Press Releases & Feature Stories Archive - Ionospheric, Thermospheric, Mesospheric (ITM) Physics Laboratory

NASA’s AIM Spots First Arctic Noctilucent Clouds of the Season

05.28.2020

Ice-blue clouds are drifting high above the Arctic, which means the Northern Hemisphere’s noctilucent cloud season is here. NASA’s AIM spacecraft first spotted wisps of these noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds over the Arctic on May 17.

New NASA Podcast Helps Listeners Explore Our ‘Curious Universe’

04.06.2020

NASA’s newest podcast is taking listeners on an adventure to explore the wonders of Earth and help unravel the mysteries of the universe.

NASA Science Keeps the Lights On

04.02.2020

Across NASA’s many missions, thousands of scientists, engineers, and other experts and professionals all over the country are doing what they do best, but now from home offices and via video conferencing. With most personnel supporting missions remotely to keep onsite staff at a minimal level in response to COVID-19, the Agency is moving ahead strongly with everything from space exploration to using our technology and innovation to help inform policy makers.

Statement on NASA Goddard’s Coronavirus Prep Actions

03.13.2020

Goddard has canceled all non-mission-essential visits to its facilities. Goddard also is closing its Visitor Centers at Greenbelt and at Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

NASA Highlights Solar Mission, Jupiter Cyclone at AGU Meeting

12.05.2019

NASA researchers will present new findings on a wide range of Earth and space science topics at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Dec. 9-13 in San Francisco.

NASA Spacecraft Launches on Mission to Explore Frontier of Space

10.11.2019

After successfully launching Thursday night, NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft is in orbit for a first-of-its-kind mission to study a region of space where changes can disrupt communications and satellite orbits, and even increase radiation risks to astronauts.

NASA Scientist to Discuss 'Going to the Top of the World to Touch the Sky' at Library of Congress Lecture

10.07.2019

The public is invited to a free lecture called ‘Going to the Top of the World to Touch the Sky,' with Dr. Douglas Rowland.

Streaks in Aurora Found to Map Features in Earth’s Radiation Environment

08.27.2019

A special kind of streaked aurora has been found to track disturbances in near-Earth space from the ground.

NASA’s MMS Finds First Interplanetary Shock

08.08.2019

NASA's MMS mission just made the first high-resolution measurements of an interplanetary shockwave launched from the Sun.

First of Two Van Allen Probes Spacecraft Ceases Operations

07.23.2019

On July 19 mission operators turned off one of the two Van Allen Probes spacecraft. Originally slated for a two-year mission, the Van Allen Probes launched in 2012 and gathered unprecedented data on Earth's radiation belts. As expected, the spacecraft is now out of fuel. It will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up safely in about 15 years.

Earth's Shining Upper Atmosphere — From the Apollo Era to the Present

07.17.2019

In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts stood on the Moon and took a picture of Earth like none before: the first view of our planet in far ultraviolet light. Nearly 50 years later, compare views of Earth’s shining ionosphere from the Apollo era to NASA’s present-day GOLD mission.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Celebrates 60 Years

04.29.2019

On May 1, 1959, the Beltsville Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was renamed NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in honor of Robert H. Goddard, widely considered the father of modern rocketry. Thus began a 60-year boom in science and technological innovation.

NASA Invites Media to 57th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium

03.15.2019

Media are invited to the 57th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium on March 20-21.

Discovering Bonus Science With NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Spacecraft

03.07.2019

MMS is flying out of its element to take ground-breaking measurements of something it was not originally designed for — turbulence in the solar wind.

To Catch a Wave, Rocket Launches From Top of World

01.28.2019

On Jan. 4, 2019, the CAPER-2 rocket flew through active aurora borealis, or northern lights, to study the waves that accelerate electrons into our atmosphere.

Toward Mapping the Atmosphere’s Escape from Earth

12.17.2018

A pair of sounding rockets took aim at the aurora over Svalbard, Norway, to help scientists understand how Earth loses oxygen into space.

VISIONS-2 Provides a Look at Earth’s Escaping Atmosphere

12.07.2018

Two NASA sounding rockets were successfully launched Dec. 7 from Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, in Norway providing scientist a look at the process of Earth’s atmosphere escaping into space.

Radio JOVE From NASA: Tuning In to Your Local Celestial Radio Show

12.04.2018

What does Jupiter sound like? If you had to take a guess, would you imagine the sharp staccato of popcorn popping? The slow static of waves reaching the shore? The universe is full of radio emissions, and all you need to hear them for yourself is a box the size of a DVD player.

To Image Leaky Atmosphere, NASA Rocket Team Heads North

11.30.2018

Earth's atmosphere is leaking-but how does oxygen get the energy to escape to space? NASA's VISIONS-2 rocket will soon launch into the unique magnetic environment near the North Pole in pursuit of an answer.

NASA Keeps Watch Over Space Explosions

11.15.2018

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission has been observing a type of space explosion called magnetic reconnection for three years. MMS just witnessed such an explosion in a unique location: the part of Earth’s magnetic environment trailing behind the planet, away from the Sun — with enough resolution to reveal its true nature more clearly.

NASA Brings its Science and Supercomputing Advances to SC18

11.05.2018

From designing rocket launch pad components and safer rotorcraft to improving flood and drought forecasts to modeling the formation of planetary disks, NASA will highlight supercomputing advances at SC18, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, Nov. 12 to 15 in Dallas.