Content for NASA

Earth-Size, Habitable Zone Planet Found Hidden in Early NASA Kepler Data

“A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water. Scientists …

Revisiting Decades-Old Voyager 2 Data, Scientists Find One More Secret

“Eight and a half years into its grand tour of the solar system, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was ready for another encounter. It was Jan. 24, 1986, and soon it would meet the mysterious seventh planet, icy-cold Uranus. Over …

Robots Autonomously Navigate Underground in DARPA Challenge

“Whether robots are exploring caves on other planets or disaster areas here on Earth, autonomy enables them to navigate extreme environments without human guidance or access to GPS. The Subterranean Challenge, or SubT, is testing this kind of cutting-edge technology …

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Snaps Its Highest-Resolution Panorama Yet

“NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured its highest-resolution panorama yet of the Martian surface. Composed of more than 1,000 images taken during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday and carefully assembled over the ensuing months, the composite contains 1.8 billion …

ESA, NASA’s Solar Orbiter Soon to Launch on Voyage to Sun

“It will be a dark winter’s night when Solar Orbiter launches from Florida on its journey to the source of all light on Earth, the Sun. The mission, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA, is …

NASA Selects Four Possible Missions to Study the Secrets of the Solar System

“NASA has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for new missions. Although they’re not official missions yet and some ultimately may not be chosen to move forward, the selections focus on compelling targets and science that …

Voyager 2 Engineers Working to Restore Normal Operations

“Mission operators report that Voyager 2 continues to be stable and that communications between Earth and the spacecraft are good. The spacecraft has resumed taking science data, and the science teams are now evaluating the health of the instruments following …

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity had an attitude problem. (But it’s fine now.)

“Curiosity has bounced back from numerous glitches during its long and accomplished mission. An attitude problem sidelined NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity recently, but the robot’s handlers whipped it back into shape in short order. “Partway through its last …

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Ends Mission of Astronomical Discovery

“After more than 16 years studying the universe in infrared light, revealing new wonders in our solar system, our galaxy and beyond, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope’s mission has come to an end. Mission engineers confirmed at about 2 …

NASA, SpaceX Complete Final Major Flight Test of Crew Spacecraft

“NASA and SpaceX completed a launch escape demonstration of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket Sunday. This was the final major flight test of the spacecraft before it begins carrying astronauts to the International Space Station …