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5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun
With NASA’s fleet of heliophysics spacecraft, scientists monitor our Sun and investigate its influences throughout the solar system. However, the fleet’s constant watch and often-unique perspectives sometimes create opportunities to make discoveries that no one expected, helping us to solve…
NASA Ocean World Explorers Have to Swim Before They Can Fly
In a competition swimming pool, engineers tested prototypes for a futuristic mission concept: a swarm of underwater robots that could look for signs of life on ocean worlds. When NASA’s Europa Clipper reaches its destination in 2030, the spacecraft will…
Making Mars’ Moons: Supercomputers Offer ‘Disruptive’ New Explanation
A NASA study using a series of supercomputer simulations reveals a potential new solution to a longstanding Martian mystery: How did Mars get its moons? The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid. The research team,…
Gateway Tops Off
Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element is now equipped with its xenon and liquid fuel tanks.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a Last Look at Mysterious Sulfur
The rover captured a 360-degree panorama before leaving Gediz Vallis channel, a feature it’s been exploring for the past year. NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing for the next leg of its journey, a monthslong trek to a formation called the…
Astrophotography With Your Smartphone
Have you ever wanted to take nighttime photos like you’ve seen online, with the Milky Way stretched across the sky, a blood-red Moon during a total eclipse, or a colorful nebula? Many astrophotos take hours, expensive equipment, and travel, which…
The Next Full Moon Will Be the Last of Four Consecutive Supermoons
The Next Full Moon is a Supermoon; the Beaver, Frost, Frosty, or Snow Moon; Kartik Purnima; Loy Krathong; the Bon Om Touk (”Boat Racing Festival”) Moon, the Tazaungdaing Festival Moon; and Ill Poya. The next full Moon will be Friday…
Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries
NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers. When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first…
Hurricane Helene’s Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA’s AWE
On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, recorded enormous swells in the atmosphere…
Final Venus Flyby for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Queues Closest Sun Pass
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will complete its final Venus gravity assist maneuver, passing within 233 miles (376 km) of Venus’ surface. The flyby will adjust Parker’s trajectory into its final orbital configuration, bringing the spacecraft…