Stem - Blog Posts

pratiquecompte

2 weeks ago

Un des problèmes d’aimer le STEM et d’être en ligne chroniquement c’est que mes profs mentioneront les alpha, beta, et sigma et je passerai aux tous les cinq stades de deuil

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frenchposting stem frenchblr stemblr

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chaosinciter

10 months ago

The STEM major isn't STEMing 😾

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coding god forbid women do anything women in stem stem for example coding badly i see you phpstorm underlining every one of my mistakes not a big fan phpstorm plz let me delulu php

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afoolishreader

10 months ago

It's so funny to me that people think of Math/Mathematicians as being hyper-logical and rational. Like, have you seen some of the wild things hiding in the Math?

Did you know there are non-computable numbers?? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitin%27s_constant)

Did you know that there are things that are true, but we can't prove them??? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems)

Did you know that we can prove that something exists, and yet never actually figure out what that thing is?? (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/NonconstructiveProof.html)

Math is crazy. Math is wild. Math hardly makes sense, and when you think you understand the weirdest parts of it, everyone who hears you explain it to thinks you're a gibbering lunatic.

"In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them." - von Neumann

(please share more unhinged math with me, i want to see more scary math)

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academia math mathematics academics that’s OKAY logic stem stemblr mathblr computer science proofs theoretical computer science This is actually how it works Maths sometimes doesn't math

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le-ootaku

3 years ago

Hey y’all

My first time making a moodboard, and I don’t know if it’s good or bad...

Anyway!

I tried to go for a Melissa Shield/engineer-girl theme, so feedback it always appreciated!

Love you all!

(Please don’t repost, just reblog XD)

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mha bnha my hero academia boku no hero academia melissa shield moodboard engineering stem bnha moodboard mha moodboard engineer engineer-girl

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lamewithsparkles

5 years ago

Scary puppy

The Close-Up Face of a Spider.

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bugs Eyes nature☁️ universe insects tarantula soul podcast biology society world physics math chemistry creepy science culture earth spiders arachnophobia evolution engineering milky way cosmos stem planet earth arachnid close-up sci comm science communication

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polskapika

3 years ago

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lesbian lgbtqia lgbtq queer lol funny lgbtq community memes nonbinary hilarious humor lgbt pride sapphic funny post physics mathematics chemistry science white people twitter stem gay girls nonbinary lesbian biochemistry new tweet tweetsfromtwitter tweetgram stupid humor

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briefkittenearthquake

9 months ago

YES, it’s like, 7 x 3 = 21 always served cunt and was the color magenta, the number 14 give’s chaotic bisexual and I am here for it.

I love em dashes (—) they’re the most underrated form of punctuation. they have so many uses, and they also feel like thursday

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writeblr writers on tumblr shitpost writers random angel numbers math mathematics research number five topology punctuation stem synesthesia mathblr paint by number gen’s a dingus justice for em dashes worlds beyond number number i

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ames-luvs-u

2 months ago

I ACTUALLY Hate Stem Why Can I Not Enjoy Cute Stuff Like History 💔

i ACTUALLY hate stem why can i not enjoy cute stuff like history 💔

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im just a girl meow meow girlblogging i need a lobotomy i hate it so much biology chemistry pls send help women in stem woof stem burn stem made the concious decision to pick stem subjects who do i actually think i am i have serious issues regret it so bad

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nasa

3 days ago

Seeing the Invisible Universe

A black circle is surrounded by arcs of red, blue, orange, and white. Farther out from the circle are blotches of red, blue, orange, and white representing celestial objects. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI)

This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole. You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.

When you think of the invisible, you might first picture something fantastical like a magic Ring or Wonder Woman’s airplane, but invisible things surround us every day. Read on to learn about seven of our favorite invisible things in the universe!

1. Black Holes

This short looping animation starts with a white flash as a small white circle, representing a star, gets near a small black circle, representing a black hole. The small white circle is torn apart into billions of small particles that get whipped into an oval coiling around the black hole from the right to the left. One trailing stream is flung in an arc to the left side of the animation while the end closest to the black hole wraps around it in several particle streams. Thousands of flecks from the outermost edge of the streams fly farther away from the black hole as the animation progresses, while the inner stream continues to loop. Two jets of fast-moving white particles burst out of the black hole from the top and bottom. The white speckled outbursts get brighter as the animation concludes. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA/GESTAR)

This animation illustrates what happens when an unlucky star strays too close to a monster black hole. Gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas. The trailing part of the stream escapes the system, while the leading part swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. A powerful jet can also form. This cataclysmic phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.

You know ‘em, and we love ‘em. Black holes are balls of matter packed so tight that their gravity allows nothing — not even light — to escape. Most black holes form when heavy stars collapse under their own weight, crushing their mass to a theoretical singular point of infinite density.

Although they don’t reflect or emit light, we know black holes exist because they influence the environment around them — like tugging on star orbits. Black holes distort space-time, warping the path light travels through, so scientists can also identify black holes by noticing tiny changes in star brightness or position.

2. Dark Matter

In front of a black background, there are millions of glowing green dots. They form a fine, wispy web stretching across the image, like old cobwebs that have collected dust. Over time, more dots collect at the vertices of the web. As the web gets thicker and thicker, the vertices grow and start moving toward each other and toward the center. The smaller dots circle the clumps, like bees buzzing around a hive, until they are pulled inward to join them. Eventually, the clumps merge to create a glowing green mass. The central mass ensnares more dots, coercing even those from the farthest reaches of the screen to circle it. Credit: Simulation: Wu, Hahn, Wechsler, Abel (KIPAC), Visualization: Kaehler (KIPAC)

A simulation of dark matter forming large-scale structure due to gravity.

What do you call something that doesn’t interact with light, has a gravitational pull, and outnumbers all the visible stuff in the universe by five times? Scientists went with “dark matter,” and they think it's the backbone of our universe’s large-scale structure. We don’t know what dark matter is — we just know it's nothing we already understand.

We know about dark matter because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters — observations of how they move tell us there must be something there that we can’t see. Like black holes, we can also see light bend as dark matter’s mass warps space-time.

3. Dark Energy

An animation on a black rectangular background. On the left of the visual is a graph. The y-axis reads “Expansion Speed.” The x-axis is labeled “Time.” At the origin, the x-axis reads, “10 billion years ago.” Halfway across the x-axis is labeled “7 Billion years ago.” At the end of the x-axis is labeled “now.” A line on the graph starts at the top of the y-axis. It slopes down to the right, linearly, as if it were going to draw a straight line from the top left corner of the graph to the bottom right corner of the graph. Around the 7-billion mark, the line begins to decrease in slope very gradually. Three quarters of the way across the x-axis and three quarters of the way down the y-axis, the line reaches a minimum, before quickly curving upward. It rapidly slopes upward, reaching one quarter from the top of the y-axis as it reaches the end of the x-axis labeled “now.” At the same time, on the right hand of the visual is a tiny dark blue sphere which holds within it glowing lighter blue spheres — galaxies and stars — and a lighter blue webbing. As the line crawls across the graph, the sphere expands. At first, its swelling gently slows, corresponding to the decreasing line on the graph. As the line arcs back upward, the sphere expands rapidly until it grows larger than the right half of the image and encroaches on the graph. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren’t sure why.

No one knows what dark energy is either — just that it’s pushing our universe to expand faster and faster. Some potential theories include an ever-present energy, a defect in the universe’s fabric, or a flaw in our understanding of gravity.

Scientists previously thought that all the universe’s mass would gravitationally attract, slowing its expansion over time. But when they noticed distant galaxies moving away from us faster than expected, researchers knew something was beating gravity on cosmic scales. After further investigation, scientists found traces of dark energy’s influence everywhere — from large-scale structure to the background radiation that permeates the universe.

4. Gravitational Waves

In this animation, two small black circles, representing black holes, orbit one another in a circular counter-clockwise motion. There is a square grid pattern behind them. Around each black hole, a purple haze glows, getting more transparent farther out from the black holes. The haze creates a circle about the size of the black holes’ orbits. Trailing in an arc out from each black hole, an orange hazy strip curls around the frame as the black holes’ orbits circle, like the spiral of a snail shell. The orange strips move farther from the black holes over time, and as they pass over the gridded background, the background warps so that the grid-lines under the stripes appear to bump up. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Two black holes orbit each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation.

Like the ripples in a pond, the most extreme events in the universe — such as black hole mergers — send waves through the fabric of space-time. All moving masses can create gravitational waves, but they are usually so small and weak that we can only detect those caused by massive collisions. Even then they only cause infinitesimal changes in space-time by the time they reach us. Scientists use lasers, like the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to detect this precise change. They also watch pulsar timing, like cosmic clocks, to catch tiny timing differences caused by gravitational waves.

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

5. Neutrinos

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

Because only gravity and the weak force affect neutrinos, they don’t easily interact with other matter — hundreds of trillions of these tiny, uncharged particles pass through you every second! Neutrinos come from unstable atom decay all around us, from nuclear reactions in the Sun to exploding stars, black holes, and even bananas.

Scientists theoretically predicted neutrinos, but we know they actually exist because, like black holes, they sometimes influence their surroundings. The National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects when neutrinos interact with other subatomic particles in ice via the weak force.

6. Cosmic Rays

Earth’s horizon from space divides this animation in half from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner. The slightly curved surface glows faintly white into the inky black space that takes up the other half of the frame. Earth is primarily blue, covered in soft patchy white clouds that glow soft yellow. Hundreds of small white streaks rain down diagonally from the right toward Earth. As they reach the faint white glow, they suddenly break into thousands of smaller particles that shower down onto the planet. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This animation illustrates cosmic ray particles striking Earth's atmosphere and creating showers of particles.

Every day, trillions of cosmic rays pelt Earth’s atmosphere, careening in at nearly light-speed — mostly from outside our solar system. Magnetic fields knock these tiny charged particles around space until we can hardly tell where they came from, but we think high energy events like supernovae can accelerate them. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from cosmic rays, meaning few actually make it to the ground.

Though we don’t see the cosmic rays that make it to the ground, they tamper with equipment, showing up as radiation or as “bright” dots that come and go between pictures on some digital cameras. Cosmic rays can harm astronauts in space, so there are plenty of precautions to protect and monitor them.

7. (Most) Electromagnetic Radiation

A diagram reading “electromagnetic spectrum.” The diagram consists primarily of a rectangle that stretches across the width of the image. The rectangle is broken into six sections labelled left to right, “gamma,” then “x-ray,” then “ultraviolet,” then “visible,” then “infrared,” then “microwave,” and finally “radio.” The sections are not all the same size, with visible being the smallest by far, then gamma ray, then x-ray, then ultraviolet, microwave, radio, and finally infrared being the longest section. The individual sections are divided further into five sections that create color gradients. Gamma, x-ray, and microwave are gradients of grey. Ultraviolet is a gradient from a pinkish purple on the left to purple on the right. Infrared is a gradient from red on the left to orange on the right. The visible section creates a rainbow, going from purple, to blue, green, yellow, and finally red. Above each section is a squiggly vertical line. Each section has squiggly lines taking up the same vertical space but they have larger and larger curves going from left to right, with gamma having the smallest amplitude and wavelength and radio having the largest. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

The electromagnetic spectrum is the name we use when we talk about different types of light as a group. The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, arranged from highest to lowest energy are: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. All the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same thing — radiation. Radiation is made up of a stream of photons — particles without mass that move in a wave pattern all at the same speed, the speed of light. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy.

The light that we see is a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans many wavelengths. We frequently use different wavelengths of light — from radios to airport security scanners and telescopes.

Visible light makes it possible for many of us to perceive the universe every day, but this range of light is just 0.0035 percent of the entire spectrum. With this in mind, it seems that we live in a universe that’s more invisible than not! NASA missions like NASA's Fermi, James Webb, and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes will continue to uncloak the cosmos and answer some of science’s most mysterious questions.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

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space sun fun facts universe history outer space galaxy science nasa solar system stem black holes

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nasa

2 months ago

On a jet black background, a bright spiral galaxy softly swirls with sprays of stars extending outward from a small, glowing yellow center. Another galaxy is beneath it and to the left, angling downward. This one is shaped almost like a pea pod with faded tendrils of stars extending from both ends. Together, the pair looks like a rose with the spiral galaxy forming the blossom and the elongated one forming the stem. A handful of large, bright stars speckle the background like sparkles. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon, T. Borders, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz 3D team, STScI)

Love Letters from Space

Love is in the air, and it’s out in space too! The universe is full of amazing chemistry, cosmic couples held together by gravitational attraction, and stars pulsing like beating hearts.

Celestial objects send out messages we can detect if we know how to listen for them. Our upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help us scour the skies for all kinds of star-crossed signals.

On a backdrop speckled with tiny blue and yellow stars, an enormous heart-shaped nebula looms large. Clumps of dust and gas form intricate shapes, twisting around the edges of the “heart” and appearing to blow off the top in wisps so it almost appears to be on fire. The nebula is deep red and lit from within by a clump of bright blue-white stars. Credit: Brent Newton, used with permission

Celestial Conversation Hearts

Communication is key for any relationship – including our relationship with space. Different telescopes are tuned to pick up different messages from across the universe, and combining them helps us learn even more. Roman is designed to see some visible light – the type of light our eyes can see, featured in the photo above from a ground-based telescope – in addition to longer wavelengths, called infrared. That will help us peer through clouds of dust and across immense stretches of space.

Other telescopes can see different types of light, and some detectors can even help us study cosmic rays, ghostly neutrinos, and ripples in space called gravitational waves.

A complicated conglomeration of stars is intertwined on a black backdrop. Two regions glow pale yellow, one at the lower left of the screen and one at the upper right. Each is surrounded with twisted streams of stars which come together near the center of the frame, making the pair of galaxies look almost like a set of angel wings. The region at the center is dark and dusty, and the galaxies glow blue-white with clumps and speckles of bright pink stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble HeritageTeam (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: B. Whitmore (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Intergalactic Hugs

This visible and near-infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures two hearts locked in a cosmic embrace. Known as the Antennae Galaxies, this pair’s love burns bright. The two spiral galaxies are merging together, igniting the birth of brand new baby stars.

Stellar nurseries are often very dusty places, which can make it hard to tell what’s going on. But since Roman can peer through dust, it will help us see stars in their infancy. And Roman’s large view of space coupled with its sharp, deep imaging will help us study how galaxy mergers have evolved since the early universe.

A periodic table of elements titled “Origins of the Elements.” It features the typical boxes and atomic symbols as a usual periodic table, but with pictures inside each indicating how each element is typically forged. A legend at the top explains what each picture means: the big bang, dying low-mass stars, white dwarf supernovae, radioactive decay, cosmic ray collisions, dying high-mass stars, merging neutron stars, and human-made. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Cosmic Chemistry

Those stars are destined to create new chemistry, forging elements and scattering them into space as they live, die, and merge together. Roman will help us understand the cosmic era when stars first began forming. The mission will help scientists learn more about how elements were created and distributed throughout galaxies.

Did you know that U and I (uranium and iodine) were both made from merging neutron stars? Speaking of which…

An animation that begins with two glowing white orbs spinning around each other ever faster as they move closer together until they appear to join together. Ripples appear around each of them. When they merge, the animation shifts to a zoomed out view that shows an explosion where two fiery orange jets extend out from the center in opposite directions. At the end of each jet, a large, glowing pink ball extends outward and grows larger, so that the whole thing appears like a giant dumbbell. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

Fatal Attraction

When two neutron stars come together in a marriage of sorts, it creates some spectacular fireworks! While they start out as stellar sweethearts, these and some other types of cosmic couples are fated for devastating breakups.

When a white dwarf – the leftover core from a Sun-like star that ran out of fuel – steals material from its companion, it can throw everything off balance and lead to a cataclysmic explosion. Studying these outbursts, called type Ia supernovae, led to the discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Roman will scan the skies for these exploding stars to help us figure out what’s causing the expansion to accelerate – a mystery known as dark energy.

This animation starts with a dim view of the Milky Way, which angles across the screen from the upper left to lower right. A tiny dark ball at the left grows larger as it moves closer until it briefly takes up most of the screen before passing away again to the right. The view shifts to follow its path and we see it as a rotating planet with brownish stripes. As it moves away, the dark world fades into the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

Going Solo

Plenty of things in our galaxy are single, including hundreds of millions of stellar-mass black holes and trillions of “rogue” planets. These objects are effectively invisible – dark objects lost in the inky void of space – but Roman will see them thanks to wrinkles in space-time.

Anything with mass warps the fabric of space-time. So when an intervening object nearly aligns with a background star from our vantage point, light from the star curves as it travels through the warped space-time around the nearer object. The object acts like a natural lens, focusing and amplifying the background star’s light.

Thanks to this observational effect, which makes stars appear to temporarily pulse brighter, Roman will reveal all kinds of things we’d never be able to see otherwise.

On a black background, a white outline in the shape of a blocky rainbow contains a picture of a dusty nebula. It’s mottled brown, green, and blue and speckled with glowing pink stars. Channels of dust twist and curl around the edges of the frame, and at the center a small white box contains a much sharper image of part of the nebula. At the top of the blocky rainbow-like outline, it says, “With you, I see the bigger picture,” and underneath it says, “Love, Roman.” Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Roman is nearly ready to set its sights on so many celestial spectacles. Follow along with the mission’s build progress in this interactive virtual tour of the observatory, and check out these space-themed Valentine’s Day cards.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

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space tech valentines day nebula chemistry science nasa galaxies astronomy hubble space telescope stem black holes telescope Roman Space Telescope rogue planets exoplanets

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nasa

3 months ago

All-Star Moments in Space Communications and Navigation

How do we get information from missions exploring the cosmos back to humans on Earth? Our space communications and navigation networks – the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network – bring back science and exploration data daily.

Here are a few of our favorite moments from 2024.

An image of the plaque presented to Missy Elliott. The background is blue and has a black box in it. The black box is outlined in white. Within the black box is a colorful image of Venus, taken by Magellan, a NASA meatball patch, and some text.

Venus appears in shades of the rainbow, which correspond to different planetary radii, measured in kilometers.

The text says, "Presented to Missy Elliott from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lyrics from your iconic song "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" embarked on a historic journey on July 12, 2024, traveling approximately 158 million miles from Earth to Venus, to become the first hip-hop song transmitted to deep space. This groundbreaking achievement marks a significant milestone in the fusion of music, technology, and space exploration." Credit: NASA

1. Hip-Hop to Deep Space

The stars above and on Earth aligned as lyrics from the song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” by hip-hop artist Missy Elliott were beamed to Venus via NASA’s Deep Space Network. Using a 34-meter (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, the song was sent at 10:05 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 12 and traveled about 158 million miles from Earth to Venus — the artist’s favorite planet. Coincidentally, the DSS-13 that sent the transmission is also nicknamed Venus!

An artist’s concept of NASA’s PACE mission in space downlinking data to Earth over radio waves. The radio waves are depicted as a green, wavy line. Earth is partially in view, with blue and white tones depicting the ocean and clouds. As the GIF progresses, a grey line juts out from the spacecraft with callout boxes showing real imagery taken by the mission. Credit: NASA/Kasey Dillahay

NASA's PACE mission transmitting data to Earth through NASA's Near Space Network.

2. Lemme Upgrade You

Our Near Space Network, which supports communications for space-based missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth, is constantly enhancing its capabilities to support science and exploration missions. Last year, the network implemented DTN (Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking), which provides robust protection of data traveling from extreme distances. NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission is the first operational science mission to leverage the network’s DTN capabilities. Since PACE’s launch, over 17 million bundles of data have been transmitted by the satellite and received by the network’s ground station.

Photos of different pets, each with a thick pink border, are arranged along red lines that represent laser links sent from Earth to a satellite that houses the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) at right, and finally to the International Space Station (left). Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan

A collage of the pet photos sent over laser links from Earth to LCRD and finally to ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) on the International Space Station. Animals submitted include cats, dogs, birds, chickens, cows, snakes, and pigs.

3. Who Doesn’t Love Pets?

Last year, we transmitted hundreds of pet photos and videos to the International Space Station, showcasing how laser communications can send more data at once than traditional methods. Imagery of cherished pets gathered from NASA astronauts and agency employees flowed from the mission ops center to the optical ground stations and then to the in-space Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which relayed the signal to a payload on the space station. This activity demonstrated how laser communications and high-rate DTN can benefit human spaceflight missions.

A gif representing the trajectory of 4K video footage routed from the PC-12 aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. It was then sent from an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, then NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration spacecraft, and finally relayed to the ILLUMA-T payload on the International Space Station. The footage transfer is represented by a red dotted line that moves between the points mentioned previously. Credit: NASA/Morgan Johnson

4K video footage was routed from the PC-12 aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The signals were then sent to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration spacecraft and relayed to the ILLUMA-T payload on the International Space Station.

4. Now Streaming

A team of engineers transmitted 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back using laser communication signals. Historically, we have relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data than radio frequency systems. The flight tests were part of an agency initiative to stream high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

An artist’s concept image representing the Near Space Network’s regime. In the foreground, the Moon is shown with depictions of lunar assets orbiting and on the surface in a bright green color. In the distance, you can see Earth peering over the Moon’s crest. Green lines connect assets on the Moon and orbiting Earth to represent the concept of space networking. Mars can be seen in the black depths of space, far behind Earth. Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan

The Near Space Network provides missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth with communications and navigation services.

5. New Year, New Relationships

At the very end of 2024, the Near Space Network announced multiple contract awards to enhance the network’s services portfolio. The network, which uses a blend of government and commercial assets to get data to and from spacecraft, will be able to support more missions observing our Earth and exploring the cosmos. These commercial assets, alongside the existing network, will also play a critical role in our Artemis campaign, which calls for long-term exploration of the Moon.

A yellow line painted on the asphalt draws your eye to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space. Flames emerge from the rocket, making a bright column of light that shines in the bright blue sky. Clouds of vapor billow outward. Credit: SpaceX

On Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, at 12:06 p.m. EDT, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

6. 3, 2, 1, Blast Off!

Together, the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network supported the launch of Europa Clipper. The Near Space Network provided communications and navigation services to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which launched this Jupiter-bound mission into space! After vehicle separation, the Deep Space Network acquired Europa Clipper’s signal and began full mission support. This is another example of how these networks work together seamlessly to ensure critical mission success.

Engineer Adam Gannon turns a dial on a rectangular machine, stacked on top of another machine with a screen. In front of him is a small rectangular structure with a circuit board lying horizontally and many attached wires. Credit: NASA

Engineer Adam Gannon works on the development of Cognitive Engine-1 in the Cognitive Communications Lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

7. Make Way for Next-Gen Tech

Our Technology Education Satellite program organizes collaborative missions that pair university students with researchers to evaluate how new technologies work on small satellites, also known as CubeSats. In 2024, cognitive communications technology, designed to enable autonomous space communications systems, was successfully tested in space on the Technology Educational Satellite 11 mission. Autonomous systems use technology reactive to their environment to implement updates during a spaceflight mission without needing human interaction post-launch.

A nighttime image shows green grassy hills with six white radio frequency antennas spread out over the area. All six antennas that are part of the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex have red lights on in the center of each dish and are pointing to the right. Two antennas are farther back along the hills, while the other four are grouped closer together toward the right of the image. The four grouped antennas are more illuminated with light coming from smaller buildings around them on the ground. Credit: MDSCC/INTA, Francisco “Paco” Moreno

A first: All six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time.

8. Six Are Better Than One

On April 20, 2024, all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of our Deep Space Network, carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time. Combining the antennas’ receiving power, or arraying, lets the network collect the very faint signals from faraway spacecraft.

Here’s to another year connecting Earth and space. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

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space tech moon artemis nasa technology stem communication laser satellite lasers optical

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nasa

7 months ago

A bowl of homemade swirling, glittery bluish-purple goop: Stardust Slime. The slime fills the bowl, but a portion is being lifted upward as well, highlighting the silver glitter embedded within. Credit: NASA/Ashley Balzer

Launch Your Creativity with Space Crafts!

In honor of the completion of our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s spacecraft — the vehicle that will maneuver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function once there — we’re bringing you a space craft you can complete at home! Join us for a journey across the cosmos, starting right in your own pantry.

Stardust Slime

Ingredients:

1 5 oz. bottle clear glue

½ tablespoon baking soda

Food coloring

1 tablespoon contact lens solution

1 tablespoon glitter

Directions:

Pour the glue into a bowl.

Mix in the baking soda.

Add food coloring (we recommend blue, purple, black, or a combination).

Add contact lens solution and use your hands to work it through the slime. It will initially be very sticky! You can add a little extra contact lens solution to make it firmer and less goopy.

Add glitter a teaspoon at a time, using as much or as little as you like!

Did you know that most of your household ingredients are made of stardust? And so are you! Nearly every naturally occurring element was forged by living or dying stars.

Take the baking soda in this slime recipe, for example. It’s made up of sodium, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. The hydrogen was made during the big bang, right at the start of the universe. But the other three elements were created by dying stars. So when you show your friends your space-y slime, you can tell them it’s literally made of stardust!

Still feeling crafty? Try your hand at more pantry projects or these 3D and paper spacecraft models. If you’re eager for a more advanced space craft, check out these embroidery creations for inspiration! Or if you’re ready for a break, take a virtual tour of an interactive version of the Roman Space Telescope here.

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7 months ago

Student Experiments Soar!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a technology ready for space? The NASA TechRise Student Challenge gives middle and high school students a chance to do just that – team up with their classmates to design an original science or technology project and bring that idea to life as a payload on a suborbital vehicle.

Since March 2021, with the help of teachers and technical advisors, students across the country have dreamed up experiments with the potential to impact space exploration and collect data about our planet.

So far, more than 180 TechRise experiments have flown on suborbital vehicles that expose them to the conditions of space. Flight testing is a big step along the path of space technology development and scientific discovery.

The 2023-2024 TechRise Challenge flight tests took place this summer, with 60 student teams selected to fly their experiments on one of two commercial suborbital flight platforms: a high-altitude balloon operated by World View, or the Xodiac rocket-powered lander operated by Astrobotic. Xodiac flew over the company’s Lunar Surface Proving Ground — a test field designed to simulate the Moon’s surface — in Mojave, California, while World View’s high-altitude balloon launched out of Page, Arizona.

A clear, inflated high-altitude balloon with the sun shining brightly through it sits on an asphalt surface with mountains in the background. A vehicle sits to its left and a worker stands to its right.

A rocket hovers over a mottled gray simulated moon landscape then the image shifts to an aerial view from the rocket base showing landscape from above.

Here are four innovative TechRise experiments built by students and tested aboard NASA-supported flights this summer:

A high school student dressed in a blue jacket, wearing glasses and brightly colored hair clips holds a soldering iron and leans intently over an experiment.

1. Oobleck Reaches the Skies

Oobleck, which gets its name from Dr. Seuss, is a mixture of cornstarch and water that behaves as both a liquid and a solid. Inspired by in-class science experiments, high school students at Colegio Otoqui in Bayomón, Puerto Rico, tested how Oobleck’s properties at 80,000 feet aboard a high-altitude balloon are different from those on Earth’s surface. Using sensors and the organic elements to create Oobleck, students aimed to collect data on the fluid under different conditions to determine if it could be used as a system for impact absorption.

Middle school student in a red sweatshirt solders a circuit board to a small red square platform.

2. Terrestrial Magnetic Field

Middle school students at Phillips Academy International Baccalaureate School in Birmingham, Alabama, tested the Earth’s magnetic field strength during the ascent, float, and descent of the high-altitude balloon. The team hypothesized the magnetic field strength decreases as the distance from Earth’s surface increases.

Teacher points to circuit board that a middle school student is soldering.

3. Rocket Lander Flame Experiment

To understand the impact of dust, rocks, and other materials kicked up by a rocket plume when landing on the Moon, middle school students at Cliff Valley School in Atlanta, Georgia, tested the vibrations of the Xodiac rocket-powered lander using CO2 and vibration sensors. The team also used infrared (thermal) and visual light cameras to attempt to detect the hazards produced by the rocket plume on the simulated lunar surface, which is important to ensure a safe landing.

Two high school students lean in closely with heads together, practicing their soldering skills.

4. Rocket Navigation

Middle and high school students at Tiospaye Topa School in LaPlant, South Dakota, developed an experiment to track motion data with the help of a GPS tracker and magnetic radar. Using data from the rocket-powered lander flight, the team will create a map of the flight path as well as the magnetic field of the terrain. The students plan to use their map to explore developing their own rocket navigation system.

The 2024-2025 TechRise Challenge is now accepting proposals for technology and science to be tested on a high-altitude balloon! Not only does TechRise offer hands-on experience in a live testing scenario, but it also provides an opportunity to learn about teamwork, project management, and other real-world skills.

“The TechRise Challenge was a truly remarkable journey for our team,” said Roshni Ismail, the team lead and educator at Cliff Valley School. “Watching them transform through the discovery of new skills, problem-solving together while being driven by the chance of flying their creation on a [rocket-powered lander] with NASA has been exhilarating. They challenged themselves to learn through trial and error and worked long hours to overcome every obstacle. We are very grateful for this opportunity.”

Are you ready to bring your experiment design to the launchpad? If you are a sixth to 12th grade student, you can make a team under the guidance of an educator and submit your experiment ideas by November 1. Get ready to create!

A person dressed in white tee-shirt and black pants uses a screwdriver to attach a rectangular cube-shaped container that encases an experiment to a large circular platform that houses multiple experiments.

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8 months ago

A view into a large clean room, a warehouse-like facility, reveals a set of six large, black rectangular structures that look like circuit boards with red lines and small glass tiles on them. Each panel is flat, installed in a black picture frame structure that allows them to be rotated. In the background, the same type of structures are upright and connected, standing around three times taller than a person. They’re assembled into their stowed, flight-like configuration. Instead of being covered in red circuitry, the upright panels have a series of gray squares all over them that simulate the mass of the solar cells and harnessing. To the upright structure’s right, several workers in head-to-toe white suits and blue gloves stand in a group. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

This photo contains both flight (flat in the foreground) and qualification assembly (upright in the background) versions of the Solar Array Sun Shield for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. These panels will both shade the mission’s instruments and power the observatory.

Double Vision: Why Do Spacecraft Have Twin Parts?

Seeing double? You’re looking at our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Solar Array Sun Shield laying flat in pieces in the foreground, and its test version connected and standing upright in the back. The Sun shield will do exactly what it sounds like –– shade the observatory –– and also collect sunlight for energy to power Roman.

These solar panels are twins, just like several of Roman’s other major components. Only one set will actually fly in space as part of the Roman spacecraft…so why do we need two?

Sometimes engineers do major tests to simulate launch and space conditions on a spare. That way, they don’t risk damaging the one that will go on the observatory. It also saves time because the team can do all the testing on the spare while building up the flight version. In the Sun shield’s case, that means fitting the flight version with solar cells and eventually getting the panels integrated onto the spacecraft.

A series of two images. The top one shows a large metallic structure suspended from the ceiling in a spacious room. The structure is hollow with six sides, each covered with a diamond-like pattern. Three people in head-to-toe white suits and blue gloves watch in the foreground. The left wall in the background is covered in small, pale pink squares. The right wall features a viewing window, through which several observers are looking. The bottom image is a wide-angle view of a similar structure in a different large room. It’s placed at the left end of a giant mechanical arm. Credit: NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya/Chris Gunn (top), NASA/Scott Wiessinger (bottom)

Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's primary structure (also called the spacecraft bus) moves into the big clean room at our Goddard Space Flight Center (top). While engineers integrate other components onto the spacecraft bus in the clean room, the engineering test unit (also called the structural verification unit) undergoes testing in the centrifuge at Goddard. The centrifuge spins space hardware to ensure it will hold up against the forces of launch.

Engineers at our Goddard Space Flight Center recently tested the Solar Array Sun Shield qualification assembly in a thermal vacuum chamber, which simulates the hot and cold temperatures and low-pressure environment that the panels will experience in space. And since the panels will be stowed for launch, the team practiced deploying them in space-like conditions. They passed all the tests with flying colors!

The qualification panels will soon pass the testing baton to the flight version. After the flight Solar Array Sun Shield is installed on the Roman spacecraft, the whole spacecraft will go through lots of testing to ensure it will hold up during launch and perform as expected in space.

For more information about the Roman Space Telescope, visit: www.nasa.gov/roman. You can also virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope here.

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9 months ago

Many thousands of galaxies speckle the black screen. The galaxies cluster in the center of the image where they are larger. Several fuzzy yellow galaxies make up the center of the cluster. These galaxies look like soft glowing dust balls, with no defined structure. Hundreds of streaks surround the center of the cluster, as if someone smudged the galaxies’ light in a circular pattern. Thousands of smaller galaxies dot the whole image, like individual specks of dust. These small galaxies vary in size, shape, and color, ranging from red to blue. The different colors are dispersed randomly across the image — there is no apparent patterning or clustering of red or blue galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Observations from both NASA’s James Webb and Hubble space telescopes created this colorful image of galaxy cluster MACS0416. The colors of different galaxies indicate distances, with bluer galaxies being closer and redder galaxies being more distant or dusty. Some galaxies appear as streaks due to gravitational lensing — a warping effect caused by large masses gravitationally bending the space that light travels through.

Like Taylor Swift, Our Universe Has Gone Through Many Different Eras

While Taylor's Eras Tour explores decades of music, our universe’s eras set the stage for life to exist today. By unraveling cosmic history, scientists can investigate how it happened, from the universe’s origin and evolution to its possible fate.

A navy blue rectangle forms the background of an infographic. In the top left corner, it says, “History of the Universe.”  An elongated conical shape spans the width of the image. The smaller end of the horn, beginning at a miniscule point, is on the left side of the image and the wider end is on the right. The outline of the horn quickly expands, tracing out the left end of the horn to be about a quarter of the height of the image. The bell shape gradually grows wider as it approaches the right side of the image. The rightmost side of the horn flares outward like a bell. From the left to the right of the horn are 8 ovals that appear to subdivide it. The first oval contains light blue blobs on a dark blue background. Beneath it, it says, “10^-32 seconds, Inflation, initial expansion.” The second oval contains a light blue fog, blue and white orbs, and short, tightly zig-zagged blue lines. Half the white orbs have plus signs, and half have minus signs on them. Beneath the second oval, it says, “1 microsecond, First Particles, neutrons, protons, and electrons form.” The third oval contains a similar blue fog, but the white and blue orbs are stuck to one another in small clusters with no positive or negative signs. The zig-zagged lines remain. Beneath the third oval, it says, “3 minutes, First Nuclei, helium and hydrogen form.” The fourth oval contains a light blue background with some darker blue speckling on it, like on a fresh brown egg. In front of the background are several small spheres. Each sphere is either surrounded by one or two oval outlines. For the spheres with two ovals, the ovals are the same size but are perpendicular to one another. On each oval, in both cases, is a single dot which intersects with the line of the oval as if it traces an orbital. There are still a couple of zig-zagged lines, though much less than in the previous two ovals. Beneath the fourth oval, it says, “380,000 years, First Light, the first atoms form.” The fifth oval contains a blue camouflage-like pattern with a few white dots. Beneath it, it says, “200 million years, First Stars, gas and dust condense into stars.” The sixth oval contains a similar blue camouflage pattern, though it appears to be more transparent. There are several white dots, more than in the fifth oval, and a few white spiral shapes dispersed throughout. Underneath, it says, “400 million years, Galaxies & Dark Matter, galaxies form in dark matter cradles.” In the seventh oval, the blue camouflage pattern has faded, leaving behind a dark blue background with some very thin fog. There are several white dots and white spirals. Beneath the seventh oval, it says, “10 billion years, Dark Energy, expansion accelerates.” The eighth oval is similar to the seventh oval — it features a dark blue background with some thin haze, tens of white dots of varying size, and several spiral shapes of varying size. However, the eighth oval is considerably larger than the rest of the ovals, as it rests at the very end of the flare of the bell shape. Beneath the eighth oval, it says, “13.8 billion years, Today, humans observe the universe.” Credit: NASA

This infographic outlines the history of the universe.

0 SECONDS | In the beginning, the universe debuted extremely small, hot, and dense

Scientists aren’t sure what exactly existed at the very beginning of the universe, but they think there wasn’t any normal matter or physics. Things probably didn’t behave like we expect them to today.

A small flash of white light appears in the middle of a completely black image. The flash expands rapidly, glowing purple and consuming the entire image. The white light shrinks, returning to a pinprick at the center of the image. As it collapses, purple streams and waves pulse outward from the white light’s center. Alongside the waves flow hundreds of small galaxies — spiral and spherical collections of dots of light. The galaxies race out from the center, starting as miniscule specks and becoming larger blobs and smudges as they draw closer, speckling the screen. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

Artist's interpretation of the beginning of the universe, with representations of the early cosmos and its expansion.

10^-32 SECONDS | The universe rapidly, fearless-ly inflated

When the universe debuted, it almost immediately became unstable. Space expanded faster than the speed of light during a very brief period known as inflation. Scientists are still exploring what drove this exponential expansion.

1 MICROSECOND | Inflation’s end started the story of us: we wouldn’t be here if inflation continued

When inflation ended, the universe continued to expand, but much slower. All the energy that previously drove the rapid expansion went into light and matter — normal stuff! Small subatomic particles — protons, neutrons, and electrons — now floated around, though the universe was too hot for them to combine and form atoms.

The particles gravitated together, especially in clumpy spots. The push and pull between gravity and the particles’ inability to stick together created oscillations, or sound waves.

In front of a dark blue background, hundreds of small red and blue spheres float around, at varying distances from the viewer. In the middle of the screen, two large red and blue spheres collide in the foreground. As they collide, a white flash of light radiates outward. As it fades, the two spheres become visible again, now stuck together. After the first collision, several similar collisions and white flashes are visible in the background. In the top left corner, a clump with one blue sphere and one red sphere races towards another clump with two red spheres and one blue sphere. They collide and there is a flash of white light. As the light clears, a clump with two red spheres and two blue spheres is visible in its place, and a single red sphere floats away toward the center of the screen. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist's interpretation of protons and neutrons colliding to form ionized deuterium — a hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron — and ionized helium — two protons and two neutrons.

THREE MINUTES | Protons and neutrons combined all too well

After about three minutes, the universe had expanded and cooled enough for protons and neutrons to stick together. This created the very first elements: hydrogen, helium, and very small amounts of lithium and beryllium.

But it was still too hot for electrons to combine with the protons and neutrons. These free electrons floated around in a hot foggy soup that scattered light and made the universe appear dark.

In a fuzzy gray fog, hundreds of medium-sized red spheres and small green spheres wiggle around, never moving farther than one diameter from their original position. Hundreds of glowing blue daggers of light bounce between the different spheres, changing direction when they collide with them. Suddenly, the red and green spheres combine, turning brown. The daggers no longer collide with the spheres and instead race away in every direction into open space. A single glowing blue dagger of light zooms away from the spheres and fog into an open blackness speckled with thousands of tiny stars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This animated artist’s concept begins by showing ionized atoms (red blobs), free electrons (green blobs), and photons of light (blue flashes). The ionized atoms scattered light until neutral atoms (shown as brown blobs) formed, clearing the way for light to travel farther through space.

380 THOUSAND YEARS | Neutral atoms formed and left a blank space for light

As the universe expanded and cooled further, electrons joined atoms and made them neutral. With the electron plasma out of the way, some light could travel much farther.

A wide oval stretches across a rectangular black background. The oval is about twice as wide as it is tall. It is covered in speckles of varying colors from blue to yellow and red. The colors group together to form large splotches of reds, oranges, and yellows, as well as other splotches of blues and greens. In the bottom left corner, there is a horizontal rectangle with a spectrum of colors, with blue on the left, yellow in the center, and red on the right. Above the rectangle is a label reading “temperature.” Below the rectangle, on the left side under the blue is a label reading, “cooler.” On the right side, under the red, is a label reading “warmer.” Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

An image of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) across the entire sky, taken by ESA's (European Space Agency) Planck space telescope. The CMB is the oldest light we can observe in the universe. Frozen sound waves are visible as miniscule fluctuations in temperature, shown through blue (colder) and red (warmer) coloring.

As neutral atoms formed, the sound waves created by the push and pull between subatomic particles stopped. The waves froze, leaving ripples that were slightly denser than their surroundings. The excess matter attracted even more matter, both normal and “dark.” Dark matter has gravitational influence on its surroundings but is invisible and does not interact with light.

In front of a navy-blue background, tens of light blue orbs float at varying sizes, representing varying distances from the viewer. There are three large blue orbs in the foreground, with small plus signs at their centers. Several yellow streaks of light race across the screen. As the streaks collide with blue orbs, the orbs flash and grow slightly larger, absorbing the yellow streaks, before returning to their original state. The yellow streaks of light do not re-emerge from the orbs. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

This animation illustrates the absorption of photons — light particles — by neutral hydrogen atoms.

ALSO 380 THOUSAND YEARS | The universe became dark — call it what you want, but scientists call this time period the Dark Ages 

Other than the cosmic microwave background, there wasn't much light during this era since stars hadn’t formed yet. And what light there was usually didn't make it very far since neutral hydrogen atoms are really good at absorbing light. This kicked off an era known as the cosmic dark ages.

A dense orange fog floats in front of a black background that is just barely visible through the thick fog. There are dozens of glowing purple orbs within the fog, clustered in a circle in the center of the visual. One by one, the purple orbs send out bright white circular flashes of light. Following each flash of light, a white ring expands outward from the center of the orb, before fading away once its diameter reaches about one sixth of the image size. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

This animation illustrates the beginning of star formation as gas begins to clump due to gravity. These protostars heat up as material compresses inside them and throw off material at high speeds, creating shockwaves shown here as expanding rings of light.

200 MILLION YEARS | Stars created daylight (that was still blocked by hydrogen atoms)

Over time, denser areas pulled in more and more matter, in some places becoming so heavy it triggered a collapse. When the matter fell inward, it became hot enough for nuclear fusion to start, marking the birth of the first stars!

A simulation of dark matter forming structure due to gravity.

400 MILLION YEARS | Dark matter acted like an invisible string tying galaxies together

As the universe expanded, the frozen sound waves created earlier — which now included stars, gas, dust, and more elements produced by stars — stretched and continued attracting more mass. Pulling material together eventually formed the first galaxies, galaxy clusters, and wide-scale, web-like structure.

A borderless three-dimensional cube rotates from left to right in front of a black background. In the cube are many organic cloud-like blobs. They are primarily purplish blue and black, with the centers being darker than the outsides. In the space between the clouds is a light blue translucent material through which more blobs can be seen further back in the cube. As the cube rotates, the blobs become increasingly red and the blue translucent material becomes increasingly see through. After becoming bright red, the blobs start to fade and become a translucent yellow fog before disappearing completely. As they fade, millions of small yellow-ish stars become visible. The stars dot the cube in every dimension. Credit: M. Alvarez, R. Kaehler and T. Abel

In this animation, ultraviolet light from stars ionizes hydrogen atoms by breaking off their electrons. Regions already ionized are blue and translucent, areas undergoing ionization are red and white, and regions of neutral gas are dark and opaque.

1 BILLION YEARS | Ultraviolet light from stars made the universe transparent for evermore

The first stars were massive and hot, meaning they burned their fuel supplies quickly and lived short lives. However, they gave off energetic ultraviolet light that helped break apart the neutral hydrogen around the stars and allowed light to travel farther.

An animation on a black rectangular background. On the left of the visual is a graph constructed with blue text and the line on the graph. The y-axis of the graph reads “Expansion Speed.” The x-axis is labeled “Time.” At the origin, the x-axis reads, “10 billion years ago.” Halfway across the x-axis is labeled “7 Billion years ago.” At the end of the x-axis is labeled “now.” On the graph is a line which draws itself out. It starts at the top of the y-axis. It slopes down to the right, linearly, as if it were going to draw a straight line from the top left corner of the graph to the bottom right corner of the graph. Around the 7-billion mark, the line begins to decrease in slope very gradually. Three quarters of the way across the x-axis and three quarters of the way down the y-axis, the line reaches a minimum, before quickly curving upwards. It rapidly slopes upward, reaching one quarter from the top of the y-axis as it reaches the end of the x-axis labeled “now.” At the same time, on the right hand of the visual is a tiny dark blue sphere which holds within it glowing lighter blue spheres — galaxies and stars — and a lighter blue webbing. As the line crawls across the graph, the sphere expands. At first, its swelling gently slows, corresponding to the decreasing line on the graph. As the line reaches its minimum and the slope decreases, the sphere slows down its expansion further. Then, as the line arcs back upward, the sphere expands rapidly until it grows larger than the right half of the image and encroaches on the graph. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren't sure why.

SOMETIME AFTER 10 BILLION YEARS | Dark energy became dominant, accelerating cosmic expansion and creating a big question…?

By studying the universe’s expansion rate over time, scientists made the shocking discovery that it’s speeding up. They had thought eventually gravity should cause the matter to attract itself and slow down expansion. Some mysterious pressure, dubbed dark energy, seems to be accelerating cosmic expansion. About 10 billion years into the universe’s story, dark energy – whatever it may be – became dominant over matter.

A small blue sphere hangs in front of inky blackness. The lower half of the sphere is shrouded in shadow, making it appear hemispherical. The sphere is a rich blue, with swirling white patterns across it — Earth. In the foreground of the image is a gray horizon, covered in small craters and divots — the Moon. Credit: NASA

An image of Earth rising in the Moon’s sky. Nicknamed “Earthrise,” Apollo 8 astronauts saw this sight during the first crewed mission to the Moon.

13.8 BILLION YEARS | The universe as we know it today: 359,785,714,285.7 fortnights from the beginning

We owe our universe today to each of its unique stages. However, scientists still have many questions about these eras.

Our upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look back in time to explore cosmic mysteries like dark energy and dark matter – two poorly understood aspects of the universe that govern its evolution and ultimate fate.

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1 year ago

A lithograph of Girl Scout astronauts. Portraits of 33 women of various races and ethnicities curve around part of Earth (bottom left). On Earth are embossed words “doctors, educators, engineers, pilots, scientists.” At top left is the Moon, and at top right is the International Space Station. From left to right, bottom to top, the astronauts are Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, Kayla Barron, Yvonne D. Cagle, Laurel B. Clark, Eileen M. Collins, Nancy J. Currie-Gregg, N. Jan Davis, Anna L. Fisher, Susan J. Helms, Joan E. Higginbotham, Kathryn P. Hire, Tamara E. Jernigan, Susan L. Kilrain, Christina H. Koch, Wendy B. Lawrence, Sandra H. Magnus, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Megan McArthur, Jessica U. Meir, Pamela A. Melroy, Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger, Barbara R. Morgan, Lisa M. Nowak, Loral O’Hara, Kathleen Rubins, M. Rhea Seddon, Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Kathryn C. Thornton, Janice E. Voss, Jessica Watkins, Mary Ellen Weber, and Sunita L. Williams.

It’s Girl Scout Day! March 12, 2024, is the 112th birthday of Girl Scouts in the United States, and to celebrate, we’re sharing a lithograph of the Girl Scout alumnae who became NASA astronauts.

Girl Scouts learn to work together, build community, embrace adventurousness and curiosity, and develop leadership skills—all of which come in handy as an astronaut. For example, former Scouts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir worked together to make history on Oct. 18, 2019, when they performed the first all-woman spacewalk.

Pam Melroy is one of only two women to command a space shuttle and became NASA’s deputy administrator on June 21, 2021.

Nicole Mann was the first Indigenous woman from NASA to go to space when she launched to the International Space Station on Oct. 5, 2022. Currently, Loral O’Hara is aboard the space station, conducting science experiments and research.

Participating in thoughtful activities in leadership and STEM in Girl Scouts has empowered and inspired generations of girls to explore space, and we can’t wait to meet the future generations who will venture to the Moon and beyond.

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1 year ago

Mohammad AlMulla

Mohammad AlMulla, born in Dubai, received his commercial pilot's license from Australia at the age of 19. AlMulla was a training lead with the Dubai Police before becoming an astronaut candidate for the United Arab Emirates. https://mbrsc.ae/team/mohammed_mulla/

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1 year ago

Nora AlMatrooshi

Nora AlMatrooshi, the first Emirati woman astronaut, worked as a piping engineer before becoming an astronaut candidate for the United Arab Emirates. https://mbrsc.ae/team/nora/

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1 year ago

Jessica Wittner

Jessica Wittner, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, hails from California. A National Outdoor Leadership School alum, Wittner enjoys riding motorcycles and off-roading. https://go.nasa.gov/49CxwUN

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1 year ago

Chris Williams

Born in New York City, Chris Williams considers Potomac, Maryland, to be his hometown. A private pilot and Eagle Scout, Williams is a board-certified medical physicist and holds a doctorate in physics from MIT. https://go.nasa.gov/49YJJmf

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1 year ago

Anil Menon

Anil Menon was a first responder for earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal. Menon supported astronauts on the International Space Station as a NASA flight surgeon, later joining SpaceX as their first flight surgeon in 2018. https://go.nasa.gov/3SVVK4Y

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1 year ago

Jack Hathaway

Jack Hathaway, a distinguished naval aviator, was born and raised in South Windsor, Connecticut. An Eagle Scout, Hathaway volunteers as an assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts. https://go.nasa.gov/4bU8QbI

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1 year ago

Andre Douglas

A Virginia native, Andre Douglas served in the U.S. Coast Guard as a naval architect and salvage engineer. Douglas later worked as an engineer for Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on NASA's DART mission to redirect an asteroid. https://go.nasa.gov/48FBlam

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1 year ago

Luke Delaney

Luke Delaney, born in Miami and a graduate of the University of North Florida, was a test pilot for the Marine Corps before applying to become a NASA astronaut. He loves nature and spending time outdoors with his family. https://go.nasa.gov/3uNL8xn

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1 year ago

Deniz Burnham

A former NASA intern, Deniz Burnham started her career as an engineer on an oil rig in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and went on to lead operations on drilling rigs in Canada, Ohio, and Texas. https://go.nasa.gov/3wDpfBo

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Chris Birch

After an academic career at U.C. Riverside and Caltech, Chris Birch became a track cyclist on the U.S. National Team. She was training for the 2020 Olympics when she was chosen as an astronaut candidate. https://go.nasa.gov/49WJKHj

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Marcos Berrios

Marcos Berrios is from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and received his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford. Berríos has logged over 1,400 hours of flight time in over 20 different aircraft. https://go.nasa.gov/49DEAAt

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Nichole Ayers

Nichole Ayers was born in San Diego but considers Colorado her home. A major in the U.S. Air Force, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman F-22 formation in combat in 2019. https://go.nasa.gov/3IqAyzw

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The latest astronaut candidate graduates, a group of men and women of different races and ethnicities, greet the audience (not pictured) at their graduation ceremony. The candidates all wear blue jumpsuits with patches on them. Behind them is a black and gold graphic of a star streaking upwards. The background has white dots on it that resemble distant stars. Credit: NASA

Our newest class of astronaut candidates graduated on March 5, 2024. This means they’re now eligible for spaceflight assignments to the International Space Station, the Moon, and beyond! In the next twelve posts, we’ll introduce these new astronauts.

Do you want to be a NASA astronaut? Applications are now open.

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Black Scientists and Engineers Past and Present Enable NASA Space Telescope

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, set to launch by May 2027. We’re currently integrating parts of the spacecraft in the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center clean room.

Once Roman launches, it will allow astronomers to observe the universe like never before. In celebration of Black History Month, let’s get to know some Black scientists and engineers, past and present, whose contributions will allow Roman to make history.

Black woman sitting in front of a camera that is slightly off-frame. She is wearing a brown sweater with a white collared shirt underneath. There are images of Earth from space behind her. Credit: NASA

Dr. Beth Brown

The late Dr. Beth Brown worked at NASA Goddard as an astrophysicist. in 1998, Dr. Brown became the first Black American woman to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Michigan. While at Goddard, Dr. Brown used data from two NASA X-ray missions – ROSAT (the ROentgen SATellite) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory – to study elliptical galaxies that she believed contained supermassive black holes.

With Roman’s wide field of view and fast survey speeds, astronomers will be able to expand the search for black holes that wander the galaxy without anything nearby to clue us into their presence.

Black-and-white photograph of a Black man standing in front of a chalkboard. He is wearing a dark-colored blazer with a light-colored collared button-up underneath. Credit: courtesy of Georgetown University Archives

Dr. Harvey Washington Banks

In 1961, Dr. Harvey Washington Banks was the first Black American to graduate with a doctorate in astronomy. His research was on spectroscopy, the study of how light and matter interact, and his research helped advance our knowledge of the field. Roman will use spectroscopy to explore how dark energy is speeding up the universe's expansion.

A Black woman stands with her back to the camera and is looking over her shoulder. She is wearing a dark blue jacket that has a white circle outlined image of a plane and the word NASA underneath. She is standing in front of a giant metal circular ring. It sits inside of a large black square box. Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde

NOTE - Sensitive technical details have been digitally obscured in this photograph.

Sheri Thorn

Aerospace engineer Sheri Thorn is ensuring Roman’s primary mirror will be protected from the Sun so we can capture the best images of deep space. Thorn works on the Deployable Aperture Cover, a large, soft shade known as a space blanket. It will be mounted to the top of the telescope in the stowed position and then deployed after launch. Thorn helped in the design phase and is now working on building the flight hardware before it goes to environmental testing and is integrated to the spacecraft.

A smiling Black woman with shoulder-length straight black hair, glasses, and a white lab coat sits at a blue desk, holding a green circuit board in each hand. She is in a laboratory, and shelves with computer monitors and wires sit behind and around her. A sheet of shiny silver metal stands behind her head, and bags of wires and parts are visible on the desk beside her. Credit: NASA/Katy Comber

Sanetra Bailey

Roman will be orbiting a million miles away at the second Lagrange point, or L2. Staying updated on the telescope's status and health will be an integral part of keeping the mission running. Electronics engineer Sanetra Bailey is the person who is making sure that will happen. Bailey works on circuits that will act like the brains of the spacecraft, telling it how and where to move and relaying information about its status back down to Earth.

Learn more about Sanetra Bailey and her journey to NASA.

A Black man in a clean room wearing a clean suit covering his whole body except his eyes, wearing blue gloves, and holding up a flight detector. Credit: NASA/ Chris Gunn

Dr. Gregory Mosby

Roman’s field of view will be at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's, even though the primary mirrors are the same size. What gives Roman the larger field of view are its 18 detectors. Dr. Gregory Mosby is one of the detector scientists on the Roman mission who helped select the flight detectors that will be our “eyes” to the universe.

Dr. Beth Brown, Dr. Harvey Washington Banks, Sheri Thorn, Sanetra Bailey, and Dr. Greg Mosby are just some of the many Black scientists and engineers in astrophysics who have and continue to pave the way for others in the field. The Roman Space Telescope team promises to continue to highlight those who came before us and those who are here now to truly appreciate the amazing science to come.

A simulated space image with the Roman Space Telescope at the center. It heads toward a purple-and-pink galaxy, and you can see down the barrel opening of the spacecraft. Credit: NASA

To stay up to date on the mission, check out our website and follow Roman on X and Facebook.

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