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Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search natural color false color Two large, partly snow-covered islands lie west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments form swirling patterns in the ocean, and brown water lines part of the Alaskan coastline. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison A false-color satellite image shows two large islands west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments appear light blue and form swirling patterns in the ocean. The land appears mostly light green, interrupted by many small ponds and a large river delta. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison natural colorfalse color Two large, partly snow-covered islands lie west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments form swirling patterns in the ocean, and brown water lines part of the Alaskan coastline. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison A false-color satellite image shows two large islands west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments appear light blue and form swirling patterns in the ocean. The land appears mostly light green, interrupted by many small ponds and a large river delta. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison natural color false color CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details Sea ice fragments drift near Alaska’s Saint Lawrence and Nunivak islands and colorful water surrounds the Yukon Delta in natural-color (left) and false-color (right) images acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite on June 3, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison. When clouds parted in early June 2026, satellites glimpsed hints of summer’s approach in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s coast. Sea ice, broken into small fragments, took a few final spins on its way to melting completely, while rivers swollen with snowmelt washed sediment and organic material out to sea. These images, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite on June 3, 2026, capture the seasonal transition. A false-color view of the area (right) brings out features of the landscape that are more subtle in the natural-color scene (left), as human eyes would see it. In false color, the tundra and marsh vegetation appear green, and ice-free rivers and thermokarst lakes are dark blue. Sea ice and snow, where they still linger, appear light blue. Amid the seasonal phenomena playing out in the images stand Saint Lawrence and Nunivak islands. Both have volcanic origins and are among the largest islands in the United States. They contain extensive basaltic lava flows forming small shield volcanoes, along with other features such as cinder cones and maars, or low-lying volcanic craters. Saint Lawrence Island lies about 150 miles (240 kilometers) directly south of the Bering Strait, separating Alaska and the Russian Far East. It is one of the few pieces of the land bridge that connected Asia and North America during the Pleistocene that remain above water. Pack ice persisted along the northeast side of the island in early June, while other sea ice drifted and curled into intricate patterns with the winds and currents. The smaller the ice fragments, the wispier their swirling patterns appear when observed by satellites. Brownish water, likely containing a mixture of suspended sediment and colored dissolved organic matter, lines the coast of mainland Alaska. The colorful water appears to enter the sea around the Yukon Delta, a vast wetland where the Yukon River branches into many circuitous channels. Sediment concentrations in this area typically increase starting in late May or early June. That’s after river ice has broken up and runoff from rain and snowmelt carries eroded material downstream. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Downloads June 3, 2026: Natural color JPEG (2.37 MB) June 3, 2026: False color JPEG (2.56 MB) References & Resources Alaska Volcano Observatory, Nunivak Island. Accessed June 18, 2026. Chikita, K. A., et al. (2021) Effects of River Discharge and Sediment Load on Sediment Plume Behaviors in a Coastal Region: The Yukon River, Alaska and the Bering Sea. Hydrology, 8(1), 45. NASA Earth Observatory (2021, June 21) Yukon-Kuskokwim in Colorful Transition. Accessed June 18, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2008, February 14) Sea Ice in the Bering Strait. Accessed June 18, 2026. Patton, W.W., et al. (2011) Geologic map of Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3146. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Barents Sea Tied to Low Arctic Sea Ice 4 min read Patches of open water in the region contributed to low sea ice extent across the Arctic in March 2026, which… Article Ice Moves Out of Aniak 3 min read Spring melt along Alaska’s Kuskokwim River caused ice jams and flooding. Article Cañon Fiord’s Whirling Waters 3 min read During the 2022 summer melt season, sediment plumes and fractured sea ice traced swirling eddies in a branch of the… Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. 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Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Tropical Storm Arthur Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search Natural color brightness temperature Tropical Storm Arthur’s white storm clouds cover the waters off the U.S. Gulf Coast. Some clouds extend inland over parts of Texas and Louisiana. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison White and purple areas of cloud off the Gulf Coast indicate the cooler areas of cloud tops associated with Tropical Storm Arthur. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison Natural colorbrightness temperature Tropical Storm Arthur’s white storm clouds cover the waters off the U.S. Gulf Coast. Some clouds extend inland over parts of Texas and Louisiana. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison White and purple areas of cloud off the Gulf Coast indicate the cooler areas of cloud tops associated with Tropical Storm Arthur. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison Natural color brightness temperature CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details Images from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite show Tropical Storm Arthur on the morning of June 17, 2026. The left image is natural color; the right shows infrared signals known as brightness temperature. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison. Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, brought high winds and heavy rain to the U.S. Gulf Coast in mid-June. NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image (left) at 10:30 a.m. Central Time (15:30 Universal Time) on June 17. The second image (right) depicts infrared signals known as brightness temperature, which help distinguish cooler cloud tops (white and purple) from the warmer surface below (yellow and orange). Around the time these images were acquired, the system had just recently been designated a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Though Arthur stayed below hurricane strength, it still delivered strong winds to parts of the Gulf Coast as it tracked northeast. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour around the time these images were captured. Tropical-storm-force winds extended 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the storm’s center, the NHC reported. Measurements at Galveston, Texas, for instance, showed a gust of 48 miles per hour. The storm also produced heavy rainfall that the National Weather Service warned could lead to life-threatening flash flooding. Estimates from IMERG (the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM), a product of the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) mission, showed high rainfall rates over Gulf waters and extending inland on June 17. As Arthur weakened and became less organized, it continued to bring abundant moisture to central Gulf Coast states on June 18. The National Weather Service reported rainfall rates of 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) per hour in southeastern Louisiana. Forecasts indicated that storm-total rainfall amounts could exceed 12 inches (30 centimeters) in areas, with some locations seeing totals approaching 20 inches (51 centimeters). NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen. Downloads June 17, 2026: Natural color JPEG (2.94 MB) June 17, 2026: Brightness temperature JPEG (2.51 MB) References & Resources National Hurricane Center (2026, June 17) Tropical Storm ARTHUR Advisory Archive. Accessed June 18, 2026. National Public Radio (2026, June 17) Tropical Storm Arthur is the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Accessed June 18, 2026. National Weather Service, Office of Water Prediction (2026, June 18) Experimental: Tropical Flood Hazard Outlook Product Archive. Accessed June 18, 2026. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Typhoon Jangmi 2 min read The sprawling storm promised to deliver torrential rain across a wide swath of southern Japan. Article Tropical Cyclone Narelle Crosses Australia 3 min read The powerful storm lashed the northern edge of the continent with damaging winds and drenching rain as it made landfall… Article Super Typhoon Sinlaku 3 min read The violent storm aimed at the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in mid-April 2026. Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. Explore Earth Science Earth Science Data Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data View the full article

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4920-4926: Surveying the Bands NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of small butte, “Miraflores,” using its Mast Camera (Mastcam) on June 11, 2026 — Sol 4922, or Martian day 4,922 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 09:12:13 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, June 12, 2026 Rather than going from stage to stage at a music festival to hear different bands playing different varieties of music, Curiosity has been ascending up Mount Sharp through physical bands of exposed rocks with textural and tonal differences. Planning for sols 4920 and 4921 were done with the rover in the middle of a unit with a rougher texture and dark-toned bedrock. With the rougher-textured bedrock, brushing wasn’t possible, but APXS chemistry and MAHLI micro-imaging were planned on “as is” bedrock targets “Salto La Cascada” and “Puerto de Rosas.” ChemCam was targeted to perform LIBS spectroscopy on a bedrock target “Kishuara” and a small, layered float rock “La Rosita.” ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) collected views of the “Mishe Mokwa” butte and another looking at dunes with tonal differences. Mastcam mosaics were collected on the “Valle Grande” channel, “Kimsa Chata” butte, nearby troughs, and the aircraft carrier shaped rock “El Matir.” Another drive brought Curiosity closer to the upper border of the dark-toned band. Again, brushing of the rocks was not possible, but APXS and MAHLI were collected on dark-toned bedrock targets “Santa Gracia” and “Laguna San Rafael” with ChemCam LIBS also targeting the bedrock. Mastcam mosaics were collected of a layered rock and nearby troughs and a mosaic of the nearby smaller butte, “Miraflores” which displays an interesting layered structure with ragged dark-toned rocks on one side and a stack of dust piled on top (see accompanying image). Other activities included a long-distance RMI mosaic of a bright unit on “Mishe Mokwa”, and Navcam dust-****** surveys in both sols. Communicating between Earth and Mars has come to seem routine, but at times can still be a challenging endeavor and this was demonstrated to the team on Friday when we did not get a timely downlink of data for the drive planned for Sol 4923. Without these images another drive, in situ examinations, or targeted remote sensing could not be planned. However, there are always interesting things to be done on Mars and the three-sol plan (4924 to 4926) included a 360-degree Mastcam mosaic, the automatic AEGIS targeting of LIBS measurements on each sol, a Navcam dust-****** survey, APXS atmospheric measurements, as well as several other environmental activities. On Monday, the delayed downlink will be used to plan the first investigation of the next band of surface materials, this one being smooth-textured and light-toned, as well as another drive to continue the surveying of the bands. Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team? Visit Mission Updates Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments? Visit the Science Instruments page NASA’s Curiosity rover at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 3 min read Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary Explorers, Freewheeling to the Yardang Unit! Article 1 week ago 5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4908-4912: Goodbye Campo Marte, It’s Been Fun! Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample! Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four… View the full article

Artist’s rendition of the DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission concept. The coloring represents auroras and atmospheric waves in Earth’s atmosphere.Credit: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics/Mary Tostanoski NASA selected a mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere influence the space environment and help improve prediction capabilities for impacts on crucial technology, such as GPS and low Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space. The DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission will enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight and mission operations. It will use identical twin satellites to study how changes in Earth’s lower atmosphere influence our planet’s upper atmosphere, where space weather is manifested. “NASA is advancing the United States’ leadership as a space weather-ready nation, and by providing new insights into Earth’s atmosphere we can better predict and prepare for impacts in our daily lives on Earth and in space,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As NASA sends astronauts beyond Earth’s magnetic protection to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, DAPHNE will join the NASA science fleet strategically located across the solar system to provide data that will help mission planners predict and mitigate the effects of space weather for the benefit of all.” The DAPHNE mission’s low-risk high-return concept will provide coordinated, multi-point measurements of neutral winds, temperature, and composition in the thermosphere. The ionosphere and thermosphere regions are where Earth’s neutral atmosphere transitions into the ionized plasma of space. In this thin shell that surrounds the planet, the atmosphere is in constant motion, shaped by the influence of solar activity and changes in the lower atmosphere and in near-Earth space. Fundamental observations and physical insights from the DAPHNE mission will incorporate lower-atmospheric energy data to advance space weather predictive capabilities. The mission is led by Aimee Merkel from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The mission will be subject to a confirmation review in 2027, which will assess the progress of the mission and the availability of funds. If confirmed, the total estimated cost of the mission, excluding launch, will not exceed $250 million in fiscal year 2023 dollars, with a mission launch date of no earlier than 2029. The DAPHNE mission was proposed as a concept study in response to the DYNAMIC (Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling) mission announcement of opportunity. Funding and management oversight for this mission is provided by the Solar Terrestrial Probes program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. For more information on NASA’s heliophysics missions, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Abbey Interrante / Karen Fox Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsEarthHeliophysicsScience Mission DirectorateSpace Weather View the full article

Credit: NASA NASA has selected eight new companies and will acquire new data products from six existing Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition contract holders to expand the range of commercial satellite data available to researchers, civil agencies, and decision-makers. Such measurements supplement NASA’s Earth satellites by contributing high-resolution and frequent observations to enhance the agency’s set of data. Leveraging commercial data demonstrates NASA’s commitment to strong public-private partnerships, allowing the agency to expand scientific insight while reducing costs and accelerating the delivery of data to researchers and decision-makers. Collectively, NASA and commercial Earth observations provide insight into our home planet – benefitting Americans, providing environmental intelligence, strengthening disaster response, and improving public safety. The Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition Program On-Ramp 2 Multiple Award contract is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple-award contract. The original maximum contract value was $476 million, with a performance ******* that began in 2023 and continues through Nov. 15, 2028. Contract awardees are: Airbus DS Geo Inc. GHGSat Inc. Hydrosat Inc. ICEYE US Inc. ImageSat International Kuva US Inc. Muon Space Inc. Orbital Sidekick Inc. OroraTech USA Inc. Planet Labs Federal Inc. Space Sciences and Engineering LLC, doing business as PlanetiQ SATLANTIS US Tomorrow Companies Inc., doing business as Tomorrow.io Wyvern Inc. The agency’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition mission works to execute a cost-effective way to augment and complement the suite of Earth observations captured by NASA and its partners by identifying, evaluating, and acquiring commercial satellite data. For more information about NASA’s Commercial Satellite Acquisition program, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Liz Vlock Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsScience Mission DirectorateEarth Science Division View the full article

Rohit Goeptar, an electromagnetic/radio frequency analyst with NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, reviews a radio frequency link budget analysis for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from his office. Goeptar is among the engineers and technicians sworn in as new NASA civil servants as part of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s workforce directive to restore technical core competencies within the civil servants ranks.NASA/Amanda Griffin Rohit Goeptar was born into a poor family in Suriname, South America, the kind where both parents work three jobs and they still can only provide food and shelter for their family. At around age six, his family moved to California to start a new life. Only two years later, he moved back to South America with his father while his mother stayed in the United States and remarried. When he was 13, he became a U.S. citizen and he and his brothers returned to live with their mother in California. At 19, Goeptar joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he spent six years as a technical operator. During one deployment to the Philippines, Goeptar helped set up communication systems for individuals who needed to contact their loved ones after a typhoon ripped through entire towns. “I was lost, the Marine Corps gave me an opportunity,” Goeptar recalled. While the Marines taught him useful skills, his life had not been the easiest. He lost not one, but two, fathers to suicide, and a short first marriage ended with him being unhoused on the streets of Kissimmee, Florida, for six months. But Goeptar eventually found his way. As with most underdog stories, there was another person in the shadows behind his rise to success. “Your brain works in mysterious ways,” his now wife told him a short while after they met. She then filled out college applications for him, and he eventually applied to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While raising three kids, going to school full-time pursuing a computer engineering and electrical engineering degree simultaneously, Goeptar got the call that changed his life. “In spring 2025, I was driving to pick my son up from school when a gentleman from Kennedy calls, telling me he’s seen my resume and do I have time for a quick interview,” Goeptar recounted. He pulled on the side of the road and took part in an impromptu job interview. Two weeks later, he had an in-person interview with others from Kennedy and two weeks after that, he had a contractor badge at America’s premier spaceport. After starting as an intern under the Expendable Launch Vehicle Integrated Support, or ELVIS, contract, then moving to part-time until he graduated from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, then full-time at the beginning of 2026, Goeptar was one of the ELVIS contractors who applied and were picked up to become civil servants recently. Rohit Goeptar, an electromagnetic/radio frequency analyst with NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, reviews a radio frequency link budget analysis for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope with a colleague. NASA/Amanda Griffin Now an employee of NASA’s Launch Services Program, Goeptar works with electromagnetic interference, electromagnetic compatibility, and radio frequency. It is his job throughout the entirety of the mission to analyze and ensure avionic boxes or anything electrically powered doesn’t interfere with any other systems. He also ensures independent systems are compatible when brought together. And finally, he conducts model radio frequency link analysis for different rockets and science demonstrations payloads. These may belong to NASA or commercial partners, and he is responsible for ensuring uninterrupted communication with the ground. In his short time at Kennedy, Goeptar has worked on Sentinel-6B, JPSS-4 (Joint Polar Satellite System), and IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) missions. And as far as his wife’s assessment that his brain works differently, he proved that within a year at Kennedy when he noticed an analytical issue his team wasn’t tracking. Once a rocket launches, it does a pitch, yaw, and roll. The analysis the team had been conducting didn’t account for this movement, which meant it wasn’t as accurate as it could be. He presented his solution to the team lead, and it now enables NASA data and partner data to be much more in sync. “There is no greater feeling, being able to serve. It’s more than serving the public, it’s serving our country. It’s serving the future of our country,” Goeptar said with tears brimming in his eyes. “Being able to give back to that same government that gave me an opportunity to be where I’m at today. There’s no greater feeling than that.” Meanwhile, Goeptar’s 11-year-old takes most of the credit for his landing at the space center, a NASA enthusiast, his son believes he spoke it into existence. Rohit Goeptar, an electromagnetic/radio frequency analyst with NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, poses for a photograph with his children. NASA/Rohit Goeptar “One day he wants to become an astronaut,” Goeptar said with joy on his face. “And I told him I will guide him until the day that I die. Maybe my last mission could be the one my son flies on. I’m not going to stop until that day happens.” Rohit’s positive streak continues as he recently was accepted into electrical engineering master’s programs at both Johns Hopkins University, and UCF.  Learn more about NASA’s missions online: [Hidden Content] View the full article

2 Min Read Desert Field Test With NASA Advanced Rover Prototype PIA26701 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal Navigation Science Photojournal Desert Field Test With NASA… Photojournal Home Photojournal Search Latest Content Galleries Feedback RSS About Downloads Desert Field Test With NASA Advanced Rover Prototype PNG (27.94 MB) PIA26701 Figure A JPEG (26.03 MB) PIA26701 Figure B JPEG (951.75 KB) PIA26701 Figure C JPEG (16.03 MB) PIA26701 Figure D JPEG (16.46 MB) Description A prototype four-wheel rover developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with advanced mobility and robotic autonomy capabilities trundled across the Colorado Desert near Plaster City, California, during a field test in March 2026. Called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain), the rover served here as a testbed for autonomy software developed for a potential lunar mission requiring higher speeds and much greater mileage than can be achieved with current planetary rovers. ERNEST was trailed by engineers as it traveled about 16 miles over the course of 37 hours of drive time. That’s more than 10 times the speed at which NASA’s Perseverance rover can navigate on Mars. The team also tested how well the rover traveled at dusk, dawn, and nighttime to simulate the experience of large terrain shadows in polar regions on the Moon. Figure A Figure A shows the rover traveling toward its shadow. Figure B Figure B shows two team members setting up illuminators on the rover at night. Figure C Figure C shows three team members observing the rover during its long-range traverse. Figure D Figure D shows the rover with one wheel up on a rock. Work on ERNEST began in 2022 and was initially supported by JPL internal research and development funds. It is currently funded by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and the agency’s Exploration Science Strategy Integration Office under its Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Photojournal Photojournal Search Photojournal Photojournal’s Latest Content Feedback View the full article

Developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain) is used in a desert field test to help refine mobility hardware and autonomy software that could be used for a potential future long-range lunar rover mission. During the field test, which took place in March 2026 in the Colorado Desert of Southern California, the JPL team deployed ERNEST at all times of the day — including dusk, dawn, and nighttime, when lighting conditions create long shadows like those seen on the Moon’s polar regions. On a bleak stretch of the Colorado Desert in Southern California, a compact four-wheeled rover recently trundled about 16 miles (26 kilometers) with minimal intervention from the team of engineers trailing it. Called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain), this prototype is being used by NASA to advance both robotic autonomy and the ability to traverse challenging landscapes. Developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ERNEST is 4 feet (1.2 meters) long. Not only can it lift each of its mesh wheels to get past obstacles that would stymie Curiosity and Perseverance, NASA’s six-wheeled Mars rovers, but the prototype also has enhanced independent decision-making capabilities. These mobility and autonomy advances could be infused into future missions that will venture to previously inaccessible areas of the Red Planet or the Moon. ERNEST serves as a testbed for a potential future lunar rover mission requiring high speeds and extreme distances. In a recent field test, the prototype traveled 16 miles over the course of 37 hours, going an order of magnitude above the top speed at which NASA’s current Mars rovers can navigate. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In the field, ERNEST served as a testbed for a potential future lunar mission requiring higher speeds and much greater mileage than can be accomplished by current rovers. This technology could be used to inform future designs for exploration efforts on the Moon and beyond. “This testing is helping us refine the mobility hardware and autonomy software to navigate extreme distances across a wide range of terrain and lighting conditions anticipated on the Moon,” said Issa Nesnas, a principal technologist at JPL who led the recent testing as head of autonomy for a NASA mission concept for a potential future long-range lunar rover. Engineers from JPL set up illuminators after transporting ERNEST for a pre-sunrise test during a seven-day desert field campaign.NASA/JPL-Caltech Nesnas’ team is using ERNEST to demonstrate it is possible to build a rover that’s twice as big as the prototype and capable of a long-distance Moon mission. During the recent campaign, ERNEST traveled at speeds up to 0.6 mph (1 kph) over 37 hours of driving, across seven days of intermittent testing. That’s an order of magnitude above the top speed Perseverance and Curiosity can navigate. “You could do a science road trip across the Moon — or Mars — with this vehicle,” said James Keane, a JPL planetary scientist working on lunar missions. The initial goal of the team that developed ERNEST was mechanical: to design a relatively simple, low-cost rover that advances the trusted rocker-bogie suspension system featured on every Mars rover since NASA’s Sojourner. This passive system keeps relatively constant weight on all six wheels, thanks to pivot points and struts that enable each one to adapt to the changing surface. The mobility and autonomy advances developed at JPL for the ERNEST prototype rover could be infused into future NASA missions to previously inaccessible areas of the Red Planet or the Moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech On ERNEST, the active suspension lets the rover manage weight distribution among its wheels. Two powered joints in front articulate a gimbal that allows the rover to drive using different gaits like squirming, wheel-walking, and obstacle-climbing. With a clutch mechanism, it can switch between active and passive suspension, which is less terrain capable but more energy efficient. With four steerable wheels, it can drive in any direction, including sideways. “We started by postulating that we could do better in designing a planetary surface robotic mobility system,” said Hari Nayar, a JPL principal technologist leading the ERNEST team. “While the rocker-bogie system has been very successful over the past 30 years, there’s been a lot of research in that time on mobility and understanding terrain interaction.” Before arriving at today’s version of ERNEST, the team built two earlier prototypes, each about 2 feet (0.6 meters) long, to test 11 active suspension configurations. In a trailer filled with lunar regolith simulant, they ran experiments at different slope angles over several months before landing on a final design. Then the team scaled up, including adding a rectangular head mounted on a 4.5-foot-tall (1.4-meter-tall) mast. The hardware was completed in September 2024, but the rover still needed a human operator to joystick it, sending commands to instruct the rover on how to move over obstacles. In order to train the rover to think on its own, the ERNEST team turned to reinforcement learning, a type of artificial intelligence where the robot learns by interacting with its environment. The Dynamics and Real-Time Simulation Laboratory at JPL developed a high-fidelity virtual testing environment that replicates the rover’s behavior. The team fed the simulator data collected by engineers who documented the response of the actual rover hardware to a variety of terrain types. On a high-performance computing cluster, the team ran many simulations at once, sometimes completing thousands of hours of tests over a single weekend. After months of virtual training, the ERNEST team was ready to see if the rover could use its new autonomous algorithms to figure out how to drive over terrain features that would halt a passive-suspension rover. They set up an obstacle course with sand ripples, rubble piles, steps, and steep slopes in JPL’s Mars Yard, an outdoor terrain proving ground. Then they watched as the rover maneuvered the terrain on its own. Since then, ERNEST has completed many such courses. Nayar’s team is starting a new autonomy project which involves integrating the rover’s ability to determine when and how to use its active suspension with longer-range intelligent navigation. The goal is to enable ERNEST to plan an efficient path so that it can tackle surmountable obstacles and circumnavigate hazardous ones. These capabilities could contribute to potential future rover missions encountering formidable landscapes on Mars or more rugged areas of the Moon. Work on ERNEST began in 2022 was initially supported by JPL internal research and development funds. It is currently funded by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and the agency’s Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office in its Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Media Contacts Karen Fox / Molly Wasser NASA Headquarters, Washington 240-285-5155 / 240-419-1732 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Melissa Pamer Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-314-4928 *****@*****.tld 2026-040 Explore More 4 min read El Niño Is Underway Satellite observations of sea surface height indicated that the 2026 event continued to strengthen in… Article 15 hours ago 5 min read NASA’s Quantum Lab Aboard Space Station Gets Chilly Upgrade Article 2 days ago 3 min read Explore JPL to Take Place Oct. 10, 11 Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Earth’s Moon The Moon makes Earth more livable, sets the rhythm of ocean tides, and keeps a record of our solar system’s… Robotics Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Exploration Program View the full article

Even small asteroids lead complex lives. During its flyby of the asteroid Donaldjohanson last year, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft revealed the asteroid to be a wobbly, peanut-shaped body that has undergone a lot of activity in its relatively short history. Formed as fragments coalesced after a violent collision 155 million years ago, the asteroid was transformed by the small but inexorable force of the Sun’s radiation, all while retaining signs of the brief presence of liquid water in its distant past. Zooming through the main asteroid belt toward one of the Jupiter ******* asteroid groups, the Lucy spacecraft collected the first close-up images and other data at Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025, as it passed 650 miles away from the asteroid. The data revealed that, instead of spinning simply around one axis like most other asteroids and planets, Donaldjohanson has a more complicated two-axis rotation. Scientists also saw Donaldjohanson’s peanut shape and the craters and ridges on its surface. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A timelapse video made from images taken by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft as it approached the asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025. The L’LORRI (Lucy Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) instrument, the spacecraft’s high-resolution ******-and-white imager, collected these images over two hours as the spacecraft rapidly closed in on the asteroid from an initial separation of more than 58,000 miles (93,000 km), until the spacecraft passed a mere 650 miles (1000 km) from the 5-mile- (8 km-) wide asteroid. NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL Lucy’s encounter with the asteroid was planned as a dress rehearsal for the spacecraft and mission team before its primary asteroid encounters, which begin with Lucy’s flyby of the ******* asteroid Eurybates on Aug. 12, 2027. The instruments performed as expected, and, as a bonus, scientists got a rare opportunity to study a previously unexplored asteroid up close and to compare it to two asteroids with similar compositions but different histories: Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission, and Ryugu, the site of JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 sample-return mission. Here’s what Lucy’s science team has learned so far from Lucy’s encounter with Donaldjohanson, as reported on June 18 in the journal Science. Wobbling rotation With Earth-based telescopes, observers saw fluctuations in the light Donaldjohanson reflects, regular patterns of peaks and valleys, typical of an elongated object rotating once every 10.5 Earth days. But Lucy’s data revealed another pattern: Donaldjohanson appears to be rotating like a wobbly top. Paper authors reported that the asteroid rotates end-over-end once every 10.5 Earth days, and wobbles back and forth around its long axis once every 26.5 days. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The asteroid Donaldjohanson is shown slowly rotating in a tumbling, non-principal axis motion, with its angular momentum vector and rotation axes indicated. The surface is colored by gravity slope, which measures the angle between the local surface and the direction of gravity. Higher values (warmer colors) indicate steeper terrain relative to the local gravitational pull. Regions with limited stereo image coverage have been masked out where the shape model is less well constrained. Kel Elkins/NASA’s Science Visualization Studio/DLR Peanut shape While the Earth-based observations hinted at Donaldjohanson’s elongated shape, the Lucy flyby revealed a “bilobate” structure: two lobes connected by a neck, like a peanut. These lobes are likely two fragments from an asteroid collision that gently came together afterward by their mutual gravity. Donaldjohanson likely rotated at least 10 times faster when it formed, having slowed to its current rate in the last 20 to 60 million years, the team estimates. As it slowed, the balance between the centrifugal force pushing things apart and gravity pulling things together changed and loose rocky material slid down slopes creating the worn-down appearance of many craters, as the flyby images showed. The paper’s authors say that the asteroid’s slowing rotation is likely caused by a subtle consequence of solar heating known as the YORP effect. Each part of the asteroid’s Sun-warmed surface radiates heat away as infrared light, and that radiation imparts a tiny recoil force to the surface. Because the asteroid’s shape isn’t symmetric, this results in a net torque, or twist, that can change the asteroid’s rotation. Thus, YORP can slow asteroid spins down or speed them up, as in the case of Bennu (once every four hours) and Ryugu (once about every seven hours), which both likely used to rotate much slower than they do today. Fleeting water As it passed by Donaldjohanson at 30,000 mph, Lucy recorded the signatures of iron-rich clay minerals on the surface. These clays must have formed in the distant past with the help of liquid water. However, the exposure must have been brief, Lucy scientists concluded, because iron in clays tends to be replaced with other elements, such as magnesium, as water lingers. Indeed, scientists saw magnesium-rich clays at Bennu and Ryugu, which suggested prolonged water exposure, perhaps lasting millions of years, when they were still part of larger asteroids. This difference in water exposure history, and other characteristics, may mean that the parent bodies of these asteroids formed at different times or in different regions of the solar system before relocating to the main belt. Compare, contrast Donaldjohanson is thought to be made from rocky remnants of a larger, carbon- and water-rich asteroid that collided with another object in the main asteroid belt. Bennu and Ryugu are thought to have formed in the same way and in the same region. But Donaldjohanson is different. At 155 million years old, it is much younger than Bennu and Ryugu, which formed 1 to 2 billion years ago. Donaldjohanson also has remained in the asteroid belt since birth, while its wandering cousins migrated into orbits around the Sun that bring them close to Earth’s orbit about once a year (which made them perfect close targets for sample return missions). During its April 20, 2025, encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered evidence for iron-rich clays on the surface using its infrared spectrometer. These clays, which are similar to those found in carbon-rich meteorites such as QUE 97990, indicate that water was briefly present in the asteroid during the distant past. NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Dan Gallagher “It’s helpful for scientists to compare Donaldjohanson with asteroids like Bennu and Ryugu, which are seemingly similar asteroids, because every subtle difference is another clue to our origin story,” said Simone Marchi, Lucy deputy principal investigator and lead author of the study at the Boulder, Colorado, office of the Southwest Research Institute. “Once we start learning more about the Trojans, a completely different population of space rocks with very different histories, our understanding of solar system formation is destined to be challenged,” said Marchi. Named after a fossilized skeleton of a human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, NASA’s Lucy will be the first mission to explore Jupiter’s ******* asteroids, a population of well-preserved space rocks that formed early in our solar system’s history and could help scientists understand how the planets formed and moved around before settling in their current configuration. About Lucy: Lucy’s principal investigator is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information on NASA’s Lucy mission, visit: Lucy By Lonnie Shekhtman NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and Katherine Kretke Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. Media Contacts: Karen Fox / Molly Wasser Headquarters, Washington 240-285-5155 / 240-419-1732 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Sarah Frazier NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 202-853-7191 *****@*****.tld Simplified Summary Zooming through the main asteroid belt toward one of the Jupiter ******* asteroid groups, the Lucy spacecraft collected the first close-up images and other data at Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025, as it passed 650 miles away from the asteroid. The data revealed that, instead of spinning simply around one axis like most other asteroids and planets, Donaldjohanson has a more complicated two-axis rotation. Scientists also saw Donaldjohanson’s peanut shape and the craters and ridges on its surface. View the full article

This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming clouds.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç This image, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and released on June 5, 2026, shows just a small portion of one of the Orion Molecular Clouds, a long and massive filament of cold gas and dust beyond the Orion Nebula. Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos to protoplanetary discs to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars — is contained within this scene which stretches 150 light-years across. Read more about this image. Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç View the full article

Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Universe Uncovered Hubble’s Partners in Science Hubble & Citizen Science AI & Hubble Science Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Science Operations Astronaut Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts Multimedia Images Videos Online Activities e-Books Sonifications Podcasts 3D Hubble Models Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources 35th Anniversary More Online Activities 2 min read Hubble Glimpses Merging Galaxy Clusters This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a swarm of galaxies in the galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626. NASA, ESA, H. Ebeling (University of Hawaii), D. Coe (STScI, ESA, JWST); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster, called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. The X-ray observations of this cluster revealed that it is two clusters merging along our line of sight. Researchers requested time to observe CL0016+1609 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys because that data would help them accurately measure the cluster’s dark-matter distribution, which helps them study the merger and the role of CL0016+1609 in the large-scale structure of the universe. Hubble can’t directly see dark matter, but its infrared and visible light observations can detect dark matter’s gravitational lensing effects on the normal matter Hubble observes. The data in this image also includes observations with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 taken as part of an observing program that obtained the first Hubble infrared images of 46 massive galaxy clusters and looked for distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by these clusters. Called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey), this survey found some 300 high-redshift candidate galaxies lensed by these clusters. You can see the faint vertical arc of one of these distant galaxies in the image above. Look for it just to the left of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image. Another brighter, though shorter arc is visible just above and to the right of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image. Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Galaxy clusters Goddard Space Flight Center The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble’s Galaxies Hubble Science Highlights Hubble Images View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory El Niño Is Underway Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search Higher-than-normal sea surfaces (red) are visible in the central and eastern Pacific on June 8, 2026, a few days before El Niño was declared. Data for the map were acquired by the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite and processed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin El Niño, characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific, made its return in June 2026. Observations of sea surface height from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite that month indicated that the 2026 event was continuing to strengthen. The natural, recurring phenomenon can have widespread effects, typically bringing wetter conditions to the U.S. Southwest and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as Indonesia and Australia. NOAA declared an El Niño on June 11, after sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific measured at least 0.5 degrees Celsius above average for several consecutive months. Meanwhile, NASA scientists have been observing a complementary sign of El Niño: areas of elevated sea surface height. When ocean water warms, it expands in volume and causes the sea surface to rise—making the water’s height a reliable indicator of ocean temperatures. Warmer-than-normal temperatures, hence higher sea surface heights, in parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean are associated with El Niño. The map above depicts sea surface height anomalies across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean as observed on June 8, 2026. Shades of red indicate sea levels that were higher than average. Normal sea level conditions appear white, and lower areas are blue. Data for the map were acquired by the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite—launched in 2020 by NASA and led by ESA (European Space Agency)—and processed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Note that signals related to seasonal cycles and long-term trends have been removed to highlight sea level anomalies associated with El Niño and other short-term natural phenomena. Earlier in spring 2026, the satellite started to detect precursor signs of El Niño as swells of warm water hundreds of miles wide, known as Kelvin waves, moved from the western Pacific to the eastern Pacific. That happens when trade winds in the western equatorial Pacific weaken and then temporarily reverse to blow from the west. Warm water piles up in the east, deepening the warm surface layer, lowering the thermocline, and suppressing the upwelling that usually keeps waters along the Pacific coasts of the Americas cooler. This buildup of heat beneath the water’s surface is what sea surface height observations capture. It goes beyond surface temperature measurements to indicate how much heat is stored in the subsurface. That’s important because a shallow warm layer might not have much impact on climate and weather, while a large reservoir of heat below the surface can matter more. According to JPL sea level researcher Severine Fournier, deputy project scientist for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, conditions in the western Pacific on June 8 looked similar to those from the same time in 1997, a year when an exceptionally strong El Niño emerged. Warm conditions in the eastern Pacific in 2026 have lagged behind, however, with fewer Kelvin waves built up by the same date. Still, more warm Kelvin waves appeared to be approaching the eastern Pacific, meaning El Niño was still strengthening. Whether it catches up to 1997 depends on ocean activity in the coming weeks. “For now, it looks like it’s going to be a big one—more so than I would have said last week—but we still need more observations to know what’s going to happen.” NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023) processed by the European Space Agency and further processed by Josh Willis, Severin Fournier, and Kevin Marlis/NASA/JPL-Caltech. Story by Kathryn Hansen. Downloads June 8, 2026 JPEG (1.19 MB) References & Resources Climate Prediction Center/NCEP/NWS (2026, June 11) El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion. Accessed June 17, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2025, September 25) El Niño. Accessed June 17, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2023, June 21) El Niño Returns. Accessed June 17, 2026. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2026, May 27) NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño. Accessed June 17, 2026. NOAA (2026, June 11) El Nino forms, expected to strengthen, say NOAA forecasters. Accessed June 17, 2026. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Barents Sea Tied to Low Arctic Sea Ice 4 min read Patches of open water in the region contributed to low sea ice extent across the Arctic in March 2026, which… Article New Eruption in the Bismarck Sea 5 min read Satellite imagery shows a surge of new volcanic activity in the ocean near Papua New Guinea. Article Color Off the Mid-Atlantic Coast 4 min read Something is brewing in shallow waters offshore of Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. Explore Earth Science Earth Science Data Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data View the full article

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announces a public-private partnership to advance Mars science during an event at Relativity Space on June 17, 2026. Credit: Relativity Space NASA Wednesday announced a new public‑private partnership to advance Mars science by combining the agency’s scientific leadership with commercial innovation. Under this model, NASA will provide the Aeolus atmospheric‑science instrument payload suite, while Relativity Space supplies the spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations necessary to deliver the instruments to Mars. This partnership reflects NASA’s growing commitment to approaches that accelerate discovery, expand mission cadence, and strengthen the foundation for future human exploration. By leveraging commercial investment and development capacity, NASA can focus resources on high‑value science while enabling more frequent opportunities to gather critical data about Mars, data essential to safely navigating the Martian atmosphere and ultimately landing humans on the surface. “Public-private partnerships like this are a force multiplier for science,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “By pairing NASA’s world‑class instruments with commercial innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often, and reduce the time it takes to get essential data into the hands of researchers preparing for future human missions to Mars.” Aeolus, scheduled to launch in 2028, is a NASA‑developed suite of four complementary instruments designed to provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds. By improving models for dust, winds, temperature, and seasonal atmospheric behavior, Aeolus will generate the detailed environmental knowledge required to reduce risk for future crewed and uncrewed landings. These measurements will directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mission planning for astronauts. Aeolus builds on more than two decades of NASA missions that have studied the Martian atmosphere, including orbiters such as MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey, while taking the foundation laid by earlier missions even further, continuing NASA’s tradition of expanding the frontiers of Mars science. Researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will design, build, and integrate the payload, while Relativity Space will manage spacecraft development and mission operations. “As NASA’s Innovation Center of Excellence, Ames is committed to delivering the technologies, capabilities, and creative partnerships that enable the agency’s boldest missions,” said Dr. Eugene Tu, center director, NASA Ames. “Aeolus reflects how innovative collaboration accelerates science and strengthens the foundation needed for one day landing humans on Mars.” The Aeolus payload suite includes four NASA‑built instruments: Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder (DWTS‑Ozone): Measures wind and temperature profiles from the surface up to approximately 37 miles (60 km). A collaboration with GATS. Thermal Limb Sounder (TLS): Provides vertical temperature profiles and observations of dust and water‑ice clouds. A collaboration with Xiomas Technologies. Surface Radiometric Sensor Package (SuRSeP): Measures surface energy balance, dust, and cloud properties. Wide‑Field Context Camera (WFCC): Captures daily global images of atmospheric activity. NASA will support operations of science instruments for at least one Martian year, while Relativity Space maintains the spacecraft. As part of the agreement, NASA will develop the data‑processing pipeline needed to transform raw measurements into high‑quality, ready‑to‑use data products for broad scientific use. This effort is supported under NASA’s first six‑year reimbursable Space Act Agreement, providing a stable framework for sustained collaboration, predictable development, and mission continuity. Learn more about Mars science at: [Hidden Content] -end- Camille Gallo / Cheryl Warner Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Jeanne Neal Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley 650-604-4789 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 17, 2026 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsMarsAmes Research CenterCommercial SpaceScience Mission Directorate View the full article

Explore This Section Science Citizen Science Search for Hidden Cosmic… Overview Resources Opportunities Citizen Science Highlights About Science Activation Some stars have planets. Others are orbited by brown dwarfs, ****** of gas too massive to be planets, but too low-mass to be stars. Astronomers love these brown dwarf-star pairs because being paired with a star helps reveal a brown dwarf’s age. Ages of astronomical objects are often hard to measure, but essential for understanding how they form. Now, you can join NASA’s new Backyard Worlds: Binaries project and help astronomers discover these rare and interesting pairs. As a volunteer, you’ll inspect images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope. Brown dwarfs may appear as small dots moving across a field of otherwise static stars. “We need your help to gain critical insights into these enigmatic cosmic objects,” said project lead Aaron Meisner. Brown dwarfs are common but mysterious because they are so faint. There’s one for every three or four stars in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. They are important laboratories for understanding giant planets like Jupiter. Join the Backyard Worlds: Binaries project today and help astronomers understand where and when brown dwarfs form! You can also try one of our other brown dwarf-related projects: Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors! Anyone with a laptop or cell phone can participate. Participation does not require citizenship in any particular country. Facebook logo @nasascience_ @nasascience_ Instagram logo @nasascience_ Linkedin logo @nasascience_ Share Details Last Updated Jun 17, 2026 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms Citizen Science Astrophysics Division Brown Dwarfs WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) Explore More 4 min read NASA’s Webb Catches Exoplanet Getting Roasted That’s the latest from researchers analyzing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of HD 80606… Article 23 hours ago 2 min read Hubble Sees Swarm of Galaxies Looking somewhat like a swarm of bees returning to their hive, this NASA Hubble Space… Article 5 days ago 2 min read Be a Clump Scout and Help Reveal Secrets of Stellar Nurseries Help identify star-forming clumps in galaxy images, and help train machines to do the same. Article 2 weeks ago View the full article

6 min read NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star’s detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up too. This multiwavelength scene shows the Jellyfish Nebula supernova remnant (right), the interstellar cloud it’s interacting with, and a distinctive curving filament to its upper left. The filament, which is shown here both in optical and ultraviolet (UV) light, is the visible part of an overlapping supernova remnant, G189.6+3.3, that is more prominent in radio and X-rays. Visible light is shown in yellow, UV from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is shown in violet, and infrared light from NASA’s retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission appears in cyan, red, and orange. Both remnants are located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. The brilliant star at far right is Propus, also known as Eta Geminorum. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio “Using 16 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, our analysis uncovered gamma rays associated with a supernova remnant that was hidden in the glare of its neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula, one of the brightest gamma-ray-emitting supernova remnants known,” said Miltiadis Michailidis, a postdoctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University in California. “There are so many striking connections between the two remnants that we conclude they’re likely related, giving us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions.” Michailidis presented the findings Wednesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. A paper describing the results will appear in a future edition of Nature Communications. The study focused on a faint supernova remnant called G189.6+3.3, which is mainly visible in X-rays. It is upstaged by its brighter and better-known neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The two star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, appear to partially overlap as seen in X-rays. Recent X-ray evidence suggests that hot plasma likely associated with G189.6+3.3 may extend across the entire region, a hint that the overlap may be nearly total. A massive star explodes when its energy-producing core runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion that blows the star apart. The explosion’s shock wave encloses a hot cloud of debris that rapidly expands into space. So far, astronomers have cataloged about 300 supernova remnants in our galaxy. The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works. More than a decade ago, observations from Fermi’s LAT (Large Area Telescope) showed that the shock waves of supernova remnants accelerated particles to within a fraction of the speed of light, a process first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi — the mission’s namesake — in 1949. These high-speed particles, called cosmic rays, interact with interstellar gas to produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Protons make up 99% of cosmic ray particles. To prove that accelerated protons are responsible for the glow, astronomers search for a specific gamma-ray feature. When cosmic-ray protons smash into interstellar gas, they produce a short-lived particle called a neutral pion, which almost immediately decays into a pair of gamma rays. This emission occurs within a specific band of energies associated with the neutral pion’s mass and lies within the range detected by Fermi’s LAT instrument. In 2013, Fermi observations proved that the Jellyfish Nebula, which is interacting with part of a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249, produced gamma rays through this mechanism. Its neighbor, G189.6+3.3, was discovered in 1994 as part of an X-ray survey by the *******-led ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) mission. A bright filament of gas lies between the overlapping remnants. New observations of this feature reveal that the shock wave from G189.6+3.3 slammed into dense interstellar gas there and dramatically slowed, key evidence that both remnants are interacting with the same cloud system. The well-known supernova remnant IC 443 (right) has an older, fainter neighbor (shown here in blue-green and magenta) called G189.6+3.3. A filament of gas between them, glowing in visible and ultraviolet light (violet arc at center), traces the neighbor’s shock wave and shows that both remnants are interacting with the same molecular cloud, shown in red, orange, brown for infrared and radio data and yellow for visible light. Blue-green shows X-rays from the fainter remnant, while magenta shows gamma rays with energies greater than 10 billion electron volts; for comparison, visible light has energies between about 2 and 3 electron volts. In this view, high-energy light from the much brighter IC 443 has been removed for clarity. Gamma-ray emission near the filament stems from protons accelerated in the supernova’s shock wave as it expands into the cloud. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; radio, MWISP and ESA/Planck; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; optical: DSS; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift; X-ray: SRG/eROSITA; gamma ray: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration Astronomers think the Jellyfish Nebula is also a candidate PeVatron, a cosmic particle accelerator capable of boosting protons to energies so high they could nearly escape our galaxy. Such particles can produce gamma rays with trillions of times more energy than visible light. Finding a second particle accelerator near the Jellyfish Nebula could offer scientists new clues for how supernova remnants develop into PeVatrons. “The overlapping remnants, a connecting gas filament, and the availability of data from Fermi and other facilities motivated us to delve into this complex but little-studied region,” said co-author Marianne Lemoine-Goumard, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the University of Bordeaux. “With Fermi’s LAT instrument, we found gamma-ray emission associated with accelerated protons in the northern part of the fainter remnant. If both remnants are interacting with the same structure, then they must share a common distance from us.” The team concludes the remnants lie about 6,000 light-years away, their explosion centers are separated by roughly 40 light-years projected onto the plane of the sky, and the original stars may have been 20 or more times the Sun’s mass. Estimates of the remnants’ ages vary widely, but the team concludes that the age of the Jellyfish Nebula is 8,000 to 9,000 years, while G189.6+3.3 is between 20,000 to 110,000 years old. This means the delay between the explosions could have extended for up to 100,000 years. In addition, the team conducted computer simulations of a million massive binary systems. They show that systems where the stars orbit close enough to exchange matter and interact during their lives can readily produce dual supernova explosions with similar separations and time delays as those found for the remnants. The team also estimated that the chance of randomly encountering this combination of observed spatial alignment and compatible distances to be less than 1%, strongly supporting a physical association. “The evidence we’ve compiled — including observations across the spectrum, the chemical and physical properties of the remnants, simulations, and more — paints a compelling picture of a dual supernova event,” said Michailidis. This study identifies a unique possible example of a binary system where both stars exploded as supernovae and left behind separate, detectable supernova remnants. Astronomers think that most massive stars form in binary or multiple-star systems. The Jellyfish Nebula/G189.6+3.3 complex offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study how massive binary stars evolve, exchange matter, explode, and experience velocity changes — called kicks — induced by the supernova blast. It also provides a powerful new laboratory for understanding how coupled supernova remnants behave, including how they accelerate particles, generate gamma rays, and shape their surrounding environments. “Fermi’s gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants continue to reveal the dynamic lives of stars,” said Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now connect the glowing remains of two massive stars to a powerful pair that evolved together over thousands of years.” By Francis Reddy NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Media Contact: Claire Andreoli 301-286-1940 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Facebook logo @NASAUniverse @NASAUniverse Instagram logo @NASAUniverse Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 Related Terms Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Astrophysics Cosmic Rays Gamma Rays Goddard Space Flight Center Infrared Light Nebulae Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Stars Supernova Remnants Supernovae The Universe Ultraviolet Light X-ray Astronomy View the full article

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211.NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Looking somewhat like a swarm of bees returning to their hive, this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released on June 12, 2026, features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211. Galaxy clusters like MACS0329-0211 are important signposts in the story of how the structure of the universe evolved, and are the ultimate telescopic lenses, placing gravitationally lensed galaxies from the earliest stages of the universe into our view. Zoom into this galaxy swarm and you will find large, oval-shaped elliptical galaxies, and thin spiral and lenticular galaxies viewed from the edge. We can also see the full, face-on view of spiral galaxies and their curving spiral arms. The image’s upper-right quadrant holds faint arcs of distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the cluster’s massive gravity. The largest of these arcs appears above the bright oval shape of a giant elliptical galaxy. Closer inspection of the image’s center reveals several bright-white intersecting curves that appear as a distorted figure eight. This may be another distant galaxy whose light was magnified and distorted by this massive cluster’s gravity. Hubble looked at MACS0329-0211 as part of an observing program of X-ray bright galaxy clusters. Researchers used Hubble’s two main cameras, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and its Wide Field Camera 3, to gather data visible and infrared light from the cluster. Hubble’s ability to see such a broad spectrum of light makes it a valuable tool in understanding the very nature of these galaxy clusters. Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Low Water at San Carlos Reservoir Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search June 7, 2023 May 22, 2026 The reservoir appears lake-like and expansive in an image acquired in June 2023. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison The reservoir is nearly empty by May 2026. The ***** River’s natural channel is now visible and flanked with green vegetation in what had been the bottom of the reservoir. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison June 7, 2023May 22, 2026 The reservoir appears lake-like and expansive in an image acquired in June 2023. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison The reservoir is nearly empty by May 2026. The ***** River’s natural channel is now visible and flanked with green vegetation in what had been the bottom of the reservoir. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison June 7, 2023 May 22, 2026 CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details Little water remains in the San Carlos Reservoir in May 2026 (right) compared to fuller conditions in June 2023 (left). Images were captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 9 and 8 satellites, respectively. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison. The ***** River is among the Southwest’s most important rivers, delivering water for people, farms, and wildlife while linking the snow-fed mountains of southwestern New Mexico to the desert lowlands of southwestern Arizona. In wetter years, seasonal snowfall on the Mogollon Mountains and ****** Range provides much of the river’s spring flow and helps refill San Carlos Reservoir, which is formed by the Coolidge Dam. When filled to capacity, the reservoir is one of Arizona’s largest bodies of water. However, in 2026, lackluster snowfall left the mountain snowpack in the ***** River watershed at 2 percent of the 1991-2020 March median. The limited snowpack pushed April streamflow to 39 percent of normal. By June, after mandatory water releases for downstream agriculture, the reservoir held less than 400 acre-feet of water. The Landsat image above (right) shows the near-empty reservoir on May 22, 2026, when it stored 389 acre-feet of water—less than 1 percent full; the other image (left) shows the same area in June 2023, when it was about 60 percent full. The green vegetation growing along the river channel and reservoir edge includes a mixture of tamarisk, willow, cottonwood, sedges, and grasses. Officials closed the reservoir indefinitely on June 5, 2026, after the declining water levels contributed to low oxygen levels—hypoxia—that killed virtually all of its fish. Species living in the reservoir included largemouth bass, ****** crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, flathead catfish, and several stocked species, including brown trout and rainbow trout. The decomposing fish may pose health risks to people attempting to boat or fish, the San Carlos Recreation and Wildlife Department warned. The reservoir has hit similarly low water levels in the past, running out of water at least 20 times since it was filled in 1930, according to news reports. Even when the dam and reservoir were first dedicated, there was enough grass growing on the dried reservoir bottom that humorist Will Rogers famously quipped to President Calvin Coolidge: “If that was my lake, I’d mow it.” Other years with major fish kills include 1976 and 2018. After more than 5 million fish died during a similar event in 1976, the ***** Herald reported that it took five years for the lake’s ecosystem to rebound. The region is currently in the midst of a multi-year dry ******* that has left much of the ***** River’s headwaters in New Mexico in a state of severe drought, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, the river’s flow is highly variable, and heavy rains during the coming wet season could help the reservoir recover. A seasonal monsoon outlook released by NOAA in May 2026 projected a 33 to 50 percent chance that an above-average amount of rain would fall in the region that summer. El Niño in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which was strengthening in late spring 2026, can make heavy rains in the U.S. Southwest more likely. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland. Downloads June 7, 2023 JPEG (16.60 MB) May 22, 2026 JPEG (16.85 MB) References & Resources Arizona Silver Belt (2026, April 23) Low water levels prompt lifted fishing limits at San Carlos Lake. Accessed June 16, 2026. Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation (2015, March 4) 85 Years of the Coolidge Dam! Accessed June 16, 2026. ***** Herald (2026, June 7) San Carlos Lake Closed Indefinitely Following Catastrophic “100% Fish Kill.” Accessed June 16, 2026. Natural Resources Conservation Service (2026, April 1) New Mexico Water Supply Outlook Report. Accessed June 16, 2026. National Weather Service (2026, May 21) 2026 Arizona Monsoon Outlook. Accessed June 16, 2026. National Integrated Drought Information System (2026, June 9) Lower Colorado Region Watershed Drought Information. Accessed June 16, 2026. National Weather Service (2026, May 4) Drought Information Statement for Southern NM/Far West TX. Accessed June 16, 2026. Pinal Central (2026, June 6) San Carlos Reservoir level very low, but not unprecedented. Accessed June 16, 2026. San Carlos Recreation and Wildlife Department (2026, June 5) San Carlos Lake Closure. Accessed June 16, 2026. True West (2016, February 1) Will Rogers in Arizona. Accessed June 16, 2026. The University of Arizona (2026, May 28) Southwest Climate Outlook. Accessed June 16, 2026. U.S. Geological Survey (2026, June 15) San Carlos Reservoir at Coolidge Dam, AZ. Accessed June 16, 2026. USA Today (2026, June 9) Massive fish kill forces indefinite closure of Arizona lake. Accessed June 16, 2026. Western-Water (2026, June 8) San Carlos Reservoir: Drought kills every fish. Accessed June 16, 2026. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Drought Parches Florida 4 min read The state was unusually dry for much of 2025, but the intensity of the drought has ratcheted up since January… Article Snow Is Scarce in the Upper Colorado Basin 5 min read The mountains of Utah and Colorado are among the areas of the western U.S. that are low on snow and… Article Spring Rains Saturate Michigan 3 min read Above-normal precipitation has swollen rivers and damaged infrastructure statewide. Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. Explore Earth Science Earth Science Data Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data View the full article

Share Details Last Updated Jun 16, 2026 Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland laura.e*****@*****.tld Leah Ramsay Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland Hannah Braun Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland Related Terms James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Exoplanets Goddard Space Flight Center Science & Research The Universe Related Links and Documents Este Artículo en Español – “Telescopio Webb de la NASA Detecta un Exoplaneto Asandose” HD 80606 b in NASA Exoplanet Catalog Roasted Exoplanet poster “Hot Jupiter” exoplanets

2 Min Read Astronaut Jessica Meir Assists With Hardware Updates for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab PIA26725 Credits: NASA Photojournal Navigation Science Photojournal Astronaut Jessica Meir Assists… Photojournal Home Photojournal Search Latest Content Galleries Feedback RSS About Downloads Astronaut Jessica Meir Assists With Hardware Updates for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab JPEG (4.91 MB) Description NASA astronaut Jessica Meir inspects optical fibers while installing hardware updates to the agency’s Cold Atom Lab, or CAL, aboard the International Space Station on May 8, 2026. About the size of a minifridge and operated from Earth, CAL chills atoms to temperatures below minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), so close to absolute zero that they form a large quantum object called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) — a fifth state of matter distinct from solids, liquids, gases, and plasma. In a BEC, scientists can observe the quantum properties of atoms at a scale visible to the naked eye. For instance, atoms and particles sometimes behave like solid objects and sometimes behave like waves, a quantum property called “wave-particle duality.” Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed, built, and operates Cold Atom Lab, which is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The BPS division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations that are not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefiting life on Earth.  To learn more about Cold Atom Lab, visit: [Hidden Content] Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Photojournal Photojournal Search Photojournal Photojournal’s Latest Content Feedback View the full article

Share Details Last Updated Jun 16, 2026 Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland laura.e*****@*****.tld Christine Pulliam Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland Claire Blome Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland Related Terms James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Science & Research Star Clusters Stars The Milky Way Related Links and Documents Science Paper: The science paper by Giorgia Zullo et al., PDF (28.85 MB)

Astronaut Jessica Meir inspects optical fibers while installing hardware updates to NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, or CAL, aboard the International Space Station on May 8, 2026. About the size of a minifridge, CAL enables researchers to explore quantum physics.NASA Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have switched on NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a one-of-a-kind facility designed to improve how scientists explore the fundamental workings of matter and develop new quantum technologies. By leveraging the unique environment of microgravity in space, the lab can accomplish cutting-edge science impossible to do anywhere else. Quantum science is the study of matter at the smallest scales, like atoms, electrons, and single particles of light. While it’s easy to imagine atoms as billiard ****** bouncing off one another, they also exhibit wave-like behavior, can exist simultaneously in two places at once, and may even pass through one another. About the size of a minifridge and operated from Earth, the Cold Atom Lab chills atoms to temperatures below minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 237 degrees Celsius). At this extreme cold, just above absolute zero, atoms form a large quantum object called a Bose‑Einstein condensate, or BEC, a collection of matter waves that is a fifth state of matter beyond solids, liquids, gases, and plasma. This object follows the rules of quantum mechanics despite being much larger than subatomic particles, and the microgravity of low Earth orbit helps make the waves even larger. “At the coldest temperatures, matter behaves drastically different from anything we have experienced,” said Jason Williams, project scientist for Cold Atom Lab at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built the facility. “The wavelike nature of matter dominates, and ultracold matter can behave in ways that are not only unexpected, but that also enable extremely precise measurements of time, gravity, and motion. The lab has lots of tools — especially with this latest upgrade — to let us probe the nature of the universe.” The project supports five international teams studying fundamental physics. It also tests the space-readiness of quantum tools that could support future Earth science and space exploration missions. How it works The heart of the Cold Atom Lab is a complex set of instruments called its science module. An upgraded module launched on April 11 as part of a Commercial Resupply Services mission to the space station, enabling new kinds of experiments. For each experiment, a strip of rubidium or potassium metal is heated to as high as 750 F (400 C) — hot enough to form a gas within the facility’s vacuum chamber. Lasers tuned to specific frequencies are then fired at the gas, draining the energy from these atoms, and cooling them by slowing them down. Once this gas has completed the laser-cooling stage, a magnetic trap captures and holds the gas in place. Through a series of complex techniques, the laboratory reduces an atom cloud’s energy further, bringing it close to a standstill and maximizing its time in microgravity. While facilities for studying ultracold gases exist on Earth, the Cold Atom Lab can study quantum gases in microgravity for longer periods of time and at even lower temperatures. Conducting these experiments in low gravity allows scientists to study larger quantum waves that also interact for longer times with gravity. To harness these benefits, the Cold Atom Lab essentially shrinks an atom physics lab, typically the size of an entire room filled with lasers and tabletop mirrors, to fit within an experiment rack aboard the space station. “As the first project to create Bose-Einstein condensates in orbit, we’re demonstrating that we can make quantum technology work reliably in space,” said Ethan Elliott, deputy project scientist for Cold Atom Lab at JPL. “In the previous century, there was a quantum revolution that led to lasers, cellphones, and MRIs for medical imaging. We’re performing quantum 2.0 — direct manipulation of large quantum states — and we hope for similar gains in quantum tech by advancing this science in orbit.” The latest upgrade is the fourth since the Cold Atom Lab arrived at the space station in 2018. Key improvements include a newly designed magnetic trap that changes the shape of the quantum gas clouds, allowing scientists to test different properties related to their atoms. The upgrade also features redesigned metal strips that act as sources for those gas clouds. “It’s the closest thing we have to controlling the boundary of the quantum world,” said Kamal Oudrhiri, project manager of Cold Atom Lab at JPL, referring to those low temperatures. “This new upgrade pushes that boundary even further.” The upgrade, Oudrhiri added, “demonstrates NASA’s ability to maintain U.S. leadership in space-based quantum technologies while maturing future quantum instruments, such as matter-wave interferometers for fundamental physics missions, positioning, navigation, timing, and gravity sensing of Earth, the Moon, and beyond.” More about Cold Atom Lab Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, JPL designed, built, and operates the Cold Atom Lab, which is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations that are not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefiting life on Earth.  To learn more about Cold Atom Lab, visit: [Hidden Content] Media Contact Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-2433 *****@*****.tld 2026-039 Explore More 3 min read Explore JPL to Take Place Oct. 10, 11 Article 17 hours ago 2 min read NASA Astronauts to Answer Questions from New Jersey Students Article 23 hours ago 5 min read NASA’s SpaceX CRS-34 Dragon Returns Packed with Space Station Science Article 24 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Cold Atom Laboratory About the mission The Cold Atom Laboratory launched to the International Space Station in May 2018 and was installed a… Jet Propulsion Laboratory International Space Station Physical Sciences Program View the full article

The Transient Artifact and Continuous Learning System (TACLS) leverages data from continuously operating satellite networks coupled with machine learning models to help meteorologists at the National Weather Service forecast flash floods more efficiently. This new software is the result of a collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). Show downloads TACLS test prediction run TACLS test prediction run (Original)MP4 Close To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A visual analysis from a TACLS test prediction run using data from flash floods the week of Christmas, 2025. The image shows flash flood warning (FFW) probabilities generated by TACLS (in shades of red) and overlaid on areas that received flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service (in blue). Credit: UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography Created with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), TACLS leverages machine learning to automatically locate evidence (unusual increases in atmospheric moisture) of impending flash flooding that meteorologists may otherwise miss as they analyze large amounts of data. TACLS flags that evidence, indicates where flash flooding could likely occur, and displays that information via a user-friendly visualization for human analysts to interpret. Those analysts can then decide whether to issue a flash flood warning or weather advisory. This novel framework for tracking extreme weather events and predicting imminent flash floods operates in near real-time, producing forecasts in as little as fifteen minutes. “That’s really what we wanted to do, to give meteorologists a tool to help decision making for flash flood warnings,” said Yehuda Bock, Distinguished Researcher at the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography and principal investigator for TACLS. In simulations testing, TACLS used data from diverse severe weather events—including atmospheric rivers, monsoonal convection, and tropical cyclone remnants—between 2017 and 2023 and successfully captured 93% of the issued flash-flood warnings. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service are currently working to incorporate TACLS into their existing systems for forecasting flash floods in Southern California. A cyclone makes landfall across the California coast on November 19, 2024. TACLS will help give communities more time to prepare for impending severe weather. Credit: NASA This learning system has two main components. First, an analytic back-end software suite uses machine learning algorithms to process satellite data and determine areas at risk for flooding. Second, user-friendly visualization software highlights those areas for further analysis by humans. The ACLS back-end software analyzes data from satellites in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a constellation of satellite networks that drive navigation services around the world. Water vapor in the troposphere delays signals from these satellites as they travel to Earth. This signal delay can be analyzed to calculate the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere over a particular location on Earth. The TACLS analytic back-end software suite features a machine learning model trained using more than 30 years of past GNSS data. This model is an anomaly detector that tracks unusual increases in atmospheric moisture. The model then carefully examines that atmospheric moisture data and determines whether it’s either an artifact (a false feature or distortion in the data) or a transient (a time-sensitive physical event, like heavy precipitation) that requires interpretation by human analysts. If TACLS determines the data represents a transient, such as an extreme weather event that warrants a flash flood warning, it will forward that data to the TACLS visualization software (MGViz) for further evaluation by humans. The analysts use their judgement and experience to interpret these events and determine whether the flagged data indicates a flash flood is likely, and, if necessary, issue a flash flood warning. Several past innovations developed at JPL are leveraged by TACLS to process GNSS data and present the results. The analytic back-end software suite incorporates elements from JPL’s Domain-agnostic Outlier Ranking Algorithms program and the Time-series Forecasting, Evaluation, and Deployment program. The TACLS visualizer is based on the Multi-Mission Geographic Information System, originally developed at JPL for NASA’s Mars missions. The TACLS software binds all these components within a novel system that enhances existing methods to reduce the amount of time it takes for a human analyst to determine whether to issue a flash flood warning. Both the TACLS software and the data used to train it will be open-source, allowing scientists to either tailor this model in response to their unique research needs or create their own model from scratch. For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort. Project Lead: Dr. Yehuda Bock, University of California, San Diego. Sponsoring Organization(s): NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office Advanced Information Systems Technology Program; JPL; NOAA; National Weather Service. View the full article

Alexandre – stock.adobe.com NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament Lab offers the contract capability to run external crowdsourced challenges on behalf of NASA and other agencies. Sponsored by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), this prize competition seeks forward-thinking solutions to strengthen the nation’s ability to rapidly produce and distribute critical medical supplies during public health emergencies and supply chain disruptions. Through three challenge phases, participants will develop an innovative conceptual systems design using technologies and frameworks that advance the future of resilient medical manufacturing, logistics, and digital coordination capabilities. Phase 1: Participants will submit: 8-page submission paper 3-minute Pitch video Blueprint supporting the key capabilities and structure of the solution Submissions will be evaluated per challenge Judging Criteria. Following the Judge evaluation *******, up to 8 Finalists will receive a $5,000 prize each and be invited to the hybrid (in-person and virtual) Pitch Event at ASPR headquarters in Washington, DC. Up to 3 Winners from the Pitch Event will receive a $150,000 prize each and be invited to the innovation development phase. Phase 2: Two developmental milestones will monitor solution development and will include $75,000 additional prizes for each milestone complete (up to $150,000 in total milestone prize payments). Phase 3: At the end of the development milestone *******, up to 3 teams may be invited to the final Live Validation Event to test their solution under applicable real-world simulations and compete for a total prize purse up to $1,100,000. Total Prizes: Up to $2.04 Million Challenge Launch: June 15, 2026 Phase 1 Submissions Due: August 28, 2026 For more information, visit: [Hidden Content] View the full article

NASA/Jessica Meir The aurora australis arcs over Earth during an active solar event in this photograph taken on June 5, 2026, from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, Australia. Auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. Image credit: NASA/Jessica Meir View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Nebraska’s Wide, Rolling Domain Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search The Nebraska Sandhills stretch across the north-central part of the state in this image acquired on August 19, 2025, with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin Editor’s Note: Today’s story is the answer to the June Puzzler. The undulating landscape of north-central Nebraska may be easy to overlook among the iconic dune fields of the world. Far from any coast or desert, the Nebraska Sandhills—comprising the Western Hemisphere’s largest system of sand dunes—bring their own brand of beauty and value. Grasslands blanket the rolling hills, providing grazing grounds for livestock, while lakes and wetlands dot the landscape, supporting diverse plant and animal life. Much of the sand forming the hills originated in the Rocky Mountains. Rivers carried the eroded material down from the mountains and deposited it across the Great Plains during the Pleistocene. In times of drought, winds blowing predominantly from the north or south lofted sand out of dried riverbeds, gradually building and shaping dunes. About 3,500 years ago, grassland vegetation stabilized the features. Today, the rippled pattern spans about 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers), about one-quarter of the state of Nebraska. Some of the largest, grassland-covered dunes in the Nebraska Sandhills are found in the northwestern part of the region, shown in this image acquired on August 19, 2025, with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin Some of the largest dunes occur in and around the area shown in the detailed image above, near the northern edge of the Sandhills region. These transverse dunes stand as high as 400 feet (120 meters) and extend for several miles. Their northern slopes are gentler than their southern slopes, reflecting the dominant influence of northerly winds. In other areas, dunes are more symmetric, suggesting that winds blew with nearly equal strength from the north and south, alternating with the seasons. The grasslands that now cover the hills constitute pastureland for grazing livestock. Ranching expanded significantly in the area after passage of the Kinkaid Act in 1904, which allotted 640-acre parcels of land to ranchers who would settle it. Today, far more cattle than humans occupy the region, and half of Nebraska’s nearly 23 million acres of rangeland and pastureland are in the Sandhills. Some ranchers graze their cattle in patterns meant to approximate the large bison herds that once roamed the land. Lakes and wetlands fill the valleys between dunes in Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, shown in this image acquired on August 19, 2025, with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin Though much of the land in the Sandhills is privately owned, some is set aside in protected public lands. One of these areas, Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge on the southwestern edge of the Sandhills region, is shown above. Wetlands, including shallow lakes, marshes, and wet meadows, fill some of the valleys between the dunes. The land here is sponge-like, with precipitation seeping down through the soil and recharging groundwater instead of flowing off through stream channels. Located along the Central Flyway, the refuge is a haven for migratory birds, and dozens of species of waterfowl, marsh birds, and shorebirds utilize the area. Among other wildlife, several types of turtles thrive in the ponds and prairies. Wetlands across the Sandhills support rare species such as the whooping crane, western prairie fringed orchid, and Topeka shiner. NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Downloads August 19, 2025 JPEG (10.71 MB) References & Resources Nebraska Game and Parks, Sandhills wetlands. Accessed June 15, 2026. University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2024, October 23) Groundwater: How the High Plains Aquifer Shapes the Sandhills. Accessed June 15, 2026. University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2024, October 23) Rotational Grazing and Sustainable Grasslands. Accessed June 15, 2026. University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2024, October 23) What It Takes to Form a Giant Dune Field. Accessed June 15, 2026. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Accessed June 15, 2026. USDA Forest Service, History of the Nebraska Sandhills. Accessed June 15, 2026. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Fires Tear Through Nebraska Grasslands 3 min read Dry, warm, and windy conditions across the U.S. Great Plains led to extreme fire activity in March 2026. Article Farming in Ancient Lake Agassiz 3 min read The glacial lake left a layer of silt and clay in southeastern Manitoba, creating fertile farmland that was divided during… Article America’s Emerald Isle 3 min read Beaver Island is one in a string of verdant and scenic jewels in a northern Lake Michigan archipelago. Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. Explore Earth Science Earth Science Data Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data View the full article