Science News

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

Filters

Illustration of a large planet with a grayish atmosphere partially illuminated by a distant bright star in space, surrounded by a dark sky dotted with small stars.

When Will That Star Dim? Amateur Planet-Chasers Got You!

2 min read

A planet swings in front of its star, dimming the starlight we see. Events like these, called transits, provide us with bounties of information about exoplanets–planets around stars other than the Sun. But predicting when these special events occur can…

Article5 hours ago
Conceptual image of how the Moon casts a shadow on Earth during a total eclipse.

NASA Develops Process to Create Very Accurate Eclipse Maps

3 min read

New NASA research reveals a process to generate extremely accurate eclipse maps, which plot the predicted path of the Moon’s shadow as it crosses the face of Earth. Traditionally, eclipse calculations assume that all observers are at sea level on…

Article6 hours ago
A pair of interacting galaxies. The larger of the two galaxies is slightly right of center, and composed of a hazy, bright, white center and a ring of gaseous filaments, which are different shades of red and orange. Toward the bottom left and bottom right of the ring are filaments of gas spiraling inward toward the core. At the top left of the ring is a noticeable gap, bordered by two large, orange pockets of dust and gas. The smaller galaxy to its left is made of hazy white gas and dust, which becomes more diffuse farther away from its center. To this galaxy’s bottom left, there is a smaller, more diffuse gas cloud that wafts outward toward the edges. Many red, orange, and white galaxies are spread throughout, with some hazier in composition and others having more defined spiral patterns.

NASA’s Webb Provides Another Look Into Galactic Collisions

4 min read

Smile for the camera! An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright “eyes” and the wide semicircular “smile.” The…

Article1 day ago
IceSat-2 figure 1

ICESat-2 Hosts Third Applications Workshop

16 min read

Introduction The NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 mission (ICESat-2), launched September 15, 2018, continues the first ICESat mission, delivering invaluable global altimetry data. Notwithstanding its icy acronym, ICESat-2 can do more than measure ice – in fact, the…

Article2 days ago
Earth Day Main Photo

Celebrating the First Earth Day Event at NASA Headquarters

4 min read

Introduction Organized by the Science Mission Directorate’s Science Support Office (SSO), NASA hosted its 12th annual Earth Day Celebration event from April 18–19, 2024. For the first time ever, the two-day event was held at NASA Headquarters (HQ) in Washington,…

Article2 days ago

NASA Completes Spacecraft to Transport, Support Roman Space Telescope

5 min read

The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing. Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will…

Article2 days ago

8 Things to Know About NASA’s Mission to an Ocean Moon of Jupiter

6 min read

The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out if the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary…

Article2 days ago
A field of galaxies of various shapes, sizes, colors, and types against a black backgrouns.

NASA’s Hubble Finds More Black Holes than Expected in the Early Universe

4 min read

With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new…

Article2 days ago
The Earth is centered against a starry universe. Several rainbow-colored bands surround the Earth in oblong and spherical shapes.

Innovative Instrument Reveals Hidden Features Deep Inside the Van Allen Radiation Belts

6 min read

A new instrument is using advanced detection techniques and leveraging an orbit with specific characteristics to increase our understanding of the Van Allen belts—regions surrounding Earth that contain energetic particles that can endanger both robotic and human space missions. Recently,…

Article2 days ago

Going Back-to-School with NASA Data

4 min read

As students head back to school, teachers have a new tool that brings NASA satellite data down to their earthly classrooms. For over 50 years of observing Earth, NASA’s satellites have collected petabytes of global science data (that’s millions and…

Article3 days ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA