NASA’s Pandora Mission Would Help Probe Alien Worlds
In the quest for habitable planets beyond our own, NASA is studying a mission concept called Pandora, which could eventually help decode the atmospheric mysteries…
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
In First, Scientists Trace Dangerous Solar Energetic Particles to Their Roots on the Sun
Zipping through space at close to the speed of light, Solar Energetic Particles, or SEPs, are one of the main challenges for the future of…
Astronomers Puzzled After Hubble View of Torrential Outflows From Infant Stars Blows Hole in Current Theories
Study Finds That Cavities Sculpted by Stellar Outflows Did Not Expand Over Time Stars aren’t shy about announcing their births. As they are born from…
Stunning Hubble Images Capture Changing Seasons in Saturn’s Vast and Turbulent Atmosphere
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a view of changes in Saturn’s vast and turbulent atmosphere as the planet’s northern hemisphere summer transitions to…
NASA Spacecraft Unmask High-Energy Blast That Swept Through the Solar System – Magnetar Eruption in Nearby Galaxy
On April 15, 2020, a brief burst of high-energy light swept through the solar system, triggering instruments on several NASA and European spacecraft. Now, multiple…
Discrepancies in the Hubble Constant Have Vexed Astronomers – NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Could Help Resolve the Puzzle
Discrepancies in the Hubble constant, which describes how fast the universe is expanding, have vexed astronomers for years. Values predicted from observations of the early…
Switchbacks Science: Explaining NASA’s Parker Solar Probe’s Mysterious Magnetic Puzzle
When NASA’s Parker Solar Probe sent back the first observations from its voyage to the Sun, scientists found signs of a wild ocean of currents…
Serendipitous Juno Spacecraft Detections Shatter Ideas About Origin of Zodiacal Light
Data from the NASA spacecraft’s journey to Jupiter suggests that Mars may be shedding dust into interplanetary space. Look up to the night sky just…
A Software Error Sent NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Into Safe Mode Last Sunday – Now It Has Recovered
NASA is working to return the Hubble Space Telescope to science operations after resolving a problem with a safeguard aboard. Hubble entered safe mode on…
Celestial Geometry Posed a Special Opportunity During Parker Solar Probe’s 7th Solar Encounter
During Parker Solar Probe’s seventh swing by the Sun, culminating in its closest solar approach, or perihelion, on January 17, 2021, celestial geometry posed a…
Incredible New “Cosmic Eyewear” to Deepen the View of NASA’s Roman Space Telescope
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to explore even more cosmic questions, thanks to a new near-infrared filter. The upgrade will allow…
NASA’s $10 Billion James Webb Space Telescope Completes Final Functional Tests to Prepare for Launch
February marked significant progress for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which completed its final functional performance tests at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. Testing…
The Fascinating Story of How the Trojan Asteroids – Target of NASA’s Lucy Mission – Were Discovered and Named
On February 22, 1906, German astrophotographer Max Wolf helped reshape our understanding of the solar system. Again. Born in 1863, Wolf had a habit of…
NASA Super Soaker Mission Seeks to Understand Bright Night-Shining Clouds by Creating One
Since the late 1800s, observers have searched the polar skies for elusive, high-flying clouds that shine in the darkness. These polar mesospheric clouds, or PMCs,…
NASA SnowEx Campaign Digs Deep in 2021
Whether the first snowflakes of winter fill you with glee or make you groan, winter snowfall is a crucial water source for drinking, agriculture and…
NASA Investigates an “Old Faithful” Active Galaxy That Erupts Every 114 Days
During a typical year, over a million people visit Yellowstone National Park, where the Old Faithful geyser regularly blasts a jet of boiling water high in…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning View of Venus
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby of the planet in July 2020. Though Parker Solar Probe’s focus is…
NASA’s Unprecedented Map of Sun’s Magnetic Field – Including the Mysterious Chromosphere
For decades after its discovery, observers could only see the solar chromosphere for a few fleeting moments: during a total solar eclipse, when a bright…