NASA Science

Where do planets come from? 🤔🪐 After a star is born, leftover material forms a spinning disk around it. Within that disk, tiny particles of dust collide and gradually grow into larger and larger objects called planetesimals. These are the building blocks of planets. Over time, these planetesimals combine to form the worlds we see today, from rocky planets like Earth to giant planets like Jupiter and Neptune. A NASA scientist explains how planets like Earth came to be.

More than 3,000 “hidden worlds” called brown dwarfs were just discovered, and the people who found them weren’t astronomers, but volunteers. Brown dwarfs are cosmic in‑betweens: too big to be planets, too small to shine like stars. Their faint glow makes them incredibly hard to spot… until thousands of everyday people joined NASA’s Backyard Worlds project. By scanning NASA mission data frame‑by‑frame, more than 200,000 volunteers helped uncover over 3,000 of these Jupiter‑sized objects hiding in our own cosmic neighborhood, doubling the number we knew about. Their discoveries are revealing new kinds of objects and helping scientists map our galaxy in ways never before possible. See how they did it, and join the search for undiscovered worlds in @NASAScience_ story. Image description: Illustration of a reddish-brown brown dwarf floating in space. Bright glowing bands and swirling cloud patterns wrap around the planet-like object against a dark star-filled background.

It all starts with a star. ✨ The light from a star can change a planet’s atmosphere, sometimes helping scientists detect signs of life, and sometimes hiding them. A NASA scientist explains why understanding a planet’s star is essential in the search for life beyond Earth.

What can’t PACE do? 👑 Monitoring wildfires and smoke, tracking harmful algae blooms, identifying microscopic critters in the ocean, seeing clouds in 3D, studying plants on land — the PACE satellite can do it all! Swipe to take a tour of our planet through the eyes (and data) of PACE ➡️

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is in final preparations for an early September launch, eight months AHEAD of schedule and UNDER budget. This milestone is the result of more than a decade of dedication and millions of hours of work by NASA and our industry partners. Their commitment is what’s making this moment possible and helping drive Gold Standard Science. Roman will help answer some of the biggest questions in science, investigating dark matter, dark energy, and the structure of the universe. Its images will be so large and detailed, there isn’t a screen in existence big enough to display them. This is just the beginning.

These plants packed company for their trip to space! 🌱🦠 A new plant study called Veg-06 has arrived aboard the space station to observe how legume plants interact with microbes. In a process called symbiotic nitrogen fixation, some plants can team up with microbes to pull nitrogen from the air and use this to support their growth. Nitrogen-fixing plants include many foods such as beans, peas, and peanuts. 🫛 To understand if this partnership will work on the space station, researchers will track how the plants grow in orbit and then study their tissues back on Earth. They’ll also evaluate how well plants grow with less lignin content, an important component of the plant cell wall that may not be as necessary in the space environment. Reduced lignin may allow for inedible plant parts to be recycled more readily, providing supplemental nutrition for plants. ♻️🍃

Human & robotic explorers have different strengths. Astronauts can do things robotic orbiters can’t, like notice a subtle color difference and look around for context. Robots can do things humans can’t, like see temperature, mineral composition, and even rock structures beneath the surface. The Artemis II crew’s observations are adding to decades of data collected by robotic explorers in orbit and Apollo astronauts on the Moon’s surface. Human and robotic exploration complement each other. The colorful maps in this post, created just last week using data from our Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), show there’s even more to the Moon than meets the eye. (And there’s a lot that meets the eye!) Each image gives us a different way of looking at the same feature: Orientale basin, one of the Moon’s youngest and best-preserved large impact craters. Get to know some of LRO’S science instruments, and what they’re telling us, in the image descriptions: (1) Orientale basin as imaged by the Artemis II crew using a Nikon D5 camera. (2) This LRO Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment map shows surface temperatures in Orientale basin during the Artemis II lunar flyby. Red areas are the hottest at over 200 degrees Fahrenheit; a red-to-yellow gradient shows that one side of the basin is hotter than the other. (3) The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) shows elevation, composition, and age of surface materials. This map of Orientale basin combines infrared light reflected from the Moon’s surface with a topographic map created from measurements of surface elevation using  LOLA’s lasers. Black lines are topographic contours spaced 100 meters apart. (4) The Mini-RF radar instrument helps us learn how many rocks are on the lunar surface, and just below the surface, to help crews find safe places to land. In this map, the darker red colors represent more rocks at the surface and just below the surface, and the green colors tell us there are less rocks in those areas. (5) The LRO Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) uses far-ultraviolet light to create maps like this one, which is showing us information about the composition, texture, and age of surface materials.

Our lunar scientists are feeling the love. ❤️ (and the Moon joy) The Artemis II lunar science team’s commitment to shaping the future of exploration is inspiring. Their hard work is making history and bringing joy to countless people watching along. Lunar legends, every one of them. ❤️

Sun joy 🤝 Moon joy Two years ago today: Millions saw a total solar eclipse across America. Two days ago: Just four people saw a total solar eclipse from Orion. Would you rather see an eclipse from space or, in the words of @NASAArtemis Astronaut Victor Glover, from this"spaceship called Earth?" Drop a 🚀 or 🌎 in the comments! Image 1 shows the Moon backlit by the Sun, captured by NASA’s Orion spacecraft during Artemis II on April 6, 2026. Earth glows along the edge of the Moon, while Saturn and Mars appear in the background. Image 2 shows a total solar eclipse over Cleveland, Ohio, on April 8, 2024 – one of millions of shared moments as people across North America looked up at the same sky. Credit: NASA #NASA #Artemis #Eclipse #Moon #SolarEclipse #Space

Behind every lunar view is pure Moon (science) joy. 🥹

Hello from the other side 🌔 🛰️ The Artemis II astronauts have completed their lunar flyby and are looping toward home. Before they turn their attention from Moon geology to other tasks, like collecting medical data and getting back to Earth safely, the crew is making one last long-distance call (think 235,000 miles!) to the Lunar Science Team back in Houston. It’s a chance to share any Moon observations and commentary that they haven’t already documented in their lunar flyby notes, and respond to questions from the science team, while the observation campaign is still fresh in their minds. Audio from this conversation will add to the mission’s lunar science data. The call is scheduled to take place just before 3 p.m. ET today and will be streamed as part of 24/7 mission coverage on NASA’s YouTube channel. Image description: Earthrise captured through the Orion spacecraft window during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon’s far side. Earth appears as a delicate crescent. The planet’s soft blue hue and scattered white cloud systems stand out in the blackness of space. Along the lunar horizon, rugged terrain is silhouetted against the bright crescent Earth.

Right now, the Artemis II astronauts are farther from Earth than anyone has ever been before. Tune in live on NASA’s YouTube channel. 0:00 The SLS launching Artemis II in the distance. In the foreground, the mission countdown clock starts counting up from 0. Text reads "In your life, you're going to have the chance to hear human voices from the far side of the Moon." This text remains on screen for most of the video. 0:03 Scientists gathered around a table watch the launch, cheering and jumping. 0:06 The rocket, with a bright tail of flame, launching against a blue sky. 0:07 The Artemis II crew in the Orion capsule. Jeremy Hansen is on the left, holding a microphone. Reid Wiseman is next to him, followed by Christina Koch, who is smiling and playing with the Rise plush zero gravity indicator. The camera pans to reveal Victor Glover to the right. 0:11 The Orion capsule, a white cylinder with the red NASA worm painted on it. It tapers to a flattened point, like a pencil tip. The taper is silver. 0:14 Scientists working at computers in the Science Evaluation Room, a large room with black walls and big screens showing data and imagery from Artemis II. 0:16 Panning inside the Orion capsule again, this time starting with Victor on the left, followed by Jeremy and Christina. Reid is just behind Christina. They all wave at the camera. 0:20 Kelsey Young sitting in Misson Control, behind a row of computer screens. She has a headset on and is smiling and listening. The text changes to read "It's very important that you take it." 0:27 Kiarre Dumes stands with a headset on. She is smiling. 0:31 Marie Henderson stands at the front of the Science Evaluation Room, holding a laptop and talking to the rest of the room. 0:37 Kelsey Young in Mission Control again.