What's Up? The Space Place

 Hey, Space Placers! AI image of our  Milky Way  galaxy. The innermost stars in the galaxy are depicted as moving at near  relativistic  speeds (at a significant fraction of the speed of light) around a dense core of  dark matter , with no  black hole  at the center. The idea of dark matter in place of our galaxy's central supermassive black hole also explains the surprisingly fast speeds of stars at the outskirts of our galaxy.  Image via Valentina Crespi et al./ Royal Astronomical Society vis EarthSKy.org. New research about our Milky Way Galaxy, specifically what resides at the very center of our galaxy, has come up with a interesting theory. Instead of a 4.4 million solar mass black hole called SgrA* causing what astronomers have been observing for decades at the galaxy's center , perhaps a " a supermassive compact object composed of self-gravitating fermionic dark matter (DM) "  could be the cause. Read the story I emailed...

 Hey, Space Placers! For Release: February 4, 2026 CELEBRATE THE ‘ASTROLYMPICS’ DURING THE WINTER GAMES IN ITALY The ‘AstrOlympics’ project connects the amazing physical feats of the athletes competing in the Olympic Games to the spectacular physical phenomena discovered by NASA and other telescopes in space. By comparing examples of speed, acceleration, time, mass, rotation, density, and more of athletes on the ground to objects in space, viewers of AstrOlympics may find new appreciation and inspiration from both. The AstrOlympics project, which runs for both the Summer and Winter Games, has been celebrating cosmic and athletic triumphs since 2016. It was conceived of and developed by the science center for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on behalf of NASA. “We started the AstrOlympics project to highlight the shared physics behind extraordinary feats—whether they happen on the Olympic stage or across the universe,” ...

 Hey, Space Placers! Artemis II Crew Now Out Of Quarantine NASA Get the full story here. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! From NASA: NASA concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch.   Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target  March  as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test. ----------- Get the full story here. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Get the full story here. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers!  The Orion Arm or Spur Greg Redfern See what's happening in the sky this month. Sky Guy in SNOWCRETE VA