NASA
NASA's Most Scientifically Complex Space Observatory Requires Precision
The James Webb Space Telescope is one the most ambitious, and technically complex missions NASA has ever set its focus on. Building an infrared observatory of this magnitude, power and complexity has never been attempted before. In order...
NASA
NASA | We Did All That in 50 Years!
Humans have always looked up at the sky. They used astronomy to track time, orient their cities, decide when to plant their crops, and even based their religious practices on their celestial world. But there was much more to learn.
NASA
NASA | Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes Create Antimatter
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected beams of antimatter launched by thunderstorms. Acting like enormous particle accelerators, the storms can emit gamma-ray flashes, called TGFs, and high-energy electrons and positrons....
NASA
5 Things: Hubble Space Telescope
Have questions about the Hubble Space Telescope? Comment with your questions for a Q&A! The universe is a wild and wonderful place. ✨ Hubble has shown us that the cosmos is more colorful and often stranger than we ever could have...
NASA
James Webb Space Telescope: An Overview
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest telescope ever sent into space. It is the result of efforts from NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency and will peer to the edges of the visible universe. This...
NASA
WFIRST: The Best of Both Worlds
NASA officially is beginning work on an astrophysics mission designed to help unlock the secrets of the universe -- the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). With a view 100 times bigger than that of NASA’s Hubble Space...
NASA
Vibration Testing of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the environmental portion of vibration testing on the telescope. A shaker table subjects satellites like Webb to the...
NASA
NASA | Fermi Sharpens its High-Energy View - 4K
Major improvements to methods used to process observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have yielded an expanded, higher-quality set of data that allows astronomers to produce the most detailed census of the sky yet made...
NASA
How Winking Stars Point Us To Distant Worlds
How do we spot something as tiny and faint as a planet trillions of miles away? The trick is to look at the star! So far, most of the exoplanets – worlds beyond our solar system – we’ve found were detected by looking for tiny dips in the...
NASA
NASA’s NICER Reveals 1st-ever Pulsar Surface Map
Scientists have reached a new frontier in our understanding of pulsars, the dense, whirling remains of exploded stars, thanks to observations from NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Data from this X-ray telescope...
NASA
NASA Goddard Intern Profile - Maddy Lambert
Every year, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recruits hundreds of interns to spend the summer working on revolutionary missions featuring state-of-the-art technology. Maddy Lambert is a student majoring in...
NASA
NASA | Stellar Odd Couple Makes Striking Flares
Every 3.4 years, pulsar B1259--63 dives twice through the gas disk surrounding the massive blue star it orbits. With each pass, it produces gamma rays. During the most recent event, NASA's Fermi observed that the pulsar's gamma-ray flare...
NASA
James Webb Space Telescope: Worth the Wait
Building the James Webb Space Telescope is challenging. It is NASA's most ambitious and complex space science observatory. The mission required 10 new technologies to be invented, the dedication of hundreds of scientists, engineers and...
NASA
#EZScience: Exploring the X-ray Universe
By studying X-rays in deep space, we can learn about some of the most violent and extreme objects in the universe, such as black holes and the remains of stars that have exploded. NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, IXPE, will...
NASA
Explore the Universe with Hubble Messier Catalog
The Messier catalog includes some of the most fascinating astronomical objects that can be observed from Earth's Northern Hemisphere. Among them are deep-sky objects that can be viewed in stunning detail using larger telescopes but are...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Avi Loeb - Teachers Make a Difference - John Bahcall
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project...
NASA
Seas of Infinity: OAO 2's 50th Anniversary
On Dec. 7, 1968, an Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying NASA’s heaviest and most ambitious uncrewed satellite to date blasted into the sky from Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Formally known as Orbiting...
NASA
Superstar Eta Carinae Shoots Cosmic Rays
A new study using data from NASA's NuSTAR space telescope suggests that the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years, Eta Carinae, is accelerating particles to high energies -- some of which may reach Earth as...
NASA
NICER Finds X-ray Pulsar in Record-fast Orbit
Scientists analyzing the first data from the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes. One of the stars in the system, called IGR J17062-6143 (J17062...
NASA
Time-Lapse of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Assembly, Sunshield Deployment
This time-lapse video reveals NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now a fully assembled observatory, and is accomplishing large-scale deployments and movements that it will perform while in space. Ensuring mission success for an...
Next Animation Studio
Quasars Can Trigger Tsunamis That Tear Across Galaxies And Snuff Out Star Formation
Quasar black holes emit radiation so powerful that they can prevent star formation in the surrounding galaxy, according to a study in the Astrophysical Journal Supplementary Letters.
Science360
How did you become an astrophysicist?
How did you become an astrophysicist? Dr. Saul Perlmutter answers your question in this special “Mysteries of the Cosmos” edition of Ask a Scientist.
NASA
5 Things: Black Holes
Black holes are one of the most mysterious objects in the universe. 🌌 Here are five things to know! Have questions about black holes on #BlackFriday? 🕳️ Leave your questions in the comments below! Join NASA Goddard scientists later today...
NASA
What Lurks Beneath NASA's Chamber A
Hidden below Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston is an area engineers used to test critical contamination control technology that has helped keep NASA's James Webb Space Telescope clean during cryogenic testing. This...