NASA
NASA | Desert R.A.T.S. 2011
Desert Research And Technology Studies (D-R.A.T.S) kicks off an exciting new year of field testing. The crew is back in action, testing communication scenarios for near-Earth asteroids, and 2 new instruments from Goddard: ExPED and VAPoR.
NASA
Massive Crater Discovered Under Greenland Ice
In a remote area of northwest Greenland, an international team of scientists has made a stunning discovery, buried beneath a kilometer of ice. It’s a meteor impact crater, 300 meters deep and bigger than Paris or the Beltway around...
NASA
How OSIRIS-REx will Steer Itself to Sample an Asteroid
In late August, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will navigate to asteroid Bennu’s surface for its first sample collection attempt. To do this, it will use an onboard image software known as Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) — a form of optical...
NASA
Water Vapor Detected In Europa’s Atmosphere
Observations of Jupiter's icy moon Europa from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the presence of persistent water vapor — but, mysteriously, only in one hemisphere. Europa harbors a vast ocean underneath its icy surface, which...
NASA
OSIRIS-REx TAG Trailer
On Oct. 20, the OSIRIS-REx mission will perform the first attempt of its Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event. Not only will the spacecraft navigate to the surface using innovative navigation techniques, but it could also collect...
Next Animation Studio
Japanese space rovers send footage from asteroid
Japan's rovers that successfully landed on an asteroid have sent back their first images.
NASA
Surprises from Asteroid Bennu
The OSIRIS-REx team has already pushed the boundaries of scientific exploration -- going from ground-based radar images from Arecibo in Puerto Rico all the way to orbiting a few hundred meters from asteroid Bennu. The team is mere months...
NASA
OSIRIS-REx Leaves its Mark on Bennu
Like boot prints on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Now, new images — taken during the spacecraft's final fly-over on April 7, 2021 — reveal the aftermath of the historic Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample...
NASA
OSIRIS-REx: Above and Beyond
Since arriving at asteroid Bennu in Dec. 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has achieved many feats – from setting a record-breaking orbit, to mapping the asteroid’s surface better than any planetary body. The mission is now preparing to...
NASA
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Approaches Asteroid Bennu
NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched in 2016 and now (August, 2018) is entering its approach phase. OSIRIS-REx will arrive at asteroid Bennu in December, 2018. OSIRIS-REx will help unveil the mysteries of our solar...
NASA
Lucy's Journey
Meet Lucy as she prepares for the first ever journey to the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer...
NASA
Designing Lucy’s Path to the Trojan Asteroids
Lucy is the first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, leading and trailing the giant planet by sixty degrees. These primitive bodies are thought to be the “fossils” of planet...
NASA
Chasing an Asteroid's Shadow
Observing occultations from Earth is one of the tools scientists have for gathering precise information about the size and shape of Lucy’s target destinations, known as “Trojan” asteroids. Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center...
Next Animation Studio
Five smaller asteroids heading towards Earth pose significant threat
Between 100,000 and a million small-scale asteroids have a possibility of hitting Earth over the next century, and five in particular have a collision risk of one in 1,000.
NASA
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx: Mission to Bennu
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. Its goal is to explore near-Earth asteroid Bennu, a remnant from the dawn of the solar system, and to return a sample of Bennu to Earth in 2023. OSIRIS-REx launched in...
NASA
Record Broken: Hubble Spots Farthest Star Ever Seen
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to...
NASA
Hubble and Going Forward to the Moon
We are going forward to the Moon by 2024, but did you know that back in 2005, Dr. Jim Garvin and his team of scientists pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at our nearest celestial neighbor for a very important reason? The Hubble team...
NASA
NASA | How Sunlight Pushes Asteroids
Rotating asteroids have a tough time sticking to their orbits. Their surfaces heat up during the day and cool down at night, giving off radiation that can act as a sort of mini-thruster. This force, called the Yarkovsky effect, can cause...
NASA
How Hubble’s Servicing Mission 3A Saved the Day
After Hubble’s important gyroscopes began to fail, a Hubble emergency was declared and Servicing Mission 3 was quickly split into two separate launches. So on Dec. 19, 1999, the brave crew of space shuttle Discovery lifted off to switch...
NASA
Mini-Jet Found Near Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
Our Milky Way’s central black hole has a leak! This supermassive black hole, over 4 million times more massive than our Sun, looks like it still has the remnants of a blowtorch-like jet dating back several thousand years. NASA’s Hubble...
NASA
Meteorites From Vesta Found on Asteroid Bennu
In an interplanetary faux pas, it appears some pieces of asteroid Vesta ended up on asteroid Bennu, according to observations from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The new result sheds light on the intricate orbital dance of asteroids and...
NASA
Lucy's Journey: Episode 4 - "Instruments"
Meet Lucy as she prepares for the first ever journey to the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. Music is "Lazy Days" by Arch Bacon, via Universal Production Music Video credit: NASA's...
NASA
Hubble's New Image of Interstellar Object
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their best look yet at an interstellar visitor – Comet 2I/Borisov – whose speed and trajectory indicates it is from outside of our solar system. This Hubble image, taken on Oct. 12, is...
NASA
Discovering Eurybates' Satellite
On Jan. 9, 2020, the Lucy Mission officially announced that it would be visiting not seven, but eight asteroids. As it turns out, Eurybates, one of the asteroids along Lucy’s path, has a small satellite. Shortly after the Lucy team...