Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s Fermi Mission Creates 14-Year Time-Lapse of the Gamma-Ray Sky

The cosmos comes alive in an all-sky time-lapse movie made from 14 years of data acquired by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Our Sun, occasionally flaring into prominence, serenely traces a path through the sky against the backdrop of high-energy sources within our galaxy and beyond. “The bright, steady gamma-ray glow of the Milky Way […]

Posted December 20, 2023

Galaxies

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Irregular Galaxies

Missions

The Universe

NASA’s Hubble Presents a Holiday Globe of Stars

The billion stars in galaxy UGC 8091 resemble a sparkling snow globe in this festive Hubble Space Telescope image from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). The dwarf galaxy is approximately 7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is considered an “irregular galaxy” because it does not have an orderly spiral or […]

Posted December 20, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

Planets

The Solar System

Uranus

Uranus Moons

NASA’s Webb Rings in Holidays With Ringed Planet Uranus

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features – including a seasonal polar cap.

Posted December 18, 2023

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

Laser Communications Relay

General

Goddard Space Flight Center

Space Communications & Navigation Program

Technology Demonstration

NASA’s Space Station Laser Comm Terminal Achieves First Link

A NASA technology experiment on the International Space Station completed its first laser link with an in-orbit laser relay system on Dec. 5, 2023. Together, they complete NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system.

Posted December 13, 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

Astrobiology

Goddard Space Flight Center

Outer Planets & Ocean Worlds Program

NASA: Some Icy Exoplanets May Have Habitable Oceans and Geysers

A NASA study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount […]

Posted December 13, 2023

Earth

Goddard Space Flight Center

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

New NASA Satellite To Unravel Mysteries About Clouds, Aerosols

Some of the same properties of light and optics that make the sky blue and cause rainbows can also help scientists unlock mysteries about cloud formation and the effects of tiny particles in our air. NASA’s upcoming PACE mission will offer important insights on airborne particles of sea salt, smoke, human-made pollutants, and dust – […]

Posted December 12, 2023

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Mars

Solar Wind

Space Weather

The Solar System

The Sun

NASA’s MAVEN Observes the Disappearing Solar Wind

In December 2022, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of a stream of charged particles constantly emanating off the Sun, known as the solar wind. This was caused by a special type of solar event that was so powerful, it created a void in its wake as […]

Posted December 11, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Astrophysics Division

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

Nebulae

Science Mission Directorate

Stars

Supernovae

The Universe

NASA’s Webb Stuns With New High-Definition Look at Exploded Star

Mysterious features hide in near-infrared light Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. As part of the 2023 Holidays at the White House, First Lady of the United States […]

Posted December 11, 2023