The latest news briefs from NASA science.
For the first time, scientists have used NASA sounding rockets to study a solar flare in progress, thanks to a new flare alert system that told the team when to launch. Solar flares accelerate particles and release energy into the solar system, which can affect Earth and its technologies. Sounding rockets are a relatively fast, […]
NASA-funded researchers are helping Virginia officials assess the impacts of a harmful algal bloom on oyster farms along the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore.
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier could contribute more to sea level rise by the end of the century than some previous estimates. In some model simulations, the glacier’s contribution was as much as twice current projections.
From Texas to Maine, coastal wetlands and marshes are releasing more than 1.45 billion pounds (660,000 metric tons) of carbon into the ocean each year.
As autumn gives way to winter across the Arctic, the ground doesn’t immediately freeze solid. Instead, soils often linger near the freezing point for days or even weeks in a phase called the zero curtain. In a new NASA-led study, researchers produced high-resolution maps of the Arctic zero curtain. Understanding the duration, intensity and extent […]
A new analysis of imagery collected during NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s 2015 encounter with Pluto provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto’s surface through cracks in the northern edge of the Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the first evidence of recently flowing liquid […]
A new study, funded by NASA, found that giant sequoias were nearly four times more likely to survive extreme wildfires in forests that have been managed with prescribed burns, which decrease tree mortality.
![An educational diagram illustrating how measurement uncertainty can distort data regarding Earth's magnetosphere, featuring a detailed space visualization alongside two comparative line graphs. Top Right: Earth is shown surrounded by a complex network of blue magnetic field lines.Far Right: A bright blue, curved line denotes the "Bow shock," which transitions into an orange-red turbulent region labeled the "Magnetosheath." Spacecraft Locations: The "WIND" spacecraft is positioned far to the left in the "Solar wind" stream, connected to a label reading "Measured solar wind strength." The "THEMIS" spacecraft sits closer to Earth inside the magnetosheath, labeled "Corrected solar wind strength. Left Graph: Plots "Earth's response [mV/m]" against "Measured solar wind strength [mV/m]." A blue line initially follows a linear path but then flattens out, marked with the text "illusion of saturation due to measurement uncertainty."Right Graph: Plots "Earth's response [mV/m]" against "Corrected solar wind strength [mV/m]." A pink line continues steadily upward diagonally, labeled as the "True linear response."](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/sivadas-2026-explanation-figure-v5-1.jpg?w=900)
For decades, scientists have thought that there is a ceiling to how intensely Earth responds to solar storms. However, a NASA-led paper published Wednesday in Nature suggests this upper limit is an illusion. If so, it means solar storms could have far worse effects on our technology than previously thought. Observations have suggested that electric […]
Editor’s note: This post was updated on July 10,2026, to clarify details on the scientific data visualization, and on July 21, 2026, to correct the description of the illustrated graphic. Researchers working with one of NASA’s DRIVE (Diversify, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate) Science Centers are closer to unraveling a long-standing solar mystery surrounding the extreme […]
