NASA’s Quantum Lab Aboard Space Station Gets Chilly Upgrade

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have switched on NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a one-of-a-kind facility designed to improve how scientists explore the fundamental workings of matter and develop new quantum technologies. By leveraging the unique environment of…

Explore JPL to Take Place Oct. 10, 11

Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory invites the public to its campus at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California for an open-house event, Explore JPL. On Oct. 10 and 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT, visitors will get the chance to visit JPL’s most iconic…

NASA, USGS Scientists Go Rock Hounding in California’s High Desert

Equipped with rock picks and hand lenses, a team of geoscientists deployed to the Mojave Desert recently to investigate a tantalizing “fingerprint” detected by a NASA sensor. Their target: a cache of topaz hiding in plain sight. The geologists weren’t…

NASA’s CloudCube Pioneers Miniaturized Radar to Study Clouds, Precipitation

A compact, multifrequency radar built by a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will make it easier to collect information about dynamic cloud systems. Called CloudCube, this new instrument simultaneously probes the atmosphere with three radar signals, spanning 36 to…

Painting the Growing Season in the Maize Triangle

Radar data from an agricultural area in South Africa, shown in a vivid color palette, reveal crop types and how they changed during the Southern Hemisphere’s growing season.

NASA Uses Mineralogical Marker to Understand Ancient Martian Climate

Scientists analyzed 20 Martian samples collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover and found that differences in hematite crystallite size at varying elevations could serve as a new mineralogical marker for understanding Mars’ ancient climate.

NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño

Sea level data from a satellite launched by NASA and European partners shows that a swell of warm water hundreds of miles wide has arrived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, a sign that El Niño…

NASA-developed AI Could Help Track Harmful Algae

NASA scientists have developed an artificial intelligence tool to take on a longstanding challenge in ocean waters. In a study recently published in AGU Earth and Space Science, researchers reported the tool was able to fuse data from multiple satellites…

NASA’s Psyche Mission Aces Mars Flyby, Targets Metal-Rich Asteroid

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This flyby used a gravity assist from Mars to provide a critical boost in speed and to adjust…

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Snaps Selfie in Mars’ Western Frontier 

Editor’s note: The text was updated on March 13, 2026, to correct the spelling of the outcrop nicknamed “Arathusa.” NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science…