Goddard's Astrophysics Gallery

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Watch this video to learn more about XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), a collaboration between JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic Credits: Universal Production MusicLights On by Hugh Robert Edwin Wilkinson Dreams by Jez Fox and Rohan JonesChanging Tide by Rob ManningWandering Imagination by Joel GoodmanIn Unison by Samuel Sim || A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky. XRISM is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency).XRISM detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer developed in collaboration between JAXA and NASA. When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6-by-6-pixel detector, its energy causes a tiny increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information about the source, such as its composition, motion, and physical state. To detect these tiny temperature changes, Resolve must operate at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. It reaches this state in orbit after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium. XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, was developed by JAXA. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. The images it collects will complement the data collected by Resolve. Each instrument is at the focus of an XMA (X-ray Mirror Assembly) designed and developed at Goddard. X-ray wavelengths are so short, they can pass straight between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.Instead, X-ray astronomers use nested curved mirrors turned on their sides. The X-rays skip off the surfaces like stones across a pond and into the detectors. Each of XRISM’s XMAs houses hundreds of concentric, precisely shaped aluminum shells built in quadrants and assembled into a circle. In all, there are over 3,200 individual mirror segments in the two mirror assemblies.After launch, XRISM will begin a months-long calibration phase, during which Resolve will reach its operating temperature. ||

Explore the temperatures of the cosmos, from absolute zero to the hottest temperatures yet achieved, with this infographic. Targets for the XRISM mission include supernova remnants, binary systems with stellar-mass black holes, galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, and vast clusters of galaxies.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott WiessingerMachine-readable PDF copy || Japan’s XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) observatory will provide an unprecedented view into some of the hottest places in the universe. And it will do so using an instrument that’s actually colder than the frostiest cosmic location now known.XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let astronomers peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before. They anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies. This infographic illustrates the enormous range of cosmic temperatures. At the bottom of the scale is absolute zero Kelvin, or 459.67 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 Celsius). The detector for XRISM’s Resolve instrument is just a few hundredths of a degree warmer than this. It’s 20 times chillier than the Boomerang Nebula the coldest-known natural environment and about 50 times colder than the temperature of deep space, which is warmed only by the oldest light in the universe, the cosmic microwave background.The instrument, a collaboration between NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), must be kept so cold because it works by measuring the tiny temperature increase created when X-rays strike its detector. This information builds up a picture of how bright the source is in various X-ray energies the equivalent of colors of visible light and lets astronomers identify chemical elements by their unique X-ray fingerprints, called spectra.With current instruments, we’re only capable of seeing these fingerprints in a comparatively blurry way. Resolve will effectively give X-ray astrophysics a spectrometer with a magnifying glassXRISM’s other instrument, called Xtend, developed by JAXA and Japanese universities, is an X-ray imager that will perform simultaneous observations with Resolve, providing complementary information. Both instruments rely on two identical X-ray Mirror Assemblies developed at Goddard.XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s contribution includes science participation from the Canadian Space Agency. ||

A brief overview of the James Webb Space Telescope mission from its construction, launch, and complex unfolding to the incredible science it achieves. || Webb Mission Overview 2023 videoExpanding Time and Space (c) 2016, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Daniel Jay Nielsen Promised Lands (c) 2021, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Enrico Cacace [BMI], Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI] || B-roll footage from the Webb Mission Overview video. ||

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is unfolding the universe, and revealing sights humanity has never seen before. In this video, astronomers describe working with the telescope and how the images and data are collected. From first images to routine operations: experts at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD explain how the images are processed, and turned from raw data to the spectacular full-color images seen on the internet. || 4K and HD versions of How Webb captures the Universe video. Odyssey (c) August 29, 2000, Primetime Productions Ltd [PRS], Anders Eliasson [STIM], Steve Martin [PRS] ||

Watch this video to learn more about XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), a collaboration between JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic Credits: Universal Production MusicLights On by Hugh Robert Edwin Wilkinson Dreams by Jez Fox and Rohan JonesChanging Tide by Rob ManningWandering Imagination by Joel GoodmanIn Unison by Samuel Sim || A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky. XRISM is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency).XRISM detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer developed in collaboration between JAXA and NASA. When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6-by-6-pixel detector, its energy causes a tiny increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information about the source, such as its composition, motion, and physical state. To detect these tiny temperature changes, Resolve must operate at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. It reaches this state in orbit after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium. XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, was developed by JAXA. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. The images it collects will complement the data collected by Resolve. Each instrument is at the focus of an XMA (X-ray Mirror Assembly) designed and developed at Goddard. X-ray wavelengths are so short, they can pass straight between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.Instead, X-ray astronomers use nested curved mirrors turned on their sides. The X-rays skip off the surfaces like stones across a pond and into the detectors. Each of XRISM’s XMAs houses hundreds of concentric, precisely shaped aluminum shells built in quadrants and assembled into a circle. In all, there are over 3,200 individual mirror segments in the two mirror assemblies.After launch, XRISM will begin a months-long calibration phase, during which Resolve will reach its operating temperature. ||

Explore this infographic to learn more about ComPair and scientific ballooning.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || ComPair is a balloon-borne science instrument designed to detect gamma rays with energies between 200,000 and 20 million electron volts. Visible light’s energy falls between 2 and 3 electron volts, for comparison.Supernovae and powerful explosions called gamma-ray bursts shine the brightest in this energy range. It’s also where astronomers expect to see the strongest glow from the most massive and distant active galaxies, which are powered by monster black holes. Current missions don’t cover this range well, however, so future ComPair-inspired instruments could fill in important gaps in astronomers' knowledge.Earth’s atmosphere filters out most of the high-energy radiation coming from space – which is good for humans but makes testing new gamma-ray technologies challenging. ComPair's solution is to fly to about 133,000 feet (40,000 meters) on a scientific balloon, which brings it above 99.5% of the atmosphere.ComPair gets its name from two methods it uses to study gamma rays: Compton scattering and pair production. In Compton scattering, light hits a particle, such as an electron, and transfers some energy to it. Pair production occurs when a gamma ray grazes the nucleus of an atom and converts into a pair of particles – an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron. The instrument has four major components:1. A tracker containing 10 layers of silicon detectors that determines the position of incoming gamma rays.2. A high-resolution calorimeter made of cadmium, zinc, and telluride that precisely measures lower-energy Compton-scattered gamma rays and some converted into electron-positron pairs.3. A high-energy calorimeter made of cesium iodide that mostly measures electron-positron pairs as well as some Compton-scattered gamma rays.4. An anticoincidence detector that notes the entry of high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays.ComPair is a collaboration among Goddard, NRL, Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. ||

A brief overview of the James Webb Space Telescope mission from its construction, launch, and complex unfolding to the incredible science it achieves. || Webb Mission Overview 2023 videoExpanding Time and Space (c) 2016, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Daniel Jay Nielsen Promised Lands (c) 2021, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Enrico Cacace [BMI], Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI] || B-roll footage from the Webb Mission Overview video. ||

The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful space telescope ever made and the most complex one yet designed. Did you know that the telescope's history stretches back before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched? This video explores the various early concept designs for Webb, including the criteria and the players. Learn more about Webb's final design, how it evolved, and how the completed telescope was tested and prepared for its historic launch. || Designing Webb FeatureAttention to Detail, (C) 2022, Model Music [PRS], Paul Richard O'Brien [PRS] Theo Maximilian Goble [PRS]Conceptual Scheme, (C) 2021, Koka Media [SACEM], Universal Production Music France [SACEM], Laurent Dury [SACEM]Moving Forward, (C) 2021, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Mark Russell [PRS]Relentless Data, (C) 2020, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Jay Price [PRS]Life Cycles, (C) 2016, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Theo Golding [PRS] ||

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Complete animation sequence.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab ||

Watch to learn how an update to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory allowed it to catch a supersized black hole in a distant galaxy munching repeatedly on a circling star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: "Teapot Waltz" by Benjamin Parsons from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. ||

Watch this video to learn more about XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), a collaboration between JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic Credits: Universal Production MusicLights On by Hugh Robert Edwin Wilkinson Dreams by Jez Fox and Rohan JonesChanging Tide by Rob ManningWandering Imagination by Joel GoodmanIn Unison by Samuel Sim || A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky. XRISM is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency).XRISM detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer developed in collaboration between JAXA and NASA. When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6-by-6-pixel detector, its energy causes a tiny increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information about the source, such as its composition, motion, and physical state. To detect these tiny temperature changes, Resolve must operate at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. It reaches this state in orbit after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium. XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, was developed by JAXA. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. The images it collects will complement the data collected by Resolve. Each instrument is at the focus of an XMA (X-ray Mirror Assembly) designed and developed at Goddard. X-ray wavelengths are so short, they can pass straight between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.Instead, X-ray astronomers use nested curved mirrors turned on their sides. The X-rays skip off the surfaces like stones across a pond and into the detectors. Each of XRISM’s XMAs houses hundreds of concentric, precisely shaped aluminum shells built in quadrants and assembled into a circle. In all, there are over 3,200 individual mirror segments in the two mirror assemblies.After launch, XRISM will begin a months-long calibration phase, during which Resolve will reach its operating temperature. ||

Explore this infographic to learn more about ComPair and scientific ballooning.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || ComPair is a balloon-borne science instrument designed to detect gamma rays with energies between 200,000 and 20 million electron volts. Visible light’s energy falls between 2 and 3 electron volts, for comparison.Supernovae and powerful explosions called gamma-ray bursts shine the brightest in this energy range. It’s also where astronomers expect to see the strongest glow from the most massive and distant active galaxies, which are powered by monster black holes. Current missions don’t cover this range well, however, so future ComPair-inspired instruments could fill in important gaps in astronomers' knowledge.Earth’s atmosphere filters out most of the high-energy radiation coming from space – which is good for humans but makes testing new gamma-ray technologies challenging. ComPair's solution is to fly to about 133,000 feet (40,000 meters) on a scientific balloon, which brings it above 99.5% of the atmosphere.ComPair gets its name from two methods it uses to study gamma rays: Compton scattering and pair production. In Compton scattering, light hits a particle, such as an electron, and transfers some energy to it. Pair production occurs when a gamma ray grazes the nucleus of an atom and converts into a pair of particles – an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron. The instrument has four major components:1. A tracker containing 10 layers of silicon detectors that determines the position of incoming gamma rays.2. A high-resolution calorimeter made of cadmium, zinc, and telluride that precisely measures lower-energy Compton-scattered gamma rays and some converted into electron-positron pairs.3. A high-energy calorimeter made of cesium iodide that mostly measures electron-positron pairs as well as some Compton-scattered gamma rays.4. An anticoincidence detector that notes the entry of high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays.ComPair is a collaboration among Goddard, NRL, Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. ||

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Watch to learn how an update to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory allowed it to catch a supersized black hole in a distant galaxy munching repeatedly on a circling star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: "Teapot Waltz" by Benjamin Parsons from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. ||

Watch this video to learn more about XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), a collaboration between JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic Credits: Universal Production MusicLights On by Hugh Robert Edwin Wilkinson Dreams by Jez Fox and Rohan JonesChanging Tide by Rob ManningWandering Imagination by Joel GoodmanIn Unison by Samuel Sim || A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky. XRISM is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency).XRISM detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer developed in collaboration between JAXA and NASA. When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6-by-6-pixel detector, its energy causes a tiny increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information about the source, such as its composition, motion, and physical state. To detect these tiny temperature changes, Resolve must operate at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. It reaches this state in orbit after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium. XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, was developed by JAXA. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. The images it collects will complement the data collected by Resolve. Each instrument is at the focus of an XMA (X-ray Mirror Assembly) designed and developed at Goddard. X-ray wavelengths are so short, they can pass straight between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.Instead, X-ray astronomers use nested curved mirrors turned on their sides. The X-rays skip off the surfaces like stones across a pond and into the detectors. Each of XRISM’s XMAs houses hundreds of concentric, precisely shaped aluminum shells built in quadrants and assembled into a circle. In all, there are over 3,200 individual mirror segments in the two mirror assemblies.After launch, XRISM will begin a months-long calibration phase, during which Resolve will reach its operating temperature. ||

Video producer Sophia Roberts explains the basic principles behind spectroscopy, the science of reading light to determine the size, distance, spin and chemical composition of distant objects in space. Complete transcript available.Music Credits:Universal Production MusicOxygenate the Idea – by Amon Turner, Banksman, Eben StoneJungle Bounce – by Siddharth NadkarniSilent Patient – by Paul Reeves Background Story - by Peter LarsenData Dynamism – by Florian Moenks and Aron Wright Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. ||

Explore this infographic to learn more about ComPair and scientific ballooning.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || ComPair is a balloon-borne science instrument designed to detect gamma rays with energies between 200,000 and 20 million electron volts. Visible light’s energy falls between 2 and 3 electron volts, for comparison.Supernovae and powerful explosions called gamma-ray bursts shine the brightest in this energy range. It’s also where astronomers expect to see the strongest glow from the most massive and distant active galaxies, which are powered by monster black holes. Current missions don’t cover this range well, however, so future ComPair-inspired instruments could fill in important gaps in astronomers' knowledge.Earth’s atmosphere filters out most of the high-energy radiation coming from space – which is good for humans but makes testing new gamma-ray technologies challenging. ComPair's solution is to fly to about 133,000 feet (40,000 meters) on a scientific balloon, which brings it above 99.5% of the atmosphere.ComPair gets its name from two methods it uses to study gamma rays: Compton scattering and pair production. In Compton scattering, light hits a particle, such as an electron, and transfers some energy to it. Pair production occurs when a gamma ray grazes the nucleus of an atom and converts into a pair of particles – an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron. The instrument has four major components:1. A tracker containing 10 layers of silicon detectors that determines the position of incoming gamma rays.2. A high-resolution calorimeter made of cadmium, zinc, and telluride that precisely measures lower-energy Compton-scattered gamma rays and some converted into electron-positron pairs.3. A high-energy calorimeter made of cesium iodide that mostly measures electron-positron pairs as well as some Compton-scattered gamma rays.4. An anticoincidence detector that notes the entry of high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays.ComPair is a collaboration among Goddard, NRL, Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. ||

Watch to learn how an update to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory allowed it to catch a supersized black hole in a distant galaxy munching repeatedly on a circling star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: "Teapot Waltz" by Benjamin Parsons from Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. ||

Watch this video to learn more about XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission), a collaboration between JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic Credits: Universal Production MusicLights On by Hugh Robert Edwin Wilkinson Dreams by Jez Fox and Rohan JonesChanging Tide by Rob ManningWandering Imagination by Joel GoodmanIn Unison by Samuel Sim || A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky. XRISM is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency).XRISM detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer developed in collaboration between JAXA and NASA. When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6-by-6-pixel detector, its energy causes a tiny increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information about the source, such as its composition, motion, and physical state. To detect these tiny temperature changes, Resolve must operate at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. It reaches this state in orbit after a multistage mechanical cooling process inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium. XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, was developed by JAXA. It will give XRISM one of the largest fields of view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date, observing an area about 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. The images it collects will complement the data collected by Resolve. Each instrument is at the focus of an XMA (X-ray Mirror Assembly) designed and developed at Goddard. X-ray wavelengths are so short, they can pass straight between the atoms of the dish-shaped mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.Instead, X-ray astronomers use nested curved mirrors turned on their sides. The X-rays skip off the surfaces like stones across a pond and into the detectors. Each of XRISM’s XMAs houses hundreds of concentric, precisely shaped aluminum shells built in quadrants and assembled into a circle. In all, there are over 3,200 individual mirror segments in the two mirror assemblies.After launch, XRISM will begin a months-long calibration phase, during which Resolve will reach its operating temperature. ||

Explore the temperatures of the cosmos, from absolute zero to the hottest temperatures yet achieved, with this infographic. Targets for the XRISM mission include supernova remnants, binary systems with stellar-mass black holes, galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, and vast clusters of galaxies.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott WiessingerMachine-readable PDF copy || Japan’s XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) observatory will provide an unprecedented view into some of the hottest places in the universe. And it will do so using an instrument that’s actually colder than the frostiest cosmic location now known.XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let astronomers peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before. They anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies. This infographic illustrates the enormous range of cosmic temperatures. At the bottom of the scale is absolute zero Kelvin, or 459.67 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 Celsius). The detector for XRISM’s Resolve instrument is just a few hundredths of a degree warmer than this. It’s 20 times chillier than the Boomerang Nebula the coldest-known natural environment and about 50 times colder than the temperature of deep space, which is warmed only by the oldest light in the universe, the cosmic microwave background.The instrument, a collaboration between NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), must be kept so cold because it works by measuring the tiny temperature increase created when X-rays strike its detector. This information builds up a picture of how bright the source is in various X-ray energies the equivalent of colors of visible light and lets astronomers identify chemical elements by their unique X-ray fingerprints, called spectra.With current instruments, we’re only capable of seeing these fingerprints in a comparatively blurry way. Resolve will effectively give X-ray astrophysics a spectrometer with a magnifying glassXRISM’s other instrument, called Xtend, developed by JAXA and Japanese universities, is an X-ray imager that will perform simultaneous observations with Resolve, providing complementary information. Both instruments rely on two identical X-ray Mirror Assemblies developed at Goddard.XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s contribution includes science participation from the Canadian Space Agency. ||

The XRISM spacecraft during acoustic testing at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center in December 2022. These and other tests confirm that the spacecraft can withstand the severe vibrations and sounds of its rocket launch.Credit: JAXA || The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) spacecraft as it appeared in May at Tsukuba Space Center, Japan. The open compartment near the bottom houses its Goddard-developed Resolve instrument. Credit: JAXA/NEC || XRISM mission mark.Credit: JAXA ||

Explore the temperatures of the cosmos, from absolute zero to the hottest temperatures yet achieved, with this infographic. Targets for the XRISM mission include supernova remnants, binary systems with stellar-mass black holes, galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, and vast clusters of galaxies.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott WiessingerMachine-readable PDF copy || Japan’s XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) observatory will provide an unprecedented view into some of the hottest places in the universe. And it will do so using an instrument that’s actually colder than the frostiest cosmic location now known.XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let astronomers peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before. They anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies. This infographic illustrates the enormous range of cosmic temperatures. At the bottom of the scale is absolute zero Kelvin, or 459.67 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 Celsius). The detector for XRISM’s Resolve instrument is just a few hundredths of a degree warmer than this. It’s 20 times chillier than the Boomerang Nebula the coldest-known natural environment and about 50 times colder than the temperature of deep space, which is warmed only by the oldest light in the universe, the cosmic microwave background.The instrument, a collaboration between NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), must be kept so cold because it works by measuring the tiny temperature increase created when X-rays strike its detector. This information builds up a picture of how bright the source is in various X-ray energies the equivalent of colors of visible light and lets astronomers identify chemical elements by their unique X-ray fingerprints, called spectra.With current instruments, we’re only capable of seeing these fingerprints in a comparatively blurry way. Resolve will effectively give X-ray astrophysics a spectrometer with a magnifying glassXRISM’s other instrument, called Xtend, developed by JAXA and Japanese universities, is an X-ray imager that will perform simultaneous observations with Resolve, providing complementary information. Both instruments rely on two identical X-ray Mirror Assemblies developed at Goddard.XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s contribution includes science participation from the Canadian Space Agency. ||

This periodic table depicts the primary source on Earth for each element. In cases where two sources contribute fairly equally, both appear. || The periodic table organizes all the known elements by atomic number, which is the number of protons in each atom of the element. This version of the table, which draws on data compiled by astronomer Jennifer Johnson from Ohio State University, shows our current understanding of how each element found on Earth was originally produced. Most of them ultimately have cosmic origins. Some elements were created with the birth of the universe, while others were made during the lives or deaths of stars. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help us understand the cosmic era when stars first began forming. The mission will help scientists learn more about how elements were created and distributed throughout galaxies. ||

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a NASA scientific balloon mission that will fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to study twisty patterns of light in the universe’s “baby picture.” This infographic highlights some facts about PIPER’s instruments, capabilities and goals.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a NASA scientific balloon mission that will fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB is a faint glow permeating the universe in all directions with an average temperature of 455 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 270 degrees Celsius). It formed 380,000 years after the big bang, so scientists sometimes refer to it as the universe’s “baby picture.” PIPER will search for patterns in the light of the CMB called E-mode and B-mode polarization. E-mode patterns show exactly the same properties if reflected in a mirror, but B-mode patterns don’t. Scientists say they have “handedness,” which means B-modes twist either right or left and a mirror reflection changes one to the other. B-mode patterns result from gravitational waves in the universe’s first moments, when it expanded a trillion trillion times after the big bang. PIPER will look for B-mode patterns in order to find these space-time ripples and will help scientists learn about the early days of the universe. ||

Artist's interpretation of the Big Bang, with representations of the early universe and its expansion. ||

A brief overview of the James Webb Space Telescope mission from its construction, launch, and complex unfolding to the incredible science it achieves. || Webb Mission Overview 2023 videoExpanding Time and Space (c) 2016, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Daniel Jay Nielsen Promised Lands (c) 2021, Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Enrico Cacace [BMI], Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI] || B-roll footage from the Webb Mission Overview video. ||

Around a different star, Earth may never have developed life at all. So what makes a star friendly to life? We joined two rocket teams as they traveled to the remote Northern Territory of Australia to capture light from our closest stellar neighbors to help reveal the answer. Follow their journey in the 6-part video series High Above Down Under. Episodes released weekly starting June 27, 2023. || High Above Down Under Series TrailerWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.There are likely billions of planets in our galaxy. With over 5,000 already confirmed, how do we know which ones might hold life?Two NASA sounding rockets are launching from Australia to find out which stars make for habitable hosts. We’re following those rocket teams Down Under to show you what it takes to launch a rocket and make groundbreaking scientific measurements. Hang on tight – we’re going on an adventure High Above Down Under!Music Credit: "Epic Earth" by Andy Hopkins (PRS), Dean Mahoney (PRS), Jacob Nicholas Stonewall Jackson (PRS) via Universal Production Music ||

LP 791-18 d, illustrated here in an artist's concept, is an Earth-size world about 90 light-years away. The gravitational tug from a more massive planet in the system, shown as a blue disk in the background, may result in internal heating and volcanic eruptions – as much as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most geologically active body in the solar system. Astronomers discovered and studied the planet using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) along with many other observatories.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle) ||

This all-sky mosaic was constructed from 912 TESS images. By late October 2022, when the last image of this mosaic was captured, TESS had discovered 266 exoplanets and 4,258 candidates. The north and south ecliptic poles – the ends of imaginary lines extending above and below the center of Earth's orbit around the Sun – lie at the top and bottom of the image. The Andromeda galaxy is the small, bright oval near the upper right edge. The Lage Magellanic Cloud can be seen along the bottom edge just left of center. Above and to the left of it shine the Small Magellanic Cloud and the bright star cluster 47 Tucanae. Molleweide projection. Credit: NASA/MIT/TESS and Ethan Kruse (University of Maryland College Park) ||

Explore the temperatures of the cosmos, from absolute zero to the hottest temperatures yet achieved, with this infographic. Targets for the XRISM mission include supernova remnants, binary systems with stellar-mass black holes, galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, and vast clusters of galaxies.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott WiessingerMachine-readable PDF copy || Japan’s XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) observatory will provide an unprecedented view into some of the hottest places in the universe. And it will do so using an instrument that’s actually colder than the frostiest cosmic location now known.XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let astronomers peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before. They anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies. This infographic illustrates the enormous range of cosmic temperatures. At the bottom of the scale is absolute zero Kelvin, or 459.67 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 Celsius). The detector for XRISM’s Resolve instrument is just a few hundredths of a degree warmer than this. It’s 20 times chillier than the Boomerang Nebula the coldest-known natural environment and about 50 times colder than the temperature of deep space, which is warmed only by the oldest light in the universe, the cosmic microwave background.The instrument, a collaboration between NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), must be kept so cold because it works by measuring the tiny temperature increase created when X-rays strike its detector. This information builds up a picture of how bright the source is in various X-ray energies the equivalent of colors of visible light and lets astronomers identify chemical elements by their unique X-ray fingerprints, called spectra.With current instruments, we’re only capable of seeing these fingerprints in a comparatively blurry way. Resolve will effectively give X-ray astrophysics a spectrometer with a magnifying glassXRISM’s other instrument, called Xtend, developed by JAXA and Japanese universities, is an X-ray imager that will perform simultaneous observations with Resolve, providing complementary information. Both instruments rely on two identical X-ray Mirror Assemblies developed at Goddard.XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s contribution includes science participation from the Canadian Space Agency. ||

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken over 1.5 million observations over the past 32 years. One of them is the breathtaking Nebula known as the N44 Superbubble.N44 is a complex nebula filled with glowing hydrogen gas, dark lanes of dust, massive stars, and many populations of stars of different ages. One of its most distinctive features, however, is the dark, starry gap called a “superbubble,” visible in the upper central region. In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter takes us on a journey through the Nebula, teaching us some of the interesting science behind this famous Hubble image.For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Video Credit:Hubble Space Telescope AnimationCredit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser; L. L. Christensen), A. Fujii, Robert Gendler, Digitized Sky SurveyPanther Observatory, Steve Cannistra, Michael Pierce, Robert Berrington (Indiana University), NigelSharp, Mark Hanna (NOAO)/WIYN/NSFMusic Credit:"Transcode" by Lee Groves [PRS], and Peter George Marett [PRS] via Universal Production Music“Cosmic Call” by Immersive Music via Shutterstock Music ||

The Cartwheel Galaxy, a rare ring galaxy once shrouded in dust and mystery, has been unveiled by the imaging capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy, which formed as a result of a collision between a large spiral galaxy and another smaller galaxy, not only retained a lot of its spiral character, but has also experienced massive changes throughout its structure. Webb’s high-precision instruments resolved individual stars and star-forming regions within the Cartwheel, and revealed the behavior of the black hole within its galactic center. These new details provide a renewed understanding of a galaxy in the midst of a slow transformation. ||

NGC 3372: Eta Carinae Nebula || We wonder. It’s our nature. How did we get here?Are we alone in the universe?How does the universe work?The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an ambitious scientific endeavor to answer these questions. Webb builds on the legacy of previous space-based telescopes to push the boundaries of human knowledge even further, to the formation of the first galaxies and the horizons of other worlds.In these JWST First Light images, you can see the vast improvement in resolution and clarity over images of the same regions collected by the Hubble Space Telescope, and begin to understand all the new discoveries and science now possible. ||

This gallery gathers together visualizations and narrated videos about black holes. A black hole is a celestial object whose gravity is so intense that even light cannot escape it. Astronomers observe two main types of black holes. Stellar-mass black holes contain three to dozens of times the mass of our Sun. They form when the cores of very massive stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own weight, compressing large amounts of matter into a tiny space. Supermassive black holes, with masses up to billions of times the Sun’s, can be found at the centers of most big galaxies. Although a black hole does not emit light, matter falling toward it collects in a hot, glowing accretion disk that astronomers can detect.

An exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. Of particular interest are planets that may orbit in their star’s habitable zone, the distance from a star where temperatures allow liquid water to persist on a planet’s surface, given a suitable atmosphere. Since water is necessary for life as we know it, its presence is required for worlds to be considered capable of supporting life. Exoplanets can also teach us more about planets in the universe, such as the diversity of planets in the galaxy, how they interact with their host stars and with each other, and how common solar systems like ours really are. Using a wide variety of methods, astronomers have discovered more than 3,700 exoplanets to date, largely thanks to NASA's Kepler/K2 mission. Other NASA missions also play a key role in detecting exoplanets. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which launched in April 2018, will monitor 200,000 of the brightest dwarf stars for transiting exoplanets. Future missions like the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study these discovered planets in greater detail, helping determine their composition. Researchers in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration are leveraging work across disciplines to better understand exoplanets. Areas like planet-star interactions, planetary formation, and even study of the Earth itself enable researchers to develop tools to learn more about how exoplanets evolve, and what ingredients are necessary to support life.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has completed its primary mission, and it will continue to explore the high-energy cosmos in unprecedented detail. These pages gather together media products associated with Fermi news releases starting before its 2008 launch, when it was known as GLAST. Fermi detects gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, with energies thousands to billions of times greater than the visible spectrum. The mission has discovered pulsars, proved that supernova remnants can accelerate particles to near the speed of light, monitored eruptions of black holes in distant galaxies, and found giant bubbles linked to the central black hole in our own galaxy. For more information about the Fermi mission, visit its NASA webpage.

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory provides astronomers with a unique tool for exploring many different classes of astronomical phenomena, from gamma-ray bursts and supernovae to spinning neutron stars, outbursts from black holes, and even exoplanets, comets and asteroids. These pages gather together media products associated with Swift news releases.For more information about the Swift mission, visit its NASA webpage.

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