NASA

Along the Vetrivier (Vet River) in South Africa, a patchwork of circular and rectangular fields spreads across what is otherwise a semi-arid part of the Free State province. The water brings life to an array of crops, contributing to the agricultural productivity of the wider Maize Triangle. The agricultural area shown in this image lies about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Bloemfontein. The scene is reminiscent of a modern abstract painting. Colorful circles mingle with straight-edged fields in combinations of red, green, and blue. But each color carries physical meaning, providing clues about crop types and revealing how they changed over the course of the Southern Hemisphere’s growing season. Data for the visualization were acquired by the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Apert...

ALTThis artist’s impression pinpoints many cosmic voids –– relatively empty bubbles of space.The universe is home to trillions of galaxies, each chock full of smaller cosmic objects like stars and planets. Since galaxies gravitate together in a web-like pattern, there are also immense open spaces called cosmic voids in between. In those growing, gloomy places, dark energy dominates.ALTGalaxies in this animation are structured a bit like a Hoberman sphere (a lattice-like toy ball that expands and collapses), growing farther apart as the universe expands.Zoomed out maps of the universe show that galaxies often cluster together in bright city-like regions. Each cosmic metropolis is connected to others by interstate highways – vast filaments of dark matter, gas, and dust, along which additiona...

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab has won a contract from Japanese radar satellite company iQPS for three additional Electron launches. Rocket Lab announced April 9 it signed a contract with iQPS, or Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, for three Electron launches from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand starting in 2028. The companies did not disclose terms of the contract. Rocket Lab has launched seven missions for iQPS starting in 2023, with five additional launches already on order before this latest contract. Three of those upcoming launches were ordered in October. The most recent Electron launch for iQPS was in December. “Our expanded partnership with iQPS is built on our consistent execution across the many missions we’ve launched for them already, and we’re proud to contin...

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at 4,400 light-years away. Planetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape, which made them appear to look like planets when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 — examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules ...

We’re on the hunt for worlds that can sustain life! But how can we identify them from trillions of miles away?We start the search within the habitable, or “Goldilocks,” zone around other stars – the not too hot, not too cold region where liquid surface water could exist on orbiting planets.ALTThis artist’s impression shows a star with several planets within its habitable zone.It sounds simple enough, but it’s surprisingly complicated. For one thing, the size and location of a habitable zone varies from star to star, mainly depending on how big and hot it is. It’s like standing near a bonfire; the smaller the flames, the closer you have to be to feel the heat.ALTThis visualization of our solar system shows the rough location of the Sun’s habitable zone. Earth is nestled comfortably in the m...