Items tagged with NASA
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured an up close and personal view of Jupiter’s moon Europa during a recent flyby. The detailed images of Europa’s surface highlight fractures, ridges, and bands that crisscross the icy moon’s surface.
On September 29, 2022, Juno made its closest flyby yet of Jupiter’s moon Europa, coming...
Read more...
The Sun has been emitting some strong solar flares as of late, with one of the latest being the biggest in half a decade. The flare was classified as an X8.7, with X-class denoting the most intense flares, and the number providing more information about its strength.
According to the Space Weather Prediction...
Read more...
First discovered in 2004, Asteroid Apophis, also known as “God of Chaos,” has been watched closely by astronomers and scientists. The large space rock has become the center of focus because of its expected close flyby of Earth on what is projected to be none other than Friday 13, 2029.
Asteroid 99942 Apophis is...
Read more...
After recent solar storms lit up the night sky across the Northern Hemisphere the last two nights, some may be wondering how to best capture the dazzling Aurora Borealis (Aurora Astralis in the Southern Hemisphere) lights with a smartphone. Well, NASA has a few tips and tricks up its sleeve for capturing not only the...
Read more...
NASA wants to build the first lunar railway system providing payload transport on the Moon. The autonomous railway system could be a vital part of building a sustainable lunar base in the 2030s.
It is no secret that NASA wants to create a lunar base as part of its Moon to Mars plan. The space agency also knows that...
Read more...
In honor of Black Hole Week, NASA has released a couple of videos produced on a NASA supercomputer, giving viewers a bird's-eye view of what it might look like if they ever plunged into the event horizon. While one video explains the black hole plunge, another renders a 360-degree view of what it would be like.
The...
Read more...
NASA hit the abort button on its launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft just two hours before it was scheduled for liftoff. NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance are targeting a next possible launch date no earlier than Friday, May 10, 2024.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were already aboard...
Read more...
After over a decade of delays, Boeing is finally ready for the first manned test flight of the Starliner spacecraft. The two-person crew will dock with the International Space Station as part of an agreement with NASA.
For all who have been patiently waiting Boeing’s first manned flight, the wait is nearly over...
Read more...
An international team of researchers used NASA’s Webb space telescope to map the weather on a hot gas-giant exoplanet. WASP-43 b, as it's called, is similar in size to Jupiter and made primarily of hydrogen and helium, making it much hotter than any planet in Earth’s solar system.
While the exoplanet’s star is...
Read more...
NASA’s Webb space telescope continues to show off its ability to capture objects in deep space in sharp detail with new images of Horsehead Nebula. The new images show the top of the “horse’s mane,” or edge of the nebula, capturing the region’s complexity in unprecedented spatial resolution.
The iconic Horsehead...
Read more...
NASA received a deep space laser message from its Psyche spacecraft from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away. The laser message was transmitted by the space agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment onboard the Psyche spacecraft.
Psyche is on its way to a unique metal-rich...
Read more...
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) made its first ever startling discovery of a free-floating rogue planet, and NASA says it is hunting for more. While TESS will continue to be on the lookout for more rogue planets, the space agency is hopeful that its upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will...
Read more...
Astronomers celebrated Hubble Space Telescope’s 34th anniversary of its launch this week by capturing an incredible image of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76. The distant nebula is located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus.
NASA’s Hubble telescope was...
Read more...
NASA has solved a mystery with its Voyager 1 probe that had engineers baffled for a time. Now, for the first time in five months, NASA can check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.
The issue arose last November, when three of Voyager 1’s onboard computers, called the flight...
Read more...
April’s full Moon, perhaps best known as the Pink Moon, is about to grace the night sky. As with other full Moons, this month’s is known by many names, such as the Sprouting Grass Moon, and the Pesach or Passover Moon.
According to NASA, the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing “Indian” names for full moons in...
Read more...
NASA scientists have taken data gathered by the Juno spacecraft of Jupiter’s moon Io and created interesting animations, highlighting two of the Jovian moon’s most striking features. The incredible animations create three-dimensional renderings of one of Io’s mountains, and a lake of cooling lava.
Juno’s principal...
Read more...
Engineers who worked on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter gathered one last time in a control room, marking the final time they would work together on Ingenuity operations. While the mission ended on January 25, 2024, the Mars helicopter will continue to serve as a testbed for collecting data that may benefit future...
Read more...
The Lyrids meteor shower is about to light up the night sky in a spectacular fashion with falling stars to make wishes upon. The first recorded sighting of a Lyrids meteor shower dates all the way back to 687 BC by the Chinese.
While not as fast or bountiful as the Perseids, the Lyrids are well known for producing...
Read more...
NASA is prepared to announce its response to a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board report from last September. The space agency has invited media and the public to join a livestream of the teleconference later today.
The Mars Sample Return has been an ongoing process since NASA’s Perseverance rover began...
Read more...
NASA captured a mystical surfboard hovering above the lunar surface with its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The surfboard figure is actually the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter, which orbits the Moon parallel to LRO.
When someone thinks about images of the Moon being sent back to...
Read more...
As the space around Earth becomes more crowded with satellites and other spacecraft, NASA has a plan for a sustainable future within the cosmos. The space agency recently released the first part of its integrated Space Sustainability Strategy, marking initial progress for NASA on the issue at hand.
It feels like...
Read more...
While the 2024 total solar eclipse has come and gone, NASA wants everyone to know there are plenty more eclipses on the horizon ahead of the next total solar eclipse in North America in August 2044. Over the next two years, folks willing to travel can catch an annular solar eclipse in South America this fall, and a...
Read more...
