Spacecraft Enters the Sun’s Blistering Hot Corona for the First Time in History
An instrument made by scientists and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics has helped verify that — for the first time in history — a…
NASA News
James Webb Space Telescope Secondary Mirror Deployment Begins Tomorrow
Update: James Webb Space Telescope Successfully Deploys Secondary Mirror As expected, the Webb original deployments timeline has changed over time. Sunshield tensioning was completed today,…
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Successfully Deploys 70-Foot Sunshield – Here’s What’s Next
The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations. The sunshield –…
Space Station Crew Kicks Off 2022 With Biology, Botany and Spacewalk Preps
The five astronauts and two cosmonauts of Expedition 66 started the first work week of 2022 researching microgravity science, reviewing Crew Dragon emergency procedures, and…
NASA Extends Space Station Operations Through 2030
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced on December 31, 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to extend International Space Station (ISS) operations through 2030, and to work…
Webb Space Telescope: Second and Third Layers of Sunshield Fully Tightened
The Webb team has completed tensioning for the first three layers of the observatory’s kite-shaped sunshield, 47 feet across and 70 feet long. The first…
2021 Natural Disasters: A Look Back
In 2021, Hurricane Ida left over 1 million people without power, tornadoes tore across the American Midwest, volcanoes forced people to evacuate their homes, wildfires…
First Layer of Webb Space Telescope’s Sunshield Tightened
Today, at 3:48 pm EST, the Webb team finished tensioning the first layer of the observatory’s sunshield– that is, tightening it into its final, completely…
Mysterious Dusty Object Discovered by Astronomers Using NASA’s TESS Planet Hunter
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun’s nearest neighbor stars. TESS has…
Colorado Faces Winter Urban Firestorm – Whipped Up by Hurricane-Force Winds
Hurricane-force winds whipped fires across drought-parched grasslands and into suburban neighborhoods. On December 30, 2021, high winds roared out of the west and down the…
NASA Moves Forward With Webb Space Telescope Sunshield Tensioning
The Webb mission operations team began the first steps in the process of tensioning the first layer of Webb’s sunshield this morning around 10 a.m….
Study Confirms Southern Ocean Is Absorbing Carbon – Important Buffer for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
January 3 – August 15, 2012 The waters circling Antarctica absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release, serving as a strong carbon sink…
Hubble Space Telescope Captures Galactic Conjunction
The spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces, is captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble…
Skywatching Highlights for January 2022: Don’t Miss Quadrantid Meteor Shower and Mars Rising
What’s Up for January? New year, new Moon; midnight meteors; and Mars rises. January begins with a new moon on the 2nd. And that means…
Quadrantid Meteor Shower
Fast Facts Origin 2003 EH1 (an asteroid or a possible “rock comet”) Radiant Constellation Bootes; originally Quadrans Muralis (now a defunct constellation) Active December 28…
Webb Space Telescope Deployment Timeline Adjusted As Team Focuses on Observatory Operations
Taking advantage of its flexible commissioning schedule, the Webb team has decided to focus today (Sunday, January 2, 2022) on optimizing Webb’s power systems while…
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover 2021: Mapping the First Six Martian Samples
As the 2021 calendar year comes to a close, it’s nice to sit back and reflect on all the progress we’ve made on Mars this…
Lunar Views and Beyond – Incredible Image Captured by Astronaut
Astronauts traveling within Earth’s largest artificial satellite can capture unique shots of the planet’s only natural satellite. Astronauts traveling within Earth’s largest artificial satellite—the International…