Science

Planets drifting unmoored through interstellar space, with no star to call home, may still have moons that are warm enough to support life, a new study has found.

A long-running debate about the Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea has finally been resolved. Scientists now confirm it formed when a roughly 160-meter asteroid struck the seabed about 43–46 million years ago. New seismic imaging and rare shocked minerals…

Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Earth planning date: Friday, March 6, 2026 Curiosity is in the last stage of its exploration of the spiderweb-like boxwork unit. This stage consists of exploring the eastern and southern borders of this terrain. There wer

Lake Unter-See in Antarctica, sealed beneath thick ice, contains unusually high levels of dissolved oxygen and cone-shaped microbial reefs resembling some of Earth’s oldest fossils.

Project Overview NASA’s Subsonic Vehicle Technologies and Tools (SVTT) project develops technologies and tools for various types of aircraft that fly in different speed regimes, including next-generation vertical take-off and landing and fixed-wing subsonic aircraft. The research advances knowledge,

Much of the Van Allen Probe is expected to burn up in the atmosphere though Nasa says there is "low" risk of people being struck by surviving components.

A colossal underwater waterfall between Iceland and Greenland dwarfs every waterfall on land and plays a hidden role in Earth’s climate system.

Researchers simulated nearly every molecule in a bacterial cell — and then watched the cell grow and reproduce.

A team from University of Toronto Engineering is the first to synthesize long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) outside the cell—a new approach to drug discovery that has already yielded some promising anti-inflammatory molecules. The team was inspired by advances in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA) and prote

Researchers from the Department of Physics and the University Institute of Materials at the University of Alicante (UA) and the Low Temperature and High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) have succeeded in measuring, for the first time, the electrical conductance

The first day of spring 2026 in the Northern Hemisphere arrives with the equinox on March 20. Here's when and why the seasons change.

A spacecraft could plunge into Earth’s atmosphere as soon as Tuesday. While most of the probe will likely burn up during reentry, a few components are expected to survive.

Retractions correct the scientific record, but they have stigma attached to them. Some in the research community want that to change.

Download PDF: Insights into Spallation Mechanisms of Thermal Protection System Materials from Mass Spectrometry and HyMETS Testing An effort was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms responsible for internal pressure build up within thermal protection system (TPS) materials subjected to high-enth

Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.

Download PDF: Computational Modeling of Failure at the Fabric Weave Level in Reentry Parachute Energy Modulators Energy modulators (EM) are textile mechanical devices designed to dissipate snatch loads that occur when parachutes are deployed. Although critical for mitigating shock loads, recent flig

The farther the destination, the more fuel a rocket needs. The more fuel the rocket carries, the heavier the spacecraft. The heavier the spacecraft, the more fuel it requires to launch. Experts at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are testing technology that could solve this problem. The Cry

When cats fall, they usually land on their feet. This uncanny ability to right themselves before hitting the ground has long puzzled scientists. Now, a team from Yamaguchi University in Japan has the answer, and it's all down to the thoracic spine being more …

David Cutler is in the spotlight for his work on a tasty-sounding mathematics problem. In January, the New York Times featured a research paper authored by Cutler and Neil Sloane, the founder of The On-line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. Titled "Cutting a Pancake with an Exotic Knife," the paper

A startup aims to deploy a huge mirror satellite that would reflect beams of sunlight onto the Earth, powering solar farms, it claims.

This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The human factors TDT looks for and creates opportunities to influence design to leverage human strengths and to protect people and missions. The human factors team has experts with knowledge of human performance in all aspects of NASA missions as well