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NASA’s TESS Discovers Planetary System’s Second Earth-Size World

January 11, 2023
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface. The world is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky. Astronomers previously discovered three planets in this system, called TOI 700 b, c, and…
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NASA Space Missions Pinpoint Sources of CO2 Emissions on Earth

January 10, 2023
A duo of Earth-observing missions has enabled researchers to detect and track carbon dioxide (CO2) emission changes from a single facility, using the world’s fifth-largest coal-fired power plant as a test case. In the recent study, researchers used space-based measurements…
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Watch the Latest Water Satellite Unfold Itself in Space

December 29, 2022
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite launched into Earth orbit on Friday, Dec. 16, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, and engineers are working to prepare the mission to begin measuring the height of water on over 90% of Earth’s…
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NASA Explores a Winter Wonderland on Mars

December 23, 2022
When winter comes to Mars, the surface is transformed into a truly otherworldly holiday scene. Snow, ice, and frost accompany the season’s sub-zero temperatures. Some of the coldest of these occur at the planet’s poles, where it gets as low as minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 degrees Celsius). Cold as it is, don’t expect snow drifts worthy of the Rocky Mountains. No region of Mars…
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Juno Spacecraft Recovering Memory After 47th Flyby of Jupiter

December 23, 2022
NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed its 47th close pass of Jupiter on Dec. 14. Afterward, as the solar-powered orbiter was sending its science data to mission controllers from its onboard computer, the downlink was disrupted. The issue – an inability to directly access the…
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Moon Water Imager Integrated With NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer

December 23, 2022
Lunar Trailblazer, NASA’s mission to understand lunar water and the Moon’s water cycle led by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is one step closer to launching next year. Earlier this month, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California delivered a key…
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Construction Begins on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter

December 22, 2022
A space telescope designed to search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that stray into Earth’s orbital neighborhood, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) recently passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review. Now the mission is transitioning into the final design-and-fabrication phase and establishing its technical, cost, and schedule baseline. The mission…
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Mars Surface

December 22, 2022
A titanium tube containing a rock sample is resting on the Red Planet’s surface after being placed there on Dec. 21 by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the location, called “Three Forks,” building…
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Assembly Begins on NASA’s Next Tool to Study Exoplanets

December 22, 2022
Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. As technologies for studying these worlds continue to advance, researchers may someday be able to search for signs of life on exoplanets that are similar in size, composition, and…
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NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science

December 22, 2022
NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy – a state engineers refer to as “dead bus.” NASA…
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