In this image from April 10, 2022, sunlight glints off the Atlantic Ocean in this photograph from taken by the crew of the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above. Every 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. Learn More Inte […]
NASA and the National Park Service worked together to create a web-based tool that helps park managers better understand the impact of outdoor lighting and noise on animal species in national parks. The website allows park managers to choose a time period, such as the spring or winter seasons, and t
Astronomers have identified a rapidly growing black hole in the early universe that is considered a crucial “missing link” between young star-forming galaxies and the first supermassive black holes, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope to make this discovery. This artist’s im
What looks like a red butterfly in space is in reality a nursery for hundreds of baby stars, revealed in this infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Officially named W40, the butterfly is a nebula – a giant cloud of gas and dust in space where new stars may form. The butterflyR
In the early morning hours of April 12, 1981, NASA launched is first Space Transportation System, or space shuttle, mission, carrying astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into orbit. Mission Commander John Youn had already flown in space four times, including a walk on the Moon in 1972. Bob Crip
A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies fueled the unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy, as captured in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The interacting galaxy duo is collectively called Arp 143. The pair contains the glittery, distorted, star-forming spiral galaxy
Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) is in the foreground on Launch Pad 39A with NASA’s Artemis I in the background on Launch Pad 39B on April 6, 2022. This is the first time two totally different types of rockets and spacecraft designed to carry humans are on the sister pads at the same time—but it won’t be the
Japan’s Geiyo Archipelago, in the Seito Inland Sea, was once home to pirates. From the 9th to the 16th centuries, the pirates dominated the Inland Sea and terrorized the coasts of East Asia. Until the Shimanami Kaido (Inland Wave Sea Road) was completed in 1999, the Geiyo Islands were a remote
NASA and industry partners are working towards a future that sees aviation meet cleaner sustainability standards. To that end, new designs for the airplanes of tomorrow, such as the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) concept shown in this image from 2021, are being tested by researchers and engineer
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the lat
