Citizen Science Highlights

NASA needs your help! You can collaborate with professional scientists, conduct cutting-edge science, and make real discoveries. A science degree is not required, just a passion for understanding the natural world. Here, you can read news about NASA-funded citizen science projects, new discoveries, and opportunities to get involved. For more information on current citizen science projects.

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Discovery Alert: An Earth-sized World and Its Ultra-cool Star

4 min read

Our galaxy is a jewel box of red stars. More than 70% of the stars in the Milky Way are M dwarfs, also known as red dwarfs. These stars are cool and dim compared with our Sun, but they often…

Article11 mins ago
Three bright stars with diffraction spikes shine near the center-right of the image, illuminating nearby clouds that glow in pale blue. The clouds darken at the edges of the image, and are dotted with smaller stars, some also with diffraction spikes.

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star 

2 min read

Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP…

Article3 hours ago

How ‘Glowing’ Plants Could Help Scientists Predict Flash Drought

5 min read

An unusual boost in plant productivity can foreshadow severe soil water loss. NASA satellites are following the clues. Flaring up rapidly and with little warning, the drought that gripped much of the United States in the summer of 2012 was…

Article24 hours ago

NASA Teammates Recall Favorite Memories Aboard Flying Laboratory

4 min read

After flying more than three decades and 158 science campaigns, just one flight remains. NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory will make its final flight May 15 to Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, where it will be used to train…

Article1 day ago

Meet NASA Women Behind World’s Largest Flying Laboratory

5 min read

NASA’s DC-8 aircraft – the world’s largest flying science laboratory – began its science missions in 1987 and since then, has flown in service of the science community over places like Antarctica, Greenland, and Thailand. Aircraft like the DC-8 have…

Article2 days ago
An astronaut is moved on the end of a shuttle robotic arm in the cargo bay with numerous tools attached while another works lower right. Hubble and the earth are in the background.

Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4

8 min read

Fifteen years ago, human hands touched NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. As astronauts performed finishing tasks on the telescope during its final servicing mission in May 2009, they knew they had successfully concluded one of the most…

Article5 days ago
A spiral galaxy in the center of a dark background, surrounded by a few distant galaxies and nearby stars. The galaxy stretches diagonally across the center of the frame — from lower left to upper right — and is slightly tilted toward the viewer. Its cloudy disk is threaded with dust and holds no clear arms. A bar of light extends across the disk from the glowing core. A faint halo of gas surrounds the disk.

Hubble Glimpses a Star-Forming Factory

2 min read

The celestial object showcased in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy UGC 9684, which lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes. This image shows an impressive example of several classic…

Article5 days ago

NASA Images Help Explain Eating Habits of Massive Black Hole

4 min read

Data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope has given scientists new insights into why some supermassive black holes shine differently than others. In images from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, streams of dust thousands of light-years long flow toward the…

Article6 days ago
Illustration of a rocky exoplanet and its star. The star is in the background at the lower left and appears somewhat, but not significantly, smaller in the sky than the planet. It has a bright orange-red glow, and appears to have an active surface. The planet is in the foreground to the upper right of the star. The left quarter of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is in shadow. The planet has hints of a rocky, partly molten surface beneath the haze of a thin atmosphere. The boundary between the day and night sides of the planet is fuzzy.

NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

7 min read

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet atmosphere outside…

Article1 week ago

NASA, JAXA XRISM Spots Iron Fingerprints in Nearby Active Galaxy

3 min read

After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the monster black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 4151. “XRISM’s Resolve instrument captured a detailed spectrum of the area around the black hole,” said…

Article1 week ago
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