Pic of the Week: 3D Map of the Universe

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The DESI map showing the position of galaxies and quasars. (NOIRLab)

This week’s image is from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which had a 5-year goal to map millions of galaxies and quasars, and thereby create the largest high-resolution 3D map of the Universe ever made.The image above shows the results of this work (completed in less than 5 years) containing more than 47 million galaxies and quasars.

In explaining the DESI results, NOIRLab stated:

DESI has now measured cosmological data for six times as many galaxies and quasars as all previous measurements combined. The collaboration will immediately begin processing the completed dataset, with the first dark energy results from the full five-year survey expected in 2027. In the meantime, DESI collaborators continue to analyze the survey’s first three years of data, refining dark energy measurements and producing additional results on the structure and evolution of the Universe, with several papers planned later this year.

Stephanie Juneau, associate astronomer and National Science Foundation NOIRLab representative for DESI, noted:

Ultimately, we are doing this for all humanity, to better understand our Universe and its eventual fate. After finding hints that dark energy might deviate from a constant, potentially altering that fate, this moment feels like sitting on the edge of my seat as we analyze the new map to see whether those hints will be confirmed. I’m also very intrigued by the many other discoveries that await in this new dataset.”

Dune: Odd Advertising

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Rolex

I can understand that actors and actresses want to make some extra money on the side with advertising gigs, but sometimes the result is more comical than convincing.

For example, actress Zendaya is now featured in Rolex watch advertisements with images of her as Dune’s Chani. It even has the slogan “Reach for the crown.”

Anyone who understands the Dune books and movies would know that Chani is a Fremen who has no use for ostentatious wealth. The last thing a Fremen would seek is a heavy, ornamental watch in the desert. The only riches for the Fremen is water.

Maybe Rolex would find a better fit with Stellan John Skarsgård and his Dune character Baron Harkonnen (below) for those times the Baron not taking a bath. The Baron seems like a Rolex kind of guy.

Zendaya is just following others here. Dune’s Timothee Chalamet is part of advertising campaigns with Chanel and Lucid Motors. And let us not forget that Omega was the official watch for NASA (below).

I just recommend that the stars and their sponsors show some awareness in their ad work.

Image (Credit): Dune’s Baron Harkonnen. (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Credit: Omega

A Day in Astronomy: Apollo 13 Sets a Distance Record

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Apollo 13 mission patch. (NASA)

On this day in 1970, the Apollo capsule traveled to the farthest point from Earth of any Apollo mission. It was an unbroken record until last week, with the Artemis II mission exceeded this distance by 4,105 miles.

Of course, that was a great achievement in an otherwise troubled Apollo mission. The Apollo 13 crew, consisting of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot John L. “Jack” Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, would never make it to the surface of the Moon. That is a story worth reading (as well as a movie worth watching).

Space Quote: Key Senator Pushes Against White House NASA Cuts

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Pabitra Kaity from Pixabay

“I’m going to try to lead the subcommittee and the whole committee to put us in a position where we are funding NASA, NOAA and our other agencies in a way that is pretty similar to what we did last year.”

–Statement last Sunday by Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), who serves at the chair of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, which oversees NASA. The subcommittee successfully reversed most of the proposed White House cuts in the Fiscal Year 2026 NASA budget. The senator is a speaker at this week’s Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO.

Space Stories: Cygnus XL Cargo Craft Arrives at ISS, China Further Along Than US with Moon Lander, and a Martian Hopper Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The International Space Station’s (ISS) robotic arm reaching out to the Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft as it arrives on April 13, 2026. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—NASA: “Canadarm2 Reaches Out and Captures Cygnus XL Cargo Craft“

At 1:20 p.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Chris Williams, with assistance from NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm…NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission launched at 7:41 a.m. on April 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory.

—Scientific American: “How China Could Still Win the New Moon Race“

China is not yet ready to perform a crewed circumlunar mission like the U.S., which began development of the Orion spacecraft in the 2000s and redesigned it to go with the SLS rocket in the early 2010s. But China is progressing on all the necessary hardware to reach the moon, with a stated goal of a crewed landing before 2030. Notably, the nation has already tested a key component that the U.S. is still working to bring online: the landing hardware. Last year China demonstrated its Lanyue crewed lunar lander, performing a propulsive lunar landing and lunar launch tests in simulated moon gravity conditions. In the U.S. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both working on NASA-funded lander concepts needed to make a 2028 Artemis landing possible.

—Universe Today: “Meet Orpheus – A Hopper Mission Built To Hunt For Life In Martian Volcanoes“

We’ve spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. But we’ve been searching a barren wasteland bombarded by radiation and bathed in toxic perchlorates. The entire time, it’s likely that it’s been too hostile to harbor extant life. So if we want a better shot at finding currently living life on Mars, we need to go underground. That is exactly the purpose of Orpheus, a proposed Mars vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) hopper mission put forth by Connor Bunn and Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).