General

Official National Aeronautics and Space Administration Website

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed […]

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read Sols 4495-4497: Yawn, Perched, and Rollin’ NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the upcoming “boxwork” structures to its west, using its Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI). The ChemCam instrument studies the chemical composition of rocks and soil, using a laser to vaporize materials, then analyze their elemental composition using an on-board spectrograph. The ChemCam RMI is a high-resolution camera atop the rover’s mast. Curiosity captured this image on March 27, 2025 — Sol 4493, or Martian day 4,493 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 15:35:21 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed up more time to check some lines off our rover’s weekend list. To do: SAM activity to exercise Oven 2 (check!), Navcam 360-degree “phase function” sky movie to monitor scattering of Martian clouds (check!), APXS atmospheric measurements of argon (check!), ChemCam passive sky measurements of oxygen (check!), and a drive of about 50 meters (about 164 feet) to the southwest (check!). Curiosity gets busy on the weekends so us PULs can do some lounging. On the Mastcam team, we’ve been pretty busy in the layered sulfate unit. The rocks are rippled, layered, fractured, and surrounded by sandy troughs. Where did it all come from? What current and past processes are at play in this area? This weekend we’re collecting 70 images to help figure that out. ChemCam is helping by collecting chemistry measurements of the lowest block in this Navcam image, with two targets close by aptly named “Solana Beach” and “Del Mar.” To help conserve power, we’ve been trying to parallelize our activities as much as possible. Recently this means Mastcam has been taking images while ChemCam undergoes “TEC Cooling” to get as cold as possible before using their laser. We’re all hoping the arm can come back from vacation next week. Share Details Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 3 min read Visiting Mars on the Way to the Outer Solar System Article 3 days ago 2 min read Sols 4493-4494: Just Looking Around Article 4 days ago 2 min read Sols 4491-4492: Classic Field Geology Pose Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the […]

Explore This Section Exoplanets Home Exoplanets Overview Exoplanets Facts Types of Exoplanets Stars What is the Universe Search for Life The Big Questions Are We Alone? Can We Find Life? The Habitable Zone Why We Search Target Star Catalog Discoveries Discoveries Dashboard How We Find and Characterize Missions People Exoplanet Catalog Immersive The Exoplaneteers Exoplanet Travel Bureau 5 Ways to Find a Planet Strange New Worlds Universe of Monsters Galaxy of Horrors News Stories Blog Resources Get Involved Glossary Eyes on Exoplanets Exoplanet Watch More Multimedia ExEP This artist’s concept pictures the planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, as seen from close to the surface of one of them. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the latest discovery — a family of four — appears to be solidly confirmed. The tiny size of the planets is also remarkable: Capturing evidence of small worlds at great distance is a tall order, even using state-of-the-art instruments and observational techniques. Details Watching for wobbles in the light from a star is one of the leading methods for detecting exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars. This “radial velocity” technique tracks subtle shifts in the spectrum of starlight caused by the gravity of a planet pulling its star back and forth as the planet orbits. But tiny planets pose a major challenge: the smaller the planet, the smaller the pull. These four are each between about a fifth and a third as massive as Earth. Stars also are known to jitter and quake, creating background “noise” that potentially could swamp the comparatively quiet signals from smaller, orbiting worlds. Astronomers measure the back-and-forth shifting of starlight in meters per second; in this case the radial velocity signals from all four planets amount to faint whispers — from 0.2 to 0.5 meters per second (a person walks at about 1 meter per second). But the noise from stellar activity is nearly 10 times larger at roughly 2 meters per second. How to separate planet signals from stellar noise? The astronomers made detailed mathematical models of Barnard’s Star’s quakes and jitters, allowing them to recognize and remove those signals from the data collected from the star. The new paper confirming the four tiny worlds — labeled b, c, d, and e — relies on data from MAROON-X, an “extreme precision” radial velocity instrument attached to the Gemini Telescope on the Maunakea mountaintop in Hawaii. It confirms the detection of the “b” planet, made with previous data from ESPRESSO, a radial velocity instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope in Chile. And the new work reveals three new sibling planets in the same system. Fun Facts These planets orbit their red-dwarf star much too closely to be habitable. The closest planet’s “year” lasts a little more than two days; for the farthest planet, it’s is just shy of seven days. That likely makes them too hot to support life. Yet their detection bodes well in the search for life beyond Earth. Scientists say small, rocky planets like ours are probably the best places to look for evidence of life as we know it. But so far they’ve been the most difficult to detect and characterize. High-precision radial velocity measurements, combined with more sharply focused techniques for extracting data, could open new windows into habitable, potentially life-bearing worlds. Barnard’s star was discovered in 1916 by Edward Emerson Barnard, a pioneering astrophotographer. The Discoverers An international team of scientists led by Ritvik Basant of the University of Chicago published their paper on the discovery, “Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO,” in the science journal, “The Astrophysical Journal Letters,” in March 2025. The planets were entered into the NASA Exoplanet Archive on March 13, 2025. Share Details Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms Exoplanets Radial Velocity Terrestrial Exoplanets Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Universe Exoplanets Search for Life Exoplanet Catalog This exoplanet encyclopedia — continuously updated, with more than 5,600 entries — combines interactive 3D models and detailed data on…

This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page. University Leadership InitiativeStep-A proposals due […]

7 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA / Lillian Gipson/Getty Images This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page. University Leadership Initiative Step-A proposals due by June 26, 2025. University Student Research Challenge Proposals for Cycle 3 are due by June 26, 2025. Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations is using this request for information to identify technologies that address current challenges facing the wildland firefighting community. NASA is seeking information on data collection, airborne connectivity and communications solutions, unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, aircraft operations and autonomy, and more. This will support development of a partnership strategy for future collaborative demonstrations. Interested parties were requested to respond to this notice with an information package no later than 4 pm ET, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies. View the full RFI Announcement here. Advanced Air Mobility Mission GENERAL ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION This request for information (RFI) is being used to gather market research for NASA to make informed decisions regarding potential partnership strategies and future research to enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). NASA is seeking information from public, private, and academic organizations to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding AAM research and development. This particular RFI is just one avenue of multiple planned opportunities for formal feedback on or participation in NASA’s AAM Mission-related efforts to develop these requirements and help enable AAM. The respond by date for this RFI closed on Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST. View the full RFI announcement here. NASA Research Opportunities in Aeronautics NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process to solicit proposals for foundational research in areas where ARMD seeks to enhance its core capabilities. Competition for NRA awards is open to both academia and industry. The current open solicitation for ARMD Research Opportunities is ROA-2023 and ROA-2024. Here is some general information to know about the NRA process. NRA solicitations are released by NASA Headquarters through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). All NRA technical work is defined and managed by project teams within these four programs: Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, and Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program. NRA awards originate from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, Ames Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Competition for NRA awards is full and open. Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, and nonprofits. Any updates or amendments to an NRA is posted on the appropriate NSPIRES web pages as noted in the Amendments detailed below. ARMD sends notifications of NRA updates through the NSPIRES email system. In order to receive these email notifications, you must be a Registered User of NSPIRES. However, note that NASA is not responsible for inadvertently failing to provide notification of a future NRA. Parties are responsible for regularly checking the NSPIRES website for updated NRAs. ROA-2024 NRA Amendments Amendment 1 (Full text here.) Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2024 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. The announcement solicits proposals from accredited U.S. institutions for research training grants to begin the academic year. This NOFO is designed to support independently conceived research projects by highly qualified graduate students, in disciplines needed to help advance NASA’s mission, thus affording these students the opportunity to directly contribute to advancements in STEM-related areas of study. AAVP Fellowship Opportunities are focused on innovation and the generation of measurable research results that contribute to NASA’s current and future science and technology goals. Research proposals are sought to address key challenges provided in Elements of Appendix A.8. Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required. A budget breakdown for each proposal is required, detailing the allocation of the award funds by year. The budget document may adhere to any format or template provided by the applicant’s institution. Proposals were due by April 30, 2024, at 5 PM ET. Amendment 2 UPDATED ON MARCH 31, 2025 (Full text here.) University Leadership Initiative (ULI) provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges in aeronautics, defining multi-disciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. Research proposals are sought in six ULI topic areas in Appendix D.4. Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1) Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2) Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3) Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4) Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5) Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6) This NRA will utilize a two-step proposal submission and evaluation process. The initial step is a short mandatory Step-A proposal, which is due June 26, 2025. Those offerors submitting the most highly rated Step-A proposals will be invited to submit a Step-B proposal. All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. An Applicant’s Workshop will be held on Thursday April 30, 2025; 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET (https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/applicants-workshops/workshop9) (Page will be live closer to the event.) An interested partners list for this ULI is at https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/partners. To be listed as an interested lead or partner, please send electronic mail to hq-univpartnerships@mail.nasa.gov with “ULI Partnerships” in the subject line and include the information required for the table in that web page. Amendment 3 (Full text here) Commercial Supersonic Technology seeks proposals for a fuel injector design concept and fabrication for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center. The proposal for the fuel injector design aims to establish current state-of-the-art in low NOx supersonic cruise while meeting reasonable landing take-off NOx emissions. The technology application timeline is targeted for a supersonic aircraft with entry into service in the 2035+ timeframe. These efforts are in alignment with activities in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as outlined in the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan, specifically Strategic Thrust 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft. Proposals were due by May 31, 2024 at 5 pm EDT. Amendment 4 UPDATED ON JANUARY 16, 2025 (Full text here) University Student Research Challenge seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics. USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign. The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding campaign acts as a teaching accelerator – requiring students to act like entrepreneurs and raise awareness about their research among the public. The solicitation goal can be accomplished through project ideas such as advancing the design, developing technology or capabilities in support of aviation, by demonstrating a novel concept, or enabling advancement of aeronautics-related technologies. Notices of Intent are not required for this solicitation. Proposals for Cycle 3 are due June 26, 2025. Proposals can also be submitted later and evaluated in the second and third cycles. The USRC Q&A/Info Session and Proposal Workshop will be held on the days/times below. Please join us on TEAMS using the Meeting Link, or call in via +1 256-715-9946,,317928116#. USRC Cycle Information Session/Q&A Date Proposal Due Date Cycle 1 Sept. 20, 2024 at 2 pm ET Nov. 7, 2024 Cycle 2 Jan. 27, 2025 at 2 pm ET March 13, 2025 Cycle 3 May 12, 2024 at 2 pm ET June 26, 2025 Keep Exploring See More About NASA Aeronautics Aeronautics STEM Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aeronáutica en español Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Editor Jim Banke Contact Jim Banke jim.banke@nasa.gov Related Terms Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate For Colleges & Universities Learning Resources

Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew. Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 […]

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft, is seen in the Pacific Ocean as teams practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Saturday, March 29, 2025. NASA/Bill Ingalls Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew. Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 (URT-12) on Monday, NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and their Defense Department counterparts are certified to recover the Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis II test flight that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon. “This will be NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program,” said Lili Villarreal, the landing and recovery director for Artemis II. “A lot of practice led up to this week’s event, and seeing everything come together at sea gives me great confidence that the air, water, ground, and medical support teams are ready to safely recover the spacecraft and the crew for this historic mission.” A wave breaks inside the well deck of USS Somerset as teams work to recover the Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale replica of the Orion spacecraft, as they practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky Once Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 325 mph. Then its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown off the coast of California. From the time it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the Artemis II spacecraft will fly 1,775 nautical miles to its landing spot in the Pacific Ocean. This direct approach allows NASA to control the amount of time the spacecraft will spend in extremely high temperature ranges. The Artemis II astronauts trained during URT-11 in February 2024, when they donned Orion Crew Survival System suits and practiced a range of recovery operations at sea using the Crew Module Test Article, a stand -in for their spacecraft. For the 12th training exercise, NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, did the same, moving from the simulated crew module to USS Somerset, with helicopters, a team of Navy divers in small boats, NASA’s open water lead – a technical expert and lead design engineer for all open water operations – as well as Navy and NASA medical teams rehearsing different recovery scenarios. Grant Bruner, left, and Gary Kirkendall, right, Orion suit technicians, are seen with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, second from left, and NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham, center, and Andre Douglas, as they prepare to take part in Artemis recovery operations as part of Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover, who will pilot Artemis II. “Learning about different systems and working with ground control teams also broadens their skillsets and prepares them for future roles. It also allows astronauts like me who are assigned to the mission to experience other roles – in this case, I am serving in the role of Joe Acaba, Chief of the Astronaut Office.” NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, right, speaks to NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Deniz Burnham as they prepare to take part in practicing Artemis recovery procedures during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Friday, March 28, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham smiles after landing in a Navy helicopter onboard USS Somerset during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Bill Ingalls As the astronauts arrive safely at the ship for medical checkouts, recovery teams focus on returning the spacecraft and its auxiliary ground support hardware to the amphibious transport dock. Navy divers attach a connection collar to the spacecraft and an additional line to a pneumatic winch inside the USS Somerset’s well deck, allowing joint NASA and Navy teams to tow Orion toward the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship manually pull some of the lines to help align Orion with its stand, which will secure the spacecraft for its trip to the shore. Following a safe and precise recovery, sailors will drain the well deck of water, and the ship will make its way back to Naval Base San Diego. The Artemis II test flight will confirm the foundational systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, taking another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for human missions to Mars. About the Author Allison Tankersley Public Affairs Specialist Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Missions Artemis 2 Exploration Ground Systems Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Explore More 5 min read Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries… Article 11 hours ago 5 min read 20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a… Article 14 hours ago 6 min read She Speaks for the Samples: Meet Dr. Juliane Gross, Artemis Campaign Sample Curation Lead Article 17 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System

Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society. “NASA’s science data is one […]

Explore This Section Open Science Overview Open Science News Funding Opportunities Open Science 101 5 min read Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science This montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the planets and four of Jupiter’s moons is set against a false-color picture of the Rosette Nebula with Earth’s moon in the foreground. Archival data from the Voyager missions continue to produce new scientific discoveries. NASA/JPL/ASU Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society. “NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It carries the stories of our missions, the insights of our discoveries, and the potential for future breakthroughs.” NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies. Kevin Murphy Chief Science Data Officer, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate NASA’s Science Mission Directorate manages an immense amount of data, spanning astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, Earth science, heliophysics, and planetary science. Currently, NASA’s science data holdings exceed 100 petabytes—enough to store 20 billion photos from the average modern smartphone. This volume is expected to grow significantly with new missions. This vast amount of data enables new discoveries, connecting scientific observations together in meaningful ways. Over 50% of scientific publications rely on archived data, which NASA provides to millions of commercial, government, and scientific users. NASA’s five science divisions — Astrophysics, Biological and Physical Sciences, Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science — store petabytes’ worth of data in their archives that enable scientists to continually make discoveries. NASA Managing and stewarding such massive volumes of information requires careful planning, robust infrastructure, and innovative strategies to ensure the data is accessible, secure, and sustainable. Continued support for data storage and cutting-edge technology is key to ensuring future generations of researchers can continue to explore using science data from NASA missions. Modern technology, such as image processing and artificial intelligence, helps unlock new insights from previous observations. For example, in 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft conducted a historic flyby of Uranus, capturing detailed data on the planet and its environment. Decades later, in the early 2000s, scientists used advanced image processing techniques on this archival data to discover two small moons, Perdita and Cupid, which had gone unnoticed during the initial analysis. In 2024, researchers revisited this 38-year-old archival data and identified a critical solar wind event that compressed Uranus’s magnetosphere just before the Voyager 2 flyby. This rare event, happening only about four percent of the time, provided unique insights into Uranus’s magnetic field and its interaction with space weather. The first panel of this artist’s concept depicts how Uranus’s magnetosphere (its protective bubble) was behaving before Voyager 2’s flyby. The second panel shows that an unusual kind of solar weather was happening at the same time as the spacecraft’s flyby, giving scientists a skewed view of Uranus’s magnetosphere. The work enabled by archival Voyager data contributes to scientists’ understanding of this enigmatic planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched in 2009, continues to provide data that reshapes our understanding of the Moon. In 2018, scientists analyzing the LRO’s archival data confirmed the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions at the Moon’s poles. In 2024, new studies out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, showed widespread evidence of water ice within the permanently shadowed regions outside the lunar South Pole, further aiding lunar mission planners. This discovery not only holds implications for lunar exploration but also demonstrates how existing data can yield groundbreaking insights. Artist rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) above the Moon. LRO carries seven instruments that make comprehensive remote sensing observations of the Moon and measurements of the lunar radiation environment. Archival data from LRO continues to help scientists make discoveries about the Moon. NASA/GSFC NASA’s data archives uncover the secrets of our own planet as well as others. In 2024, archaeologists published a study revealing a “lost” Mayan city in Campeche, Mexico that was previously unknown to the scientific community. The researchers identified the city in archival airborne Earth science data, including a 2013 dataset from NASA Goddard’s LiDAR Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) mission. The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project provides frequent high-resolution observations of Earth’s surface. Data from HLS has been instrumental in tracking urban growth over time. By analyzing changes in land cover, researchers have used HLS to monitor the expansion of cities and infrastructure development. For example, in rapidly growing metropolitan areas, HLS data has revealed patterns of urban sprawl, helping planners analyze past trends to predict future metropolitan expansion. 1985 2010 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 1985 2010 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 1985 2010 Before and After Urban Growth in Ontario, California 1985-2010 Curtain Toggle 2-Up Image Details Thirty-five miles due east of downtown Los Angeles lies the city of Ontario, California. These natural color Landsat 5 images show the massive growth of the city between 1985 and 2010. The airport, found in the southwest portion of the images, added a number of runways, and large warehousing structures now dominate the once rural areas surrounding the airport. In these images, vegetation is green and brown, while urban structures are bright white and gray. A large dry riverbed in the northeast corner is also bright white, but its nonlinear appearance sets it apart visually. Researchers use archival data from Landsat and other satellites to track the growth of cities like Ontario, CA over time. These discoveries represent only a fraction of what’s possible. NASA is investing in new technologies to harness the full potential of its data archives, including artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models—open-source AI tools designed to extract new findings from existing science data. “Our vision is to develop at least one AI model for each NASA scientific discipline, turning decades of legacy data into a treasure trove of discovery,” said Murphy. “By embedding NASA expertise into these tools, we ensure that our scientific data continues to drive innovation across science, industry, and society for generations to come.” Developed under a collaboration between NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, IBM, and universities, these AI models are scientifically validated and adaptable to new datasets, making them invaluable for researchers and industries alike. “It’s like having a virtual assistant that leverages decades of NASA’s knowledge to make smarter, quicker decisions,” said Murphy. On June 22, 2013, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this false-color image of the East Peak fire burning in southern Colorado near Trinidad. Burned areas appear dark red, while actively burning areas look orange. Dark green areas are forests; light green areas are grasslands. Data from Landsat 8 were used to train the Prithvi artificial intelligence model, which can help detect burn scars. NASA Earth Observatory The team’s Earth science foundation models—the Prithvi Geospatial model and Prithvi Weather model—analyze vast datasets to monitor Earth’s changing landscape, track weather patterns, and support critical decision-making processes. Building on this success, the team is now developing a foundation model for heliophysics. This model will unlock new insights about the dynamics of solar activity and space weather, which can affect satellite operations, communication systems, and even power grids on Earth. Additionally, a model designed for the Moon is in progress, aiming to enhance our understanding of lunar resources and environments. This investment in AI not only shortens the “data-to-discovery” timeline but also ensures that NASA’s data archives continue to drive innovation. From uncovering new planets to informing future exploration and supporting industries on Earth, the possibilities are boundless. By maintaining extensive archives and embracing cutting-edge technologies, the agency ensures that the data collected today will continue to inspire and inform discoveries far into the future. In doing so, NASA’s legacy science data truly remains the gift that keeps on giving. By Amanda Moon Adams Communications Lead for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Open Science Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landsat Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Voyager 2 Voyager Program Explore More 3 min read NASA Open Data Turns Science Into Art Article 1 month ago 3 min read 2023 Entrepreneurs Challenge Winner Skyline Nav AI: Revolutionizing GPS-Independent Navigation with Computer Vision Article 3 months ago 4 min read NASA Open Science Reveals Sounds of Space Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Open Science at NASA NASA’s commitment to open science fuels groundbreaking research while maximizing transparency, innovation, and collaboration. Parker Solar Probe On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona… Artificial Intelligence for Science NASA is creating artificial intelligence tools to help researchers use NASA’s science data more effectively. James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…

Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds […]

NASA/Frank Michaux Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds with its engines. The stage is the backbone of the rocket, supporting the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, Orion stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars. Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

What does a technologist do? Technologists are professionals who research, develop, and test emerging technologies. They also find useful ways to put new technologies to work. A technologist is an expert in a specific type of technology, often within a specific field. Many industries rely on innovations developed by technologists. Some of these include aerospace, […]

4 Min Read Career Spotlight: Technologist (Ages 14-18) What does a technologist do? Technologists are professionals who research, develop, and test emerging technologies. They also find useful ways to put new technologies to work. A technologist is an expert in a specific type of technology, often within a specific field. Many industries rely on innovations developed by technologists. Some of these include aerospace, research, manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology. NASA technologists make use of technological advancements to improve NASA’s capabilities and better meet the needs of its missions. They also oversee how technologies developed by NASA can improve life on Earth through commercial products. These products are called spinoffs. For examples of how NASA shows up in your everyday life, visit: https://spinoff.nasa.gov. What are some technology careers at NASA? Instrument scientist: Works to improve or develop instruments that collect data. In aerospace, an instrument is a sensor or other device that takes measurements or gathers scientific information. This role may include working with other specialties to design, create, and test scientific instruments. Data scientist: Uses computer science to create tools that manage data. Some of the tasks a data scientist might perform include developing predictive models, machine learning algorithms, or software to extract useful information from large sets of data. Information technology (IT) specialist: Designs, maintains, implements, and protects IT systems across the agency. Develops software, manages IT projects, and develops applications to support both organizational and mission operations. One of three small lunar rovers that are part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) is prepared for shipping in a clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. NASA/JPL-Caltech How can I become a technologist? There are many different types of careers in technology, and the requirements vary. While you’re in high school, explore the possibilities and learn about the specialties and roles that will fit your interests. Then, investigate the academic path and experience you’ll need to eventually be hired into those roles. Current job openings, guidance counselors, and mentors can shed light on the types of certifications or degrees required. With this information, you can begin planning for the skills and education you’ll need. It’s important to remember that technology is always advancing. Even after you’ve launched your technologist career, a “lifelong learning” mindset will help you keep up with new innovations and skills. How can I start preparing today to become a technologist? Start growing your technology skills today with hands-on activities created by NASA STEM. Looking for something more involved? Many of NASA’s student challenges, competitions, and activities offer authentic experience in aerospace technology, computer science, and more. Students aged 16 and up who are U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for a paid NASA internship. Interns work on real projects with the guidance of a NASA mentor. Internship sessions are held each year in spring, summer, and fall; visit NASA’s Internships website to learn about important deadlines and current opportunities. Frank Pena, test director, checks on the 10-foot Mock Truss-Braced Wing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The aircraft concept involves a wing braced on an aircraft using diagonal struts that also add lift and could result in significantly improved aerodynamics. NASA Advice from NASA technologists “Think about your personal interests and passions, and also the impact you’d like your work to have. What do you feel personally interested in when it comes to science and technology? Is there a problem that you think is very important for our society to solve? Often there is a research or technology field that can combine those two things!” – Olivia Tyrrell, NASA research engineer What do you feel personally interested in when it comes to science and technology? Olivia Tyrrell NASA Research Engineer “If you like to create things or find solutions to problems, working in technology is a great choice. Scientists identify problems, engineers solve problems, but ultimately, we need to create new technologies, new things, new gadgets. Technologists are building the next generation toolbox for engineers and scientists to pull from, enabling everyone to solve problems in more effective and innovative ways. (Technologists invent things… what’s cooler than that?!)” – Kristen John, technical integration manager for lunar dust mitigation Additional Resources NASA Data Science, Cybersecurity, and IT Careers NASA Space Technology Technology | NASA+ Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA For Students Grades 9-12 NASA Internship Programs NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities For Students Careers

What does a scientist do? Science is about exploring answers to questions. A scientist uses research and evidence to form hypotheses, test variables, and then share their findings. NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research to answer some of humanity’s most profound questions. Most scientists start as project scientists in their early careers. They spend a lot […]

4 Min Read Career Spotlight: Scientist (Ages 14-18) What does a scientist do? Science is about exploring answers to questions. A scientist uses research and evidence to form hypotheses, test variables, and then share their findings. NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research to answer some of humanity’s most profound questions. Most scientists start as project scientists in their early careers. They spend a lot of time publishing their peer-reviewed literature and presenting scientific research. Senior-level scientists provide leadership in the NASA community, actively publish research group work, and take on management roles. What are some of the different types of scientists that work at NASA? Many types of scientists work at NASA to support its wide variety of missions. The agency’s scientists research the foods we send to space, the habitability of other planets, the weather in space, and so much more. Here are a few examples of types of scientists at NASA. Planetary scientist: Discovers and studies the planetary objects in our solar system. These efforts shed light on the history of the solar system and the distribution of life within it. Astrobiologist: Studies the origins of life, how life evolves, and where it might be found in the universe. Astrophysicist: Studies the physical and chemical structures of stars, planets, and other natural objects found in space. Biological/physical scientist: Studies how biological and physical processes work in challenging environments like space. This information helps NASA design longer human space missions and also benefits life on Earth. Earth scientist: Uses observations and data from satellites and other sources to study Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land cover, and land use. Heliophysicist: Studies the Sun and its behaviors, such as magnetic fields, solar wind, and space weather. This knowledge helps us better understand and predict the Sun’s effects on Earth and in space. How can I become a scientist? Focus on building your scientific knowledge and skills. You can do this by taking challenging academic courses, participating in science fairs, and joining extracurricular activities that have a scientific focus. This is also a good time to research what types of sciences you’re most interested in, possible careers in those fields, and academic degrees required for those jobs. Scientists typically need at least a four-year degree. Most pursue a master’s degree or even a doctorate (Ph.D.) to become experts in their field. How can I start preparing today to become a scientist? Interested in applying some science skills right away? NASA provides a variety of hands-on activities for a range of skill levels. The space agency also offers student challenges, competitions, and activities that provide authentic experience in a variety of science fields. For up-to-date opportunities, visit: NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities for Students NASA Science Learning Opportunities NASA also offers paid internships for U.S. citizens aged 16 and up. Interns work on real projects with the guidance of a NASA mentor. Internship sessions are held each year in spring, summer, and fall; visit NASA’s Internships website to learn about important deadlines and current opportunities. Advice from NASA scientists “Take advantage of opportunities in different fields like attending summer classes, volunteering on the weekends, visiting museums, attending community lectures, and reading introductory books at the library. These are a few ways to expand your scope of possibility within the sciences, while simultaneously narrowing your focus in a field.” – Angela Garcia, exploration geologist “The key to being a scientist is to love asking questions. If you are fascinated about how and why things work — you are already a scientist.” Nicola Fox NASA Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate “One general skill that is often overlooked is the ability to write well and clearly. There’s a misconception that being a scientist means using big words and writing in ways that no one understands, when it’s actually the opposite. The ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas so that a child can understand is not easy, but it’s essential for good scientific writing.” – Matt Mickens, NASA horticulturist Additional Resources Careers in Science and Research NASA Science Career Path Navigator NASA Science Mission Directorate People of NASA Science Explore NASA+ Scientist Resources Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA For Students Grades 9-12 NASA Internship Programs NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities For Students Careers

The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, […]

Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 5 Min Read 20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region brightened as northern summer approaches. Credits: NASA, ESA, Erich Karkoschka (LPL) The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, and longevity. The team’s results will help astronomers to better understand how the atmosphere of Uranus works and responds to changing sunlight. These long-term observations provide valuable data for understanding the atmospheric dynamics of this distant ice giant, which can serve as a proxy for studying exoplanets of similar size and composition. When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, it provided a close-up snapshot of the sideways planet. What it saw resembled a bland, blue-green billiard ball. By comparison, Hubble chronicled a 20-year story of seasonal changes from 2002 to 2022. Over that period, a team led by Erich Karkoschka of the University of Arizona, and Larry Sromovsky and Pat Fry from the University of Wisconsin used the same Hubble instrument, STIS (the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph), to paint an accurate picture of the atmospheric structure of Uranus. Uranus’ atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane and traces of water and ammonia. The methane gives Uranus its cyan color by absorbing the red wavelengths of sunlight. The Hubble team observed Uranus four times in the 20-year period: in 2002, 2012, 2015, and 2022. They found that, unlike conditions on the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, methane is not uniformly distributed across Uranus. Instead, it is strongly depleted near the poles. This depletion remained relatively constant over the two decades. However, the aerosol and haze structure changed dramatically, brightening significantly in the northern polar region as the planet approaches its northern summer solstice in 2030. The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region brightened as northern summer approaches. NASA, ESA, Erich Karkoschka (LPL) Uranus takes a little over 84 Earth years to complete a single orbit of the Sun. So, over two decades, the Hubble team has only seen mostly northern spring as the Sun moves from shining directly over Uranus’ equator toward shining almost directly over its north pole in 2030. Hubble observations suggest complex atmospheric circulation patterns on Uranus during this period. The data that are most sensitive to the methane distribution indicate a downwelling in the polar regions and upwelling in other regions. The team analyzed their results in several ways. The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region (left) darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region (right) brightened as it began to come into a more direct view as northern summer approaches. The top row, in visible light, shows how the color of Uranus appears to the human eye as seen through even an amateur telescope. In the second row, the false-color image of the planet is assembled from visible and near-infrared light observations. The color and brightness correspond to the amounts of methane and aerosols. Both of these quantities could not be distinguished before Hubble’s STIS was first aimed at Uranus in 2002. Generally, green areas indicate less methane than blue areas, and red areas show no methane. The red areas are at the limb, where the stratosphere of Uranus is almost completely devoid of methane. The two bottom rows show the latitude structure of aerosols and methane inferred from 1,000 different wavelengths (colors) from visible to near infrared. In the third row, bright areas indicate cloudier conditions, while the dark areas represent clearer conditions. In the fourth row, bright areas indicate depleted methane, while dark areas show the full amount of methane. At middle and low latitudes, aerosols and methane depletion have their own latitudinal structure that mostly did not change much over the two decades of observation. However, in the polar regions, aerosols and methane depletion behave very differently. In the third row, the aerosols near the north pole display a dramatic increase, showing up as very dark during early northern spring, turning very bright in recent years. Aerosols also seem to disappear at the left limb as the solar radiation disappeared. This is evidence that solar radiation changes the aerosol haze in the atmosphere of Uranus. On the other hand, methane depletion seems to stay quite high in both polar regions throughout the observing period. Astronomers will continue to observe Uranus as the planet approaches northern summer. The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA. Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Related Images & Videos 20 Years of Uranus Observations Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Ann Jenkins Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland Related Terms Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Planetary Environments & Atmospheres Planetary Science Planets The Solar System Uranus

The annual regional event puts students’ knowledge of ocean-related science to the test in a fast-paced academic competition. A team of students from University High School in Irvine earned first place at a fast-paced regional academic competition focused on ocean science disciplines and hosted by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Eight teams from […]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This team from University High School in Irvine, California, won the 2025 regional Oceans Science Bowl, hosted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From left: Nethra Iyer, Joanne Chen, Matthew Feng, Avery Hexun, Angelina Yan, and coach David Knight. NASA/JPL-Caltech The annual regional event puts students’ knowledge of ocean-related science to the test in a fast-paced academic competition. A team of students from University High School in Irvine earned first place at a fast-paced regional academic competition focused on ocean science disciplines and hosted by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Eight teams from Los Angeles and Orange counties competed at the March 29 event, dubbed the Los Angeles Surf Bowl. It was the last of about 20 regional competitions held across the U.S. this year in the lead-up to the virtual National Ocean Sciences Bowl finals event in mid-May. Santa Monica High School earned second place; Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles came in third. With its victory, University repeated its winning performance from last year. The school also won the JPL-hosted regional Science Bowl earlier this month. Teams from all eight schools that participated in the JPL-hosted 2025 regional Ocean Sciences Bowl pose alongside volunteers and coaches. NASA/JPL-Caltech For the Ocean Sciences Bowl, teams are composed of four to five students and a coach. To prepare for the event, team members spend months answering multiple-choice questions with a “Jeopardy!”-style buzzer in just five seconds. Questions come in several categories, including biology, chemistry, geology, and physics along with related geography, technology, history, policy, and current events topics. A question in the chemistry category might be “What chemical is the principal source of energy at many of Earth’s hydrothermal vent systems?” (It’s hydrogen sulfide.) Other questions can be considerably more challenging. When a team member buzzes in and gives the correct answer to a multiple-choice question, the team earns a bonus question, which allows teammates to consult with one another to come up with an answer. More complicated “team challenge questions” prompt students to work together for a longer period. The theme of this year’s competition is “Sounding the Depths: Understanding Ocean Acoustics.” University High junior Matthew Feng, a return competitor, said the team’s success felt like a payoff for hours of studying together, including on weekends. He keeps coming back to the competition partly for the sense of community and also for the personal challenge, he said. “It’s nice to compete and meet people, see people who were here last year,” Matthew added. “Pushing yourself mentally — the first year I was shaking so hard because I wasn’t used to that much adrenaline.” Since 2000, JPL’s Public Services Office has coordinated the Los Angeles regional contest with the help of volunteers from laboratory staff and former Ocean Sciences Bowl participants in the local community. JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a program of the Center for Ocean Leadership at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities focused in part on Earth science-related education. News Media Contact Melissa Pamer Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-314-4928 melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov 2025-044 Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Jet Propulsion Laboratory STEM Engagement at NASA Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars Lee esta historia en español aquí. Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found… Article 1 week ago 5 min read NASA Takes to the Air to Study Wildflowers Article 1 week ago 6 min read Next-Generation Water Satellite Maps Seafloor From Space Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and primary contractor Amentum integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, March 23, 2025. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.

In this February 1944 publicity photo, men stand in front of turning vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. The AWT was the only wind tunnel capable of testing full-size aircraft engines in simulated altitude conditions. A large wooden drive fan, located on the other side of these vanes, created wind speeds up to 500 miles per hour.

The instrument enclosure of NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024.

Astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom are suited for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a Gemini spacesuit in order to make this painting as accurate as possible.

This plaque commemorating the STS-107 space shuttle Columbia crew looks over the Mars landscape after the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, landed and deployed onto the red planet on Jan. 4, 2004. The plaque, mounted on the high-gain antenna, is shown while the rover underwent final checkout March 28, 2003, in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

A dolphin's dorsal fin cuts through the water in the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, second from left, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, second from right, and Suni Williams, right are seen inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft aboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, and Wilmore are returning from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International Space Station.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 members pose together for a portrait inside the vestibule between the International Space Station and the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov onboard, Friday, March 14, 2025, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission is the tenth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. McClain, Ayers, Onishi, and Peskov launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy to begin a six-month mission aboard the orbital outpost.

A NASA photographer captured a time-lapse image of the lunar eclipse and blood moon above the Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, OH on March 14, 2025.

Uranus was the first planet found with the aid of a telescope. It was discovered on March 13, 1781, by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star. Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead, the planet was named for Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, as suggested by astronomer Johann Bode.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft on top is seen during sunrise on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, ahead of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch. Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Liftoff is targeted for 7:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.

NASA Artemis II Crew Public Affairs Officer Courtney Beasley, left, moderates a panel discussion with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, right, as they discuss their mission around the Moon next year aboard Artemis II, the first crewed test flight under NASA's Artemis campaign, Friday, March 7, 2025, at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image of Ceres' south polar region on May 17, 2017, from an altitude of about 26,400 miles (42,500 kilometers).

NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson points to the Expedition 71 patch on her flight suit as she answers a question from students, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Washington. Dyson and fellow crewmates Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps served as part of Expedition 71 aboard the International Space Station.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured an image of Kachemak Bay’s turbid, cloudy waters on September 20, 2024.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a supernova remnant called the Veil Nebula. This nebula is the remnant of a star roughly 20 times as massive as the Sun that exploded about 10,000 years ago.

Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday, March 2, 2025, near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side.

In this 1957 photo, George Cooper, a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, stands next to a North American F-100, a supersonic fighter tested by the NACA.

An apprentice at Langley Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) inspects wind tunnel components in this image from May 15, 1943.

Creating a golden streak in the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander (IM-2) soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:16 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 26 as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The IM-2 launch is carrying NASA science, technology demonstrations, and other commercial payloads to Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau to advance our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future crewed missions.

The Milky Way appears beyond Earth's horizon in this celestial photograph captured on Jan. 29, 2025, by NASA astronaut Don Pettit using a camera with low light and long duration settings pointed out a window on the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft. The International Space Station was orbiting 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile just before sunrise.

NASA’s X-59 lights up the night sky with its unique Mach diamonds, also known as shock diamonds, during maximum afterburner testing at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The test demonstrates the engine’s ability to generate the thrust required for supersonic flight, advancing NASA’s Quesst mission.

Tall plumes of white vapor rise from the rocky Venusian surface in this April 19, 1977, artist’s concept.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away.

Engineers with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems complete stacking operations on the twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters for Artemis II by integrating the nose cones atop the forward assemblies inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The twin solid boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

This updated version of "the Pale Blue Dot," made for the photo's 30th anniversary in 2020, uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images.

This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus. By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and green) with optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow) and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (orange), this stellar arrangement comes alive.

One of three small lunar rovers that are part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) is prepared for shipping in a clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Jan. 29, 2025.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this feather-shaped iridescent cloud just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Studying the colors in iridescent clouds tells scientists something about particle size within the clouds and how they grow over time. These clouds were captured as part of a follow-on imaging campaign to study noctilucent, or "night-shining" clouds, which started in 2021. This scene made up of 28 individual images captured by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam.

The brilliant exhaust from the solid rocket boosters (center) and blue mach diamonds from the main engine nozzles mark the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Launch Pad 39A on Feb. 11, 2000.

This view from space shuttle Columbia shows Mount Everest, which reaches 29,028 feet in elevation (8,848 meters), along with many glaciers. Mount Everest is to the left of the V-shaped valley.

The full moon rises over the Superdome and the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on Monday evening, January 13, 2025. The Wolf Moon, also known as the Ice or Cold Moon, was full at 5:27 p.m. EST. New Orleans is home to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility where several pieces of hardware for the SLS (Space Launch System) are being built.

The blue tentacle-like arms containing gecko-like adhesive pads, attached to an Astrobee robotic free-flyer, reach out and grapple a "capture cube" inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The experimental grippers, outfitted on the toaster-sized Astrobee, demonstrated autonomous detection and capture techniques that may be used to remove space debris and service satellites in low Earth orbit.

An excellent view of the Apollo 14 lunar module on the Moon, as photographed during the first Apollo 14 moonwalk on the lunar surface. The astronauts have already deployed the U.S. flag. While astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., commander, and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, descended in the lunar module to explore the Moon, astronaut Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, remained with the command and service modules in lunar orbit.

LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye, is two and a half times the size of our Milky Way and has nine rings — six more than any other known galaxy. High-resolution imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirmed eight rings, and data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed a ninth. Hubble and Keck also confirmed which galaxy dove through the Bullseye, creating these rings: the blue dwarf galaxy that sits to its immediate center-left.

Engineers and technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program prepare to lift the left center center booster segment shown with the iconic NASA “worm” insignia for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

A crane lowers the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) steel framework for the Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23) reflector dish into position on Dec. 18, 2024, at the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. A multi-frequency beam waveguide antenna, DSS-23 will boost the DSN's capacity and enhance NASA's deep space communications capabilities for decades to come.

NASA's SPHEREx observatory is oriented in a horizontal position, revealing all three layers of photon shields as well as the telescope. This photo was taken at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in April 2024. Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx will create a map of the cosmos like no other. Using a technique called spectroscopy to image the entire sky in 102 wavelengths of infrared light, SPHEREx will gather information about the composition of and distance to millions of galaxies and stars. With this map, scientists will study what happened in the first fraction of a second after the big bang, how galaxies formed and evolved, and the origins of water in planetary systems in our galaxy.

Springtime in the South Polar region of Mars is a season of exciting activity. The thick coating of carbon dioxide ice that accumulated over the winter begins to sublimate (turn to vapor) as the sun rises higher in the sky and warms the ice. Sunlight penetrates through the transparent ice, and is absorbed at the base of the ice layer. The gas that forms as a result of the warming escapes through weaknesses in the ice and erupts in the form of magnificent geysers of gas and dust.

The full Moon, also known in January as the Wolf Moon, rises above the Lincoln Memorial and the Memorial Bridge, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, as seen from Arlington, Virginia.

An inquisitive sandhill crane approaches the photographer near the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 24, 2021. Kennedy shares space with the Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge, which is home to more than 1,000 species of plants, 117 species of fish, 68 amphibians and reptiles, 330 birds, and 31 different mammals. The refuge provides a favorable environment for sandhill cranes as it contains shallow freshwater habitats for nesting, along with a variety of vegetation and prey to feed on.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a dusty yet sparkling scene from one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy situated about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

This is an artist's concept of a two-person Gemini spacecraft in flight, showing a cutaway view. The Gemini program was designed as a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo programs.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 commander Suni Williams is pictured during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station where she replaced a rate gyro assembly that helps maintain the orientation of the orbital outpost.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is seen in the foreground with the Washington Monument in the background, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. The memorial covers four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. carved by sculptor Lei Yixin.

Released on Nov. 3, 2023, in honor of Jupiter reaching opposition, which occurs when the planet and the Sun are in opposite sides of the sky, this view of the gas giant planet includes the iconic, massive storm called the “Great Red Spot.”

Chief of aerodynamics Elton W. Miller ponders the future of the Sperry M-1 Messenger, the first full-scale airplane tested in the Propeller Research Tunnel. Miller was one of the designers of the Propeller Research Tunnel.

A visitor takes a picture of a sculpture of an adult Alamosaurus wearing solar glasses outside of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Indianapolis, Ind. On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

A color enhancement of a far-ultraviolet photo of Earth taken by astronaut John W. Young, commander, with the ultraviolet camera on April 21, 1972. The original black-and-white photo was printed on Agfacontour film three times, each exposure recording only one light level. The three light levels were then colored blue (dimmest), green (next brightest), and red (brightest).

On Jan. 10, 2025, NASA astronaut Don Pettit posted two images of the Los Angeles fires from the International Space Station.

"As a young college student, it was the first time I ever faced [this situation], and it buckled me. It set me back until I realized that I could do it and that my worth wasn't based on what someone else thought of me or my abilities…If I had pulled myself out of that STEM major, I would never have been managing a technology demonstration program for NASA that launched ten technologies into space.” – Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse, Director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory, Engineering Directorate, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

The New York-based artist team Geraluz, left, and WERC, right, and their son Amaru Alvarez, 5, pose for picture with the mural “To the Moon, and Back” by the artist team that was created as part of the reimagined NASA Art Program, Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at 350 Hudson Street in New York City. The murals use geometrical patterns to invite deeper reflection on the exploration, creativity, and connection with the cosmos.

A test subject being suited up for studies on the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator located in the hangar at Langley Research Center. The initial version of this simulator was located inside the hangar. Later a larger version would be located at the Lunar Landing Facility.

From left, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman participate in a media day event on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A total solar eclipse is seen from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Indianapolis, Indiana. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.

iss072e031823 (Oct. 7, 2024) -- Peering through the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured this image of the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft as vivid green and pink aurora swirled through Earth's atmosphere while the International Space Station soared 273 miles above the Indian Ocean.

President Carter, wife Rosalynn and daughter Amy are shown a scale model of the crawler that transported the total Shuttle launch configuration to Pad 39 from the Vehicle Assembly Building by NASA's Kennedy Space Center Director, Lee Scherer.

Official National Aeronautics and Space Administration Website

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed […]

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read Sols 4495-4497: Yawn, Perched, and Rollin’ NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the upcoming “boxwork” structures to its west, using its Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI). The ChemCam instrument studies the chemical composition of rocks and soil, using a laser to vaporize materials, then analyze their elemental composition using an on-board spectrograph. The ChemCam RMI is a high-resolution camera atop the rover’s mast. Curiosity captured this image on March 27, 2025 — Sol 4493, or Martian day 4,493 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 15:35:21 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems Earth planning date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Womp, womp. Another SRAP (Slip Risk Assessment Process) issue due to wheels being perched on these massive layered sulfate rocks. With our winter power constraints as tight as they are, though, keeping the arm stowed freed up more time to check some lines off our rover’s weekend list. To do: SAM activity to exercise Oven 2 (check!), Navcam 360-degree “phase function” sky movie to monitor scattering of Martian clouds (check!), APXS atmospheric measurements of argon (check!), ChemCam passive sky measurements of oxygen (check!), and a drive of about 50 meters (about 164 feet) to the southwest (check!). Curiosity gets busy on the weekends so us PULs can do some lounging. On the Mastcam team, we’ve been pretty busy in the layered sulfate unit. The rocks are rippled, layered, fractured, and surrounded by sandy troughs. Where did it all come from? What current and past processes are at play in this area? This weekend we’re collecting 70 images to help figure that out. ChemCam is helping by collecting chemistry measurements of the lowest block in this Navcam image, with two targets close by aptly named “Solana Beach” and “Del Mar.” To help conserve power, we’ve been trying to parallelize our activities as much as possible. Recently this means Mastcam has been taking images while ChemCam undergoes “TEC Cooling” to get as cold as possible before using their laser. We’re all hoping the arm can come back from vacation next week. Share Details Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 3 min read Visiting Mars on the Way to the Outer Solar System Article 3 days ago 2 min read Sols 4493-4494: Just Looking Around Article 4 days ago 2 min read Sols 4491-4492: Classic Field Geology Pose Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the […]

Explore This Section Exoplanets Home Exoplanets Overview Exoplanets Facts Types of Exoplanets Stars What is the Universe Search for Life The Big Questions Are We Alone? Can We Find Life? The Habitable Zone Why We Search Target Star Catalog Discoveries Discoveries Dashboard How We Find and Characterize Missions People Exoplanet Catalog Immersive The Exoplaneteers Exoplanet Travel Bureau 5 Ways to Find a Planet Strange New Worlds Universe of Monsters Galaxy of Horrors News Stories Blog Resources Get Involved Glossary Eyes on Exoplanets Exoplanet Watch More Multimedia ExEP This artist’s concept pictures the planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, as seen from close to the surface of one of them. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the latest discovery — a family of four — appears to be solidly confirmed. The tiny size of the planets is also remarkable: Capturing evidence of small worlds at great distance is a tall order, even using state-of-the-art instruments and observational techniques. Details Watching for wobbles in the light from a star is one of the leading methods for detecting exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars. This “radial velocity” technique tracks subtle shifts in the spectrum of starlight caused by the gravity of a planet pulling its star back and forth as the planet orbits. But tiny planets pose a major challenge: the smaller the planet, the smaller the pull. These four are each between about a fifth and a third as massive as Earth. Stars also are known to jitter and quake, creating background “noise” that potentially could swamp the comparatively quiet signals from smaller, orbiting worlds. Astronomers measure the back-and-forth shifting of starlight in meters per second; in this case the radial velocity signals from all four planets amount to faint whispers — from 0.2 to 0.5 meters per second (a person walks at about 1 meter per second). But the noise from stellar activity is nearly 10 times larger at roughly 2 meters per second. How to separate planet signals from stellar noise? The astronomers made detailed mathematical models of Barnard’s Star’s quakes and jitters, allowing them to recognize and remove those signals from the data collected from the star. The new paper confirming the four tiny worlds — labeled b, c, d, and e — relies on data from MAROON-X, an “extreme precision” radial velocity instrument attached to the Gemini Telescope on the Maunakea mountaintop in Hawaii. It confirms the detection of the “b” planet, made with previous data from ESPRESSO, a radial velocity instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope in Chile. And the new work reveals three new sibling planets in the same system. Fun Facts These planets orbit their red-dwarf star much too closely to be habitable. The closest planet’s “year” lasts a little more than two days; for the farthest planet, it’s is just shy of seven days. That likely makes them too hot to support life. Yet their detection bodes well in the search for life beyond Earth. Scientists say small, rocky planets like ours are probably the best places to look for evidence of life as we know it. But so far they’ve been the most difficult to detect and characterize. High-precision radial velocity measurements, combined with more sharply focused techniques for extracting data, could open new windows into habitable, potentially life-bearing worlds. Barnard’s star was discovered in 1916 by Edward Emerson Barnard, a pioneering astrophotographer. The Discoverers An international team of scientists led by Ritvik Basant of the University of Chicago published their paper on the discovery, “Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO,” in the science journal, “The Astrophysical Journal Letters,” in March 2025. The planets were entered into the NASA Exoplanet Archive on March 13, 2025. Share Details Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms Exoplanets Radial Velocity Terrestrial Exoplanets Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Universe Exoplanets Search for Life Exoplanet Catalog This exoplanet encyclopedia — continuously updated, with more than 5,600 entries — combines interactive 3D models and detailed data on…

This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page. University Leadership InitiativeStep-A proposals due […]

7 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA / Lillian Gipson/Getty Images This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page. University Leadership Initiative Step-A proposals due by June 26, 2025. University Student Research Challenge Proposals for Cycle 3 are due by June 26, 2025. Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations is using this request for information to identify technologies that address current challenges facing the wildland firefighting community. NASA is seeking information on data collection, airborne connectivity and communications solutions, unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, aircraft operations and autonomy, and more. This will support development of a partnership strategy for future collaborative demonstrations. Interested parties were requested to respond to this notice with an information package no later than 4 pm ET, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies. View the full RFI Announcement here. Advanced Air Mobility Mission GENERAL ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION This request for information (RFI) is being used to gather market research for NASA to make informed decisions regarding potential partnership strategies and future research to enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). NASA is seeking information from public, private, and academic organizations to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding AAM research and development. This particular RFI is just one avenue of multiple planned opportunities for formal feedback on or participation in NASA’s AAM Mission-related efforts to develop these requirements and help enable AAM. The respond by date for this RFI closed on Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST. View the full RFI announcement here. NASA Research Opportunities in Aeronautics NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process to solicit proposals for foundational research in areas where ARMD seeks to enhance its core capabilities. Competition for NRA awards is open to both academia and industry. The current open solicitation for ARMD Research Opportunities is ROA-2023 and ROA-2024. Here is some general information to know about the NRA process. NRA solicitations are released by NASA Headquarters through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). All NRA technical work is defined and managed by project teams within these four programs: Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, and Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program. NRA awards originate from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, Ames Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Competition for NRA awards is full and open. Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, and nonprofits. Any updates or amendments to an NRA is posted on the appropriate NSPIRES web pages as noted in the Amendments detailed below. ARMD sends notifications of NRA updates through the NSPIRES email system. In order to receive these email notifications, you must be a Registered User of NSPIRES. However, note that NASA is not responsible for inadvertently failing to provide notification of a future NRA. Parties are responsible for regularly checking the NSPIRES website for updated NRAs. ROA-2024 NRA Amendments Amendment 1 (Full text here.) Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2024 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. The announcement solicits proposals from accredited U.S. institutions for research training grants to begin the academic year. This NOFO is designed to support independently conceived research projects by highly qualified graduate students, in disciplines needed to help advance NASA’s mission, thus affording these students the opportunity to directly contribute to advancements in STEM-related areas of study. AAVP Fellowship Opportunities are focused on innovation and the generation of measurable research results that contribute to NASA’s current and future science and technology goals. Research proposals are sought to address key challenges provided in Elements of Appendix A.8. Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required. A budget breakdown for each proposal is required, detailing the allocation of the award funds by year. The budget document may adhere to any format or template provided by the applicant’s institution. Proposals were due by April 30, 2024, at 5 PM ET. Amendment 2 UPDATED ON MARCH 31, 2025 (Full text here.) University Leadership Initiative (ULI) provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges in aeronautics, defining multi-disciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. Research proposals are sought in six ULI topic areas in Appendix D.4. Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1) Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2) Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3) Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4) Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5) Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6) This NRA will utilize a two-step proposal submission and evaluation process. The initial step is a short mandatory Step-A proposal, which is due June 26, 2025. Those offerors submitting the most highly rated Step-A proposals will be invited to submit a Step-B proposal. All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. An Applicant’s Workshop will be held on Thursday April 30, 2025; 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET (https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/applicants-workshops/workshop9) (Page will be live closer to the event.) An interested partners list for this ULI is at https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/partners. To be listed as an interested lead or partner, please send electronic mail to hq-univpartnerships@mail.nasa.gov with “ULI Partnerships” in the subject line and include the information required for the table in that web page. Amendment 3 (Full text here) Commercial Supersonic Technology seeks proposals for a fuel injector design concept and fabrication for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center. The proposal for the fuel injector design aims to establish current state-of-the-art in low NOx supersonic cruise while meeting reasonable landing take-off NOx emissions. The technology application timeline is targeted for a supersonic aircraft with entry into service in the 2035+ timeframe. These efforts are in alignment with activities in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as outlined in the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan, specifically Strategic Thrust 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft. Proposals were due by May 31, 2024 at 5 pm EDT. Amendment 4 UPDATED ON JANUARY 16, 2025 (Full text here) University Student Research Challenge seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics. USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign. The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding campaign acts as a teaching accelerator – requiring students to act like entrepreneurs and raise awareness about their research among the public. The solicitation goal can be accomplished through project ideas such as advancing the design, developing technology or capabilities in support of aviation, by demonstrating a novel concept, or enabling advancement of aeronautics-related technologies. Notices of Intent are not required for this solicitation. Proposals for Cycle 3 are due June 26, 2025. Proposals can also be submitted later and evaluated in the second and third cycles. The USRC Q&A/Info Session and Proposal Workshop will be held on the days/times below. Please join us on TEAMS using the Meeting Link, or call in via +1 256-715-9946,,317928116#. USRC Cycle Information Session/Q&A Date Proposal Due Date Cycle 1 Sept. 20, 2024 at 2 pm ET Nov. 7, 2024 Cycle 2 Jan. 27, 2025 at 2 pm ET March 13, 2025 Cycle 3 May 12, 2024 at 2 pm ET June 26, 2025 Keep Exploring See More About NASA Aeronautics Aeronautics STEM Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aeronáutica en español Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Editor Jim Banke Contact Jim Banke jim.banke@nasa.gov Related Terms Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate For Colleges & Universities Learning Resources

Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew. Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 […]

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft, is seen in the Pacific Ocean as teams practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Saturday, March 29, 2025. NASA/Bill Ingalls Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew. Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 (URT-12) on Monday, NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and their Defense Department counterparts are certified to recover the Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis II test flight that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon. “This will be NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program,” said Lili Villarreal, the landing and recovery director for Artemis II. “A lot of practice led up to this week’s event, and seeing everything come together at sea gives me great confidence that the air, water, ground, and medical support teams are ready to safely recover the spacecraft and the crew for this historic mission.” A wave breaks inside the well deck of USS Somerset as teams work to recover the Crew Module Test Article (CMTA), a full scale replica of the Orion spacecraft, as they practice Artemis recovery operations during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky Once Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 325 mph. Then its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown off the coast of California. From the time it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the Artemis II spacecraft will fly 1,775 nautical miles to its landing spot in the Pacific Ocean. This direct approach allows NASA to control the amount of time the spacecraft will spend in extremely high temperature ranges. The Artemis II astronauts trained during URT-11 in February 2024, when they donned Orion Crew Survival System suits and practiced a range of recovery operations at sea using the Crew Module Test Article, a stand -in for their spacecraft. For the 12th training exercise, NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, did the same, moving from the simulated crew module to USS Somerset, with helicopters, a team of Navy divers in small boats, NASA’s open water lead – a technical expert and lead design engineer for all open water operations – as well as Navy and NASA medical teams rehearsing different recovery scenarios. Grant Bruner, left, and Gary Kirkendall, right, Orion suit technicians, are seen with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, second from left, and NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham, center, and Andre Douglas, as they prepare to take part in Artemis recovery operations as part of Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover, who will pilot Artemis II. “Learning about different systems and working with ground control teams also broadens their skillsets and prepares them for future roles. It also allows astronauts like me who are assigned to the mission to experience other roles – in this case, I am serving in the role of Joe Acaba, Chief of the Astronaut Office.” NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, right, speaks to NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Deniz Burnham as they prepare to take part in practicing Artemis recovery procedures during Underway Recovery Test-12 onboard USS Somerset off the coast of California, Friday, March 28, 2025. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham smiles after landing in a Navy helicopter onboard USS Somerset during Underway Recovery Test-12 off the coast of California, Thursday, March 27, 2025. NASA/Bill Ingalls As the astronauts arrive safely at the ship for medical checkouts, recovery teams focus on returning the spacecraft and its auxiliary ground support hardware to the amphibious transport dock. Navy divers attach a connection collar to the spacecraft and an additional line to a pneumatic winch inside the USS Somerset’s well deck, allowing joint NASA and Navy teams to tow Orion toward the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship manually pull some of the lines to help align Orion with its stand, which will secure the spacecraft for its trip to the shore. Following a safe and precise recovery, sailors will drain the well deck of water, and the ship will make its way back to Naval Base San Diego. The Artemis II test flight will confirm the foundational systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, taking another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for human missions to Mars. About the Author Allison Tankersley Public Affairs Specialist Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Missions Artemis 2 Exploration Ground Systems Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Explore More 5 min read Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries… Article 9 hours ago 5 min read 20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a… Article 12 hours ago 6 min read She Speaks for the Samples: Meet Dr. Juliane Gross, Artemis Campaign Sample Curation Lead Article 15 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System

Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society. “NASA’s science data is one […]

Explore This Section Open Science Overview Open Science News Funding Opportunities Open Science 101 5 min read Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science This montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the planets and four of Jupiter’s moons is set against a false-color picture of the Rosette Nebula with Earth’s moon in the foreground. Archival data from the Voyager missions continue to produce new scientific discoveries. NASA/JPL/ASU Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society. “NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It carries the stories of our missions, the insights of our discoveries, and the potential for future breakthroughs.” NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies. Kevin Murphy Chief Science Data Officer, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate NASA’s Science Mission Directorate manages an immense amount of data, spanning astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, Earth science, heliophysics, and planetary science. Currently, NASA’s science data holdings exceed 100 petabytes—enough to store 20 billion photos from the average modern smartphone. This volume is expected to grow significantly with new missions. This vast amount of data enables new discoveries, connecting scientific observations together in meaningful ways. Over 50% of scientific publications rely on archived data, which NASA provides to millions of commercial, government, and scientific users. NASA’s five science divisions — Astrophysics, Biological and Physical Sciences, Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science — store petabytes’ worth of data in their archives that enable scientists to continually make discoveries. NASA Managing and stewarding such massive volumes of information requires careful planning, robust infrastructure, and innovative strategies to ensure the data is accessible, secure, and sustainable. Continued support for data storage and cutting-edge technology is key to ensuring future generations of researchers can continue to explore using science data from NASA missions. Modern technology, such as image processing and artificial intelligence, helps unlock new insights from previous observations. For example, in 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft conducted a historic flyby of Uranus, capturing detailed data on the planet and its environment. Decades later, in the early 2000s, scientists used advanced image processing techniques on this archival data to discover two small moons, Perdita and Cupid, which had gone unnoticed during the initial analysis. In 2024, researchers revisited this 38-year-old archival data and identified a critical solar wind event that compressed Uranus’s magnetosphere just before the Voyager 2 flyby. This rare event, happening only about four percent of the time, provided unique insights into Uranus’s magnetic field and its interaction with space weather. The first panel of this artist’s concept depicts how Uranus’s magnetosphere (its protective bubble) was behaving before Voyager 2’s flyby. The second panel shows that an unusual kind of solar weather was happening at the same time as the spacecraft’s flyby, giving scientists a skewed view of Uranus’s magnetosphere. The work enabled by archival Voyager data contributes to scientists’ understanding of this enigmatic planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched in 2009, continues to provide data that reshapes our understanding of the Moon. In 2018, scientists analyzing the LRO’s archival data confirmed the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions at the Moon’s poles. In 2024, new studies out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, showed widespread evidence of water ice within the permanently shadowed regions outside the lunar South Pole, further aiding lunar mission planners. This discovery not only holds implications for lunar exploration but also demonstrates how existing data can yield groundbreaking insights. Artist rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) above the Moon. LRO carries seven instruments that make comprehensive remote sensing observations of the Moon and measurements of the lunar radiation environment. Archival data from LRO continues to help scientists make discoveries about the Moon. NASA/GSFC NASA’s data archives uncover the secrets of our own planet as well as others. In 2024, archaeologists published a study revealing a “lost” Mayan city in Campeche, Mexico that was previously unknown to the scientific community. The researchers identified the city in archival airborne Earth science data, including a 2013 dataset from NASA Goddard’s LiDAR Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) mission. The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project provides frequent high-resolution observations of Earth’s surface. Data from HLS has been instrumental in tracking urban growth over time. By analyzing changes in land cover, researchers have used HLS to monitor the expansion of cities and infrastructure development. For example, in rapidly growing metropolitan areas, HLS data has revealed patterns of urban sprawl, helping planners analyze past trends to predict future metropolitan expansion. 1985 2010 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 1985 2010 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 1985 2010 Before and After Urban Growth in Ontario, California 1985-2010 Curtain Toggle 2-Up Image Details Thirty-five miles due east of downtown Los Angeles lies the city of Ontario, California. These natural color Landsat 5 images show the massive growth of the city between 1985 and 2010. The airport, found in the southwest portion of the images, added a number of runways, and large warehousing structures now dominate the once rural areas surrounding the airport. In these images, vegetation is green and brown, while urban structures are bright white and gray. A large dry riverbed in the northeast corner is also bright white, but its nonlinear appearance sets it apart visually. Researchers use archival data from Landsat and other satellites to track the growth of cities like Ontario, CA over time. These discoveries represent only a fraction of what’s possible. NASA is investing in new technologies to harness the full potential of its data archives, including artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models—open-source AI tools designed to extract new findings from existing science data. “Our vision is to develop at least one AI model for each NASA scientific discipline, turning decades of legacy data into a treasure trove of discovery,” said Murphy. “By embedding NASA expertise into these tools, we ensure that our scientific data continues to drive innovation across science, industry, and society for generations to come.” Developed under a collaboration between NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, IBM, and universities, these AI models are scientifically validated and adaptable to new datasets, making them invaluable for researchers and industries alike. “It’s like having a virtual assistant that leverages decades of NASA’s knowledge to make smarter, quicker decisions,” said Murphy. On June 22, 2013, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this false-color image of the East Peak fire burning in southern Colorado near Trinidad. Burned areas appear dark red, while actively burning areas look orange. Dark green areas are forests; light green areas are grasslands. Data from Landsat 8 were used to train the Prithvi artificial intelligence model, which can help detect burn scars. NASA Earth Observatory The team’s Earth science foundation models—the Prithvi Geospatial model and Prithvi Weather model—analyze vast datasets to monitor Earth’s changing landscape, track weather patterns, and support critical decision-making processes. Building on this success, the team is now developing a foundation model for heliophysics. This model will unlock new insights about the dynamics of solar activity and space weather, which can affect satellite operations, communication systems, and even power grids on Earth. Additionally, a model designed for the Moon is in progress, aiming to enhance our understanding of lunar resources and environments. This investment in AI not only shortens the “data-to-discovery” timeline but also ensures that NASA’s data archives continue to drive innovation. From uncovering new planets to informing future exploration and supporting industries on Earth, the possibilities are boundless. By maintaining extensive archives and embracing cutting-edge technologies, the agency ensures that the data collected today will continue to inspire and inform discoveries far into the future. In doing so, NASA’s legacy science data truly remains the gift that keeps on giving. By Amanda Moon Adams Communications Lead for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Open Science Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landsat Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Voyager 2 Voyager Program Explore More 3 min read NASA Open Data Turns Science Into Art Article 1 month ago 3 min read 2023 Entrepreneurs Challenge Winner Skyline Nav AI: Revolutionizing GPS-Independent Navigation with Computer Vision Article 3 months ago 4 min read NASA Open Science Reveals Sounds of Space Article 3 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Open Science at NASA NASA’s commitment to open science fuels groundbreaking research while maximizing transparency, innovation, and collaboration. Parker Solar Probe On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona… Artificial Intelligence for Science NASA is creating artificial intelligence tools to help researchers use NASA’s science data more effectively. James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…

Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds […]

NASA/Frank Michaux Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds with its engines. The stage is the backbone of the rocket, supporting the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, Orion stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars. Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

What does a technologist do? Technologists are professionals who research, develop, and test emerging technologies. They also find useful ways to put new technologies to work. A technologist is an expert in a specific type of technology, often within a specific field. Many industries rely on innovations developed by technologists. Some of these include aerospace, […]

4 Min Read Career Spotlight: Technologist (Ages 14-18) What does a technologist do? Technologists are professionals who research, develop, and test emerging technologies. They also find useful ways to put new technologies to work. A technologist is an expert in a specific type of technology, often within a specific field. Many industries rely on innovations developed by technologists. Some of these include aerospace, research, manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology. NASA technologists make use of technological advancements to improve NASA’s capabilities and better meet the needs of its missions. They also oversee how technologies developed by NASA can improve life on Earth through commercial products. These products are called spinoffs. For examples of how NASA shows up in your everyday life, visit: https://spinoff.nasa.gov. What are some technology careers at NASA? Instrument scientist: Works to improve or develop instruments that collect data. In aerospace, an instrument is a sensor or other device that takes measurements or gathers scientific information. This role may include working with other specialties to design, create, and test scientific instruments. Data scientist: Uses computer science to create tools that manage data. Some of the tasks a data scientist might perform include developing predictive models, machine learning algorithms, or software to extract useful information from large sets of data. Information technology (IT) specialist: Designs, maintains, implements, and protects IT systems across the agency. Develops software, manages IT projects, and develops applications to support both organizational and mission operations. One of three small lunar rovers that are part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) is prepared for shipping in a clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. NASA/JPL-Caltech How can I become a technologist? There are many different types of careers in technology, and the requirements vary. While you’re in high school, explore the possibilities and learn about the specialties and roles that will fit your interests. Then, investigate the academic path and experience you’ll need to eventually be hired into those roles. Current job openings, guidance counselors, and mentors can shed light on the types of certifications or degrees required. With this information, you can begin planning for the skills and education you’ll need. It’s important to remember that technology is always advancing. Even after you’ve launched your technologist career, a “lifelong learning” mindset will help you keep up with new innovations and skills. How can I start preparing today to become a technologist? Start growing your technology skills today with hands-on activities created by NASA STEM. Looking for something more involved? Many of NASA’s student challenges, competitions, and activities offer authentic experience in aerospace technology, computer science, and more. Students aged 16 and up who are U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for a paid NASA internship. Interns work on real projects with the guidance of a NASA mentor. Internship sessions are held each year in spring, summer, and fall; visit NASA’s Internships website to learn about important deadlines and current opportunities. Frank Pena, test director, checks on the 10-foot Mock Truss-Braced Wing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The aircraft concept involves a wing braced on an aircraft using diagonal struts that also add lift and could result in significantly improved aerodynamics. NASA Advice from NASA technologists “Think about your personal interests and passions, and also the impact you’d like your work to have. What do you feel personally interested in when it comes to science and technology? Is there a problem that you think is very important for our society to solve? Often there is a research or technology field that can combine those two things!” – Olivia Tyrrell, NASA research engineer What do you feel personally interested in when it comes to science and technology? Olivia Tyrrell NASA Research Engineer “If you like to create things or find solutions to problems, working in technology is a great choice. Scientists identify problems, engineers solve problems, but ultimately, we need to create new technologies, new things, new gadgets. Technologists are building the next generation toolbox for engineers and scientists to pull from, enabling everyone to solve problems in more effective and innovative ways. (Technologists invent things… what’s cooler than that?!)” – Kristen John, technical integration manager for lunar dust mitigation Additional Resources NASA Data Science, Cybersecurity, and IT Careers NASA Space Technology Technology | NASA+ Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA For Students Grades 9-12 NASA Internship Programs NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities For Students Careers

What does a scientist do? Science is about exploring answers to questions. A scientist uses research and evidence to form hypotheses, test variables, and then share their findings. NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research to answer some of humanity’s most profound questions. Most scientists start as project scientists in their early careers. They spend a lot […]

4 Min Read Career Spotlight: Scientist (Ages 14-18) What does a scientist do? Science is about exploring answers to questions. A scientist uses research and evidence to form hypotheses, test variables, and then share their findings. NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research to answer some of humanity’s most profound questions. Most scientists start as project scientists in their early careers. They spend a lot of time publishing their peer-reviewed literature and presenting scientific research. Senior-level scientists provide leadership in the NASA community, actively publish research group work, and take on management roles. What are some of the different types of scientists that work at NASA? Many types of scientists work at NASA to support its wide variety of missions. The agency’s scientists research the foods we send to space, the habitability of other planets, the weather in space, and so much more. Here are a few examples of types of scientists at NASA. Planetary scientist: Discovers and studies the planetary objects in our solar system. These efforts shed light on the history of the solar system and the distribution of life within it. Astrobiologist: Studies the origins of life, how life evolves, and where it might be found in the universe. Astrophysicist: Studies the physical and chemical structures of stars, planets, and other natural objects found in space. Biological/physical scientist: Studies how biological and physical processes work in challenging environments like space. This information helps NASA design longer human space missions and also benefits life on Earth. Earth scientist: Uses observations and data from satellites and other sources to study Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land cover, and land use. Heliophysicist: Studies the Sun and its behaviors, such as magnetic fields, solar wind, and space weather. This knowledge helps us better understand and predict the Sun’s effects on Earth and in space. How can I become a scientist? Focus on building your scientific knowledge and skills. You can do this by taking challenging academic courses, participating in science fairs, and joining extracurricular activities that have a scientific focus. This is also a good time to research what types of sciences you’re most interested in, possible careers in those fields, and academic degrees required for those jobs. Scientists typically need at least a four-year degree. Most pursue a master’s degree or even a doctorate (Ph.D.) to become experts in their field. How can I start preparing today to become a scientist? Interested in applying some science skills right away? NASA provides a variety of hands-on activities for a range of skill levels. The space agency also offers student challenges, competitions, and activities that provide authentic experience in a variety of science fields. For up-to-date opportunities, visit: NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities for Students NASA Science Learning Opportunities NASA also offers paid internships for U.S. citizens aged 16 and up. Interns work on real projects with the guidance of a NASA mentor. Internship sessions are held each year in spring, summer, and fall; visit NASA’s Internships website to learn about important deadlines and current opportunities. Advice from NASA scientists “Take advantage of opportunities in different fields like attending summer classes, volunteering on the weekends, visiting museums, attending community lectures, and reading introductory books at the library. These are a few ways to expand your scope of possibility within the sciences, while simultaneously narrowing your focus in a field.” – Angela Garcia, exploration geologist “The key to being a scientist is to love asking questions. If you are fascinated about how and why things work — you are already a scientist.” Nicola Fox NASA Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate “One general skill that is often overlooked is the ability to write well and clearly. There’s a misconception that being a scientist means using big words and writing in ways that no one understands, when it’s actually the opposite. The ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas so that a child can understand is not easy, but it’s essential for good scientific writing.” – Matt Mickens, NASA horticulturist Additional Resources Careers in Science and Research NASA Science Career Path Navigator NASA Science Mission Directorate People of NASA Science Explore NASA+ Scientist Resources Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA For Students Grades 9-12 NASA Internship Programs NASA STEM Opportunities and Activities For Students Careers

The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, […]

Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 5 Min Read 20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region brightened as northern summer approaches. Credits: NASA, ESA, Erich Karkoschka (LPL) The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, and longevity. The team’s results will help astronomers to better understand how the atmosphere of Uranus works and responds to changing sunlight. These long-term observations provide valuable data for understanding the atmospheric dynamics of this distant ice giant, which can serve as a proxy for studying exoplanets of similar size and composition. When Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, it provided a close-up snapshot of the sideways planet. What it saw resembled a bland, blue-green billiard ball. By comparison, Hubble chronicled a 20-year story of seasonal changes from 2002 to 2022. Over that period, a team led by Erich Karkoschka of the University of Arizona, and Larry Sromovsky and Pat Fry from the University of Wisconsin used the same Hubble instrument, STIS (the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph), to paint an accurate picture of the atmospheric structure of Uranus. Uranus’ atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane and traces of water and ammonia. The methane gives Uranus its cyan color by absorbing the red wavelengths of sunlight. The Hubble team observed Uranus four times in the 20-year period: in 2002, 2012, 2015, and 2022. They found that, unlike conditions on the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, methane is not uniformly distributed across Uranus. Instead, it is strongly depleted near the poles. This depletion remained relatively constant over the two decades. However, the aerosol and haze structure changed dramatically, brightening significantly in the northern polar region as the planet approaches its northern summer solstice in 2030. The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region brightened as northern summer approaches. NASA, ESA, Erich Karkoschka (LPL) Uranus takes a little over 84 Earth years to complete a single orbit of the Sun. So, over two decades, the Hubble team has only seen mostly northern spring as the Sun moves from shining directly over Uranus’ equator toward shining almost directly over its north pole in 2030. Hubble observations suggest complex atmospheric circulation patterns on Uranus during this period. The data that are most sensitive to the methane distribution indicate a downwelling in the polar regions and upwelling in other regions. The team analyzed their results in several ways. The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that STIS observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region (left) darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region (right) brightened as it began to come into a more direct view as northern summer approaches. The top row, in visible light, shows how the color of Uranus appears to the human eye as seen through even an amateur telescope. In the second row, the false-color image of the planet is assembled from visible and near-infrared light observations. The color and brightness correspond to the amounts of methane and aerosols. Both of these quantities could not be distinguished before Hubble’s STIS was first aimed at Uranus in 2002. Generally, green areas indicate less methane than blue areas, and red areas show no methane. The red areas are at the limb, where the stratosphere of Uranus is almost completely devoid of methane. The two bottom rows show the latitude structure of aerosols and methane inferred from 1,000 different wavelengths (colors) from visible to near infrared. In the third row, bright areas indicate cloudier conditions, while the dark areas represent clearer conditions. In the fourth row, bright areas indicate depleted methane, while dark areas show the full amount of methane. At middle and low latitudes, aerosols and methane depletion have their own latitudinal structure that mostly did not change much over the two decades of observation. However, in the polar regions, aerosols and methane depletion behave very differently. In the third row, the aerosols near the north pole display a dramatic increase, showing up as very dark during early northern spring, turning very bright in recent years. Aerosols also seem to disappear at the left limb as the solar radiation disappeared. This is evidence that solar radiation changes the aerosol haze in the atmosphere of Uranus. On the other hand, methane depletion seems to stay quite high in both polar regions throughout the observing period. Astronomers will continue to observe Uranus as the planet approaches northern summer. The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA. Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Related Images & Videos 20 Years of Uranus Observations Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Ann Jenkins Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland Related Terms Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Planetary Environments & Atmospheres Planetary Science Planets The Solar System Uranus

The annual regional event puts students’ knowledge of ocean-related science to the test in a fast-paced academic competition. A team of students from University High School in Irvine earned first place at a fast-paced regional academic competition focused on ocean science disciplines and hosted by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Eight teams from […]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This team from University High School in Irvine, California, won the 2025 regional Oceans Science Bowl, hosted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From left: Nethra Iyer, Joanne Chen, Matthew Feng, Avery Hexun, Angelina Yan, and coach David Knight. NASA/JPL-Caltech The annual regional event puts students’ knowledge of ocean-related science to the test in a fast-paced academic competition. A team of students from University High School in Irvine earned first place at a fast-paced regional academic competition focused on ocean science disciplines and hosted by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Eight teams from Los Angeles and Orange counties competed at the March 29 event, dubbed the Los Angeles Surf Bowl. It was the last of about 20 regional competitions held across the U.S. this year in the lead-up to the virtual National Ocean Sciences Bowl finals event in mid-May. Santa Monica High School earned second place; Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles came in third. With its victory, University repeated its winning performance from last year. The school also won the JPL-hosted regional Science Bowl earlier this month. Teams from all eight schools that participated in the JPL-hosted 2025 regional Ocean Sciences Bowl pose alongside volunteers and coaches. NASA/JPL-Caltech For the Ocean Sciences Bowl, teams are composed of four to five students and a coach. To prepare for the event, team members spend months answering multiple-choice questions with a “Jeopardy!”-style buzzer in just five seconds. Questions come in several categories, including biology, chemistry, geology, and physics along with related geography, technology, history, policy, and current events topics. A question in the chemistry category might be “What chemical is the principal source of energy at many of Earth’s hydrothermal vent systems?” (It’s hydrogen sulfide.) Other questions can be considerably more challenging. When a team member buzzes in and gives the correct answer to a multiple-choice question, the team earns a bonus question, which allows teammates to consult with one another to come up with an answer. More complicated “team challenge questions” prompt students to work together for a longer period. The theme of this year’s competition is “Sounding the Depths: Understanding Ocean Acoustics.” University High junior Matthew Feng, a return competitor, said the team’s success felt like a payoff for hours of studying together, including on weekends. He keeps coming back to the competition partly for the sense of community and also for the personal challenge, he said. “It’s nice to compete and meet people, see people who were here last year,” Matthew added. “Pushing yourself mentally — the first year I was shaking so hard because I wasn’t used to that much adrenaline.” Since 2000, JPL’s Public Services Office has coordinated the Los Angeles regional contest with the help of volunteers from laboratory staff and former Ocean Sciences Bowl participants in the local community. JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a program of the Center for Ocean Leadership at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities focused in part on Earth science-related education. News Media Contact Melissa Pamer Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-314-4928 melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov 2025-044 Share Details Last Updated Mar 31, 2025 Related Terms Jet Propulsion Laboratory STEM Engagement at NASA Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars Lee esta historia en español aquí. Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found… Article 1 week ago 5 min read NASA Takes to the Air to Study Wildflowers Article 1 week ago 6 min read Next-Generation Water Satellite Maps Seafloor From Space Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System

New Scientist - Space

An eavesdropper hiding inside a black hole could still obtain information about quantum objects on its outside, a finding that reveals how effectively black holes destroy the quantum states near their event horizons

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

Watch the 2025 partial solar eclipse live from the Royal Observatory, Greeenwich, UK

Red specks in the early universe are puzzling astronomers, but a proposed explanation suggests they are the progenitors of supermassive black holes

After nearly 36 years of searching, astronomers have finally confirmed Neptune has auroras, thanks to data from the James Webb Space Telescope

A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang

String theory may be our best attempt at a theory of everything, except that it can't describe an expanding universe like ours. Now a radical new twist on the idea could finally fix that – but it requires us to completely reimagine reality

The Odysseus spacecraft made a rough landing on the moon last year, toppling over and rendering much of its equipment unusable, but an onboard NASA radio telescope called ROLSES-1  was able to make some observations

Isar Aerospace is preparing to launch its Spectrum rocket from a base in Norway, which would make it the first orbital launch from continental Europe outside Russia

Our current best theories of the universe suggest that dark energy is making it expand faster and faster, but new observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument suggest this mysterious force is actually growing weaker

The European Space Agency has released the first batch of large-scale images from the Euclid space telescope, which astronomers have already used to find hundreds of strong gravitational lenses

A meteorite discovered in north-west Africa in 2023 didn’t come from a large asteroid or any of the known planets of the solar system – but it might have formed on a planet that was destroyed long ago

The finest ever map of the cosmic microwave background - the faint evidence of the universe's early form - has yielded precise confirmation of the age of the cosmos and its rate of expansion. But for some scientists, the findings offer a frustrating lack of clues to major cosmological mysteries

There are a couple potential explanations for distinctive markings found on a Martian rock, but new evidence suggests they are most likely to be related to microbial activity

NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded unusual sounds as a Martian dust devil passed directly over the robotic vehicle in 2021, and we now know they came from electrical activity in the storm

NASA’s InSight lander recorded surprisingly large quakes that indicate Mars is more seismically active than we first thought. Mysteriously, they only happen during Martian summers

The wind on Saturn's largest moon is strong enough to blow around rocks of up to half a metre in diameter, which could put NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission at risk

A private moon mission planned for 2027 will be the first step towards commercial lunar mining of rare and expensive helium-3

The Big Wheel, discovered using the James Webb Space Telescope, formed just 2 billion years after the big bang - surprisingly early for a spiral galaxy of a similar size to our Milky Way

A failed launch left a batch of Starlink satellites in the wrong orbit last year, and it appears that a fragment of one fell to Earth and hit a farm in Canada. Thankfully, no one was injured

Potential cuts of up to 50 per cent of NASA's science budget could mean cancelling missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probes

A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos

NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water

Saturn has dozens of new moons, bringing it to a total of 274. All of the new moons are between 2 and 4 kilometres wide, but at what point is a rock too small to be a moon?

Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic

A strange new conception of how time warps across the universe does away with cosmology's most mysterious entity, dark energy

A star has been spotted shooting away from the heart of our galaxy at around 500 kilometres per second, giving astronomers clues about a group of stellar objects that are hard to observe directly

This photograph of a Soyuz rocket bathed in mist was selected as a finalist for the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 competition

Intuitive Machines's Athena spacecraft has landed on the surface of the moon, but it seems to have fallen over and we don't yet know if it will be able to drill for ice

A supermassive black hole that doesn't appear to be where we would expect seems to be travelling at more than a thousand kilometres per second – the result of a giant cosmic collision

The stars as seen from Earth would have looked dimmer 14 million years ago, as the solar system was in the middle of passing through clouds of dust and gas

Water is an essential part of life on Earth, and possibly elsewhere – and now it we know it may have formed not long after the start of the universe

The second-ever commercial landing on the moon comes amid a flurry of lunar exploration activity that will see around a dozen missions this year alone

There may be logic in keeping spacecraft as sterile as possible, but this could inadvertently be affecting astronauts' health

For a few evenings around 28 February, every planet in the solar system will be visible in the night sky, thanks to a rare great planetary alignment. Here's how to make sure you don't miss this planetary parade.

Varda, a US firm planning to manufacture pharmaceuticals in low Earth orbit, is expecting its second capsule to return to Earth this week

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to launch a number of missions, including a private lunar lander, a lunar satellite for NASA and a prospecting probe for an asteroid-mining company

NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped in for a close look at a massive thunderstorm on Jupiter, revealing that it may have similarities to storms on Earth

You may think that time started 13.8 billion years ago at the birth of the universe, but physicists with alternative definitions of time have other ideas

New observations have dramatically reduced the chances of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032, lowering the risk to minimal levels, but its extraordinarily close approach will offer astronomers the chance to examine it in detail

A red supergiant star appears to have changed in just a few years – an astronomical blink of an eye – which suggests it may be getting ready to explode in a supernova

For more than 40 years, Jonathan McDowell has tirelessly catalogued the space industry. But today, tracking commercial companies' space operations is more difficult than spy organisations.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032, but as astronomers make more observations about its trajectory, the odds of a collision are being refined

The gas giant WASP-121b, also known as Tylos, has an atmospheric structure unlike any we have ever seen, and the fastest winds on any planet

By looking ever further back in time, the James Webb Space Telescope is at last revealing the first galaxies – and a very strange young cosmos

For more than 40 years, Jonathan McDowell has tirelessly catalogued the space industry. Now he is planning to retire, and looking to pass on his extensive collection of knowledge

Fast-moving stars zooming through our galaxy might have been slingshotted from a black hole inside the neighbouring Large Magellanic Cloud

Critics have been calling for NASA to cancel its extremely pricey Space Launch System rocket for ages, but now that it seems to be facing the axe from Elon Musk’s government efficiency task force, it may be time to think again

If asteroid 2024 YR4 does smash down on the lunar surface, the explosion might be visible from Earth and would leave a new crater on the near side of the moon

Albert Einstein himself thought that the eponymous Einstein ring would be impossible to observe, but the Euclid telescope has picked one up just 600 million light years from Earth

A rocky planet less than half the mass of Earth seems to have an atmosphere made almost entirely of sulphur dioxide – this could be due to a huge amount of volcanic activity

The Quipu superstructure is enormous, spanning 1.4 billion light years – and it could violate one of our fundamental assumptions about the universe

There are many theories about how dynamics in the early solar system led to the cosmic neighbourhood we now inhabit, but beyond computer simulations, direct evidence to support them is hard to come by – that's where meteorites come in

Mars's moon Phobos is so strange that no one knows how it formed. But a forthcoming mission could solve this mystery - and a host of other puzzles connected to the solar system's deep past

In Shroud, Adrian Tchaikovsky's intriguing new novel, two women marooned on a strange moon encounter alien life – and struggle to recognise intelligence in other beings, finds Emily H. Wilson

The risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth seems to be creeping up as astronomers gather more data, but does that mean we should be scrambling to prepare for an impact in 2032?

Hunting for meteorites can be a high-octane race as private collectors and scientists go head-to-head, reveals a new book by New Scientist features editor Joshua Howgego

Two canyons that splay out from a vast asteroid crater on the moon may have been quickly formed by chains of impacts that followed the initial one

More than a decade of data about the particles zipping around our sun could be used to solve many mysteries, from the behaviour of individual particles to the history of our solar system – while raising new questions

We will never get an image of the Milky Way from above, but M81 or Bode's galaxy is a good stand-in – and now is a great time to see it, says Leah Crane

The asteroid is unlikely to be cause for concern, but its detection has triggered planetary defence response procedures for the first time

Scientists’ ideas for travelling to the stars range from the the wholly improbable to the hugely expensive and very difficult, says Ed Regis

Worlds with liquid water could have formed just 200 million years after the big bang from the remains of the earliest supernovae

When it comes to sending humans back to the moon, knowing how to work with the regolith that coats the ground will be make-or-break. Phil Metzger is studying how to mitigate its dangers and use it as a crucial resource

All seven of the other planets in our solar system are about to become visible at once in a great planetary alignment – here’s how to spot the celestial show

James Temple was "in the right place at the right time" to take these dramatic images of SpaceX's Starship's seventh flight test disintegrating above the Atlantic Ocean

Observations of WASP-127b, a giant gas exoplanet more than 500 light years from Earth, suggest it has phenomenally high wind speeds

After a close look with a powerful radio telescope, astronomers are still puzzled by a pair of objects with strange characteristics first spotted in 2021

At his best, Iain M. Banks could be extraordinarily stylish, inventive and downright funny. So how does his genre-redefining science fiction stand up to the test of time? Emily H. Wilson rereads the greats

Blue Origin and SpaceX both launched rockets on 16 January, but while Jeff Bezos's company saw a launch success with New Glenn, Elon Musk's Starship exploded. What does this mean for the future of the space industry?

In the opening to Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction novel Alien Clay, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, our hero wakes from years of space travel to a terrifying new reality

From windswept craters to frigid ice caps, explore Martian landscapes through the eyes of NASA’s orbiters, probes and rovers

NASA's former chief scientist, Jim Green, explains how close we are to having humans on Mars

After delays and false starts, Jeff Bezos's firm Blue Origin has reached orbit with its first launch of the New Glenn rocket, though attempts to land the first stage at sea were unsuccessful

A newly discovered neutron star is behaving so strangely that it may alter our understanding of the dense remains left behind when stellar objects die

Two companies, Firefly Aerospace and ispace, are aiming to make the second and third successful private landings on the moon - and both are launching on the same Falcon 9 rocket

A new analysis of marsquakes measured by NASA’s InSight lander indicates Mars has a solid inner core – but other researchers say the evidence is thin

Suzie Imber is a co-investigator for the BepiColombo mission, currently on its way to Mercury. She explains how it will cast new light on the planet's many oddities, including its awful space weather and the fact it appears to have shrunk

Regular pulses of X-ray radiation emanating from a supermassive black hole could be explained by a white dwarf star on the verge of falling in

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) should be visible from the southern hemisphere, and possibly also the northern hemisphere, over the next few days

The United Nations has 17 sustainable development goals that all member states have signed up to in an effort to balance economics and the environment - and now researchers say we need a new one to ensure we keep space junk under control

The BepiColombo spacecraft is due to start orbiting Mercury next year, but a recent flyby has captured breathtaking images of its pockmarked surface

SpaceX’s most ambitious Starship flight yet will see reused hardware, the deployment of 10 fake satellites and another attempt to catch the booster with “chopsticks”

Jeff Bezos’s space company is about to launch New Glenn, a reusable rocket intended to rival SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, for the first time

Simulations suggest Pluto and its largest moon may have gently stuck together for a few hours before Charon settled into a stable orbit around the dwarf planet

A map of 31 million galaxies created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument will be released next year, and could shed light on the origins of this mysterious force

From auroras to partial eclipses of the sun, Leah Crane is planning out the astronomical events she will be watching next year

Around the middle of 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin its mission to help us better understand the cosmos. There's a lot to look forward to, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

A Ken Liu, two Adrian Tchaikovsky novels, Succession-style drama (with added telepathy) and a Polish epic. Emily H. Wilson surveys 2025’s sci-fi

From Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander to SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, around a dozen spacecraft teams have their sights on the moon

The Ingenuity autonomous helicopter surpassed all expectations to fly dozens of missions over several years on the Red Planet, only stopping this year when an accident damaged one of its rotors

This year has delivered some awe-inspiring imagery of space, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning shots of faraway stars and galaxies to images of the skies taken from here on planet Earth

In 2024 the James Webb Space Telescope released stunning new images of the beauty of space, here are the best

From a fish with a tiny brain to the world’s oldest cheese, we have reported on plenty of strange and unusual science discoveries this year. Challenge yourself and see what you can remember in this fiendish set of questions from our quizmaster Bethan Ackerley

We challenge you to find the scientific terms in this monster of a puzzle – and we’re not even telling you exactly what they are

An asteroid orbiting near our planet that temporarily became our second moon seems to have come from the actual moon, hinting that a hidden population of lunar rocks is drifting in space

The age of the rings that encircle Saturn is under dispute thanks to calculations that show they could have been formed billions – rather than millions – of years ago

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, came strangely far south this year and there may be more of the same while the sun is experiencing a solar maximum

A survey of more than 56,000 sun-like stars reveals that “superflares” that are linked to bursts of radiation which play havoc with electronics on Earth may happen every 100 to 200 years and we may be overdue one

On 24 December, the Parker Solar Probe will be the closest human-made object ever to a star, taking unprecedented measurements of the sun

Share & discuss informative content on: * Astrophysics * Cosmology * Space Exploration * Planetary Science * Astrobiology

Please sort comments by 'new' to find questions that would otherwise be buried. In this thread you can ask any space related question that you may have. Two examples of potential questions could be; "How do rockets work?", or "How do the phases of the Moon work?" If you see a space related question posted in another subreddit or in this subreddit, then please politely link them to this thread. Ask away! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/chrisdh79 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/KingSash [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/reddit-suave613 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/perplexed-redditor [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Trevor_Lewis [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Czarben [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/CBSnews [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/sasht [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/ye_olde_astronaut [link] [comments]

Just a few days ago the ISS was doing its closest past to my location I’ve ever seen, so I took my 114mm AZ newtonion spherical mirror reflector out, with a t ring adapter and a Canon 77d attached set to video mode, out into my backyard. Took thousands of frames, went over them, and each one looked horrible. After some time I went over the frames again, and found one single frame that looked good, here it is. submitted by /u/Reddit12354679810 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Czarben [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Czarben [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/ahmadreza777 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Goregue [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/newsweek [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/radome9 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/tinmar_g [link] [comments]

Sun March 22, 2025 Scope: Lunt50 Filter: B600 blocking filter Mount: Skywatcher HelioFind Camera: ZWO 174mm hockey puck style Barlow: Tele Vue 2.5x 2" Captured: ASI Cap Processed: AutoStakkert, IMPP, Pixinsight and Lightroom submitted by /u/jcat47 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/MadDivision [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Eonorietylipodecturm [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/helicopter-enjoyer [link] [comments]

✨ Equipment ✨ Target: Andromeda Galaxy, M31 Distance: 2.5 million Light Years Size: 200,000 Light Years, twice the size of the Milky Way Stars: has estimated 1 trillion stars 7 hrs and 41 min total of integration time L 81 x 180 R 35 x 60 G 32 x 60 B 31 x 60 Ha 40 x 180 Filters: Atlina 3nm Ha and Optolong LRGB all filters 2" and controlled by ZWO EFW Scope: SharpStar 15028NHT f2.8 Camera: ASI 2600mm-pro set to -14*F Mount: AM5 on William Optics 800 tripier Guiding Scope: Askar FRA180 Pro Guiding camera: ASI174mm Controlled by Asiair plus Sky: Bortle 4 Software for processing: Pixinsight submitted by /u/jcat47 [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Adeldor [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/maksimkak [link] [comments]

Kia ora koutou (hi all!) this is my recent image of M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy) — one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies to Earth, sitting about 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. All captured in Ōtautahi Aotearoa (Christchurch, New Zealand). This was one of my shorter integration sessions at only about 6 hours but I’m still quite happy with how it's come out. The reddish/pink touches in the galaxy are ionized hydrogen (Hα) emissions which indicates they're star forming regions - worlds are being formed in those parts. It's classified as a 'starburst' region as it's creating new stars far faster than our own Milky Way. Would love to hear your feedback — especially if you have any tips for refining detail or pulling more colour out of those star-forming regions! Acquisition Details: Integration: 75 × 300s lights (6h 15m total), with bias & flats Telescope: Askar 103 APO Mount: ZWO AM5N Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro (OSC) Filter: Antlia RGB Ultra Guiding: ZWO ASI120 Mini on OAG Processing: PixInsight I don't post much on social media but you can find more of my work on Insta (@EkantV) or FB (/EkantTakePhotos) submitted by /u/EkantTakePhotos [link] [comments]

All the latest content from the Space.com team

SpaceX launched the Fram2 astronaut mission today (March 31), the first-ever crewed spaceflight to orbit Earth over its poles.

A dramatic video shows Isar Aerospace's first orbital launch attempt, which ended with a fiery crash into the frigid sea about 30 seconds after liftoff.

The FAA has closed its investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight 7 mishap, accepting the company's findings and verifying its corrective actions.

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Monday (March 31), on the first of the company's two planned liftoffs for the day.

Two NASA rockets launched into auroras over Alaska last week, and the results were gorgeous.

The clouds were cruel on the Bay of Fundy coast, but a memorable experience was had.

Find out the latest about SpaceX's private Fram2 polar astronaut mission for cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang.

NASA's Orion crew module test article is framed by the well deck of the U.S. Navy's USS Somerset as teams practice Artemis 2 recovery ops.

SpaceX is building Starship as a full reusable heavy-lift rocket to fly astronauts to the moon and Mars.

NASA's flight directors have taken a page from the astronauts they support, if not also the Masters, Hells Angels and Saturday Night Live's Five-Timers Club. There is now a flight director's jacket.

The Hubble Space Telescope has sent back a gorgeous new view of one of our nearest galactic neighbors, which is full of bright, colorful stars.

The U.S. Space Force is funding the development of a new "Orbital Carrier" spacecraft that can deploy multiple satellites when needed.

Researchers have created a "fingerprint" of a sulfur-based molecule found in space that may offer new clues about the formation of life on Earth.

SpaceX's Fram2 astronaut mission is set to launch toward a polar orbit on March 31, which will be a first for human spaceflight. Why has this never been done before?

SpaceX plans to launch the Fram2 astronaut mission over Earth's poles tonight (March 31), and you can watch the action live.

'Capturing the partial solar eclipse from the iconic landmark at Stonehenge was awe-inspiring in more ways than one'

Cosmic rays may play a role in triggering lightning, a new study suggests, offering an out-of-this-world answer to a long-standing mystery.

A newly found super-Earth could help provide answers as to why there are hardly any planets twice the diameter of Earth.

SpaceX has rolled out the rocket and Crew Dragon capsule that will launch the Fram2 astronaut mission on Monday night (March 31).

The International Space Station National Laboratory just launched "Between a Rocket and a Hard Space," a brand-new podcast series that explores the future of space innovation.

Sea ice impacts storms and coastal erosion — and NASA says Earth's total sea ice content has hit an all-time low.

The European Space Agency has kicked off a competition to support the development of new launch vehicles and boost Europe's access to space.

The first orbital rocket launch from European soil ended in an explosion when Isar Aerospace's rocket fell to Earth seconds after launching on March 30.

SpaceX's upcoming Fram2 astronaut mission will attempt to grow mushrooms in microgravity for the first time, as part of an experiment called Mission MushVroom.

On Episode 154 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Space TV director Liam Kennedy about bringing content and video from the International Space Station down to Earth.

The partial solar eclipse of March 2025 did not disappoint as observers turned their eyes and cameras to the sky.

Here's a rundown of the science experiments that SpaceX's Fram2 astronaut mission will conduct while orbiting Earth's poles.

"It is always difficult to establish if the eclipses were seen in the ancient past as bad omens or good omens."

With Doom: The Dark Ages around the corner, now is the perfect time to chainsaw your way through all the Doom games in order.

Neill Blomkamp's Johannesburg-set riff on Short Circuit and RoboCop wasn't a winner by any means, but it's far from soulless.

A partial solar eclipse is coming this weekend, but weather could be an issue for many hoping to get a glimpse of the moon "taking a bite" out of the sun.

"Further strong activity is likely!"

Zena Cardman,who was removed from an ISS launch to facilitate the return to Earth of Starliner's first crew, will command SpaceX's upcoming Crew-11 mission to the station.

Watch all Marvel content, including the Avengers movies and the X-Men movies from the 2000s, ahead of Avengers: Doomsday next year, with a 72% discount.

New findings from the ALMA telescope have revealed that planets are born in much smaller protoplanetary disks than astronomers suspected, some of which would fit with the orbit of Earth.

The space telescope's image of a odd-looking spiral galaxy is, in reality, two distant galaxies overlapping each other.

Hiroyasu Tsukamota has developed a deep-learning-based guidance and control framework called Neural-Rendezvous that could allow spacecraft to safely encounter interstellar objects.

The crew of SpaceX's pioneering Fram2 mission includes a polar explorer, a marine technology scientist, a filmmaker and a bitcoin magnate.

Here's everything you need to know to make the most of the partial solar eclipse on March 29, as the moon takes a 'bite' out of the sun.

NASA and Boeing are still working on the thruster issues that Starliner experienced on its first crewed flight last year, so the capsule's next liftoff is a ways off yet.

The U.S. Space Force has certified ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket to launch national security missions, doubling the number of providers for such flights.

NASA has canceled the planned June liftoff of a Cygnus ISS resupply mission due to damage the freighter incurred during transport to the launch site.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its second science-gathering flyby of the sun, the space agency announced earlier this week.

Europe's star-mapping Gaia space observatory has entered its retirement orbit, after gathering valuable cosmic data for more than a decade.

Astronomers have discovered two new exoplanets that are similar to other worlds found in the Milky Way, but unlike any in our own solar system.

Sabine Wren's Force FX lightsaber is a huge 55% off for Amazon's Big Spring Sale and it's the lowest price we've ever seen it, better than half price.

If you need something done, do it yourselves.

The Space Launch System (SLS) core stage and rocket boosters have now been stood up and mated in preparation for NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission.

Here's how to watch all the partial solar eclipse action unfold live online.

Blue Origin has announced an April 14 liftoff date for its star-studded, all-female NS-31 mission launching on its New Shepard rocket.

The first Starship flight test of 2025 flew with ambitious goals: seeking to repeat our previous success of launching and catching the world’s most powerful launch vehicle while putting a redesigned and upgraded Starship through a rigorous set of flight demonstrations. It served as a reminder that development testing, by definition, can be unpredictable. On its seventh flight test, Starship successfully lifted off from Starbase in Texas at 4:37 p.m. CT on Thursday, January 16. For the second time ever, the Super Heavy booster returned to the launch site and was caught by the tower. But before Starship could reach space, a fire developed in the aft section leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly. As always, success comes from what we learned, and this flight test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary.

The sixth flight test of Starship launched from Starbase on November 19, 2024, seeking to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online. The Super Heavy booster successfully lifted off at the start of the launch window, with all 33 Raptor engines powering it and Starship off the pad from Starbase. Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship completed another successful ascent, placing it on the expected trajectory. The ship successfully reignited a single Raptor engine while in space, demonstrating the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn before starting fully orbital missions. With live views and telemetry being relayed by Starlink, the ship successfully made it through reentry and executed a flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Data gathered from the multiple thermal protection experiments, as well as the successful flight through subsonic speeds at a more aggressive angle of attack, provides invaluable feedback on flight hardware performing in a flight environment as we aim for eventual ship return and catch. With data and flight learnings as our primary payload, Starship’s sixth flight test once again delivered. Lessons learned will directly make the entire Starship system more reliable as we close in on full and rapid reusability.

SpaceX was founded to increase access to space and help make life multiplanetary. In just this year, we’ve launched 114 successful Falcon missions and counting for our commercial and government customers, deployed ~1,700 @Starlink satellites to provide high-speed internet for millions of people all around the world, and made extraordinary strides developing Starship’s capability to return humanity to the Moon and ultimately send people to Mars. If you want to join the team and help build a more exciting future, check out the latest job openings across the company → https://www.spacex.com/careers

Starship’s fifth flight test lifted off on October 13, 2024, with our most ambitious test objectives yet as we work to demonstrate techniques fundamental to Starship and Super Heavy’s fully and rapidly reusable design. And on our first try, Mechazilla caught the booster. Following a successful liftoff, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and coast, the Super Heavy booster performed its landing burn and was caught by the chopstick arms of the launch and catch tower at Starbase. Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria had to be met prior to the catch attempt, and thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we succeeded with catch on our first attempt. Prior to catch, Starship executed another successful hot-staging separation, igniting its six Raptor engines and completing ascent into outer space. It coasted along its planned trajectory to the other side of the planet before executing a controlled reentry, passing through the phases of peak heating and maximum aerodynamic pressure, before executing a flip, landing burn, and splashdown at its target area in the Indian Ocean. The flight test concluded at splashdown 1 hour, 5 minutes and 40 seconds after launch.

On Tuesday, September 10, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched the Polaris Dawn mission to orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Polaris Dawn became the first crew to perform the first-ever spacewalk from Dragon, travel the farthest (1,408 km) within Earth’s orbit since the completion of the Apollo program in 1972, and test Starlink laser-based communications aboard Dragon. Additionally, the crew conducted approximately 36 experiments designed to better life on Earth and on future long-duration spaceflights, shared special moments with mission partners including reading Kisses from Space to patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, and inspired the world with a global music moment before safely returning to Earth on Sunday, September 15.

During its five day mission, Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew completed 75 orbits around Earth.

A live webcast of the Polaris Dawn EVA will begin about one hour prior to the beginning of the spacewalk on Thursday, September 12, which you can watch on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The four-hour window opens at 3:23 a.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, September 13 at the same time.

A live webcast of the Polaris Dawn EVA will begin about one hour prior to the beginning of the spacewalk on Thursday, September 12, which you can watch on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The four-hour window opens at 3:23 a.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Friday, September 13 at the same time.

Starship’s fourth flight test launched with ambitious goals, attempting to go farther than any previous test before and begin demonstrating capabilities central to return and reuse of Starship and Super Heavy. The payload for this test was the data. Starship delivered. On June 6, 2024, Starship successfully lifted off at 7:50 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas and went on to deliver maximum excitement. The fourth flight of Starship made major strides to bring us closer to a rapidly reusable future. Its accomplishments will provide data to drive improvements as we continue rapidly developing Starship into a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.

At ~700 km above Earth, the EVA suit will support the Polaris Dawn crew in the vacuum of space during the first-ever commercial astronaut spacewalk. Evolved from the Intravehicular Activity (IVA) suit, the EVA suit provides greater mobility, a state-of-the-art helmet Heads-Up Display (HUD) and camera, new thermal management textiles, and materials borrowed from Falcon’s interstage and Dragon’s trunk. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits. The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary.

The goal of SpaceX is to build the technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary. This is the first time in the 4-billion-year history of Earth that it’s possible to realize that goal and protect the light of consciousness. At Starbase on Thursday, April 4, SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk provided an update on the company’s plans to send humanity to Mars, the best destination to begin making life multiplanetary. Go to (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1776669097490776563) for the full talk, which also includes the mechanics and challenges of traveling to Mars, along with what we’re building today to enable sending around a million people and several million tonnes to the Martian surface in the years to come.

On March 14, 2024, Starship successfully lifted off at 8:25 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas and went on to accomplish several major milestones and firsts. Starship's six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full-duration ascent burn. Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry. Live views of entry were made possible by Starlink terminals operating on Starship. This rapid iterative development approach has been the basis for all of SpaceX’s major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink. Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately travel to Mars and beyond.

The world's most powerful launch vehicle is ready for flight. The third flight test aims to build on what we’ve learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives. Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately travel to Mars and beyond. Follow us on X.com/SpaceX for updates on the upcoming flight test.

On November 18, 2023, Starship successfully lifted off at 7:02 a.m. CT from Starbase on its second integrated flight test. While it didn’t happen in a lab or on a test stand, it was absolutely a test. What we did with this second flight will provide invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship. The test achieved a number of major milestones, helping us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary. The team at Starbase is already working final preparations on the vehicles slated for use in Starship’s third flight test. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting second flight test of Starship! Follow us on X.com/SpaceX for continued updates on Starship's progress

Starship returned to integrated flight testing with its second launch from Starbase in Texas. While it didn’t happen in a lab or on a test stand, it was absolutely a test. What we did with this second flight will provide invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship. On November 18, 2023, Starship successfully lifted off at 7:02 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas and achieved a number of major milestones, including all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster starting up successfully and, for the first time, completed a full-duration burn during ascent. This 360-degree view comes from the top of the launch tower at Starbase in Texas, providing a front row seat to watch liftoff of the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. Follow us on X.com/SpaceX and go to spacex.com for more on this exciting flight.