Jupiter and Saturn all night, Mars begins its retrograde motion, and the Orionid meteors peak! Giant planets Jupiter and Saturn are visible throughout the night in October. Early in the evening, you’ll find them to the southeast, moving slowly westward with the stars over the course of the night. They form a triangle with bright […]
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL)
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DART’s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA Broadcast)
Countdown to impact as NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) attempts humanity’s first-ever test of planetary defense! The DART spacecraft will intentionally crash into asteroid Dimorphos at 4:14 p.m. PT on Monday, September 26, 2022 to see if kinetic force can change its orbit. Why? If this test is successful, the same technique could be […]
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What’s up in the sky – September 2022
What’s Up for September? Mars on the move, prime viewing time for Jupiter, and a clever way to find your bearings on the equinox. You’ll find Mars hanging out high in the south on September mornings before sunrise. Early in the month, it’s near orange-colored Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the bull. And over the course of […]
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NASA Data on Plant ‘Sweating’ Could Help Predict Wildfire Severity
A new study uses data from the ECOSTRESS instrument aboard the space station to better understand why some parts of a wildfire burn more intensely than others. Even in drought-stricken California, not all areas face the same degree of wildfire risk. A recent study featuring data from NASA’s ECOSTRESS mission found relationships between the intensity […]
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Tonga Eruption Blasted Unprecedented Amount of Water Into Stratosphere
The huge amount of water vapor hurled into the atmosphere, as detected by NASA’s Microwave Limb Sounder, could end up temporarily warming Earth’s surface. When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in […]
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What’s up in the sky for August 2022
What’s Up for August? Grab your binoculars for planet viewing, the outlook for the Perseids, and flying with Cygnus the swan. The morning planet parade we’ve been enjoying the past few months comes to an end in August, with Venus and Saturn making their exits on opposite sides of the sky. But that still leaves […]
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NASA unveils images from James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA […]
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What’s up in the sky – July 2022
What’s Up for July? The planets at dawn, the dog days of summer, and the Teapot points to the center of the Milky Way. The planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn dominate morning skies in July. Venus is there as well, but appears low in the east, so you’ll need a clear view toward the horizon […]
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My Favorite Martian Image: ‘Enchanted’ Rocks at Jezero Crater
Ask any space explorer, and they’ll have a favorite photograph or two from their mission. For Katie Stack Morgan, the deputy project scientist for NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, the first close-up image of layered rocks at the base of Jezero Crater’s ancient river delta holds a special place in her heart. The image of the […]
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What’s up for June 2022? Skywatching tips from NASA
What’s Up for June? A planetary breakup, prime viewing for a well-known star cluster, and the constellation Lyra. The gathering of four naked-eye planets we’ve been enjoying in the morning sky for the past few months – including several close conjunctions, is beginning to break up. Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and […]
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Planetary Defense Exercise Uses Apophis as Hazardous Asteroid Stand-In
Over 100 participants from 18 countries – including NASA scientists and the agency’s NEOWISE mission – took part in the international exercise. Watching the skies for large asteroids that could pose a hazard to the Earth is a global endeavor. So, to test their operational readiness, the international planetary defense community will sometimes use a […]
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NASA’s InSight Records Monster Quake on Mars
NASA’s InSight Mars lander has detected the largest quake ever observed on another planet: an estimated magnitude 5 temblor that occurred on May 4, 2022, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This adds to the catalog of more than 1,313 quakes InSight has detected since landing on Mars in November 2018. The […]
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What’s Up: May 2022 Skywatching Tips from NASA
What’s Up for May? The planets of dusk and dawn, a lunar eclipse, and the Coma star cluster. May begins and ends with a couple of great planet-spotting opportunities. On May 2nd, look to the west about 45 minutes after sunset to find Mercury about 10 degrees off the horizon, accompanied by a slim crescent […]
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What’s up in the sky for April 2022
What’s Up for April? Conjunction junction and a hidden surprise in the Big Dipper. At the beginning of April, Venus, Mars, and Saturn form a trio in the southeast before sunrise, with Saturn appearing to move steadily toward Mars each day. On April 1st, they’re a couple of finger widths apart. And by the 4th, […]
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NASA’s Pi Day Challenge: Solve Math Problems With NASA
To celebrate Pi Day, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is serving up a series of science and engineering questions related to some of the agency’s Earth and space missions. It’s deliciously reliable, like cherry pie: Divide the circumference of any circle in the universe by its diameter, and you will always get the same number, pi, […]
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Woolsey Fire Led to Spike in Bacteria, Cloudiness in Coastal Waters
Scientists analyzed coastal water quality in the months following a major Southern California wildfire. Their results were eye-opening. The November 2018 Woolsey Fire in Southern California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties left more than a nearly 100,000-acre burn scar behind: It also left the adjacent coastal waters with unusually high levels of fecal bacteria and […]
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What’s Up in the sky: March 2022
What’s Up for March? Meet the morning planets, the nearest star cluster, and some do-it-yourself exoplanets. Saturn joins Venus and Mars this month in the morning sky. Beginning around March 18 or 19th, early risers may notice Saturn steadily moving toward Mars and Venus each day, to form a trio low in the east before […]
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Sea Level to Rise up to a Foot by 2050, Interagency Report Finds
NASA, NOAA, USGS, and other U.S. government agencies project that the rise in ocean height in the next 30 years could equal the total rise seen over the past 100 years. Coastal flooding will increase significantly over the next 30 years because of sea level rise, according to a new report by an interagency sea […]
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What’s up in the sky – February 2022
What’s Up for February? Jupiter makes its exit, Venus at peak brightness, and the star-forming cloud next door. With the departure of Saturn and Venus over the past two months, Jupiter is the only bright planet left in our twilight skies in February, and it’s on its way out! The giant planet stands alone, low […]
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NASA’s MRO Finds Water Flowed on Mars Longer Than Previously Thought
Caltech researchers used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine that surface water left salt minerals behind as recently as 2 billion years ago. Mars once rippled with rivers and ponds billions of years ago, providing a potential habitat for microbial life. As the planet’s atmosphere thinned over time, that water evaporated, leaving the frozen desert […]