NASA
NASA Invites Media to View Heliophysics, NOAA Space Weather Missions
NASA invites media to view the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) spacecraft and two other missions — the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory, which will launch along with IMAP as rideshares.
Media will have the opportunity to photograph the three spacecraft and speak with subject matter experts representing all three missions. The event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Confirmed media will receive additional details after registering.
To participate in the event, media must RSVP by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, by submitting their request online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov.
The IMAP mission will study the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble created by the Sun that protects our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. Carruthers will use its ultraviolet cameras to monitor how material from the Sun impacts the outermost part of Earth’s atmosphere. The SWFO-L1 mission will observe solar eruptions, and monitor incoming space weather 24/7, providing early warnings and validating forecasts that protect vital communication and navigation infrastructure, economic interests, and national security, both on Earth and in space.
NASA is targeting no earlier than September for the launch of these three missions on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.
Facility Access
Due to spacecraft cleanliness requirements, this invitation is open to a limited number of media with no more than two individuals per media organization. This event is open to U.S. citizens who possess a valid government-issued photo identification and proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.
Media attending this event must comply with cleanroom guidelines. This includes wearing specific cleanroom garments; avoiding cologne, cosmetics, and high-heeled shoes; cleaning camera equipment under the supervision or assistance of contamination control specialists; and placing all electronics in airplane mode in the designated areas near the spacecraft. NASA will provide detailed guidance to approved media.
Observatories Information
The three observatories are preparing to launch to Lagrange point 1, which lies about a million miles from Earth toward the Sun. There, they will orbit this gravitational balance point, holding a steady position between Earth and the Sun. NASA’s IMAP will use its 10 instruments to map the heliosphere’s edge and reveal how the Sun accelerates charged particles, filling in essential puzzle pieces to understand the space weather environment across the solar system. The mission’s varied instruments also will provide near real-time space weather data to scientists on Earth.
The Carruthers observatory will image the glow of ultraviolet light emitted by the uppermost parts of Earth’s atmosphere — called the geocorona — to help researchers understand how our planet’s atmosphere is shaped by conditions in space. NOAA’s SWFO-L1 will use its suite of instruments to sample the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, while its onboard coronagraph will detect coronal mass ejections and other solar events. Together, these real-time observations of space weather enable precautionary actions to protect satellites, power grids, aviation, and communication and navigation technology.
Learn more about NASA’s IMAP at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/imap/
-end-
Abbey Interrante
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124
abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov
NASA Invites Media to View Heliophysics, NOAA Space Weather Missions
NASA invites media to view the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) spacecraft and two other missions — the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory, which will launch along with IMAP as rideshares.
Media will have the opportunity to photograph the three spacecraft and speak with subject matter experts representing all three missions. The event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Confirmed media will receive additional details after registering.
To participate in the event, media must RSVP by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, by submitting their request online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov.
The IMAP mission will study the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble created by the Sun that protects our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. Carruthers will use its ultraviolet cameras to monitor how material from the Sun impacts the outermost part of Earth’s atmosphere. The SWFO-L1 mission will observe solar eruptions, and monitor incoming space weather 24/7, providing early warnings and validating forecasts that protect vital communication and navigation infrastructure, economic interests, and national security, both on Earth and in space.
NASA is targeting no earlier than September for the launch of these three missions on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.
Facility Access
Due to spacecraft cleanliness requirements, this invitation is open to a limited number of media with no more than two individuals per media organization. This event is open to U.S. citizens who possess a valid government-issued photo identification and proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.
Media attending this event must comply with cleanroom guidelines. This includes wearing specific cleanroom garments; avoiding cologne, cosmetics, and high-heeled shoes; cleaning camera equipment under the supervision or assistance of contamination control specialists; and placing all electronics in airplane mode in the designated areas near the spacecraft. NASA will provide detailed guidance to approved media.
Observatories Information
The three observatories are preparing to launch to Lagrange point 1, which lies about a million miles from Earth toward the Sun. There, they will orbit this gravitational balance point, holding a steady position between Earth and the Sun. NASA’s IMAP will use its 10 instruments to map the heliosphere’s edge and reveal how the Sun accelerates charged particles, filling in essential puzzle pieces to understand the space weather environment across the solar system. The mission’s varied instruments also will provide near real-time space weather data to scientists on Earth.
The Carruthers observatory will image the glow of ultraviolet light emitted by the uppermost parts of Earth’s atmosphere — called the geocorona — to help researchers understand how our planet’s atmosphere is shaped by conditions in space. NOAA’s SWFO-L1 will use its suite of instruments to sample the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, while its onboard coronagraph will detect coronal mass ejections and other solar events. Together, these real-time observations of space weather enable precautionary actions to protect satellites, power grids, aviation, and communication and navigation technology.
Learn more about NASA’s IMAP at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/imap/
-end-
Abbey Interrante
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124
abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
Leejay Lockhart
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-747-8310
leejay.lockhart@nasa.gov
Rare Type of Black Hole Snacks on Star
Rare Type of Black Hole Snacks on Star
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes, identified by X-ray emission (in purple) in this image released on July 24, 2025. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy. These rare black holes are called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and weigh between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun.
Learn more about IMBHs and what studying them can tell us about the universe.
Image credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Rare Type of Black Hole Snacks on Star
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes, identified by X-ray emission (in purple) in this image released on July 24, 2025. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy. These rare black holes are called intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and weigh between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun.
Learn more about IMBHs and what studying them can tell us about the universe.
Image credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Hubble Captures a Tarantula
- Hubble Home
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- Impact & Benefits
- Science
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2 min read
Hubble Captures a Tarantula This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a portion of the Tarantula Nebula. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. MurrayThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures incredible details in the dusty clouds of a star-forming factory called the Tarantula Nebula. Most of the nebulae Hubble images are in our galaxy, but this nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region, not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. This image is very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.
This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing program called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from Greek mythology. The Scylla program was designed to complement another Hubble observing program called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULLYSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.
Explore More:Hubble’s Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region
30 Doradus: A Massive Star-Forming Region
Large Magellanic Cloud’s Star-Forming Region, 30 Doradus
Explore the Night Sky: Caldwell 103/Tarantula Nebula
Multiple Generations of Stars in the Tarantula Nebula
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Exploring the Birth of Stars
Seeing ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light helps Hubble uncover the mysteries of star formation.
The Death Throes of Stars
When stars die, they throw off their outer layers, creating the clouds that birth new stars.
Hubble’s Nebulae
These ethereal veils of gas and dust tell the story of star birth and death.
Hubble Captures a Tarantula
- Hubble Home
- Overview
- Impact & Benefits
- Science
- Observatory
- Team
- Multimedia
- News
- More
2 min read
Hubble Captures a Tarantula This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a portion of the Tarantula Nebula. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. MurrayThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures incredible details in the dusty clouds of a star-forming factory called the Tarantula Nebula. Most of the nebulae Hubble images are in our galaxy, but this nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region, not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. This image is very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.
This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing program called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from Greek mythology. The Scylla program was designed to complement another Hubble observing program called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULLYSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.
Explore More:Hubble’s Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region
30 Doradus: A Massive Star-Forming Region
Large Magellanic Cloud’s Star-Forming Region, 30 Doradus
Explore the Night Sky: Caldwell 103/Tarantula Nebula
Multiple Generations of Stars in the Tarantula Nebula
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Exploring the Birth of Stars
Seeing ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light helps Hubble uncover the mysteries of star formation.
The Death Throes of Stars
When stars die, they throw off their outer layers, creating the clouds that birth new stars.
Hubble’s Nebulae
These ethereal veils of gas and dust tell the story of star birth and death.
Linking Local Lithologies to a Larger Landscape
- Perseverance Home
- Science
- News and Features
- Multimedia
- Mars Missions
- Mars Home
2 min read
Linking Local Lithologies to a Larger Landscape This image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument’s right eye, shows a collection of ridge-forming boulders. The rover acquired this image looking south along the ridge while exploring the “Westport” region of the outer crater rim on July 18, 2025 — Sol 1568, or Martian day 1,568 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 11:53:04. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUWritten by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. Student at Purdue University
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is continuing to explore a boundary visible from orbit dividing bright, fractured outcrop from darker, smoother regolith (also known as a contact). The team has called this region “Westport,” (a fitting title, as the rover is exploring the western-most rim of Jezero), which hosts a contact between the smoother, clay-bearing “Krokodillen” unit and an outcrop of olivine-bearing boulders that converge to form a ridge on the outer Jezero crater rim. To learn more about the nature of this contact, see this blog post by Dr. Melissa Rice. Piecing together geologic events like the formation of this olivine-bearing material on Jezero’s crater rim may allow us to better understand Mars’ most ancient history.
The rover has encountered several olivine-bearing rocks while traversing the rim, but it is unclear if, and how these rocks are all connected. Jezero crater is in a region of Mars known as Northeast Syrtis, which hosts the largest contiguous exposure (more than 113,000 square kilometers, or more than 43,600 square miles) of olivine-rich material identified from orbit on Mars (about the same square mileage as the state of Ohio!). The olivine-rich materials are typically found draping over older rocks, often infilling depressions, which may provide clues to their origins. Possible origins for the olivine-rich materials in Northeast Syrtis may include (but are not limited to): (1) intrusive igneous rocks (rocks that cool from magma underground), (2) melt formed and deposited during an impact event, or (3) pyroclastic ash fall or flow from a volcanic eruption.
The Perseverance rover’s investigation of the olivine-bearing materials on the rim of Jezero crater may allow us to better constrain the history of the broader volcanic units present in the Northeast Syrtis region. Olivine-rich material in Northeast Syrtis is consistently sandwiched between older, clay-rich rock and younger, more olivine-poor material (commonly referred to as the “mafic capping” unit), and may act as an important marker for recording early alteration by water, which could help us understand early habitable environments on Mars. We see potential evidence of all of these units on Jezero crater’s rim based on orbital mapping. If the olivine-bearing rocks the Perseverance rover is encountering on the rim are related to these materials, we may be able to better constrain the age of this widespread geologic unit on Mars.
Learn more about Perseverance’s science instruments
For more Perseverance blog posts, visit Mars 2020 Mission Updates
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Linking Local Lithologies to a Larger Landscape
- Perseverance Home
- Science
- News and Features
- Multimedia
- Mars Missions
- Mars Home
2 min read
Linking Local Lithologies to a Larger Landscape This image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument’s right eye, shows a collection of ridge-forming boulders. The rover acquired this image looking south along the ridge while exploring the “Westport” region of the outer crater rim on July 18, 2025 — Sol 1568, or Martian day 1,568 of the Mars 2020 mission — at the local mean solar time of 11:53:04. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUWritten by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. Student at Purdue University
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is continuing to explore a boundary visible from orbit dividing bright, fractured outcrop from darker, smoother regolith (also known as a contact). The team has called this region “Westport,” (a fitting title, as the rover is exploring the western-most rim of Jezero), which hosts a contact between the smoother, clay-bearing “Krokodillen” unit and an outcrop of olivine-bearing boulders that converge to form a ridge on the outer Jezero crater rim. To learn more about the nature of this contact, see this blog post by Dr. Melissa Rice. Piecing together geologic events like the formation of this olivine-bearing material on Jezero’s crater rim may allow us to better understand Mars’ most ancient history.
The rover has encountered several olivine-bearing rocks while traversing the rim, but it is unclear if, and how these rocks are all connected. Jezero crater is in a region of Mars known as Northeast Syrtis, which hosts the largest contiguous exposure (more than 113,000 square kilometers, or more than 43,600 square miles) of olivine-rich material identified from orbit on Mars (about the same square mileage as the state of Ohio!). The olivine-rich materials are typically found draping over older rocks, often infilling depressions, which may provide clues to their origins. Possible origins for the olivine-rich materials in Northeast Syrtis may include (but are not limited to): (1) intrusive igneous rocks (rocks that cool from magma underground), (2) melt formed and deposited during an impact event, or (3) pyroclastic ash fall or flow from a volcanic eruption.
The Perseverance rover’s investigation of the olivine-bearing materials on the rim of Jezero crater may allow us to better constrain the history of the broader volcanic units present in the Northeast Syrtis region. Olivine-rich material in Northeast Syrtis is consistently sandwiched between older, clay-rich rock and younger, more olivine-poor material (commonly referred to as the “mafic capping” unit), and may act as an important marker for recording early alteration by water, which could help us understand early habitable environments on Mars. We see potential evidence of all of these units on Jezero crater’s rim based on orbital mapping. If the olivine-bearing rocks the Perseverance rover is encountering on the rim are related to these materials, we may be able to better constrain the age of this widespread geologic unit on Mars.
Learn more about Perseverance’s science instruments
For more Perseverance blog posts, visit Mars 2020 Mission Updates
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Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
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Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
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US-French SWOT Satellite Measures Tsunami After Massive Quake
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The SWOT satellite caught the leading edge of the tsunami wave (red) that rolled through the Pacific Ocean on July 30. Sea level data, shown in the highlighted swath, is plotted against a NOAA tsunami forecast model in the background. A red star marks the location of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami.NASA/JPL-CaltechData provided by the water satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency, is helping to improve tsunami forecast models, benefitting coastal communities.
The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite captured the tsunami spawned by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, 11:25 a.m. local time. The satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), recorded the tsunami about 70 minutes after the earthquake struck.
Disturbances like an earthquake or underwater landslide trigger a tsunami when the event is large enough to displace the entire column of seawater from the ocean floor to the surface. This results in waves that ripple out from the disturbance much like dropping a pebble into a pond generates a series of waves.
“The power of SWOT’s broad, paintbrush-like strokes over the ocean is in providing crucial real-world validation, unlocking new physics, and marking a leap towards more accurate early warnings and safer futures,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA Earth lead and SWOT program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This visualization depicts the leading edge of the tsunami based on sea surface height data from SWOT looking from south to north, when the leading edge was more than 1.5 feet (45 centimeters) high, east of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.NASA/JPL-CaltechData from SWOT provided a multidimensional look at the leading edge of the tsunami wave triggered by the Kamchatka earthquake. The measurements included a wave height exceeding 1.5 feet (45 centimeters), shown in red in the highlighted track, as well as a look at the shape and direction of travel of the leading edge of the tsunami. The SWOT data, shown in the highlighted swath running from the southwest to the northeast in the visual, is plotted against a forecast model of the tsunami produced by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center for Tsunami Research. Comparing the observations from SWOT to the model helps forecasters validate their model, ensuring its accuracy.
“A 1.5-foot-tall wave might not seem like much, but tsunamis are waves that extend from the seafloor to the ocean’s surface,” said Ben Hamlington, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “What might only be a foot or two in the open ocean can become a 30-foot wave in shallower water at the coast.”
The tsunami measurements SWOT collected are helping scientists at NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research improve their tsunami forecast model. Based on outputs from that model, NOAA sends out alerts to coastal communities potentially in the path of a tsunami. The model uses a set of earthquake-tsunami scenarios based on past observations as well as real-time observations from sensors in the ocean.
The SWOT data on the height, shape, and direction of the tsunami wave is key to improving these types of forecast models. “The satellite observations help researchers to better reverse engineer the cause of a tsunami, and in this case, they also showed us that NOAA’s tsunami forecast was right on the money,” said Josh Willis, a JPL oceanographer.
The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research tested their model with SWOT’s tsunami data, and the results were exciting, said Vasily Titov, the center’s chief scientist in Seattle. “It suggests SWOT data could significantly enhance operational tsunami forecasts — a capability sought since the 2004 Sumatra event.” The tsunami generated by that devastating quake killed thousands of people and caused widespread damage in Indonesia.
More About SWOTThe SWOT satellite was jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. NASA JPL, managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA provided the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. The Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground operations were provided by CNES. The KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly was provided by CSA.
To learn more about SWOT, visit:
News Media ContactsJane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
ane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-103
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US-French SWOT Satellite Measures Tsunami After Massive Quake
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The SWOT satellite caught the leading edge of the tsunami wave (red) that rolled through the Pacific Ocean on July 30. Sea level data, shown in the highlighted swath, is plotted against a NOAA tsunami forecast model in the background. A red star marks the location of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami.NASA/JPL-CaltechData provided by the water satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency, is helping to improve tsunami forecast models, benefitting coastal communities.
The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite captured the tsunami spawned by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, 11:25 a.m. local time. The satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), recorded the tsunami about 70 minutes after the earthquake struck.
Disturbances like an earthquake or underwater landslide trigger a tsunami when the event is large enough to displace the entire column of seawater from the ocean floor to the surface. This results in waves that ripple out from the disturbance much like dropping a pebble into a pond generates a series of waves.
“The power of SWOT’s broad, paintbrush-like strokes over the ocean is in providing crucial real-world validation, unlocking new physics, and marking a leap towards more accurate early warnings and safer futures,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA Earth lead and SWOT program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This visualization depicts the leading edge of the tsunami based on sea surface height data from SWOT looking from south to north, when the leading edge was more than 1.5 feet (45 centimeters) high, east of Japan in the Pacific Ocean.NASA/JPL-CaltechData from SWOT provided a multidimensional look at the leading edge of the tsunami wave triggered by the Kamchatka earthquake. The measurements included a wave height exceeding 1.5 feet (45 centimeters), shown in red in the highlighted track, as well as a look at the shape and direction of travel of the leading edge of the tsunami. The SWOT data, shown in the highlighted swath running from the southwest to the northeast in the visual, is plotted against a forecast model of the tsunami produced by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Center for Tsunami Research. Comparing the observations from SWOT to the model helps forecasters validate their model, ensuring its accuracy.
“A 1.5-foot-tall wave might not seem like much, but tsunamis are waves that extend from the seafloor to the ocean’s surface,” said Ben Hamlington, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “What might only be a foot or two in the open ocean can become a 30-foot wave in shallower water at the coast.”
The tsunami measurements SWOT collected are helping scientists at NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research improve their tsunami forecast model. Based on outputs from that model, NOAA sends out alerts to coastal communities potentially in the path of a tsunami. The model uses a set of earthquake-tsunami scenarios based on past observations as well as real-time observations from sensors in the ocean.
The SWOT data on the height, shape, and direction of the tsunami wave is key to improving these types of forecast models. “The satellite observations help researchers to better reverse engineer the cause of a tsunami, and in this case, they also showed us that NOAA’s tsunami forecast was right on the money,” said Josh Willis, a JPL oceanographer.
The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research tested their model with SWOT’s tsunami data, and the results were exciting, said Vasily Titov, the center’s chief scientist in Seattle. “It suggests SWOT data could significantly enhance operational tsunami forecasts — a capability sought since the 2004 Sumatra event.” The tsunami generated by that devastating quake killed thousands of people and caused widespread damage in Indonesia.
More About SWOTThe SWOT satellite was jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. NASA JPL, managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA provided the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. The Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground operations were provided by CNES. The KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly was provided by CSA.
To learn more about SWOT, visit:
News Media ContactsJane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
ane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-103
Share Details Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 4 min read NASA Supercomputers Take on Life Near Greenland’s Most Active Glacier Article 5 days ago 4 min read NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures Mars Vista As Clear As Day Article 5 days ago 1 min read NASA’s Black Marble: Stories from the Night SkyStudying the glowing patterns of Earth’s surface helps us understand human activity, respond to disasters,…
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NASA Uses Wind Tunnel to Test Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Wing
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA employees Broderic J. Gonzalez, left, and David W. Shank install pieces of a 7-foot wing model in preparation for testing in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in May 2025. The lessons learned will be shared with the public to support advanced air mobility aircraft development. NASA/Mark KnoppThe advanced air mobility industry is currently working to produce novel aircraft ranging from air taxis to autonomous cargo drones, and all of those designs will require extensive testing – which is why NASA is working to give them a head-start by studying a special kind of model wing. The wing is a scale model of a design used in a type of aircraft called a “tiltwing,” which can swing its wing and rotors from vertical to horizontal. This allows the aircraft to take off, hover, and land like a helicopter, or fly like a fixed-wing airplane. This design enables versatility in a range of operating environments.
Several companies are working on tiltwings, but NASA’s research into the scale wing will also impact nearly all types of advanced air mobility aircraft designs.
“NASA research supporting advanced air mobility demonstrates the agency’s commitment to supporting this rapidly growing industry,” said Brandon Litherland, principal investigator for the test at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “Tool improvements in these areas will greatly improve our ability to accurately predict the performance of new advanced air mobility aircraft, which supports the adoption of promising designs. Gaining confidence through testing ensures we can identify safe operating conditions for these new aircraft.”
NASA researcher Norman W. Schaeffler adjusts a propellor, which is part of a 7-foot wing model that was recently tested at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In May and June, NASA researchers tested the wing in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel to collect data on critical propeller-wing interactions. The lessons learned will be shared with the public to support advanced air mobility aircraft development.NASA/Mark KnoppIn May and June, NASA tested a 7-foot wing model with multiple propellers in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at Langley. The model is a “semispan,” or the right half of a complete wing. Understanding how multiple propellers and the wing interact under various speeds and conditions provides valuable insight for the advanced air mobility industry. This information supports improved aircraft designs and enhances the analysis tools used to assess the safety of future designs.
This work is managed by the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology project under NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program in support of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission, which seeks to deliver data to guide the industry’s development of electric air taxis and drones.
“This tiltwing test provides a unique database to validate the next generation of design tools for use by the broader advanced air mobility community,” said Norm Schaeffler, the test director, based at Langley. “Having design tools validated for a broad range of aircraft will accelerate future design cycles and enable informed decisions about aerodynamic and acoustic performance.”
In May and June, NASA researchers tested a 7-foot wing model in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The team collected data on critical propeller-wing interactions over the course of several weeks.NASA/Mark KnoppThe wing is outfitted with over 700 sensors designed to measure pressure distribution, along with several other types of tools to help researchers collect data from the wing and propeller interactions. The wing is mounted on special sensors to measure the forces applied to the model. Sensors in each motor-propeller hub to measure the forces acting on the components independently.
The model was mounted on a turntable inside the wind tunnel, so the team could collect data at different wing tilt angles, flap positions, and rotation rates. The team also varied the tunnel wind speed and adjusted the relative positions of the propellers.
Researchers collected data relevant to cruise, hover, and transition conditions for advanced air mobility aircraft. Once they analyze this data, the information will be released to industry on NASA’s website.
Share Details Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactTeresa Whitingteresa.whiting@nasa.gov Related Terms Explore More 3 min read Three NASA Langley Employees Win Prestigious Silver Snoopy Awards Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA Drop Test Supports Safer Air Taxi Design and Certification Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read NASA Rehearses How to Measure X-59’s Noise Levels Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAArmstrong Flight Research Center
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NASA Uses Wind Tunnel to Test Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft Wing
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA employees Broderic J. Gonzalez, left, and David W. Shank install pieces of a 7-foot wing model in preparation for testing in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in May 2025. The lessons learned will be shared with the public to support advanced air mobility aircraft development. NASA/Mark KnoppThe advanced air mobility industry is currently working to produce novel aircraft ranging from air taxis to autonomous cargo drones, and all of those designs will require extensive testing – which is why NASA is working to give them a head-start by studying a special kind of model wing. The wing is a scale model of a design used in a type of aircraft called a “tiltwing,” which can swing its wing and rotors from vertical to horizontal. This allows the aircraft to take off, hover, and land like a helicopter, or fly like a fixed-wing airplane. This design enables versatility in a range of operating environments.
Several companies are working on tiltwings, but NASA’s research into the scale wing will also impact nearly all types of advanced air mobility aircraft designs.
“NASA research supporting advanced air mobility demonstrates the agency’s commitment to supporting this rapidly growing industry,” said Brandon Litherland, principal investigator for the test at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “Tool improvements in these areas will greatly improve our ability to accurately predict the performance of new advanced air mobility aircraft, which supports the adoption of promising designs. Gaining confidence through testing ensures we can identify safe operating conditions for these new aircraft.”
NASA researcher Norman W. Schaeffler adjusts a propellor, which is part of a 7-foot wing model that was recently tested at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In May and June, NASA researchers tested the wing in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel to collect data on critical propeller-wing interactions. The lessons learned will be shared with the public to support advanced air mobility aircraft development.NASA/Mark KnoppIn May and June, NASA tested a 7-foot wing model with multiple propellers in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at Langley. The model is a “semispan,” or the right half of a complete wing. Understanding how multiple propellers and the wing interact under various speeds and conditions provides valuable insight for the advanced air mobility industry. This information supports improved aircraft designs and enhances the analysis tools used to assess the safety of future designs.
This work is managed by the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology project under NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program in support of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission, which seeks to deliver data to guide the industry’s development of electric air taxis and drones.
“This tiltwing test provides a unique database to validate the next generation of design tools for use by the broader advanced air mobility community,” said Norm Schaeffler, the test director, based at Langley. “Having design tools validated for a broad range of aircraft will accelerate future design cycles and enable informed decisions about aerodynamic and acoustic performance.”
In May and June, NASA researchers tested a 7-foot wing model in the 14-by-22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The team collected data on critical propeller-wing interactions over the course of several weeks.NASA/Mark KnoppThe wing is outfitted with over 700 sensors designed to measure pressure distribution, along with several other types of tools to help researchers collect data from the wing and propeller interactions. The wing is mounted on special sensors to measure the forces applied to the model. Sensors in each motor-propeller hub to measure the forces acting on the components independently.
The model was mounted on a turntable inside the wind tunnel, so the team could collect data at different wing tilt angles, flap positions, and rotation rates. The team also varied the tunnel wind speed and adjusted the relative positions of the propellers.
Researchers collected data relevant to cruise, hover, and transition conditions for advanced air mobility aircraft. Once they analyze this data, the information will be released to industry on NASA’s website.
Share Details Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactTeresa Whitingteresa.whiting@nasa.gov Related Terms Explore More 3 min read Three NASA Langley Employees Win Prestigious Silver Snoopy Awards Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA Drop Test Supports Safer Air Taxi Design and Certification Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read NASA Rehearses How to Measure X-59’s Noise Levels Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAArmstrong Flight Research Center
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NASA’s Artemis II Crew Trains in Orion
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Trains in Orion
The Artemis II crew (from left to right) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman don their Orion Crew Survival System Suits for a multi-day crew module training beginning July 31, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the crew, wearing clean room apparel, are members of the Artemis II closeout crew.
Testing included a suited crew test and crew equipment interface test, performing launch day and simulated orbital activities inside the Orion spacecraft. This series of tests marks the first time the crew entered their spacecraft that will take them around the Moon and back to Earth while wearing their spacesuits.
Image credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Trains in Orion
The Artemis II crew (from left to right) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman don their Orion Crew Survival System Suits for a multi-day crew module training beginning July 31, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the crew, wearing clean room apparel, are members of the Artemis II closeout crew.
Testing included a suited crew test and crew equipment interface test, performing launch day and simulated orbital activities inside the Orion spacecraft. This series of tests marks the first time the crew entered their spacecraft that will take them around the Moon and back to Earth while wearing their spacesuits.
Image credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak
NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin
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Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.
Alpha Centauri, located in the far southern sky, is made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both Sun-like stars, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky. While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved challenging to confirm.
Now, Webb’s observations from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. The results have been accepted in a series of two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.
“With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make, even with the world’s most powerful space telescope, because these stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly,” said Charles Beichman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech’s IPAC astronomy center, co-first author on the new papers. “Webb was designed and optimized to find the most distant galaxies in the universe. The operations team at the Space Telescope Science Institute had to come up with a custom observing sequence just for this target, and their extra effort paid off spectacularly.”
Image A: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (DSS, Hubble, Webb) This image shows the Alpha Centauri star system from several different ground- and space-based observatories: the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky, and the closest Sun-like star to Earth. The ground-based image from DSS shows the triple system as a single source of light, while Hubble resolves the two Sun-like stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. The image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which uses a coronagraphic mask to block the bright glare from Alpha Centauri A, reveals a potential planet orbiting the star. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, DSS, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)Several rounds of meticulously planned observations by Webb, careful analysis by the research team, and extensive computer modeling helped determine that the source seen in Webb’s image is likely to be a planet, and not a background object (like a galaxy), foreground object (a passing asteroid), or other detector or image artifact.
The first observations of the system took place in August 2024, using the coronagraphic mask aboard MIRI to block Alpha Centauri A’s light. While extra brightness from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B complicated the analysis, the team was able to subtract out the light from both stars to reveal an object over 10,000 times fainter than Alpha Centauri A, separated from the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.
Image B: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (Webb MIRI Image Detail) This three-panel image captures NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observational search for a planet around the nearest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri A. The initial image shows the bright glare of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the middle panel then shows the system with a coronagraphic mask placed over Alpha Centauri A to block its bright glare. However, the way the light bends around the edges of the coronagraph creates ripples of light in the surrounding space. The telescope’s optics (its mirrors and support structures) cause some light to interfere with itself, producing circular and spoke-like patterns. These complex light patterns, along with light from the nearby Alpha Centauri B, make it incredibly difficult to spot faint planets. In the panel at the right, astronomers have subtracted the known patterns (using reference images and algorithms) to clean up the image and reveal faint sources like the candidate planet. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)While the initial detection was exciting, the research team needed more data to come to a firm conclusion. However, additional observations of the system in February 2025 and April 2025 (using Director’s Discretionary Time) did not reveal any objects like the one identified in August 2024.
“We are faced with the case of a disappearing planet! To investigate this mystery, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential orbits, incorporating the knowledge gained when we saw the planet, as well as when we did not,” said PhD student Aniket Sanghi of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Sanghi is a co-first author on the two papers covering the team’s research.
In these simulations, the team took into account both a 2019 sighting of the potential exoplanet candidate by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the new data from Webb, and considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning the planet wouldn’t get flung out of the system.
Researchers say a non-detection in the second and third round of observations with Webb isn’t surprising.
“We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025,” said Sanghi.
Image C: Alpha Centauri A Planet Candidate (Artist’s Concept) This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Observations of the triple star system Alpha Centauri using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indicate the potential gas giant, about the mass of Saturn, orbiting the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth. In this concept, Alpha Centauri A is depicted at the upper left of the planet, while the other Sun-like star in the system, Alpha Centauri B, is at the upper right. Our Sun is shown as a small dot of light between those two stars. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)Based on the brightness of the planet in the mid-infrared observations and the orbit simulations, researchers say it could be a gas giant approximately the mass of Saturn orbiting Alpha Centauri A in an elliptical path varying between 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth.
“If confirmed, the potential planet seen in the Webb image of Alpha Centauri A would mark a new milestone for exoplanet imaging efforts,” Sanghi says. “Of all the directly imaged planets, this would be the closest to its star seen so far. It’s also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our solar system, and nearest to our home, Earth,” he says. “Its very existence in a system of two closely separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments.”
If confirmed by additional observations, the team’s results could transform the future of exoplanet science.
“This would become a touchstone object for exoplanet science, with multiple opportunities for detailed characterization by Webb and other observatories,” said Beichman.
For example, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027 and potentially as early as fall 2026, is equipped with dedicated hardware that will test new technologies to observe binary systems like Alpha Centauri in search of other worlds. Roman’s visible light data would complement Webb’s infrared observations, yielding unique insights on the size and reflectivity of the planet.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb 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:
DownloadsClick any image to open a larger version.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the science paper by C. Beichman et al.
View/Download the science paper by A. Sanghi et al.
Media ContactsLaura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Video: How to Study Exoplanets: Webb and Challenges
Webb Blog: NASA’s Webb Takes Its First-Ever Direct Image of Distant World
Webb Blog: How Webb’s Coronagraphs Reveal Exoplanets in the Infrared
Video: Eclipse/Coronagraph Animation
Related For Kids En Español Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
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Share Details Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin
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Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.
Alpha Centauri, located in the far southern sky, is made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both Sun-like stars, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky. While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved challenging to confirm.
Now, Webb’s observations from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. The results have been accepted in a series of two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.
“With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make, even with the world’s most powerful space telescope, because these stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly,” said Charles Beichman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech’s IPAC astronomy center, co-first author on the new papers. “Webb was designed and optimized to find the most distant galaxies in the universe. The operations team at the Space Telescope Science Institute had to come up with a custom observing sequence just for this target, and their extra effort paid off spectacularly.”
Image A: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (DSS, Hubble, Webb) This image shows the Alpha Centauri star system from several different ground- and space-based observatories: the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky, and the closest Sun-like star to Earth. The ground-based image from DSS shows the triple system as a single source of light, while Hubble resolves the two Sun-like stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. The image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which uses a coronagraphic mask to block the bright glare from Alpha Centauri A, reveals a potential planet orbiting the star. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, DSS, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)Several rounds of meticulously planned observations by Webb, careful analysis by the research team, and extensive computer modeling helped determine that the source seen in Webb’s image is likely to be a planet, and not a background object (like a galaxy), foreground object (a passing asteroid), or other detector or image artifact.
The first observations of the system took place in August 2024, using the coronagraphic mask aboard MIRI to block Alpha Centauri A’s light. While extra brightness from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B complicated the analysis, the team was able to subtract out the light from both stars to reveal an object over 10,000 times fainter than Alpha Centauri A, separated from the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.
Image B: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (Webb MIRI Image Detail) This three-panel image captures NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observational search for a planet around the nearest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri A. The initial image shows the bright glare of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the middle panel then shows the system with a coronagraphic mask placed over Alpha Centauri A to block its bright glare. However, the way the light bends around the edges of the coronagraph creates ripples of light in the surrounding space. The telescope’s optics (its mirrors and support structures) cause some light to interfere with itself, producing circular and spoke-like patterns. These complex light patterns, along with light from the nearby Alpha Centauri B, make it incredibly difficult to spot faint planets. In the panel at the right, astronomers have subtracted the known patterns (using reference images and algorithms) to clean up the image and reveal faint sources like the candidate planet. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)While the initial detection was exciting, the research team needed more data to come to a firm conclusion. However, additional observations of the system in February 2025 and April 2025 (using Director’s Discretionary Time) did not reveal any objects like the one identified in August 2024.
“We are faced with the case of a disappearing planet! To investigate this mystery, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential orbits, incorporating the knowledge gained when we saw the planet, as well as when we did not,” said PhD student Aniket Sanghi of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Sanghi is a co-first author on the two papers covering the team’s research.
In these simulations, the team took into account both a 2019 sighting of the potential exoplanet candidate by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the new data from Webb, and considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning the planet wouldn’t get flung out of the system.
Researchers say a non-detection in the second and third round of observations with Webb isn’t surprising.
“We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025,” said Sanghi.
Image C: Alpha Centauri A Planet Candidate (Artist’s Concept) This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Observations of the triple star system Alpha Centauri using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indicate the potential gas giant, about the mass of Saturn, orbiting the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth. In this concept, Alpha Centauri A is depicted at the upper left of the planet, while the other Sun-like star in the system, Alpha Centauri B, is at the upper right. Our Sun is shown as a small dot of light between those two stars. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)Based on the brightness of the planet in the mid-infrared observations and the orbit simulations, researchers say it could be a gas giant approximately the mass of Saturn orbiting Alpha Centauri A in an elliptical path varying between 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth.
“If confirmed, the potential planet seen in the Webb image of Alpha Centauri A would mark a new milestone for exoplanet imaging efforts,” Sanghi says. “Of all the directly imaged planets, this would be the closest to its star seen so far. It’s also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our solar system, and nearest to our home, Earth,” he says. “Its very existence in a system of two closely separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments.”
If confirmed by additional observations, the team’s results could transform the future of exoplanet science.
“This would become a touchstone object for exoplanet science, with multiple opportunities for detailed characterization by Webb and other observatories,” said Beichman.
For example, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027 and potentially as early as fall 2026, is equipped with dedicated hardware that will test new technologies to observe binary systems like Alpha Centauri in search of other worlds. Roman’s visible light data would complement Webb’s infrared observations, yielding unique insights on the size and reflectivity of the planet.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb 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:
DownloadsClick any image to open a larger version.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the science paper by C. Beichman et al.
View/Download the science paper by A. Sanghi et al.
Media ContactsLaura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Video: How to Study Exoplanets: Webb and Challenges
Webb Blog: NASA’s Webb Takes Its First-Ever Direct Image of Distant World
Webb Blog: How Webb’s Coronagraphs Reveal Exoplanets in the Infrared
Video: Eclipse/Coronagraph Animation
Related For Kids En Español Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Exoplanets
Stars
Universe
Share Details Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Three NASA Langley Employees Win Prestigious Silver Snoopy Awards
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) From left to right, Astronaut Tracy Dyson, Jeremy Shidner, Sara R. Wilson, and Christopher Broadaway pose for a photo after the 2025 Silver Snoopy Awards ceremony. NASA/Mark KnoppThree employees from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently earned the Silver Snoopy award, a prestigious honor given to NASA employees and contractors across the agency for exceptional achievements related to spaceflight safety or mission success. Christopher Broadaway, Jeremy Shidner, and Sara Wilson received the awards during a ceremony held at the center on July 22.
The Silver Snoopy award is given personally by NASA astronauts and is presented to less than one percent of the agency’s workforce annually. The award is one of several overseen by the Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Program at NASA. Established in 1963, the SFA Program is vital in ensuring quality and flight safety of America’s space program. The SFA Program works to highlight the individuals behind the success of NASA’s programs as well as motivate the next generation of innovators and cosmic explorers.
Astronaut Tracy Dyson visited Langley to present the Silver Snoopy lapel pin and a framed Silver Snoopy certificate. Dyson flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on STS-118, served as flight engineer for Expedition 23/24, and conducted hundreds of hours of scientific investigations aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 70/71. She has spent a total of 373 days in space and dedicated over 23 hours to spacewalks.
As a flight engineer with substantial experience, Dyson understands the importance of space flight safety.
“Those who are receiving this award didn’t do it because they came nine to five and left. It’s not because it was just their job,” she said. “It’s because it’s their life, and our lives are safer and better for it.”
Astronaut Tracy Dyson signs certificates of appreciation prior to the 2025 Silver Snoopy Awards ceremony. NASA/Mark KnoppSilver Snoopy recipient and aerospace engineer Jeremey Shidner echoed Dyson’s perspective.
“This level of trust is particularly profound because astronauts understand better than anyone the countless systems, procedures, and people that must work flawlessly for a mission to succeed,” he said. “When astronauts single someone out for recognition, it reflects their confidence that this person embodies the same commitment to excellence and safety that they themselves must maintain.”
The prestigious award consists of a certificate of appreciation signed by Dyson, an authentication letter, and a miniature sterling silver lapel pin in the shape of the well-loved character Snoopy from the comic strip “Peanuts.” Each pin awarded has flown in space. The pins awarded to Langley’s recipients flew aboard STS-118.
The 2025 Silver Snoopy Award pins NASA/Mark KnoppHere are the three award recipients from Langley and their achievements:
Christopher Broadaway: For exemplary support in assisting the Commercial Crew Program ensure safety and mission success in industry partners’ human spaceflight missions.
Jeremy Shidner: For significant contributions to the Commercial Crew Program to ensure flight safety and mission success for Entry, Descent, and Landing. Collaborating closely with the Crew Flight Test team and Mission Operations Flight Dynamics Officers, he refined the simulation model to incorporate real pilot performance data, which resulted in increased entry accuracy, eliminating an elevated risk to crew safety.
Sara R. Wilson: For engineering excellence in the application of advanced statistical tools and methods characterizing NASA’s human spaceflight missions. She also played a key role in developing standardized tests for advanced lunar spacesuit gloves, creating consistency in evaluating materials for extreme lunar environments.
Sarah Reeps and Layla Smith
NASA Langley Research Center
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