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NASA Works with Boeing, Other Collaborators Toward More Efficient Global Flights
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The 2025 Boeing ecoDemonstrator Explorer, a United Airlines 737-8, sits outside a United hangar in Houston.Boeing / Paul Weatherman
Picture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching your destination airport. And then … you notice your plane is moving away. Pretty far away. You approach again and again, only to realize you’re on a long, circling loop that can last an hour or more before you land.
If this sounds familiar, there’s a good chance the delay was caused by issues with trajectory prediction. Your plane changed its course, perhaps altering its altitude or path to avoid weather or turbulence, and as a result its predicted arrival time was thrown off.
“Often, if there’s a change in your trajectory – you’re arriving slightly early, you’re arriving slightly late – you can get stuck in this really long, rotational holding pattern,” said Shivanjli Sharma, NASA’s Air Traffic Management–eXploration (ATM-X) project manager and the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
This inconvenience to travelers is also an economic and efficiency challenge for the aviation sector, which is why NASA has worked for years to study the issue, and recently teamed with Boeing to conduct real-time tests an advanced system that shares trajectory data between an aircraft and its support systems.
Boeing began flying a United Airlines 737 for about two weeks in October testing a data communication system designed to improve information flow between the flight deck, air traffic control, and airline operation centers. The work involved several domestic flights based in Houston, as well as flight over the Atlantic to Edinburgh, Scotland.
This partnership has allowed NASA to further its commitment to transformational aviation research.Shivanjli sharma
NASA's Air Traffic Management—eXploration project manager
The testing was Boeing’s most recent ecoDemonstrator Explorer program, through which the company works with public and private partners to accelerate aviation innovations. This year’s ecoDemonstrator flight partners included NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, United Airlines, and several aerospace companies as well as academic and government researchers.
NASA’s work in the testing involved the development of an oceanic trajectory prediction service – a system for sharing and updating trajectory information, even over a long, transoceanic flight that involves crossing over from U.S. air traffic systems into those of another country. The collaboration allowed NASA to get a more accurate look at what’s required to reduce gaps in data sharing.
“At what rate do you need these updates in an oceanic environment?” Sharma said. “What information do you need from the aircraft? Having the most accurate trajectory information will allow aircraft to move more efficiently around the globe.”
Boeing and the ecoDemonstrator collaborators plan to use the flight data to move the data communication system toward operational service. The work has allowed NASA to continue its work to improve trajectory prediction, and through its connection with partners, put its research into practical use as quickly as possible.
“This partnership has allowed NASA to further its commitment to transformational aviation research,” Sharma said. “Bringing our expertise in trajectory prediction together with the contributions of so many innovative partners contributes to global aviation efficiency that will yield real benefits for travelers and industry.”
NASA ATM-X’s part in the collaboration falls under the agency’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe, efficient aviation transportation operations that benefit the flying public and industry. The work is supported through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
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Share Details Last Updated Dec 11, 2025 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsNASA Works with Boeing, Other Collaborators Toward More Efficient Global Flights
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The 2025 Boeing ecoDemonstrator Explorer, a United Airlines 737-8, sits outside a United hangar in Houston.Boeing / Paul WeathermanPicture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching your destination airport. And then … you notice your plane is moving away. Pretty far away. You approach again and again, only to realize you’re on a long, circling loop that can last an hour or more before you land.
If this sounds familiar, there’s a good chance the delay was caused by issues with trajectory prediction. Your plane changed its course, perhaps altering its altitude or path to avoid weather or turbulence, and as a result its predicted arrival time was thrown off.
“Often, if there’s a change in your trajectory – you’re arriving slightly early, you’re arriving slightly late – you can get stuck in this really long, rotational holding pattern,” said Shivanjli Sharma, NASA’s Air Traffic Management–eXploration (ATM-X) project manager and the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
This inconvenience to travelers is also an economic and efficiency challenge for the aviation sector, which is why NASA has worked for years to study the issue, and recently teamed with Boeing to conduct real-time tests an advanced system that shares trajectory data between an aircraft and its support systems.
Boeing began flying a United Airlines 737 for about two weeks in October testing a data communication system designed to improve information flow between the flight deck, air traffic control, and airline operation centers. The work involved several domestic flights based in Houston, as well as flight over the Atlantic to Edinburgh, Scotland.
This partnership has allowed NASA to further its commitment to transformational aviation research.Shivanjli sharma
NASA's Air Traffic Management—eXploration project manager
The testing was Boeing’s most recent ecoDemonstrator Explorer program, through which the company works with public and private partners to accelerate aviation innovations. This year’s ecoDemonstrator flight partners included NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, United Airlines, and several aerospace companies as well as academic and government researchers.
NASA’s work in the testing involved the development of an oceanic trajectory prediction service – a system for sharing and updating trajectory information, even over a long, transoceanic flight that involves crossing over from U.S. air traffic systems into those of another country. The collaboration allowed NASA to get a more accurate look at what’s required to reduce gaps in data sharing.
“At what rate do you need these updates in an oceanic environment?” Sharma said. “What information do you need from the aircraft? Having the most accurate trajectory information will allow aircraft to move more efficiently around the globe.”
Boeing and the ecoDemonstrator collaborators plan to use the flight data to move the data communication system toward operational service. The work has allowed NASA to continue its work to improve trajectory prediction, and through its connection with partners, put its research into practical use as quickly as possible.
“This partnership has allowed NASA to further its commitment to transformational aviation research,” Sharma said. “Bringing our expertise in trajectory prediction together with the contributions of so many innovative partners contributes to global aviation efficiency that will yield real benefits for travelers and industry.”
NASA ATM-X’s part in the collaboration falls under the agency’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe, efficient aviation transportation operations that benefit the flying public and industry. The work is supported through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASAes @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 2 min read NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel Article 3 days ago 5 min read New NASA Sensor Goes Hunting for Critical Minerals Article 4 days ago 4 min read NASA Software Raises Bar for Aircraft Icing Research Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAMissions
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NASA’s Chandra Finds Small Galaxies May Buck the Black Hole Trend
Most smaller galaxies may not have supermassive black holes in their centers, according to a recent study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This contrasts with the common idea that nearly every galaxy has one of these giant black holes within their cores, as NASA leads the world in exploring how our universe works.
A team of astronomers used data from over 1,600 galaxies collected in more than two decades of the Chandra mission. The researchers looked at galaxies ranging in heft from over ten times the mass of the Milky Way down to dwarf galaxies, which have stellar masses less than a few percent of that of our home galaxy. A paper describing these results has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available here https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05252.
The team has reported that only about 30% of dwarf galaxies likely contain supermassive black holes.
“It’s important to get an accurate black hole head count in these smaller galaxies,” said Fan Zou of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the study. “It’s more than just bookkeeping. Our study gives clues about how supermassive black holes are born. It also provides crucial hints about how often black hole signatures in dwarf galaxies can be found with new or future telescopes.”
As material falls onto black holes, it is heated by friction and produces X-rays. Many of the massive galaxies in the study contain bright X-ray sources in their centers, a clear signature of supermassive black holes in their centers. The team concluded that more than 90% of massive galaxies – including those with the mass of the Milky Way – contain supermassive black holes.
However, smaller galaxies in the study usually did not have these unambiguous black hole signals. Galaxies with masses less than three billion Suns – about the mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a close neighbor to the Milky Way – usually do not contain bright X-ray sources in their centers.
The researchers considered two possible explanations for this lack of X-ray sources. The first is that the fraction of galaxies containing massive black holes is much lower for these less massive galaxies. The second is the amount of X-rays produced by matter falling onto these black holes is so faint that Chandra cannot detect it.
“We think, based on our analysis of the Chandra data, that there really are fewer black holes in these smaller galaxies than in their larger counterparts,” said Elena Gallo, a co-author also from the University of Michigan.
To reach their conclusion, Zou and his colleagues considered both possibilities for the lack of X-ray sources in small galaxies in their large Chandra sample. The amount of gas falling onto a black hole determines how bright or faint they are in X-rays. Because smaller black holes are expected to pull in less gas than larger black holes, they should be fainter in X-rays and often not detectable. The researchers confirmed this expectation.
However, they found that an additional deficit of X-ray sources is seen in less massive galaxies beyond the expected decline from decreases in the amount of gas falling inwards. This additional deficit can be accounted for if many of the low-mass galaxies simply don’t have any black holes at their centers. The team’s conclusion was that the drop in X-ray detections in lower mass galaxies reflects a true decrease in the number of black holes located in these galaxies.
This result could have important implications for understanding how supermassive black holes form. There are two main ideas: In the first, a giant gas cloud directly collapses into a black hole, which contains thousands of times the Sun’s mass from the start. The other idea is that supermassive black holes instead come from much smaller black holes, created when massive stars collapse.
“The formation of big black holes is expected to be rarer, in the sense that it occurs preferentially in the most massive galaxies being formed, so that would explain why we don’t find black holes in all the smaller galaxies,” said co-author Anil Seth of the University of Utah.
This study supports the theory where giant black holes are born already weighing several thousand times the Sun’s mass. If the other idea were true, the researchers said they would have expected smaller galaxies to likely have the same fraction of black holes as larger ones.
This result also could have important implications for the rates of black hole mergers from the collisions of dwarf galaxies. A much lower number of black holes would result in fewer sources of gravitational waves to be detected in the future by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. The number of black holes tearing stars apart in dwarf galaxies will also be smaller.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
To learn more about Chandra, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/chandra
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
News Media ContactMegan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
A new sonification turns X-ray data of “light echoes” captured by NASA’s Chandra and Swift…
Article 3 years ago 3 min read ‘X-ray Magnifying Glass’ Enhances View of Distant Black Holes Article 4 years ago 5 min read ‘Death Spiral’ Around a Black Hole Yields Tantalizing Evidence of an Event HorizonNASA’s Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the…
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NASA’s Chandra Finds Small Galaxies May Buck the Black Hole Trend
Most smaller galaxies may not have supermassive black holes in their centers, according to a recent study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This contrasts with the common idea that nearly every galaxy has one of these giant black holes within their cores, as NASA leads the world in exploring how our universe works.
A team of astronomers used data from over 1,600 galaxies collected in more than two decades of the Chandra mission. The researchers looked at galaxies ranging in heft from over ten times the mass of the Milky Way down to dwarf galaxies, which have stellar masses less than a few percent of that of our home galaxy. A paper describing these results has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available here https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05252.
The team has reported that only about 30% of dwarf galaxies likely contain supermassive black holes.
“It’s important to get an accurate black hole head count in these smaller galaxies,” said Fan Zou of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the study. “It’s more than just bookkeeping. Our study gives clues about how supermassive black holes are born. It also provides crucial hints about how often black hole signatures in dwarf galaxies can be found with new or future telescopes.”
As material falls onto black holes, it is heated by friction and produces X-rays. Many of the massive galaxies in the study contain bright X-ray sources in their centers, a clear signature of supermassive black holes in their centers. The team concluded that more than 90% of massive galaxies – including those with the mass of the Milky Way – contain supermassive black holes.
However, smaller galaxies in the study usually did not have these unambiguous black hole signals. Galaxies with masses less than three billion Suns – about the mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a close neighbor to the Milky Way – usually do not contain bright X-ray sources in their centers.
The researchers considered two possible explanations for this lack of X-ray sources. The first is that the fraction of galaxies containing massive black holes is much lower for these less massive galaxies. The second is the amount of X-rays produced by matter falling onto these black holes is so faint that Chandra cannot detect it.
“We think, based on our analysis of the Chandra data, that there really are fewer black holes in these smaller galaxies than in their larger counterparts,” said Elena Gallo, a co-author also from the University of Michigan.
To reach their conclusion, Zou and his colleagues considered both possibilities for the lack of X-ray sources in small galaxies in their large Chandra sample. The amount of gas falling onto a black hole determines how bright or faint they are in X-rays. Because smaller black holes are expected to pull in less gas than larger black holes, they should be fainter in X-rays and often not detectable. The researchers confirmed this expectation.
However, they found that an additional deficit of X-ray sources is seen in less massive galaxies beyond the expected decline from decreases in the amount of gas falling inwards. This additional deficit can be accounted for if many of the low-mass galaxies simply don’t have any black holes at their centers. The team’s conclusion was that the drop in X-ray detections in lower mass galaxies reflects a true decrease in the number of black holes located in these galaxies.
This result could have important implications for understanding how supermassive black holes form. There are two main ideas: In the first, a giant gas cloud directly collapses into a black hole, which contains thousands of times the Sun’s mass from the start. The other idea is that supermassive black holes instead come from much smaller black holes, created when massive stars collapse.
“The formation of big black holes is expected to be rarer, in the sense that it occurs preferentially in the most massive galaxies being formed, so that would explain why we don’t find black holes in all the smaller galaxies,” said co-author Anil Seth of the University of Utah.
This study supports the theory where giant black holes are born already weighing several thousand times the Sun’s mass. If the other idea were true, the researchers said they would have expected smaller galaxies to likely have the same fraction of black holes as larger ones.
This result also could have important implications for the rates of black hole mergers from the collisions of dwarf galaxies. A much lower number of black holes would result in fewer sources of gravitational waves to be detected in the future by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. The number of black holes tearing stars apart in dwarf galaxies will also be smaller.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
To learn more about Chandra, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/chandra
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
News Media ContactMegan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
A new sonification turns X-ray data of “light echoes” captured by NASA’s Chandra and Swift…
Article 3 years ago 3 min read ‘X-ray Magnifying Glass’ Enhances View of Distant Black Holes Article 4 years ago 5 min read ‘Death Spiral’ Around a Black Hole Yields Tantalizing Evidence of an Event HorizonNASA’s Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the…
Article 25 years ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA ChandraSpace Telescope
Black HolesBlack Holes Black holes are among the most mysterious cosmic objects, much studied but not fully understood. These objects aren’t…
GalaxiesGalaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain…
James Webb Space TelescopeSpace Telescope
Disney and OpenAI have made a surprise deal – what happens next?
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U.S. Sunscreens Aren’t Great. The FDA Could Soon Change That
The U.S. is considering allowing bemotrizinol, a highly effective UV filter used throughout Europe and Asia, in its sunscreen products for the first time
Two Stars’ Swept by the Solar System 4.5 million Years Ago
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The post Two Stars’ Swept by the Solar System 4.5 million Years Ago appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Measles Outbreaks Accelerate as U.S. Inches Closer to a Disease Tipping Point
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Solar Wind ‘U-Turn’
5 min read
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Solar Wind ‘U-Turn’Images captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather escape from the Sun — and how sometimes they don’t.
Like a toddler, our Sun occasionally has disruptive outbursts. But instead of throwing a fit, the Sun spews magnetized material and hazardous high-energy particles that drive space weather as they travel across the solar system. These outbursts can impact our daily lives, from disrupting technologies like GPS to triggering power outages, and they can also imperil voyaging astronauts and spacecraft. Understanding how these solar outbursts, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), occur and where they are headed is essential to predicting and preparing for their impacts at Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
Images taken by Parker Solar Probe in December 2024, and published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, have revealed that not all magnetic material in a CME escapes the Sun — some makes it back, changing the shape of the solar atmosphere in subtle, but significant, ways that can set the course of the next CME exploding from the Sun. These findings have far-reaching implications for understanding how the CME-driven release of magnetic fields affects not only the planets, but the Sun itself.
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“These breathtaking images are some of the closest ever taken to the Sun and they’re expanding what we know about our closest star,” said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The insights we gain from these images are an important part of understanding and predicting how space weather moves through the solar system, especially for mission planning that ensures the safety of our Artemis astronauts traveling beyond the protective shield of our atmosphere.”
Parker Solar Probe reveals solar recycling in actionAs Parker Solar Probe swept through the Sun’s atmosphere on Dec. 24, 2024, just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, its Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe, or WISPR, observed a CME erupt from the Sun. In the CME’s wake, elongated blobs of solar material were seen falling back toward the Sun.
This type of feature, called “inflows”, has previously been seen from a distance by other NASA missions including SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint mission with ESA, the European Space Agency) and STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory). But Parker Solar Probe’s extreme close-up view from within the solar atmosphere reveals details of material falling back toward the Sun and on scales never seen before.
“We’ve previously seen hints that material can fall back into the Sun this way, but to see it with this clarity is amazing,” said Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed, built, and operates the spacecraft in Laurel, Maryland. “This is a really fascinating, eye-opening glimpse into how the Sun continuously recycles its coronal magnetic fields and material.”
Insights on inflowsFor the first time, the high-resolution images from Parker Solar Probe allowed scientists to make precise measurements about the inflow process, such as the speed and size of the blobs of material pulled back into the Sun. These previously hidden details provide scientists with new insights into the physical mechanisms that reconfigure the solar atmosphere.
1. The process that creates inflows begins with a solar eruption known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are often triggered by twisted magnetic field lines from the Sun that explosively snap and realign in a process called magnetic reconnection. This magnetic explosion kicks out a burst of charged particles and magnetic fields — the CME. NASA 2.As the CME travels outward from the Sun, the CME expands. Eventually, it pushes through solar magnetic field lines to escape into space. NASA 3. The magnetic field lines torn open by the CME rejoin to form new magnetic loops that get squeezed together. NASA 4. In some cases, the compressed magnetic field lines tear apart. This forms separate magnetic loops, some of which travel outward from the Sun and others that connect back to the Sun. As these loops contract back into the Sun, they drag down blobs of nearby solar material — forming inflows. NASAThe CMEs are often triggered by twisted magnetic field lines that explosively snap and realign in a process called magnetic reconnection. This magnetic explosion kicks out a burst of charged particles and magnetic fields — a CME.
As the CME travels outward from the Sun, it expands, in some cases causing nearby magnetic field lines to tear apart like the threads of an old piece of cloth pulled too tight. The torn magnetic field quickly mends itself, creating separate magnetic loops. Some of the loops travel outward from the Sun, and others stitch back to the Sun, forming inflows.
“It turns out, some of the magnetic field released with the CME does not escape as we would expect,” said Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR project scientist and researcher at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “It actually lingers for a while and eventually returns to the Sun to be recycled, reshaping the solar atmosphere in subtle ways.”
An important result of this magnetic recycling is that as the inflows contract back into the Sun, they drag down blobs of nearby solar material and ultimately affect the magnetic fields swirling beneath. This interaction reconfigures the solar magnetic landscape, potentially altering the trajectories of subsequent CMEs that may emerge from the region.
“The magnetic reconfiguration caused by inflows may be enough to point a secondary CME a few degrees in a different direction,” Vourlidas said. “That’s enough to be the difference between a CME crashing into Mars versus sweeping by the planet with no or little effects.”
Scientists are using the new findings to improve their models of space weather and the Sun’s complex magnetic environment. Ultimately, this work may help scientists better predict the impact of space weather across the solar system on longer timescales than currently possible.
“Eventually, with more and more passes by the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will help us be able to continue building the big picture of the Sun’s magnetic fields and how they can affect us,” Rawafi said. “And as the Sun transitions from solar maximum toward minimum, the scenes we’ll witness may be even more dramatic.”
By Mara Johnson-Groh
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Solar Wind ‘U-Turn’
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Solar Wind ‘U-Turn’Images captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather escape from the Sun — and how sometimes they don’t.
Like a toddler, our Sun occasionally has disruptive outbursts. But instead of throwing a fit, the Sun spews magnetized material and hazardous high-energy particles that drive space weather as they travel across the solar system. These outbursts can impact our daily lives, from disrupting technologies like GPS to triggering power outages, and they can also imperil voyaging astronauts and spacecraft. Understanding how these solar outbursts, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), occur and where they are headed is essential to predicting and preparing for their impacts at Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
Images taken by Parker Solar Probe in December 2024, and published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, have revealed that not all magnetic material in a CME escapes the Sun — some makes it back, changing the shape of the solar atmosphere in subtle, but significant, ways that can set the course of the next CME exploding from the Sun. These findings have far-reaching implications for understanding how the CME-driven release of magnetic fields affects not only the planets, but the Sun itself.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
supports HTML5 video
“These breathtaking images are some of the closest ever taken to the Sun and they’re expanding what we know about our closest star,” said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The insights we gain from these images are an important part of understanding and predicting how space weather moves through the solar system, especially for mission planning that ensures the safety of our Artemis astronauts traveling beyond the protective shield of our atmosphere.”
Parker Solar Probe reveals solar recycling in actionAs Parker Solar Probe swept through the Sun’s atmosphere on Dec. 24, 2024, just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, its Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe, or WISPR, observed a CME erupt from the Sun. In the CME’s wake, elongated blobs of solar material were seen falling back toward the Sun.
This type of feature, called “inflows”, has previously been seen from a distance by other NASA missions including SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint mission with ESA, the European Space Agency) and STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory). But Parker Solar Probe’s extreme close-up view from within the solar atmosphere reveals details of material falling back toward the Sun and on scales never seen before.
“We’ve previously seen hints that material can fall back into the Sun this way, but to see it with this clarity is amazing,” said Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed, built, and operates the spacecraft in Laurel, Maryland. “This is a really fascinating, eye-opening glimpse into how the Sun continuously recycles its coronal magnetic fields and material.”
Insights on inflowsFor the first time, the high-resolution images from Parker Solar Probe allowed scientists to make precise measurements about the inflow process, such as the speed and size of the blobs of material pulled back into the Sun. These previously hidden details provide scientists with new insights into the physical mechanisms that reconfigure the solar atmosphere.
1. The process that creates inflows begins with a solar eruption known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are often triggered by twisted magnetic field lines from the Sun that explosively snap and realign in a process called magnetic reconnection. This magnetic explosion kicks out a burst of charged particles and magnetic fields — the CME. NASA 2.As the CME travels outward from the Sun, the CME expands. Eventually, it pushes through solar magnetic field lines to escape into space. NASA 3. The magnetic field lines torn open by the CME rejoin to form new magnetic loops that get squeezed together. NASA 4. In some cases, the compressed magnetic field lines tear apart. This forms separate magnetic loops, some of which travel outward from the Sun and others that connect back to the Sun. As these loops contract back into the Sun, they drag down blobs of nearby solar material — forming inflows. NASAThe CMEs are often triggered by twisted magnetic field lines that explosively snap and realign in a process called magnetic reconnection. This magnetic explosion kicks out a burst of charged particles and magnetic fields — a CME.
As the CME travels outward from the Sun, it expands, in some cases causing nearby magnetic field lines to tear apart like the threads of an old piece of cloth pulled too tight. The torn magnetic field quickly mends itself, creating separate magnetic loops. Some of the loops travel outward from the Sun, and others stitch back to the Sun, forming inflows.
“It turns out, some of the magnetic field released with the CME does not escape as we would expect,” said Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR project scientist and researcher at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “It actually lingers for a while and eventually returns to the Sun to be recycled, reshaping the solar atmosphere in subtle ways.”
An important result of this magnetic recycling is that as the inflows contract back into the Sun, they drag down blobs of nearby solar material and ultimately affect the magnetic fields swirling beneath. This interaction reconfigures the solar magnetic landscape, potentially altering the trajectories of subsequent CMEs that may emerge from the region.
“The magnetic reconfiguration caused by inflows may be enough to point a secondary CME a few degrees in a different direction,” Vourlidas said. “That’s enough to be the difference between a CME crashing into Mars versus sweeping by the planet with no or little effects.”
Scientists are using the new findings to improve their models of space weather and the Sun’s complex magnetic environment. Ultimately, this work may help scientists better predict the impact of space weather across the solar system on longer timescales than currently possible.
“Eventually, with more and more passes by the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will help us be able to continue building the big picture of the Sun’s magnetic fields and how they can affect us,” Rawafi said. “And as the Sun transitions from solar maximum toward minimum, the scenes we’ll witness may be even more dramatic.”
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Killer whales and dolphins are ‘being friends’ to hunt salmon together
Killer whales and dolphins are ‘being friends’ to hunt salmon together
Stellar Jet
Stellar Jet
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a blowtorch of seething gasses erupting from a volcanically growing monster star in this image released on Sept. 10, 2025. Stellar jets, which are powered by the gravitational energy released as a star grows in mass, encode the formation history of the protostar. This image provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Stellar Jet
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a blowtorch of seething gasses erupting from a volcanically growing monster star in this image released on Sept. 10, 2025. Stellar jets, which are powered by the gravitational energy released as a star grows in mass, encode the formation history of the protostar. This image provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
NASA’s Webb Detects Thick Atmosphere Around Broiling Lava World
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Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system, as NASA leads the world in exploring the universe from the Moon to Mars and beyond. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest that the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean. The results help explain the planet’s unusually low density and challenge the prevailing wisdom that relatively small planets so close to their stars are not able to sustain atmospheres.
Image A: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b and Its Star (Artist’s Concept) This artist’s concept shows what the hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b and its star could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. Webb data suggests that the planet is surrounded by a thick atmosphere above a magma ocean. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)With a radius roughly 1.4 times Earth’s, and an orbital period less than 11 hours, TOI-561 b falls into a rare class of objects known as ultra-short period exoplanets. Although its host star is only slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun, TOI-561 b orbits so close to the star — less than one million miles (one-fortieth the distance between Mercury and the Sun) — that it must be tidally locked, with the temperature of its permanent dayside far exceeding the melting temperature of typical rock.
“What really sets this planet apart is its anomalously low density,” said Johanna Teske, staff scientist at Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory and lead author on a paper published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It’s not a super-puff, but it is less dense than you would expect if it had an Earth-like composition.”
Image B: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (Artist’s Concept) An artist’s concept shows what a thick atmosphere above a vast magma ocean on exoplanet TOI-561 b could look like. Measurements captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope suggest that in spite of the intense radiation it receives from its star, TOI-561 b is not a bare rock. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)One explanation the team considered for the planet’s low density was that it could have a relatively small iron core and a mantle made of rock that is not as dense as rock within Earth. Teske notes that this could make sense: “TOI-561 b is distinct among ultra-short period planets in that it orbits a very old (twice as old as the Sun), iron-poor star in a region of the Milky Way known as the thick disk. It must have formed in a very different chemical environment from the planets in our own solar system.” The planet’s composition could be representative of planets that formed when the universe was relatively young.
But an exotic composition can’t explain everything. The team also suspected that TOI-561 b might be surrounded by a thick atmosphere that makes it look larger than it actually is. Although small planets that have spent billions of years baking in blazing stellar radiation are not expected to have atmospheres, some show signs that they are not just bare rock or lava.
To test the hypothesis that TOI-561 b has an atmosphere, the team used Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) to measure the planet’s dayside temperature based on its near-infrared brightness. The technique, which involves measuring the decrease in brightness of the star-planet system as the planet moves behind the star, is similar to that used to search for atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system and on other rocky worlds.
If TOI-561 b is a bare rock with no atmosphere to carry heat around to the nightside, its dayside temperature should be approaching 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 degrees Celsius). But the NIRSpec observations show that the planet’s dayside appears to be closer to 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,800 degrees Celsius) — still extremely hot, but far cooler than expected.
Image C: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (NIRSpec Emission Spectrum) An emission spectrum captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in May 2024 shows the brightness of different wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by exoplanet TOI-561 b. Comparing the data to models suggests that the planet is surrounded by a volatile-rich atmosphere. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI); Science: Johanna Teske (Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory), Anjali Piette (University of Birmingham), Tim Lichtenberg (Groningen), Nicole Wallack (Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory)
To explain the results, the team considered a few different scenarios. The magma ocean could circulate some heat, but without an atmosphere, the nightside would probably be solid, limiting flow away from the dayside. A thin layer of rock vapor on the surface of the magma ocean is also possible, but on its own would likely have a much smaller cooling effect than observed.
“We really need a thick volatile-rich atmosphere to explain all the observations,” said Anjali Piette, coauthor from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
“Strong winds would cool the dayside by transporting heat over to the nightside. Gases like water vapor would absorb some wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by the surface before they make it all the way up through the atmosphere. (The planet would look colder because the telescope detects less light.) It’s also possible that there are bright silicate clouds that cool the atmosphere by reflecting starlight.”
While the Webb observations provide compelling evidence for such an atmosphere, the question remains: How can a small planet exposed to such intense radiation can hold on to any atmosphere at all, let alone one so substantial? Some gases must be escaping to space, but perhaps not as efficiently as expected.
“We think there is an equilibrium between the magma ocean and the atmosphere. At the same time that gases are coming out of the planet to feed the atmosphere, the magma ocean is sucking them back into the interior,” said co-author Tim Lichtenberg from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “This planet must be much, much more volatile-rich than Earth to explain the observations. It’s really like a wet lava ball.”
These are the first results from Webb’s General Observers Program 3860, which involved observing the system continuously for more than 37 hours while TOI-561 b completed nearly four full orbits of the star. The team is currently analyzing the full data set to map the temperature all the way around the planet and narrow down the composition of the atmosphere.
“What’s really exciting is that this new data set is opening up even more questions than it’s answering,” said Teske.
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:
Related InformationRead more: Can Rocky Worlds Orbiting Red Dwarf Stars Maintain Atmospheres?
Explore more: ViewSpace Exoplanet Variety: Atmosphere
Explore more: How to Study Exoplanets: Webb and Challenges
Explore more: How Do We Learn About a Planet’s Atmosphere?
Read more: NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet
Related For Kids Related Images & Videos Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b and Its Star (Artist’s Concept)This artist’s concept shows what the hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b and its star could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. Webb data suggests that the planet is surrounded by a thick atmosphere above a magma ocean.
Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (Artist’s Concept)
An artist’s concept shows what a thick atmosphere above a vast magma ocean on exoplanet TOI-561 b could look like. Measurements captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope suggest that in spite of the intense radiation it receives from its star, TOI-561 b is not a bare rock.
Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (NIRSpec Emission Spectrum)
An emission spectrum captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in May 2024 shows the brightness of different wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by exoplanet TOI-561 b. Comparing the data to models suggests that the planet is surrounded by a volatile-rich atmosphere.
Contact Media
Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
Margaret Carruthers
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Hannah Braun
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Related Terms Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space Telescope
Space Telescope
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NASA’s Webb Detects Thick Atmosphere Around Broiling Lava World
- Webb
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Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system, as NASA leads the world in exploring the universe from the Moon to Mars and beyond. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest that the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean. The results help explain the planet’s unusually low density and challenge the prevailing wisdom that relatively small planets so close to their stars are not able to sustain atmospheres.
Image A: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b and Its Star (Artist’s Concept) This artist’s concept shows what the hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b and its star could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. Webb data suggests that the planet is surrounded by a thick atmosphere above a magma ocean. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)With a radius roughly 1.4 times Earth’s, and an orbital period less than 11 hours, TOI-561 b falls into a rare class of objects known as ultra-short period exoplanets. Although its host star is only slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun, TOI-561 b orbits so close to the star — less than one million miles (one-fortieth the distance between Mercury and the Sun) — that it must be tidally locked, with the temperature of its permanent dayside far exceeding the melting temperature of typical rock.
“What really sets this planet apart is its anomalously low density,” said Johanna Teske, staff scientist at Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory and lead author on a paper published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It’s not a super-puff, but it is less dense than you would expect if it had an Earth-like composition.”
Image B: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (Artist’s Concept) An artist’s concept shows what a thick atmosphere above a vast magma ocean on exoplanet TOI-561 b could look like. Measurements captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope suggest that in spite of the intense radiation it receives from its star, TOI-561 b is not a bare rock. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)One explanation the team considered for the planet’s low density was that it could have a relatively small iron core and a mantle made of rock that is not as dense as rock within Earth. Teske notes that this could make sense: “TOI-561 b is distinct among ultra-short period planets in that it orbits a very old (twice as old as the Sun), iron-poor star in a region of the Milky Way known as the thick disk. It must have formed in a very different chemical environment from the planets in our own solar system.” The planet’s composition could be representative of planets that formed when the universe was relatively young.
But an exotic composition can’t explain everything. The team also suspected that TOI-561 b might be surrounded by a thick atmosphere that makes it look larger than it actually is. Although small planets that have spent billions of years baking in blazing stellar radiation are not expected to have atmospheres, some show signs that they are not just bare rock or lava.
To test the hypothesis that TOI-561 b has an atmosphere, the team used Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) to measure the planet’s dayside temperature based on its near-infrared brightness. The technique, which involves measuring the decrease in brightness of the star-planet system as the planet moves behind the star, is similar to that used to search for atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system and on other rocky worlds.
If TOI-561 b is a bare rock with no atmosphere to carry heat around to the nightside, its dayside temperature should be approaching 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 degrees Celsius). But the NIRSpec observations show that the planet’s dayside appears to be closer to 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,800 degrees Celsius) — still extremely hot, but far cooler than expected.
Image C: Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (NIRSpec Emission Spectrum) An emission spectrum captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in May 2024 shows the brightness of different wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by exoplanet TOI-561 b. Comparing the data to models suggests that the planet is surrounded by a volatile-rich atmosphere. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI); Science: Johanna Teske (Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory), Anjali Piette (University of Birmingham), Tim Lichtenberg (Groningen), Nicole Wallack (Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory)To explain the results, the team considered a few different scenarios. The magma ocean could circulate some heat, but without an atmosphere, the nightside would probably be solid, limiting flow away from the dayside. A thin layer of rock vapor on the surface of the magma ocean is also possible, but on its own would likely have a much smaller cooling effect than observed.
“We really need a thick volatile-rich atmosphere to explain all the observations,” said Anjali Piette, coauthor from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
“Strong winds would cool the dayside by transporting heat over to the nightside. Gases like water vapor would absorb some wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by the surface before they make it all the way up through the atmosphere. (The planet would look colder because the telescope detects less light.) It’s also possible that there are bright silicate clouds that cool the atmosphere by reflecting starlight.”
While the Webb observations provide compelling evidence for such an atmosphere, the question remains: How can a small planet exposed to such intense radiation can hold on to any atmosphere at all, let alone one so substantial? Some gases must be escaping to space, but perhaps not as efficiently as expected.
“We think there is an equilibrium between the magma ocean and the atmosphere. At the same time that gases are coming out of the planet to feed the atmosphere, the magma ocean is sucking them back into the interior,” said co-author Tim Lichtenberg from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “This planet must be much, much more volatile-rich than Earth to explain the observations. It’s really like a wet lava ball.”
These are the first results from Webb’s General Observers Program 3860, which involved observing the system continuously for more than 37 hours while TOI-561 b completed nearly four full orbits of the star. The team is currently analyzing the full data set to map the temperature all the way around the planet and narrow down the composition of the atmosphere.
“What’s really exciting is that this new data set is opening up even more questions than it’s answering,” said Teske.
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:
Related InformationRead more: Can Rocky Worlds Orbiting Red Dwarf Stars Maintain Atmospheres?
Explore more: ViewSpace Exoplanet Variety: Atmosphere
Explore more: How to Study Exoplanets: Webb and Challenges
Explore more: How Do We Learn About a Planet’s Atmosphere?
Read more: NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet
Related For Kids Related Images & Videos Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b and Its Star (Artist’s Concept)This artist’s concept shows what the hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b and its star could look like based on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other observatories. Webb data suggests that the planet is surrounded by a thick atmosphere above a magma ocean.
Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (Artist’s Concept)
An artist’s concept shows what a thick atmosphere above a vast magma ocean on exoplanet TOI-561 b could look like. Measurements captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope suggest that in spite of the intense radiation it receives from its star, TOI-561 b is not a bare rock.
Super-Earth Exoplanet TOI-561 b (NIRSpec Emission Spectrum)
An emission spectrum captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in May 2024 shows the brightness of different wavelengths of near-infrared light emitted by exoplanet TOI-561 b. Comparing the data to models suggests that the planet is surrounded by a volatile-rich atmosphere.
Contact Media
Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
Margaret Carruthers
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Hannah Braun
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Related Terms Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space Telescope
Space Telescope
Exoplanets
Exoplanet Stories
Universe