Browse Archive
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Mission could seek out Spock's home planet →
Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have concluded that the SIM PlanetQuest mission would be able to detect an Earth-like planet around 40 Eridani, a star familiar to 'Star Trek' fans as the location of planet Vulcan.
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Recycled Dwarf Galaxies Have 'Missing Mass' →
Astronomers have found that dwarf galaxies made of leftover debris kicked up by colliding galaxies are surprisingly massive. This might indicate the presence of large amounts of previously undetected "missing mass." Images from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and Spitzer Space Telescopes helped form the basis for the new research.
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Weather and Climate Watcher Celebrates Five Years in Orbit →
JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft has significantly advanced weather forecasting and is measuring many of the key atmospheric gases that affect our climate.
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Cassini Extends Mapping of Titan's Surface
Cassini successfully completed a flyby of Titan on April 26, 2007.
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Galaxy Mission Completes Four Star-Studded Years in Space
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer celebrates its fourth anniversary with some of the "hottest stars" in the M81 spiral galaxy. The mission, which launched April 28, 2003, studies the universe with its ultraviolet eyes.
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Forecast Sunny as Cloud Mission Celebrates One Year
A year after launch, NASA's CloudSat mission is providing insights into how clouds form, evolve and affect our weather, climate and freshwater supply.
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The Seven Sisters Pose for Spitzer - and for You!
The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades, seem to float on a bed of feathers in a new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Clouds of dust sweep around the stars, swaddling them in a cushiony veil.
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Sea Hunt, Cassini Style
Cassini successfully completed a flyby of Titan on April 10, 2007.
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Do Faraway Worlds Have Red Trees? →
Research by scientists, including David Crisp of JPL, indicates foliage on other Earth-sized worlds could be mainly yellow, orange or red.
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Mystery Spiral Arms Explained?
A quartet of space observatories, including NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, may have cracked a mystery surrounding ghostly galactic arms.
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Heavy '04-'05 Rains Caused San Gabriel Valley to Expand
Using high-tech earthquake monitoring instruments, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey and other partners found LA's San Gabriel Valley rose and bulged outward following near-record rains in 2004-05.
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Sun Activity Affects Global Positioning System
An intense radio burst from an unprecedented solar eruption last December had widespread effects on the Global Positioning System.
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Countdown to Dawn
A high school guidance counselor told Jennifer Rocca that aerospace engineering was not a field for women. Luckily, the future systems engineer for the Dawn mission wasn't convinced.
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Searching for the Grandest Asteroid Tour
Orbit mechanics experts from around the world recently met to discuss methods for finding the best possible spacecraft trajectory, or flight path, for visiting a sequence of asteroids.
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Women Made Early Inroads at JPL
In the 1940s, women started playing instrumental roles in JPL missions. Jobs that required orbital calculations evolved into some of today's software engineers.
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Rosetta Instruments Tag With New Horizons →
Both Europe's Rosetta and NASA's New Horizons spacecraft have focused instruments on Jupiter. The Rosetta Alice instrument provided global observations of the gas giant's aurora and the plasma torus around Jupiter's moon Io.
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'Cool' Science: JPL Observes International Polar Year
Within the frozen confines of Earth's polar regions lie secrets -- clues scientists believe can help unravel some of the mysteries that drive Earth's climate.
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Comet-Chaser Mission Honored →
NASA's Stardust mission received the 2007 Aviation Week and Space Technology Laureate Award for extraordinary achievement in space. In January of 2006, Stardust successfully completed a seven-year, 2.8 billion mile journey to fly by a comet and return samples to Earth.
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Former JPL Director Honored →
Former JPL director Edward C. Stone has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Aviation Week. Stone's long list of accomplishments includes his role as project scientist for the twin NASA Voyager spacecraft.
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NASA Finds Sun-Climate Connection in Old Nile Records
Since the time of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, the water levels of the Nile were accurately measured. These are now a unique resource for climatologists.