NASA and India unveil the first images from the most powerful radar satellite ever built

The most advanced Earth radar satellite ever launched, NISAR’s first test images are already showing how it could transform the way we monitor the planet, from tracking crop health to spotting earthquake risks.

And it hasn’t even kicked into full science mode yet.

Built through a rare U.S.-India partnership, this spacecraft is packed with new radar technology that can scan deep into forests, farmlands, and even under layers of ice.

Its main job is to watch how Earth changes over time – and give scientists and decision-makers the data they need to act.

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The Perseverance Rover Spotted A Rock That May Be The Strongest Sign Of Ancient Life Yet

NASA's Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars' Jezero Crater since 2021 with the primary objective to investigate the environments that could have supported life in the past on the Red Planet. 

In order to do that, the rover is busy collecting samples for possible return to Earth, where they can be meticulously studied. Jezero Crater was the obvious choice for research because orbital data revealed evidence of abundant water in ancient times; there's an old (now dry) river delta that used to supply Jezero Crater with water. 

After all, the name Jezero, in some Slavic languages, means "lake." What's more, this former lake might have just done a lot to help Perseverance find signs of ancient Martian life -- rocks with strange patterns potentially created by organic reactions.

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NASA announces "groundbreaking discovery" of life on Mars

A recent analysis of the Sapphire Canyon mudstone core, drilled by NASA’s Perseverance rover in July 2024, adds new and convincing evidence to the ongoing search for life on Mars.

The study describes minerals and textures that – on Earth – are often linked to microbial activity. At the same time, the authors stress that some unknown, nonbiological chemistry could also explain the signals.

“This finding by Perseverance is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.

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Webb Telescope Spots Possible Signs of Atmosphere on “Goldilocks” Exoplanet

This artist’s concept portrays the seven rocky exoplanets within the TRAPPIST-1 system, located 40 light-years 

from Earth. Credit: NASA and JPL/Caltech

JWST data hints that Trappist-1e may have an atmosphere. More transits will test if this world could support liquid water.

Recent observations with NASA’s advanced JWST telescope have revealed a planet located 41 light-years from Earth that may possess an atmosphere. This planet orbits within the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where temperatures allow liquid water to remain on the surface of a rocky body. Water is essential because it is one of the fundamental requirements for sustaining life.

If upcoming observations verify these results, this would represent the first time a rocky planet in a star’s habitable zone has been confirmed to hold an atmosphere. The research is detailed in two studies published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars

The Perseverance rover has explored and sampled igneous and sedimentary rocks within Jezero Crater to characterize early Martian geological processes and habitability and search for potential biosignatures. Upon entering Neretva Vallis, on Jezero Crater’s western edge, Perseverance investigated distinctive mudstone and conglomerate outcrops of the Bright Angel formation. 

Here we report a detailed geological, petrographic and geochemical survey of these rocks and show that organic-carbon-bearing mudstones in the Bright Angel formation contain submillimetre-scale nodules and millimetre-scale reaction fronts enriched in ferrous iron phosphate and sulfide minerals, likely vivianite and greigite, respectively. This organic carbon appears to have participated in post-depositional redox reactions that produced the observed iron-phosphate and iron-sulfide minerals. Geological context and petrography indicate that these reactions occurred at low temperatures. 

Within this context, we review the various pathways by which redox reactions that involve organic matter can produce the observed suite of iron-, sulfur- and phosphorus-bearing minerals in laboratory and natural environments on Earth. Ultimately, we conclude that analysis of the core sample collected from this unit using high-sensitivity instrumentation on Earth will enable the measurements required to determine the origin of the minerals, organics and textures it contains.

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Discovers 300 Mysterious Objects That Shouldn’t Exist

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Missouri examined distant regions of the universe and made a surprising discovery. By analyzing infrared images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), they detected 300 objects shining more brightly than expected.

“These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in the early universe, meaning they could be very early galaxies,” said Haojing Yan, an astronomy professor in Mizzou’s College of Arts and Science and co-author on the study. 

“If even a few of these objects turn out to be what we think they are, our discovery could challenge current ideas about how galaxies formed in the early universe — the period when the first stars and galaxies began to take shape.”

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NASA Just Flew Through the Sun’s Atmosphere

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun by flying closer than ever before, capturing jaw-dropping images from within the solar atmosphere.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has captured the most detailed images ever taken near the Sun, recorded from just 3.8 million miles away from its surface.

These up-close images reveal structures within the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged particles that the Sun releases into space at speeds over 1 million miles per hour.

The new visuals and data are giving scientists critical insights into how the solar wind forms and behaves, which is key to understanding how it influences Earth.

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Strange signals detected from Antarctic ice seem to defy laws of physics

Scientists are trying to solve a decade-long mystery by determining the identity of anomalous signals detected from below ice in Antarctica.

The strange radio waves emerged during a search for another unusual phenomenon: high-energy cosmic particles known as neutrinos. Arriving at Earth from the far reaches of the cosmos, neutrinos are often called “ghostly” because they are extremely volatile, or vaporous, and can go through any kind of matter without changing.

Over the past decade, researchers have conducted multiple experiments using vast expanses of water and ice that are designed to search for neutrinos, which could shed light on mysterious cosmic rays, the most highly energetic particles in the universe. One of these projects was NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna, or ANITA, experiment, which flew balloons carrying instruments above Antarctica between 2006 and 2016.

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The ocean is changing colors, researchers say. Here's what it means.

The researchers analyzed satellite data on the open ocean collected from 2003 to 2022 by a NASA instrument that combs through the planet every two days to measure light wavelength, according to the paper.

The presence of chlorophyll in open ocean is a proxy for concentrations of phytoplankton biomass. The colors indicate how chlorophyll concentration is changing at specific latitudes, in which the subtropics are generally losing chlorophyll, and the polar regions -- the high-latitude regions -- are greening, the researchers said.

Green areas became greener, especially in the northern hemisphere, and blue regions "got even bluer," according to a press release by Duke University.

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NASA Detects Massive Earth Anomaly Expanding Rapidly and Threatening the Entire Continental United States

The recent discoveries by NASA regarding the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) have captured the attention of scientists worldwide. This anomaly, located in the South Atlantic Ocean and parts of South America, is characterized by an expanding magnetic field disturbance. 

The SAA’s growth and its implications for technology and space exploration make it a focal point of scientific research. As the anomaly continues to evolve, understanding its origins and effects becomes increasingly urgent for developing protective measures for both terrestrial and space-based technologies.

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Mars Kept a Secret for 3.5 Billion Years – NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finally Dug It Up

Scientists using NASA’s Curiosity rover have discovered siderite—an iron carbonate—in the sulfate-rich rocks of Gale Crater, solving a long-standing mystery about Mars’ missing carbonates.

This find provides powerful new clues about the planet’s ancient atmosphere and supports theories that it once harbored conditions suitable for liquid water. The discovery challenges previous satellite data and suggests that more carbon may be hidden below the Martian surface or lost to space.

Rethinking Mars’ Ancient Atmosphere
Scientists have long believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and flowing liquid water on its surface. According to that theory, the CO2 and water should have reacted with the planet’s rocks to form carbonate minerals. But until recently, surface analyses by rovers and orbital instruments using near-infrared spectroscopy hadn’t detected the expected levels of carbonate.

Now, new findings reported in Science reveal otherwise. Data from three drill sites examined by NASA’s Curiosity rover show the presence of siderite—an iron-based carbonate mineral—within sulfate-rich rock layers on Mount Sharp, located in Gale Crater.

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NASA Reveals 5 Million Images of Gravity Waves Rippling Through Earth’s Sky

NASA’s AWE mission just released millions of gravity wave images from space, unveiling atmospheric forces that ripple through the sky and affect our tech on Earth. It’s a whole new window into space weather.

After completing its 3,000th orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) has released its first set of scientific data. 

This milestone marks a major step in studying how subtle changes in Earth’s upper atmosphere can lead to disturbances, and how those disturbances can affect technologies like satellites, communications systems, and GPS on Earth and in space.

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Curiosity rover cracked open a rock and may have settled the 'life on Mars' debate

Imagine taking a leisurely Sunday drive, and you accidentally smash something on the road that turns out to be an unprecedented scientific revelation. Well, that’s exactly what happened to NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover when it struck yellow sulfur on the Red Planet.


While working its usual Martian shift, the rover stumbled upon, rather drove over, a rock and cracked it wide open, revealing a sight never before seen on Mars – a dazzling display of yellow sulfur crystals.

This unexpected discovery was relayed to a team of astounded scientists, including Ashwin Vasavada, the Curiosity’s project scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

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Solar System Facts

Our solar system includes the Sun, eight planets, five officially named dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and thousands of asteroids and comets. Our solar system is located in the Milky Way, a barred spiral galaxy with two major arms, and two minor arms. Our Sun is in a small, partial arm of the Milky Way called the Orion Arm, or Orion Spur, between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms. Our solar system orbits the center of the galaxy at about 515,000 mph (828,000 kph). It takes about 230 million years to complete one orbit around the galactic center.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 8 launch: Live updates

SpaceX's Starship megarocket is the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, and the giant booster that will launch the moon lander for NASA's Artemis 3 mission that aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2027.

The next Starship launch by SpaceX will be Starship Flight 8 on Friday, Feb. 28. at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT). 

It will be the second flight of a new version of the Ship and test new enhancements to the Super Heavy Booster while flying a similar profile to that of Flight 5 on Oct. 13, which saw the successful first landing and capture of the Super Heavy booster. It is also expected to include a relight of the Ship engines, test reentry gear for Ship in space and mark the first deployment of simulated Starlink satellites.  READ MORE...

China's New Solar Array

Chinese scientists have announced a plan to build an enormous, 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide solar power station in space that will beam continuous energy back to Earth via microwaves.


The project, which will see its components lofted to a geostationary orbit above Earth using super-heavy rockets, has been dubbed "another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth."


The Three Gorges Dam, located in the middle of the Yangtze river in central China, is the world's largest hydropower project and generates 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. According to one NASA scientist, the dam is so large that, if completely filled, the mass of the water contained within would lengthen Earth's days by 0.06 microseconds.     READ MORE...

Far away Planet Shows Signs of Life

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has reportedly discovered possible evidence of a sign of life on a faraway planet.


Life on Earth produces a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS) that has been discovered on the exoplanet named K2-18b.


The "bulk" of DMS in Earth's atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments, said University of Cambridge Prof. Nikku Madhusudhan who led the research to BBC News in 2023.

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Groundbreaking NASA Battery

In a groundbreaking development, NASA has unveiled a new solid-state sulfur selenium battery to revolutionize the aviation industry by replacing traditional gas-powered engines with electricity.


This innovative technology not only promises to significantly reduce harmful emissions but also opens up possibilities for faster and more efficient electric airplanes. In this article, we explore the implications of this breakthrough, its potential to transform air travel, and the challenges that lie ahead.


Air travel is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), commercial air travel in the United States alone accounts for 10% of transportation emissions and 3% of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions.     READ MORE...

Surprise Planet Discovery

New research reveals a fourth planet in the Kepler-51 system, altering our understanding of this unique system with three known ultra-low density “super-puff” planets.

Researchers utilized a range of telescopes, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, to detect unexpected transit timing variations that suggested the presence of an additional planet. This discovery adds complexity to the system’s dynamics and poses new questions about the formation and characteristics of these rare super-puff planets.

New Planet Discovered in Kepler-51 System
A team of researchers from Penn State and Osaka University has discovered that an unusual planetary system, known for its three ultra-low density “super-puff” planets, includes at least one more planet. While observing Kepler-51d, the third planet in the system, with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team encountered a surprise: the planet transited its star two hours earlier than predicted by existing models.

To solve the mystery, the researchers analyzed both new and archival data from a range of space- and ground-based telescopes. Their investigation led to a compelling explanation: a previously undetected fourth planet, whose gravitational influence affects the orbits of the other planets in the system.

This groundbreaking discovery is detailed in a paper published on December 3 in the Astronomical Journal.     READ MORE...

Webb Telescope Confirms: Universe is Expanding

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Fresh corroboration of the perplexing observation that the universe is expanding more rapidly than expected has scientists pondering the cause - perhaps some unknown factor involving the mysterious cosmic components dark energy and dark matter.

Two years of data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have now validated the Hubble Space Telescope's earlier finding that the rate of the universe's expansion is faster - by about 8% - than would be expected based on what astrophysicists know of the initial conditions in the cosmos and its evolution over billions of years. The discrepancy is called the Hubble Tension.  READ MORE...