FLYING OBJECTS...

 01

NASA Shares Breathtaking Images Of Celestial Objects Captured By Its Flying Telescope

SOFIA Telescope has flown 921 flights since 2010.

As NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft embarked on its final flight on Thursday, the US space agency shared a small breathtaking collection of some of the cosmic imagery assembled using SOFIA data. Taking to Instagram, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration informed that the SOFIA Telescope, the world's largest airborne telescope which is housed and flown in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, has flown 921 flights since 2010.

The flying telescope has taken off with groups of astronomers aboard on round trips, and it has racked up numerous air miles in the name of science. "Cruising at nearly 41,000 ft (12,500 m) in the dark of night and twilight of morning, SOFIA has taken breathtaking observations of a plethora of celestial objects," NASA wrote in the caption.

Take a look below:  

In the post, the US space agency explained that the first image is of Centaurus A - a galaxy with orange and dark red dust lanes comprising a centre column and a faint shell of blue along its outskirts. The second post shows a 3D view of the Orion Nebula, which reveals the detailed structure of the nebula, including a "bubble" that has been blown clear of gas and dust by a powerful stellar wind. 

The third image is of the Cigar Galaxy. "Red streamlines follow outflows caused by an intense nuclear starburst. Around the centre, a ring of starlight appears grey with hints of hydrogen appearing in red and dust in yellow," NASA wrote. Further, the space agency informed that while the fourth image shows the Omega Nebula, the fifth picture shows the SOFIA mission flying into the sunset. 

Also Read | NASA's James Webb And Hubble Telescopes Capture Detailed Views Of Asteroid Strike

SOFIA, for which NASA partnered with the German space agency (DLR), is a flying observatory. The SOFIA mission began development in 1996. It had its first flight in 2010, however, achieved full operational capability in 2014. In 2020, the flying observatory even assisted in the discovery of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon.

SOFIA had a very interesting 2022 as well. In August, the SOFIA telescope discovered more water on the Moon's surface. The team found water in the Moretus Crater region, which is close to the Moon's Clavius Crater, where the original findings were made.

02

Long Islanders See Some Identified Flying Objects

© Tom DeSantis The SpaceX vapor trail over Farmingdale on Saturday night.

LONG ISLAND, NY — It's definitely not a bird, and not exactly a plane, nor Superman on this way back to his day job at The Daily Planet.

But as a trail of light burst across the South Shore of Long Island on Saturday many residents did come to wonder what it was that they seeing, and they stopped in their tracks to grab a few pixels of video on their cellphones.

What "it" turned out to be was a vapor trail from SpaceX's Falcon 9 shooting across the sky after its Starlink mission launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Due to clear conditions, the launch of over 52 Starlink satellites was visible to people all across the East Coast just after 7:30 p.m., Space.com reported.

Viewers close by the launchpad witnessed Falcon 9's first stage, in which it fell back to Earth for a soft landing on top of the SpaceX drone ship, "A Shortfall of Gravitas", in the Atlantic Ocean, the website reported.

SpaceX has been expanding its Starlink mega-constellation, sending almost 3,400 Starlinks into space with a plan to bring thousands more aloft, according to the website.

That was only days away from an expected up close and personal view of the planet Jupiter on Monday, which was scheduled to swing closest to earth's orbit for the first time in 59 years.

Saturday drew some real attention as followers posted their shots and video to social media.

Tom DeSantis Of Farmingdale also captured the spectacle, shooting it sailing across the sky before it faded away into the night. The video, which was published on Farmingdale Patch on Monday, has over 40,000 views.

In Bellport, the identified object could be seen flying over Avino's Italian Table in a video tweeted by Rich Franklin. He posed the question to followers: "#UFO or #Spacex?"

News 12 reported receiving phone calls from many viewers who reported seeing the mission.

"What a sight to see in the Saturday night sky!" wrote Meredith Garofalo as she shared a post from viewers in Woodbury.

Viewers from across Long Island picked up the spectacular sight with their lenses, as News 12 reported footage from Lido Beach to Montauk.

But the spectacle did not end there.

Long Island residents were still being treated to a spectacular view on Monday as Jupiter dropped by.

Not so far away from that view ... a little less obvious was the planned crash of a NASA spacecraft into an asteroid at around 7:30 p.m. on Monday.

Space.com called the crash wild, as it was something out of a Star Wars movie minus the Death Star.

NASA declared "impact success" at about 7:19 p.m. on Twitter, displaying video from the #DARTMIssion’s DRACO Camera, describing the spacecraft as the size of a "vending machine" successfully colliding with the asteroid, Dimorphos, "which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth."

That might be the last of the space shows for a while as, Hurricane Ian has delayed SpaceX's five-crew launch from Cape Canaveral until Oct. 4, Space.com reported late Tuesday.

The article Long Islanders See Some Identified Flying Objects appeared first on Patchogue Patch.

03

A gift to Stargazer; NASA's flying telescope shares images of celestial objects

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) embarking on its final flight, on Thursday, US space agency shared some breathtaking cosmos images that were assembled using SOFIA's data.

SOFIA, the world's largest airborne telescope, is housed and flown in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that has flown 921 flights since 2010.

The Theis flying telescope has taken off with many astronomers and has ranked numerous miles in the air. NASA quoted when sharing these images. "Cruising at nearly 41,000 ft (12,500 m) in the dark of night and twilight of morning, SOFIA has taken breathtaking observations of a plethora of celestial objects."

The first image is of Centaurus A—a galaxy with orange and red dust lanes and a Colum and a faint blue along its outskirts.

The second image shows us the 3D view of the Orion Nebula, which shows us the detailed structure of the nebula, including "bubbles" that have blown clear gas and dust by the powerful stellar wind.

NASA wrote about their image, which is of the Cigar Galaxy "Red streamlines follow outflows caused by an intense nuclear starburst. Around the center, a ring of starlight appears grey with hints of hydrogen appearing in red and dust in yellow."

SOFIA has been made in partnership with the German space agency, which is a flying observatory. SOFIA's development began in 1996 and made its first flight in 2010, but it did not reach full capabilty until 2014.

More water was discovered on the moon's surface most recently by SOFIA. Near the Clavius Crater region of the Moon, where the initial discoveries were made by scientists.