This Week in NASA History: Apollo 16 Launches – April 16, 1972
This week in 1972, Apollo 16 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 16 was the second of three science-oriented missions planned for the Apollo Program. The mission included a…
A Tale of Two Telescopes: WFIRST and Hubble
NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), planned for launch in the mid-2020s, will create enormous cosmic panoramas. Using them, astronomers will explore everything from our solar system to the…
Earth-Size, Habitable Zone Planet Found Hidden in Early NASA Kepler Data
A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where…
When It Comes to Water, You Have to Think Global
Earth is a pale, blue dot when seen from space. Its blue color is due to our home planet being 71% covered in water. NASA monitors Earth’s water from space,…
Interstellar Comet Borisov Reveals Its Chemistry and Possible Origins
On Aug. 30, 2019, when amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov gazed upward with his homemade telescope, he spotted an object moving in an unusual direction. Now called 2I/Borisov, this runaway point…