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NASA's Parker Solar Probe: Our Closest Encounter with The Sun
Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.
Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at 430,000 miles per hour—faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.
This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.
Download Free 2025 NASA Science Calendar (English/Español)
Welcome to the 2025 NASA Science Calendar! Download the latest free calendar for your desktop or mobile device, and discover the fascinating science behind the images featured each month. Explore with us!
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) engages America’s science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA’s partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space.
SMD seeks to understand the origins, evolution, and destiny of the universe and to understand the nature of the strange phenomena that shape it.
NASA's Year 2025 Preview: To the Moon, Mars & Beyond
Preparing to orbit and do science on the Moon, investigating how solar wind interacts with Mars, and demonstrating quiet supersonic flight are just a FEW of the milestones we have planned for 2025.
To learn more about the NASA missions mentioned in this highlight video, take a deep dive into these links:
Apple Core Nebula in Vulpecula| Digitized Sky Survey 2
A star field image of the notable planetary nebula Messier 27 to the right of center. The Apple Core Nebula—also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853—is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The Apple Core Nebula is about 850 light-years away from Earth and about 1.5 light-years in diameter (although distance and size are very poorly constrained). It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as number 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects. The field-of-view is approximately 0.9 x 0.6 degrees.
The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble) Release Date: Dec. 11, 2007
Christmas Celebrations | International Space Station
NASA Astronauts | from left to right: "Flight engineers Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Butch Wilmore & Station Commander Suni Williams
NASA astronaut Nick Hague: "The holidays are all about time spent with family and friends. This year, that celebration is bittersweet. While it's joyous to share this amazing opportunity to live in space with a truly remarkable crew, I deeply miss my family and friends on Earth."
The seven astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are spending the Christmas holidays orbiting Earth by taking time to relax, open gifts, share meals, and by talking with family. The orbital septet will go into 2025 continuing more advanced space research benefitting humans on and off the Earth.
Expedition 72 Crew Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia): Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Nick Hague Release Date: Dec. 23-26, 2024
Apple Core Nebula in Vulpecula: Wide-field View | Digitized Sky Survey 2
A star field image of the notable planetary nebula Messier 27 to the right of center. The Apple Core Nebula—also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853—is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The Apple Core Nebula is about 850 light-years away from Earth and about 1.5 light-years in diameter (although distance and size are very poorly constrained). It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as number 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects. The field-of-view is approximately 0.9 x 0.6 degrees.
The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a ground-based imaging survey of the entire sky in several colors of light produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute through its Guide Star Survey group.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble) Release Date: Dec. 11, 2007
The Apple Core Nebula: Messier 27 in Vulpecula | Very Large Telescope (ESO)
Apple Core Planetary Nebula
The Apple Core Planetary Nebula close-up
The Apple Core Nebula—also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853—is a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox). The Apple Core Nebula is about 850 light-years away from Earth and about 1.5 light-years in diameter (although distance and size are very poorly constrained). It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as number 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects. Despite its class, the Apple Core Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarified gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.
This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions. In this three-color composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filtres in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were color-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colors.
They are three-color composite based on two interference ([OIII] at 501 nm and 6 nm FWHM — 5 min exposure time; H-alpha at 656 nm and 6 nm FWHM — 5 min) and one broadband (Bessell B at 429 nm and 88 nm FWHM; 30 sec) filter images, obtained on September 28, 1998, during mediocre seeing conditions (0.8 arcsec). The CCD camera has 2048 x 2048 pixels, each covering 24 x 24 µm and the sky fields shown measure 6.8 x 6.8 arcminutes and 3.5 x 3.9 arcminutes, respectively. North is up; East is left.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/I. Appenzeller, W. Seifert, O. Stahl, M. Zamani
The Apple Core Nebula: Messier 27 in Vulpecula (2020) | WIYN Telescope
This image of the Apple Core Nebula (M27, NGC 6853), a planetary nebula in the constellation of Vulpecula, was taken at the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope in 2020 using the mini-mosaic imager. The Apple Core Nebula is about 850 light-years away from Earth and about 1.5 light-years in diameter (although both distance and size are very poorly constrained). This nebula was formed when an evolved, red giant star ejected its outer envelope near the end of its lifetime. The expanding cloud of gas becomes visible once the hot core of the star, visible near the center, is exposed and the high-energy, ultraviolet light from the core causes the cloud to fluoresce. As a result, the cloud emits light at discrete wavelengths resulting in an emission-line spectrum.
The strongest of the spectral lines are at visible wavelengths are those of singly and doubly ionized oxygen (372.7 nm, OII, and 500.7 nm, OIII, respectively) and hydrogen (656.3 nm, H alpha). This color image was obtained by combining three separate pictures, each one taken through a narrow filter centered at these wavelengths, choosing red to be H alpha (30 minute exposure), green to be OIII (30 minutes) and blue to be OII (60 minutes). The combination produces an unusual, semi-realistic image of the Apple Core Nebula. The green regions indicate locations within the gas cloud where the highest energy radiation is absorbed and doubly ionized oxygen is present. In contrast, regions that are predominantly blue and red indicate where lower energy radiation is being absorbed and the line from doubly ionized oxygen is weaker compared with those of singly ionized oxygen (blue) and hydrogen (red). Since the hot central star emits the same spectrum in all directions, these differences are thought to originate from variations in the density of the expanding cloud.
The Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOIRLab (WIYN) Observatory is situated atop Kitt Peak National Observatory, a partnership consisting of University of California Irvine, Purdue University, the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, and NASA.
What can you see after leaving the station's cabin for a spacewalk? The Shenzhou-19 crew aboard the the China Space Station witnessed unique views of our Sun, the Moon, and the stars, plus looks at Earth's magnificent mountains, oceans, rivers, and more . . .
Shenzhou-19 crew members successfully completed a marathon nine-hour spacewalk on December 17, 2024, setting a new long duration record for Chinese astronauts' extravehicular activities (EVAs).
The previous record for the longest spacewalk in Earth orbit was set by the Russian space agency Roscosmos after its cosmonauts completed a spacewalk lasting 8 hours and 13 minutes in 2018. It was set by Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin and Flight Engineer Anton Shkaplerov of the International Space Station.
Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong were assigned the EVA duty, while Wang Haoze assisted the pair throughout the mission from inside the space station. It was the 17th spacewalk carried out by Chinese astronauts.
At the end of the mission, before closing the hatch, the Shenzhou-19 crew expressed their joy at completing the mission and their gratitude to the ground team.
"Congratulations to 02 for completing your first spacewalk and moreover, for becoming the first Chinese astronaut born after 1990 to carry out EVAs. My appreciation also goes to the full collaboration of 03 inside the module, and to the extensive support of Shuguang and the entire technical team. From the assigned tasks to the more flexible assignments, we feel greater and greater confidence in conducting extravehicular activities. China's space station will always remain something to look forward to," said Cai, commander of Shenzhou-19 spaceflight mission crew.
"I express my gratitude to 01, Shuguang, and all the ground staff. Today, our crew and the ground team worked together to make the extravehicular activities a success. As I admired the spectacular view in space, I felt deep in my heart how important and great a cause the manned spaceflight is. I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who dedicate themselves to this cause—those who were here before us and who are with us along the way. Thank you all for your hard work, so that we were given the chance to conduct a spacewalk. The cause of the manned spaceflight is a relay race, and we are in it every step of the way. Let us keep striving and head for the future together," said Song.
"Congratulations to 01 and 02 for successfully completing your talks. Both of you made breakthroughs and I'm proud of your excellent performance. Meanwhile, my thanks also go to Shuguang and all the staff who worked day and night on this mission. Everybody up in space and on Earth work as one in our exploration and joint efforts for a promising tomorrow. I wish everyone sweet dreams tonight," Wang said.
China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on Oct. 30, 2024, sending three astronauts—including the country's first female space engineer—to its orbiting space station for a six-month mission.
Shenzhou-19 Crew:
Commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲)
Mission Specialist Wang Haoze (王浩泽)
Mission Specialist Song Lingdong (宋令东)
Video Credit: China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) Duration: 2 minutes Release Date: Dec. 26, 2024
Installing the Central Tower of the Extremely Large Telescope | ESO
The central tower that will hold several of the world’s most sophisticated mirrors is now installed on the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The tower is 3 storeys tall and has to be as rigid and lightweight as possible—a true feat of engineering. The tower will hold 3 of the ELT's 5 mirrors; they will correct the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence and relay the light to the scientific instruments by the side of the telescope.
Altitude: 3046 meters Planned year of technical first light: 2027
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) Directing & Editing by: Angelos Tsaousis Web and technical support: Gurvan Bazin and Raquel Yumi Shida Written by: Bárbara Ferreira Footage and photos: ESO, L. Calçada, Jose Porte, Fernando Carrasco, Paulo Ferreira, Apical Duration: 1 minute Release Date: Dec. 20, 2024
Photographer Jónína Óskarsdóttir: "The day has been beautiful in Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland. Amazing light and beautiful nacreous clouds seen behind Mt. Jökultindur."
Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash across this skyscape. Known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. A type of polar stratospheric cloud, they form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15 to 25 kilometers, the clouds can diffract sunlight even after sunset and just before the dawn.
New Photo of The Earth's Night Sky: Northern & Southern Hemispheres | NOIRLab
All-sky photo of the night sky
All-sky photo of the night sky: 88 star constellations marked (annotated)
This image represents the largest open-source, freely available all-sky photo of the night sky. With 40,000 pixels, this is arguably one of the best such images ever made. This colossal sky-scape was compiled using images taken by German astrophotographer Eckhard Slawik from the best and darkest locations around the globe: Germany (Waldenburg), Spain (Tenerife, La Palma), Namibia and Chile.
The images were taken on film and each panel comprises two separate exposures, one with and one without a diffuser filter to allow the stars’ colors to shine through.
Image Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/E. Slawik/M. Zamani Release Date: Dec. 23, 2024
Early Christmas Morning | International Space Station
NASA Astronaut Don Pettit: "Merry Christmas to all."
The seven astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station will spend Christmas and New Year’s Day orbiting Earth taking time to relax, open gifts, share a meal, and talk to family. The orbital septet will go into 2025 continuing more advanced space research benefitting humans on and off the Earth.
Expedition 72 Crew Station Commander: Suni Williams Roscosmos (Russia): Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov NASA: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Don Pettit Release Date: Dec. 25, 2024
Photo of the constellation Andromeda with annotations from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and Sky & Telescope magazine.
Illustration of the Andromeda constellation
Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy, and one of the 88 modern constellations. Located in the northern celestial hemisphere, it is named for Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia, in the Greek myth, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea monster Cetus. Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, along with several other constellations named for characters in the Perseus myth. Because of its northern declination, Andromeda is visible only north of 40° south latitude; for observers farther south, it lies below the horizon. It is one of the largest constellations, with an area of 722 square degrees.
This photo of the constellation Andromeda was produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani Release Date: Dec. 23, 2024
NASA Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Fireplace - 8 Hours (4K)
The holidays are here, and we've got just the thing to fill your living room with holiday cheer! Gather 'round the coziness of a crackling and roaring RS-25 engine fuel log from NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will propel the Artemis II crew to the Moon: https://go.nasa.gov/49UsxQk
Technically, this fireplace packs the heat of the SLS rocket’s four RS-25 engines and a pair of solid rocket boosters—just enough to get you to the Moon!
This glowing mood-setter is brought to you by the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that launched Artemis I on its mission around the Moon and back on Nov. 16, 2022. 8.8 million pounds of total thrust—and a couple glasses of eggnog—might just be enough to make your holidays merry.
This is a stock fireplace illustration frame looping archival video of the blasting RS-25 engines that launched the Artemis I rocket to the Moon on Nov. 16, 2022 (source: https://go.nasa.gov/4g6LnWc ).
Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026. The Orion spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from All of Us at NASA Science! 🎄❄️
FriendsofNASA.org: NASA Science seeks to discover the secrets of the universe, to search for life elsewhere, and to protect and improve life on Earth and in space.
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) engages America’s science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA’s partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space.
SMD seeks to understand the origins, evolution, and destiny of the universe and to understand the nature of the strange phenomena that shape it.
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