Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Captures a Bright Galactic and Stellar Duo

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 3783, a bright barred spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years from Earth that also lends its name to the eponymous NGC 3783 galaxy group. Like galaxy clusters, galaxy groups are aggregates of gravitationally bound galaxies.

Posted April 19, 2024

Asteroids

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Citizen Science

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Science Mission Directorate

The Solar System

Hubble Goes Hunting for Small Main Belt Asteroids

Like boulders, rocks, and pebbles scattered across a landscape, asteroids come in a wide range of sizes. Cataloging asteroids in space is tricky because they are faint and they don’t stop to be photographed as they zip along their orbits around the Sun. Astronomers recently used a trove of archived images taken by NASA’s Hubble […]

Posted April 18, 2024

Communicating and Navigating with Missions

Earth Science

Goddard Space Flight Center

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

Space Communications & Navigation Program

Space Operations Mission Directorate

NASA’s Near Space Network Enables PACE Climate Mission to ‘Phone Home’

The PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission has delivered its first operational data back to researchers, a feat made possible in part by innovative, data-storing technology from NASA’s Near Space Network, which introduced two key enhancements for PACE and other upcoming science missions.

Posted April 17, 2024

Earth

Climate Science

Earth Day

Earth Science

Goddard Space Flight Center

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

NASA Invites Media for Climate Update, New Earth Missions

In anticipation of Earth Day, NASA invites media to a briefing at the agency’s headquarters on Friday, April 19, at 11 a.m. EDT. The event will share updates on NASA’s climate science and early data from the agency’s ocean-watching PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission, as well as reveal upcoming Earth airborne missions. The […]

Posted April 17, 2024

Technology Transfer

Earth

Goddard Space Flight Center

Spinoffs

Technology Transfer & Spinoffs

Tech Today: Taking Earth’s Pulse with NASA Satellites

Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, floods, and tornados can dramatically change the surface of Earth to the point where alterations are visible in space. Changes driven by human actions and interventions, such as mining and deforestation, are also visible in satellite imagery.

Posted April 17, 2024

Astrophysics

Goddard Space Flight Center

International Space Station (ISS)

ISS Research

NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer)

The Universe

Astronauts To Patch Up NASA’s NICER Telescope

NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts.

Posted April 17, 2024

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Goddard Space Flight Center

Goddard Technology

Missions

Science-enabling Technology

Technology

The Universe

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Eyes’ Pass First Vision Test

Engineers at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, have combined all 10 mirrors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Preliminary tests show the newly aligned optics, collectively called the IOA (Imaging Optics Assembly), will direct light into Roman’s science instruments extremely precisely.

Posted April 17, 2024

Dragonfly

Goddard Space Flight Center

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Saturn

Science & Research

Science Mission Directorate

The Solar System

NASA’s Dragonfly Rotorcraft Mission to Saturn’s Moon Titan Confirmed

NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments.

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Research Center

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Heliophysics Division

IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph)

MUSE (Multi-slit Solar Explorer)

Sounding Rockets

Sounding Rockets Program

Sunspots

The Sun

NASA Observations Find What Helps Heat Roots of ‘Moss’ on Sun

Did you know the Sun has moss? Due to its resemblance to the earthly plants, scientists have named a small-scale, bright, patchy structure made of plasma in the solar atmosphere “moss.” This moss, which was first identified in 1999 by NASA’s TRACE mission, blossoms around the center of a sunspot group, where magnetic conditions are […]

Posted April 16, 2024

People of Goddard

Earth

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

People of NASA

Kate A. McGinnis: Ready to “Go” with PACE Testing

PACE Systems Engineer Kate A. McGinnis spent years planning the vibration, acoustic, and shock tests for the PACE spacecraft before saying “Systems is ‘go’” to start each test. Name: Kate A.

Posted April 16, 2024