NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been mapping the planets since Apollo. One team is searching closer to home for minerals critical to national security and the economy. If not for the Joshua trees, the tan hills of Cuprite, Nevada, would resemble Mars. Scalded and chemically altered by water from deep underground, the rocks […]
Category: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA Aircraft, Sensor Technology, Aid in Texas Flood Recovery Efforts
In response to recent flooding near Kerrville, Texas, NASA deployed two aircraft to assist state and local authorities in ongoing recovery operations. The aircraft are part of the response from NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, which is activated to support emergency response for the flooding and is working closely with the Texas Division of Emergency […]
How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World
NASA’s newest astrophysics space telescope launched in March on a mission to create an all-sky map of the universe. Now settled into low-Earth orbit, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) has begun delivering its sky survey data to a public archive on a weekly basis, allowing anyone […]
NASA Mars Orbiter Learns New Moves After Nearly 20 Years in Space
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is testing a series of large spacecraft rolls that will help it hunt for water. After nearly 20 years of operations, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is on a roll, performing a new maneuver to squeeze even more science out of the busy spacecraft as it circles the Red Planet. Engineers […]
John Casani, Former Manager of Multiple NASA Missions, Dies
During his work on several historic missions, Casani rose through a series of technical and management positions, making an indelible mark on the nation’s space program. John R. Casani, a visionary engineer who served a central role in many of NASA’s historic deep space missions, died on Thursday, June 19, 2025, at the age […]
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Scours Mars for Science
In addition to drilling rock core samples, the science team has been grinding its way into rocks to make sense of the scientific evidence hiding just below the surface. On June 3, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover ground down a portion of a rock surface, blew away the resulting debris, and then went to work studying […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Starts Unpacking Boxwork Formations
The rover recently drilled a sample from a new region with features that could reveal whether Mars’ subsurface once provided an environment suitable for life. New images from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover show the first close-up views of a region scientists had previously observed only from orbit. The images and data being collected are already […]
NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops
The 2001 Odyssey spacecraft captured a first-of-its-kind look at Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth’s tallest volcanoes. A new panorama from NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter shows one of the Red Planet’s biggest volcanoes, Arsia Mons, poking through a canopy of clouds just before dawn. Arsia Mons and two other volcanoes form what is known as […]
NASA’s Ready-to-Use Dataset Details Land Motion Across North America
An online tool maps measurements and enables non-experts to understand earthquakes, subsidence, landslides, and other types of land motion. NASA is collaborating with the Alaska Satellite Facility in Fairbanks to create a powerful web-based tool that will show the movement of land across North America down to less than an inch. The online portal and […]
3 Black Holes Caught Eating Massive Stars in NASA Data
Black holes are invisible to us unless they interact with something else. Some continuously eat gas and dust, and appear to glow brightly over time as matter falls in. But other black holes secretly lie in wait for years until a star comes close enough to snack on. Scientists have recently identified three supermassive black […]