The Perseus proof-of-concept vehicle in flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California in 1991. Perseus is one of several remotely-piloted aircraft designed for high-altitude, long-endurance scientific sampling missions being evaluated under the ERAST program.

The Perseus proof-of-concept vehicle is seen here as it taxis on Rogers Dry Lake, adjacent the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

The Perseus B remotely piloted aircraft nears touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. at the conclusion of a development flight at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The Perseus B is the latest of three versions of the Perseus design developed by Aurora Flight Sciences under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program.

The Perseus B remotely piloted aircraft approaches the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. at the conclusion of a development flight at NASA's Dryden flight Research Center in April 1998. The Perseus B is the latest of three versions of the Perseus design developed by Aurora Flight Sciences under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program.

The Perseus proof-of-concept vehicle flies over Rogers Dry Lake at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, to test basic design concepts for the remotely-piloted, high-altitude vehicle.

The Perseus A, a remotely-piloted, high-altitude research vehicle, is seen just after landing on Rogers Dry Lake at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The Perseus A had a unique method of takeoff and landing. To make the aircraft as aerodynamic and lightweight as possible, designers gave it only two very small centerline wheels for landing. These wheels were very close to the fuselage, and therefore produced very little drag. However, since the fuselage sat so close to the ground, it was necessary to keep the large propeller at the rear of the aircraft locked in a horizontal position during takeoff. The aircraft was towed to about 700 feet in the air, where the engine was started and the aircraft began flying under its own power.

The Perseus A, a remotely-piloted, high-altitude research aircraft, is seen here framed against the moon and sky during a research mission at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California in August 1994.

Crew members check out the Perseus proof-of-concept vehicle on Rogers Dry Lake, adjacent to the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, after a test flight in 1991.

The Perseus B remotely piloted aircraft on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California at the conclusion of a development flight at NASA's Dryden flight Research Center. The Perseus B is the latest of three versions of the Perseus design developed by Aurora Flight Sciences under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program.

The Perseus B remotely piloted aircraft taxis on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, before a series of development flights at NASA's Dryden flight Research Center. The Perseus B is the latest of three versions of the Perseus design developed by Aurora Flight Sciences under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program.

A long, slender wing and a pusher propeller at the rear characterize the Perseus B remotely-piloted research aircraft, seen here during a test flight in April1998.

A long, slender wing and a pusher propeller at the rear characterize the Perseus B remotely piloted research aircraft, seen here during a test flight in June 1998.

A long, slender wing and a pusher propeller at the rear characterize the Perseus B remotely piloted research aircraft, seen here during a test flight in June 1998.

Combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with radio observations and computer simulations, an international team of scientists has discovered a vast wave of hot gas in the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster. Spanning some 200,000 light-years, the wave is about twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. The researchers say the wave formed billions of years ago, after a small galaxy cluster grazed Perseus and caused its vast supply of gas to slosh around an enormous volume of space. &quot;Perseus is one of the most massive nearby clusters and the brightest one in X-rays, so Chandra data provide us with unparalleled detail,&quot; said lead scientist Stephen Walker at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. &quot;The wave we've identified is associated with the flyby of a smaller cluster, which shows that the merger activity that produced these giant structures is still ongoing.&quot; Read more at nasa.gov Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Stephen Walker href=&quot;http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;NASA image use policy. <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Located 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, a reflection nebula called NGC 1333 epitomizes the beautiful chaos of a dense group of stars being born. This image is from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

One of NASA's unmanned, remotely controlled aircraft, the Perseus B, is seen here before its first flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

A collection of gas and dust over 500 light-years across, the Perseus Molecular Cloud hosts an abundance of young stars. It was imaged here by the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23405

This infrared image from NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer features one of the bright stars in the constellation Perseus, named Menkhib, along with a large star forming cloud commonly called the California Nebula.

This image from NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is a view within the constellation Cassiopeia of another portion of the vast star forming complex that makes up part of the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This annotated, high-resolution image of Jupiter's main dust ring was collected by the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) navigation camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. The image was taken from inside the ring looking out as Juno flew between Jupiter and the radiation belts during the spacecraft's 36th close flyby on Sept. 2, 2021. The brightest thin dust bands are associated with the orbits of Jupiter's small moons, Metis and Adrastea. The image also captured an arm of the Perseus constellation, as shown in the annotation. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25039

W3 is an enormous stellar nursery about 6,200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm, one of the Milky Way galaxy main spiral arms as seen by ESA Herschel space observatory.

On the morning of February 1, 2011, NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, took its last snapshot of the sky. WISE final picture shows thousands of stars in a patch of the Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Perseus.

There are nearly 200 galaxies within the marked circles in this image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. These are part of the Perseus-Pisces supercluster of galaxies located 250 million light-years away.

This image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope shows a wispy, vast structure in the constellation Perseus with a small bubble right in its center puffed out by spasms of fresh-formed, heavyweight stars.

This image from NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, shows three different nebulae located in the constellation of Perseus. NGC 1491 is seen on the right side of the image, SH 2-209 is on the left side and BFS 34 lies in between.

In the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, opposite the galactic center, lies the nebula SH 2-235. As seen in infrared light, NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer reveals SH 2-235 to be a huge star formation complex.

A jet of gas firing out of a very young star can be seen ramming into a wall of material in this infrared image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

Astronomers using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, are helping to trace the shape of our Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms. This illustration shows where WISE data revealed clusters of young stars shrouded in dust, called embedded clusters, which are known to reside in spiral arms. The bars represent uncertainties in the data. The nearly 100 clusters shown here were found in the arms called Perseus, Sagittarius-Carina, and Outer -- three of the galaxy's four proposed primary arms. Our sun resides in a spur to an arm, or a minor arm, called Orion Cygnus. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19341

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a variety of intriguing cosmic phenomena. Surrounded by bright stars, towards the upper middle of the frame we see a small young stellar object (YSO) known as SSTC2D J033038.2+303212. Located in the constellation of Perseus, this star is in the early stages of its life and is still forming into a fully-grown star. In this view from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys(ACS) it appears to have a murky chimney of material emanating outwards and downwards, framed by bright bursts of gas flowing from the star itself. This fledgling star is actually surrounded by a bright disk of material swirling around it as it forms — a disc that we see edge-on from our perspective. However, this small bright speck is dwarfed by its cosmic neighbor towards the bottom of the frame, a clump of bright, wispy gas swirling around as it appears to spew dark material out into space. The bright cloud is a reflection nebula known as [B77] 63, a cloud of interstellar gas that is reflecting light from the stars embedded within it. There are actually a number of bright stars within [B77] 63, most notably the emission-line star LkHA 326, and it nearby neighbor LZK 18. These stars are lighting up the surrounding gas and sculpting it into the wispy shape seen in this image. However, the most dramatic part of the image seems to be a dark stream of smoke piling outwards from [B77] 63 and its stars — a dark nebula called Dobashi 4173. Dark nebulae are incredibly dense clouds of pitch-dark material that obscure the patches of sky behind them, seemingly creating great rips and eerily empty chunks of sky. The stars speckled on top of this extreme blackness actually lie between us and Dobashi 4173. Credit: ESA/NASA <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>