America’s newest aerospace expo and air show – MAX POWER – is fast approaching, and NASA has announced key events beginning Friday, Nov. 6, and running through Sunday, Nov. 8, hosted on and near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Through multiple park experiences at MAX POWER, NASA and a variety of external collaborators will showcase the newest aircraft, autonomous vehicles, technologies, and more defining the future of air and space. NASA will display its quiet supersonic X-59 plane, and agency partners will showcase Moon rovers, spacecraft, and more. The expo also is a culmination of the agency’s recent Inspiration Tour, which included numerous flyovers to highlight NASA’s fleet of aircraft.

A current schedule of events is available on the agency’s website.

MAX POWER includes opportunities to meet leadership, astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other subject matter experts during the family-friendly public events with gates opening at 9 a.m. EST on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8.

NASA also will share multiple news updates during the weekend, including hosting a news conference at 5 p.m. on Nov. 7, to provide its latest Moon Base update. Located near the lunar South Pole, the Moon Base is humanity’s first outpost for long-term lunar exploration.

Live coverage of the news conference will stream on a variety of platforms online. Learn where to watch:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

Join NASA for Key Events

Media credentialing for this event is closed. Media approved for this event must request interviews in advance. Space in the news conference is limited, and first come, first served. Media also may participate in the news conference virtually. To request call details or an interview, please contact Lauren Low in the NASA Headquarters newsroom at: lauren.e.low@nasa.gov.

A short list of key NASA activities during MAX POWER are listed below. All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time, and are subject to change.

Friday, Nov. 6:

• 2 p.m., to 4 p.m.: Media one-on-one opportunities to preview weekend MAX POWER activities
  • Location: NASA Press Site

Saturday, Nov. 7:

• 10 a.m.: Nuclear NASA media gaggle
  • Location: UP.Summit Main Stage
  • Cynthia Simmons, director, Space Reactors Division

• 11:30 a.m.: Opening air show remarks featuring NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson
  • Location: Air Dot Show Main Stage

• 11:58 a.m.: F-5 flyover in the Air Dot Show featuring NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman

• 12:45 p.m.: Meet the Astronauts: NASA’s Artemis III Crew
  • Location: Air Dot Show Main Stage
  • Participants include:
    • NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik (mission commander)
    • ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano (pilot)
    • NASA astronaut Frank Rubio (mission specialist)
    • NASA astronaut Bob Hines, backup crew member
  • NASA will host a media gaggle with crew immediately following this event.

• 1:31 p.m.: MiG-29 flyover featuring Isaacman

• 2 p.m.: Learn about NASA’s Roman Space Telescope
  • Location: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (Journey to Mars Theater)
  • Participant:
    • Remarks by Julie McEnery, senior project scientist, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA Goddard

• 5 p.m. Moon Base News Conference
  • Location: Press Site AuditoriumParticipants:
    • NASA Administrator Jared IsaacmanCarlos García-Galán, manager, Moon Base ProgramNicky Fox, associate administrator for Science, NASA HeadquartersDayna Ise, acting director, Utility and Infrastructure Office, Moon Base Program
  • NASA subject matter experts will be available for one-on-one interviews following this announcement.

Sunday, Nov. 8

• 9 a.m. NASA’s X-59 media gaggle
  • Location: UP.Summit Exhibit Area
  • Participants:
    • Laurie Grindle, director, NASA Aeronautics Division
    • Peter Coen, NASA Quesst mission manager, NASA Langley
    • Jim “Clue” Less, test pilot, X-59, NASA Armstrong

• 10 a.m.: Student challenge announcement
  • Location: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Rocket Garden
  • Participants:
    • NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman
    • Carlos García-Galán, manager, Moon Base Program
  • NASA experts may be available for interviews at this location. Media interested in attending must contact Lauren Low by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, at: lauren.e.low@nasa.gov.

• 11:58 a.m.: F-5 flyover in the Air Dot Show featuring Isaacman

• 12:45 p.m.: United States Space Academy
  • Location: UP.Summit Main Stage
  • NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson

• 12:45 p.m.: Meet the Astronauts: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12
  • Location: Air Dot Show Main Stage
  • Participants:
    • NASA astronaut Jessica Meir
    • NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway

• 1:31 p.m.: MiG-29 flyover featuring Isaacman

For more information about MAX POWER, including the latest schedule of events and how to attend, visit the agency’s website:

https://www.nasa.gov/maxpower

-end-

George Alderman / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov

A sweeping barred spiral galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational lens in the lower-right corner, where a distant background galaxy is being magnified and distorted by the gravity of a closer galaxy.

This observation is one of many gravitational lensing images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in preparation for science with the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Gravitational lensing occurs when the mass of a foreground object – such as a galaxy – warps spacetime, causing light to bend, distort, and magnify as it passes around the object, similar to a giant lens in space. Lenses like this occur when a precise chance alignment takes place between the foreground and background galaxies, causing light from the background galaxy to curve around the foreground galaxy.

In this image, the gravitational lens features a foreground elliptical galaxy that is about 4.5 billion light-years away. That means the light we see from this galaxy now would have first started traveling toward us when our solar system was still forming. The background galaxy is about eight billion light-years away, almost twice as far. It appears as a pair of arcs, one large and very noticeable to the upper left of the foreground galaxy, the other a much smaller, flipped image of the same background galaxy to the lower right. This configuration is called an arc-counterarc pair.

The more massive the foreground galaxy is, the stronger the gravitational lens and the more significantly it bends light. By studying the distortion of the background galaxy, researchers can determine how much mass the foreground galaxy contains. This plays a huge role in the study of dark matter, the mysterious, invisible substance that makes up the majority of mass in the universe. The visible matter is not enough to account for the level of distortion in the background galaxy, which allows researchers to calculate both the mass of the foreground galaxy and how much dark matter it contains.

Almost all of the objects in this image are galaxies, except for a few scattered foreground stars. The barred spiral galaxy in this image – so called because its arms extend from a bar of stars in its center – is about the size of our own Milky Way galaxy, which astronomers think is a barred spiral as well. The tiny spiral to the left of the large spiral may be a satellite galaxy, similar to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds that orbit the Milky Way.

Hubble views the cosmos primarily in visible and ultraviolet light with some infrared coverage, and Roman sees mainly infrared wavelengths and some visible light. Hubble can provide high-resolution views of individual objects, while Roman has a much larger field of view conducive to panoramas.

Images like this offer a glimpse of how Hubble and Roman will work together to build an even more comprehensive picture of the cosmos. This is just one of many gravitational lens images captured by Hubble. Astronomers will use them to analyze gravitational distortions to learn more about dark matter in the foreground galaxies and to lay the groundwork for future Roman observations.

Hubble can only view these gravitational lenses one at a time, while Roman’s wide view of the sky will provide a greater sample of these lenses. Astronomers are using Hubble’s sharp images to build a computer model to better analyze dark matter-induced distortions. This tool will help astronomers analyze Roman’s large images. Hubble will also follow up on interesting lenses Roman detects.

Explore More

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov