This Week at NASA: SpaceX Crew-6, Black Holes on a Collision Course, and Anniversary on Mars

This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Perseverance will land at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater a little after 3:40 p.m. EST (12:40 p.m. PST) on February 18, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The next crew headed to the space station …

Black holes on a collision course …

And an anniversary on Mars … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Flight Crew Arrives at Launch Site

On February 21, the members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of their flight to the International Space Station. The crew, including NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, are targeted for launch no earlier than February 27 from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.

Evidence for two pairs of supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies on collision courses has been found with Chandra. The two pairs are shown in X-rays from Chandra and optical light from the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. The merger on the left is in a late stage and was given the single name of Mirabilis. The other merger is in the early stages and the two dwarf galaxies are named Elstir (bottom) and Vinteuil (top). Astronomers think that dwarf galaxies – those about 20 times less massive than the Milky Way – grow through mergers with others. This is an important process for galaxy growth in the early Universe and this discovery provides examples for scientists to study in greater detail. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alabama/M. Micic et al.; Optical: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Chandra Discovers Giant Black Holes on Collision Course

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to track two pairs of supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies on collision courses. This is the first evidence for such an impending encounter, and it is providing important information about the growth of black holes in the early Universe.

Looking Back at Perseverance’s Second Science Campaign: This image of the floor of Jezero Crater was taken by one of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Feb. 5, 2023, the 698th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Perseverance Rover Celebrates Two Years on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover recently celebrated its second anniversary on Mars. Since landing in February 2021, the rover has traveled over 9 miles, collected 18 samples, and taken hundreds of thousands of images – all as part of the mission’s search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.

Credit: NASA

NASA Launches Aeronautics Spanish-Language Webpages

As part of our effort to provide more resources and information to new audiences, we have launched new Spanish-language webpages featuring NASA aeronautics content and information. You can also find STEM-related educational content on these webpages for students. Find out more at nasa.gov/aeroes.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA!