An important milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope; what astronomers can learn from mini-monster black holes; the latest assessment of Earth's global surface temperature... The latest news feed is available at "NASA of the Week"!
On January 8, the James Webb Space Telescope team reached an important mission milestone: the successful deployment of the telescope's 6.5-meter diameter mirror completed the final phase of all major spacecraft deployments required for scientific activities. The next step is to move the 18 main mirror segments to align the telescope's optics, a process that will last for months. See nasa.gov/webb for more details on the task.
Credit：NASA/CXC/Dartmouth Coll./J. Parker & R. Hickox; Optical/IR: Pan-STARRS
The Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered a supermassive black hole (also known as a monster black hole) in the dwarf galaxy Mrk 462, which helps astronomers learn more about how these largest black holes grow. This is the first time a complex supermassive black hole has been found in a dwarf galaxy. Mrk 462 contains only a few hundred million stars, compared to hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way.
Credit：NASA
According to an independent analysis by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth's global average surface temperature in 2021 is tied for the sixth highest since 2018 was recorded. This continues the long-term trend of global warming: the last 8 years are the hottest years on record. Tracking global temperature trends provides an important indicator of the impact of human activities on Earth's climate and the quality of life on Earth. More information about NASA's Earth Science Missions can be found in nasa.gov/earth.
On Jan. 10, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that Dr. Katherine Calvin would serve as NASA's new Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor, taking over as former recently retired former Chief Scientist Jim Green and Acting Senior Climate Advisor Gavin Schmidt. The senior climate adviser position was created to ensure that the climate science goals set by the Biden Harris administration for NASA are effectively met.
Also on Jan. 10, 10 of NASA's newest astronaut candidates signed up at Johnson Space Center to take the oath to begin their two-year training program. After training, they will be assigned to missions on the International Space Station, aboard a spacecraft launched from the U.S. mainland and built by commercial companies, or aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rockets for artemis missions to the moon.
While the mission team continues to prepare for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that was tested this year's unmanned Artemis I flight around the moon, NASA and partners across the country are also advancing the construction of the rocket for the Artemis II mission, the first manned Artemis mission to the moon. NASA is also busy building and testing major components of rocket hardware for artemis missions 3, 4, and 5. With Artemis, NASA will send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon and establish a long-term lunar exploration in preparation for a human mission to Mars.
That's all for NASA this week! Please visit nasa.gov/twan for more details.