Goddard Space Flight Center

A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist’s concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general.

Posted November 13, 2024

Astrophysics

Black Holes

Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes

Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research

Goddard Space Flight Center

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

Science & Research

Supermassive Black Holes

The Universe

NASA’s Swift Studies Gas-Churning Monster Black Holes

Scientists using observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have discovered, for the first time, the signal from a pair of monster black holes disrupting a cloud of gas in the center of a galaxy. “It’s a very weird event, called AT 2021hdr, that keeps recurring every few months,” said Lorena Hernández-García, an astrophysicist at […]

Posted November 13, 2024

People of Goddard

Earth

Goddard Space Flight Center

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

People of NASA

SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor)

Inia Soto Ramos, From the Mountains of Puerto Rico to Mountains of NASA Earth Data

Dr. Inia Soto Ramos became fascinated by the mysteries of the ocean while growing up in Puerto Rico’s mountains. Today, she works at NASA as an oceanographer and data manager, where she can uncover these enigmas from space.

Posted November 12, 2024

People of Goddard

Dragonfly

Goddard Space Flight Center

People of NASA

Matthew Kowalewski: Aerospace Engineer and Curious About Everything

Matthew Kowalewski describes himself as “curious about too many things,” but that curiosity comes in handy when engineering instrumentation scheduled to soar through the atmosphere of a moon of Saturn.

Posted November 12, 2024

Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)

Earth

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Hurricanes & Typhoons

The Sun

Hurricane Helene’s Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA’s AWE

On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, recorded enormous swells in the atmosphere that the hurricane produced roughly 55 miles above the ground.

Posted November 7, 2024

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Heliophysics Division

Parker Solar Probe (PSP)

Solar Wind

The Sun

Venus

Final Venus Flyby for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Queues Closest Sun Pass

On Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will complete its final Venus gravity assist maneuver, passing within 233 miles (376 km) of Venus’ surface. The flyby will adjust Parker’s trajectory into its final orbital configuration, bringing the spacecraft to within an unprecedented 3.86 million miles of the solar surface on Dec.

Posted November 4, 2024

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Heliophysics Division

Science & Research

Solar Wind

The Sun

Wind Mission

30 Years On, NASA’s Wind Is a Windfall for Studying our Neighborhood in Space

Picture it: 1994. The first World Wide Web conference took place in Geneva, the first Chunnel train traveled under the English Channel, and just three years after the end of the Cold War, the first Russian instrument on a U.S. spacecraft launched into deep space from Cape Canaveral. The mission to study the solar wind, […]

Posted November 1, 2024

Astrophysics

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Stars

NASA’s Hubble, Webb Probe Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega

In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it […]

Posted November 1, 2024

Goddard Space Flight Center

Contract Specialist Miranda Meyer

“Discipline is one of the things that they instill within you [in the military.] All the way starting in boot camp, [the goal] is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Integrity. “Whenever you’re in boot camp, they always say, ‘it’s too easy.’ It’s just too easy to follow the rules, read the […]

Posted November 1, 2024

Astrophysics

Galaxies

Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Science & Research

Spiral Galaxies

The Universe

‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair

Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The long, ghastly “stare” of their searing eye-like cores shines out into the supreme cosmic darkness. It’s good fortune that looks can be deceiving. These galaxies have only grazed one another to date, with the smaller […]

Posted October 31, 2024