Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Ice Fishing for Cosmic Neutrinos
Explanation: Scientists are melting holes in the bottom of the world. In fact, almost 100 holes melted near the South Pole are now being used as an astronomical observatory. Astronomers with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory lowered a long string knotted with basketball-sized light detectors into each vertical lake. The water in each hole soon refreezes. The detectors attached to the strings are sensitive to blue light emitted in the surrounding clear ice. Such light results from fast-moving secondary particles liberated when high-energy neutrinos emitted by powerful processes out in the universe collide with ice molecules. IceCube has now detected many illuminating neutrinos. Pictured in 2010, one of the last of IceCube’s detector strings is lowered into the freezing abyss, making IceCube the largest neutrino detector ever created. In recognition of unprecedented discoveries, it was announced earlier this week that a founding leader of the IceCube Collaboration will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
NASA’s Freedom 250 F-5 team, including NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, performs a flyover during the national anthem at an NFL game between the Cleveland Browns and the Carolina Panthers at Huntington Bank Field, Sept. 27, 2026, in Cleveland.
Credit: NASA/Jordan Cochran
As part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour flyover, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will pilot one of three F-5 fighter jets to kick off the New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday, Oct. 11.
NASA team members will engage with fans at the agency’s Experience Zone, located at the Jets Tailgate Zone outside the stadium, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT before the game. Fans can learn more about NASA’s return to the Moon under the agency’s Artemis dome, enjoy interactive games, and capture photos with a large, inflatable SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.
Isaacman will be available for limited media interviews during the game. To arrange interviews, please contact Camille Gallo at: camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov or 202-531-8057.
With stops across the nation, NASA’s Inspiration Tour convenes academic, industry, and public sector stakeholders to connect the agency with the people, technologies, and organizations that drive American leadership in space.
The tour will culminate in MAX POWER, a public exposition of American air and space innovation, Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, on and near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Held in honor of America’s historic 250th anniversary, the multi-day, family-friendly event will showcase the next-generation aircraft, spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, and technologies that will help define the future of transportation in air and space.
For more information about MAX POWER and the agency’s missions, visit:
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Lunar Farside
Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon’s farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.
NASA is advancing American leadership in space by taking the next step toward a future where commercial space stations lead the way in low Earth orbit. On Friday, the agency released its final Request for Proposals inviting industry to submit plans for the next generation of commercial space stations.
“In alignment with the President’s National Space Policy, NASA is committed to maintaining a sustained American presence in low Earth orbit long after the International Space Station retires,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “We will continue to need a place to conduct research, develop technologies, train crews, and prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars. Commercial space stations may provide that capability while creating new opportunities for American industry and allowing NASA to concentrate more of our resources on the near-impossible missions ahead.”
Building on the agency’s Ignition event earlier this year, NASA regularly has engaged with private industry to shape the agency’s future direction in low Earth orbit. This included publishing two Requests for Information in March to gather industry’s perspective on low Earth orbit destinations and transportation. The agency also published a draft Request for Proposals in July, followed by an industry day and one-on-one meetings that allowed interested companies to review and comment on the planned acquisition approach.
“We’ve made it clear that NASA will never give up its presence in low Earth orbit,” said Isaacman. “Since Ignition, we have spent a lot of time listening to industry and working through what it will take to make this transition successful. The opportunity is significant, but the economics ultimately have to work. We want to see credible plans, strong technical execution, and companies prepared to invest in destinations that can serve NASA while developing additional customers and markets of their own.”
Proposals are due Tuesday, Dec. 8, with contract awards expected in spring 2027.
Under the solicitation, NASA outlines requirements for companies interested in designing, building, testing, certifying, and operating commercial low Earth orbit destinations capable of providing end-to-end destination and transportation services for human spaceflight use.
NASA intends to award firm-fixed-price, multi-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts supporting development, certification, and services for continued low Earth orbit research and exploration. This will allow NASA to select two or more contractors through early development, followed by a competitive task order for final design, test, and evaluation, as well as certification and services from one or more contractors.
Learn more about NASA’s missions on the agency’s website:
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A KREPE-3 capsule floats inside the Northrup Grumman Cygnus XL 24 cargo spacecraft on October 7. Inside the capsule is a 3-D printed heat shield designed by researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA
NASA is testing heat shields that can keep astronauts safe as they return from missions to the Moon and Mars in an unusual way: by taking out the trash.
When Northrop Grumman 24th cargo resupply mission for NASA undocked from the International Space Station, it carried a fleet of 12 small, experimental capsules designed to test the next generation of thermal protection materials that could serve as the foundation for future heat shields.
The experiment, called the Kentucky Reentry Probe Experiment (KREPE-3), is the third in a series of low-cost, high-impact missions that use the final moments of the cargo spacecraft’s lifespan to gather valuable data.
The experiment is a collaboration among the University of Kentucky, the state of Kentucky, NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), several NASA centers, and other federal and commercial partners.
“KREPE-3 is a great example of the goals of NASA’s EPSCoR program,” said David Berger, EPSCoR program manager at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington. “We are supporting the next generation of scientists and engineers as they develop unique projects that benefit their education and NASA’s mission goals.”
Trash to treasure
Before the mission’s Cygnus XL spacecraft departed the station, astronauts packed it with waste and activated the 12 small capsules carried inside. Designed by University of Kentucky students, the capsules include sensors that will measure temperature, pressure, motion, magnetic field, and light during re-entry.
As the vehicle harmlessly breaks apart in Earth’s atmosphere on its planned route, the capsules will eject and begin collecting data on how each set of experimental heat shield materials performs. Satellite signals will transfer live data to researchers, offering insights into how larger heat shields could protect future cargo or crew.
“It’s a smart way to get flight data on materials that are still in development,” said Keith Peterson, a materials engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “We’re essentially hitching a ride on a vehicle that’s already coming back to Earth.”
Close up of an Ames-produced thermal protection system (TPS) (heat shield) for the Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) in the Sensors & TPS Advanced Research Laboratories (STAR Labs) N242.
NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete
Heating up innovation
The capsules will carry a variety of thermal protective components, including proven technology such as the ceramic tile material used on the space shuttle. Others will test new options, such as a 3D-printed heat shield from the Additive Manufacturing of Thermal Protective Systems project developed at NASA Johnson and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Researchers at NASA Ames are contributing several materials to KREPE-3, including two capsules that will fly a next-generation family of protective coverings known as Materials Engineered for Re-entry using Innovative Needling Operations (MERINO). Made from layers of carbon and phenolic fibers stitched together like felt, the materials are more flexible, faster to produce, and less expensive than traditional protective substances – making them promising candidates for Mars missions. Thanks to Mars’ thinner atmosphere, missions to land on the Red Planet involve lower heat loads and allow for lighter protection.
A third capsule will combine those protective coverings with other elements. The Kentucky Instrumented Conical Hypersonic Experiment will utilize a dual-cone shape. It combines a tungsten tip attached to a cone layered with carbon and hear-resistant plastic fibers, and an aft cone wrapped in MERINO. This unique design will validate computer models against real-world data.
Another capsule is shaped like the protective aeroshell that will protect NASA’s upcoming mission, Dragonfly, as it arrives at Saturn’s moon, Titan, and will test the dynamic stability of the design. It is covered in Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator, a material developed at NASA Ames that has applications for commercial vehicles and flew on NASA’s Stardust, Mars Science Laboratory, and Mars 2020 missions.
One capsule will test a deployable heat shield called Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology, which is shaped like an umbrella to increase surface area and slow descent. At full scale, Adaptable Deployable Entry design could be folded, making it ideal for deploying payloads that are larger than the rockets that launch them into flight.
While some capsules are testing new materials to carry missions to Mars, others are testing new shapes and designs that will further research and understanding of computer modeling and sensor design — technologies that could open doors to another generation of re-entry design innovation.
Additional capsules developed by domestic and international partners will test a variety of known and new materials, including a heat flux sensor developed at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, that will help researchers measure how heat moves across a surface during re-entry.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of what heat shields can do,” said Peterson. “And we’re testing them in a way that’s fast, affordable, and incredibly effective.”
Galaxies warp and multiply as if in a house of mirrors in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released on Sept. 29, 2026.
The brilliant golden galaxies seen here are part of a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies bunched together on one side of the image, however, are not actually part of the cluster, but rather galaxies much farther away whose light has been bent and magnified by gravitational lensing. This phenomenon occurs when the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster bends and magnifies the light from a more distant object in the background.
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Stickney Crater
Explanation: Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet’s moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth’s gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater’s rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to tidal stresses experienced by close-orbiting Phobos or the crater-forming impact itself.
A narrow river (dark blue) meanders across vegetated land (bright green) in a false-color satellite image. Small geometric ponds or waterlogged fields appear on the left side of the scene.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
In a false-color satellite image of the same area, floodwaters (dark blue) flank a meandering river and cover a large swath of agricultural or aquacultural land primarily on the left side of the scene.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
A narrow river (dark blue) meanders across vegetated land (bright green) in a false-color satellite image. Small geometric ponds or waterlogged fields appear on the left side of the scene.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
In a false-color satellite image of the same area, floodwaters (dark blue) flank a meandering river and cover a large swath of agricultural or aquacultural land primarily on the left side of the scene.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
October 7, 2025
October 2, 2026
September falls in the heart of the monsoon season in Thailand, where cities and towns are accustomed to the afternoon rains and thunderstorms that frequently roll through. But throughout late September and early October 2026, persistent heavy rains punctuated by intense downpours left low-lying areas across the country in Southeast Asia under sustained flooding.
Prachin Buri province was among the areas where flooding was widespread. The right image above shows land along the Bang Pakong River and nearby agricultural areas and aquaculture facilities inundated on October 2, 2026. The left image shows the same area at the same time of year in 2025. Acquired with NASA-USGS Landsat satellites, the images are false-color to better distinguish water from vegetation, developed land, and other surfaces. The bright red shapes are floating solar arrays.
Some of the flooding likely stemmed from a low-pressure system that stalled over the area for several days in late September. Stoked by moisture and energy from the warm Gulf of Thailand nearby, the system delivered especially intense rains to the region. About 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the west, Bangkok received nearly 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) of rain over a 48-hour period, according to news reports, close to the average monthly rainfall total for September of 344 millimeters (13.5 inches).
Since mid-September, flooding has occurred in 50 provinces across the country, affecting over 4 million people and causing dozens of deaths, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Government agencies estimate about 270,000 hectares (670,000 acres) of farmland, including rice fields and fruit orchards, have been damaged.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
An artist’s concept of JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft at Mars.
Credit: JAXA
Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to preview the agency’s contributions to JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT (Tuesday, Oct. 20 JST).
Audio of the media teleconference will stream on the agency’s website at:
Participants in the briefing, who will provide an overview of the mission and NASA’s contributions, include:
Lindsay Hays, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Tom Statler, MMX program executive and scientist, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
David Lawrence, MEGANE (Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma-rays and Neutrons) principal investigator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Kris Zacny, vice president, Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics
Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the teleconference to Molly Wasser at molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The MMX spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 to begin its survey of the Red Planet’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos. After surveying Phobos in detail, the spacecraft will collect a sample of the moon’s surface no earlier than December 2028 and deliver it to Earth in 2031. NASA’s contributions to the mission include the MEGANE gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the spacecraft’s surface sampler mechanism, and communications and navigation support from the agency’s Deep Space Network, as well as funding United States scientists participating on the MMX science team.
The MEGANE instrument was developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the spacecraft’s pneumatic sampler mechanism. NASA’s contributions to the MMX mission were funded by the agency’s Discovery Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for high-value, focused planetary science investigations. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about the MMX mission, visit:
Editor’s note: This release was updated Oct. 8, 2026 with the formal name of the summit.
NASA is launching two new science and technology initiatives to deepen scientific understanding and accelerate the innovation that will shape America’s future in space.
The initiatives are announced in conjunction with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) “Science: A Golden Age Summit” in Washington on Thursday with top U.S. agency leaders. The programs reflect NASA’s commitment to pioneering research and transformative technologies and advancing the Trump Administration’s vision as outlined in the July report to the President, Science: A New Golden Age. One focuses on peer review and the other on fellowship researchers.
“NASA has a proud history of pursuing bold ideas and achieving the near impossible,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are building on that legacy by creating new opportunities for great science, experimenting with how we evaluate and accelerate the best ideas, and investing in the next generation of researchers through the Genesis Mission Fellowships. We are entering a new Golden Age of American innovation and discovery, and NASA will be at the forefront.”
During a fireside chat, Isaacman and Michael Kratsios, assistant to the President for science and technology and director of OSTP, will discuss the following:
Establishing a coordinated metascience initiative within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to strengthen the reliability, efficiency, transparency, and overall productivity of the agency’s scientific practices. As part of this effort, NASA is expanding the agency’s use of dual anonymous peer review to ensure proposals are evaluated solely on their intrinsic scientific merit. This approach enhances fairness and supports innovative and unconventional research ideas. Started as a pilot program during the first Trump Administration, this initiative has helped position NASA as a leader in advancing best practices in scientific review.
NASA will support 10 Genesis Mission Fellows, who are accelerated doctoral students with dual competencies in super intelligence (SI) and science or engineering. Fellows will work directly on NASA mission areas and conduct research at NASA laboratories, advancing SI-enabled scientific discovery. The fellowships will be based on NASA’s successful Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology program.
NASA leads the nation in space exploration, scientific discovery, and technological innovation. Through these new initiatives, NASA will continue to inspire the world and drive progress in science and technology.
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