GRACE satellites measure changes in Earth’s gravity as they orbit, revealing shifting water levels across the planet (artist’s concept). An international team of scientists has found that Earth’s total amount of freshwater dropped sharply beginning in May 2014 and has remained at lower levels ever since, a significant change that could signal a shift […]
This image is concept illustrates a pair of monster black holes swirling in a gas cloud, a recurring outburst known as AT 2021hdr, studied by NASA’s Swift Observatory and the Zwicky Transient Facility. A groundbreaking discovery using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has revealed the signal from a pair of supermassive black holes disrupting a […]
Coastal areas like Drakes Bay on Northern California’s Point Reyes Peninsula are becoming more vulnerable to rising sea levels. As the Earth’s oceans continue to rise, they are increasingly disrupting livelihoods, infrastructure, and ecosystems in coastal communities worldwide. To help mitigate the impact, international organizations and agencies, including NASA, are using advanced data tools […]
This illustration depicts a red, early-universe dwarf galaxy with a rapidly feeding black hole at its center, discovered just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The black hole is consuming matter at a rate over 40 times the theoretical limit, offering new […]
Turbulence isn’t just something that causes bumpy airplane rides. On a much grander scale, it plays a key role in the birth of stars in the Milky Way. A new study, funded by NASA and published in *Science Advances*, reveals how turbulence within giant molecular clouds—vast, cold regions of gas and dust—interacts with the […]
NASA’s Voyager 2 captured this image of Uranus during its 1986 flyby, and new research using mission data reveals that a solar wind event during the flyby may explain the long-standing mystery of the planet’s magnetosphere. NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 provided scientists with their first close-up look at the planet, […]
This artist’s concept illustrates the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as it passes through the Milky Way’s gaseous halo, with most of the LMC’s gas blown away, leaving behind a compact remnant. Using light from 28 quasars, scientists studied the halo by observing how the gas absorbs the quasars’ light, as captured by the Hubble […]
The larger galaxy, oval-shaped with a glowing core, is shown merging with a smaller spiral galaxy. A trail of material connects the two, highlighting their interaction. The pair is surrounded by a faint halo of stars, with several distant stars visible in the background. The Hubble Space Telescope has once again provided a stunning […]
The left panel shows a NIRCam in-focus image at 2.12 microns, while the middle and right panels display defocused NIRCam images at two different positions, used to assess the telescope’s alignment. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched, featuring a mirror made up of 18 […]
The NISAR mission will help researchers better understand Earth’s surface changes over time, including volcanic activity like the 2009 eruption at Mount Redoubt in Alaska. We often take for granted the dynamic and constantly shifting nature of Earth’s surface. From earthquakes to volcanoes, landslides to shifting glaciers, much of the planet is in perpetual […]
