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Why freezing rain can be so much more dangerous than snow
Freezing rain can cause ice to accumulate on tree branches and power lines and thus poses a greater risk than snow
How NASA Is Homing in From Space on Ocean Debris
Space-based technology could help track plastic and other flotsam by its ‘fingerprints.’
In late 2025, scientists reported that, for the first time, they were able to detect concentrations of plastic pollution on land using NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) sensor aboard the International Space Station. The technology has inspired marine researchers to see whether it could also help track debris in our waters.
Before future generations of sensors like EMIT can be called upon to detect ocean litter, scientists need to know what to look for. Working with collaborators, NASA intern Ashley Ohall has built a newly published reference library containing nearly 25,000 molecular “fingerprints” from all manner of flotsam and jetsam, including rope, tires, metal, bubble wrap, buoys, and bottle caps. Given the overwhelming presence of plastic in marine debris, the library includes some 19 types of polymer.
NASA’s EMIT, shown in the red circle, was launched to the International Space Station in 2022 to map minerals. Its data is now advancing fields from agriculture to water science.NASA
Most of the estimated 8 million tons or more of plastic that enter the ocean every year comes from land, so mapping pollution hot spots near coastlines could be a first step toward reducing what ends up on beaches and washed out to sea. That’s exactly what NASA’s sensor showed it could do, though detecting plastic wasn’t its first mission. Launched in 2022, EMIT maps minerals across desert regions to help determine how the dust can heat or cool the atmosphere.
But the instrument has proved itself incredibly nimble. From its perch on the space station, it can identify hundreds of compounds on Earth via the unique spectral patterns they make in reflected sunlight. The technology behind EMIT, called imaging spectroscopy, was pioneered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and is used on missions throughout the solar system. One of EMIT’s cousins discovered lunar water in 2009, and another is set to return to the Moon to help future astronauts identify scientifically valuable areas to sample.
Marine scientist Ashley Ohall checked out aircraft at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, during her recent internship with the agency in which she led the creation of a spectral library containing nearly 25,000 molecular “fingerprints” from all manner of debris.Kelsey Bisson
The same technology has now shown that it can find plastic compounds in landfills and large-scale structures like greenhouses, said JPL’s David Thompson, who coauthored the 2025 study. However, detecting plastic once it enters the ocean is more challenging: Seawater absorbs infrared light, masking many of plastic’s prominent spectral features.
Litter libraryThat’s where the work of Ohall and her collaborators comes in. Their open-source library compiles the work of many researchers over the years who’ve analyzed marine debris using handheld instruments in laboratories. Standardizing the various datasets into one searchable repository is crucial because different kinds of debris have slightly different spectra based on material, color, and condition. Weathered water bottles, for example, “look” different than washed-up hurricane detritus. Once the patterns are known, detection algorithms can be developed.
Carried by ocean currents, debris can travel thousands of miles from the source, so a better understanding of where it is and where it’s headed could be a boon for public health and coastal tourism, said Ohall, a Florida native who recently graduated from the University of Georgia.
“My biggest hope is that people see remote sensing as an important and useful tool for marine debris monitoring,” Ohall said. “Just because it hasn’t been done yet doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Planet-scale challengeConventional methods for quantifying plastic in the ocean — including dragging nets through garbage patches — can’t sample the millions of tons that flow in. With NASA’s support, scientists are learning more about the ability of existing sensors as well as what’s still needed to spot marine debris. Teams are also training AI tools to sift through satellite imagery.
It remains a planet-scale endeavor, said Kelsey Bisson, a program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The groundwork being done by Ohall and other scientists brings us a step closer to leveraging a powerful technology flying in air and space today.
“Humans have a visceral connection to the ocean and its health,” Bisson said. “Detecting marine debris is the kind of incredible challenge that NASA can help solve.”
To learn more about EMIT, visit:
https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/
Media ContactsAndrew Wang / Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-393-2433
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2026-003
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Oceans | Earth Observatory Topic
Life at NASA
What We Do
How NASA Is Homing in From Space on Ocean Debris
Space-based technology could help track plastic and other flotsam by its ‘fingerprints.’
In late 2025, scientists reported that, for the first time, they were able to detect concentrations of plastic pollution on land using NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) sensor aboard the International Space Station. The technology has inspired marine researchers to see whether it could also help track debris in our waters.
Before future generations of sensors like EMIT can be called upon to detect ocean litter, scientists need to know what to look for. Working with collaborators, NASA intern Ashley Ohall has built a newly published reference library containing nearly 25,000 molecular “fingerprints” from all manner of flotsam and jetsam, including rope, tires, metal, bubble wrap, buoys, and bottle caps. Given the overwhelming presence of plastic in marine debris, the library includes some 19 types of polymer.
NASA’s EMIT, shown in the red circle, was launched to the International Space Station in 2022 to map minerals. Its data is now advancing fields from agriculture to water science.NASAMost of the estimated 8 million tons or more of plastic that enter the ocean every year comes from land, so mapping pollution hot spots near coastlines could be a first step toward reducing what ends up on beaches and washed out to sea. That’s exactly what NASA’s sensor showed it could do, though detecting plastic wasn’t its first mission. Launched in 2022, EMIT maps minerals across desert regions to help determine how the dust can heat or cool the atmosphere.
But the instrument has proved itself incredibly nimble. From its perch on the space station, it can identify hundreds of compounds on Earth via the unique spectral patterns they make in reflected sunlight. The technology behind EMIT, called imaging spectroscopy, was pioneered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and is used on missions throughout the solar system. One of EMIT’s cousins discovered lunar water in 2009, and another is set to return to the Moon to help future astronauts identify scientifically valuable areas to sample.
Marine scientist Ashley Ohall checked out aircraft at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, during her recent internship with the agency in which she led the creation of a spectral library containing nearly 25,000 molecular “fingerprints” from all manner of debris.Kelsey BissonThe same technology has now shown that it can find plastic compounds in landfills and large-scale structures like greenhouses, said JPL’s David Thompson, who coauthored the 2025 study. However, detecting plastic once it enters the ocean is more challenging: Seawater absorbs infrared light, masking many of plastic’s prominent spectral features.
Litter libraryThat’s where the work of Ohall and her collaborators comes in. Their open-source library compiles the work of many researchers over the years who’ve analyzed marine debris using handheld instruments in laboratories. Standardizing the various datasets into one searchable repository is crucial because different kinds of debris have slightly different spectra based on material, color, and condition. Weathered water bottles, for example, “look” different than washed-up hurricane detritus. Once the patterns are known, detection algorithms can be developed.
Carried by ocean currents, debris can travel thousands of miles from the source, so a better understanding of where it is and where it’s headed could be a boon for public health and coastal tourism, said Ohall, a Florida native who recently graduated from the University of Georgia.
“My biggest hope is that people see remote sensing as an important and useful tool for marine debris monitoring,” Ohall said. “Just because it hasn’t been done yet doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Planet-scale challengeConventional methods for quantifying plastic in the ocean — including dragging nets through garbage patches — can’t sample the millions of tons that flow in. With NASA’s support, scientists are learning more about the ability of existing sensors as well as what’s still needed to spot marine debris. Teams are also training AI tools to sift through satellite imagery.
It remains a planet-scale endeavor, said Kelsey Bisson, a program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The groundwork being done by Ohall and other scientists brings us a step closer to leveraging a powerful technology flying in air and space today.
“Humans have a visceral connection to the ocean and its health,” Bisson said. “Detecting marine debris is the kind of incredible challenge that NASA can help solve.”
To learn more about EMIT, visit:
https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/
Media ContactsAndrew Wang / Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-393-2433
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2026-003
Explore More 2 min read Floods Inundate Southern MozambiqueWeeks of intense rain overwhelmed rivers and reservoirs, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Article 4 hours ago 3 min read Winter Grips the Michigan MittenA blanket of snow spanned Michigan and much of the Great Lakes region following a…
Article 4 days ago 2 min read Snow Buries KamchatkaDecember and January brought a series of intense winter storms to the peninsula in far…
Article 5 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA EMITEMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) measures the mineral composition of Earth’s dust source regions, to help scientists understand…
Oceans | Earth Observatory Topic
Life at NASA
What We Do
Smallpox eradication champion William Foege dies at age 89
A leader in the global fight against smallpox and a champion of vaccine science, William Foege died last Saturday
Hubble Observes Ghostly Cloud Alive with Star Formation
Hubble Observes Ghostly Cloud Alive with Star Formation
While this eerie NASA Hubble Space Telescope image may look ghostly, it’s actually full of new life. Lupus 3 is a star-forming cloud about 500 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
White wisps of gas swirl throughout the region, and in the lower-left corner resides a dark dust cloud. Bright T Tauri stars shine at the left, bottom right, and upper center, while other young stellar objects dot the image.
T Tauri stars are actively forming stars in a specific stage of formation. In this stage, the enveloping gas and dust dissipates from radiation and stellar winds, or outflows of particles from the emerging star. T Tauri stars are typically less than 10 million years old and vary in brightness both randomly and periodically due to the environment and nature of a forming star. The random variations may be due to instabilities in the accretion disk of dust and gas around the star, material from that disk falling onto the star and being consumed, and flares on the star’s surface. The more regular, periodic changes may be caused by giant sunspots rotating in and out of view.
T Tauri stars are in the process of contracting under the force of gravity as they become main sequence stars which fuse hydrogen to helium in their cores. Studying these stars can help astronomers better understand the star formation process.
Hubble Observes Ghostly Cloud Alive with Star Formation
While this eerie NASA Hubble Space Telescope image may look ghostly, it’s actually full of new life. Lupus 3 is a star-forming cloud about 500 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
White wisps of gas swirl throughout the region, and in the lower-left corner resides a dark dust cloud. Bright T Tauri stars shine at the left, bottom right, and upper center, while other young stellar objects dot the image.
T Tauri stars are actively forming stars in a specific stage of formation. In this stage, the enveloping gas and dust dissipates from radiation and stellar winds, or outflows of particles from the emerging star. T Tauri stars are typically less than 10 million years old and vary in brightness both randomly and periodically due to the environment and nature of a forming star. The random variations may be due to instabilities in the accretion disk of dust and gas around the star, material from that disk falling onto the star and being consumed, and flares on the star’s surface. The more regular, periodic changes may be caused by giant sunspots rotating in and out of view.
T Tauri stars are in the process of contracting under the force of gravity as they become main sequence stars which fuse hydrogen to helium in their cores. Studying these stars can help astronomers better understand the star formation process.
Menstrual pad could give women insights into their changing fertility
Menstrual pad could give women insights into their changing fertility
JWST unveils most intricate map yet of cosmic dark matter
Astronomers puzzled out minuscule distortions in images of faraway galaxies taken by JWST in order to chart the invisible
The best map of dark matter has revealed never-before-seen structures
The best map of dark matter has revealed never-before-seen structures
The daring idea that time is an illusion and how we could prove it
The daring idea that time is an illusion and how we could prove it
NASA Reveals New Details About Dark Matter’s Influence on Universe
With the Webb telescope’s unprecedented sensitivity, scientists are learning more about dark matter’s influence on stars, galaxies, and even planets like Earth.
Scientists using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have made one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps of dark matter ever produced. It shows how the invisible, ghostly material overlaps and intertwines with “regular” matter, the stuff that makes up stars, galaxies, and everything we can see.
Published Monday, Jan. 26, in Nature Astronomy, the map builds on previous research to provide additional confirmation and new details about how dark matter has shaped the universe on the largest scales — galaxy clusters millions of light-years across — that ultimately give rise to galaxies, stars, and planets like Earth.
“This is the largest dark matter map we’ve made with Webb, and it’s twice as sharp as any dark matter map made by other observatories,” said Diana Scognamiglio, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Previously, we were looking at a blurry picture of dark matter. Now we’re seeing the invisible scaffolding of the universe in stunning detail, thanks to Webb’s incredible resolution.”
Created using data from NASA’s Webb telescope in 2026 (right) and from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007 (left), these images show the presence of dark matter in the same region of sky. Webb’s higher resolution is providing new insights into how this invisible component influences the distribution of ordinary matter in the universe.NASA/STScI/A. Pagan Dense regions of dark matter are connected by lower-density filaments, forming a weblike structure known as the cosmic web. This pattern appears more clearly in the Webb data than in the earlier Hubble image. Ordinary matter, including galaxies, tends to trace this same underlying structure shaped by dark matter.NASA/STScI/A. Pagan Some dark matter structures appear smaller in the Webb data because they are coming into sharper focus. Webb’s higher resolution also makes it possible to better confine the size and location of the dark matter clusters in the lower left of the image.NASA/STScI/A. PaganDark matter doesn’t emit, reflect, absorb, or even block light, and it passes through regular matter like a ghost. But it does interact with the universe through gravity, something the map shows with a new level of clarity. Evidence for this interaction lies in the degree of overlap between dark matter and regular matter. According to the paper’s authors, Webb’s observations confirm that this close alignment can’t be a coincidence but, rather, is due to dark matter’s gravity pulling regular matter toward it throughout cosmic history.
“Wherever we see a big cluster of thousands of galaxies, we also see an equally massive amount of dark matter in the same place. And when we see a thin string of regular matter connecting two of those clusters, we see a string of dark matter as well,” said Richard Massey, an astrophysicist at Durham University in the United Kingdom and a coauthor of the new study. “It’s not just that they have the same shapes. This map shows us that dark matter and regular matter have always been in the same place. They grew up together.”
Closer lookFound in the constellation Sextans, the area covered by the new map is a section of sky about 2.5 times larger than the full Moon. A global community of scientists have observed this region with at least 15 ground- and space-based telescopes for the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Their goal: to precisely measure the location of regular matter here and then compare it to the location of dark matter. The first dark matter map of the area was made in 2007 using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a project led by Massey and JPL astrophysicist Jason Rhodes, a coauthor of the paper.
Webb peered at this region for a total of about 255 hours and identified nearly 800,000 galaxies, some of which were detected for the first time. Scognamiglio and her colleagues then looked for dark matter by observing how its mass curves space itself, which in turn bends the light traveling to Earth from distant galaxies. When observed by researchers, it’s as if the light of those galaxies has passed through a warped windowpane.
The Webb map contains about 10 times more galaxies than maps of the area made by ground-based observatories and twice as many as Hubble’s. It reveals new clumps of dark matter and captures a higher-resolution view of the areas previously seen by Hubble.
To refine measurements of the distance to many galaxies for the map, the team used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), designed and managed through launch by JPL, along with other space- and ground-based telescopes. The wavelengths that MIRI detects also make it adept at detecting galaxies obscured by cosmic dust clouds.
Why it mattersWhen the universe began, regular matter and dark matter were probably sparsely distributed. Scientists think dark matter began to clump together first and that those dark matter clumps then pulled together regular matter, creating regions with enough material for stars and galaxies to begin to form.
In this way, dark matter determined the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the universe. And by prompting galaxy and star formation to begin earlier than they would have otherwise, dark matter’s influence also played a role in creating the conditions for planets to eventually form. That’s because the first generations of stars were responsible for turning hydrogen and helium — which made up the vast majority of atoms in the early universe — into the rich array of elements that now compose planets like Earth. In other words, dark matter provided more time for complex planets to form.
“This map provides stronger evidence that without dark matter, we might not have the elements in our galaxy that allowed life to appear,” said Rhodes. “Dark matter is not something we encounter in our everyday life on Earth, or even in our solar system, but it has definitely influenced us.”
Scognamiglio and some of her coauthors will also map dark matter with NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope over an area 4,400 times bigger than the COSMOS region. Roman’s primary science goals include learning more about dark matter’s fundamental properties and how they may or may not have changed over cosmic history. But Roman’s maps won’t beat Webb’s spatial resolution. More detailed looks at dark matter will be possible only with a next-generation telescope like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA’s next astrophysics flagship concept.
More about WebbThe James Webb Space Telescope is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
Media ContactsCalla Cofield / Ian O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469 / 818-354-2649
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov / ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2026-002
Explore More 4 min read TESS Status UpdatesJan. 23, 2026 NASA’s TESS Returns to Science Observations NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)…
Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA’s Universe of Learning Unveils Fresh Facilitator Guides Inspired by Community FeedbackThe goal of NASA’s Universe of Learning (UoL) is to connect the public to the…
Article 6 days ago 5 min read NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common CrystalsAstronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own…
Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Dark MatterScientists first suspected dark matter’s existence over 80 years ago when Swiss-American astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed that galaxies in the…
StarsAstronomers estimate that the universe could contain up to one septillion stars – that’s a one followed by 24 zeros.…
GalaxiesGalaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain…
NASA Reveals New Details About Dark Matter’s Influence on Universe
With the Webb telescope’s unprecedented sensitivity, scientists are learning more about dark matter’s influence on stars, galaxies, and even planets like Earth.
Scientists using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have made one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps of dark matter ever produced. It shows how the invisible, ghostly material overlaps and intertwines with “regular” matter, the stuff that makes up stars, galaxies, and everything we can see.
Published Monday, Jan. 26, in Nature Astronomy, the map builds on previous research to provide additional confirmation and new details about how dark matter has shaped the universe on the largest scales — galaxy clusters millions of light-years across — that ultimately give rise to galaxies, stars, and planets like Earth.
“This is the largest dark matter map we’ve made with Webb, and it’s twice as sharp as any dark matter map made by other observatories,” said Diana Scognamiglio, lead author of the paper and an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Previously, we were looking at a blurry picture of dark matter. Now we’re seeing the invisible scaffolding of the universe in stunning detail, thanks to Webb’s incredible resolution.”
Created using data from NASA’s Webb telescope in 2026 (right) and from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007 (left), these images show the presence of dark matter in the same region of sky. Webb’s higher resolution is providing new insights into how this invisible component influences the distribution of ordinary matter in the universe.NASA/STScI/A. Pagan Dense regions of dark matter are connected by lower-density filaments, forming a weblike structure known as the cosmic web. This pattern appears more clearly in the Webb data than in the earlier Hubble image. Ordinary matter, including galaxies, tends to trace this same underlying structure shaped by dark matter.NASA/STScI/A. Pagan Some dark matter structures appear smaller in the Webb data because they are coming into sharper focus. Webb’s higher resolution also makes it possible to better confine the size and location of the dark matter clusters in the lower left of the image.NASA/STScI/A. PaganDark matter doesn’t emit, reflect, absorb, or even block light, and it passes through regular matter like a ghost. But it does interact with the universe through gravity, something the map shows with a new level of clarity. Evidence for this interaction lies in the degree of overlap between dark matter and regular matter. According to the paper’s authors, Webb’s observations confirm that this close alignment can’t be a coincidence but, rather, is due to dark matter’s gravity pulling regular matter toward it throughout cosmic history.
“Wherever we see a big cluster of thousands of galaxies, we also see an equally massive amount of dark matter in the same place. And when we see a thin string of regular matter connecting two of those clusters, we see a string of dark matter as well,” said Richard Massey, an astrophysicist at Durham University in the United Kingdom and a coauthor of the new study. “It’s not just that they have the same shapes. This map shows us that dark matter and regular matter have always been in the same place. They grew up together.”
Closer lookFound in the constellation Sextans, the area covered by the new map is a section of sky about 2.5 times larger than the full Moon. A global community of scientists have observed this region with at least 15 ground- and space-based telescopes for the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Their goal: to precisely measure the location of regular matter here and then compare it to the location of dark matter. The first dark matter map of the area was made in 2007 using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a project led by Massey and JPL astrophysicist Jason Rhodes, a coauthor of the paper.
Webb peered at this region for a total of about 255 hours and identified nearly 800,000 galaxies, some of which were detected for the first time. Scognamiglio and her colleagues then looked for dark matter by observing how its mass curves space itself, which in turn bends the light traveling to Earth from distant galaxies. When observed by researchers, it’s as if the light of those galaxies has passed through a warped windowpane.
The Webb map contains about 10 times more galaxies than maps of the area made by ground-based observatories and twice as many as Hubble’s. It reveals new clumps of dark matter and captures a higher-resolution view of the areas previously seen by Hubble.
To refine measurements of the distance to many galaxies for the map, the team used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), designed and managed through launch by JPL, along with other space- and ground-based telescopes. The wavelengths that MIRI detects also make it adept at detecting galaxies obscured by cosmic dust clouds.
Why it mattersWhen the universe began, regular matter and dark matter were probably sparsely distributed. Scientists think dark matter began to clump together first and that those dark matter clumps then pulled together regular matter, creating regions with enough material for stars and galaxies to begin to form.
In this way, dark matter determined the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the universe. And by prompting galaxy and star formation to begin earlier than they would have otherwise, dark matter’s influence also played a role in creating the conditions for planets to eventually form. That’s because the first generations of stars were responsible for turning hydrogen and helium — which made up the vast majority of atoms in the early universe — into the rich array of elements that now compose planets like Earth. In other words, dark matter provided more time for complex planets to form.
“This map provides stronger evidence that without dark matter, we might not have the elements in our galaxy that allowed life to appear,” said Rhodes. “Dark matter is not something we encounter in our everyday life on Earth, or even in our solar system, but it has definitely influenced us.”
Scognamiglio and some of her coauthors will also map dark matter with NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope over an area 4,400 times bigger than the COSMOS region. Roman’s primary science goals include learning more about dark matter’s fundamental properties and how they may or may not have changed over cosmic history. But Roman’s maps won’t beat Webb’s spatial resolution. More detailed looks at dark matter will be possible only with a next-generation telescope like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA’s next astrophysics flagship concept.
More about WebbThe James Webb Space Telescope is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
Media ContactsCalla Cofield / Ian O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469 / 818-354-2649
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov / ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2026-002
Explore More 4 min read TESS Status UpdatesJan. 23, 2026 NASA’s TESS Returns to Science Observations NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)…
Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA’s Universe of Learning Unveils Fresh Facilitator Guides Inspired by Community FeedbackThe goal of NASA’s Universe of Learning (UoL) is to connect the public to the…
Article 6 days ago 5 min read NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common CrystalsAstronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own…
Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Dark MatterScientists first suspected dark matter’s existence over 80 years ago when Swiss-American astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed that galaxies in the…
StarsAstronomers estimate that the universe could contain up to one septillion stars – that’s a one followed by 24 zeros.…
GalaxiesGalaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain…
Finding Water on Mars
Water exists across Mars in underground ice, soil moisture, and atmospheric vapour, yet most of it remains frustratingly beyond practical reach for future explorers. A new comparative study from the University of Strathclyde evaluates the technologies that could extract this vital resource from various Martian sources, assessing each method's energy demands, scalability, and suitability for the Red Planet's harsh conditions.
Investigating the Star That Almost Vanished for Eight Months
Stars change in brightness for all kinds of reasons, but all of them are interesting to astronomers at some level. So imagine their excitement when a star known as J0705+0612 (or, perhaps more politically incorrectly, ASASSN-24fw) dropped to around 2.5% of its original brightness for 8.5 months. Two new papers - one from Nadia Zakamska and her team at the Gemini Telescope South and one from Raquel Forés-Toribio at Ohio State and her co-authors - examine this star and have come to the same conclusion - it’s likely being caused by a circumsecondary disk.
How Earthquake Detectors Track Space Junk
Thousands of pieces of abandoned spacecraft orbit Earth, and when gravity finally pulls them down, authorities rarely know exactly where they'll land. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins University have demonstrated a clever solution. Surprisingly they have found using earthquake detecting seismometers they can track falling space debris in real time by listening for the sonic booms it produces. The technique successfully traced a Chinese spacecraft module as it streaked across California at Mach 25-30, revealing its actual trajectory lay 25 miles north of predictions, a significant improvement that could help authorities quickly locate potentially toxic debris and protect people from contamination.