NASA
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Monterrey Amid Mountains
The curving, parallel mountain ridges of the Sierra Madre Oriental are an eye-catching feature of northeastern Mexico’s landscape. The spot where these folds nestle up against Mexico’s second-largest metropolitan area captured the attention of an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, who took this photo on August 26, 2026. Monterrey, the capital of the state of Nuevo León, is an…
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
M83: The Southern Pinwheel Explanation: Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, the Southern Pinwheel. Still, reddish star forming regions that dot this cosmic pinwheel’s spiral arms have suggested another nickname, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy.…
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NASA’s Life-Saving Technology Where Cell Signals Can’t Go
Memorial Day weekend 2024 started with a blue sky and a mild three- to four-foot chop in the water off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi — a perfect day for a fishing competition. A team of five was about 40 miles offshore checking their sonar, and 30 seconds later the boat was gone. They were in the water struggling to pull on…
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NASA Answers President’s Call to Establish United States Space Academy
Less than two weeks after an Executive Order was signed to create the first United States Space Academy, NASA-led work is in full swing to make the academy a reality and shape the future of America’s aerospace workforce and leadership. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman chaired the first Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy meeting on Sept. 9. Following…
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NASA, NFL Team Up to Showcase Space, Aeronautics Innovation
Through a new collaboration between NASA and the National Football League (NFL), the agency will soon bring America’s strengths in space exploration and aeronautics innovation to the football field. NASA will conduct flyovers, astronaut appearances, and fan engagement at NFL games across the United States as part of its new Inspiration Tour. “This is the first season NASA is taking…
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Dust and Water in Sagittarius A*
A brilliant concentration of stars takes center stage in this Aug. 11, 2026, image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb observed IRS 3, a star near the end of its life cycle, located within this starfield. Webb’s mid-infrared data revealed the clear signature of oxygen-rich silicate dust, as well as, for the first time, water, in its surrounding…
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
LDN 1295: The Giraffe Nebula Explanation: What does this image look like to you? Many see a giraffe facing right, with neck stretched high and long legs mid-stride (but some may see a squirrel instead). The featured image shows LDN 1295, also called the Giraffe Nebula, in the constellation of the mythical queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia). It is an object in the Lynds Catalogue of Dark Nebulas, compiled in 1962 by American…
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Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali
As summer winds down in West Africa, so does much of the region’s dust activity. Dust storms can still occur, though, as one did in early September 2026, when a plume covered parts of Mali and neighboring countries. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on September 5, 2026. According to Tianle Yuan, an atmospheric scientist…
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NASA Adds Relativity Space’s Terran R to Launch Services Contract
A NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract has been awarded by the agency to Relativity Space Inc., and its Terran R launch service in accordance with the contract’s on-ramp provision. The Terran R launch service will be available to NASA’s launch services to use for future missions. The NLS II contracts are multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with an ordering period through…
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NASA’s Chandra Unveils Mysterious X-Ray Objects
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before. Astronomers suggest these newly spotted objects in other galaxies may help solve not one, but two long-standing questions in astrophysics. These mysterious objects give off unusually low-energy X-rays but intense levels of ultraviolet radiation. This discovery is featured in a…
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