Science

A collection of 541 posts

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NASA Ames posts 2022 Earth Science Nuggets

NASA Ames has posted the 2022 Ames Earth Science Nuggets, a collection of bite-sized, single-page summaries that highlight recent science results, mission updates and outreach activities. The Earth Science Nuggets are described as single-page summaries. An August 2022 entry on the page addresses the evolution of biomass burning aerosols from

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NASA Ames publishes 2023 Earth Science Nuggets on software, campaigns and climate

NASA Ames published a series of Earth Science Nuggets in 2023 that highlight work on data processing software, field campaigns, atmospheric observations and climate impacts. The items listed by month include: March — "Portable, Scalable, and Re-usable Science Data Processing Software for NASA Satellite Missions"; May — "ARC manages

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NASA Ames 2024 Earth Science Nuggets highlight vegetation bias and Venus cloud tech

NASA Ames has a collection of Earth Science Nuggets for 2024 that cover four topics: a bias discovered in measuring Earth’s vegetation; enabling technology for missions to the Venus clouds; an assessment of OpenET’s support of water resource and management applications; and tracking coastal wetland loss in Southern

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Feral dogs threaten wildlife and people in Ladakh

Some estimates suggest about 25,000 dogs roam freely around Ladakh, where they carry diseases including rabies and have contributed to rising numbers of dog bites and even fatal attacks. Conservationists say the animals now pose a well-known threat to human health as well as to native wildlife. Experts say

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NASA Ames publishes Earth Science Nuggets summarizing recent work

NASA’s Ames Research Center’s Earth Science Division publishes Earth Science Nuggets, short single‑page summaries highlighting recent science results, mission highlights and outreach activities. The Nuggets are described as bite‑sized, single‑page summaries that cover recent research findings, mission developments and public outreach carried out by the

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New York will phase out horseshoe crab harvest, full ban by 2029

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will phase out the catch of horseshoe crabs in New York waters for bait and biomedical use over four years, beginning in 2026 and culminating in a full prohibition in 2029. The allowed catch, to be managed by the state’s Department of Environmental

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Earth–Saturn alignment will make Saturn’s rings nearly disappear this weekend

This weekend the orbits of Earth and Saturn will combine to create an interplanetary optical illusion: Saturn’s rings will be all but invisible when viewed from Earth by observers with clear skies and a good telescope. Astronomers call the effect a ring‑plane crossing, which happens when the ultrathin

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Chandra releases 25-year X-ray video of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has produced a new video that shows the evolution of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant using observations collected over more than two and a half decades. The remnant, located in our galaxy about 17,000 light-years from Earth, was once a white dwarf star that exploded

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Upper Peninsula campaign seeks to repeal ban and protect dark skies

A local environmental group in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula launched a campaign called The Right to Night in February to overturn a state law that prohibits establishing dark-sky preserves on U.P. state land, a restriction that covers 18 state parks and has become a focus as mining companies assess

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Expedition 74 runs exercise and biomedical research as crew readies Thursday spacewalk

Exercise research and biomedical science filled the schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday as Expedition 74 prepared for a spacewalk later this week. Commander Mike Fincke of NASA set up video gear and calibrated hardware on the Tranquility module to monitor how his body responds to workouts on

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Caltech names astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana as its next president

The California Institute of Technology has named Ray Jayawardhana, an astrophysicist and the provost of Johns Hopkins University, as its next president. Dr. Jayawardhana, 54, is scheduled to start in July and will succeed Thomas F. Rosenbaum, who led the school for 12 years. Caltech leaders cited Dr. Jayawardhana’s

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Richard Ferrare, NASA lidar specialist in aerosol and water-vapor research

Dr. Richard Ferrare has more than thirty years of experience in lidar remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols and water vapor at NASA. He began work at NASA Goddard in 1985, investigating aerosol optical and physical properties using satellite data and ground-based lidar measurements. He led retrievals of aerosol backscattering and

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NASA to Demolish Three Historic Test Facilities at Marshall Center

NASA is preparing to demolish three iconic structures at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Crews began demolition in mid-December on the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a late-1960s facility that enabled near-weightless training and underwater testing for missions including Skylab and Hubble repairs. The other two structures—the Propulsion

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Cetacean morbillivirus found in humpback whales off northern Norway

Scientists in northern Norway have detected cetacean morbillivirus in humpback whales, the first identification of the virus in Arctic waters, according to a study published in mid-December in the journal BMC Veterinary Research led by Helena Costa of Nord University. Researchers used drones to collect more than 50 samples of

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NASA releases a roughly 3-minute animation on solar system formation

NASA Science offers an animated, roughly 3-minute video that explains how the solar system formed. The animation explores the processes that produced the Sun, eight planets, hundreds of moons, and many thousands of asteroids and comets. It also features a downloadable poster available in three sizes: 8.5 x 11

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Geminids meteor shower peaks Dec. 13–14 with moon about one‑third full

The Geminids meteor shower, one of the strongest annual showers, reaches its peak Saturday night into Sunday morning — Dec. 13 to 14 — after being active since Dec. 4 and will remain active until Dec. 17. It is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, though observers south of the Equator can

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2025 studies expand picture of Neanderthal life, art, diet and interbreeding

More than a dozen high-profile scientific studies in 2025 renewed attention on Neanderthals, the Eurasian hominids that vanished about 40,000 years ago, exploring their diet, symbolic behavior and interactions with early Homo sapiens. Researchers say the work builds on a shift since 2010, when the Max Planck Institute published

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Ursids meteor shower peaks Dec. 21–22 and will be visible in Northern Hemisphere

The Ursids meteor shower is active and will reach its peak Sunday night into Monday morning, Dec. 21 to 22, with the shower expected to continue through Dec. 26. Only observers in the Northern Hemisphere will have a chance of seeing the display. Meteors from the Ursids appear near the

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Study links genes and environment in side‑blotched lizards' mating cycle

A new study published in Science explains how genetic and environmental factors produce the rock‑paper‑scissors style mating cycle of the side‑blotched lizard, a species long observed in California hills to cycle among three male throat‑color strategies. Early work by Barry Sinervo and Curtis Lively described three

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NASA and CNES release first global river discharge and sediment estimates from SWOT

Science teams at NASA and the French space agency CNES have released the first-ever global estimate of river discharge and suspended sediment observed from space, developed using data from the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite. The resource provides estimates of river discharge—the volume of water flowing per

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Hubble and ground telescopes detect gas wake from Betelgeuse companion

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories have detected a trail of dense gas in Betelgeuse’s extended atmosphere created by a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian report. The team tracked changes in the star’s light over

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Expedition 74 Prepares First 2026 Spacewalk to Ready Station for New Solar Arrays

The Expedition 74 crew is preparing for the first spacewalk of 2026 this week as two astronauts work to ready the International Space Station for new roll-out solar arrays. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman are scheduled to exit the station’s Quest airlock at 8 a.m. EST

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Texas facility hosts more than 550 remotely operated amateur telescopes

Starfront Observatories, in Rockwood, Texas, has become a hub for remote amateur astronomy, allowing owners to rent space in sheds to mount their telescopes and control them over a high-speed data connection. In about a year and a half the site has grown from zero to more than 550 telescopes,

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Huíla plateau rises above Angola's southwestern coastal plains

NASA Earth Observatory imagery shows the Huíla plateau rising to around 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above the coastal plains of southwestern Angola, where a sharp cliff line marks a sudden shift from arid lowlands to more-temperate highlands. The featured mosaic was assembled from scenes acquired on June 19

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NASA launches ESCAPADE twin orbiters to study how Mars lost its atmosphere

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission launched to space on Thursday aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, sending two small twin orbiters bound for Mars. The pair, named Blue and Gold, are each about the size of a mini fridge and are designed to study how Mars went from having a