Shining (Star)light on the Search for Life
In the hunt for life on other worlds, astronomers scour over planets that are light-years away. They need ways to identify life from afar — but what counts as good evidence? Our own planet…
Hubble Uncovers a ‘Heavy Metal’ Exoplanet Shaped Like a Football
How can a planet be “hotter than hot?” The answer is when heavy metals are detected escaping from the planet’s atmosphere, instead of condensing into clouds. Observations by NASA’s Hubble…
NASA Television to Broadcast Space Station Departure of Cygnus Cargo Ship
More than three months after delivering several tons of supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft, the SS Roger Chaffee, will depart the…
This Week in NASA History: First Use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle – July 31, 1971
This week in 1971, Apollo 15 became the first mission to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle. The LRV was a lightweight, electric vehicle designed to operate in the low-gravity vacuum…
First of Two Van Allen Probes Spacecraft Ceases Operations
On July 19, 2019, at 1:27 p.m. EDT, mission operators sent a shutdown command to one of two Van Allen Probes spacecraft, known as spacecraft B, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied…