News & Features
Follow mission news or learn about exciting new discoveries from NASA centers and research partners.
Watching the planet breathe
March 1, 2012
Scientists have come up with an entirely new way to monitor the health of Earth’s plants from space. In work published in Geophysical Research Letters [1], researchers working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and in Germany and Japan report on how measurements taken from space can open a whole new window onto the planet’s carbon cycle.
Galaxy May Swarm with Nomad Planets
Feb. 29, 2012
A new study shows that our galaxy could host 100,000 times more 'nomad planets' than stars.
Young Stars Flicker Amidst Clouds of Gas and Dust
Feb. 29, 2012
Astronomers have spotted young stars in the Orion nebula changing right before their eyes.
Ultra-fast Outflows Help Monster Black Holes Shape Their Galaxies
Feb. 29, 2012
A new type of black-hole-driven outflow that appears to be both powerful and common.
The Many Moods of Titan
Feb. 24, 2012
Recent data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a shifting, Earth-like environment at Saturn's moon Titan.
Extending the Habitable Zone for Red Dwarf Stars
Feb. 24, 2012
Scientists have long thought that planets had to orbit very close to small and dim red dwarf stars in order to be warm enough for life. New research challenges that assumption.
NASA Satellite Finds Earth's Clouds are Getting Lower
Feb. 23, 2012
A new university study using data from NASA's Terra spacecraft finds Earth's clouds got about one percent lower on average during the first decade of the 2000s.
Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Feb. 23, 2012
Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole.
Hubble Discovers Waterworld Planet
Feb. 22, 2012
Artist's view of a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth.
Spitzer Finds Solid Buckyballs in Space
Feb. 22, 2012
Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space.