Blog

Artemis

On Aug. 8, 2023, Artemis II crew members (from left) Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch took a photo in front of their Orion crew module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Announcing the crew and continuing work on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion are part of the significant […]

Posted December 13, 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

Kennedy Space Center

Artemis 2

Commercial Crew

International Space Station (ISS)

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle

Research and Technology at Kennedy Space Center

SpaceX Commercial Resupply

Sustainability at Kennedy Space Center

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Top 20 Stories of 2023

Here’s a look back at 2023’s most significant events at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: JANUARYDay of Remembrance Marks 20th Anniversary of Columbia Tragedy NASA senior management and guests paid tribute to the crew members of space shuttle Columbia, as well as other astronauts who perished in the line of duty, during the agency’s […]

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

Perseverance (Rover)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars

Mars 2020

The Solar System

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian Lake

Now at 1,000 days on Mars, the mission has traversed an ancient river and lake system, collecting valuable samples along the way. Marking its 1,000th Martian day on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover recently completed its exploration of the ancient river delta that holds evidence of a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of […]

Posted December 12, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Stars

Supernovae

Webb Sheds Light on an Exploded Star

Supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) shines in a new image from Dec. 10, 2023, from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Posted December 12, 2023

Breaking Records, Returning Asteroid Samples Among NASA’s Big 2023

In 2023, as NASA pushed the limits of exploration for the benefit of humanity, the agency celebrated astronaut Frank Rubio becoming the first American astronaut to spend more than one year in space; delivered samples from an asteroid to Earth; sent a spacecraft to study a metal-rich asteroid for the first time; launched multiple initiatives […]

Posted December 12, 2023

Exoplanet Discoveries

Exoplanet Transits

Exoplanets

Hubble Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Seeing and Believing: 15 Years of Exoplanet Images

Fifteen years ago, astronomers delivered what is now an iconic direct image of an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b.

Posted December 12, 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