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Exoplanet or Exomoon? New Contender Elicits Skepticism
Astronomers have found a Jupiter-mass world orbiting a brown dwarf that orbits a star.
The post Exoplanet or Exomoon? New Contender Elicits Skepticism appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s Juno
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This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys. The black overlapping lines show the instrument’s footprints during Perijove 57 on Dec. 30, 2023, when the spacecraft primarily mapped the northern hemisphere. The blue lines represent Perijove 58 on Feb. 3, 2024, which focused heavily on the moon’s mid-latitudes and equatorial regions.
Both passes mapped the side of Io that constantly faces Jupiter. The sweeping, overlapping patterns are a result of the spacecraft spinning at two revolutions per minute as it flew past the moon at a distance of roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu
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Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s Juno
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Photojournal Navigation Downloads Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s Juno
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Description
This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys. The black overlapping lines show the instrument’s footprints during Perijove 57 on Dec. 30, 2023, when the spacecraft primarily mapped the northern hemisphere. The blue lines represent Perijove 58 on Feb. 3, 2024, which focused heavily on the moon’s mid-latitudes and equatorial regions.
Both passes mapped the side of Io that constantly faces Jupiter. The sweeping, overlapping patterns are a result of the spacecraft spinning at two revolutions per minute as it flew past the moon at a distance of roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu
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A huge cosmic object could force astronomers to rethink what a moon is
This almost Jupiter-sized object is orbiting a brown dwarf, which, in turn, is circling around a small star
NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s Surface
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This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. While infrared instruments measure the temperature of the moon’s surface, the lowest frequency microwave channels (0.6 and 1.25 gigahertz) on the MWR can penetrate between about 6 and 20 feet (2 and 6 meters) into the crust. The colors on this map illustrate a distinct temperature gradient across the moon, with the most extreme, localized heat output in red.
The most prominent red anomaly in the upper left (between 60 and 120 degrees west longitude) reveals subsurface temperatures 18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 degrees Celsius, or 10 to 20 Kelvin) warmer than the surrounding area. This massive regional heat source coincides with the Zal Montes Patera complex, an area where Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit observed an active lava flow. A second major subsurface heat source is also visible near the equator, stretching from 0 to 50 degrees west longitude. Together, these distinct microwave anomalies indicate significant internal heating occurring within the upper tens of meters of Io’s crust.
Contrasting with these intense hot spots are the yellow and green regions, which reflect temperatures more common across the moon. The yellow areas represent intermediate temperatures that naturally warm up to near -190°F (-123°C, or 150 Kelvin) as they approach the equator. Meanwhile, the green areas, primarily visible toward the higher northern latitudes, indicate the coolest subsurface temperatures, dropping to around -298°F (-183°C, or 90 Kelvin) near the pole.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno
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NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s Surface
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Photojournal Navigation Downloads NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s Surface
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Description
This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. While infrared instruments measure the temperature of the moon’s surface, the lowest frequency microwave channels (0.6 and 1.25 gigahertz) on the MWR can penetrate between about 6 and 20 feet (2 and 6 meters) into the crust. The colors on this map illustrate a distinct temperature gradient across the moon, with the most extreme, localized heat output in red.
The most prominent red anomaly in the upper left (between 60 and 120 degrees west longitude) reveals subsurface temperatures 18 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 degrees Celsius, or 10 to 20 Kelvin) warmer than the surrounding area. This massive regional heat source coincides with the Zal Montes Patera complex, an area where Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit observed an active lava flow. A second major subsurface heat source is also visible near the equator, stretching from 0 to 50 degrees west longitude. Together, these distinct microwave anomalies indicate significant internal heating occurring within the upper tens of meters of Io’s crust.
Contrasting with these intense hot spots are the yellow and green regions, which reflect temperatures more common across the moon. The yellow areas represent intermediate temperatures that naturally warm up to near -190°F (-123°C, or 150 Kelvin) as they approach the equator. Meanwhile, the green areas, primarily visible toward the higher northern latitudes, indicate the coolest subsurface temperatures, dropping to around -298°F (-183°C, or 90 Kelvin) near the pole.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The MWR was built by JPL. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno
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NASA’s Juno Takes Temperature of Jupiter’s Fiery Moon Io
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) TThe north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during the spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from that flyby and one on Feb. 3, 2024, is helping scientists understand Io’s interior.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt
Lee esta historia en español aquí.
NASA’s Juno mission has provided the first measurements of the temperature below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io, revealing significant heating within the shallow subsurface of the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Collected during two close flybys, the data also shows that most of Io’s surface is remarkably smooth and composed of material of very low density.
Published Wednesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, these findings break new observational ground for both fiery and icy worlds beyond our planet.
Io’s extreme volcanism is powered by tidal heating. The moon is constantly stretched and squeezed by Jupiter’s immense gravity as it travels its slightly elliptical orbit, generating internal heat output many times greater than Earth’s. Until now, virtually everything known about that heat came from infrared observations, which sense only the temperature of the top surface. The latest findings are derived from data collected by the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument.
“The Juno Microwave Radiometer directly observed Io’s heat output by looking below the surface,” said Scott Bolton, study coauthor and Juno’s principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The surprising discovery that we could see below a rocky moon’s surface has important implications for studying Earth’s volcanoes. Juno has taught us that if we look with an MWR-type instrument near a volcano on Earth, we might see a similar signature in the subsurface temperature gradient, providing new information on how terrestrial volcanoes work.”
This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer instrument aboard NASA’s Juno, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. The colors illustrate a distinct temperature gradient across the moon, with the most extreme, localized heat output in red. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Fire, ice
Juno’s Microwave Radiometer was designed by Bolton to peer beneath Jupiter’s cloud tops to investigate the dynamics and composition of the gas giant’s deep atmosphere. The MWR’s six microwave antennas serve as a single instrument, simultaneously detecting microwaves at a wide range of wavelengths, from about half an inch to 20 inches (1.3 to 51 centimeters). During the mission’s extended phase, the MWR instrument has provided the opportunity to observe three of the planet’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
“The technique is novel in that each wavelength explores different depths, providing a new way to characterize the deep atmosphere of giant planets and the subsurface crusts of icy and rocky moons,” said Bolton. “At Ganymede and Europa, we explored tens of miles below the surface, assuming their ice shells were mostly pure water, but the ability to probe into the volcanic rock at Io was an unexpected discovery.”
During flybys on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft came within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the moon’s surface.
“The instrument measured Io’s thermal emission at depths ranging from a few inches down to tens of feet. Everywhere we looked, we found the temperature rising by more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit just several feet into the surface — a gradient far steeper than solar heating alone can explain,” said Shannon Brown, the paper’s lead author at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The data suggests two possible explanations. First, heat could be rising steadily through a conductive crust. While this background heat flow — measured at 1 to 3 watts per square meter — is relatively gentle on a local scale (roughly equivalent to a small nightlight glowing under every square yard), across the entire moon it represents a release of energy up to 30 times Earth’s average. Alternatively, the signal could be coming from cooling lava flows, capped by roughly 30 to 35 feet (9 to 11 meters) of solidified crust, that cover about 10% of the moon’s surface at any given time.
“Io provides a unique window into learning how tidal heating works throughout the cosmos, a fundamental process that provides energy and heat to worlds that are far from their parent star,” said Bolton. “This process can not only create the most volcanic body in the solar system, in the case of Io, but also fuels the subsurface oceans on the moons of giant planets, such as Europa and Ganymede. Up until this point we could only observe the heat escaping at the surface or through eruptions. Now we can characterize how the heat is moving from the interior toward the surface.”
This graphic illustrates the areas of Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys of the Jovian moon.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Great plains of Io
Another big insight gained from the two flybys is just how smooth Io is. Prior to the recent findings, the moon was known for its tall mountains, but the MWR indicates that apart from this visible topography, the surface features expansive smooth patches that stretch for 60 miles (100 kilometers) or more. Because Juno flew by overlapping regions of Io at different angles, the team was able to map how the surface reflects microwaves, much like an airline passenger might see the ocean flash with sunlight only at specific angles.
“Away from its mountains, the surface is more like the Great Plains of North America, and even though Io is a rocky body, the surface material has a very low density — more like pumice or a fluffy volcanic ash than solid rock,” said Brown.
More about JunoA division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. More information about Juno is at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno
News Media Contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
210-522-2254
dschmid@swri.org
2026-050
Share Details Last Updated Jul 22, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 2 min read Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s JunoDescription This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer…
Article 13 hours ago 2 min read NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s SurfaceDescription This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft,…
Article 13 hours ago 5 min read US-India Satellite Delivers Data, Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica Article 1 day ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsJupiter: Exploration
JunoNASA’s Juno spacecraft has explored Jupiter, its moons, and rings since 2016, gathering breakthrough science and breathtaking imagery.
Jupiter Moons
Io
NASA’s Juno Takes Temperature of Jupiter’s Fiery Moon Io
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) TThe north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during the spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from that flyby and one on Feb. 3, 2024, is helping scientists understand Io’s interior.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Gerald EichstädtLee esta historia en español aquí.
NASA’s Juno mission has provided the first measurements of the temperature below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io, revealing significant heating within the shallow subsurface of the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Collected during two close flybys, the data also shows that most of Io’s surface is remarkably smooth and composed of material of very low density.
Published Wednesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, these findings break new observational ground for both fiery and icy worlds beyond our planet.
Io’s extreme volcanism is powered by tidal heating. The moon is constantly stretched and squeezed by Jupiter’s immense gravity as it travels its slightly elliptical orbit, generating internal heat output many times greater than Earth’s. Until now, virtually everything known about that heat came from infrared observations, which sense only the temperature of the top surface. The latest findings are derived from data collected by the spacecraft’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument.
“The Juno Microwave Radiometer directly observed Io’s heat output by looking below the surface,” said Scott Bolton, study coauthor and Juno’s principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The surprising discovery that we could see below a rocky moon’s surface has important implications for studying Earth’s volcanoes. Juno has taught us that if we look with an MWR-type instrument near a volcano on Earth, we might see a similar signature in the subsurface temperature gradient, providing new information on how terrestrial volcanoes work.”
This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer instrument aboard NASA’s Juno, indicating heat rising from just beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io. The colors illustrate a distinct temperature gradient across the moon, with the most extreme, localized heat output in red. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Fire, iceJuno’s Microwave Radiometer was designed by Bolton to peer beneath Jupiter’s cloud tops to investigate the dynamics and composition of the gas giant’s deep atmosphere. The MWR’s six microwave antennas serve as a single instrument, simultaneously detecting microwaves at a wide range of wavelengths, from about half an inch to 20 inches (1.3 to 51 centimeters). During the mission’s extended phase, the MWR instrument has provided the opportunity to observe three of the planet’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
“The technique is novel in that each wavelength explores different depths, providing a new way to characterize the deep atmosphere of giant planets and the subsurface crusts of icy and rocky moons,” said Bolton. “At Ganymede and Europa, we explored tens of miles below the surface, assuming their ice shells were mostly pure water, but the ability to probe into the volcanic rock at Io was an unexpected discovery.”
During flybys on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft came within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the moon’s surface.
“The instrument measured Io’s thermal emission at depths ranging from a few inches down to tens of feet. Everywhere we looked, we found the temperature rising by more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit just several feet into the surface — a gradient far steeper than solar heating alone can explain,” said Shannon Brown, the paper’s lead author at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The data suggests two possible explanations. First, heat could be rising steadily through a conductive crust. While this background heat flow — measured at 1 to 3 watts per square meter — is relatively gentle on a local scale (roughly equivalent to a small nightlight glowing under every square yard), across the entire moon it represents a release of energy up to 30 times Earth’s average. Alternatively, the signal could be coming from cooling lava flows, capped by roughly 30 to 35 feet (9 to 11 meters) of solidified crust, that cover about 10% of the moon’s surface at any given time.
“Io provides a unique window into learning how tidal heating works throughout the cosmos, a fundamental process that provides energy and heat to worlds that are far from their parent star,” said Bolton. “This process can not only create the most volcanic body in the solar system, in the case of Io, but also fuels the subsurface oceans on the moons of giant planets, such as Europa and Ganymede. Up until this point we could only observe the heat escaping at the surface or through eruptions. Now we can characterize how the heat is moving from the interior toward the surface.”
This graphic illustrates the areas of Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during two close flybys of the Jovian moon.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/USGS Great plains of IoAnother big insight gained from the two flybys is just how smooth Io is. Prior to the recent findings, the moon was known for its tall mountains, but the MWR indicates that apart from this visible topography, the surface features expansive smooth patches that stretch for 60 miles (100 kilometers) or more. Because Juno flew by overlapping regions of Io at different angles, the team was able to map how the surface reflects microwaves, much like an airline passenger might see the ocean flash with sunlight only at specific angles.
“Away from its mountains, the surface is more like the Great Plains of North America, and even though Io is a rocky body, the surface material has a very low density — more like pumice or a fluffy volcanic ash than solid rock,” said Brown.
More about JunoA division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. More information about Juno is at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno
News Media Contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
210-522-2254
dschmid@swri.org
2026-050
Share Details Last Updated Jul 22, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 2 min read Mapping Io’s Hidden Heat With NASA’s JunoDescription This graphic illustrates the areas of Jupiter’s moon Io sampled by the Microwave Radiometer…
Article 5 hours ago 2 min read NASA’s Juno Peers Beneath Io’s SurfaceDescription This map represents data captured by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft,…
Article 5 hours ago 5 min read US-India Satellite Delivers Data, Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica Article 1 day ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsJupiter: Exploration
JunoNASA’s Juno spacecraft has explored Jupiter, its moons, and rings since 2016, gathering breakthrough science and breathtaking imagery.
Jupiter Moons
Io
NASA Joins Genesis Mission to Accelerate AI-Driven Discovery
NASA is supporting the Genesis Mission, a national effort to drive the use of artificial intelligence in tackling complex scientific and engineering challenges to advance a new era of discovery.
President Donald J. Trump issued the Executive Order “Launching the Genesis Mission” on Nov. 24, 2025, creating a national mission to leverage artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. The mission is led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and has now expanded to more than 15 federal agencies in a whole-of-government initiative. NASA is exploring how its missions, data, and expertise can support National Science and Technology challenges and help develop the powerful AI tools envisioned under the Genesis Mission, opening the door to faster breakthroughs, new knowledge, and discoveries that benefit the American people and help unlock some of the world’s greatest mysteries.
“America has invested for generations in the data, missions, and technical expertise that make NASA one of the world’s greatest engines of discovery,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “The Genesis Mission is an opportunity to turn that foundation into faster science, stronger engineering, and better mission outcomes. Leveraging our relationships with interagency counterparts, NASA can advance AI tools that accelerate exploration, strengthen American leadership in space, and open new paths to understanding our planet and the universe. Likewise, NASA is committed to applying our research and development to other initiatives within government for the benefit of American taxpayers.”
NASA introduced new Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges that center on two major priorities: strengthening America’s superiority in space and igniting a new era of innovation driven by more than 70 years of science and engineering by the agency.
To operate safely in a space environment that is growing more crowded and dynamic each year, and to maintain America’s leadership in space, NASA must develop advanced systems faster than traditional engineering methods allow. These systems must work together reliably across spacecraft, communications, logistics, surface operations, and other mission capabilities. By combining NASA’s mission expertise with the Department of Energy’s computing and AI capabilities, the Genesis Mission can shorten the path from concept to operational readiness and strengthen America’s ability to operate and lead in space.
NASA also will explore how AI can unlock new discoveries from more than 150 petabytes of data collected across decades of missions and research. NASA’s telescopes, satellites, orbiters, landers, and aeronautics programs have produced an extraordinary record of Earth, the solar system, and the universe, but the scale and complexity of these archives make it difficult to examine every observation using traditional methods. Advanced AI tools could help scientists connect data from different missions, instruments, simulations, and fields of study, identify patterns that might otherwise remain hidden, improve predictions, and reveal new discoveries in data that may have already been studied. By turning NASA’s mission archives into engines of discovery, the Genesis Mission can expand the return on generations of American investment in space and strengthen research across a wide range of scientific fields.
As the Genesis Mission advances, NASA remains dedicated to harnessing its decades of scientific and mission data and engineering capabilities to accelerate new innovations and discovery.
For more information about NASA’s missions, visit:
-end-
George Alderman / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
NASA Joins Genesis Mission to Accelerate AI-Driven Discovery
NASA is supporting the Genesis Mission, a national effort to drive the use of artificial intelligence in tackling complex scientific and engineering challenges to advance a new era of discovery.
President Donald J. Trump issued the Executive Order “Launching the Genesis Mission” on Nov. 24, 2025, creating a national mission to leverage artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. The mission is led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and has now expanded to more than 15 federal agencies in a whole-of-government initiative. NASA is exploring how its missions, data, and expertise can support National Science and Technology challenges and help develop the powerful AI tools envisioned under the Genesis Mission, opening the door to faster breakthroughs, new knowledge, and discoveries that benefit the American people and help unlock some of the world’s greatest mysteries.
“America has invested for generations in the data, missions, and technical expertise that make NASA one of the world’s greatest engines of discovery,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “The Genesis Mission is an opportunity to turn that foundation into faster science, stronger engineering, and better mission outcomes. Leveraging our relationships with interagency counterparts, NASA can advance AI tools that accelerate exploration, strengthen American leadership in space, and open new paths to understanding our planet and the universe. Likewise, NASA is committed to applying our research and development to other initiatives within government for the benefit of American taxpayers.”
NASA introduced new Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges that center on two major priorities: strengthening America’s superiority in space and igniting a new era of innovation driven by more than 70 years of science and engineering by the agency.
To operate safely in a space environment that is growing more crowded and dynamic each year, and to maintain America’s leadership in space, NASA must develop advanced systems faster than traditional engineering methods allow. These systems must work together reliably across spacecraft, communications, logistics, surface operations, and other mission capabilities. By combining NASA’s mission expertise with the Department of Energy’s computing and AI capabilities, the Genesis Mission can shorten the path from concept to operational readiness and strengthen America’s ability to operate and lead in space.
NASA also will explore how AI can unlock new discoveries from more than 150 petabytes of data collected across decades of missions and research. NASA’s telescopes, satellites, orbiters, landers, and aeronautics programs have produced an extraordinary record of Earth, the solar system, and the universe, but the scale and complexity of these archives make it difficult to examine every observation using traditional methods. Advanced AI tools could help scientists connect data from different missions, instruments, simulations, and fields of study, identify patterns that might otherwise remain hidden, improve predictions, and reveal new discoveries in data that may have already been studied. By turning NASA’s mission archives into engines of discovery, the Genesis Mission can expand the return on generations of American investment in space and strengthen research across a wide range of scientific fields.
As the Genesis Mission advances, NASA remains dedicated to harnessing its decades of scientific and mission data and engineering capabilities to accelerate new innovations and discovery.
For more information about NASA’s missions, visit:
-end-
George Alderman / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
Improved reporting needed on forest carbon emissions
More analysis is needed to ensure that tropical forest degeneration and regeneration are consistently reported in carbon cycle models and in national reporting, according to a study funded in part by ESA's Climate Change Initiative Biomass project.
The study analysed how tropical forests store carbon under varying conditions and then release it back into the atmosphere. The scenarios studied range from complete forest destruction through deforestation, which is relatively well understood, to forest degradation, whereby the forest’s condition worsens over time due to damage and organic decomposition, for example through wildfires or selective logging, which is often inconsistently reported in models or omitted altogether.
These whales are the only ones that flip upside down. Now we know why
Southern right whales are the only whale species known to float upside down, and new drone footage suggests the purpose of the behavior could be to get a break from parenting
OpenAI admits its agent went rogue and hacked AI start-up Hugging Face
This incident underscores concerns over the increasingly powerful cybersecurity capabilities of new AI models
The Milky Way's Most Powerful Particle Accelerator
Astronomers have conclusively identified a source of the highest energy cosmic ray protons in the Milky Way, solving a long standing puzzle near the star Altair. By combining gamma ray, radio, and X-ray data from three separate observatories, a Hiroshima University led team ruled out competing explanations and confirmed the object as a genuine “PeVatron”. These natural particle accelerators are far more powerful than anything humans have ever built and helps us in the hunt for similar sources across the Galaxy.
A Week of Smoky Skies Across North America
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A Week of Smoky Skies Across North America
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Electrically Charged Mars Storms Threaten Future Exploration
Martian dust storms are some of the most fascinating and mysterious planetary surface processes ever observed, as Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan are the only known planetary bodies to have active dust storms. However, the major difference for Mars is its dust storms can blanket the entire planet at once, resulting in the surface becoming completely unobservable and blocking out sunlight, with the scientific community concerned this might hinder robotic, and even human, space exploration. But what if covering the surface and blocking sunlight wasn’t the only issue Martian global dust storms pose for future missions?
NISAR’s L-Band Radar Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal Navigation Downloads NISAR’s L-Band Radar Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
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PIA26617 Figure A
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Description
Data from the Earth-orbiting U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite’s L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica — poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. The obstruction causes stresses in the ice, heavily fracturing the surrounding surfaces with deep cracks, called crevasses, which show as sharp green lines in the image. Produced in August 2025, the image has been nicknamed “the hummingbird” by NISAR scientists.
The colors show differences in the way polarized microwave signals, which vibrate in different directions, interact with and reflect from the ice. Over Antarctica, NISAR transmits radar waves toward Earth with a horizontal polarization. The orientation of the signals that return, either horizontal, vertical, or both, provide clues about the object or surface that reflected them.
Signals that come back with a horizontal polarization likely bounced off a more regular surface, such as smooth ice. Those signals appear magenta in the image. Signals that return with vertical polarization may have refracted as they partially penetrated the ice or scattered at different angles as they reflected off irregular surfaces, like the faces of crevasses. Called volume scattering, these observations are displayed in green.
The white represents areas in which both magenta and green signals scatter back strongly, a possible indication that there is an equal blend of surface and volume scattering.
Figure A
Figure A is an annotated version of image.
Managed by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the United States component of the project and provided the satellite’s L-band SAR and antenna reflector. The spacecraft bus and its S-band SAR were provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The NISAR satellite is the first to carry two SAR instruments at different wavelengths, collecting data using the spacecraft’s giant drum-shaped reflector, which measures 39 feet (12 meters) wide — the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has ever sent into space.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/nisar/
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NISAR’s L-Band Radar Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal Navigation Downloads NISAR’s L-Band Radar Reveals ‘Hummingbird’ in Antarctica
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Description
Data from the Earth-orbiting U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite’s L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica — poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to the ocean. The obstruction causes stresses in the ice, heavily fracturing the surrounding surfaces with deep cracks, called crevasses, which show as sharp green lines in the image. Produced in August 2025, the image has been nicknamed “the hummingbird” by NISAR scientists.
The colors show differences in the way polarized microwave signals, which vibrate in different directions, interact with and reflect from the ice. Over Antarctica, NISAR transmits radar waves toward Earth with a horizontal polarization. The orientation of the signals that return, either horizontal, vertical, or both, provide clues about the object or surface that reflected them.
Signals that come back with a horizontal polarization likely bounced off a more regular surface, such as smooth ice. Those signals appear magenta in the image. Signals that return with vertical polarization may have refracted as they partially penetrated the ice or scattered at different angles as they reflected off irregular surfaces, like the faces of crevasses. Called volume scattering, these observations are displayed in green.
The white represents areas in which both magenta and green signals scatter back strongly, a possible indication that there is an equal blend of surface and volume scattering.
Figure AFigure A is an annotated version of image.
Managed by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the United States component of the project and provided the satellite’s L-band SAR and antenna reflector. The spacecraft bus and its S-band SAR were provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The NISAR satellite is the first to carry two SAR instruments at different wavelengths, collecting data using the spacecraft’s giant drum-shaped reflector, which measures 39 feet (12 meters) wide — the largest radar antenna reflector NASA has ever sent into space.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/nisar/
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NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captured a Time-Lapse Video of its Mars Flyby
NASA's Psyche mission used a gravity assist maneuver at Mars to gain velocity and adjust its trajectory to its eventual target. The asteroid 16 Psyche is a metal-rich asteroid that may be the remnant rocky core of a protoplanet. The flyby not only shepherded the spacecraft on to its target, it was also an opportunity to test Psyche's science instruments and cameras. NASA has released a timelapse of the flyby.