Announcements

NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2026

Project News • March 25th, 2026

NASA Honor Awards recognize IPACers working on Euclid, NEOWISE, and Roman

IPAC News • February 25th, 2026

On January 22, 2026, dozens of IPAC staff members were recognized at the NASA Honor Awards ceremony. With Group Achievement Awards handed out to teams working on Euclid, NEOWISE, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the wide array of work highlights IPAC’s diverse and cutting-edge research...

Caltech and IPAC Mourn the Passing of Carl Grillmair (1959–2026)

IPAC News • February 22nd, 2026

Carl Grillmair, an astronomer at Caltech's IPAC science and data center for astronomy and planetary science, passed away suddenly on February 16, 2026. He was 67 years old.

Journey to Center of Milky Way With Upcoming NASA Roman Core Survey

IPAC News • January 23rd, 2026

At the heart of our own galaxy, there is a dense thicket of stars with a supermassive black hole at the very center. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide the deepest-ever view of this zone, revealing stars, planets, and unique objects that resist definition.

Liftoff of Pandora - NASA’s Newest Planet-Observing Satellite

Project News • January 12th, 2026

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Pandora small satellite lifted off at 5:44 a.m. PST Sunday, Jan. 11, from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base located on California’s central coast.

Young Galaxies Grow Up Fast

Project News • January 8th, 2026

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were fervently producing new stars. The observations focused on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away.

Astronomers Discover the First Galaxy-wide Wobbling Black Hole Jet in a Disk Galaxy

IPAC News • January 8th, 2026

Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have uncovered the largest and most extended stream of super-heated gas ever observed flowing from a nearby galaxy, providing the clearest evidence yet that a supermassive black hole can dramatically reshape its host galaxy far...

NASA’s Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond

Project News • January 8th, 2026

A new NASA spacecraft called Pandora is awaiting launch ahead of its journey to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, and their stars.

We finally know how the most common types of planets are created

IPAC News • January 7th, 2026

Four baby planets show how super-Earths and sub-Neptunes form.

Teaching the Teacher: How Educators and Students Conduct Authentic NASA Research

Project News • January 6th, 2026

At the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), running from January 4 through January 8 in Phoenix, AZ, 8 astronomy educators and their students from the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) are attending, plus 11 NITARP alumni educators about to start work on...