Exploration
at Goddard
At Goddard, exploration is a system that builds outward, grounded in understanding Earth, extending through the space environment, and enabling safe and sustained missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The Sciences and Exploration Directorate (SED) brings together complementary scientific disciplines that work in concert to make exploration possible. Each contributes in a distinct way, while collectively forming a unified exploration enterprise.
Earth Sciences
The Earth Sciences Division is the nation's technical innovator and essential data provider to support national infrastructure, scientific leadership, and economic resilience.
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Astrophysics
The Astrophysics Science Division leads America's quest to answer our most profound scientific questions, developing technologies with transformative applications in medicine, national security, and intelligence.
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Heliophysics
The Heliophysics Science Division advances understanding of the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, providing the foundational science that drives space weather research and solutions in collaboration with government, industry, and academia.
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Solar System
The Solar System Exploration Division powers space missions and leads human space exploration to the Moon and Mars through revolutionary research that charts the frontiers of our solar system and deepens our understanding of planetary system formation and evolution.
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Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams
What's happening to galaxy NGC 474? The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex given the relatively featureless appearance of the elliptical galaxy in less deep images. The cause of the shells is a topic of research, but they are possibly tidal tails related to debris left over from absorbing numerous small galaxies in the past billion years. Alternatively, the shells may be like ripples in a pond, where the ongoing collision with the spiral galaxy just to the right of NGC 474 is causing density waves to ripple through the galactic giant. Regardless of the actual cause, the featured image dramatically highlights the increasing evidence that the halos of some elliptical galaxies are surprisingly complicated. Similarly, the halo of our own Milky Way Galaxy is one example of such unexpected intricacies. NGC 474 spans about 250,000 light years and lies about 100 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces).