Astrophysics

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

GUSTO (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory)

Infrared Light

Missions

NASA Headquarters

Origin & Evolution of the Universe

Science & Research

Scientific Balloons

NASA’s GUSTO Prepares to Map Space Between the Stars

On a vast ice sheet in Antarctica, scientists and engineers are preparing a NASA experiment called GUSTO to explore the universe on a balloon. GUSTO will launch from the Ross Ice Shelf, near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station research base, no earlier than Dec. 21.

Posted December 18, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Astrophysics

Brown Dwarfs

Exoplanets

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

Science & Research

Stars

The Universe

NASA’s Webb Identifies Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable […]

Posted December 13, 2023

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Science Mission Directorate

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Science Operations

Updated, Dec. 8, 2023 NASA restored the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope to science operations Friday, Dec. 8. The telescope had paused science observations Nov. 23 due to an issue with one of its gyros. The spacecraft is in good health and once again operating using all three of its gyros. Hubble’s two main cameras, Wide […]

Posted December 8, 2023

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Amateur Astronomers Help Discover Cosmic Crash

Astronomers found what looks like a glowing cloud of dust from a massive planetary pile-up—and NASA volunteers helped make the discovery!

Posted December 8, 2023

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Science & Research

Science Mission Directorate

Hubble Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 1

In the pre-dawn hours on Dec. 2, 1993, the space shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a critical mission to repair NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble was designed to be serviced in space with components that astronauts can slide in and out of place. But prior to launch, no one expected […]

Posted December 1, 2023

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Science Mission Directorate

The Universe

Hubble Views a Double Cluster of Glowing Galaxies

This Hubble image features a massive cluster of brightly glowing galaxies, first identified as Abell 3192. Like all galaxy clusters, this one is suffused with hot gas that emits powerful X-rays, and it is enveloped in a halo of invisible dark matter. All this unseen material – not to mention the many galaxies visible in this image […]

Posted December 1, 2023

Astrophysics

Binary Stars

Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

Gamma Rays

Goddard Space Flight Center

Neutron Stars

Pulsars

Stars

The Universe

NASA’s Fermi Mission Nets 300 Gamma-Ray Pulsars … and Counting

A new catalog produced by a French-led international team of astronomers shows that NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered 294 gamma-ray-emitting pulsars, while another 34 suspects await confirmation. This is 27 times the number known before the mission launched in 2008.

Posted November 28, 2023

Astrophysics

Science-enabling Technology

Technology Highlights

Deformable Mirrors in Space: Key Technology to Directly Image Earth Twins

Finding and studying Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars is critical to understand whether we are alone in the universe. To study such planets and assess if they can sustain life, it is necessary to directly image them. However, these planets are difficult to observe, since light from the host star hides them with its glare.

Posted November 21, 2023

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Science & Research

Science Mission Directorate

Spiral Galaxies

The Universe

Hubble Images Galaxy with an Explosive Past

This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy NGC 941, which lies about 55 million light-years from Earth. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) collected the data that created this image.

Posted November 17, 2023

Astrophysics

Citizen Science

Backyard Worlds Volunteers Complete Ten Million Classifications in an Epic Search for New Objects Among the Nearest Stars

The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 and Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors projects invite members of the public to search images from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission to find new objects among the nearest stars.

Posted November 16, 2023