The simulation was posted to YouTube and includes several videos: one in which an observer just misses the “point of no return,” one in which the viewer plunges into the depths of the event horizon, explainer videos, and a 360-degree experience.

The black hole that appears in the simulation is “4.3 million times the mass of our Sun,” according to NASA, making it the same mass as the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.

“If you have the choice, you want to fall into a supermassive black hole,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Stellar-mass black holes, which contain up to about 30 solar masses, possess much smaller event horizons and stronger tidal forces, which can rip apart approaching objects before they get to the horizon.”

The black hole is surrounded by a ring of light, known as the accretion disc, which represents material caught in the gravitational pull of the stellar phenomenon and that has been flattened into a disc. The material very slowly orbits the black hole and produces an optical illusion.

“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” Schnittman said. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera, a stand-in for a daring astronaut, just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”

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NASA said simulating the experience of falling into a supermassive black hole required 10 terabytes of data, which it says is equivalent to “half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress.” The process took about five days using NASA’s computers — the agency estimated the same video produced on an average laptop would take more than 10 years of processing time.

Any object falling into a black hole would be subject to “spaghettification,” in which the powerful gravitational forces of the stellar body stretch the form into a long strand until it eventually falls into the black hole’s singularity, “where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.”

Two NASA astronauts are set to launch from Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft Monday at 10:34 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

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The launch will be one of the final requirements of the aircraft on its path to certification. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, which will include its launch, docking, and its return to Earth.

The aircraft will spend one week at the International Space Station before returning to Earth.

But for the United States, some believe it could be troubling.

“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at an April congressional hearing. “And I think, in effect, we are in a race.”

The success of this mission will determine whether China can hit its goal of putting astronauts on the moon by the end of this decade. Sample-return missions follow the “exact same steps that any human mission to the moon will go through,” said James Head III, a Brown University professor who worked on NASA’s Apollo program and collaborated with Chinese scientists on studying the Chang’e-6 landing zone.

“There’s a lot of practicing going on here,” he added.

The U.S. aspires to construct an outpost on the moon, but a scheduled 2025 attempt to launch astronauts to the moon has been delayed to September 2026.

That timeline still puts America ahead of China, which is pursuing a goal of putting its own astronauts on the moon by 2030 and establishing a permanent joint lunar base with Russia by 2035. But the risks could be high if the U.S. runs into further delays.

“My concern is if China got there first and suddenly said, ‘OK, this is our territory. You stay out,'” Nelson said. Nelson referenced China’s aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea to offer a clue as to how Beijing would handle a possible lunar dispute.

Outside of the intangible advantage of being first, China could use a moonbase to disable enemy satellites, said Namrata Goswami, a professor at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management who focuses on space policy. 

China appears to have been consistent, unlike NASA, an agency notorious for delays.

“What is astounding to me is they’re almost meeting all their stated timelines,” Goswami said.

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While Nelson thinks the U.S. will not lose its space edge, he remains cautious.

“But you got to be realistic,” he said. “China has really thrown a lot of money at it, and they’ve got a lot of room in their budget to grow. I think that we just better not let down our guard.”

The telescope produced sharp infrared images of the “horse’s mane,” or the top, of the famous nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33. The nebula is named after astronomer E. E. Barnard, who first discovered Barnard’s Star in 1916. Barnard’s Star is notable because it lies within six lightyears of Earth, making it one of the closest star systems, and many subsequent astral bodies have been named after Barnard.

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The images show a portion of the Horsehead Nebula that is about 0.8 lightyears in width and 1,300 lightyears away. The nebula itself is the remnants of a cloud of material, mostly hydrogen, that is slowly dissipating. NASA estimated the nebula has about 5 million years before it completely disperses.

NASA said the interstellar cloud is important for research because it gives astronomers a handy way to study the development of the chemical properties of nebulae.

“What do you think the Chinese are trying to get at, at the back side of the moon?” Rep. David Trone (D-MD) asked Nelson at a congressional hearing last week.

“They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side which is always in dark. Uh, we’re not planning to go there,” he said.

Trone followed up by asking, “And why not? What’s the benefit of doing so?”

“We don’t know what’s on the back side of the moon, so, uh, that would be something that they would discover,” the NASA administrator told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“But our decision is that it’s more profitable for us to go to the South Pole of the moon because that’s where we think the water is,” he added.

The Maryland congressman pressed Nelson on why China chose to go to the far side of the moon.

“Why do you think they made that decision? I’m curious,” Trone said.

“I have no idea,” Nelson said.

The far side of the moon is not “always in dark” and gets sunlight, but it is not visible from the Earth because the moon is tidally locked to the Earth.

Nelson’s comment occurred when he testified before the House Appropriations Committee on NASA’s budget for fiscal 2025.

The social media clip of Nelson went viral on Tuesday, garnering mockery of the NASA leader.

“Is this real?” someone said on X.

“Bill Nelson, professional idiot in charge of NASA, thinks the far side of the moon is ‘dark’ implying that’s why we’re not going there for that reason. In case you’re wondering why [we’re] not back on the moon yet,” a social media user said.

“If Nelson and Sheila Jackson Lee did a podcast about space I’d definitely listen,” another person quipped about the Texas Democratic congresswoman, who recently told schoolchildren that the moon is a “planet” and “made up mostly of gases.”

Nelson’s answer of having “no idea” why China has been venturing toward the far side of the moon is surprising because China’s first lunar sample-gathering rover reportedly extracted a sample of helium-3 from the moon in 2020. Helium-3 is believed to be in abundance in that part of the moon due to that part being exposed to solar winds at a higher degree. China has been interested in mining helium-3.

China has waged an economic war of creating a near monopoly of critical minerals on Earth and has been looking to lock up energy resources on the moon in its quest for space supremacy.

Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the only living member of NASA’s Apollo 17 mission, has long advocated using helium-3 as an alternative source of energy on Earth and in space travel. Schmitt, a geologist, discovered it on the moon 50 years ago and has been pushing for the isotope to be mined as a fuel in fusion reactors. It is believed that the moon’s supply of helium-3 could be a source of limitless clean energy.

Former CIA space analyst Tim Chrisman reportedly said Beijing is charging forward in extracting energy in space and could leave the United States behind.

“China will almost certainly use any resources it is able to acquire to the detriment of its adversaries, competitors and bystanders alike,” Chrisman said.

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“Just a couple of trips a year would be able to supply most of Earth with ‘clean’ power if it was used effectively. So yes, it seems like a fairly big deal if we were to make use of it,” a Reddit commenter analyzed, adding, “This seems like something that government officials should be aware of/care about.”

During the committee hearing, Nelson said China has “made huge strides in the last 10 years, and you better not take anything for granted.”

The probe had been sending “gibberish” code back to NASA because of a broken chip, according to a report by the Guardian. Given the distance, NASA was not able to repair the chip but rearranged the probe’s code so that it could send usable data, a challenge given the spacecraft’s limited 70-kilobyte memory.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated the news on X, posting, “For the first time since November, Voyager 1 is returning useable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. Next step: Enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again.”

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, former commander of the International Space Station, celebrated the news on social media.

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Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977 and left the solar system in 2012. It is 15 billion miles away and traveling at 37,800 mph, according to the report, and a signal from NASA takes 22 1/2 hours to reach the probe and another 22 1/2 hours for a signal to come back.

Voyagers 1 and 2 are best known for conducting surveys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and of each carrying a golden record, each of which contains sounds of nature, human voices, music, and images. The records were designed by a committee led by Carl Sagan and are intended “to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials.”

NASA had expected the debris — old and depleted nickel hydride batteries that were dumped in March 2021 — to burn up completely in the atmosphere by March 8 of this year.

On March 8, however, a piece of debris came rocketing through the atmosphere and pierced through two stories of Alejandro Otero’s Naples home. The timing was suspicious, since the impact occurred at 2:34 p.m. EST, while U.S. Space Command recorded the reentry of the ISS’s space debris at 2:29 p.m.

Otero posted on X on March 15, “Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples. Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son. Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response.”

NASA has since contacted Otero and has taken the debris in for analysis, confirming on Monday the object was from the ISS.

“As part of the analysis, NASA completed an assessment of the object’s dimensions and features compared to the released hardware and performed a materials analysis,” NASA said. “Based on the examination, the agency determined the debris to be a stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet.”

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NASA said the ISS will investigate how the debris survived reentry.

“The International Space Station will perform a detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis, as needed,” NASA said.

Speaking in a recent documentary The Paranormal UFO Connection, made by filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee, Loeb speculated that aliens may have already visited Earth, using methods that humans could discover through the LHC.

If humans were to witness aliens coming to Earth through an interdimensional portal, it would be “just like a cave dweller coming to a city like London or Europe, and seeing all the technological gadgets there,” Loeb said, according to the Daily Mail.

“There will be a sense of religious awe, and we wouldn’t understand it, especially if we are dealing with the effects of quantum gravity that we have any clue about,” he added.

Attempting to back up his reasoning that aliens might have developed interdimensional travel, Loeb speculated that they might have been developing the technology for billions of years. In order to catch up, Loeb suggested reallocating $2 trillion in global military spending to develop interdimensional travel technology instead.

While acknowledging that humans only have remote knowledge on the topic, Loeb said that the kind of technology he believes aliens may have developed is hinted at through the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s LHC. Clues found through the technology reportedly suggest that aliens could use theoretical quantum gravity engineering to travel through “curled” dimensions.

Loeb is a highly controversial figure in his field. His belief in extraterrestrial life has made him one of the most popular astrophysicists in the country, and he has drawn massive funding from technology tycoons, Business Insider reported.

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Many in the field have derided Loeb, accusing him of damaging the reputation of the field in his quest.

“Loeb is on a mission to find aliens. He believes he sees something in the data hundreds of experts don’t, and he wants to make you believe too,” astrophysicist Steven Desch at Arizona State University told the outlet.

The path of totality for the eclipse goes from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Caribou, Maine, and will engulf parts of the U.S. in darkness at various times from roughly 2:40 p.m. Eastern time to 3:34 p.m. Eastern time.

The first views of the eclipse came in Mexico early afternoon Eastern time, with the eclipse slated to cross over the contiguous U.S. throughout the afternoon. NASA has streams of the eclipse as it goes across the country and puts millions in temporary midday darkness.

Take it all in.

We're getting our first views of the 2024 total solar #eclipse as its shadow makes landfall in Mazatlán, Mexico. pic.twitter.com/FdAACmQGkm

— NASA (@NASA) April 8, 2024

Most U.S. cities not in the path of totality will still get a partial eclipse. Washington, D.C., is not in the path of totality, but the eclipse will be partially visible in the nation’s Capital from 2:04 p.m. Eastern time to 4:32 p.m. Eastern time. Washington will get 87% of the sun covered by the moon at its peak at 3:20 p.m. EDT.

People gathered for a practice round ahead of the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, got a glimpse of the partial eclipse.

As with any other day, looking directly at the sun without proper protection can cause damage to one’s vision. NASA advises that viewers of the eclipse wear “solar viewing glasses” when viewing the eclipse.

For those under the path of totality, it is only safe to look at the sun without protection during the peak part of the eclipse, but experts advise that protection be used for the duration of the eclipse.

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President Joe Biden advised citizens to “play it safe” and use protective eyewear to view the eclipse, in an apparent jab at former President Donald Trump — who infamously stared at the sun during a solar eclipse in 2017.

The next solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044, over parts of North Dakota and Montana, followed by an Aug. 12, 2045, eclipse, which will go across the continent as it goes over Florida, Mississippi, Colorado, Nevada, and Northern California.

The total solar eclipse is making its way from Mexico to the United States on Monday afternoon, offering a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event for millions of people.

The path of totality goes from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Caribou, Maine, and will engulf parts of the U.S. in temporary darkness at various times from roughly 2:40 p.m. EDT to 3:34 p.m. EDT.

Washington, D.C., is not in the path of totality, but the eclipse will be partially visible in the district from 2:04 p.m. Eastern time to 4:32 p.m.

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The next solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. will be on Aug. 23, 2044, over parts of North Dakota and Montana, followed by an Aug. 12, 2045, eclipse, which will go across the continent as it goes over Florida, Mississippi, Colorado, and Nevada, and northern California.