Archive | Kepler

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name ‘Little Dumbbell’ comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, […]

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Two Black Brant IX sounding rockets launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, April 17, 2024, during an M-class solar flare for NASA’s sounding rocket solar flare campaign. The first rocket launched at 2:13 p.m. local Alaska time for the Focusing Optics […]

The winners of NASA’s 2024 Power to Explore Student Challenge are: 9-year-old Raine Lin, left, 12-year-old Aadya Karthik, and 18-year-old Thomas Liu. Credit: NASA/Dave Lam NASA announced the winners on Wednesday of the third annual Power to Explore Challenge , a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the power of radioisotopes for […]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) As the Moon blotted out the Sun to viewers across the United States during the April 8 solar eclipse, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured an image from some 223,000 miles away of the highly anticipated celestial event. This spectacular image showing the Moon’s […]

5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An illustration of the SERT II spacecraft, which was comprised of the Agena upper stage, the experimental thrusters and associated equipment, and two large solar arrays. Credit: NASA “A genuine space success story,” is how Experiments Manager William Kerslake described NASA’s second Space Electric […]

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) During a research trip to Fiji, Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo poses in a cluster of coastal mangroves, just one of the aspects of forested and coastal ecosystems that she studies. Courtesy of Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space […]

NASA experts from the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program and Human Health and Performance Directorate with the agency’s commercial space station partners at the medical operations meeting series at Johnson Space Center in Houston (from top to bottom, left to right: Ben Easter, Dan Buckland, Tom Marshburn, Brian Musselman, Ted Duchesne, Darren Locke, Stephen […]

5 min read NASA’s New Hubble E-Book Spotlights Universe’s Best-Kept Dark Secrets This e-book is part of a series called Hubble Focus, which presents some of Hubble’s recent cosmic discoveries. Its cover, shown here, features the Abell S1063 galaxy cluster. A soft blue haze, called intracluster light, casts an otherworldly glow among innumerable galaxies. The […]

On April 8, 2024, North America will witness its last total solar eclipse for more than twenty years. Other parts of the world will experience the rare celestial event in the coming decade. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, blocking its disk from view but […]

On April 8, NASA and its partners will celebrate the wonders of the total solar eclipse as it passes over North America, with the path of totality in the United States, from Kerrville, Texas, to Houlton, Maine. Eclipses are an important contribution to NASA’s research into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and the part […]

4 Min Read The Iconic Photos from STS-41B: Documenting the First Untethered Spacewalk Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, STS-41B mission specialist, reaches his maximum distance from space shuttle Challenger before returning to the spacecraft using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). Credits: NASA As astronaut Bruce McCandless II flew the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) out of the […]

The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2023 annual report Thursday examining the agency’s safety performance, accomplishments, and challenges over the past year.  The report highlights 2023 activities and observations on NASA’s: Strategic Vision and Guiding Principles Agency Governance Moon to Mars Program Management In […]

23 Min Read The Marshall Star for January 24, 2024 NASA’s IXPE Team Awarded Prestigious Rossi Prize By Rick Smith NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer ) team has been awarded a top prize in high-energy astronomy. The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has awarded the 2024 Bruno Rossi Prize […]