Press Releases
Showing 1 to 24 of 592.
NASA Celebrates Edwin Hubble’s Discovery of a New Universe
2025.01.15
For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don’t go looking for it — the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye. Yet, a century ago, its […]
NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas
2025.01.14
Once upon a time, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shockwave that blasted outward, ripping the star apart as it went. When the shockwave reached the star’s surface, it punched through, generating a brief, intense pulse of X-rays and ultraviolet light that traveled outward into the surrounding space. About 350 years later, […]
New Simulated Universe Previews Panoramas From NASA’s Roman Telescope
2025.01.14
Astronomers have released a set of more than a million simulated images showcasing the cosmos as NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see it. This preview will help scientists explore a myriad of Roman’s science goals. “We used a supercomputer to create a synthetic universe and simulated billions of years of evolution, tracing […]
Newfound Galaxy Class May Indicate Early Black Hole Growth, Webb Finds
2025.01.14
In December 2022, less than six months after commencing science operations, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed something never seen before: numerous red objects that appear small on the sky, which scientists soon called “little red dots” (LRDs). Though these dots are quite abundant, researchers are perplexed by their nature, the reason for their unique […]
Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System
2025.01.13
Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of two massive stars that follow […]
NASA Joins Telescope, Instruments to Roman Spacecraft
2025.01.08
Technicians have successfully integrated NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s payload – the telescope, instrument carrier, and two instruments – to the spacecraft that will deliver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function while there. “With this incredible milestone, Roman remains on track for launch, and we’re a big step […]
NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
2024.12.16
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just solved a conundrum by proving a controversial finding made with the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope more than 20 years ago. In 2003, Hubble provided evidence of a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the universe. Such stars possess only small amounts of heavier elements […]
NASA Successfully Integrates Roman Mission’s Telescope, Instruments
2024.12.12
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s telescope and two instruments onto the instrument carrier, marking the completion of the Roman payload. Now the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will begin joining the payload to the spacecraft. “We’re in the middle of an exciting stage […]
Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way
2024.12.11
For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected and “weighed” a galaxy that not only existed around 600 million years after the big bang, but is also similar to what our Milky Way galaxy’s mass might have been at the same stage of development. Other galaxies Webb has detected at this time […]
Hats Off to NASA’s Webb: Sombrero Galaxy Dazzles in New Image
2024.11.25
In a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a galaxy named for its resemblance to a broad-brimmed Mexican hat appears more like an archery target. In Webb’s mid-infrared view of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104), the signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a […]
Telescope for NASA’s Roman Mission Complete, Delivered to Goddard
2024.11.14
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is one giant step closer to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The mission has now received its final major delivery: the Optical Telescope Assembly, which includes a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) primary mirror, nine additional mirrors, and supporting structures and electronics. The assembly was delivered Nov. 7. to the largest […]
Astronomers Find Early Fast-Feeding Black Hole Using NASA Telescopes
2024.11.13
A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist’s concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole […]
NASA’s Hubble, Webb Probe Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega
2024.11.01
In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star — but no obvious planets are visible. It looks like the filmmakers got it […]
‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair
2024.10.31
Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The long, ghastly “stare” of their searing eye-like cores shines out into the supreme cosmic darkness. It’s good fortune that looks can be deceiving. These galaxies have only grazed one another to date, with the smaller […]
NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope
2024.10.28
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date. The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take […]
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Exoskeleton’ Whirls Through Major Test
2024.10.08
A major component of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just took a spin on the centrifuge at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Called the Outer Barrel Assembly, this piece of the observatory is designed to keep the telescope at a stable temperature and shield it from stray light.
NASA’s TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets
2024.10.02
Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic “strobe lights” captured by NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The system contains a set of twin stars orbiting each other every 1.8 days, and a third star that circles the pair in just […]
NASA’s Webb Reveals Unusual Jets of Volatile Gas from Icy Centaur 29P
2024.10.02
Inspired by the half-human, half-horse creatures that are part of Ancient Greek mythology, the field of astronomy has its own kind of centaurs: distant objects orbiting the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has mapped the gases spewing from one of these objects, suggesting a varied composition and providing new insights […]
In Odd Galaxy, NASA’s Webb Finds Potential Missing Link to First Stars
2024.09.25
Looking deep into the early universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found something unprecedented: a galaxy with an odd light signature, which they attribute to its gas outshining its stars. Found approximately one billion years after the big bang, galaxy GS-NDG-9422 (9422) may be a missing-link phase of galactic evolution between the […]
NASA’s Webb Provides Another Look Into Galactic Collisions
2024.09.18
Smile for the camera! An interaction between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy, collectively known as Arp 107, seems to have given the spiral a happier outlook thanks to the two bright “eyes” and the wide semicircular “smile.” The region has been observed before in infrared by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2005, however […]
NASA Completes Spacecraft to Transport, Support Roman Space Telescope
2024.09.17
The spacecraft bus that will deliver NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to its orbit and enable it to function once there is now complete after years of construction, installation, and testing. Now that the spacecraft is assembled, engineers will begin working to integrate the observatory’s other major components, including the science instruments and the […]
NASA’s Webb Peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy
2024.09.12
Astronomers have directed NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.) A team of scientists used Webb’s NIRCam […]
Kyle Helson Finds EXCITE-ment in Exoplanet Exploration
2024.09.10
Almost a decade ago, then-grad student Kyle Helson contributed to early paperwork for NASA’s EXCITE mission. As a scientist at Goddard, Helson helped make this balloon-based telescope a reality: EXCITE launched successfully on Aug. 31. Name: Kyle HelsonTitle: Assistant Research ScientistOrganization: Observational Cosmology Lab (Code 665), via UMBC and the GESTAR II cooperative agreement with […]
NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
2024.09.04
It’s 7 billion years ago, and the universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of […]
Showing 1 to 24 of 592.