Project News

Lunar Trailblazer Is Building the Flight System to Fly to the Moon

Lunar Trailblazer • August 31st, 2021

On July 15th 2021, Lunar Trailblazer successfully passed its Critical Design Review (CDR). This review incorporated all the systems of the Lunar Trailblazer. The CDR review...

An Accidental Discovery Hints at a Hidden Population of Cosmic Objects

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • August 31st, 2021

A new study offers a tantalizing explanation for how a peculiar cosmic object called WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 – nicknamed “The Accident” – came to be.

Astronomers Find a ‘Break’ in One of the Milky Way’s Spiral Arms

Spitzer • August 17th, 2021

The newly discovered feature offers insight into the large-scale structure of our galaxy, which is difficult to study from Earth’s position inside it.

Stars Are Exploding in Dusty Galaxies. We Just Can’t Always See Them

Spitzer • August 4th, 2021

Exploding stars generate dramatic light shows. Infrared telescopes like Spitzer can see through the haze and to give a better idea of how often these explosions occur.

Ground System for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Moves into Development

Roman • July 29th, 2021

On July 23, the Roman Space Telescope successfully completed the critical design review of the mission’s ground systems.

Astronomers discover an unusually short gamma-ray burst from the death of a massive star

ZTF • July 26th, 2021

On Aug. 26, 2020, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a pulse of high-energy radiation that had been racing toward Earth for nearly half the present age of the...

Astronomers discover an unusually short gamma-ray burst from the death of a massive star

ZTF • July 26th, 2021

ZTF and a host of other astronomical observatories have teamed up to identify a rather unusual gamma-ray burst (GRB) - the most powerful event in the universe. Caused by the...

Cosmic Legacy: Retired Space Telescope Reveals ‘Hot Jupiter' Secrets

Spitzer • July 26th, 2021

Among the first, and strangest, planets to be detected around other stars is a variety known as “hot Jupiters” – star-hugging, superheated giants once thought so unlikely that...

New Spitzer Space Telescope Poster Released

Spitzer • July 22nd, 2021

This poster depicts the TRAPPIST-1 planets, some of which were discovered by Spitzer.

From the Sun to the stars

NASA Exoplanet Science Institute • July 20th, 2021

A journey of exoplanet discovery begins as Penn State’s NEID spectrometer starts its scientific mission.