Feed aggregator

In a Dec. 10 press event at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California, three scientists presented new images of the ionosphere, the dynamic region where Earth’s atmosphere meets space.

On Oct. 11, the OSIRIS-REx team should have been preparing to point their spacecraft cameras precisely over the asteroid Bennu, but an unexpected communications outage on the ground came at a particularly critical time and threatened to throw the mission off track. Engineers quickly hatched a daring plan to keep OSIRIS-REx on schedule.

Two decades ago today the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) launched into orbit. A pioneering satellite for studying the universe with different kinds of light, XMM-Newton has studied over half a million X-ray sources, including supernovae, star-shredding black holes and superdense neutron stars.

Meltwater lakes form on the surface of Greenland’s Petermann Glacier.

New time-lapse videos of Earth's glaciers and ice sheets as seenfrom space, some spanning nearly 50 years, are providing new insights into howthe planet's frozen regions are changing.

To make room for the latest cargo craft on Nov. 29, Progress 73 departed the station after undocking from the Pirs docking compartment.

For billions of years, the Earth and the Moon have danced together. Since the Apollo era, scientists have used lasers — a technology then in its infancy — to measure their waltz. Lasers have since played increasingly important roles in spaceflight. They may even play a part in keeping the next generation of lunar astronauts connected to home.

NASA satellites, no matter the destination, have to communicate their data to mission control and scientists on Earth. SCaN Now is an interactive online platform that showcases real-time data flowing through these networks, and it's just gotten a new upgrade to include NASA’s space-to-space relay system.

Some of the most dramatic events in the universe occur when certain stars die — and explode catastrophically in the process. When these star deaths, or supernovae, occur, their brightness can rival the light of a whole galaxy. The galaxy NGC 5468, shown in this Hubble image, has hosted a number of these supernovae the past 20 years.

Some of the most dramatic events in the universe occur when certain stars die — and explode catastrophically in the process. When these star deaths, or supernovae, occur, their brightness can rival the light of a whole galaxy. The galaxy NGC 5468, shown in this Hubble image, has hosted a number of these supernovae the past 20 years.

NASA researchers will present new findings on a wide range of Earth and space science topics at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Dec. 9-13 in San Francisco.

The discovery of particle plumes erupting from Bennu's surface was a surprise,indicating that the returned asteroid sample may unlock answers to unexpected questions.

European Space Agency astronaut and current International Space Station Commander Luca Parmitano and ​crewmate Andrew Morgan (out of frame) performed the third spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Amidst the grandeur of spaceflight, there is a tiny bit of technology that, if not for its major role, might otherwise go unnoticed: distress beacons. This NASA-developed search-and-rescue technology could be life-saving not just for astronauts, but for travelers across the globe as well.

After a lengthy and challenging process, the team is finally ready to down-select from the four candidate sites to a primary and backup site.

Since its 2018 launch, NASA's Parker Solar Probe (record-holder for closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun) has finished three of 24 planned passes through never-before-explored parts of the Sun's atmosphere. On Dec. 4, four new papers describe what scientists have learned from its unprecedented exploration, and what they look forward to learning next.

Within the tempestuous Carina Nebula lies “Mystic Mountain.”

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers at the University of Maryland (UMD), in College Park, Maryland, have captured a clear start-to-finish image sequence of an explosive emission of dust, ice and gases during the close approach of comet 46P/Wirtanen in late 2018.

Robots need a place to stay in space, too. NASA is attaching a “robot hotel” to the outside of the International Space Station with the upcoming launch of the Robotic Tool Stowage (RiTS).

Sometimes robots need a place to stay in space, too. NASA is attaching a “robot hotel” to the outside of the International Space Station with the upcoming launch of the Robotic Tool Stowage (RiTS), a protective storage unit for critical robotic tools.