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The deepest views of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope yield clues that the very first stars may have burst into the universe as brilliantly and spectacularly as a fireworks finale. Except in this case, the finale came first, long before Earth, the Sun and the Milky Way Galaxy formed. Studies of Hubble's deepest views of the heavens lead to the preliminary conclusion that the universe made a significant portion of its stars in a torrential firestorm of star birth, which abruptly lit up the pitch-dark heavens just a few hundred million years after the "big bang," the tremendous explosion that created the cosmos. Though stars continue to be born today in galaxies, the star birth rate could be a trickle compared to the predicted gusher of stars in those opulent early years.

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    • By NASA
      4 min read
      NASA, JAXA XRISM Mission Looks Deeply Into ‘Hidden’ Stellar System
      The Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory has captured the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky.
      Cygnus X-3 is a binary that pairs a rare type of high-mass star with a compact companion — likely a black hole.
      Cygnus X-3 is a high-mass binary consisting of a compact object (likely a black hole) and a hot Wolf-Rayet star. This artist’s concept shows one interpretation of the system. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy indicates two gas components: a heavy background outflow, or wind, emanating from the massive star and a turbulent structure — perhaps a wake carved into the wind — located close to the orbiting companion. As shown here, a black hole’s gravity captures some of the wind into an accretion disk around it, and the disk’s orbital motion sculpts a path (yellow arc) through the streaming gas. During strong outbursts, the companion emits jets of particles moving near the speed of light, seen here extending above and below the black hole. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “The nature of the massive star is one factor that makes Cygnus X-3 so intriguing,” said Ralf Ballhausen, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s a Wolf-Rayet star, a type that has evolved to the point where strong outflows called stellar winds strip gas from the star’s surface and drive it outward. The compact object sweeps up and heats some of this gas, causing it to emit X-rays.”
      A paper describing the findings, led by Ballhausen, will appear in a future edition of The Astrophysical Journal.
      “For XRISM, Cygnus X-3 is a Goldilocks target — its brightness is ‘just right’ in the energy range where XRISM is especially sensitive,” said co-author Timothy Kallman, an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard. “This unusual source has been studied by every X-ray satellite ever flown, so observing it is a kind of rite of passage for new X-ray missions.”
      XRISM (pronounced “crism”) is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA, along with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency). NASA and JAXA developed the mission’s microcalorimeter spectrometer instrument, named Resolve.
      Observing Cygnus X-3 for 18 hours in late March, Resolve acquired a high-resolution spectrum that allows astronomers to better understand the complex gas dynamics operating there. These include outflowing gas produced by a hot, massive star, its interaction with the compact companion, and a turbulent region that may represent a wake produced by the companion as it orbits through the outrushing gas.
      XRISM’s Resolve instrument has captured the most detailed X-ray spectrum yet acquired of Cygnus X-3. Peaks indicate X-rays emitted by ionized gases, and valleys form where the gases absorb X-rays; many lines are also shifted to both higher and lower energies by gas motions. Top: The full Resolve spectrum, from 2 to 8 keV (kiloelectron volts), tracks X-rays with thousands of times the energy of visible light. Some lines are labeled with the names of the elements that produced them, such as sulfur, argon, and calcium, along with Roman numerals that refer to the number of electrons these atoms have lost. Bottom: A zoom into a region of the spectrum often dominated by features produced by transitions in the innermost electron shell (K shell) of iron atoms. These features form when the atoms interact with high-energy X-rays or electrons and respond by emitting a photon at energies between 6.4 and 7 keV. These details, clearly visible for the first time with XRISM’s Resolve instrument, will help astronomers refine their understanding of this unusual system. JAXA/NASA/XRISM Collaboration In Cygnus X-3, the star and compact object are so close they complete an orbit in just 4.8 hours. The binary is thought to lie about 32,000 light-years away in the direction of the northern constellation Cygnus.
      While thick dust clouds in our galaxy’s central plane obscure any visible light from Cygnus X-3, the binary has been studied in radio, infrared, and gamma-ray light, as well as in X-rays.
      The system is immersed in the star’s streaming gas, which is illuminated and ionized by X-rays from the compact companion. The gas both emits and absorbs X-rays, and many of the spectrum’s prominent peaks and valleys incorporate both aspects. Yet a simple attempt at understanding the spectrum comes up short because some of the features appear to be in the wrong place.
      That’s because the rapid motion of the gas displaces these features from their normal laboratory energies due to the Doppler effect. Absorption valleys typically shift up to higher energies, indicating gas moving toward us at speeds of up to 930,000 mph (1.5 million kph). Emission peaks shift down to lower energies, indicating gas moving away from us at slower speeds.
      Some spectral features displayed much stronger absorption valleys than emission peaks. The reason for this imbalance, the team concludes, is that the dynamics of the stellar wind allow the moving gas to absorb a broader range of X-ray energies emitted by the companion. The detail of the XRISM spectrum, particularly at higher energies rich in features produced by ionized iron atoms, allowed the scientists to disentangle these effects.
      “A key to acquiring this detail was XRISM’s ability to monitor the system over the course of several orbits,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s project scientist for the mission at Goddard. “There’s much more to explore in this spectrum, and ultimately we hope it will help us determine if Cygnus X-3’s compact object is indeed a black hole.”
      XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA. NASA’s contribution includes science participation from CSA (Canadian Space Agency).  

      Download additional images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

      By Francis Reddy
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Media Contact:
      Claire Andreoli
      301-286-1940
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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      Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Related Terms
      Black Holes Electromagnetic Spectrum Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research Goddard Space Flight Center Stars Stellar-mass Black Holes The Universe X-ray Binaries XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) Facebook logo @NASAUniverse @NASAUniverse Instagram logo @NASAUniverse Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
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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
      Download this image

      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
      Share








      Details
      Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      NASA/Ben Smegelsky & Virgil Cameron In this image from Aug. 26, 2023, participants from the 14th First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition watch NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 launch at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Students and advisors from University of Washington, University of Colorado-Boulder, and an international team from Queens University – the 2023 First Nations Launch grand prize teams – traveled to Kennedy for a VIP tour, culminating in viewing the Crew-7 launch.
      Grand prize teams also went on a guided tour of historic Hangar AE, led by James Wood (Osage Nation and Loyal Shawnee), chief engineer of NASA’s Launch Services Program, technical advisor for the Crew-7 launch, and First Nations mentor and judge.
      One of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges, the First Nations Launch competition comprises students from tribal colleges and universities, Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions, and collegiate chapters of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society who design, build, and launch a high-powered rocket from a launch site in Kansasville, Wisconsin.
      Explore more Minority University Research and Education Project opportunities and resources here.
      Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky & Virgil Cameron
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      At NASA, high-end computing is essential for many agency missions. This technology helps us advance our understanding of the universe – from our planet to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Supercomputers enable projects across diverse research, such as making discoveries about the Sun’s activity that affects technologies in space and life on Earth, building artificial intelligence-based models for innovative weather and climate science, and helping redesign the launch pad that will send astronauts to space with Artemis II. 
      These projects are just a sample of the many on display in NASA’s exhibit during the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, or SC24. NASA’s Dr. Nicola “Nicky” Fox, associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, will deliver the keynote address, “NASA’s Vision for High Impact Science and Exploration,” on Tuesday, Nov. 19, where she’ll share more about the ways NASA uses supercomputing to explore the universe for the benefit of all. Here’s a little more about the work NASA will share at the conference: 
      1. Simulations Help in Redesign of the Artemis Launch Environment
      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
      This simulation of the Artemis I launch shows how the Space Launch System rocket's exhaust plumes interact with the air, water, and the launchpad. Colors on surfaces indicate pressure levels—red for high pressure and blue for low pressure. The teal contours illustrate where water is present. NASA/Chris DeGrendele, Timothy Sandstrom Researchers at NASA Ames are helping ensure astronauts launch safely on the Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, scheduled for 2025. Using the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics software, they simulated the complex interactions between the rocket plume and the water-based sound suppression system used during the Artemis I launch, which resulted in damage to the mobile launcher platform that supported the rocket before liftoff.
      Comparing simulations with and without the water systems activated revealed that the sound suppression system effectively reduces pressure waves, but exhaust gases can redirect water and cause significant pressure increases. 
      The simulations, run on the Aitken supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at Ames, generated about 400 terabytes of data. This data was provided to aerospace engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, who are redesigning the flame deflector and mobile launcher for the Artemis II launch.
      2. Airplane Design Optimization for Fuel Efficiency
      In this comparison of aircraft designs, the left wing models the aircraft’s initial geometry, while the right wing models an optimized shape. The surface is colored by the air pressure on the aircraft, with orange surfaces representing shock waves in the airflow. The optimized design modeled on the right wing reduces drag by 4% compared to the original, leading to improved fuel efficiency. NASA/Brandon Lowe To help make commercial flight more efficient and sustainable, researchers and engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley are working to refine aircraft designs to reduce air resistance, or drag, by fine-tuning the shape of wings, fuselages, and other aircraft structural components. These changes would lower the energy required for flight and reduce the amount of fuel needed, produce fewer emissions, enhance overall performance of aircraft, and could help reduce noise levels around airports. 
      Using NASA’s Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics computational modeling software, developed at Ames, researchers are leveraging the power of agency supercomputers to run hundreds of simulations to explore a variety of design possibilities – on existing aircraft and future vehicle concepts. Their work has shown the potential to reduce drag on an existing commercial aircraft design by 4%, translating to significant fuel savings in real-world applications.
      3. Applying AI to Weather and Climate
      This visualization compares the track of the Category 4 hurricane, Ida, from MERRA-2 reanalysis data (left) with a prediction made without specific training, from NASA and IBM’s Prithvi WxC foundation model (right). Both models were initialized at 00 UTC on 2021-08-27.The University of Alabama in Huntsville/Ankur Kumar; NASA/Sujit Roy Traditional weather and climate models produce global and regional results by solving mathematical equations for millions of small areas (grid boxes) across Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. NASA and partners are now exploring newer approaches using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to train a foundation model. 
      Foundation models are developed using large, unlabeled datasets so researchers can fine-tune results for different applications, such as creating forecasts or predicting weather patterns or climate changes, independently with minimal additional training. 
      NASA developed the open source, publicly available Prithvi Weather-Climate foundation model (Prithvi WxC), in collaboration with IBM Research. Prithvi WxC was pretrained using 160 variables from  NASA’s Modern-era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) dataset on the newest NVIDIA A100 GPUs at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility. 
      Armed with 2.3 billion parameters, Prithvi WxC can model a variety of weather and climate phenomena – such as hurricane tracks – at fine resolutions. Applications include targeted weather prediction and climate projection, as well as representing physical processes like gravity waves. 
      4. Simulations and AI Reveal the Fascinating World of Neutron Stars
      3D simulation of pulsar magnetospheres, run on NASA’s Aitken supercomputer using data from the agency‘s Fermi space telescope. The red arrow shows the direction of the star’s magnetic field. Blue lines trace high-energy particles, producing gamma rays, in yellow. Green lines represent light particles hitting the observer’s plane, illustrating how Fermi detects pulsar gamma rays. NASA/Constantinos Kalapotharakos To explore the extreme conditions inside neutron stars, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are using a blend of simulation, observation, and AI to unravel the mysteries of these extraordinary cosmic objects. Neutron stars are the dead cores of stars that have exploded and represent some of the densest objects in the universe.
      Cutting-edge simulations, run on supercomputers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility, help explain phenomena observed by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observatory. These phenomena include the rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars known as pulsars, whose detailed physical mechanisms have remained mysterious since their discovery. By applying AI tools such as deep neural networks, the scientists can infer the stars’ mass, radius, magnetic field structure, and other properties from data obtained by the NICER and Fermi observatories. 
      The simulations’ unprecedented results will guide similar studies of black holes and other space environments, as well as play a pivotal role in shaping future scientific space missions and mission concepts.
      5. Modeling the Sun in Action – From Tiny to Large Scales 
      Image from a 3D simulation showing the evolution of flows in the upper layers of the Sun, with the most vigorous motions shown in red. These turbulent flows can generate magnetic fields and excite sound waves, shock waves, and eruptions. NASA/Irina Kitiashvili and Timothy A. Sandstrom The Sun’s activity, producing events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, influences the space environment and cause space weather disturbances that can interfere with satellite electronics, radio communications, GPS signals, and power grids on Earth. Scientists at NASA Ames produced highly realistic 3D models that – for the first time – allow them to examine the physics of solar plasma in action, from very small to very large scales. These models help interpret observations from NASA spacecraft like the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). 
      Using NASA’s StellarBox code on supercomputers at NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing facility, the scientists improved our understanding of the origins of solar jets and tornadoes – bursts of extremely hot, charged plasma in the solar atmosphere. These models allow the science community to address long-standing questions of solar magnetic activity and how it affects space weather.
      6. Scientific Visualization Makes NASA Data Understandable
      This global map is a frame from an animation showing how wind patterns and atmospheric circulation moved carbon dioxide through Earth’s atmosphere from January to March 2020. The DYAMOND model’s high resolution shows unique sources of carbon dioxide emissions and how they spread across continents and oceans.NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio NASA simulations and observations can yield petabytes of data that are difficult to comprehend in their original form. The Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), based at NASA Goddard, turns data into insight by collaborating closely with scientists to create cinematic, high-fidelity visualizations.
      Key infrastructure for these SVS creations includes the NASA Center for Climate Simulation’s Discover supercomputer at Goddard, which hosts a variety of simulations and provides data analysis and image-rendering capabilities. Recent data-driven visualizations show a coronal mass ejection from the Sun hitting Earth’s magnetosphere using the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model; global carbon dioxide emissions circling the planet in the DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains (DYAMOND) model; and representations of La Niña and El Niño weather patterns using the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) model. 
      For more information about NASA’s virtual exhibit at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, being held in Atlanta, Nov. 17-22, 2024, visit: 
      https://www.nas.nasa.gov/SC24
      For more information about supercomputers run by NASA High-End Computing, visit: 
      https://hec.nasa.gov
      For news media:
      Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.
      Authors: Jill Dunbar, Michelle Moyer, and Katie Pitta, NASA’s Ames Research Center; and Jarrett Cohen, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      4 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits in its run stall at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, firing up its engine for the first time. These engine-run tests start at low power and allow the X-59 team to verify the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.NASA/Carla Thomas NASA’s Quesst mission marked a major milestone with the start of tests on the engine that will power the quiet supersonic X-59 experimental aircraft.
      These engine-run tests, which began Oct. 30, allow the X-59 team to verify the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. In previous tests, the X-59 used external sources for power. The engine-run tests set the stage for the next phase of the experimental aircraft’s progress toward flight.
      The X-59 team is conducting the engine-run tests in phases. In this first phase, the engine rotated at a relatively low speed without ignition to check for leaks and ensure all systems are communicating properly. The team then fueled the aircraft and began testing the engine at low power, with the goal of verifying that it and other aircraft systems operate without anomalies or leaks while on engine power.
      Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Canin sits in the cockpit of NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft in a run stall at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California prior to its first engine run. These engine-run tests featured the X-59 powered by its own engine, whereas in previous tests, the aircraft depended on external sources for power. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.NASA/Carla Thomas “The first phase of the engine tests was really a warmup to make sure that everything looked good prior to running the engine,” said Jay Brandon, NASA’s X-59 chief engineer. “Then we moved to the actual first engine start. That took the engine out of the preservation mode that it had been in since installation on the aircraft. It was the first check to see that it was operating properly and that all the systems it impacted – hydraulics, electrical system, environmental control systems, etc. – seemed to be working.”
      The X-59 will generate a quieter thump rather than a loud boom while flying faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which will gather data on how people perceive these thumps, providing regulators with information that could help lift current bans on commercial supersonic flight over land.
      The engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust, which will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot – atop the aircraft — to aid in making the X-59 quieter.
      Engine runs are part of a series of integrated ground tests needed to ensure safe flight and successful achievement of mission goals. Because of the challenges involved with reaching this critical phase of testing, the X-59’s first flight is now expected in early 2025. The team will continue progressing through critical ground tests and address any technical issues discovered with this one-of-a-kind, experimental aircraft. The X-59 team will have a more specific first flight date as these tests are successfully completed.
      The testing is taking place at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. During later phases, the team will test the aircraft at high power with rapid throttle changes, followed by simulating the conditions of an actual flight.
      NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits in its run stall at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, prior to its first engine run. Engine runs are part of a series of integrated ground tests needed to ensure safe flight and successful achievement of mission goals. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.NASA/Carla Thomas “The success of these runs will be the start of the culmination of the last eight years of my career,” said Paul Dees, NASA’s deputy propulsion lead for the X-59. “This isn’t the end of the excitement but a small steppingstone to the beginning. It’s like the first note of a symphony, where years of teamwork behind the scenes are now being put to the test to prove our efforts have been effective, and the notes will continue to play a harmonious song to flight.”
      After the engine runs, the X-59 team will move to aluminum bird testing, where data will be fed to the aircraft under both normal and failure conditions. The team will then proceed with a series of taxi tests, where the aircraft will be put in motion on the ground. These tests will be followed by final preparations for first flight.
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      Last Updated Nov 06, 2024 EditorLillian GipsonContactMatt Kamletmatthew.r.kamlet@nasa.gov Related Terms
      Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Ames Research Center Armstrong Flight Research Center Glenn Research Center Langley Research Center Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Quesst: The Vehicle Supersonic Flight View the full article
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