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NASA News
The latest updates from deep space missions, planetary defense, and scientific breakthroughs across the cosmos.
EarthHelp NASA Measure Trees with Your Smartphone
Healthy forests play an crucial role in Earth’s ecosystem as growing trees take up carbon from the atmosphere. NASA satellites and airborne missions study forests to see how carbon moves through ecosystems – and now citizen scientists can help investigate this key question as well by using their smartphone to measure tree height. The GLOBE …
MarsLaser Blasts Show Asteroid Bombardment, Hydrogen Make Great Recipe for Life on Mars
A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also explain how the planet remained habitable after its atmosphere thinned. The study used data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars and was conducted …
Deep SpaceHubble Tracks the Lifecycle of Giant Storms on Neptune
In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 zipped past Neptune—its final planetary target before speeding to the outer limits of the solar system. It was the first time a spacecraft had visited the remote world. As the craft zoomed by, it snapped pictures of two giant storms brewing in Neptune’s southern hemisphere. Scientists dubbed the storms “The …
AsteroidsNASA Instruments Image Fireball over Bering Sea
On Dec. 18, 2018, a large “fireball” — the term used for exceptionally bright meteors that are visible over a wide area — exploded about 16 miles (26 kilometers) above the Bering Sea. The explosion unleashed an estimated 173 kilotons of energy, or more than 10 times the energy of the atomic bomb blast over …
Deep SpaceA Prehistoric Puzzle in the Kuiper Belt
NASA’s New Horizons Team Unravels the Many Mysteries of Ultima Thule The farthest object ever explored is slowly revealing its secrets, as scientists piece together the puzzles of Ultima Thule – the Kuiper Belt object NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past on New Year’s Day, four billion miles from Earth. Analyzing the data New Horizons …
EarthDecoding Extreme Weather at the Poles
A silvery metal tube jutting out of thick ice stands alone amid a vast landscape of endless white in Antarctica. This 30-foot tube, equipped with weather sensors poking out at perpendicular angles, is able to record Arctic temperature, pressure, windspeed and other conditions, but is not adept at formatting and sharing its data with scientists. …
MoonUntouched Apollo Moon Rocks to be Studied at NASA Ames
Pristinely preserved Moon rocks collected from the Apollo era are about to be released for study, and NASA has selected nine research teams for this special opportunity. One of these samples has never been in contact with Earth’s atmosphere, and some have been frozen or stored in helium since collection. Out of these nine teams, …
ExoplanetsWhat Scientists Found After Sifting Through Dust in the Solar System
Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the solar system, it’s often in rings. Several dust rings circle the Sun. The rings trace the orbits of planets, whose gravity tugs dust into place around the Sun, as it …
Deep SpaceGoddard Technologists and Scientists Prepare for a New Era of Human Exploration
NASA scientists, engineers, and technologists are preparing for a new era of human exploration at the Moon, which includes a new launch system, capsule, and lunar-orbiting outpost that will serve as the jumping-off point for human spaceflight deeper into the Solar System. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is playing a vital role …
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