It’s the cat’s meow! To celebrate its third year of revealing stunning scenes of the cosmos in infrared light, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has “clawed” back the thick, dusty layers of a section within the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334). Focusing Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on a single “toe bean” within this active star-forming […]
Category: Science & Research
Smarter Searching: NASA AI Makes Science Data Easier to Find
Imagine shopping for a new pair of running shoes online. If each seller described them differently—one calling them “sneakers,” another “trainers,” and someone else “footwear for exercise”—you’d quickly feel lost in a sea of mismatched terminology. Fortunately, most online stores use standardized categories and filters, so you can click through a simple path: Women’s > […]
Near-Earth Asteroids as of September 2025
Each month, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office releases a monthly update featuring the most recent figures on NASA’s planetary defense efforts, near-Earth object close approaches, and other timely facts about comets and asteroids that could pose an impact hazard with Earth. Here is what we’ve found so far. Updated: September 11, 2025
3 Years of Science: 10 Cosmic Surprises from NASA’s Webb Telescope
Since July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been unwaveringly focused on our universe. With its unprecedented power to detect and analyze otherwise invisible infrared light, Webb is making observations that were once impossible, changing our view of the cosmos from the most distant galaxies to our own solar system. Webb was built with […]
3 Years of Science: 10 Cosmic Surprises from NASA’s Webb Telescope
Since July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been unwaveringly focused on our universe. With its unprecedented power to detect and analyze otherwise invisible infrared light, Webb is making observations that were once impossible, changing our view of the cosmos from the most distant galaxies to our own solar system. Webb was built with […]
NASA’s Webb Digs into Structural Origins of Disk Galaxies
Present-day disk galaxies often contain a thick, star-filled outer disk and an embedded thin disk of stars. For instance, our own Milky Way galaxy’s thick disk is approximately 3,000 light-years in height, and its thin disk is roughly 1,000 light-years thick. How and why does this dual disk structure form? By analyzing archival data from […]
Alien Ocean
Explore This SectionScienceEuropa ClipperAlien OceanEuropa Clipper HomeMissionOverviewFactsHistoryTimelineScienceGoalsTeamSpacecraftMeet Europa ClipperInstruments Assembly Vault PlateMessage in a BottleNewsNews & FeaturesBlogNewsroomReplay the LaunchMultimediaFeatured MultimediaResourcesAbout EuropaWhy Europa?Europa Up CloseIngredients for LifeEvidence for an Ocean To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 videoCould a liquid water ocean beneath the surface of […]
Reddish Bands on Europa
This colorized image of Europa is a product of clear-filter grayscale data from one orbit of NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, combined with lower-resolution color data taken on a different orbit. The blue-white terrains indicate relatively pure water ice, whereas the reddish areas contain water ice mixed with hydrated salts, potentially magnesium sulfate or sulfuric acid. The […]
Source Region for Possible Europa Plumes
This reprojection of the official USGS Europa basemap is centered at the estimated source region for potential plumes that might have been detected using the Hubble Space Telescope. The view is centered at -65 degrees latitude, 183 degrees longitude. In addition to the plume source region, the image also shows the hemisphere of Europa that […]