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Follow mission news or learn about exciting new discoveries from NASA centers and research partners.

  • Study of Clays Suggests Watery Mars Underground

    Study of Clays Suggests Watery Mars Underground

    Nov. 3, 2011

    A new NASA study suggests if life ever existed on Mars, the longest lasting habitats were most likely below the Red Planet's surface.

  • Watching the Birth of an Iceberg

    Watching the Birth of an Iceberg

    Nov. 3, 2011

    After discovering an emerging crack that cuts across the floating ice shelf of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, NASA's Operation IceBridge has flown a follow-up mission and made the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg calving in progress.

  • The Cold Chemistry of Creation

    The Cold Chemistry of Creation

    Nov. 2, 2011

    New research is shedding light on the chemistry that occurs in the dark space between stars. Astrochemists have demonstrated a key role that icy dust could play in the formation of a precursor molecule for life's building blocks.

  • Which Way Does the Wind Blow? Let's Find Out!

    Which Way Does the Wind Blow? Let's Find Out!

    Nov. 2, 2011

    On a bluff overlooking the Atlantic, Grady Koch spent a month watching ocean winds. He beamed a laser over the sea, day after day, measuring conditions offshore using an instrument called Doppler Aerosol Wind (DAWN) lidar.

  • Hinode's First Light, and Five More Years

    Hinode's First Light, and Five More Years

    Nov. 2, 2011

    On October 28, 2006, the Hinode solar mission was at last ready. The spacecraft launched on September 22, but such missions require a handful of diagnostics before the instruments can be turned on and collect what is called "first light."

  • Battered Asteroid May Have Warm Core

    Battered Asteroid May Have Warm Core

    Oct. 31, 2011

    New data from the Rosetta probe indicates that the asteroid 21 Lutetia may have a molten, metallic core.

  • Planets Smashed Into Dust Near SuperMassive Black Holes

    Planets Smashed Into Dust Near SuperMassive Black Holes

    Oct. 31, 2011

    A new theory suggests that doughnut-shaped dust around supermassive black holes could be the result of high speed crashes between planets and asteroids.

  • NASA Launches Multi-Talented Earth-Observing Satellite

    NASA Launches Multi-Talented Earth-Observing Satellite

    Oct. 28, 2011

    NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite soared into space early today aboard a Delta II rocket after liftoff at 5:48 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP, successfully separated from the Delta II 58 minutes after launch, and the first signal was acquired by the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. NPP's solar array deployed 67 minutes after launch to provide the satellite with electrical power. NPP is on course to reach its sun-synchronous polar orbit 512 miles (824 km) above Earth.

  • 'Pacman' Nebula Gets Some Teeth

    'Pacman' Nebula Gets Some Teeth

    Oct. 27, 2011

    To visible-light telescopes, NGC 281 appears to be chomping through the cosmos, earning it the nickname the "Pacman" nebula. When viewed in infrared light, the Pacman takes on a new appearance.

  • Astronomers Pin Down Galaxy Collision Rate

    Astronomers Pin Down Galaxy Collision Rate

    Oct. 26, 2011

    A new analysis of Hubble surveys, combined with simulations of galaxy interactions, reveals that the merger rate of galaxies over the last 8 billion to 9 billion years falls between the previous estimates.