Archive | Solar system

6 Min Read Climate Change Research The Kibo laboratory module from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (comprised of a pressurized module and exposed facility, a logistics module, a remote manipulator system and an inter-orbit communication system unit) pictured as the International Space Station orbits over the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. Credits: NASA […]

5 min read Hubble Goes Hunting for Small Main Belt Asteroids Like boulders, rocks, and pebbles scattered across a landscape, asteroids come in a wide range of sizes. Cataloging asteroids in space is tricky because they are faint and they don’t stop to be photographed as they zip along their orbits around the Sun. Astronomers […]

Open Science Data Repository Team Hosts Blue Origin’s Dr Erika Wagner at the Meet the Expert Seminar Series Focused on Flight Integrators Friday, March 29, 2024—The Open Science Data Repository hosted the sixth presentation showcasing flight integrators in the “Meet the Expert” series. This series is targeted for the Open Science Analysis Working Group (AWG) […]

18 Min Read The Marshall Star for April 17, 2024 The Full Experience: NASA, Marshall, and Arkansas Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse By Celine Smith More than 100,000 people from across the world gathered April 8 in Russellville, Arkansas, to witness an astronomical syzygy – the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth – creating a […]

The PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem ) mission has delivered its first operational data back to researchers , a feat made possible in part by innovative, data-storing technology from NASA’s Near Space Network , which introduced two key enhancements for PACE and other upcoming science missions. As a satellite orbits in space, its systems […]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA research pilot Nils Larson and photographer Jim Ross complete aerobatic maneuvers in a NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California owned T-34C aircraft during a proficiency flight.  NASA/Jim Ross Riding in the back seat of a car can be boring. Riding in the […]

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit. NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart A NASA mission testing a new way of navigating our solar system is ready to hoist its sail into space – not to catch the wind, but the propulsive power of sunlight. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System  is […]

For a media briefing in advance of Earth Day, NASA will share info about next steps for its Earth research program, as well as highlight our newest Earth-observing satellite PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem). This image from PACE shows two different communities of phytoplankton in the ocean off the coast of South Africa on […]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This natural-color image of mountains of central Pennsylvania taken by Landsat 8 shows the colors of changing leaves and the unique topography of the region. Thanks to more than 50 years of planetary observation from low-Earth orbit, it’s possible to see natural changes and […]

4 min read Astronauts To Patch Up NASA’s NICER Telescope NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) , an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station , during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts. In May 2023, scientists discovered that […]

This photo shows the entire optics system for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. It consists of 10 mirrors, including the 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) primary mirror seen at the base in this image, and is called the IOA (Imaging Optical Assembly). Engineers recently integrated and tested the IOA at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York. Credit: […]

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin This composite image shows the dazzling phases of the total solar eclipse, seen above the Flight Research Building at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on April 8, 2024. Glenn was the only NASA center in the eclipse path of totality, […]

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (left of center in the image). […]