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New Research Suggest Earth and Theia were Neighbors Before They Collided
About 4.5 billion years ago, the most momentous event in the history of Earth occurred: a huge celestial body called Theia collided with the young Earth. How the collision unfolded and what exactly happened afterward has not been conclusively clarified. What is certain, however, is that the size, composition, and orbit of Earth changed as a result—and that the impact marked the birth of our constant companion in space, the moon.
Is the Universe Infinite?
The surface of the Earth is finite. We can measure it. If it was expanding, then its size would grow with time. And once again, good ol’ Earth helps us understand what the universe might be doing beyond our observable horizon.
The Paris Climate Agreement Is Turning 10—These 5 Charts Show What Progress We’ve Made
The 2015 Paris Agreement forged a path for the world to stave off the worst climate change scenarios. Here’s where we stand 10 years later
How a Detergent Ingredient Unlocked the Potential of Nanotubes
Material science plays a critical role in space exploration. So many of the challenges facing both crewed and non-crewed missions come down to factors like weight, thermal and radiation tolerance, and overall material stability. The results of a new study from Young-Kyeong Kim of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and their colleagues should therefore be exciting for those material scientists who focus on radiation protection. After decades of trying, the authors were able to create a fully complete “sheet” of Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNTs).
Do Brain-Decoding Devices Threaten People’s Privacy?
Ethicists say AI-powered advances will threaten the autonomy of people who use neurotechnology
AI Cracks Galaxy Simulation
Scientists have achieved a breakthrough that seemed impossible just months ago, they have simulated our entire Milky Way galaxy down to each of its 100 billion individual stars. By combining artificial intelligence with supercomputer power, researchers created a model that captures everything from galactic arms to the explosive deaths of individual stars, completing in days what would have taken conventional simulations 36 years. This fusion of AI and physics represents a significant shift in how we model complex systems, with implications reaching far beyond astronomy.
Ancient Underground Water Suggests Mars May Have Been Habitable Longer than Previously Thought
Scientists from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have uncovered new evidence that water once flowed beneath the surface of Mars, revealing that the planet may have remained habitable for life much longer than previously thought.
Yes, the Universe Can Expand Faster Than Light
An expanding universe complicates this picture just a little bit, because the universe absolutely refuses to be straightforward.
How to Imagine an Expanding Universe
I honestly don’t have a decent analogy for you to explain how the universe is expanding without a center and without an edge. It just does, whether we can wrap our minds around it or not. But I CAN give you a way to think about it.
NASA Awards Liquid Hydrogen Supply Contracts
NASA has selected Plug Power, Inc., of Slingerlands, New York, and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., of Allentown, Pennsylvania, to supply up to approximately 36,952,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen for use at facilities across the agency.
The NASA Agency-wide Supply of Liquid Hydrogen awards are firm-fixed-price requirements contracts that include multiple firm-fixed-price delivery orders critical for the agency’s centers as they use liquid hydrogen, combined with liquid oxygen, as fuel in cryogenic rocket engines, and the commodity’s unique properties support the development of aeronautics. The total value for the combined awards is about $147.2 million.
The contracts begin Monday, Dec. 1, and each consists of a two-year base period followed by three one-year option periods that, if exercised, would extend the contracts to Nov. 30, 2030.
Air Products and Chemicals Inc. will supply up to about 36.5 million pounds of liquid hydrogen to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida; NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for a maximum contract value of approximately $144.4 million.
Plug Power, Inc. will deliver up to approximately 480,000 pounds of the commodity to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and at Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for a maximum contract value of about $2.8 million.
For additional information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
202-358-1600
Amanda Griffin
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
amanda.griffin@nasa.gov
321-593-6244
NASA Awards Liquid Hydrogen Supply Contracts
NASA has selected Plug Power, Inc., of Slingerlands, New York, and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., of Allentown, Pennsylvania, to supply up to approximately 36,952,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen for use at facilities across the agency.
The NASA Agency-wide Supply of Liquid Hydrogen awards are firm-fixed-price requirements contracts that include multiple firm-fixed-price delivery orders critical for the agency’s centers as they use liquid hydrogen, combined with liquid oxygen, as fuel in cryogenic rocket engines, and the commodity’s unique properties support the development of aeronautics. The total value for the combined awards is about $147.2 million.
The contracts begin Monday, Dec. 1, and each consists of a two-year base period followed by three one-year option periods that, if exercised, would extend the contracts to Nov. 30, 2030.
Air Products and Chemicals Inc. will supply up to about 36.5 million pounds of liquid hydrogen to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida; NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for a maximum contract value of approximately $144.4 million.
Plug Power, Inc. will deliver up to approximately 480,000 pounds of the commodity to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and at Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for a maximum contract value of about $2.8 million.
For additional information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
202-358-1600
Amanda Griffin
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
amanda.griffin@nasa.gov
321-593-6244
What Blind Cave Fish and Venomous Snails Can Teach Us about Diabetes
Studies of insulin, blood sugar and diabetes in other animals such as fish and dogs have already saved millions of lives and could lead to new treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Spot Uranus at Opposition
Uranus is its closest to Earth all year on the night of November 21st, and you can find it easily in the evening sky using Sky & Telescope’s exclusive star chart.
The post Spot Uranus at Opposition appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Iran's Capital Has Run Out of Water, Forcing It to Move
The decision to move Iran’s capital is partly driven by climate change, but experts say decades of human error and action are also to blame
Follow CM25 online
The European Space Agency's Ministerial Council – more formally Council at Ministerial level – takes place in Bremen, Germany on 26 and 27 November 2025.
10 Years of Students Helping NASA Grow Space Food with Growing Beyond Earth
3 min read
10 Years of Students Helping NASA Grow Space Food with Growing Beyond Earth Students from 71 Classrooms engaged with NASA scientists to learn about how their Growing Beyond Earth research is contributing to feeding astronauts for long distance space travel.
Nearly 1,250 middle and high school students from 71 schools around the world joined Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for the Growing Beyond Earth (GBE) Student Launch Chat with the Scientists, marking an inspiring milestone in the program’s 10th anniversary year.
The live session, held in collaboration with NASA, connected classrooms directly with Dr. Gioia Massa and Trent M. Smith, senior leaders of NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Space Crop Production team. Students heard firsthand how their classroom experiments are helping NASA identify and grow the best crops for future astronauts on long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
“Our students are contributing to real NASA science,” said one participating teacher. “It’s incredibly motivating for them to know their data could influence what astronauts eat in space someday.”
Connecting Classrooms with NASA ScienceGrowing Beyond Earth, led by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida, brings authentic NASA research into classrooms in a way that few science programs can. For more than a decade, the 83-acre botanic garden – renowned for its conservation, education, and research programs – has worked hand-in-hand with NASA to advance understanding of food production in space.
Students use specially designed plant growth chambers to test how different crops perform under conditions that mimic spacecraft environments. The data they collect are shared with NASA scientists, who use the findings to refine ongoing space crop production research.
Since the program’s inception, more than 120,000 students across 800+ classrooms have tested over 250 plant cultivars, with five student-tested crops already grown aboard the International Space Station.
Cultivating the Future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) WorkforceThe Growing Beyond Earth project exemplifies the mission of NASA’s Science Activation (SciAct) program, which connects NASA Science with people of all ages and backgrounds in ways that activate minds and promote a deeper understanding of our world and beyond, with the ultimate Vision: To increase learners’ active participation in the advancement of human knowledge. By engaging students as active participants in cutting-edge research, projects like GBE not only advance NASA’s goals but also cultivate curiosity, creativity, and confidence in the next generation of scientists and explorers. This year’s GBE Student Launch Chat celebrated that impact, showing how student research from classrooms around the globe contributes to the future of space exploration.
“When students see themselves as part of NASA’s mission, they realize science isn’t something distant, it’s something they can do,” said Dr. Massa. Teacher Espy Rodriguez from Hialeah Senior High School said, “It made their [her students] projects matter. I think it gave the kids a real sense of community. We are far, but we are one.” By growing plants, analyzing data, and sharing results with NASA, these students are helping humanity prepare for life beyond Earth, proving that the seeds of tomorrow’s discoveries are being planted in today’s classrooms.
GBE is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NCCS2M0125 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/.
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10 Years of Students Helping NASA Grow Space Food with Growing Beyond Earth
3 min read
10 Years of Students Helping NASA Grow Space Food with Growing Beyond Earth Students from 71 Classrooms engaged with NASA scientists to learn about how their Growing Beyond Earth research is contributing to feeding astronauts for long distance space travel.Nearly 1,250 middle and high school students from 71 schools around the world joined Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for the Growing Beyond Earth (GBE) Student Launch Chat with the Scientists, marking an inspiring milestone in the program’s 10th anniversary year.
The live session, held in collaboration with NASA, connected classrooms directly with Dr. Gioia Massa and Trent M. Smith, senior leaders of NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Space Crop Production team. Students heard firsthand how their classroom experiments are helping NASA identify and grow the best crops for future astronauts on long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
“Our students are contributing to real NASA science,” said one participating teacher. “It’s incredibly motivating for them to know their data could influence what astronauts eat in space someday.”
Connecting Classrooms with NASA ScienceGrowing Beyond Earth, led by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida, brings authentic NASA research into classrooms in a way that few science programs can. For more than a decade, the 83-acre botanic garden – renowned for its conservation, education, and research programs – has worked hand-in-hand with NASA to advance understanding of food production in space.
Students use specially designed plant growth chambers to test how different crops perform under conditions that mimic spacecraft environments. The data they collect are shared with NASA scientists, who use the findings to refine ongoing space crop production research.
Since the program’s inception, more than 120,000 students across 800+ classrooms have tested over 250 plant cultivars, with five student-tested crops already grown aboard the International Space Station.
Cultivating the Future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) WorkforceThe Growing Beyond Earth project exemplifies the mission of NASA’s Science Activation (SciAct) program, which connects NASA Science with people of all ages and backgrounds in ways that activate minds and promote a deeper understanding of our world and beyond, with the ultimate Vision: To increase learners’ active participation in the advancement of human knowledge. By engaging students as active participants in cutting-edge research, projects like GBE not only advance NASA’s goals but also cultivate curiosity, creativity, and confidence in the next generation of scientists and explorers. This year’s GBE Student Launch Chat celebrated that impact, showing how student research from classrooms around the globe contributes to the future of space exploration.
“When students see themselves as part of NASA’s mission, they realize science isn’t something distant, it’s something they can do,” said Dr. Massa. Teacher Espy Rodriguez from Hialeah Senior High School said, “It made their [her students] projects matter. I think it gave the kids a real sense of community. We are far, but we are one.” By growing plants, analyzing data, and sharing results with NASA, these students are helping humanity prepare for life beyond Earth, proving that the seeds of tomorrow’s discoveries are being planted in today’s classrooms.
GBE is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number 80NCCS2M0125 and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/.
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Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Perseverance Rover
This rover and its aerial sidekick were assigned to study the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient microbial…
Parker Solar Probe
On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona…
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Hurricane Melissa’s 252-mph Gust Sets New Wind Record
Hurricane Melissa raged as a Category 5 storm in the Caribbean last month—and now scientists have confirmed that its strongest gusts neared record speeds
CDC to End Monkey Research Program
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to end its monkey research program will affect studies involving some 200 macaques, and the fate of the animals is unclear