VIRGO9

This artist’s rendering illustrates new findings about a star shredded by a black hole. When a star wanders too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. In these events, called “tidal disruptions,” some of the stellar debris is flung outward at high speed while the rest falls toward the black hole. This causes a distinct X-ray flare that can last for a few years. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, and ESA/NASA’s XMM-Newton collected different pieces of this astronomical puzzle in a tidal disruption event called ASASSN-14li, which was found in an optical search by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) in November 2014. The event occurred near a supermassive black hole estimated to weigh a few million times the mass of the sun in the center of PGC 043234, a galaxy that lies about 290 million light-years away. Astronomers hope to find more events like ASASSN-14li to test theoretical models about how black holes affect their environments. During the tidal disruption event, filaments containing much of the star's mass fall toward the black hole. Eventually these gaseous filaments merge into a smooth, hot disk glowing brightly in X-rays. As the disk forms, its central region heats up tremendously, which drives a flow of material, called a wind, away from the disk. Music credit: Encompass by Mark Petrie from Killer Tracks. credit by : Nasa

A new long-duration spaceflight record, our SpaceX Crew-6 mission is back home, and our asteroid sample return mission is on target … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Link to download this video. Video Producer: Andre Valentine Video Editor: Andre Valentine Narrator: Andre Valentine Music: Universal Production Music Credit: NASA

Science gets scaled up with the first 8K ultra high definition (UHD) video from the International Space Station. Get closer to the in-space experience and see how the international partnership-powered human spaceflight is improving lives on Earth, while enabling humanity to explore the universe. More: Special thanks to the European Space Agency, the ISS National Lab, and astronauts Alexander Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel. Featured investigations and facilities: 0:01, 2:36 BEST seeks to advance use of sequencing DNA and RNA in space. 0:13 The Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) is a cold storage unit that maintains experiment samples at ultra-cold temperatures throughout a mission. 0:21 The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a recent addition to the space station, is the largest growth chamber aboard the orbiting laboratory. 0:33 Canadarm2 is part of Canada's contribution to the space station. This 17-metre-long robotic arm was extensively involved in the assembly of the orbiting laboratory. 0:41 Crew Earth Observations record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. 0:49 The Light Microscopy Module (LMM) is a modified commercial, highly flexible, state-of-the-art light imaging microscope facility that provides researchers with powerful diagnostic hardware and software onboard the space station. 0:53 ACE-T-2 looks at the assembly of complex structures from micron-scale colloidal particles interacting via tunable attractive interactions. 0:57 Plant Habitat-1 comprehensively compares differences in genetics, metabolism, photosynthesis, and gravity sensing between plants grown in space and on Earth. 1:05 The Cupola provides an observation and work area for the International Space Station crew that gives visibility to support the control of the station’s robotic arms, and a beautiful view of the Earth, celestial objects and visiting vehicles. 1:14 Atomization observes the disintegration processes of low-speed water jets under various conditions to improve spray combustion processes inside rocket and jet engines. 1:30 BCAT-CS focuses on the study of forces between particles that cluster together by studying sediments of quartz and clay particles. 1:38 Functional Immune analyzes blood and saliva samples to determine the changes taking place in crew members’ immune systems during flight. 2:03 Life Support Rack (LSR) is a technology demonstrator for closed loop air revitalization. 2:15 The Japanese Experiment Module Airlock is used to deliver science experiments to external platforms, and prepare small satellites for deployment from station. 2:23 SPHERES Tether Slosh combines fluid dynamics equipment with robotic capabilities aboard the space station to investigate automated strategies for steering passive cargo that contain fluids. Follow updates on the science conducted aboard the space station on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iss_research For more information on how you can conduct your research in microgravity, visit ARE CHANNEL