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The Texas Art Education Association hosted its annual conference from Nov. 14–16 at Moody Gardens Hotel & Convention Center in Galveston, Texas, drawing nearly 3,000 educators, administrators, and artists.
This year’s theme, “Cosmic Connections: SPACE, the Last Frontier and the Element of Art,” celebrated the fusion of creativity and space exploration, with NASA’s Johnson Space Center participating for the first time to inspire the Artemis Generation art educators.
Johnson Space Center volunteers Raul Tijerina (left), building graphics lead for the International Space Station Program; Gary Johnson (middle), technical manager in NASA’s International Space Station Mission Integration and Operations Office; and Christian Getteau, Imagery Integration and Multimedia producer with the Human Space Flight Technical Integration Contract, participate in the NASA booth at the Texas Art Education Association annual conference held Nov. 14–16 at Moody Gardens Hotel & Convention Center in Galveston, Texas.NASA From astronauts crafting in orbit to collaborative art projects on Earth, NASA continues to showcase how creativity can capture the wonder of the cosmos. This event allowed educators to connect with NASA, explore teaching resources, and discover innovative ways to merge the arts with science and space exploration in their classrooms.
Johnson volunteers pose with an astronaut spacesuit at the Texas Art Education Association conference.NASA/Sumer Loggins “We have seen our astronauts bring the art of painting, music, photography, and more to orbit aboard the space shuttle and the International Space Station,” said Gary Johnson, NASA’s International Space Station Mission Integration and Operations Office technical manager. “Our mission is to inspire the next generation of artists and explorers to capture the beauty of space through any medium they choose.”
“Everyone has a place at NASA,” added Raul Tijerina, International Space Station Program building graphics lead. “This collaboration celebrates the diversity of talents needed to explore the universe, including those who bring ideas to life through art.”
NASA’s inflatable mascot, Cosmo, greets attendees and poses for photos during the art car show at the conference. NASA Guests immersed themselves in a variety of stellar experiences, including interacting with NASA’s inflatable mascot, Cosmo, taking selfies at the NASA booth, and viewing artwork that shares the past and celebrates the future of space exploration.
The nonprofit SciArt Exchange provided teachers with details about its space art competitions, aimed at sparking curiosity across all ages. These competitions include the Project Mars Competition, where adults compete to have their artwork featured at Johnson, and the Moon Youth Art Competition, which highlights lunar-themed creations from students around the world.
Attendees also explored infographics and had the chance to download NASA’s Spot the Station app to track the orbiting laboratory in real-time.
NASA astronaut Michael Foreman (middle left) and Gordon Andrews, a strategic communications specialist for the International Space Station Program, pose with attendees following a space-themed presentation.NASA Gordon Andrews, a strategic communications specialist for the International Space Station Program, and NASA astronaut Michael Foreman introduced the Spacesuit Art Project to conference attendees. They shared the documentary “Space for Art,” which chronicles the project’s mission to inspire hope, courage, and healing through art.
Andrews and Foreman discussed their experiences working on the project with retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, the first person to watercolor in space, and the Space for Art Foundation. Foreman shared stories from his time in space and posed for photos with guests. Andrews also presented to the Visual Art Administrators of Texas, a group of over 200 Texas education leaders.
The film played at NASA’s booth, showcasing how the initiative brings hope to children undergoing pediatric cancer treatment by inviting them to create colorful spacesuit artwork. Each suit—Hope, Courage, Unity, Victory, Dreamer, Exploration, Beyond, and Infinity—embodies the resilience and imagination of its creators. Four of these spacesuits have journeyed to and from the microgravity laboratory, inspiring children to dream big as they view their artwork in orbit.
By raising awareness about pediatric cancer and promoting art therapy worldwide, the project demonstrates the powerful connection between space exploration and the human spirit.
The NASA booth featured the Spacesuit Art Project, showcasing a Flat Stanley of NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, the first person to watercolor in space, alongside spacesuits painted by pediatric patients.NASA Texas’ first Space Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets—the only program of its kind in Texas and one of just 10 in the nation—participated in the event, as well. As a NASA rendition of the National Anthem played in the background, the cadets from Klein High School inspired the next generation of dreamers and doers to reach for the stars.
Texas’ first Space Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps cadets from Klein High School participate in the ceremony as a NASA rendition of the National Anthem plays in the background. NASA The conference also featured three murals that will be added to the art collection in Johnson’s building 4 south.
The art installation project began in 2022 when Johnson and Tijerina collaborated with Texas high school art programs to create space-themed murals for display at the center. With the help of their teachers, students brainstormed ideas and painted the murals together before visiting Johnson to install them and experience a guided walk-through of NASA’s facilities.
Led by their shared passion for artistic expression and space exploration, the students bring color, wonder, and creativity to the walls at Johnson. The initiative is part of a long-term effort to engage with students locally and globally to ignite the imagination of all and enhance the visual work environment for Johnson employees.
“Absolute Equality: Breaking Boundaries” by Reginald C. Adams, symbolizes unity and humanity’s collective future in space exploration. The artwork titled “Absolute Equality: Breaking Boundaries,” by artist Reginald C. Adams, will be one of the latest installations in building 4 south. The piece envisions humanity’s shared future, symbolizing unity and the possibilities of interplanetary exploration.
Adams was a keynote speaker for the conference, and when he learned about the mural project, he wanted to contribute to the initiative.
The two figures are enclosed within a shared helmet, representing a collective vision for the future of space exploration. The patterns surrounding them signify technology’s role in connecting humanity across cultural and societal divides.
La Marque High School students, art teacher Joan Finn, and artist Cheryl Evans painted a mural highlighting the interconnected roles in space exploration. A collaborative piece by La Marque High School art students, art teacher Joan Finn, and artist Cheryl Evans depicted the interconnected roles of visionaries, engineers, artists, and astronauts in space exploration.
Just as the space station was assembled piece by piece over more than 40 missions, the mural was created using 10 separate stretched canvases bolted together. The International Space Station patch at the bottom highlights the collaboration of the 17 countries involved.
“The Moon Now,” created by La Marque High School students, depicts two astronauts on the lunar surface in Axiom spacesuits with mirrored visors. A student-created vision titled “The Moon Now” showcased two astronauts on the lunar surface wearing Axiom spacesuits, with helmet visors designed as mirrors, signifying the next generation to envision themselves contributing to the next giant leap in space exploration.
The students created individual pieces depicting the Milky Way and other astronomical objects, which were collaged onto the surface of the artwork.
Through partnerships like this, NASA continues to embrace STEAM—science, technology, engineering, art, and math—to empower the Artemis Generation to dare, unite, and explore.
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By Space Force
Astronauts aboard the ISS conducted an educational downlink, a communication signal from the spacecraft back to Earth, for Denver School of Science and Technology students.
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home Hubble Captures an Edge-On… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features spiral galaxy UGC 10043. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043. We don’t see the galaxy’s spiral arms because we are seeing it from the side. Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that we see edge-on.
This edge-on viewpoint makes the galaxy’s disk appear as a sharp line through space, with its prominent dust lanes forming thick bands of clouds that obscure our view of the galaxy’s glow. If we could fly above the galaxy, viewing it from the top down, we would see this dust scattered across UGC 10043, possibly outlining its spiral arms. Despite the dust’s obscuring nature, some active star-forming regions shine out from behind the dark clouds. We can also see that the galaxy’s center sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disk. All spiral galaxies have a bulge similar to this one as part of their structure. These bulges hold stars that orbit the galactic center on paths above and below the whirling disk; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disk is possibly due to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why its disk appears warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.
Like most full-color Hubble images, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times, each capturing different wavelengths of light. One notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of data that comprise this image were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble’s Galaxies
Galaxy Details and Mergers
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Finds… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Finds Sizzling Details About Young Star FU Orionis
An artist’s concept of the early stages of the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) outburst, surrounded by a disk of material. Credits:
NASA-JPL, Caltech In 1936, astronomers saw a puzzling event in the constellation Orion: the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) became a hundred times brighter in a matter of months. At its peak, FU Ori was intrinsically 100 times brighter than our Sun. Unlike an exploding star though, it has declined in luminosity only languidly since then.
Now, a team of astronomers has wielded NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope‘s ultraviolet capabilities to learn more about the interaction between FU Ori’s stellar surface and the accretion disk that has been dumping gas onto the growing star for nearly 90 years. They find that the inner disk touching the star is extraordinarily hot — which challenges conventional wisdom.
The observations were made with the telescope’s COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) and STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instruments. The data includes the first far-ultraviolet and new near-ultraviolet spectra of FU Ori.
“We were hoping to validate the hottest part of the accretion disk model, to determine its maximum temperature, by measuring closer to the inner edge of the accretion disk than ever before,” said Lynne Hillenbrand of Caltech in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the paper. “I think there was some hope that we would see something extra, like the interface between the star and its disk, but we were certainly not expecting it. The fact we saw so much extra — it was much brighter in the ultraviolet than we predicted — that was the big surprise.”
A Better Understanding of Stellar Accretion
Originally deemed to be a unique case among stars, FU Ori exemplifies a class of young, eruptive stars that undergo dramatic changes in brightness. These objects are a subset of classical T Tauri stars, which are newly forming stars that are building up by accreting material from their disk and the surrounding nebula. In classical T Tauri stars, the disk does not touch the star directly because it is restricted by the outward pressure of the star’s magnetic field.
The accretion disks around FU Ori objects, however, are susceptible to instabilities due to their enormous mass relative to the central star, interactions with a binary companion, or infalling material. Such instability means the mass accretion rate can change dramatically. The increased pace disrupts the delicate balance between the stellar magnetic field and the inner edge of the disk, leading to material moving closer in and eventually touching the star’s surface.
This is an artist’s concept of the early stages of the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) outburst, surrounded by a disk of material. A team of astronomers has used the Hubble Space Telescope’s ultraviolet capabilities to learn more about the interaction between FU Ori’s stellar surface and the accretion disk that has been dumping gas onto the growing star for nearly 90 years. They found that the inner disk, touching the star, is much hotter than expected—16,000 kelvins—nearly three times our Sun’s surface temperature. That sizzling temperature is nearly twice as hot as previously believed. NASA-JPL, Caltech
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The enhanced infall rate and proximity of the accretion disk to the star make FU Ori objects much brighter than a typical T Tauri star. In fact, during an outburst, the star itself is outshined by the disk. Furthermore, the disk material is orbiting rapidly as it approaches the star, much faster than the rotation rate of the stellar surface. This means that there should be a region where the disk impacts the star and the material slows down and heats up significantly.
“The Hubble data indicates a much hotter impact region than models have previously predicted,” said Adolfo Carvalho of Caltech and lead author of the study. “In FU Ori, the temperature is 16,000 kelvins [nearly three times our Sun’s surface temperature]. That sizzling temperature is almost twice the amount prior models have calculated. It challenges and encourages us to think of how such a jump in temperature can be explained.”
To address the significant difference in temperature between past models and the recent Hubble observations, the team offers a revised interpretation of the geometry within FU Ori’s inner region: The accretion disk’s material approaches the star and once it reaches the stellar surface, a hot shock is produced, which emits a lot of ultraviolet light.
Planet Survival Around FU Ori
Understanding the mechanisms of FU Ori’s rapid accretion process relates more broadly to ideas of planet formation and survival.
“Our revised model based on the Hubble data is not strictly bad news for planet evolution, it’s sort of a mixed bag,” explained Carvalho. “If the planet is far out in the disk as it’s forming, outbursts from an FU Ori object should influence what kind of chemicals the planet will ultimately inherit. But if a forming planet is very close to the star, then it’s a slightly different story. Within a couple outbursts, any planets that are forming very close to the star can rapidly move inward and eventually merge with it. You could lose, or at least completely fry, rocky planets forming close to such a star.”
Additional work with the Hubble UV observations is in progress. The team is carefully analyzing the various spectral emission lines from multiple elements present in the COS spectrum. This should provide further clues on FU Ori’s environment, such as the kinematics of inflowing and outflowing gas within the inner region.
“A lot of these young stars are spectroscopically very rich at far ultraviolet wavelengths,” reflected Hillenbrand. “A combination of Hubble, its size and wavelength coverage, as well as FU Ori’s fortunate circumstances, let us see further down into the engine of this fascinating star-type than ever before.”
These findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The observations were taken as part of General Observer program 17176.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Abigail Major, Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Stars Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Exploring the Birth of Stars
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
Hubble Focus: The Lives of Stars
This e-book highlights the mission’s recent discoveries and observations related to the birth, evolution, and death of stars.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ESI24 Nam Quadchart
SungWoo Nam
University of California, Irvine
Lunar dust may seem unimposing, but it presents a significant challenge for space missions. Its abrasive and jagged particles can damage equipment, clog devices, and even pose health risks to astronauts. This project addresses such issues by developing advanced coatings composed of crumpled nano-balls made from atomically thin 2D materials such as MoS₂, graphene, and MXenes. By crumpling these nanosheets—much like crumpling a piece of paper—we create compression and aggregation resistant particles that can be dispersed in sprayable solutions. As a thin film coating, these crumpled nano-balls form corrugated structures that passively reduce dust adhesion and surface wear. The deformable crumpled nano-ball (DCN) coating works by minimizing the contact area between lunar dust and surfaces, thanks to its unique nano-engineered design. The 2D materials exhibit exceptional durability, withstanding extreme thermal and vacuum environments, as well as resisting radiation damage. Additionally, the flexoelectric and electrostatically dissipative properties of MoS₂, graphene, and MXenes allow the coating to neutralize and dissipate electrical charges, making them highly responsive to the charged lunar dust environment. The project will be executed in three phases, each designed to bring the technology closer to real-world space applications. First, we will synthesize the crumpled nano-balls and investigate their adhesion properties using advanced microscopy techniques. The second phase will focus on fundamental testing in simulated lunar environments, where the coating will be exposed to extreme temperatures, vacuum, radiation, and abrasion. Finally, the third phase will involve applying the coating to space-heritage materials and conducting comprehensive testing in a simulated lunar environment, targeting up to 90% dust clearance and verifying durability over repeated cycles of dust exposure. This research aligns with NASA’s goals for safer, more sustainable lunar missions by reducing maintenance requirements and extending equipment lifespan. Moreover, the potential applications extend beyond space exploration, with the technology offering promising advances in terrestrial industries such as aerospace and electronics by providing ultra-durable, wear-resistant surfaces. Ultimately, the project contributes to advancing materials science and paving the way for NASA’s long-term vision of sustainable space exploration.
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