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Earth (ESD) Earth Explore Explore Earth Science Agriculture Air Quality Climate Change Freshwater Life on Earth Severe Storms Snow and Ice The Global Ocean Science at Work Earth Science at Work Technology and Innovation Powering Business Multimedia Image Collections Videos Data For Researchers About Us 5 Min Read NASA-Funded Study Shows Wildfire Smoke’s Hidden Ozone Toll ********* wildfire smoke carried carbon monoxide — a building block of ground-level ozone — thousands of miles downwind in June 2023. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Wildfire smoke is stoking a new challenge for cleaner air. A NASA-supported study published Thursday found that, over the last decade, wildfires have worsened ground-level ozone pollution across much of the contiguous United States, creating unhealthy air far from active flames. Wildfires have become an increasingly important contributor to ground-level ozone, or smog, across much of the United States, researchers report June 4 in the journal Science. Nationally, fires offset nearly four years’ worth of ozone-control gains, with larger setbacks in the West and Midwest. Smoke often is associated with the soot, ash, and other fine particles that make the air look hazy. But wildfires also emit gases such as carbon monoxide, which can help form surface ozone in sunlight when other pollutants are present. Surface ozone is an invisible pollutant harmful to human health, plants, and crops. As smoke plumes travel and mix with other pollution, those reactions can drive ozone increases hundreds or even thousands of miles from active fires. “NASA Earth observations, along with ground monitoring networks, help reveal air quality risks from wildfires that can cross state lines, giving air quality managers better decision-making information as wildfire smoke affects more communities,” said John Haynes, manager of NASA Earth Action’s Health and Air Quality program at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “This is a strong example of NASA science serving communities here in the U.S.” Building a clearer ozone picture High in the atmosphere, ozone shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Near the ground, however, ozone can irritate lungs, worsen asthma and other respiratory diseases, and increase health risks for children, older adults, outdoor workers, and people with existing health conditions. To track surface ozone changes, researchers turned to deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence that finds patterns across large datasets. They used it to build a first-of-its-kind dataset estimating daily surface ozone from 2003 to 2024 on a kilometer-by-kilometer grid — about 0.6 miles on each side — across the contiguous U.S. The work received support from NASA’s Health and Air Quality program and other NASA grants. The scientists combined data from about 1,000 ground-based air quality stations with atmospheric model data, weather information, wildfire pollution data, and satellite-derived information, including products from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments. Smoke from Canada’s 2023 wildfires spread across North America. Tan to deep red colors show smoke intensity, estimated from ****** carbon in NASA’s GEOS-FP model. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) and NASA’s Global Modeling Assimilation Office (GMAO) Their analysis revealed two distinct periods. From 2003 to 2015, U.S. ground-level ozone generally declined as emissions of ozone-forming pollutants decreased. After 2015, however, those gains slowed or reversed in many places. By comparing estimated ozone levels with scenarios that removed wildfire influence, the researchers found that pollution from wildfires was a main factor in that shift. Without the wildfire contribution, ground-level ozone in the Midwest, for example, would likely have continued to decline. Instead, wildfires erased about 5.3 years’ worth of ozone-control progress since 2015. “People in the Midwest may think fires burning far away will not affect them,” said the study’s corresponding author Jun Wang, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “But once wildfire pollution is in the air, it can move across regions. Pollution from one place can affect air quality in another.” Measuring the health toll The study also found that wildfire-driven ozone increased exposure to unhealthy air and likely contributed to premature deaths. Premature deaths associated with long-term wildfire-related ozone exposure in the U.S. increased by an estimated 318 deaths per year after 2013, with the post-2013 average 46% higher than in the previous decade. The researchers calculated premature deaths using average lifespan, ozone exposure estimates, and population density. The 2023 ********* wildfires showed how widely those risks can spread, with smoke-driven ozone increases stretching across the Midwest and into parts of the Northeast and South. Overall, from 2022 to 2024, wildfires exposed an additional 43 million people in the U.S. to conditions that did not meet current federal air quality standards for ozone, the researchers estimated. Capturing that national picture is difficult from ground monitors alone. Ground monitors remain the backbone of U.S. air quality tracking, but they do not cover every community. NASA’s scientifically validated satellite observations and models help researchers and agencies see air quality patterns across states, regions, and fire seasons. That broader air quality work includes newer missions such as TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Launched in 2023, TEMPO is NASA’s first mission to use a space-based spectrometer to provide hourly daytime measurements of air quality over North America. Its view is sharp enough to distinguish pollution patterns, including surface ozone, across areas only a few square miles wide, a major improvement over earlier satellites. Together, these capabilities help researchers and agencies see smoke-related ozone patterns that might otherwise be harder to detect, especially in rural and remote areas. The work also points toward a practical use of NASA science during fire season. Wang’s team has used NASA support to develop FireAQ, a decision-support system that brings satellite observations, model forecasts, and fire and aerosol products into weekly briefings with state and local air quality officials. The goal is to help officials see where smoke-related pollution may move next and give communities better information. Discover more about NASA’s air quality observations About the Author Emily DeMarco Writer/Editor (IV), Earth Science Division Share Details Last Updated Jun 04, 2026 Contact Emily DeMarco emily.p*****@*****.tld Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Earth Air Quality Earth’s Atmosphere Goddard Space Flight Center Human Dimensions Wildfires Explore More 4 min read A Moonlit Earth as Seen From Artemis II An astronaut’s photo, taken en route to the Moon, reveals our planet and its place… Article 14 hours ago 2 min read Typhoon Jangmi The sprawling storm promised to deliver torrential rain across a wide swath of southern Japan. Article 2 days ago 3 min read Fire’s Footprint on Santa Rosa Island A wildland fire charred grassland, coastal sage scrub, and chaparral across one-third of the island,… Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Air Quality Air pollution is a significant threat to human health and our environment. Instruments on NASA satellites, along with airborne and… Wildfires Landsat satellites monitor wildfire extent, burn severity, and post-fire recovery since the 1970s, helping managers assess damage, improve safety, estimate… Earth Science at Work NASA Earth Science helps Americans respond to challenges and societal needs — such as wildland fires, hurricanes, and water supplies… NASA Knows: The Ozone Hole This is the story of the hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer: what it is, how it formed, and the… View the full article

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Gary Eason © CC BY NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this color-enhanced view of Jupiter’s northern hemisphere during its 61st close flyby of the giant planet on May 12, 2024. Citizen scientist Gary Eason made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying digital processing techniques to enhance color and clarity. It provides a detailed view of chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms in an area known to scientists as a folded filamentary region. In these regions, the zonal jets that create the familiar banded patterns in Jupiter’s clouds break down, leading to turbulent patterns and cloud structures that rapidly evolve over the course of only a few days. Learn more about opportunities to do NASA science with citizen science projects. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing by Gary Eason © CC BY View the full article

5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This sunset photo shows Deep Space Station 14, the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.NASA/JPL NASA has completed the investigation into the damage sustained last year at its 70-meter radio-frequency antenna, known as the Deep Space Station 14 (DSS-14), at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. The agency has classified the event as a Type A mishap based on the total cost of damages. The antenna will remain offline to complete repairs and previously scheduled upgrades. “NASA takes safety and any departure from established procedures seriously, and the investigation at Goldstone made clear that we must strengthen our processes. We are acting on the investigation’s findings,” said Joel Montalbano, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “We will update and improve procedures, rebuild core in-house capabilities, and reinforce operational discipline across the Deep Space Network. NASA remains focused on learning from this and modernizing systems, so DSS-14 and the broader network are ready to support our ambitious future missions.” On Sept. 16, 2025, the DSS‑14 antenna over‑rotated while actively tracking the Juno mission, placing excessive stress on cabling and associated structural supports. Water lines tied to the antenna’s fire‑suppression system also were damaged, causing significant flooding in the facility. There were no injuries. NASA convened a Mishap Investigation Board, bringing together experts from across the agency to examine the technical, organizational, and cultural factors behind the incident. The board conducted on‑site inspections, interviews, and detailed reviews of technical documentation and operational logs from all three Deep Space Network sites. The board completed its final report in April and submitted it for agency concurrence. The investigation issued findings and recommendations that emphasize training, technical rigor, operational procedures, system design, clear roles and responsibilities, and safety assurance. At the same time, teams already are applying lessons learned across all network sites to improve operational consistency. These steps will help bolster the network and reduce the risk of future mishaps. In its final report, the board found the mishap primarily stemmed from software weaknesses, human error, and an undetected failure in the antenna’s hydraulic limit system. Investigators determined an electrical issue at the antenna the previous day caused the control system to misreport the antenna’s rotation state, an issue that went unnoticed and triggered multiple limit-stops during the Juno track on Sept. 16. While working to identify the limit-stop problem, operators performed several troubleshooting steps that inadvertently bypassed software and hardware safeguards, which ultimately led to the over-rotation incident. After flooding in the antenna base was observed, operators attempted to stow the antenna as a safety precaution, however, because the system had already passed the rotation limits, this action drove the antenna further into over‑rotation, causing additional damage. Additionally, the investigation found the antenna’s hydraulic limit system, its final mechanical safeguard, was inoperable on Sept. 16 after being damaged in an undocumented prior incident. The system also had not been adequately tested for an undetermined ******* of time. Investigators also concluded workplace culture pressured operators to work as expeditiously as possible, often stretching beyond their usual roles, expertise, and training, to keep the antenna operating. The board states the cultural conditions observed at Goldstone were not present at the network’s other sites, where roles and responsibilities are followed more consistently. Other contributing factors outlined in the report include inadequate procedures, reliance on undocumented practices and tacit knowledge, and gaps in the antenna’s control logic. NASA will accept this as the final report. The agency estimates repairs will cost between $4.1 and $4.6 million, with a final figure to be determined after the antenna’s systems are fully assessed. The antenna will remain offline as it enters its previously scheduled extended maintenance and upgrade *******, originally set to begin in August and expected to be completed by October 2028. These upgrades are part of broader network improvements essential to supporting future exploration and science missions, as well as enhancing the nation’s planetary defense capabilities. “We are committed to learning everything we can from this incident, and we’ve already begun putting those lessons into practice,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program at the agency’s headquarters. “Our teams are working to strengthen and standardize processes and training across all three network sites to ensure it remains resilient, consistent, and ready to support the next generation of missions. Every challenge is an opportunity to improve, and this is no exception.” The Deep Space Network continues to provide full coverage for more than 40 missions despite the DSS‑14 incident. The network’s 13 other antennas, located at complexes in California, Australia, and Spain, are supporting all tracking needs without interruption. A dedicated scheduling team allocates antenna time across the network to meet each mission’s science and data‑return objectives. The team also maintains continuous coverage when an antenna goes offline for maintenance or an unexpected outage. To view the report, which includes redactions to protect proprietary and privacy-sensitive material, visit: [Hidden Content] Share Details Last Updated Jun 05, 2026 Related TermsSpace Communications & Navigation ProgramCommunicating and Navigating with MissionsDeep Space Network Explore More 2 min read NASA Draws on Industry for Mars Telecommunications Network Article 3 weeks ago 4 min read 20 Years of Space Communications and Navigation Article 3 weeks ago 3 min read I Am Artemis: Kathleen Harmon Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory A Moonlit Earth as Seen From… 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 Notes from the Field Blog Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search April 2, 2026 One of the first images transmitted back to Earth from the Artemis II mission was a stunner. In a single image, Earth’s full disk appears amid celestial phenomena that illustrate its place in the solar system. And although the visible hemisphere appears to be awash in sunlight, it is actually lit by moonlight. The astronauts’ vantage point provided a rare opportunity to capture nighttime features—most notably lights from human habitation—from a new perspective. An Artemis crew member captured the photo from the Orion spacecraft after it completed the translunar injection burn, which sent the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. In the photo, Earth eclipses the Sun from Orion’s perspective, leaving only a small sliver of its bright light visible around the bottom right edge. Green auroras, caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with Earth’s upper atmosphere, glow around the north and south poles (lower left and upper right, respectively). The Sun’s light also produces the fuzzy glow, known as zodiacal light, that appears to the lower right of Earth. This phenomenon comes from sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust. Skywatchers on Earth may see it at certain times of year around dawn or dusk as a faint column of light extending up from the horizon. Data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on its journey to Jupiter suggest that Mars may be a significant source of the dust particles that produce zodiacal light. Earth’s other planetary neighbor, Venus, appears as the bright object in the bottom right of the image. April 2, 2026 On Earth itself, city lights are evidence of human activity. Bright areas appear in Spain, Portugal, and northern Africa (lower left), sub-Saharan Africa (center left), and Brazil (center right). Digital camera technology—with help from the illumination of a full Moon—made it possible to see these and other details of Earth’s surface and atmosphere in low light. The crew set the camera’s ISO to 51,200 to make it highly sensitive to light. For comparison, an ISO setting of 100 or 200 is common for daytime photography. Previous nighttime views of Earth taken from spacecraft may look very different from this photo but have also inspired and enlightened. For instance, the Apollo 12 crew photographed Earth eclipsing the Sun in 1969; astronaut Alan Bean would go on to depict his impressions of the event in paintings. More recently, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have photographed the planet at night from low Earth orbit, while NASA’s ****** Marble nighttime lights product suite uses satellite observations to produce science-quality records of nighttime lights at daily, monthly, and yearly time scales. Those programs provide sustained data records, while the Artemis II photo is distinctive as a single human-captured full-disk view showing many low-light features at once. Cindy Evans, senior exploration scientist in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, was working in the Science Evaluation Room during the Artemis II mission and was one of the first people on Earth to see the image. Evans was struck both by its beauty and the perspective revealed by all the visible solar system features. “I love the image so much because it was taken with Earth in moonshine, and shows Earth as a solar system body, a dynamic planet interacting with the solar wind, and a place harboring life,” she said. The image is scientifically valuable, as well, said Miguel Román, Deputy Director for Atmospheres and Data Systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It speaks powerfully to the breadth of what NASA does across science and human exploration,” he said. Román studies artificial light at night, as viewed from space, as a measurable signal of human activity. “[This photo] reminds us that Earth at night is visually compelling, physically complex, and scientifically underexplored,” Román said. “I see this image as a glimpse of what Earth science can become in the future.” NASA images prepared for Earth Observatory by Lauren Dauphin. Story by Lindsey Doermann. References & Resources NASA (2026, April 22) Advancing Earth Observation at NASA Since Release of Earthrise Photo. Accessed June 2, 2026. NASA (2026, April 3) Hello, World. Accessed June 2, 2026. NASA (2006, October 9) Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo. Accessed June 2, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2026, May 15) Picturing Earth in a New Light. Accessed June 2, 2026. NASA Image and Video Library (2026, April 3) Earth From the Perspective of Artemis II. Accessed June 2, 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. Great ****** of Fire 4 min read An astronaut on the International Space Station was surprised to photograph a shower of light streaking through the darkness while… Article Earthset From the Lunar Far Side 2 min read The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission captured extraordinary images of our home planet during their journey around the far… Article Shades of a Lunar Eclipse 3 min read A series of nighttime satellite images revealed how moonlight reaching Earth varied throughout a total lunar eclipse. 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 MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4908-4912: Goodbye Campo Marte, It’s Been Fun! NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the inlet on its Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction instrument (CheMin), which is about the size of a laptop computer and sits inside rover’s body, where it analyzes the chemical composition of rocks and soil. Curiosity captured the image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a close-up camera located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on May 28, 2026 — Sol 4908, or Martian day 4,908 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 11:14:14 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, *** Earth planning date: Friday, May 29, 2026 Drilling always keeps the rover in place for a little while, and our 47th successful drill, “Campo Marte,” was no exception. The team used the time wisely and on top of the drilling, we also have many observations. Thinking for a long time about a workspace always gets me attached to the area — some more than others; at the shorter stops, especially — when I am on shift several times during this time. I was Science Operations Working Group chair three times while we were here, so it’s a real “Goodbye” for me today as we are driving onward to reach the next area up the hill on Mount Sharp. The Campo Marte drill was successful, as my colleague Abigail Fraeman reported last week. This week was spent investigating the aftermath of the drilling, which means running the CheMin instrument to get mineralogical data and the SAM instrument to inspect the volatile releases. ChemCam, APXS, MAHLI and Mastcam were also busy documenting the drill hole and the drill fines, as well as how much sample there was available overall. Of course, Curiosity also had a very good look at the other interesting targets in the area! Besides all the work on the drill hole, ChemCam carried out an expert’s targeting exercise by setting two targets up to aim at two different layers on adjacent spots on the finely laminated sediments. That involves aiming at millimeter-sized targets, named “Corcovado” and “Junakas,” respectively, about 3 meters away (about 10 feet)! We are curious if the layers are chemically different, which would tell us about different formation conditions, or if they are similar and the conditions when those layers formed were more similar. ChemCam is also looking at the target “Palcaya” to get more data on the chemistry of the layered bedrock, and will investigate the target “Alcamachi,” which is a float rock that looks intriguingly dark. Maybe that tells us it’s got a different chemistry? We will find out when we get the data! In addition to the chemistry measurements, ChemCam will also carry out a spectral investigation on the target “Magallanas,” which was a little too far away to also point the laser at it, but is intriguingly dark. This last week, ChemCam also planned three long-distance RMIs to document the sedimentary structures — younger and older ones — in the surrounding area. One of them drew the suspicion that it might break a record: it might be the longest strip of RMI images we have taken in one mosaic! The jury is out, it’s 24 frames and this way links up with an earlier, shorter set of images. The reason the mosaic is so long is because it images a small ridge with sedimentary textures that could tell us about the depositional conditions when the rock layers formed. But how cool is that — at 13+ years to still break our own records? Since our arrival, Mastcam has been very busy getting the entire region around us imaged. In addition, some higher-resolution mosaics have been taken, most notably one of the locations where the remaining sample was dropped, and then of the workspace to see again how much sample might — or might not — have been left in the drill stem and fallen out when Curiosity did the motions that are designed to shake any remaining sample out of the drill, to leave it prepared for the next time. Another imaging task, but for MAHLI, is to always image the sample inlets, also, to see if they are clean and prepared for the next sample. I included the MAHLI image of the CheMin inlet — don’t worry about the little rock, it’s with us for a while, and the CheMin team now calls it “our **** rock.” APXS joined the drill-hole investigations and has been focused on it even more than usual. The team decided that this is a very good opportunity to increase counting statistics beyond the usual and well-tested levels by significantly increasing the measurement time. To achieve that, it measured the Campo Marte drill fines in all plans of this week. And on the last night of that, MAHLI gets out its LED lights to finish the experiment with a sparkling nighttime MAHLI experiment to document it all. Our environmental team has kept the rover busy by looking at atmospheric opacity, dust activity, dust-****** activity and, of course, also monitoring the environment in general. With all this finished, the rover will continue its way up the hill to the next interesting area. I heard something like “cross-bedding” during the discussions, but as a mineralogist, I just note that that decision was taken by people who know more about sediments than I do, while I am itching to see the CheMin mineralogy results! 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 03, 2026 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample! Article 6 days ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4893-4899: Drilling at Campo Marte and a Visit From the Psyche Spacecraft Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4886-4892: Ingenuity and Perseverance, Curiosity Style 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

4 Min Read NASA Finds New Way Earth May Have Received Elements Needed for Life This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. Darker rings in the disk are where objects like planetesimals are forming, clearing a path through the debris. Credits: Illustration: ESO NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published today in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in iron meteorites and in younger objects known as chondrites. The study suggests that Earth acquired its inventory of the life-essential elements phosphorous and nitrogen primarily from the inner solar system, without requiring a significant contribution from outer solar system chondrites Debjeet Pathak Rice University Planetary system formation Our solar system formed from gas and dust that swirled around the proto-Sun more than 4.5 billion years ago. This gas contained the raw materials needed to form planets, moons, and ultimately life as we know it. Two elements of particular importance for life are nitrogen and phosphorus. All life on Earth needs the same elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur (CHNOPS). These elements came from space, born inside stars and spread in clouds of gas and dust. Gravity then caused this material to gather together, forming new stars and smaller objects like planets. NASA In the earliest stages of the solar system, gas and dust coalesced into bodies known as planetesimals. As these objects orbited the young Sun in this chaotic environment, planetesimals collided, leaving shattered remnants throughout the system. Eventually, many of these pieces were incorporated into planets and moons. Other pieces survive today as asteroids, still orbiting the Sun, and – if they have impacted the Earth and been recovered – as meteorites. These meteorites provide a window into the early solar system at a time before the Earth existed. Chondrites and iron meteorites are two different classes of these meteorites. As their name suggests, iron meteorites are dense, metallic objects and are primarily made of iron-nickel alloy. Chondrites, on the other hand, are stony objects and they are responsible for most of the meteorites that have been found on Earth. Each type of meteorite originates from planetesimals that formed at different times in our system. The oldest generation of planetesimals are the source of iron meteorites. Chondrites came from a second generation of planetesimals that formed 2-3 million years later. Habitable planet building Understanding how the Earth was made and the timing of its formation is important for astrobiologists who study how and when our planet became habitable for life as we know it. The young Earth needed to have a supply of life’s ingredients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, for the first living cells to form. There is debate between scientists over where Earth’s stock of life-essential elements came from. Some evidence points to chondrites in the outer solar system traveling inward to arrive at Earth late in our planet’s formation process. However, the new study tells a different story. Using laboratory experiments and geochemical models, the team reconstructed a map of phosphorus-nitrogen (P/N) ratios across the early solar system and found differences between the first (iron meteorites) and second (chondrites) generations of planetesimals. An illustration of our solar system. The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter, separating our system into what we refer to as the inner and outer regions. NASA/JPL-Caltech The experiments and subsequent geochemical modeling showed that the first generation had a higher ratio of P/N in the outer solar system, with that ratio decreasing toward the inner solar system. This trend was reversed in the second generation of planetesimals, with higher P/N ratios in the inner solar system. The thought is that during the formation of the first generation of planetesimals, there was an outward flow of material that raised the P/N ratio in the outer solar system. Then came Jupiter. For our own solar system, Jupiter’s presence and growth history, indeed, seem to have played a critical role in determining the distribution of the basic chemical ingredients necessary for habitable worlds. Rajdeep Dasgupta Rice University As Jupiter formed and grew to a tremendous size (and gravitational influence), the planet restricted the movement of phosphorus and nitrogen from the inner to outer solar system. This meant that when the second generation of planetesimals appeared, those in the inner solar system were left with a higher P/N ratio than their cousins further out. “For our own solar system, Jupiter’s presence and growth history, indeed, seem to have played a critical role in determining the distribution of the basic chemical ingredients necessary for habitable worlds,” said Rajdeep Dasgupta of Rice University in Houston and senior author on the study. “It remains an open question whether a life-essential element budget similar to Earth’s can be established without a Jupiter-like planet in the population.” Geochemical accretion modeling further shows that Earth’s present-day P/N signature is best reproduced by the inner solar system planetesimals, either those related to iron meteorites or those related to chondrites. “The study suggests that Earth acquired its inventory of the life-essential elements phosphorous and nitrogen primarily from the inner solar system, without requiring a significant contribution from outer solar system chondrites,” said study lead author Debjeet Pathak, graduate student at Rice University. For more information on astrobiology at NASA, visit: [Hidden Content] Karen Fox / Molly Wasser Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld About the Author Aaron Gronstal Share Details Last Updated Jun 03, 2026 Related Terms Astrobiology Explore More 5 min read NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate Scientists analyzed 20 Martian samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover and found that differences in… Article 6 days ago 5 min read NASA Research Shows Early Life Relied on Rare Metal Article 4 weeks ago 8 min read Optical Vortex Phase Masks for the Detection of Habitable Worlds A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help… Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Astrobiology Topics From NASA Astrobiology Program Overview Astrobiology Multimedia Astrobiology Publications Funded Astrobiology Research at NASA View the full article

2 Min Read International Sea Level Satellite Observes El Niño Precursor PIA26710 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal Navigation Science Photojournal International Sea Level… Photojournal Home Photojournal Search Latest Content Galleries Feedback RSS About Downloads International Sea Level Satellite Observes El Niño Precursor MP4 (1.10 MB) Description Sea level height data from the international Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite collected from March to May 2026 show higher, warmer water moving from the western Pacific Ocean to just off the coast of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. This phenomenon is known as a warm Kelvin wave, signified in this animation of the data by yellow, orange, red, and white. The emergence of Kelvin waves in the early part the year is a signal that an El Niño event is likely to follow. In early 2026, measurements from Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich showed a small Kelvin wave forming around Micronesia in late January and dissipating by mid-February. The wave shown in the animation emerged in early March, then moved east over time. By mid-May, the seas around Peru were more than 5.9 inches (15 centimeters) higher than long-term averages. Because water expands as it warms, a rise in elevation of an area of the ocean indicates increasing temperature. The additional heat at the sea surface can change the circulation patterns of energy, water, and air in the atmosphere, which can affect weather. El Niños can cause heavy precipitation in some regions and deficits in others, influencing daily life and commerce around the world. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, named after former NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich, is one of two satellites that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission. Sentinel-6/Jason-CS was jointly developed by ESA, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), NASA, and NOAA, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support on performance from the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). Spacecraft monitoring and control, as well as the processing of all the altimeter science data, is carried out by EUMETSAT on behalf of the European Union’s Copernicus programme, with the support of all partner agencies. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory contributed three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA also contributed launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the U.S. members of the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team. To learn more about Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, visit: [Hidden Content] Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Photojournal Photojournal Search Photojournal Photojournal’s Latest Content Feedback View the full article

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 88 (M88).ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker The focus of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image released on May 29, 2026, is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier 88 (M88), also known as NGC 4501, is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). M88 is an active galaxy, which means that its center harbors a supermassive ****** hole that is snacking on gas and dust. Astronomers estimate the ****** hole is around 100 million times as massive as the Sun, and it appears to be powering outflows of gas from the galaxy’s center. Learn more about M88. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker View the full article

A powerful but mostly unseen water system at work during rocket engine tests at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, underwent an upgrade in May. Crews brought the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir to its lowest level since construction in the 1960s by pumping out about 40 million gallons of water over three days. This brought the reservoir, measuring 800 feet in diameter and about 25 feet deep, down to the level needed to replace a 3,000 gallon per minute pump that supplies water for fire suppression to the test complexes. before after The High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin The reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out about 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades. NASA/Danny Nowlin beforeafter The High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin The reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out about 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades. NASA/Danny Nowlin before after Before and After Lowering the Reservoir May 7, 2026 – May 11, 2026 CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details BEFORE (SSC-20260507-s00393) The High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades. AFTER (SSC-20260511-s00420) The reservoir is shown at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out about 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades. For a typical RS-25 engine test supporting NASA’s Artemis missions, about five million gallons of water flow from the reservoir to the Fred Haise Test Stand. The water cools the engine exhaust that reaches up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, supplies water to the flame deflector and helps with sound suppression during a test. A hot fire test produces critical data to ensure an engine is safe and reliable. before after A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 shows the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-milion-gallon reservoir as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 shows the reservoir at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin beforeafter A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 shows the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-milion-gallon reservoir as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 shows the reservoir at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin before after Before and After A View from the Thad Cochran Test Stand May 7, 2026 – May 11, 2026 CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details BEFORE (SSC-20260507-s00395) – A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7 shows the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-milion-gallon reservoir as work gets underway to remove about 40 million gallons of water to complete upgrades. AFTER (SSC-20260511-s00423) – A view from the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11 shows the reservoir at its lowest level since construction in the 1960s. Crews lowered the reservoir by pumping out 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades. The water used during a test is recycled for future use as it flows back into the on-site canal system, before returning to the reservoir. “The old pump that supported fire suppression for testing reached its end of life, so this project promotes reliability with the upgrade,” said Justin Lucas, NASA project manager. In addition to a new pump, the piping has improved to a 14-inch-to-12-inch configuration. Picture trying to drink water from a big cup using a tiny coffee stirrer. This is similar to how the previous pump relied on piping that narrowed from 14 inches down to 10 inches before reaching the pump. The water moved but required more work from the system. “With the upgraded configuration, less velocity inside the pipe with the same amount of flow equals a longer lasting pipe, pump, and hardware,” said Lucas. A work crew lays suction piping on May 6 for the portable pumps that will help remove about 40 million gallons of water from the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir to complete upgrades at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Floating buoys keep the suction piping suspended above the reservoir floor, preventing it from drawing in mud. This also protects the integrity of the reservoir bed by ensuring no underlying material is removed.NASA/Danny Nowlin A drone image shows water flowing to the Thad Cochran Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7. Crews lowered the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66 million gallon reservoir to its lowest level since the 1960s by pumping out about 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades.NASA/Jason Peterson A drone image shows the High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 7. Crews lowered the reservoir to its lowest level since the 1960s by pumping out about 40 million gallons over three days to complete upgrades.NASA/Jason Peterson A work crew uses a lift to remove the main isolation valve to complete upgrades at NASA’s Stennis Space Center’s High Pressure Industrial Water Facility on May 11. The isolation valve isolates the water supply during work to replace the 3,000 gallon per minute pump that supplies water for fire suppression to the test complexes.NASA/Danny Nowlin The High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir is shown with about 40 million gallons of water removed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11. Crews lowered the reservoir to its lowest level since construction in the 1960s to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin The High Pressure Industrial Water Facility’s 66-million-gallon reservoir is shown with about 40 million gallons of water removed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on May 11. Crews lowered the reservoir to its lowest level since construction in the 1960s to complete upgrades.NASA/Danny Nowlin The water system upgrades have strengthened a vital system that supports NASA’s Artemis missions, along with commercial companies operating at NASA Stennis, home to America’s largest multiuser propulsion test site. View the full article

Artist’s concept of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. The spacecraft entered orbit around the planet in 2014 and has completed over eleven years of observing the Martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Red Planet’s atmosphere to space. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Colorado/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics The first mission devoted to observing the Martian atmosphere and its evolution, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), has ended after more than 11 years in orbit at Mars and a decade beyond its primary, one-year mission. The spacecraft was heard last on Dec. 6, when it experienced an unexpected loss of signal after it passed behind the Red Planet. NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT today, Wednesday, June 3, to discuss MAVEN’s achievements. The agency convened an anomaly review board in February to evaluate recovery efforts and assess the spacecraft’s probable current state. The review board has determined that the MAVEN spacecraft is not recoverable, and it is no longer capable of performing its science and data relay mission, which is consistent with the mission team’s findings. Telemetry from MAVEN prior to the spacecraft’s passage behind Mars in December showed all subsystems working normally. After the spacecraft emerged, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) did not observe a signal. A brief fragment of telemetry data from analysis of radio signals recorded by the DSN’s open-loop receivers indicated the spacecraft was in safe mode and rotating at an unusually high rate when it emerged from behind Mars, indicating a disruption in MAVEN’s orbit trajectory. The review board concluded that due to this rotation, the batteries on the spacecraft had drained, causing the communications system to lose power and rendering MAVEN in an unrecoverable state. These preliminary findings do not address a potential root cause for the anomaly, which still is being investigated. The review board is expected to provide its final report later this year. NASA has begun the official process of decommissioning the MAVEN mission, following standard procedures to archive the full mission dataset for the science and exploration communities. “The science MAVEN has given us is key to informing what kind of radiation protection and safety measures we must take before sending humans to Mars,” said Louise Prockter, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The data collected from MAVEN will continue to provide valuable insight into Mars for decades to come.” Launched in November 2013, the MAVEN mission explored the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of the planet’s atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. “The MAVEN mission has truly advanced our understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution. This dataset has had a tremendous impact on the field,” said Shannon Curry, MAVEN’s principal investigator and a researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our science team is exceptionally proud of all of these amazing discoveries.” Sun’s impact on Mars One of MAVEN’s first major results was that the erosion of Mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms. The team studied how the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles continually streaming from the Sun, and solar storms continually strip away Mars’ atmosphere, as well as how this process played a key role in altering the Martian climate from a potentially habitable world to today’s cold, arid planet. The MAVEN mission made unprecedented strides in advancing our understanding of how the Sun and space weather affect Mars, as it was the only spacecraft that could simultaneously take measurements of both the Sun and the Martian atmospheric response. Martian light shows The MAVEN mission discovered several types of auroras that light up when energetic particles plunge into the atmosphere, bombarding gases and making them glow. The MAVEN team showed that protons create new kinds of auroras at Mars. On Earth, proton auroras only occur in very small regions near the poles, whereas at Mars they can occur everywhere. Mars’ atmosphere sputters into space To better understand how Mars lost most of its atmosphere, MAVEN measured atmospheric sputtering for the first time at any planet. The team did this by observing argon, which is a noble gas, meaning it rarely reacts with other constituents in the Martian atmosphere. The only significant way it can be removed is by atmospheric sputtering, a process where ions ****** into the Martian atmosphere at high enough speeds that they splash gas molecules out of the atmosphere, much like doing a cannonball into a pool. The team used 11 years of data to reveal the presence of sputtered argon at high altitudes in the exact locations that the energetic particles crashed into the atmosphere, showing sputtering in real time. Understanding Mars’ dusty secrets In 2018, a series of dust storms created a dust cloud so large that it enveloped the Red Planet. The MAVEN team studied how this “global” dust storm affected Mars’ upper atmosphere to understand how these events affected the escape of water to space. It confirmed that heating from dust storms can loft water molecules far higher into the atmosphere than usual, leading to a sudden surge in water lost to space. Chasing comets In addition to Martian science, MAVEN contributed to NASA’s effort to observe comet 3I/ATLAS at Mars. Over the course of 10 days last year, the MAVEN team designed a new observing campaign to capture 3I/ATLAS by taking multiple images of the comet in several wavelengths, much like using various filters on a camera. Then it snapped high-resolution UV images to identify the hydrogen coming from the comet. By studying a combination of these images, scientists can identify a variety of molecules and better understand the comet’s composition and history. During the mission’s lifetime, MAVEN’s science team produced more than 800 publications, and additional publications are planned. In addition to science, the MAVEN spacecraft was an instrumental player in NASA’s Mars Relay Network, communicating data from Mars rovers to Earth. It also holds the solar system record for most data relayed from another planet in a single day. Audio of today’s media teleconference will stream on the agency’s website at: [Hidden Content] Participants in the teleconference include: Tiffany Morgan, director, Mars Exploration Program, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters Mike Moreau, project manager, MAVEN, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Greg Heckler, deputy program manager for Capability Development, SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation), NASA Headquarters Shannon Curry, MAVEN principal investigator, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder To ask questions by phone, media must RSVP no later than 12 p.m. to: *****@*****.tld. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. The MAVEN mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. The mission’s principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, which also is responsible for managing science operations and public outreach and communications. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides navigation and Deep Space Network support. For more information about NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Karen Fox / Alana Johnson Headquarters, Washington 240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780 *****@*****.tld / alana.r*****@*****.tld Sarah Frazier Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 202-853-7191 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 03, 2026 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsMAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)Deep Space NetworkGoddard Space Flight CenterJet Propulsion LaboratoryMarsScience Mission Directorate View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Typhoon Jangmi 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 Notes from the Field Blog Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search From late May into early June 2026, a broad, slow-spinning storm churned north-northwest over the Philippine Sea toward southern Japan. Typhoon Jangmi’s rainbands unleashed torrential rainfall across a vast swath of the region, triggering flooding concerns in several areas. The VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime image (above) of the storm at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 30 (1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on May 31). Around that time, the typhoon produced sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, based on 1-minute averages reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). That’s equivalent to a category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The image shows a detailed view of the eyewall and eye, with a diameter that is on the larger end of the spectrum, according to Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. There also appears to be some low-level rotation on the eastern side of the eye, producing features known as “mesocyclones” that are partially obscured by high-level clouds. Though they appear striking, the features are fairly typical, Braun noted. The second image shows a wider view of the same storm one day later. The VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 31 (1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on June 1), when the storm was a slightly stronger typhoon with sustained winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour. In both images, Jangmi’s eye was still located south of Okinawa. However, the storm’s outer cloud bands already reached over land as the storm moved north. Forecasts called for the storm to make a close approach to Okinawa and then turn northeast toward the Amami region around June 1-2. It was expected to continue delivering large amounts of rain, especially along the nation’s Pacific coast, according to news reports. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS day-night band data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). Story by Kathryn Hansen. Downloads May 30, 2026 JPEG (1.56 MB) May 31, 2026 JPEG (2.48 MB) References & Resources The Japan Times (2026, June 1) Tropical Storm Jangmi set to lash wide area of Japan. Accessed June 2, 2026. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (2026, June 1) Prognostic Reasoning for Tropical Storm 06W (Jangmi). Accessed June 2, 2026. The New York Times (2026, June 2) Tracking Tropical Storm Jangmi. Accessed June 2, 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. Super Typhoon Sinlaku 3 min read The violent storm aimed at the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in mid-April 2026. Article Gravity Waves From Super Typhoon Sinlaku 4 min read Satellites observed striking upper-atmosphere phenomena generated by an intensifying tropical cyclone. 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 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

Image Credit: Motiv Space Systems The Fly Foundational Robots (FFR) mission will launch a robotic arm, with seven degrees of freedom, to low Earth orbit. NASA is opening access to the robotic arm to a select group of U.S. researchers — principal investigators, post-doctoral researchers, professors, and highly qualified graduate students — who have a compelling experiment and the capability to execute it. All participants must submit eligibility documentation at registration. Once your eligibility is reviewed and confirmed, you will receive access to the Phase 1 submission portal. Phase 0 — Eligibility Registration Begin by completing your eligibility registration. Submission documentation is required at this stage as part of federal competition requirements. Registration closes at 12:59 p.m. ET (11:59 p.m. CT) on Sept. 23. Phase 1 — White Paper Submission Submit a white paper proposing a short, focused experiment using the FFR robotic arm. Up to 15 teams advance to Phase 2. Submission closes at 12:59 p.m. ET (11:59 p.m. CT) on Oct. 2. Phase 2 — Simulation & Validation Invited participants conduct simulation and validation testing, including visits to Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Prize: Teams that pass validation will receive an offer of on-orbit experiment time on the FFR Mission Challenge Registration Open Date: May 20, 2026 Challenge Registration Close Date: September 23, 2026 For more information, visit: [Hidden Content] View the full article

ESA/Sophie Adenot Astronauts Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jack Hathaway of NASA, both Expedition 74 flight engineers, look out a window in the cupola, monitoring the automated approach and docking of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on May 17, 2026. The orbital outpost was soaring 259 miles above the Indian Ocean just west of the Maldives at the time of this photograph. See the cupola and other parts of the space station in our guided tour. Image credit: ESA/Sophie Adenot View the full article

Technicians prepare the Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility, designed to turn crew wastewater into useful resources, for transport at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. NASA/Kim Shiflett A mobile wastewater treatment system built at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida that can help prepare for long-duration missions on the Moon and Mars departed the spaceport and arrived at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Graduate students at the university will test the technology under conditions designed to closely mimic the challenges of operating on another planetary surface. The Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility is designed to turn crew wastewater into useful resources, which future explorers will need every day. At the University of North Dakota, teams will integrate this new wastewater system with the university’s Integrated Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat. Student operators and NASA researchers will study how the facility performs when connected to a habitat-like environment and exposed to the kinds of operational limits crews could face on another planet. “NASA’s Artemis program is laying the groundwork for a sustained human presence on the Moon, where habitats will need to operate far from the steady resupply chain that supports astronauts in partial gravity,” said Luke Roberson, surface water systems lead within the Mars Campaign Office at NASA Kennedy. “To solve that challenge, we are developing the future of sustainable lunar surface systems to process wastewater into nutrient feedstocks for plants and biomanufacturing.” How Treatment System Works Housed inside an 8.5-by-24-foot trailer, the facility brings together three biological reactor systems, a vertical garden, water-polishing hardware, environmental monitoring, autonomous control software, and safety systems. The trailer was outfitted at NASA Kennedy to function as a deployable laboratory and to travel between at least two simulation test sites as the technology matures. Unlike wastewater systems on Earth, this facility keeps waste streams separate. That divergent approach is important for small crews, because wastewater from four to eight people can be highly concentrated. ******, hygiene water, laundry water, fecal waste, and food waste each contain different levels of salts, solids, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other compounds. Treating them separately allows each stream to be processed by the reactor best suited for the job. To do that, the system uses three different bioreactors to treat waste streams. The Anaerobic Phototrophic Membrane Bioreactor processes fecal and food waste and converts it into a nutrient-rich wastewater that can support plant growth. The Suspended Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor processes ****** and flush water. The Membrane Aerated Biological Reactor treats graywater from hygiene and laundry activities. Collectively, the bioreactors process nutrients to feed the facility’s vertical garden and prepare the water for reuse. Inside that garden, crops will grow hydroponically, or without using soil, by using nutrient solutions derived from the bioreactors. Researchers will compare crop performance with plants grown using standard hydroponic nutrients. NASA’s Dr. Roberson demonstrating the Divergent Wastewater Treatment Facility to UND Chair Dr. De Leon and Dr. Robert Kraus, Dean of UND’s School of Aerospace Sciences.University of North Dakota At North Dakota, under a NASA EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant, the facility was connected to the Integrated Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat through a bathroom interface that includes a ******-diverting toilet. The setup will allow different waste streams to be separated at the source and sent to the correct treatment systems. In parallel, Ali Alshami’s team is developing novel membrane-based separation technologies intended for future integration into the divergent wastewater facility to improve water recovery efficiency, contaminant rejection, and overall system resilience for long-duration habitation missions. “The tests will help NASA evaluate real-world operation, crew training needs, system reliability, and how wastewater simulants compare with actual human metabolic waste in an analog mission environment,” said Alshami. These efforts are focused on advancing compact, energy-efficient treatment approaches capable of handling complex wastewater streams generated in closed-loop extraterrestrial environments. “The testing campaign at the University of North Dakota supports the facility’s technology maturation from laboratory-scale validation toward demonstration in a relevant Inflatable Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat environment,” said Pablo De Leon, professor and department chair of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota. Lessons learned could inform future higher-fidelity tests, including potential integration with NASA’s next generation of yearlong simulated Mars missions via isolation analogs at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Technology for Making Moon Base Sustainable The work is part of NASA’s broader Bioregenerative Life Support Systems effort, which is developing biological approaches to reduce dependence on Earth-supplied consumables. In future lunar or Martian habitats, systems like the wastewater treatment facility could help close life support loops by recovering water, recycling nutrients, supporting crop production, and reducing the amount of waste that must be stored or discarded. Further NASA research completed trade studies demonstrating how bioregenerative life support becomes more effective for space travel over current life support technologies. NASA researchers also are exploring how wastewater-recovered resources could support in-space manufacturing. One effort is studying how nutrient-rich water from bioregenerative wastewater systems could feed microbes that produce lactic acid, which can be turned into polylactic acid. The material could one day serve as a binder for 3D printing with lunar or Martian regolith, the loose, fragmental surface material, or could be used for replacement parts, extending the value of recovered waste beyond water and food systems. “By sending the facility from NASA Kennedy to North Dakota, the agency is moving a key part of that circular economy out of the lab and into a real-world test,” said J.J. Edelmann, surface systems domain lead for the Mars Campaign Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The work may begin with wastewater, but its goal is much larger. We want to help future crews live sustainably on the Moon, learn how to operate farther from Earth, and carry those lessons forward to Mars.” To learn more about the agency’s lunar and Mars exploration, visit: [Hidden Content] View the full article

In the mid-20th century, astronomers discovered strange “clumpy” galaxies filled with mysterious bright blobs – massive stellar nurseries where stars are born at an explosive rate. Curiously, these clumpy galaxies were much more common in the early universe than they are today. We still don’t know why they vanished. The Euclid space telescope, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with critical contributions from NASA, has begun to capture images of millions of galaxies. These images – far more than any team of professional scientists could ever catalog alone – include high-definition views of clumpy galaxies that promise to reveal structure within and among the clumps. Astronomers hope to use these images to obtain new information about which galaxies host clumps, where the clumps are, how and why they evolved, and more – but they need your help! To tackle this mountain of data, scientists are creating a “digital assistant” in the form of machine learning, a kind of artificial intelligence. The machine algorithm has been partially trained with results from an earlier project called “Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout.” Now, as a volunteer for the new Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout II project, you’ll improve and train this tool further. You’ll examine images of galaxies that the machine has labelled with squares where it thinks it sees a real clump. The machine often gets confused by distant stars or camera glitches. So you’ll gently move those squares around, delete them, or add new ones, to help the algorithm learn. As a part of Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout II, you will help investigate how giant star-forming nurseries formed, solve the mystery of their disappearance over cosmic time, and reveal more about how star formation really works in galaxies. All you need is a laptop or smartphone. Click here to learn more! A clumpy galaxy seen by telescopes with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (left), the Hyper Suprime-Cam (middle) and the Euclid mission (right). You can see how the better resolving power of each subsequent telescope helps us see more and more detail about the star-forming clumps. (The bright object at the bottom right is a foreground star.) Image data: SDSS (left; Sloan Digital Sky Survey – CC BY 4.0); HSC (center; NAOJ/HSC Project – CC BY 4.0); Euclid (right; ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA – CC BY 3.0 IGO). Image post-processing and compilation by Hugh Dickinson and Jürgen Popp. Learn More and Get Involved Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout II Identify star-forming clumps in galaxy images, and help train machines to do the same. Facebook logo @nasascience_ @nasascience_ Instagram logo @nasascience_ Linkedin logo @nasascience_ View the full article

6 Min Read Spacewalking With Scott Wray, Artemis EVA Training Lead Scott Wray conducts an underwater test of NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuit in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credits: NASA/Bill Brassard Scott Wray’s experience with spacewalks started when he was about 6 years old. A tent resembling a lunar lander provided the perfect imaginary spacecraft. “I would lie on my back with my feet propped up on a pillow as I imagined going through a launch countdown sequence,” he said. “Then I would exit the tent into a darkened bedroom and hop around just like the footage I had seen of Apollo astronauts.” Today, with more than 16 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center under his belt, Wray is proud to have shaped spacewalk training across three eras of human spaceflight. Scott Wray smiles before a suited test run with Johnson’s Active Response Gravity Offload System. NASA/Josh Valcarcel The childhood fascination with spaceflight evolved into a passion for engineering, demonstrated through countless LEGO and airplane model builds and voracious readership of aircraft design books. His path to NASA was cemented by a week-long camp at Space Center Houston, which included several tours of Johnson’s signature facilities and a visit by former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz. “I was so inspired by the facilities and the incredible history of this place, I knew that I had to work here someday,” he said. Wray participated in NASA’s Contractor Co-op Program with United Space Alliance while studying aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and completed several tours with different organizations at Johnson. At the time, astronauts were training to conduct spacewalks, also known as EVAs, for both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. During one co-op experience with the shuttle’s In-Flight Maintenance Team (IFM), Wray observed the IFM and EVA teams collaborating with the STS-117 crew to fix the peeled-back thermal blanket on space shuttle Atlantis’s Orbital Maneuvering System pod. He helped the teams develop crew procedures for practicing the repair inside the shuttle, using surgical staples and pins to tack the blanket down. “This real-time troubleshooting is where I learned about the EVA group and set my sights on working there during my final co-op tour,” he said. “I love to be hands-on, to take things apart and come up with creative solutions – that’s what really attracted me to EVA.” EVA work also reminded Wray of time spent as a dog mushing guide in Alaska. “That is where I got my first taste of expeditionary skills,” he said. “We lived in a remote glacier camp, taking care of 250 Alaskan Huskies. I learned how to make do with the tools you have and make repairs to a broken sled miles away from home.” At times, Johnson’s EVA team must create similar workarounds. “Some of our best moments as a team have come when our hardware or vehicle has malfunctioned, requiring us to devise a real-time solution,” he said. “It sounds scrappy, but I think it’s how we put the human into human spaceflight.” Wray became a full-time EVA team member at Johnson after graduation, working under various contracts until he transitioned to a civil servant position in 2021. He started as an EVA instructor focused on tools and hardware and teaching astronauts how to perform their maintenance and repair duties. As NASA’s astronaut corps evolved to include a wider range of backgrounds and body types, Wray worked to develop new EVA techniques and tools that could accommodate any crew member. “That meant creating a curriculum that capitalized on individual strengths while building teamwork and resilience,” he said. Scott Wray prepares JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui for an EVA training run in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory pool. NASA/Bill Stafford Wray also served as a flight controller for shuttle and space station EVAs. He remembers being on console in Johnson’s Mission Control Center during a space station EVA in July 2013. That excursion was terminated early after water began filling the spacesuit helmet of ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, and the team could neither determine its source nor stop its flow. “That incident taught me that even after decades of operating a spacesuit, there are still failure modes we haven’t imagined,” he said. “It reinforced the need for vigilance, adaptability, and continuous learning—because in human spaceflight, lives depend on it.” In the last few years, Wray’s responsibilities shifted to preparing Artemis crew members for missions to the Moon. Now the Artemis EVA training lead, Wray oversees the development of training flows that will ready astronauts for lunar surface operations – a challenge NASA has not faced in over 50 years. Scott Wray participates in a nighttime evaluation of EVA operations at the Johnson Space Center Rock Yard in March 2021. The evening test was designed to better understand the impact of lunar South Pole lighting conditions on EVA operations. While many astronauts have completed space station training or an EVA, the skills required for lunar exploration will be different. “It’s going to be a completely new spacesuit, new vehicles, new environment,” Wray said. “And now they’re going to be walking instead of translating with their hands like we do on station.” At the same time, trainings must go beyond these foundational spacewalk techniques. “Our curriculum integrates geology, covering topics like impact cratering, volcanology, sample collection, and traverse planning,” Wray explained. “It’s about enabling astronauts to become effective field scientists while mastering complex EVA operations.” To build these skills, the team uses multiple training environments. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory has been NASA’s flagship EVA training facility since it opened in 1997, but the team also uses the Active Response Gravity Offload System for suited mobility practice. Additional training systems include virtual reality, lighting laboratories that simulate the Moon’s harsh South Pole lighting conditions, field sites for geology training and sample collection, and suit simulators that prepare astronauts to respond to caution-and-warning scenarios. “Spearheading this effort as EVA training lead allows me to ensure every element—from science to operations—is integrated into a program that will prepare astronauts for success on the Moon and beyond,” Wray said. “This effort is more than preparation, it’s the foundation for future exploration and a steppingstone toward Mars. Knowing that our work will help shape the next era of human spaceflight is incredibly rewarding.” Scott Wray serves as the test subject for Exploration EVA Pressure Garment Subsystem mobility data collection using the Active Response Gravity Offload System. Amid these complex preparations, Wray still finds time for new pursuits outside of the office. His daughter inspired him and his wife to try an acting class at a local fine arts studio, leading to Wray’s on-stage debut in a performance of “Rock of Ages.” He starred as William Shakespeare in this year’s production of “Something Rotten.” “I never would have thought I’d have so much fun acting, singing, and dancing on stage,” he said. “The community we are part of and the ability to join our daughter in activities she enjoys has been so rewarding.” Wray said he is incredibly grateful to play another role off-stage – being part of missions that will conduct meaningful science on the lunar surface. “Returning to the Moon is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid,” he said. “Artemis isn’t just about going back—it’s about shaping the future. When we choose to push the boundaries of exploration, the advancements we make don’t just expand knowledge, they create lasting benefits for all of humanity.” About the AuthorLinda E. Grimm Share Details Last Updated May 28, 2026 Related TermsJohnson Space CenterArtemisGeneralPeople of Johnson Explore More 3 min read NASA to Conduct Low-Altitude Flights Near Houston Article 15 hours ago 4 min read I Am Artemis: Daniel Stubbs Article 4 days ago 5 min read NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate Scientists analyzed 20 Martian samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover and found that differences in… Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Fire’s Footprint on Santa… 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 Notes from the Field Blog Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search May 16, 2026 May 24, 2026 A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 16, 2026, shows a dark-brown burned area toward the bottom-right. A thin, bright orange line runs along the burned area, indicating the active fire front. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 24, 2026, shows a reddish-brown burned area spanning the eastern third of the island. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin May 16, 2026May 24, 2026 A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 16, 2026, shows a dark-brown burned area toward the bottom-right. A thin, bright orange line runs along the burned area, indicating the active fire front. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 24, 2026, shows a reddish-brown burned area spanning the eastern third of the island. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin May 16, 2026 May 24, 2026 CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details The burned area from a wildland fire on Santa Rosa Island in California’s Channel Islands National Park grows between May 16 (left) and May 24, 2026 (right), in these false-color images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 and Landsat 8, respectively. On May 15, 2026, a fire was spotted from aircraft on the southeastern side of Santa Rosa Island, part of California’s Channel Islands National Park. The blaze spread over the next several days, ultimately burning 18,379 acres (7,438 hectares)—about one-third of the island. These images show the expansion of the fire’s burned area between May 16 (left), the day after it was discovered, and May 24 (right), after the fire’s growth had stabilized. The Landsat satellite images are false-color to help distinguish burned areas (brown) from healthy vegetation (green). Officials reported the fire was 97 percent contained by the evening of May 26. NASA tools utilizing satellite observations, namely FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) and the Fire Event Explorer, show how the fire spread to the north and east over several days. As it advanced, it consumed areas of grassland, coastal sage scrub, and island chaparral. Santa Rosa Island, like the other Channel Islands, is known for its diversity of plant and animal species, some of them rare. Observers were concerned that the fire threatened the island’s Torrey pines, a rare type of tree that in the United States grows naturally only on the northeastern coast of Santa Rosa Island and near San Diego. Initial post-fire surveys by firefighters and unmanned aircraft indicated the Torrey pine stand remained largely intact. The fire mostly burned at lower intensity through the pine areas and spared the canopy. However, some pockets of forest sustained damage where intensity was higher. Along the northwest edge of the fire, suppression crews worked to protect another vulnerable area—the cloud forests—by cooling fuels ahead of the fire’s front. Local reports suggest the Santa Rosa Island fire is the largest on record on any of California’s Channel Islands. Some of the islands’ chaparral and tree species are adapted to fire but less dependent on it than their mainland counterparts, according to the National Park Service, because naturally occurring fire is less frequent on the Channel Islands. NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Downloads May 16, 2026 JPEG (2.50 MB) May 24, 2026 JPEG (2.34 MB) References & Resources Capital Public Radio (2020) California Wildfire History Map. Accessed May 29, 2026. InciWeb (2026, May 28) Santa Rosa Island Fire. Accessed May 29, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2026, May 20) Fire Chars Santa Rosa Island. Accessed May 29, 2026. National Park Service, Channel Islands. Accessed May 29, 2026. Santa Barbara Independent (2026, May 21) What We’re Losing in the Santa Rosa Island Fire. Accessed May 29, 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. Fire Chars Santa Rosa Island 2 min read The blaze spread across the southern side of the second-largest island in California’s Channel Islands National Park. Article 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 Smoke Rises Over Big Cypress National Preserve 2 min read The National fire has burned tens of thousands of acres within the Florida preserve, fueled by vegetation dried by prolonged… 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

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA NASA selected Denmar Technical Services of Nevada to provide aircraft modifications, maintenance, and testing services to the Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and Johnson Space Center in Houston. The award is a firm-fixed-price contract and will be time and material for any over and above and unforeseen work. This contract has a maximum potential value of $8.4 million, which runs through Feb. 1, 2027. The contractor will modify a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to perform lunar-gravity parabolic flights to test NASA space equipment. Once modifications are complete, NASA Armstrong will own the aircraft and oversee aircraft operations out of NASA Johnson. The aircraft will be used to validate astronaut lunar suits and associated crew systems required to support Artemis mission objectives. This can be done with the modified 737 aircraft in an operationally relevant, reduced-gravity environment prior to lunar mission execution. For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Dede Dinius Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. 661-276-5701 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 01, 2026 Related TermsArmstrong Flight Research CenterJohnson Space Center View the full article

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope stands complete in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. With its deep, sweeping views of the universe, Roman will observe billions of cosmic objects to explore fundamental questions about dark energy and planets outside our solar system.Credit: NASA/Scott Wiessinger Registration is open for media to cover the arrival of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the coming weeks. The observatory will arrive aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where teams completed its construction, assembly, and testing. Credentialed media will be able to witness the arrival and unloading of the space telescope in its transport container at NASA Kennedy’s turn basin. From there, technicians will move the telescope to the center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility for launch processing. NASA subject matter experts will be available on site to answer questions about the arrival. Media interested in participating must apply for credentials at: [Hidden Content] To receive credentials, media must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 4. This opportunity is open to U.S. citizens only. Once approved, credentialed media will receive a confirmation email. Additional information, including the specific date of arrival activities, will follow. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email ksc*****@*****.tld. For other questions, please contact Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468. Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have a deep, panoramic view of the cosmos, generating never-before-seen pictures that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe. The observatory will usher in a new era of cosmic surveys, unveiling troves of celestial objects, and shedding light on some of the universe’s most profound mysteries, including phenomena we can’t see. Roman also will showcase a test of the most advanced technology ever flown in space to directly image planets around nearby stars, a key step in NASA’s search for life on other worlds. The Roman telescope is managed at NASA Goddard with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and a science team of scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc., L3Harris Technologies, and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging. Contributions to Roman also are made by ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany. The agency’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Roman Space Telescope, which will lift off as soon as early September on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A. For more information about NASA’s Roman telescope, visit: [Hidden Content] -end- Karen Fox / Alise Fisher Headquarters, Washington 202-385-1287 / 202-358-2546 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Leejay Lockhart / Danielle Sempsrott Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-747-8310 / 321-298-8990 *****@*****.tld / *****@*****.tld Claire Andreoli Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 301-286-1940 *****@*****.tld Share Details Last Updated Jun 01, 2026 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNancy Grace Roman Space TelescopeGoddard Space Flight CenterKennedy Space CenterScience Mission Directorate View the full article

NASA’s C-20A research aircraft takes off from the Edwards Air Force Base runway on an envelope-expansion flight test with the unmanned aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar pod. NASA/Tony Landis Five research aircraft will support a Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) mission out of Ellington Field in Houston. Flights are expected from Wednesday, June 3 to Saturday, June 13. During the mission, select maneuvers will be conducted at low altitudes over the Houston area. Pilots will fly remote sensing payloads in raster patterns, or parallel back-and-forth lines. The instruments flown could help researchers map the movement of the gases and particles that make up Earth’s atmosphere, changes to the lowest part of the atmosphere near the coastline, and the natural processes affecting the land and water in that area. The flights will primarily take place in the Houston area, with some extending over the Gulf of America. While many of the flights will operate at higher altitudes, a WP-3D Orion will conduct maneuvers as low as 1,000 feet above ground level. Owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this aircraft is used as a hurricane hunter and has supported several airborne science missions for NASA. It is equipped with a multitude of scientific instrumentation, radars, and recording systems for both in-flight and remote sensing measurements of the atmosphere, the Earth, and its environment. The NASA-operated aircraft participating in the mission also are equipped with a variety of remote sensing instruments, including two lidars, a synthetic-aperture radar, an imaging spectrometer, and two spectrometers. The operations will involve the agency’s Gulfstream V (N95NA), Gulfstream C-20A (N802NA), and Gulfstream III (N520NA), as well as NOAA’s WP-3D Orion (N43RF) and a King Air B200 aircraft (N46L) owned by Dynamic Aviation and contracted by NASA. The flights can be tracked in real time at NASA Airborne Science Program Tracker. The SARP effort is an eight-week summer internship program that provides undergraduate students with hands-on experience by engaging in field research and data analysis and with access to one or more NASA Airborne Science Program flying science laboratories. For more information about the NASA Airborne Science program, visit: [Hidden Content] Explore More 4 min read Contractor to Civil Servant: NASA Welcomes Kenny Heckle Article 4 days ago 2 min read Growing Stem Cells in Space to Improve ******* and Disease Treatments Article 4 days ago 4 min read New Material Could Help NASA Melt Moon Rocks, Harness Lunar Resources Article 1 week ago View the full article

Skywatching Skywatching Home What’s Up Meteor Showers Eclipses Daily Moon Guide More Tips & Guides Skywatching FAQ Night Sky Network Venus and Jupiter meet after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer begins, and deep-sky treasures rise into view. Skywatching Highlights June 9: Venus and Jupiter conjunction June 11–15: Mercury joins Venus and Jupiter after sunset June 17: Moon passes in front of Venus & close Moon and Venus pairing June 21: June solstice & start of astronomical summer June: Summer Triangle and deep-sky observing targets rise into view Transcript Planets gather after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer officially begins and deep sky treasures rise into view. That’s What’s Up for June. Early this month, look west shortly after sunset to see Venus and Jupiter. They are two of the brightest planets in our sky and around June 9th, they’ll appear close together after sunset. This is called a planetary conjunction—when two planets appear near each other from our point of view on Earth, even though they’re still millions of miles apart in space. NASA/JPL-Caltech From June 11th through June 15th, Mercury joins the scene, creating a mini parade of planets low in the western sky. This happens because the planets orbit the sun along nearly the same path in our sky, called the ecliptic. So from our point of view on Earth, they sometimes appear to gather in the same part of the sky. NASA/JPL-Caltech Venus will be the brightest and easiest to spot with Jupiter nearby. Mercury will sit lower toward the horizon, so you will need a clear view to the west to catch it in the glow of twilight. On June 17th, from some locations the Moon will pass in front of Venus. This is called a lunar occultation. For viewers in the right viewing path, Venus will look like it disappears behind the Moon, then reappears later. The event will be visible from parts of the United States, Canada, Brazil and Venezuela. Outside of the exact viewing path, many skywatchers may still see a close pairing of the Moon and Venus, but this comes with an important safety note. For many viewers this will happen during the daytime. If you’re trying to observe the occultation, do not point binoculars, a telescope, or a camera near the sun unless you’re using proper solar safety equipment. Looking at or near the sun through optics can cause serious eye injury. June also brings the summer solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice marks the start of the astronomical summer. In Pacific time, it happens on Sunday, June 21st at 1:24 a.m. Around the solstice, the Northern Hemisphere gets its longest days and shortest nights of the year. But here’s a fun fact, the longest day does not usually line up exactly with the earliest sunrise or latest sunset. For example, in Los Angeles, the earliest sunrise comes before the solstice, while the latest sunset comes after it. And once the sky gets dark, summer brings some favorite targets for telescope users and astrophotographers. First, look for the Summer Triangle, formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Inside and around this region are deep sky objects like the Dumbbell Nebula, the Ring Nebula, the North America Nebula, and the Veil Nebula. The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27, was the first planetary nebula ever discovered. These objects are not bright like planets, but with telescopes or long exposure photography, they reveal glowing gas, dying stars, and stellar nurseries in our galaxy. NASA/JPL-Caltech Here are the phases of the Moon for June. You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up this month. NASA/JPL-Caltech Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA What’s Up Skywatching Galaxies Stars View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Introduction From the first glider flight to the first powered flight, aviation pioneers have paved the way for remarkable innovations in flight. At NASA, our pilots conduct research, study wildfires, and support unmanned aircraft missions. In fact, out of the 360 astronauts who have been selected, 191 of them have been pilots! The History of Pilot Certificates In 1804, Sir George Cayley, known by some as the “Father of Aviation,” successfully flew the first glider with a pilot. Years later in 1903, the Wright Brothers became the first to achieve powered manned flight in North Carolina. In 1927 the U.S. Government introduced pilot certificates, or licenses, to regulate flying and keep people safe. The first license was given to Willam P. MacCracken Jr. Not everyone was allowed receive a U.S. pilot’s license in the early days. In 1919 Bessie Coleman was denied flight training due to both her skin color and gender. She moved to Paris after learning that there were flight training opportunities for her there. In 1921, she became the first African American woman to obtain an international pilot’s license. In June of 1927, Phoebe Omlie became the first woman to obtain a U.S. pilot’s license. Six months later James Banning became the first African American to get a U.S. license. These pilots paved the way for a future where everyone, regardless of their gender or skin color, is allowed to fly. What makes a pilot? Flying takes focus, determination, and commitment to lifelong learning. To become a pilot, you must pass flight tests and a medical exam to make sure you are fit to fly. Certain medical conditions may disqualify someone from obtaining a license, but in some cases special permits are issued that allow those with certain health challenges to fly in specific planes or conditions. In 2008 Jessica Cox became the first licensed pilot to fly without arms. She was born with a rare birth defect but did not let that stop her from flying with her feet! In 2009, Capt. Ryan McGuire became the first airman to complete Air Force pilot training after losing a leg. There are even options for the deaf, allowing them to pursue flight training. How does flight training work? Flight training takes place on the ground and in the air. Ground school teaches students how the plane works and the flight rules. In-the-air training teaches students how to fly the plane. Students fly specific hours long distance, at night, and by themselves (solo). Additional flight training qualifies pilots to fly using instruments only, more complex and larger aircraft, specialty aircraft, and to become flight instructors themselves. After training some pilots, like commercial airline pilots, wear uniforms that display their rank. Business pilots and military pilots wear special uniforms, too. Airline pilots wear stripes on the wrist of their coats, and stripes on the shoulders of their shirts. Below are the typical markings that show airline pilot levels of command: Captains are the highest in command and wear four stripes. They sit in the left seat and are in charge of making decisions. Sitting in the left seat of the aircraft puts them in charge of the aircraft. First officers are second in command, and wear three stripes. They sit in the right seat and have their own tasks to complete. They assist the Captain and also fly the aircraft at times. They can also take over if needed. Second officers are third in command, often working very long flights. When they fly they wear two stripes. Third officers or training pilots are fourth-in-command, and they wear one stripe. GettyImages Flight Log Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASAes @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 2 min read Pilot Flight Logs Article 6 minutes ago 1 min read 2025-2026 Dream with Us Design Challenge Winners Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Aeronautics STEM Aeronautics Innovation Challenges Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jun 01, 2026 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Banke*****@*****.tld Related TermsAeronautics STEM View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Wright Brothers flight notebook.Library of Congress Pilot Flight Logs Pilot flight logs, which have been around in one form or another since the beginning of flight, have served several purposes. Today, pilot logbooks are used by aviators to provide a record of their flights, including current and accumulated flight time, number and locations of takeoffs and landings, as well as unique operating conditions and certifications. For the pilot in training, a flight log shows accumulated practice, certifications, and special endorsements. In the early days of flight, flight logs were also used by air mail carriers, barnstormers, and others to make sure they were paid properly. The Wright brothers kept fastidious notes and records of all flights and aircraft developments, mostly in the form of notebooks, diaries, and drawings. Britain’s Royal Corps utilized a more formal flight log format in 1912, adapted from ship logs, to record flight details. In the United States, official guidelines for flight, including logging flights, were first introduced with the Air Commerce Act of 1926. Whatever format is used, details such as aircraft flown, time aloft, distance flown, route, weather conditions, and other details about the flight are included, along with any problems faced along the way. As flight and requirements increased in complexity, logbooks split into separate logbooks for pilots and the aircraft itself: today you will find both pilot logbooks, which are personal logs of a pilot’s flights, and aircraft logbooks which contain details about the aircraft’s flight, no matter who flies the craft. Neil Armstrong Flight LogUniversity of Cincinnati, Neil A. Armstrong X-15 Aircraft LogNASA Modern day flight logs are digital, although some pilots still prefer to keep records in a paper logbook. NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter flights, the first flights on another planet, are recorded in the “Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons.” If you want to keep up-to-date on Ingenuity’s flight log entries, you can find them here: [Hidden Content] Mars Ingenuity helicopter Nominal Pilot’s Logbook for Planets and Moons.NASA / JPL-Caltech Mars Ingenuity Helicopter flight log entries for flights 9 and 10.NASA / JPL-Caltech Havard Grip, Ingenuity helicopter Chief Pilot, documents Ingenuity’s first flight.NASA / JPL-Caltech Flight Log Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASAes @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 4 min read Flight Log—About Pilots Article 6 minutes ago 1 min read 2025-2026 Dream with Us Design Challenge Winners Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Aeronautics STEM Aeronautics Innovation Challenges Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jun 01, 2026 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Banke*****@*****.tld Related TermsAeronautics STEMFlightlog View the full article

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Sejong Univ./Hur et al; JWST: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, and the EWOCS team. Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand This image of Westerlund 2 released on March 19, 2026, features Chandra X-ray Observatory data (pink) and infrared data from NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope (red, orange, green, cyan, and blue). Scores of gleaming stars ringed in neon pink stretch across the frame, highlighting a cluster where stars are between one and three million years old. Brick-orange dust clouds along the bottom edge illustrate the raw materials of this active stellar nursery. Westerlund 2 resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. See a different view of Westerlund 2. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Sejong Univ./Hur et al; JWST: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch, and the EWOCS team. Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand View the full article

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Gravity Waves From Super… 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 Notes from the Field Blog Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search Atmospheric gravity waves generated by Super Typhoon Sinlaku are visible via mesospheric airglow in this nighttime image acquired with the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite on April 12, 2026, Universal Time (April 13 local time). NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison In mid-April 2026, Super Typhoon Sinlaku churned across the North Pacific Ocean and brought heavy rain and flooding to the Mariana Islands. The storm reached “violent typhoon” status—the highest intensity on the scale used by the Japan Meteorological Agency and roughly equivalent to a category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. Sinlaku was one of only a handful of tropical cyclones of that intensity known to have occurred so early in the year in the region, meteorologists noted. Sinlaku rapidly intensified over the ocean before its impacts reached land. Around the time of this strengthening, satellites began to detect that the typhoon’s effects also extended upward, into the upper atmosphere. The nighttime image above, acquired with the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite, shows atmospheric gravity waves radiating from the typhoon. These waves, resembling ripples on a pond, were made visible to the sensor via airglow in the mesosphere. Airglow occurs when atoms and molecules, excited by sunlight during the day, later emit light to release excess energy. The release of latent heat near the eyewalls of tropical cyclones is known to drive convection and the formation of tall cumulonimbus clouds. These “hot towers” can rise out of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, and generate waves that propagate into the stratosphere and mesosphere above. An analysis of past tropical cyclones revealed that gravity waves often occur around the time that storms are intensifying. Indeed, in the 24 hours prior to the acquisition of the image above, Sinlaku had strengthened from a category 2 to a category 5 storm. “We’re seeing waves propagating radially and upward, in a cone-like shape,” said Joan Alexander, senior research scientist at NorthWest Research Associates. Alexander was surprised to see well-defined waves in the mesospheric airglow above the storm. Winds in the upper atmosphere can dissipate the waves before they reach such high altitudes, Alexander explained, but relatively light stratospheric winds at the storm’s latitude in April 2026 may have helped preserve them. A relatively low amount of moonlight was fortuitous, as well. The VIIRS day-night band is sensitive to airglow in the mesosphere but also observes reflected moonlight. The Moon was about 25 percent illuminated on April 12, so some light reflected off clouds in the troposphere was visible, but not enough to overpower the signal from the airglow. Thermal energy from gravity waves produced by Super Typhoon Sinlaku was detected in the stratosphere by the AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite on April 13, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison Sinlaku’s gravity waves, in addition to appearing high in the atmosphere via airglow, were observed lower in the atmosphere by the AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The image above depicts thermal emissions from gravity waves in the stratosphere on April 13. The rippling pattern appeared in April 14 observations, as well, indicating the storm’s continuing effects on the atmosphere. Observing atmospheric gravity waves, particularly those caused by tropical cyclones, goes beyond scientific curiosity. Practical implications could include improved monitoring of storm development. “We’d like to use gravity waves to tell us if a storm is intensifying,” Alexander said, “which can be difficult to know, especially over the open ocean.” A geostationary satellite with the proper infrared imager would be able to observe gravity waves and track tropical cyclone evolution, she and colleagues have argued. Furthermore, it’s critical to account for processes in the stratosphere in weather models, said Laura Holt, also a senior research scientist at NorthWest Research Associates. Stratospheric wind patterns are factors in long-term forecasts of the next Northern Hemisphere winter, for example, and tropical cyclones have a disproportionate influence because their sustained, intense convection drives prolonged gravity wave forcing of the stratosphere. The effect of gravity waves even reaches into the realm of space weather. “For a while, people have seen signatures of hurricanes in ionospheric weather,” Holt said. Gravity waves can lead to traveling ionospheric disturbances—large-scale ripples in plasma density—and in some cases plasma bubbles, both of which can disrupt satellite signals and radio communications. “With space weather in particular,” Holt added, “a single event such as a tropical cyclone can be very important.” NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS day-night band data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), and AIRS data from Hoffmann, L. Story by Lindsey Doermann. Downloads VIIRS: April 12, 2026 JPEG (2.89 MB) AIRS: April 13, 2026 JPEG (1.75 MB) References & Resources Hoffmann, L., et al. (2018) Satellite observations of stratospheric gravity waves associated with the intensification of tropical cyclones. Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 1692–1700. NASA (2018, October 22) Why NASA Watches Airglow, the Colors of the (Upper Atmospheric) Wind. Accessed May 28, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory (2026, April 14) Super Typhoon Sinlaku. Accessed May 28, 2026. Nolan, D. S. (2020) An Investigation of Spiral Gravity Waves Radiating from Tropical Cyclones Using a Linear, Nonhydrostatic Model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 77, 1733–1759. 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. Super Typhoon Sinlaku 3 min read The violent storm aimed at the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in mid-April 2026. 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 A Second Cyclone Slams Madagascar 3 min read Widespread flooding affected tens of thousands of people after cyclones Fytia and Gezani drenched the island. 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