LEIA Stories
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 6, 2026 This week Curiosity has been completing its drill campaign at the “Nazca” drill hole. This is an area characterized by bedrock containing disk-shaped…
Rounds of heavy rain in the U.S. Southwest flooded rivers and rapidly raised New Mexico’s second-largest reservoir.
The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) observatory, now in development, will detect gravitational waves, the tiny ripples in space-time caused by orbiting masses. Now two studies led by NASA astrophysicists show in new detail how LISA could reveal a new…
Low clouds trace the branching valleys of the Appalachian Plateau and the Cumberland River, then burn off by afternoon.
By Remington Free, Operations Systems Engineer, NASA-JPL Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 30, 2026 Today’s plan covered 3 sols, 5060, 5061, and 5062, as we take a few recharging sols before getting back to our normal drilling activities. As you…
Written by Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 23, 2026 As regular readers of this blog will know, we returned to the area where we found disc shaped inclusions…
Written by Roger C. Wiens, SuperCam Principal Investigator for NASA’s Perseverance rover at Purdue University Nov. 4, 2026 Exploration on Mars turns up the unexpected. Perseverance is equipped with a fantastic set of instruments for studying the rock record of…
Written by Tasha Coelho, Mastcam-Z Student Collaborator at Arizona State University Nov. 1, 2026 Perseverance’s most recent abrasion “Pumbe” bears a striking resemblance to an earlier abrasion, “Badger Peak.” That’s no coincidence. As previously reported, that rock had a hardness…
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered what is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star. A new study, published Monday in the latest issue of The Astrophysical Journal, details the discovery of a previously hidden companion object…
Mid-power (3-7 kW) Hall effect thruster systems have been identified by government and industry stakeholders as critical capabilities for satellite, defense, and exploration missions. Given the need for this capability, NASA is launching the Advanced Mid-Power Electric Rocket (AMPERE) Challenge.…