NASA
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images the Crescent of Mars
Description This view of a crescent Mars was captured on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 a.m. PDT by NASA’s Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. Captured by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument, this was the last view of the whole planet before it began to overfill the field of view of the camera. Because…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images Mars’ Huygens Crater
Description Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA’s Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color view of the large double-ring crater Huygens (upper right; about 290 miles, or 470 kilometers, in diameter) and the surrounding heavily cratered southern highlands near 15 degrees south latitude. The various colors in this dramatic scene are likely due to differences in the compositional properties…
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NASA
NASA’s Psyche Mission Aces Mars Flyby, Targets Metal-Rich Asteroid
Unique Martian view In the days running up to and during close approach, all of Psyche’s instruments were powered up for calibration efforts, including its imagers, magnetometers, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. The planetary encounter provided the mission a valuable practice run for when it reaches the asteroid Psyche; as a bonus, it captured Mars images from a rare perspective. Because Psyche…
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NASA
Moon-Venus Conjunction
The Moon and Venus, center, are seen in conjunction above the Washington Monument, Monday, May 18, 2026, as viewed from the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington. The Moon and Venus look close together because they line up from our point of view on Earth. In reality, they are separated by millions of miles in space. See more…
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NASA
Johnson’s Cindy Evans Prepares Artemis Teams for Lunar Science
NASA’s Artemis II crew had many technical and operational responsibilities during their historic mission to the Moon, but they also served an important role as scientific ambassadors to Earth’s nearest neighbor. On their 10-day journey, the crew flew by the far side of the Moon, analyzing and photographing geologic features such as impact craters and ancient lava flows. Their observations…
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NASA
NASA’s New Shock Detectives Project Invites Volunteers to Help Study Solar Wind
The Sun sprays an extremely fast stream of charged particles called the solar wind. At approximately 56,000 miles (90,000 kilometers) in front of the Earth toward the Sun, the solar wind collides with the Earth’s protective magnetic field, generating a long-lasting shock wave that stretches for hundreds of thousands of miles. Now, you can help scientists examine data about this…
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NASA
Farming in Ancient Lake Agassiz
Editor’s Note: Today’s story is the answer to the May Puzzler.About 15,000 years ago, southeastern Manitoba sat beneath tens of meters of frigid water. Lake Agassiz—which once encompassed present-day Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, and Lake of the Woods—covered an area larger than all of the Great Lakes combined. It formed in front of the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet, which dammed rivers that otherwise…
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NASA
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4893-4899: Drilling at Campo Marte and a Visit From the Psyche Spacecraft
Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, May 15, 2026 After freeing the rover’s arm from the “Atacama” block, we are ready to drill again! The new drill target will represent the same geologic stratum as Atacama, which is the layered sulfate unit above the boxwork structures. We’ve named the new block “Campo…
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NASA
Johnson Photographers Honored for Award-Winning Portraits
Three photographers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center who inspire the world through visual storytelling earned top honors in the portrait category at the 2025 NASA Imagery Experts Program Annual Awards. “Congratulations to all three on this impressive achievement and for capturing such breathtaking imagery,” said Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche. “Their work represents the collaboration, precision, and creativity that drive human…
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NASA
NASA’s MAVEN Makes 1st Discovery of Atmospheric Effect at Mars
In December 2023, scientists looking at Mars data stumbled across something completely unexpected — observations of an atmospheric effect never before seen in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Using instruments aboard NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission, scientists identified a phenomenon known to occur in Earth’s magnetosphere, where charged particles are squeezed like toothpaste coming out of a tube…
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