.0 kilometers) per pixel. The distance to Hyperion was 1.7 million miles (2.7 million kilometers) with an image scale of 10 mile (16 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Related links:

PIA14583: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14583

PIA09766: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09766

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Image, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Hubble’s fireball

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

August 15, 2016

This dramatic burst of colour shows a cosmic object with an equally dramatic history. Enveloped within striking, billowing clouds of gas and dust that form a nebula known as M1-67, sits a bright star named Hen 2-427 (otherwise known as WR 124).

This star is just as intense as the scene unfolding around it. It is a Wolf-Rayet star, a rare type of star known to have very high surface temperatures – well over 25 000ºC, next to the Sun’s comparatively cool 5500ºC – and enormous mass, which ranges over 5–20 times our Sun’s. Such stars are constantly losing vast amounts of mass via thick winds that continuously pour from their surfaces out into space.

Hen 2-427 is responsible for creating the entire scene shown here, which has been captured in beautiful detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The star, thought to be a massive one in the later stages of its evolution, blasted the material comprising M1-67 out into space some 10 millennia ago – perhaps in multiple outbursts – to form an expanding ring of ejecta.

Since then, the star has continued to flood the nebula with massive clumps of gas and intense ionising radiation via its fierce stellar winds, shaping and sculpting its evolution. M1-67 is roughly ring-shaped but lacks a clear structure – it is essentially a collection of large, massive, superheated knots of gas all clustered around a central star.

Hubble orbiting Earth

Hen 2-427 and M1-67 lie 15 000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagitta (The Arrow). This image uses visible-light data gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, and was released in 2015 (the same data were previously processed and released in 1998).

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
https://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt (geckzilla.com).

Best regards, Orbiter.ch