NASA News

An international team of astronomers using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made an unparalleled observation, detecting significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located beyond our solar system. The scientists conclude the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet’s host star, an event observed by NASA’s Swift …

Spectacular images from the Hinode spacecraft show the solar eclipse, which darkened the sky in parts of the Western United States and Southeast Asia yesterday. Hinode is in a low-Earth (630km altitude – about 400 miles) sun-synchronous polar orbit that permits nearly continuous observations of the sun. So, in effect, Hinode has the same perspective …

Image above: The refurbishment of the Vehicle Assembly will include removing seven Apollo-era platforms from High Bay 3 and replacing them with modern versions that can adapt to different kinds of rockets. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann › Larger image Image above: A closer look at the huge platforms that will be removed from the VAB’s …

Approximately every 11 years, the magnetic field on the Sun reverses completely – the north magnetic pole switches to south, and vice versa. It’s as if a bar magnet slowly lost its magnetic field and regained it in the opposite direction, so the positive side becomes the negative side. But, of course, the Sun is …

Since moving into orbit about Mercury a little over one year ago, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft has captured nearly 100,000 images and returned data that have revealed new information about the planet, including its topography, the structure of its core, and areas of permanent shadow at the poles that host the mysterious polar deposits. The latest …

One of the most bizarre theories about 2012 has built up with very little attention to facts. This idea holds that a cosmic alignment of the sun, Earth, the center of our galaxy – or perhaps the galaxy’s thick dust clouds – on the winter solstice could for some unknown reason lead to destruction. Such …

The image above is from the Solar Optical Telescope on Hinode, made using a Sodium-D filter, and shows emission from a plasma at about 6-10,000 Kelvin. The comet is clearly visible in the image, and the core of the comet is resolved by the instrument and is about 100km in diameter with a tail about …

Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion – as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime – another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say …

On October 28, 2006, the Hinode solar mission was at last ready. The spacecraft launched on September 22, but such missions require a handful of diagnostics before the instruments can be turned on and collect what is called “first light.” Hopes were high. Hinode had the potential to provide some of the highest resolution images …