NASA’s Dragonfly, the first rotorcraft designed for science exploration on another planet, has passed its Critical Design Review. The mission to Saturn’s icy moon Titan will investigate prebiotic chemical processes and complex organic compounds that, on Earth, are the building blocks of life. Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and...
NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission has taken its first measurements. These “first light” observations show that EZIE is poised to reveal crucial details about Earth’s auroral electrojets — powerful electric currents that flow through our upper atmosphere where auroras glow in the sky. This information will help us better understand Earth’s connection to space and mitigate the negative impacts of...
The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at 1:51 pm EDT on Sunday. Initial information indicates that the spacecraft is in good health. The team has commanded the spacecraft to start sending the data...
This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University) NASA’s James …
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon reach the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. In this image, created by stacking images that the Lucy spacecraft took during its approach, the asteroid appears as a series of points in front of the static background of stars and galaxies. In addition to the asteroid brightening as the spacecraft approaches...
NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission successfully completed spacecraft commissioning this week, opening its instrument doors to capture “first light,” the mission’s first images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and the surrounding space. This is the first step in revealing new details of how the solar atmosphere unfolds and streams through …
New data from NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) is available at its regular frequency following a data outage in November 2024. A small amount of historical data collected prior to 2014 is still being restored from backups. The SDO mission provides critical, near-real-time and high-resolution solar observations for the study of the near-Earth space environment …
Work on the NISAR satellite has been completed at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment in Bengaluru, and preparations are under way to transport it to the launch site at the agency’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India’s southeastern coast. NASA and ISRO now are reviewing potential launch …
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is less than one month away from its next asteroid encounter. As it approaches, Lucy is keeping an eye on its target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, using its high-resolution imager, L’LORRI, for optical navigation. At its closest point, Lucy will fly 600 miles (960 km) from Donaldjohanson, a distance carefully...
Since near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered in December 2024, NASA and the worldwide planetary defense community have continued to observe the asteroid, which was ruled out as a significant impact risk to Earth. New infrared observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have decreased the uncertainty of the asteroid’s size and 2024 YR4...
