Press Releases & Feature Stories Archive - X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory

NASA’s NICER Does the Space Station Twist

08.14.2018

This time-lapse video, obtained June 8, 2018, shows NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) as it studies pulsars and other X-ray sources from its perch aboard the International Space Station.

NASA Goddard’s Science Jamboree Connects Disciplines and Interns

07.26.2018

The Goddard Science Jamboree provides an opportunity for interns and senior scientists alike to learn more about the science happening in other disciplines in one room.

NASA Launches X-ray Telescope on Sounding Rocket to Study Star Wreckage

07.23.2018

The High-Resolution Microcalorimeter X-ray Imaging Rocket (Micro-X) briefly launched into space to map the elements of Cassiopeia A, expanding debris from an exploded star.

NASA’s New Mini Satellite Will Study Milky Way’s Halo

07.18.2018

A new NASA-sponsored CubeSat mission called HaloSat will help scientists search for the universe's missing matter by studying X-rays from hot gas surrounding the Milky Way galaxy.

NASA's NuSTAR Mission Proves Superstar Eta Carinae Shoots Cosmic Rays

07.03.2018

NASA's NuSTAR space telescope shows that Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years, is accelerating cosmic rays.

NASA’s NICER Mission Finds an X-ray Pulsar in a Record-fast Orbit

05.10.2018

Scientists analyzing the first data from NICER have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes, the shortest-known orbital period for a certain class of pulsar binary system.

X-ray Navigation Considered for Possible CubeSat Mission; NASA Studies as a Technique for Human Exploration

05.03.2018

A team led by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory plans to include the technology on a proposed CubeSat mission to the Moon, and NASA engineers are now studying the possibly of adding the capability to future human-exploration spacecraft.

NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Leaves Scientific ‘Treasure Trove’

05.03.2018

NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite has fallen back to Earth. From 1996 to 2012, RXTE provided scientists with an unprecedented look into the extreme environments around neutron stars and black holes.

NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Spacecraft to Re-enter Over Tropics

04.25.2018

Fragments of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft, a NASA mission to observe the time variation of astronomical X-ray sources, are expected to fall to Earth on or about May 1. The mission was terminated and the spacecraft decommissioned on Jan. 12, 2012.

2020 Decadal Survey Missions: At a Glance

04.24.2018

Any telescope that reaches the launch pad in the 2030s likely will look much different than the concepts four teams are currently studying to inform the 2020 Decadal Survey for Astrophysics, but the studies do offer a roadmap.

NASA Teams Study the Agency’s Future in Astrophysics; Tackle Formidable Technology Challenges

04.24.2018

As in past decades, the agency won’t make that decision in a vacuum or without understanding the technical obstacles, which are formidable.

Where is the Universe's Missing Matter?

04.18.2018

Astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory have probed the gas-filled haloes around galaxies in a quest to find ‘missing’ matter thought to reside there, but have come up empty-handed.

New Exoplanet Collaboration Hosts Meeting to Explore Molecular Seeds of Life

04.09.2018

The Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration (SEEC) hosts its first annual symposium April 9-13. Researchers will discuss how our knowledge of the early solar system can help the hunt for life on other worlds.

Scientists Surprised by Relentless Cosmic Cold Front

04.03.2018

The researchers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to study a cold front located in the Perseus galaxy cluster that extends for about two million light years, or about 10 billion billion miles.

Astrophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

03.07.2018

NASA Goddard’s Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) is home to a vibrant community of scientists, technologists, and support staff dedicated to enabling NASA’s over-arching goals in astrophysics.

Celebrating 60 Years of Groundbreaking U.S. Space Science

01.31.2018

Sixty years ago, the U.S. launched Explorer 1, rocketing into the Space Age.

Explorer 1: The Beginning of American Space Science

01.23.2018

Sixty years ago, the hopes of Cold War America soared into the night sky as a rocket lofted skyward above Cape Canaveral, a soon-to-be-famous barrier island off the Florida coast.

NASA Team First to Demonstrate X-ray Navigation in Space

01.11.2018

In a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA’s ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.