Because amino acids are found in all living things on Earth scientists are eager to understand the origins of these molecules. After all, amino acids may have helped spawn life on this planet after being delivered here about 4 billion years ago by pieces of asteroids or comets.
Experts will discuss new research from NASA missions at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), on topics ranging from the universe’s early galaxies to planets outside our solar system.
NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System web-based visualization tool lets you “see” the SmallSat as it journeys to the Moon and seeks out water ice in the darkest craters there.
NASA researchers will be presenting findings on Earth and space sciences Dec.12-16 at the American Geophysical Union's 2022 Fall meeting, being held virtually and in Chicago this year.
The small satellite will search for water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s South Pole, using an orbit only one other spacecraft has employed.
NASA released the results of its second agencywide economic impact report on Thursday, demonstrating how its Moon to Mars activities, investments in climate change research and technology, as well as other work generated more than $71.2 billion in total economic output during fiscal year 2021.
NASA's first asteroid sample return spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, fired its thrusters for 30 seconds on Sept. 21 and nudged its trajectory toward Earth. The resulting course correction keeps the vehicle on track to deliver a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, completing a seven-year mission.
On Oct. 16, at 7:04 a.m. EDT, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will skim Earth’s atmosphere, passing a mere 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the surface to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Mission engineers will track NASA’s Lucy spacecraft nonstop as it prepares to swoop near Earth on Oct. 16 to use this planet’s gravity to set itself on a course toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. But they also will be closely tracking something else: more than 47,000 satellites, debris, and other objects circling our planet.
It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. On season 5 of NASA Explorers, “Artemis Generation,” you’ll meet the scientists and engineers who are studying Moon rocks, building tools, working aboard NASA’s International Space Station, and training astronauts in preparation for landing humans on the Moon.
Using computer simulations, scientists based at NASA have pieced together the story of how the dwarf planet Haumea, found in the Kuiper Belt of icy worlds beyond the orbit of outermost planet Neptune, became one of the most unusual objects in the solar system.
It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. On season 5 of NASA Explorers, “Artemis Generation,” you’ll meet the scientists and engineers who are studying Moon rocks, building tools, working aboard NASA’s International Space Station, and training astronauts in preparation for landing humans on the Moon.
It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. On season 5 of NASA Explorers, “Artemis Generation,” you’ll meet the scientists and engineers who are studying Moon rocks, building tools, working aboard NASA’s International Space Station, and training astronauts in preparation for landing humans on the Moon.
A team based at NASA used computer simulations to “erase” thousands of craters from the Moon’s surface, as if turning back the clock 4.25 billion years to a time before the craters formed. They found that the locations of the Moon’s North and South Poles moved slightly over this time period.
The public is invited to a free lecture called “Big Telescopes and Big Discoveries in Our Solar System” with Dr. Stefanie Milam, a NASA interdisciplinary astrobiologist. The talk will occur in the Pickford Theater, third floor, Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
As director of Goddard's Solar System Exploration Division, Dr. Stephanie Getty works to create an environment of open communication and curiosity so the science teams can thrive and explore.
NASA’s MAVEN and the United Arab Emirates’ EMM missions have released joint observations of dynamic proton aurora events at Mars. By combining the observations, scientists determined that what they were seeing was essentially a map of where the solar wind was raining down onto the planet, opening new avenues for understanding the Martian atmosphere.
A NASA study details the ways the light telescopes receive from potentially habitable planets beyond our solar system could be “contaminated” by light from other nearby planets. The research modeled this “photobombing” effect on an advanced space telescope designed to observe these worlds and suggested ways to overcome the challenge.
After a surprise result from a long-running observation campaign, the Lucy mission can add one more asteroid to the list. On March 27, Lucy’s science team discovered that the smallest of the mission’s Trojan asteroid targets, Polymele, has a satellite of its own.
To mark the occasion of the NASA Curiosity rover’s decade on Mars, here is a list of five of the most significant discoveries made using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite. SAM was designed and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to search for and measure organic molecules and light elements which are important to life as we know it.
After the launch of NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, data indicated that a solar array powering the spacecraft’s systems hadn’t fully opened and latched, and the team had to figure out what to do next.