Blog

NASA’s Roman Observatory Passes Final Major Prelaunch Tests

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team recently blasted the observatory with extreme sound, shook it, and listened to its electronic hum. Roman passed all three assessments, which aimed to confirm that the observatory will withstand launch conditions and function as expected in space.

Posted March 19, 2026

Australia’s “Red Centre” Turns Green

Abundant rainfall in February and March 2026 transformed the desert landscape of Central Australia.

Posted March 19, 2026

Blogs

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4832–4837: Driving the (Contact) Line!

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick, Canada Earth planning date: Friday, March 13, 2026 We are in our final phase of the boxwork campaign, investigating the contacts between the boxwork unit and the layered sulfate unit.

Posted March 18, 2026

Earth

Volcanoes

Lava Flows Down Mayon

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 acquired this rare, relatively clear image of Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines, on Feb. 26, 2026. The natural-color scene is overlaid with infrared observations to highlight the lava’s heat signature.

Posted March 18, 2026

General

From Service to Space Systems: A Pathways Journey to NASA

For Corey Elmore, the path to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center did not begin in engineering. It began in service. Today he serves as a NASA Pathways engineering intern in the Technical Processes and Tools Branch (KSC-NE-TA) at Kennedy Space Center.

Posted March 18, 2026

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Comets

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Small Bodies of the Solar System

The Solar System

NASA’s Hubble Unexpectedly Catches Comet Breaking Up

In a happy twist of fate, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope just witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings published Wednesday in the journal Icarus. The comet K1, whose full name is C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)—not to be confused with interstellar comet […]

Posted March 18, 2026

Wave of Dust Rolls Through Texas

An advancing cold front kicked up a sharp line of sand and other small particles that swept over the high plains.

Posted March 18, 2026

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Advanced Air Vehicles Program

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Aeronautics Technology

Ames Research Center

Commercial Supersonic Technology

Glenn Research Center

High-Speed Flight

Integrated Aviation Systems Program

Langley Research Center

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

NASA Aircraft

Quesst (X-59)

Quesst: The Vehicle

Supersonic Flight

NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Second Flight

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight testing in 2026. Over the coming months, NASA will take the quiet supersonic jet faster and higher, while validating safety and performance, a process known as envelope expansion. NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less will be at the X-59’

Posted March 17, 2026

Night Sky Network

Dim Delights in Cancer

Cancer the Crab is a dim constellation, yet it contains one of the most beautiful and easy-to-spot star clusters in our sky: the Beehive Cluster. Cancer also possesses one of the most studied exoplanets: the superhot super-Earth, 55 Cancri e. Find Cancer’s dim stars by looking in between the brighter neighboring constellations of Gemini and […]

Posted March 17, 2026

Asteroids

Bennu

Solving Asteroid Bennu’s Mysteries

These X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans released on March 17, 2026, give us a glimpse inside asteroid Bennu. They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples; these networks solved a mystery that baffled NASA for years.

Posted March 17, 2026