NASA (Page 4)

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

Latest in NASA

Toyota concept art for lunar RV

Japan and NASA plan a historic lunar RV roadtrip together

NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle concept art

It’s on! Three finalists will design a lunar rover for Artemis

Buzz Aldrin on the moon next to American flag.

NASA is designing a time zone just for the moon

the ring of the sun during a solar eclipse

How to photograph solar eclipse: The only guide you need

By Stan Horaczek

2017 Total Solar Eclipse timelapse

How to photograph the eclipse, according to NASA

Timelapse of total solar eclipse showcasing Baily's beads

NASA needs your smartphone during April’s solar eclipse

A circular asteroid with a smaller rock orbiting it. The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on September 26, 2022.

NASA’s asteroid blaster turned a space rock into an ‘oblong watermelon’

By Laura Baisas

NASA astronaut Scott Tingle is pictured during a 2018 spacewalk to swap out a degraded robotic hand on the Canadarm2.

‘Space headaches’ could be a real pain for astronauts

By Laura Baisas

NASA astronaut training

NASA’s astronaut applications are open again. Do you have what it takes?

M74 aka the Phantom Galaxy shown in a combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring data from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. It is one of the celestial objects featured

Listen to three breathtaking NASA images

By Laura Baisas

Odie the lunar lander is not dead yet

Odie the lunar lander is not dead yet

Tiger walking across snow

NASA and Google Earth Engine team up with researchers to help save tigers

Colorful cricket on green leaf

NASA wants you to record crickets during April’s solar eclipse

A combination of a Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1987A and the compact argon source. The faint blue source in the center is the emission from the compact source detected with the James Webb Space Telescope. Outside this is the stellar debris, which contains most of the mass. The inner bright “string of pearls” is the gas from the outer layers of the star that was expelled about 20,000 years before the final explosion. The fast debris is now colliding with the ring, explaining the bright spots. Outside of the inner ring are two outer rings, presumably produced by the same process as forming the inner ring. The bright stars to the left and right of the inner ring are unrelated to the supernova.

JWST detects evidence of a neutron star in fiery supernova remains

By Laura Baisas

Odysseus passes over the near side of the moon. The photo was taken while the spacecraft was orbiting the moon.

‘Odie’ makes space history with successful moon landing

By Laura Baisas

Concept art of NASA Mars habitat

How to apply for NASA’s next Mars habitat simulation

A graphic rendering of an asteroid in space, with a close up on where water molecules are on the surface.

Water molecules detected on the surface of an asteroid in space for the first time

By Laura Baisas

Surgeon using spaceMIRA remote surgery tool on ISS

First remote, zero-gravity surgery performed on the ISS from Earth (on rubber)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida a

‘Odie’ is en route for its potentially historic moon landing

By Laura Baisas

Phobos creating partial solar eclipse on Mars, image taken by Perseverance rover

A Martian solar eclipse turns the sun into a giant googly eye

Galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into an S-shape from a normal pancake-like spiral shape by the gravitational pull of a neighboring galaxy, seen in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. A consequence of this is that newborn clusters of stars form along a stretched-out tidal tail for thousands of light-years, resembling a string of pearls. They form when knots of gas gravitationally collapse to create about one million newborn stars per cluster.

NASA’s Hubble space telescope reveals a galactic ‘string of pearls’

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite launches aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Fire and smoke are below the spacecraft as it lifts off from the launch pad.

NASA’s PACE satellite takes off to monitor phytoplankton—from space

By Laura Baisas

The Ingenuity helicopter sits on the surface of Mars on February 4, 2024.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover spots damaged, lonely Ingenuity helicopter in the ‘bland’ part of Mars

By Laura Baisas

Face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, is split diagonally in this image: The James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at top left, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s on bottom right. JWST’s observations combine near- and mid-infrared light and Hubble’s showcase visible light. Dust absorbs ultraviolet and visible light, and then re-emits it in the infrared. In JWST’s images, we see dust glowing in infrared light. In Hubble’s images, dark regions are where starlight is absorbed by dust.

JWST images show off the swirling arms of 19 spiral galaxies

By Laura Baisas

The full moon rises, with clouds below and behind it.

The moon is shrinking (very slowly)

By Laura Baisas

Ingenuity rotocopter on Mars

RIP Mars Ingenuity, the ‘little helicopter that could’

A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. The picture was taken using manual high-resolution precision photography and a semi-automated focus stacking procedure. The result is an image that can be zoomed in on to show extreme detail of the sample. The remaining sample material includes dust and rocks up to about 0.4 inch in size.

This is what’s inside NASA’s previously stuck asteroid sampler

By Laura Baisas

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter concept art above moon

NASA bounced a laser off a cookie-sized device on the moon

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation engineer, Neftali Hernandez, attaches one of the tools developed to help remove two final fasteners that prohibited complete disassembly of the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism head that holds the remainder of material collected from asteroid Bennu. Engineers on the team, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, developed new tools that freed the fasteners on January 10.

NASA finally pries open stuck Bennu asteroid sampler

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop launches the agency’s Artemis I flight test on November 16, 2022. The Artemis I mission was the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems.

NASA delays two crewed Artemis moon missions

By Laura Baisas

NASA plans to unveil experimental X-59 supersonic jet on January 12

NASA plans to unveil experimental X-59 supersonic jet on January 12

Smoke billows out of two engines as United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024. The new rocket is carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.

Peregrine lunar lander experiences ‘critical loss of propellant’ following successful launch

By Laura Baisas

Rendering of Astrobotic Peregrin lunar lander on moon's surface

NASA is headed for the moon next week, and it’s bringing lots of weird stuff

A reddish moon on a black background, dotted with several gray marks that are volcanoes. Jupiter's moon Io is one of Jupiter’s several moons. This image was taken on December 30, 2023 during the Juno spacecraft’s flyby of this volcanic Jupiterian moon.

See the most volcanic world in our solar system in new NASA images

By Laura Baisas

Black and white aerial shot of Mars Ingenuity helicopter in flight

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter set a new flight distance record on Mars

Screenshot of cat video sent from Psyche spacecraft to NASA

Taters the cat stars in first ‘ultra-HD’ video sent from deep space

This image from the Near-Infrared Camera instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars. The bright star closest to the center of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, which are the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.

Record-breaking ‘failed star’ spotted by JWST

By Laura Baisas

Artist art of Voyager space probe against purple cosmic background

Voyager 1 is sending back bad data, but NASA is on it

Apollo 16 lunar landing mission commander John W. Young leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag. The flag is located at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity.

Why scientists think it’s time to declare a new lunar epoch

By Laura Baisas

Close-up of SpaceX Starship Falcon rockets igniting during liftoff

Another SpaceX Starship blew up

NASA Psyche spacecraft surrounded by engineers in lab

NASA’s Psyche wins first deep space laser relay

Computer simulation of Apollo 12 lunar lander effects on lunar surface

Watch NASA’s supercomputer simulation of the Apollo 12 lunar landing

NASA ISS toolbag floating away above Earth

This tool bag is floating in space

NASA's Super Guppy rocket transport prop plane landing on tarmac in Alabama

Watch NASA’s bizarre and bulbous Super Guppy cargo plane touch down in Alabama

Three moons and Jupiter, plus the NASA probe Juno.

The Juno spacecraft spotted evidence of a salty ocean on Jupiter’s biggest moon

By Briley Lewis

Astronomers found the most distant black hole ever detected in X-rays (in a galaxy dubbed UHZ1) using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope. X-ray emission is a telltale signature of a growing supermassive black hole. This result may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed. These images show the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 that UHZ1 is located behind, in X-rays from Chandra and infrared data from JWST, as well as close-ups of the black hole host galaxy UHZ1.

Farthest black hole ever recorded by astronomers is nearly as old as our universe

By Laura Baisas

A sample of Asteroid Bennu is put on public display for the first time at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, on November 3, 2023. A sample collected from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, NASA revealed, offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. The small black rock is located in a glass viewing pain.

Smithsonian unveils a very small sample of the 4.5-billion-year-old Bennu asteroid

By Laura Baisas

Screenshot of star from NASA+ show 'Space Out'

NASA’s free streaming platform launches this week. Here’s what to watch.

A large asteroid with a smaller asteroid orbiting it. This image shows the “moonrise” of the satellite as it emerges from behind asteroid Dinkinesh as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. This image was taken by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft at 12:55 p.m. EDT on November 1, 2023, within a minute of closest approach, from a range of approximately 270 miles. From this perspective, the satellite is behind the primary asteroid. The image has been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast.

First NASA images from Lucy’s flyby reveal that ‘Dinky’ is not alone

By Laura Baisas

yeah! caption is A size comparison of Dinkinesh (shown in blue) and other main asteroid belt objects Bennu and (2867) Steins.

NASA spacecraft Lucy says hello to ‘Dinky’ asteroid on far-flying mission

By Laura Baisas

The Milky Way galaxy shines above a dark space telescope in the foreground.

What astronomers learned from a near-Earth asteroid they never saw coming

By Briley Lewis

The gold mirrors of JSWT sit in front of an extremely large, circular door in a vast room with scientists working.

This NASA photographer documented the 30-year journey to build the James Webb Space Telescope

By Abby Ferguson

Man holding HULC lunar camera in rocky outdoor environment

A sneak peek at the lunar camera destined for the Artemis missions

Artist rendition of Voyager 1 in space

Voyager probes get virtual tune-up to keep decades-long missions going and going

NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt is standing on the moon’s surface next to a large split lunar boulder, with a roving vehicle on the other side of the boulder.

The moon is 40 million years older than we thought, according to crystals collected by Apollo astronauts

By Laura Baisas

Pale craters on the moon's lunar surface, with dark shadows below.

This private lander could be the first US machine on the moon this century

Red-capped Hall effect thrusters being attached to a spacecraft body by two engineers.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will blaze an unusual blue trail across the solar system

By Briley Lewis

The metal capsule containing asteroid samples of Bennu.

NASA’s first asteroid-return sample is a goldmine of life-sustaining materials

Parker Solar Probe in front of sun concept art

The fastest ever human-made object keeps breaking its own speed record

Close up of Axiom Space Prada lunar spacesuit glove

Moon-bound Artemis III spacesuits have some functional luxury sewn in

A spacecraft in a white room as technicians wearing cleanroom suits look on.

NASA’s mission to a weird metal asteroid has blasted off

Inside the small world of simulating other worlds

Inside the small world of simulating other worlds

By Sarah Scoles/Undark

Rendering of Firefly Space's Blue Ghost lunar lander on moon surface

Why astronomers want to put a telescope on the dark side of the moon

A NASA illustration of its boxy OSIRIS spacecraft touching an asteroid.

NASA’s OSIRIS mission delivered asteroid samples to Earth