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APOD: 2026 August 8 – A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

2026-08-08 04:05

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Greenish cometary coma of 10P/Tempel 2 and globular star cluster M30

A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

Explanation: Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it – the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame. In fact the globular star cluster is Messier 30, also known as M30, or the 30th entry in astronomer Charles Messier’s catalog of things which are not comets. The well-known 18th century astronomer kept a list of objects he observed, now his famous Messier Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which did not move from night to night against the background stars and so were not the comets he was hunting for. So the famous comet hunter would get the correct answer too, even though his telescope would show both 10P/Tempel 2 and distant star cluster as similar looking faint and fuzzy objects in his field of view. Recorded on July 29, this modern telescopic image captures periodic comet Tempel 2 as it briefly swept close on the sky to M30. While the periodic comet’s faint, narrow, orbital dust trail seems to pierce the globular star cluster, Tempel 2 was a mere 3.5 light-minutes away. Messier 30 is some 28,000 light-years distant.

Tomorrow’s picture: Contemplating the Sun

Date	August 8, 2026
Credit & Copyright	Dan Bartlett
Authors & editors:	Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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APOD: 2026 August 7 – Rubin’s Cosmos Field

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2026 IGARSS Hyperwall Schedule

2026-08-07 18:57

IGARSS 2026

Join NASA in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #100) for Hyperwall Storytelling by NASA experts. Full Hyperwall Agenda below.

MONDAY, AUGUST 10

3:00 PM	Technology Enabling the Future of Earth Science	Mike Seablom
3:15 PM	Discovery Earth: New Missions & Technical Innovation Advancing Earth System Insights	Karen St. Germain

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11

10:00 AM	STELLA: Open-Source Multisenor Platforms For Real-Time Environmental Monitoring	Mike Taylor
10:15 AM	NOAA Geostationary Satellites: Valuable Data for both Research and Operational Use	Dan Lindsey
3:00 PM	Discovering Mineral Resources with NASA Imaging Spectroscopy	Robert O. Green
3:15 PM	The Importance of Satellite Ocean Observations at NOAA	Paul Chang

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

10:00 AM	Enabling Earth Science Data to Serve Society	Joel Scott
10:15 AM	Microwaving the Solar System	Shannon Brown
3:00 PM	NISAR Updates, One Year After Launch	Paul Rosen, Marco Lavalle
3:15 PM	Office of the Chief Science Data Officer: Data Driven Exploration	Lauren Leese

NASA’s IXPE Studies Magnetar

2026-08-07 14:27

This artist’s concept depicts magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408, a rapidly rotating neutron star with magnetic fields over a trillion times stronger than Earth’s. Blue curves emanating from the star's two magnetic poles represent the magnetic field lines. The magnetar is a significant emitter of radio and X-ray radiation, with their peaks offset during its 2.1-second rotation period. This indicates the primary X-ray emitter is a secondary “hot spot” offset from the magnetic axis. These emitters are depicted as conical sections: the lighter blue radio emission peaks at the magnetic field's symmetry axis, while the darker blue X-ray emission peaks below.

NASA/Pablo Garcia

Scientists using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) conducted more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408, shown in this Aug. 5, 2026, artist’s concept, between March and April 2025. In doing so, they may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed.

Magnetars are a special class of neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, the strongest of any object in the observable universe, around a trillion times stronger than the strongest permanent magnets ever built on Earth.

Image credit: NASA/Pablo Garcia

NASA’s Lunar Development and Test Facility Prepares Artemis Hardware for Moon

2026-08-07 06:25

3 Min Read

NASA’s Lunar Development and Test Facility Prepares Artemis Hardware for Moon

The Handheld Lunar Electrostatic Dust Mitigation tool is tested inside the Lunar Development and Test Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Credits: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Before astronauts return to the Moon’s surface through NASA’s Artemis program, the hardware they depend on must first prove it can survive the unforgiving lunar environment. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers at the Lunar Development and Test Facility are tackling one of exploration’s biggest challenges: Moon dust.

Unlike sand on Earth, lunar dust is sharp, abrasive, and clings to nearly everything. Without mitigation, lunar dust could damage equipment and spacesuits while posing health risks to astronauts. Understanding and mitigating the effects of lunar dust is essential as astronauts prepare to live and work on the surface of the Moon.

The Handheld Lunar Electrostatic Dust Mitigation tool is tested inside the Lunar Development and Test Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Located within the Energy Systems Test Area and managed by NASA engineers, the Lunar Development and Test Facility supports the development and testing of hardware in simulated lunar conditions. Engineers evaluate systems and subsystems inside vacuum chambers using lunar regolith simulant to better understand how spacesuits, spacecraft components, and mechanisms with moving parts and joints will perform during future Artemis missions.

Lunar spacewalking tools undergo a dust mitigation test inside Johnson’s thermal vacuum chamber.

NASA/Bill Stafford

NASA Johnson’s Propulsion and Power Division developed specialized systems that make the facility’s lunar simulations possible. The facility includes a dust containment and preparation laboratory for ambient testing, a 3-foot cube vacuum chamber, and a 15-foot thermal vacuum chamber.

Inside the chamber, engineers test hardware under realistic lunar conditions using lunar regolith simulant. The chamber uses a closed-loop nitrogen system to recreate the harsh lunar environment.

“The facility helps develop and test technologies needed for long-duration lunar exploration,” said Mike Salinas, Propulsion and Power Division branch deputy chief. “Engineers are advancing techniques to extract resources from lunar regolith, which can be turned into oxygen for astronauts and liquid oxygen for rocket propellant.”

The spirit of exploration extends beyond the facility’s walls. Its exterior features a large-scale mural depicting astronauts exploring the lunar surface beneath a view of the cosmos. Completed in 2024 by artist Sebastian Boileau, the artwork celebrates the innovation, ingenuity, and discovery happening inside the building every day.

Artist Sebastien Boileau, left, and Margaret Braun pose in front of Johnson’s Lunar Development and Test Facility after the mural’s completion on Feb. 7, 2024.

NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Now, anyone can step inside the facility from anywhere. Explore NASA’s new 3D virtual tour of the Lunar Development and Test Facility to see where engineers are helping prepare the technologies that support this Golden Age of exploration and innovation.

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Sumer Loggins

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Aug 07, 2026

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APOD: 2026 August 7 – Rubin’s Cosmos Field

2026-08-07 04:05

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

This exceptionally deep image from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory reveals the renowned COSMOS field and its surroundings in the constellation Sextans. The view is crowded with galaxies and galaxy clusters spanning an immense range of distances and cosmic ages, while only a handful of foreground stars belong to our own Milky Way. It was created by combining multiple observations from Rubin’s LSST Camera into a deep co-added image and is being released to mark Early Data Preview 2, the first Rubin data preview based on LSST Camera observations. Here, some selected areas are highlighted.

Rubin’s COSMOS Field

Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy shapes and sizes is astonishing. Some of them are so far away that their light has traveled for billions of years before reaching Earth. Rubin will come back every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will allow a dynamic view of the COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.

Tomorrow’s picture: a Messier moment

Date	August 7, 2026
Credit & Copyright	NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA
Authors & editors:	Cecilia Chirenti, Jerry Bonnell, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.