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NASA Gets Unusually Close Glimpse of Black Hole Snacking on Star

Multiple NASA telescopes recently observed a massive black hole tearing apart an unlucky star that wandered too close. Located about 250 million light-years from Earth in the center of another galaxy, it was the fifth-closest example of a black hole destroying a star ever observed. Once the star had been thoroughly ruptured by the black hole’s gravity, astronomers saw a dramatic rise in…
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NASA Launches International Mission to Survey Earth’s Water

A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) to observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface lifted off on its way to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft also has contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. The SWOT…
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NASA Sensors to Help Detect Methane Emitted by Landfills

Observations from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and other NASA science instruments will be part of a global survey of point-source emissions of methane from solid waste sites such as landfills. The multiyear effort is being developed and…
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NASA’s Juno Exploring Jovian Moons During Extended Mission

NASA’s Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of the Jovian moon Io on Dec. 15 as part of its continuing exploration of Jupiter’s inner moons. Now in the second year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft performed a close flyby of Ganymede in 2021 and of Europa earlier this year. “The team is really excited to have Juno’s extended…
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Latest International Water Satellite Packs an Engineering Punch

Set for a Thursday, Dec. 15 launch, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite promises to provide an extraordinary accounting of water over much of Earth’s surface. Its measurements of fresh water and the ocean will help researchers address some of the most…
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Practice Makes Perfect for Student Inventions at JPL Competition

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Invention Challenge made a lively return to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday. Now in its 23rd year, the long-running tradition brings together students and professional engineers to compete side by side with their homemade machines. For this year’s Invention Challenge, dubbed the “Sticky Wicket Contest,”…
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