Caption: Artist’s concept of Dragonfly soaring over the dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Dragonfly mission, a rotorcraft lander mission under NASA’s New Frontiers Program, designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission will sample materials and determine surface composition in different [...]
NASA/JPL-Caltech A 16.5-inch-long prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons is reflected in the water’s surface during a test in a competition swimming pool in September 2024. Conducted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the testing showed the feasibility of a mission concept called SWIM, short for Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers. [...]
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Forrest Melton, Ariel Deutsch, Dan Sirbu, and Chanel Idos. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond. Earth Science Star: Forrest Melton Forrest Melton serves as [...]
Space-grown crystals could lead to targeted cancer drugs Researchers used space-grown protein crystals to determine the structure of a helix-loop-helix (HLH) peptide (one with a double helix and connecting loop) in a complex with vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF). VEGF prompts the formation of new blood vessels and inhibiting it can stop tumor growth. This [...]
5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft in silhouette against Europa’s surface, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed at top and the antennas for the radar instrument extending out from the solar arrays.NASA/JPL-Caltech Headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft is [...]
4 min read NASA, JAXA XRISM Mission Looks Deeply Into ‘Hidden’ Stellar System The Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory has captured the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky. Cygnus X-3 is a binary that pairs a rare [...]
Caption: Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander, seen here, will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Moon’s near side when it launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. Credit: Firefly Aerospace [...]
5 Min Read Hats Off to NASA’s Webb: Sombrero Galaxy Dazzles in New Image NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI In a new image from NASA’s James Webb [...]
Photo of the Day What lies at the center of our galaxy? In Jules Verne's science fiction classic, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Professor Liedenbrock and his fellow explorers encounter many strange and exciting wonders. Astronomers already know of some of the bizarre objects that exist at our Galactic Center, including [...]
The Progress 90 cargo craft carrying nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies approaches the International Space Station for a docking to the Poisk module. Credit: NASA+ The unpiloted Progress 90 spacecraft arrived at the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 9:31 a.m. EST, Saturday, Nov. 23. The spacecraft launched [...]
