The Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have teamed up to target some of the smallest, most distant objects in the solar system, discovering that the history of these tiny objects is more puzzling than we’d realized. The two orbiting observatories collectively discovered 27 new Trans-Neptunian Objects, or TNOs, all less than 25 miles (40 kilometers) across, with the smallest being only 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter. As their name suggests, TNOs orbit the sun from far beyond Neptune. Some of them were born out there, at the dawn…
Read MoreAPOD: 2026 September 14 – Where Your Elements Came From
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 14 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Where Your Elements Came From Explanation: The hydrogen in your body and present in every molecule of water came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your…
Read MoreAn Early Look at Fall Color in Canada
Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory An Early Look at Fall Color in… Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search July 27 September 6 NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison July 27September 6 NASA…
Read MoreOn this day in space! Sept. 13, 2007: Japan launches Kaguya spacecraft to the moon to map the lunar surface in HD
On Sept. 13, 2007, Japan launched the Kaguya spacecraft on a mission to the moon. Formally known as SELENE, which is short for SELenological and ENgineering Explorer, it was Japan’s second moon mission. Kaguya launched from Tanegashima Space Center on a Japanese H-IIA rocket and looped around the Earth twice before heading to the moon. NOTE: While the launch occurred on Sept. 13 in the evening Eastern Time, it was actually 10:31 a.m. on Sept. 14 at the launch site. The spacecraft carried 14 science instruments and two tiny microsatellites…
Read MoreDon’t miss Venus shine beside the crescent moon at sunset tonight
Look west at sunset on Sept. 13 to see brilliant Venus shining close to the delicate arc of the crescent moon. The encounter is a prelude to an even closer meeting the following day, when the moon will pass directly in front of Venus for observers across parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Tonight (Sept. 13), Venus will appear as a bright “Evening Star,” a little over 5 degrees from the 9%-illuminated waxing moon — roughly the width of your three middle fingers held at arm’s length against the evening…
Read MoreAPOD: 2026 September 13 – Comet NEOWISE Rising over the Adriatic Sea
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 13 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Comet NEOWISE Rising Over the Adriatic Sea Explanation: This sight was worth getting out of bed early. Just over four years…
Read MoreOn this day in space! NASA astronaut Mae Jemison makes history as the 1st Black woman in space
On Sept. 12, 1992, NASA astronaut Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to go to space. In NASA’s early days, women and people of color were never selected to go to space. NASA didn’t send a woman to space until the seventh space shuttle mission in 1983. NASA launched the first Black man in space, astronaut Guion Bluford, on the following mission that same year. But it would take another nine years for NASA to finally select a Black woman to fly on STS-47, the 50th space shuttle…
Read MoreTrump is proposing a US Space Academy — if created, it could blur the lines between NASA and the military (op-ed)
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. During a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Aug. 28, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a United States Space Academy The proposal, which would establish a NASA-led institution set up along the lines of a military academy, is a new one. As a space policy expert, I see several open questions and potential problems related to the vision Trump’s executive order described.…
Read MoreNASA, IBM launch new AI model for studying the moon
We’ve been studying the moon for a long time. NASA has gathered mountains of data over decades of lunar missions and studies. The data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) alone, for example, exceeds that of all NASA’s other planetary missions combined. Analyzing all this information takes lots of time and effort from researchers. So, NASA and IBM have developed an AI model to help sift through the moon data — an advance the agency announced on Thursday (Sept. 10). The open-source model, called the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model,…
Read MoreHelp Refine Data from Space Telescopes with Artifact InSPECtor
Explore This Section Science Citizen Science Help Refine Data from Space… Overview Resources Opportunities Citizen Science Highlights About Science Activation How do scientists studying space with data from a telescope hundreds of thousands of miles away know that what they are seeing is real? A new NASA project, Artifact InSPECtor, invites you to find out – and by doing so, to help missions like Euclid and NASA’s new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope answer fundamental questions about our universe. “It’s really cool that we can help teach computers new…
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