NASA (Page 2)

The latest on the US space agency's crafts, missions, and discoveries—from low-Earth orbit to deep space.

Latest in NASA

These observations by NASA’s SPHEREx show the infrared light emitted by the dust, water, organic molecules, and carbon dioxide contained within comet 3I/ATLAS’s coma during the mission’s December 2025 campaign.
NASA

Comet 3I/ATLAS is leaving the solar system with a dramatic light show

By Andrew Paul

This image is the sum of 86 observations added together, representing over three million seconds of Chandra observing time. It spans just about 60 light-years across, which is a veritable pinprick on the entire sky. The underlying image contains lower-, medium-, and higher-energy X-rays in red, green, and blue respectively. The annotations on the image show where Chandra has detected over 3,300 individual sources in this field of view over a 22-year timeframe.
NASA

Gaze into the Milky Way’s black hole with NASA’s ‘back catalog’ of X-ray data

By Andrew Paul

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.
NASA

James Webb Space Telescope solves a comet crystal mystery

By Andrew Paul

A seemingly serene landscape of gas and dust is hopping with star formation behind the scenes.
NASA

Hubble spots three young stars going through growth spurts

By Andrew Paul

a satellite image of an iceberg, showing pools of blue water
NASA

Why is this infamous iceberg turning blue?

By Laura Baisas

Photograph of lightning inside storm cloud taken above Milan, Italy, at night aboard the ISS
NASA

Astronaut snaps spectacular photo of lightning above Italy

By Andrew Paul

This image shows the location of Cloud-9, which is 2,000 light-years from Earth. The diffuse magenta is radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array (VLA) showing the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission,which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars. [Image description: A region of space mostly filled with background galaxies, with one prominent star at upper left. A large blob of purple haze occupies much of the field. Within the purple region, an unremarkable area is outlined with a dashed white circle.]
NASA

Mysterious space object is full of dark matter

By Andrew Paul

Astronaut working inside International Space Station module
NASA

Tour the International Space Station in new NASA walkthrough

By Andrew Paul

a telescope image of an oval shaped star cluster
NASA

Hubble spots massive sandwich-shaped blob in deep space

By Mack DeGeurin

A cluster of stars inside a large nebula. The clouds of gas and dust are predominantly bright red in colour and wispy, akin to flames. They are clumped in the bottom-left corner. Other clouds, deeper in the cluster behind many of the stars, appear pale pink. The stars are concentrated in the top half of the image and are mostly small, bright white and six-pointed. They cast blue light over the nebula. Other stars with very long spikes surrounding them lie in the foreground.
NASA

James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes snap images of same nebula, 10 years apart

By Andrew Paul

two astronauts share a holiday meal on the ISS
NASA

9 festive ISS holiday celebrations through the years

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s SPHEREx has mapped the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, which are invisible to the human eye but can be used to reveal different features of the cosmos. This image features a selection of colors emitted primarily by stars (blue, green, and white), hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust (red). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA

Explore NASA’s most detailed map of the night sky yet

By Andrew Paul

This view of a region called Syrtis Major is from the 100,000th image captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera. Over nearly 20 years, HiRISE has helped scientists understand how the Red Planet’s surface is constantly changing.
NASA

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps 100,000th image

By Andrew Paul

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged an extremely large and symmetric protostellar jet at the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy in the forming cluster Sh2-284. From tip to tip, this protostellar jet is 8 light-years across, about double the distance from our Sun to its closest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri.
NASA

Massive newborn star is firing two plasma jets at once

By Andrew Paul

Soyuz spacecraft returning to Earth using parachute
NASA

NASA astronaut comes home after circling Earth 3,920 times

By Andrew Paul

Artistic impression of Nova V1674 Herculis. Credit: The CHARA Array
NASA

Pair of exploding stars baffle astronomers

By Andrew Paul

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Nov. 30, with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument.
NASA

Hubble Space Telescope caught a second glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS

By Andrew Paul

Martian landscape taken by rover
NASA

How to tell time on Mars

By Andrew Paul

Hubble telescope photo of large NGC 2775 galaxy
NASA

Galaxy NGC 2775 continues to baffle astronomers

By Andrew Paul

Artist illustration of Voyager probe in space
NASA

Voyager 1 is almost one light-day from Earth

By Andrew Paul

Comet passing above auroras on Earth
NASA

ISS astronauts photograph two comets soaring over Earth’s auroras

By Andrew Paul

The center of the image has the brightest pixel, indicating where the comet is. The next brightest shades in the image indicate areas where the instrument detected atoms of hydrogen coming from the comet. This hydrogen is released when sunlight heats the comet, causing its water ice to turn directly into vapor. Once released into space, the water molecules break apart into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.
NASA

New NASA images confirm comet 3I/ATLAS is not aliens

By Andrew Paul, Laura Baisas

Artist illustration of two ESCAPADE satellites orbiting Mars
NASA

Meet Blue and Gold: NASA’s first twin satellites bound for Mars

By Andrew Paul

A large planetary nebula. The nebula’s central star is hidden by a blotchy pinkish cloud of dust. A strong red light radiates from this area, illuminating the nearby dust. Two large loops extend diagonally away from the centre, formed of thin ridges of molecular gas, here coloured blue. They stretch out to the corners of the view. A huge number of bright, whitish stars cover the background, also easily visible through the thin dust layers.
NASA

Red Spider Nebula glows in ethereal new JWST image

By Laura Baisas

The first six women in newly issued, incompletely adorned astronaut jumpsuits, 1978: (front, left to right) Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon; (rear) Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik.
NASA

NASA’s trailblazing generation

By Valerie Neal

Cars driving down snowy road at night
NASA

There are actually 9 types of precipitation

By Andrew Paul

A stream of plasma moves from the sun toward Earth. On its way, the plasma hits four, square spacecraft, which are arranged in a triangular-pyramid formation. The spacecraft closest to the sun is in the center of a large, aluminum sail.
NASA

Earth has a space tornado problem

By Andrew Paul

a gold dollar coin. the heads side has a woman holding a baby on her back named sacagewea on it and the back an eagle with 17 stars
NASA

Space-flown Sacagawea dollar coins fetch over $500K at auction

By Laura Baisas

a mock up of a boarding pass for a flight during artemis 2
NASA

NASA’s next trip around the moon could have your name on it

By Laura Baisas

Lunar rover concept going up hill with US flag mounted on rear
NASA

NASA offers $155,000 to design moon tires

By Andrew Paul

An artist illustration of a small planet-sized object striking Mars during its early years.
NASA

Inside Mars, a ‘rocky road’ mantle reveals a violent past

By Andrew Paul

A scanning electron microscope image of a micrometeorite impact crater in a particle of asteroid Bennu material.
NASA

Some asteroids are more ‘colorful’ than others. Here’s why.

By Andrew Paul

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope exquisitely captures Uranus's seasonal north polar cap and dim inner and outer rings. This Webb image also shows 9 of the planet's 27 moons – clockwise starting at 2 o'clock, they are: Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita.
NASA

Uranus may have a 29th moon

By Andrew Paul

An artist’s impression of the “Cosmic Grapes” galaxy, composed of at least 15 massive star forming clumps—far more than current theoretical models predict could exist within a single rotating disk at this early time. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton
NASA

Early galaxy looked like lumpy ‘cosmic grapes’

By Andrew Paul

Image of comet taken by Hubble Space Telescope
NASA

Fastest comet ever recorded comes from beyond our solar system

By Andrew Paul

Artist illustration of supermassive black hole surrounded by cloud of red and yellow gas
NASA

Oldest black hole ever seen is 300 million times bigger than our sun

By Andrew Paul

Photo of galaxy with zoom in box showing Betelgeuse and companion star
NASA

Betelgeuse’s companion star finally located after years of debate

By Andrew Paul

This artist’s concept visualizes a kilonova – an explosion that happens when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide and merge. When these collisions happen, a fraction of the resulting debris is ejected as jets, which move near the speed of light. The remaining debris produces hot, glowing, neutron-rich clouds that forge heavy elements, like gold and platinum. Researchers will mine data from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will survey the same areas of the sky every few days, to identify kilonovae. Roman’s extensive data will help astronomers better identify how often these events occur, how much energy they give off, and how near or far they are.
NASA

NASA’s new Roman Space Telescope aims to discover 100,000 cosmic explosions

By Andrew Paul

These images, showing ejecta around the impacted near-Earth asteroids, were taken during the approach (with Didymos to the upper left) and departure (Didymos to the upper right) of DART's companion spacecraft, LICIACube, which flew past a few minutes after the impact and imaged the aftermath. The ejecta field consists of an asymmetric cone of dust that exhibits streamers and filaments, as well as over a hundred meter-sized boulders that were ejected in preferred directions.
NASA

Crashing into an asteroid creates chaotic space boulders

By Laura Baisas

Red sprite above Earth in photo taken from International Space Station
NASA

Mysterious red sprite erupts in new astronaut photo

By Andrew Paul

A composite image of the Andromeda spiral galaxy
NASA

NASA offers dazzling new sights (and sounds) of the Andromeda galaxy

By Andrew Paul

Back of US gold coin depicting NASA space shuttle launch
NASA

US Mint releases Space Shuttle $1 gold coin

By Andrew Paul

Image of dozens of galaxies taken by Hubble Space Telescope
NASA

NASA’s new space observatory is mapping the entire sky in 3D

By Andrew Paul

Black and white overhead shot of Mars rover and tracks on planet
NASA

NASA satellite spies Curiosity chugging along on Mars

By Andrew Paul

Photo of long barrel of NASA's gas gun in warehouse
NASA

Watch high-powered gas guns blast space habitat (for science)

By Andrew Paul

a blue, purple, and white galaxy whose clouds of dust and matter appear shaped like a butterfly
NASA

5 dazzling interstellar images to celebrate Hubble’s 35th birthday

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of planet disintegrating during orbit around star
NASA

Astronomers discover hellscape world crumbling into its host sun

By Andrew Paul

close up of asteroid Donaldjohanson
NASA

NASA snaps detailed photos of ‘strikingly complicated’ asteroid

By Andrew Paul

Two planets and crescent moon form smiley face in night sky
NASA

Rare ‘smiley face’ will light up the night sky on April 25

By Andrew Paul

A photomosaic taken by the Curiosity Rover on April 30, 2023 at the Ubajara drill site in Gale Crater, Mars. Rock powder samples drilled here contained substantial amounts of siderite (an iron carbonate mineral). The siderite played a role in ancient carbon cycling processes that impacted conditions at the planet’s surface. Rover tracks in the foreground are 40 cm wide. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA

Curiosity rover finds key ingredient for past life on Mars

By Andrew Paul

Jared Isaacman speaking at congressional hearing
NASA

NASA nominee: ‘We will prioritize sending astronauts to Mars’

By Andrew Paul

Lunar rover prototype in parking lot
NASA

All-terrain space truck hopes to drive astronauts on the moon

By Andrew Paul

A collage of three images showing the black expanse of space. Two-thirds of the collage is taken up by the black background sprinkled with small, blurry galaxies in orange, blue, and white. There are two images in a column at the right side of the collage. On the right side of the main image, not far from the top, a very faint dot is outlined with a white square. At the right, there are two zoomed in views of this area. The top box is labeled NIRCam and shows a fuzzy dot at the center of the inset. The bottom box is labeled MIRI and shows a fuzzy pinkish dot.
NASA

JWST snaps first image of asteroid that threatened Earth

By Andrew Paul

Martian landscape taken by NASA rover
NASA

Toxic dust on Mars could make astronauts sick

By Andrew Paul

Mars Curiosity rover selfie picture against Martian background
NASA

Curiosity finds largest-ever organic molecules on Mars

By Andrew Paul

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed Herbig-Haro 49/50, an outflow from a nearby still-forming star, in high-resolution near- and mid-infrared light.
NASA

JWST spots an energetic ‘Cosmic Tornado’ 625 light-years away

By Andrew Paul

Total solar eclipse showing ring of sunlight
NASA

Lunar lander snaps mesmerizing views of a solar eclipse

By Andrew Paul

Two astronauts holding plushies inside ISS
NASA

NASA wants your help designing its Artemis II mascot

By Andrew Paul

This artist concept depicts NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space. Interstellar space is dominated by the plasma, or ionized gas, that was ejected by the death of nearby giant stars millions of years ago.
NASA

NASA squeezes more life from 47-year-old Voyager probes

By Andrew Paul

This artist’s concept shows what the isolated planetary-mass object SIMP 0136 could look like based on recent observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and previous observations from Hubble, Spitzer, and numerous ground-based telescopes.
NASA

Mysterious cosmic body is a rogue ‘Super-Jupiter’

By Andrew Paul

Sunrise on moon taken by Blue Ghost lunar lander
NASA

NASA uses GPS on the moon for the first time

By Andrew Paul

A colorful, glowing nebula that reaches beyond the top and bottom of the image. It is made of translucent clouds of gas: wispy and thin with hard edges in some places, and puffy and opaque in others. Blue, red and yellow colours mix together, showing light emitted by different types of atoms in the hot gas. Bright and pointlike stars are scattered across the nebula. The background is black
NASA

Candy-colored atoms shine in new image of the Veil Nebula

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these drifting noctilucent, or twilight, clouds in a 16-minute recording on Jan. 17. (This looping clip has been speeded up about 480 times.) The white plumes falling out of the clouds are carbon dioxide ice that would evaporate closer to the Martian surface.
NASA

Curiosity rover spots rare shimmering clouds above Mars

By Andrew Paul

Europa clipper illustration
NASA

How space missions make discoveries on the way to their main destinations

By Briley Lewis