No Test? Oh Well, I’ll Go Look At Rockets.

My cool shirt arrived today! @earthspaceexplorationasu @asuinterplanetary #asu #arizonastateuniversity #astronomy #planets #solarsystemambassador #humanspaceflight #moon #mars https://www.instagram.com/p/CPRpFf8DF6y/?utm_medium=tumblr

As @kuiperkat said, all the cool kids are doing it. #tothemoonandback https://www.instagram.com/p/CMBSVo9j58l/?igshid=1r2ifm8ptjqss

A little fun celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. #nasa #usspaceandrocketcenter #apollo11 #apollo50thanniversary https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Cd1fyHVBX/?igshid=btqoa800zd26

1) Check weather conditions for a town in New Mexico. 2) Remotely access a telescope in New Mexico. 3) Select target and parameters (Andromeda Galaxy, 60 second exposure...) 4) Wait until next morning to see results. 5) Open email to see A FREAKIN’ PLANE OR SATELLITE HAS JACKED UP YOUR OTHERWISE GORGEOUS IMAGE!😳🤬🤬 https://www.instagram.com/p/B95s_87HE6e/?igshid=1nodpm0ocwj3i

Got my boarding pass! Stay tuned for an exciting week coming up. Shane Kimbrough, who graduated from The Lovett School and Georgia Tech, will be going to space for the third time. He will also be flying in his third type of spacecraft! He has flown in the Space Shuttle, and a Soyuz capsule. This time, he will be riding a Space-X Dragon to the ISS. . . . . #nasa #iss #internationalspacestation #crew2 #dragon #spacex #spacexdragon https://www.instagram.com/p/CNwBb46DZVL/?igshid=1gj6rezp2dk7w

In a few hours, NASA is launching the DART Mission. The goal of this mission is to see if, and how much, a small impact probe can alter the course of a small asteroid. In addition to the impact probe, there is a cubesat with two cameras dubbed LUKE and LEIA. . . . . . @nasa @nasasolarsystem #solarsystemambassador #DART #DARTMission https://www.instagram.com/p/CWpGxGYMnmn/?utm_medium=tumblr

Spent yesterday afternoon talking about “NASA In The 60s” to kids at a Gwinnett Parks Summer Camp. I love being a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador!!! #stemeducation #nasa #solarsystemambassador #nasasolarsystemambassador #gwinnetcountyparks https://www.instagram.com/p/CfHbeldO82N/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Navigating Deep Space by Starlight

On August 6, 1967, astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a blip in her radio telescope data. And then another. Eventually, Bell Burnell figured out that these blips, or pulses, were not from people or machines.

The blips were constant. There was something in space that was pulsing in a regular pattern, and Bell Burnell figured out that it was a pulsar: a rapidly spinning neutron star emitting beams of light. Neutron stars are superdense objects created when a massive star dies. Not only are they dense, but neutron stars can also spin really fast! Every star we observe spins, and due to a property called angular momentum, as a collapsing star gets smaller and denser, it spins faster. It’s like how ice skaters spin faster as they bring their arms closer to their bodies and make the space that they take up smaller.

The pulses of light coming from these whirling stars are like the beacons spinning at the tops of lighthouses that help sailors safely approach the shore. As the pulsar spins, beams of radio waves (and other types of light) are swept out into the universe with each turn. The light appears and disappears from our view each time the star rotates.

After decades of studying pulsars, astronomers wondered—could they serve as cosmic beacons to help future space explorers navigate the universe? To see if it could work, scientists needed to do some testing!

First, it was important to gather more data. NASA’s NICER, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a telescope that was installed aboard the International Space Station in 2017. Its goal is to find out things about neutron stars like their sizes and densities, using an array of 56 special X-ray concentrators and sensitive detectors to capture and measure pulsars’ light.

But how can we use these X-ray pulses as navigational tools? Enter SEXTANT, or Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology. If NICER was your phone, SEXTANT would be like an app on it.  

During the first few years of NICER’s observations, SEXTANT created an on-board navigation system using NICER’s pulsar data. It worked by measuring the consistent timing between each pulsar’s pulses to map a set of cosmic beacons.

When calculating position or location, extremely accurate timekeeping is essential. We usually rely on atomic clocks, which use the predictable fluctuations of atoms to tick away the seconds. These atomic clocks can be located on the ground or in space, like the ones on GPS satellites. However, our GPS system only works on or close to Earth, and onboard atomic clocks can be expensive and heavy. Using pulsar observations instead could give us free and reliable “clocks” for navigation. During its experiment, SEXTANT was able to successfully determine the space station’s orbital position!

We can calculate distances using the time taken for a signal to travel between two objects to determine a spacecraft’s approximate location relative to those objects. However, we would need to observe more pulsars to pinpoint a more exact location of a spacecraft. As SEXTANT gathered signals from multiple pulsars, it could more accurately derive its position in space.

So, imagine you are an astronaut on a lengthy journey to the outer solar system. You could use the technology developed by SEXTANT to help plot your course. Since pulsars are reliable and consistent in their spins, you wouldn’t need Wi-Fi or cell service to figure out where you were in relation to your destination. The pulsar-based navigation data could even help you figure out your ETA!

None of these missions or experiments would be possible without Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s keen eye for an odd spot in her radio data decades ago, which set the stage for the idea to use spinning neutron stars as a celestial GPS. Her contribution to the field of astrophysics laid the groundwork for research benefitting the people of the future, who yearn to sail amongst the stars.  

Keep up with the latest NICER news by following NASA Universe on X and Facebook and check out the mission’s website. For more on space navigation, follow @NASASCaN on X or visit NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation website.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Copernicus (upper left), FRA MAURO (mid left), and the Ptolemaeus Crater Trio (mid right). #space #moon #astronomy #celestron #celestron127slt https://www.instagram.com/p/B5E6us7HZQ-/?igshid=1hkq6pe7icfrk

Working with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, I captured and processed the “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula. It doesn’t quiet compare to the Hubble Space Telescope’s capture, but I’m proud of it. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDvPyrWDz-m/?igshid=1uyp3ajel3e1i