Science News
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NASA Rockets to Fly Through Flickering, Vanishing Auroras
2025.01.21
UPDATE: The first rocket of the GIRAFF mission launched on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 10:07 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, through pulsating aurora spotted over Venetie, Alaska. Principal investigator Robert Michell reports that all instruments performed as expected and the team is reviewing the data. The second GIRAFF rocket and the Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor rocket mission (led by […]
5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun
2024.11.20
With NASA’s fleet of heliophysics spacecraft, scientists monitor our Sun and investigate its influences throughout the solar system. However, the fleet’s constant watch and often-unique perspectives sometimes create opportunities to make discoveries that no one expected, helping us to solve mysteries about of the solar system and beyond. Here are five examples of breakthroughs made […]
NASA Discovers a Long-Sought Global Electric Field on Earth
2024.09.03
A rocket team reports the first successful detection of Earth’s ambipolar electric field: a weak, planet-wide electric field as fundamental as Earth’s gravity and magnetic fields. First hypothesized more than 60 years ago, the ambipolar electric field is a key driver of the “polar wind,” a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs.
NASA Discovers a Long-Sought Global Electric Field on Earth
2024.08.28
An international team of scientists has successfully measured a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields. Known as the ambipolar electric field, scientists first hypothesized over 60 years ago that it drove atmospheric escape above Earth’s North and South Poles. Measurements from a suborbital rocket have confirmed the existence of the ambipolar field and quantified its strength, revealing its role in driving atmospheric escape and shaping our ionosphere — a layer of the upper atmosphere — more broadly. The paper was published today in the journal Nature.
NASA, LASP Sign Agreement To Advance Space Weather Research, Modeling
2024.08.05
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder enacted a collaborative Space Act Agreement Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, to advance research and modeling in the critical field of space weather. NASA and LASP are longtime space science and exploration […]
NASA’s ICON Mission Ends with Several Ionospheric Breakthroughs
2024.07.24
NASA’s ICON mission studied the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere. It provided critical insights into interplay between space weather and Earth’s weather. The mission gathered unprecedented detail of airglow, showed a relationship between the atmosphere’s ions and Earth’s magnetic field lines, and found many firsts
NASA Rocket Discovers New Energization Process in Upper Atmosphere
2024.07.22
When it comes to discoveries about our upper atmosphere, it pays to know your surroundings.
Alphabet Soup: NASA’s GOLD Finds Surprising C, X Shapes in Atmosphere
2024.06.27
Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup? NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has revealed unexpected C- and X-shaped formations in an electrified layer of gas high above our heads called the ionosphere. While these alphabetical shapes have been observed before, GOLD sees them more clearly than other instruments […]
NASA, SpaceX Launch NOAA’s Latest Weather Satellite
2024.06.25
NASA successfully launched the fourth and final satellite in a series of advanced weather satellites for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) at 5:26 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
NASA Sets Launch Coverage for NOAA Weather Satellite
2024.06.18
NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch.
NASA Interns Blast Off for Their First Week at Goddard
2024.06.17
Several hundred new faces walked through the gates of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the first time on June 3. Who is this small army of motivated space-enthusiasts? It’s Goddard’s 2024 summer intern cohort. Across Goddard’s campuses, more than 300 on-site and virtual interns spend the 10-week program contributing across all […]
NASA Watches Mars Light Up During Epic Solar Storm
2024.06.10
In addition to producing auroras, a recent extreme storm provided more detail on how much radiation future astronauts could encounter on the Red Planet. Mars scientists have been anticipating epic solar storms ever since the Sun entered a period of peak activity earlier this year called solar maximum. Over the past month, NASA’s Mars rovers […]
Historic Geomagnetic Storm Dazzles
2024.05.16
Space scientists and sky-watchers were treated to a stunning display of the northern lights in May 2024.
NASA Scientists Gear Up for Solar Storms at Mars
2024.04.29
The Sun will be at peak activity this year, providing a rare opportunity to study how solar storms and radiation could affect future astronauts on the Red Planet. In the months ahead, two of NASA’s Mars spacecraft will have an unprecedented opportunity to study how solar flares — giant explosions on the Sun’s surface — […]
Sometimes Getting the Perfect Picture Really Is Rocket Science
2024.04.10
NASA Engineer Cindy Fuentes Rosal waves goodbye to a Black Brant IX sounding rocket launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
NASA Wallops Launches 3 Rockets During Eclipse in Virginia
2024.04.09
Three Black Brant IX sounding rockets launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia April 8, 2024, during the solar eclipse.
Citizen Scientists Invited to Collect Data for NASA During Eclipse
2024.04.01
On April 8, 2024, as the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, thousands of amateur citizen scientists will measure air temperatures and snap pictures of clouds. The data they collect will aid researchers who are investigating how the Sun influences climates in different environments.
NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse
2024.03.25
NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.
NASA Invites Media to 61st Annual Goddard Space Science Symposium
2024.03.14
Media are invited to attend the 61st annual Goddard Space Science Symposium (formerly the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium), which will take place March 20-22, 2024, at the Brendan Iribe Center on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. The symposium will also be streamed online.
NASA Telecon to Discuss AWE Mission, Space Station Payloads
2023.10.25
NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 26, to discuss the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) and other International Space Station payloads launching in November. AWE’s mission is to help us better understand the interactions between weather on Earth and in space.
AWE Launching to Space Station to Study Atmospheric Waves via Airglow
2023.10.25
NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in November 2023, where it will make use of a natural, ethereal glow in Earth's sky to study waves in our planet's atmosphere.
NASA Software Catalog Offers Free Programs for Earth Science, More
2023.08.09
Each year, NASA scientists, engineers, and developers create software packages to manage space missions, test spacecraft, and analyze the petabytes of data produced by agency research satellites. As the agency innovates for the benefit of humanity, many of these programs are now downloadable and free of charge through NASA’s Software Catalog.
NASA Space Apps Announces 2023 Theme: Explore Open Science Together
2023.07.13
NASA Space Apps, in collaboration with NASA Transform to Open Science (TOPS), is proud to announce the 2023 NASA International Space Apps Challenge theme: “Explore Open Science Together.” This year’s theme celebrates the benefits and successes created through the equitable and open sharing of knowledge and data. Registration is open through Oct 8.
NASA Goddard, National Philharmonic Explore Cosmos Through Imagery, Music Collaboration
2023.05.15
Awe-inspiring NASA visuals combined with the might of a live symphonic orchestra last week in “Cosmic Cycles,” a multimedia collaboration among the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the National Philharmonic, and composer Henry Dehlinger.
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