NASA observations find what helps heat roots of 'moss' on sun

Did you know the sun has moss? Due to its resemblance to the earthly plants, scientists have named a small-scale, bright, patchy structure made of plasma in the solar atmosphere "moss." This moss, which was first identified ...

Supporting the future of Mars exploration with supercomputers

You may have flown a flight simulator in a computer game or at a science museum. Landing without crashing is always the hardest part. But that's nothing compared to the challenge that engineers are facing to develop a flight ...

Neutron stars could be heating up from dark matter annihilation

One of the big mysteries about dark matter particles is whether they interact with each other. We still don't know the exact nature of what dark matter is. Some models argue that dark matter only interacts gravitationally, ...

Astronauts to patch up NASA's NICER telescope

NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit ...

NASA's VIPER moon rover gets its head and neck

In this image from Feb. 12, 2024, engineers lift a mast into place on NASA's VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) robotic moon rover. VIPER's mast and the suite of instruments affixed to it look a lot like ...

Citizen science project classifying gamma-ray bursts

When faraway stars explode, they send out flashes of energy called gamma-ray bursts that are bright enough that telescopes back on Earth can detect them. Studying these pulses, which can also come from mergers of some exotic ...

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