Science and Technology Highlights

June 2018

The shape of the earth's magnetosphere is the result of being blasted by solar wind, compressing the sunward side to a distance of only 6 to 10 times the radius of the earth.

Magnetosphere’s Bow Shock Slows Solar Wind

After an initial spike, energetic neutral atoms should rain back down on ibex, forming a ring that expands across the sky over time.

As Solar Wind Blows, Our Heliosphere Balloons

Hi-c launches aboard a black brant ix sounding rocket at the white sands missile range, new mexico.

Hi-C Launches for Third Flight to Study the Sun

Before the van allen mission, chorus waves were not a widely accepted theory.

Relativistic Particles Solved with NASA Missions

May 2018

The plaque containing names submitted to travel to the sun is mounted below parker solar probe’s high-gain antenna (the round object with gray covering), which the spacecraft will use to transmit data back to earth.

1.1 Million Names Installed on Parker Solar Probe

During the 2017 total solar eclipse, the sun’s corona, only visible during the total eclipse, is shown as a crown of white flares from the surface.

Thermospheric Wave Generated by 2017 Eclipse

Glowing purple and green regions in gold metallic-looking plasma.

Magnetic Reconnection in Earth's Magnetosheath

Wavy blue lines rising off the dark side of jupiter’s moon ganymede, with jupiter in the background.

New Results from NASA’s Galileo 20 Years On

April 2018

A visualization of the magnetosphere and solar wind interacting.

Large-Amplitude Waves at Earth’s Magnetopause

Three coronal holes appear as large dark areas which are identified with arrows in the still image.

Solar Wind Streams and Their Coronal Holes

A comparison of ena fluxes from late 2015 to late 2016 from cg correlated anti-ram data. the data shown is for the two highest energies, where a visible increase in ena intensity is detected in late 2016.

Heliosphere Responds to Solar Wind Intensification

The transition region is a thin and very irregular layer of the sun's atmosphere that separates the hot corona from the much cooler chromosphere.

Slitless Spectrograph to View the Transition Zone

March 2018

The 3d view modelled on the left confirmed long-held theoretical predictions of a strong shock near the cme nose and a weaker shock at the sides. the pink lines show the cme structure and the yellow lines show the structure of the shock.

3 NASA Satellites Create 3-D View of Solar Eruption

Steve (strong thermal emission velocity enhancement) is seen as a thin purple ribbon of light.

STEVE Mystery Solved With Citizen Scientists

Red arrows pointing in all directions at the moon.

Meteoroid Bombardment on Lunar Exosphere

Before the van allen mission, chorus waves were not a widely accepted theory.

LCAS CubeSat Selections

February 2018

The process to disperse water in the upper atmosphere during the super soaker mission is tested at nasa’s wallops flight facility.

Sounding Rockets to Study Polar Mesospheric Clouds

Artist’s rendition of earth’s magnetic field lines. currents of particles flowing on these lines are one of the key ways energy transfers from space to earth’s atmosphere.

How Energy Passes from Space to Earth

January 2018

Ariane 5 launch

GOLD Mission to Image Earth’s Interface to Space

Regions where electrons are accelerated within the magnetosphere depicted as a 3d line with four humps.

Targeting Elusive Electrons with MMS

December 2017

Total solar eclipse against against a light and dark green sky.

Updates from NASA-funded Eclipse Science

A 3d rectangle depicting kelvin helmholtz waves at the magnetosphere’s boundary

Plasma Space Tornadoes

Substorms graphic depicting yellow lines circling the earth

16 Spacecraft Collaborate on Substorm Onset

November 2017

An artist’s rendition of the van allen radiation belts, which circle earth.

Locating the Origins of Whistling Electrons

The sun partially obscured by the earth

Atmospheric Beacons Guide in Search for Life

October 2017

Stereo data on aug. 12, 2017, is compared to observations nine days later from soho, which had a similar perspective of the corona as was seen from the ground during the eclipse on aug. 21.

Solar Eclipse as a Study for Space Weather Prediction

Foxsi’s observations of hard x-rays are shown in blue, superimposed over a soft x-ray image of the sun from the hinode mission.

Sounding Rocket Spots Signatures of Nanoflares

The image above captured on july 23, 2012 shows a cme that left the sun at the unusually fast speeds of over 1,800 miles per second.

Testing STEREO Heliospheric Imagers

Artist's rendition of themis satellite over earth.

Exchange Between Plasma Waves and Particles

September 2017

An artist's depiction of earth’s magnetosphere is shown in the image above. the green circle indicates earth’s outer radiation belt, which is one area of the magnetosphere that houses energetic particles.

Origin of Energetic Particles in Near-Earth Space

Colorful aurora

Aurora and the Weddell Sea Anomaly

Cropped image from voyager 40th anniversary poster art

NASA Celebrates Voyager, NASA IBEX Study Reveals New Dynamics of the Heliospheric Boundary

Small-scale magnetic fields in the lower reaches of the sun's corona

NASA Solar Data on Solar Flare Evolution

August 2017

Nasa/esa soho image from lasco c2 taken at 20:48 ut of the october 2014 cme

Tracking a CME through Space

July 2017

Image of solar eclipse from january 2014

The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, Solar Irradiance and SDO

Artist's rendering of van allen probes

Van Allen Data and Mesospheric Ozone Destruction

June 2017

Artist's rendering of van allen waves

Van Allen Probes Find Plasma Waves

Screenshot from a video depicting a solar eruption

Universal Mechanism for Solar Eruptions

Still capture of an sdo video showing artificial radiation belts

Space Weather Events Linked to Human Activity

May 2017

A still capture from an animation depicting electrons spiraling along an intermediate strength magnetic guide field

NASA’s MMS Uncovers Dance of Electrons in Space

A model simulation illustrating how gravity waves kicked off by a cyclone east of australia build as they travel toward space

Lower Atmosphere Waves Invade Upper Atmosphere

A compact model of the heliosphere

Putting the Sphere into Heliosphere

A series of westward traveling brightpoints slowly circling the sun

Solar Waves Stream in New Insight

April 2017

Noctilucent clouds

AIM and Meteoric Smoke

Zodiacal light, labeled by the text and cone shape in the image, captured at the site of the giant magellan telescope at las campanas observatory.

Dust in the Wind

Artist's rendering of one van allen probes satellite

Van Allen Probes data dives deep into Near-Earth space

Artist's rendering of earth’s magnetosphere with mms

MMS Makes the Invisible, Visible

Two people standing in solarium

Solarium

March 2017

Coronal holes on the sun

Not So Calm

Artist's rendering of timed saber mission satellite

TIMED SABER Data

Lynch rocket launch

2017 Alaska Sounding Rocket Campaign

February 2017

Front page of the january 2017 issue of space weather

New SEP Warning Technique

A still capture of a visualization showing the new mms phase 2b orbit

NASA MMS Enters into a New Orbit

Image of a solar eclipse

Solar Eclipse Research

Image from nasa radx balloon

First Results from the NASA Rad-X Experiment

January 2017

The black line represents the alfvén surface in an mhd model

Imaging the Top of the Solar Corona

Goes-r mag instrument fully deployed

Solar Storms with GOES-R Satellite

October 2016

Collage of different colored wavelengths

Tracking Solar Waves

September 2016

Artist's rendition of the five themis probes collecting data in earth’s magnetosphere seen in the right-hand side of the image

Space Weather

Administrator Bolden posing with minxss students in 2014

Solar Irradiance: MinXSS

Students on bleachers celebrating the successful launch

RockSat-X

August 2016

Image of the 1st barrel balloon, preparing for launch from sweden on 13 august 2016

BARREL Balloon Campaign

Screenshot showing a positive cluster of aurora sightings

Aurorasaurus: Hybrid Aurora Alert System

July 2016

Blue aurora on top of jupiter

Jupiter Aurora

January 2016

Illustration of Van Allen Radiation Belts surrounding earth

NASA’s Van Allen Probes Revolutionize View of Radiation Belts

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno