Apollo 9 commander James McDivitt dies at 93

Former NASA astronaut James McDivitt (pictured above, on the left) has died at the age of 93. The Apollo 9 commander passed away in his sleep in Tuscon, Arizona, last Thursday, the agency said.

NASA selected Air Force veteran McDivitt, who flew 145 combat missions in the Korean War and was an experimental test pilot, as part of its second astronaut class in 1962. His first trip to space was in 1965, as the commander of Gemini IV. During that mission, astronaut Ed White conducted the first spacewalk by an American. The four-day mission was the longest NASA spaceflight at that point.

McDivitt returned to space four years later as the commander of Apollo 9, an important precursor to landing humans on the Moon. The mission, which launched on March 3rd, 1969, took the lunar module and the full set of Apollo hardware to space for the first time.

The Apollo 9 crew conducted an engineering test of the lunar module in Earth’s orbit, including a simulation of maneuvers that would be carried out during missions to the Moon. McDivitt and lunar module pilot Russell Schweickart carried out a spacewalk during the mission, which returned to Earth on March 13th. Four months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module on the Moon.

After the Apollo 9 mission, McDivitt became NASA’s manager of lunar landing operations. McDivitt, who held a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, and his team planned the lunar exploration program and redesigned the spacecraft to ensure it landed on the Moon safely. Following the success of Apollo 11, he became manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program and led it through the Apollo 16 mission.

McDivitt retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1972. Among other honors, he received two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals.

NASA is now targeting November 14th for the Artemis 1 launch

NASA has set a date for its next Artemis 1 launch attempt. The agency will next try to send the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed journey around the moon on November 14th. The launch window starts at 12:07AM ET and will be open for an hour and nine minutes. In case NASA has to scrub the November 14th launch, it has two backup windows in mind, starting at 1:04AM on November 16 and 1:45AM on November 19th.

The first attempt on August 29th was scrubbed due to engine issues before a hydrogen fuel leak prevented another stab at a launch a few days later. NASA didn’t have any luck during the next launch window in late September either. It rolled the SLS and Orion back to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building as Hurricane Ian bore down.

On the upside, NASA says minimal work is needed to prepare the SLS and Orion before it rolls them back out to the launchpad. Engineers will repair minor foam and cork damage on the thermal protection system. It’ll also replace or recharge batteries for the rocket, secondary payloads and the flight termination system. All going well, Artemis 1 could be back on the launchpad as soon as November 4th.

NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully altered the orbit of an asteroid

The next time an asteroid threatens Earth, humanity might have a chance of saving the planet. On Tuesday, NASA announced that its experimental Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully altered the orbit of Dimorphos. Following two weeks of data collection and analysis, the agency found that DART’s impact shortened the asteroid’s orbit around its parent, Didymos, by 32 minutes. Before the September 26th collision, NASA estimated DART needed to change the orbital period of Dimorphos by 73 seconds or more to call the test a success. The spacecraft beat that benchmark by more than 25 times.    

“If an Earth-threatening asteroid was discovered, and we could see it far enough away, this technique could be used to deflect it,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference the space agency held on Tuesday. “NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA’s exceptional team and partners from around the world.”

NASA launched the DART mission in November 2021. The vending machine-sized spacecraft was traveling at approximately 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) per hour when it crossed paths with Dimorphos nearly 68 million miles away from Earth.

DART’s success proves the strategy of using a spacecraft to alter the course of an asteroid could work to save the planet, provided such a space rock was detected early enough and wasn’t too big. Dimorphos is about the size of a football stadium, making it far smaller than the asteroid that wiped out 75 percent of multicellular life on Earth 66 million years ago. 

Researchers discover star being consumed by its smaller, deader neighbor

The Sun might be a solitary star in our solar system, but around half of all other stars in the Milky Way are part of binary systems, in which two orbit each other. These can have incredibly fast orbital periods — scientists have found two white dwarfs that take just 5 minutes and 21 seconds to orbit each other. Another binary system is notable for a different reason: one star is feasting on the other.

Around 3,000 light years away, there’s a binary system that belongs to a class called “cataclysmic variables.” That’s an incredible term I’m going to use after my next failed cooking experiment, by the way. In space terms, when a star similar to our sun tightly orbits a white dwarf, that’s a cataclysmic variable. As Reuters notes, “variable” relates to the combined brightness of the two stars changing over time, at least in terms of how we view the system from terra firma. These luminosity levels can change significantly, which is where the “cataclysmic” part comes into play.

The two stars in the 8 billion-year-old system in question orbit each other every 51 minutes. That’s the shortest known orbital period for a cataclysmic variable system. The distance between the stars has narrowed over millions of years and they’re now closer to each other than we are to the Moon, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and elsewhere have determined. In a paper published in Nature this week, the researchers stated that the white dwarf is drawing material away from the Sun-like partner.

“It’s an old pair of stars, where one of the two moved on — when stars die of old age they become white dwarfs — but then this remnant began to eat its companion,” MIT astrophysicist and the paper’s lead author Kevin Burdge told Reuters. “Right before the second one could end its stellar life cycle and become a white dwarf in the way that stars normally do — by evolving into a type of star called a red giant — the leftover white dwarf remnant of the first star interrupted the end of the companion’s lifecycle and started slowly consuming it.”

The researchers found that the larger star has a similar temperature to the Sun, but has been reduced to around 10 percent of our celestial neighbor’s diameter. It’s now about the size of Jupiter. The white dwarf is far smaller, as it has a diameter around 1.5 times the size of Earth’s. However, it has a dense core, with a mass of around 56 percent that of our Sun’s.

The white dwarf has been munching away on hydrogen from the larger star’s outer layers, leaving the latter unusually rich in helium. The larger star is also morphing into a teardrop shape due to the gravitational pull of the white dwarf. That’s one reason for the changes in the binary system’s levels of brightness.

MIT notes that the system can emit “enormous, variable flashes of light” as a result of the hydrogen-sapping process. It added that, long ago, astronomers believed these flashes to be the consequence of an unknown cataclysm. While we have a clearer understanding of the situation these days, this is more evidence, as if it were needed, that space is cool and terrifying in equal measure.

NASA’s DART asteroid impact test left a trail over 6,000 miles long

NASA’s successful asteroid impact test created a beautiful mess, apparently. As the Associated Press reports, astronomers using the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope in Chile have captured an image revealing that DART’s collision with Dimorphos left a trail of dust and other debris measuring over 6,000 miles long. The spacecraft wasn’t solely responsible — rather, the Sun’s radiation pressure pushed the material away like it would with a comet’s tail.

The trail is only likely to get larger, according to the researchers. It should eventually stretch to the point where the dust stream is virtually unrecognizable from the usual particles floating in the Solar System. NASA didn’t create headaches for future probes and explorers. The space agency chose Dimorphos (a moonlet of the asteroid Didymos) as the deliberate crash wouldn’t pose a threat to Earth.

The capture was about more than obtaining a dramatic snapshot, of course. Scientists will use data collected using SOAR, the Astronomical Event Observatory Network and other observers to understand more about the collision and Dimorphos itself. They’ll determine the amount and speed of material ejected from the asteroid, and whether or not DART produced large debris chunks or ‘merely’ fine dust. Those will help understand how spacecraft can alter an asteroid’s orbit, and potentially improve Earth’s defenses against wayward cosmic rocks.

James Webb and Hubble telescope images capture DART asteroid collision

NASA made history this week after an attempt to slam its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly 7 million miles away proved successful. While NASA shared some close-up images of the impact, it observed the planetary defense test from afar as well, thanks to the help of the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. On the surface, the images aren’t exactly the most striking things we’ve seen from either telescope, but they could help reveal a lot of valuable information.

This was the first time that Hubble and JSWT have observed the same celestial target simultaneously. While that was a milestone for the telescopes in itself, NASA suggests the data they captured will help researchers learn more about the history and makeup of the solar system. They’ll be able to use the information to learn about the surface of Dimorphos (the asteroid in question), how much material was ejected after DART crashed into it and how fast that material was traveling.

JWST and Hubble picked up different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively). NASA says that being able to observe data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if big chunks of material left Dimorphos’ surface or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test, as the data can help researchers figure out if crashing spacecraft into an asteroid can change its orbit. The ultimate aim is to develop a system that can divert incoming asteroids away from Earth.

NASA says that JWST picked up images of “a tight, compact core, with plumes of material appearing as wisps streaming away from the center of where the impact took place.” JWST, which captured 10 images over five hours, will continue to collect spectroscopic data from the asteroid system in the coming months to help researchers better understand the chemical composition of Dimorphos. NASA shared a timelapse GIF of the images that JWST captured. 

This animation, a timelapse of images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, covers the time spanning just before impact at 7:14 p.m. EDT, Sept. 26, through 5 hours post-impact. Plumes of material from a compact core appear as wisps streaming away from where the impact took place. An area of rapid, extreme brightening is also visible in the animation.
NASA/ESA/CSA/Cristina Thomas (Northern Arizona University)/Ian Wong (NASA-GSFC)/Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

At around 14,000 MPH, Dimorphos was traveling at a speed over three times faster than JWST was originally designed to track. However, the telescope’s flight operations, planning and science teams were able to develop a way to capture the impact.

As for Hubble, the 32-year-old telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 captured its own images of the collision. “Ejecta from the impact appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid,” according to NASA. The agency noted that some of the rays appear curved, and astronomers will have to examine the data to gain a better understanding of what that may mean.

These images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, taken (left to right) 22 minutes, 5 hours, and 8.2 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted Dimorphos, show expanding plumes of ejecta from the asteroid’s body. The Hubble images show ejecta from the impact that appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid. The bolder, fanned-out spike of ejecta to the left of the asteroid is in the general direction from which DART approached.
NASA/ESA/Jian-Yang Li (PSI)/Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

According to their initial findings, though, the brightness of the asteroid system increased threefold after impact. That level of brightness stayed the same for at least eight hours. Hubble captured 45 images immediately before and after DART’s impact. It will observe the asteroid system 10 additional times over the next few weeks.

It took 10 months for DART, which is about the size of a vending machine, to reach Dimorphos. The football stadium-sized asteroid was around 6.8 million miles away from Earth when DART rammed into it. Pulling off an experiment like that is no mean feat. The learnings scientists gain from the test may prove invaluable.