NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has resumed use of its third science instrument, the Burst Alert Telescope, after the mission returned to data collection in August. Flight controllers have also allowed the spacecraft to resume automatically repointing its other telescopes to examine new high-energy flashes in the sky.

The return to normal operations follows the scaling back of a commercial mission that would have boosted Swift to a higher altitude.

Swift team members confirmed that the Burst Alert Telescope was calibrated and detecting gamma rays, the highest energy form of light, on Sept. 18. They had halted use of the instrument, which sees 16% of the sky at a time, in April to reduce power consumption. This allowed Swift’s solar panels to be best positioned to reduce drag and extend the satellite’s time in orbit ahead of the boost effort.

Usually, the flight operations team at Penn State in University Park sends a plan to Swift that tells the observatory which cosmic objects and events to observe each day. When the Burst Alert Telescope detects a flare of gamma rays, though, Swift is designed to interrupt the plan and automatically point its Ultraviolet/Optical and X-ray telescopes at the outburst.

In December 2025, the science operations team started swapping around 25% of the planned science targets for points in the sky that would minimize drag when Swift was trained on them. By February, the team had switched over to this approach entirely, eliminating Burst Alert Telescope detection slews.

The team allowed Swift to return to automated pointing on Sept. 21 after the gamma-ray instrument resumed data collection.

The return to science has caused Swift to resume its rapid sinking. It is now located around 200 miles (325 kilometers) above Earth. Below 185 miles (300 kilometers), spacecraft operations become more difficult and science observations will likely cease. The team estimates Swift will reach this threshold sometime in early to mid-October.

Monitor the Swift blog for more updates:

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Peebles - Turner

Baird AuditoriumThe Smithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural History

1998 October 4; Debate Program 1 - 4:30 pm

Sponsors: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural HistoryNational Science FoundationNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationMichigan Technological UniversityUniversities Space Research Association

Program Organizers: Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Sandra Barnes, Wellesley Pereira,Gabriela Marani, Haihong Che, and Carolyn Weissbach

Welcome to the Nature of the Universe Debate in 1998

Speculation into the nature of the universe is as old as curiosity. Several times in the past we humans were able to discern the fundamentals of our surroundings. We figured out that we live between vast oceans, that we live on a round Earth, that Earth is one of several planets in our Solar System, that our Sun was one of a Galaxy of billions, and that our Galaxy was one of many similar galaxies that exist throughout the cosmos. Well here we are again.

Within the past few decades we have learned that the matter that we see composing heaven and Earth is small in abundance compared to an unknown type of dark matter. Within the past year the first possibly credible evidence that even this dark matter is small compared to a new "dark energy" that pervades the Universe, a "cosmological constant". Is "dark energy" real? Is all the matter and energy now accounted for in the universe? Have we now reached the end of the quest for the major cosmological parameters: Hubble's Constant and Omega? Is cosmology now solved?

In 1920 Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, two leading astronomers of their day, debated their current understanding of the universe, including whether our Galaxy was itself the whole Universe. Today, Turner and Peebles, two leading astronomers of today, debate our current understanding of the nature of the universe in the same auditorium, located in one of the world's premier museums of natural history. We are therefore pleased to welcome you to the third in the series of the "Turn of the Millennium Debates." Today's debate is held in honor of the late David N. Schramm (1945 - 1997), a great scientist originally involved in this debate, who helped define the frontier connecting the very big and the very small, between particle physics and cosmology. Everyone involved in today's program knew him and admired him. These public programs are intended to highlight important problems in astrophysics that exist at the end of the second millennium. We sincerely hope that you find today's debate enjoyable, educational, and entertaining.

Robert Nemiroff, Michigan Technological UniversityJerry Bonnell, NASA/GSFC/USRA

Schedule

1:00 pm IntroductionsFri Welcome to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural HistoryBonnell Welcome to the Nature of the Universe DebateGeller A Note in Memory of David N. SchrammIntroductory LecturesGingerich A Brief History of Our View of the Universe (40 minutes)Silk The Fundamental Parameters of Cosmology (40 minutes)Intermission (15 minutes) Debate: Moderator Margaret Geller Cosmology Solved?Turner A Particle Cosmologist's Viewpoint (30 min)Peebles An Astrophysical Cosmologist's Viewpoint (30 min)Turner Response & a look toward the future (15 min)Peebles Response & a look toward the future (15 min)Questions and Comments form the Open Floor (time remaining until 4:25)Geller Closing CommentsNemiroff Announcements

Who's Who

Owen Gingerich: Dr. Gingerich is a senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Professor of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University. In 1992-1993, he chaired Harvard's History of Science Department. He served as vice president of the American Philosophical Society as well as chairman of the US National Committee of the International Astronomical Union. He has co-authored leading models for the solar atmosphere, was awarded the Polish government's "Order of Merit", and an asteroid has been named in his honor.

Joseph I. Silk: Dr. Silk is a Professor of both Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1968 he was awarded Harvard's Bowdoin Prize, and in 1970 Harvard's Bok Prize. In 1972 he was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and in 1975 a Guggenheim fellowship. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society. In 1997 he was made an honorary member of the French Physical Society.

Margaret J. Geller: Dr. Geller is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1990 she received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her video "Where the Galaxies Are" won a CINE Gold Eagle. In 1996 she received the Klopsteg Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Michael S. Turner: Dr. Turner is the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor and Chairman of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at The University of Chicago. He is a Fellow and Lilenfeld Prize winner of the American Physical Society and in 1984 was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society. He has won the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and has held a One-Man Show at the Center for Particle Astrophysics Art Gallery.

Phillip J. E. Peebles: Dr. Peebles is Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society, and the Royal Society of Canada. In 1982 he won the Heineman Prize of the American Astronomical Society, in 1995 won the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and in 1998 the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Daily images of ice cover in the Arctic Ocean show sea ice melting around the pole from March 15, 2026 to Sept.

Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on Sept. 12, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The ice covered an estimated 1.78 million square miles (4.6 million square kilometers), tying 2008, 2010, and 2025 for the 10th-lowest minimum in the satellite record.

The 2026 minimum is consistent with patterns observed in the satellite record. The past 20 years, from 2007 through 2026, have produced the 20 lowest annual Arctic sea ice minimum extents observed since continuous satellite measurements began in late 1978.

Arctic sea ice grows during the dark, cold autumn and winter and retreats as temperatures rise during spring and summer, typically reaching its lowest extent in September. Weather conditions can cause substantial differences in the amount of ice that melts from one summer to another.

Over the last decade, for example, increased cloud cover has prevented solar radiation from further accelerating the melt of sea ice, according to Linette Boisvert, a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

That has contributed to relatively stable September sea ice extent in recent years. “We’ve plateaued, but we’re still low relative to the earlier part of the record,” said Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at NSIDC .

Antarctic sea ice extent approaches annual maximum

Explore Hubble - Hubble Home - Overview - About Hubble - The History of Hubble - Hubble Timeline - Why Have a Telescope in Space?

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on Sept. 19, marking another new milestone for an observatory that continues to transform our understanding of the universe.

Hubble has traveled more than 5 billion miles around Earth over its 36-year lifetime, exceeding 1.7 million total observations. An observation completed on the day of the 200,000th orbit pertains to one of Hubble’s defining scientific legacies: measuring the expansion rate of the universe, or the Hubble Constant. The image takes advantage of the telescope’s ability to return to the same regions of the sky over time to monitor for the reappearance of a supernova, or explosion of a star, called Athena.

Massive galaxy cluster MACS J0417, located at the left center of the image, acts as a gravitational lens , bending and magnifying light from objects far behind it. Light from a supernova can reach Earth along multiple paths, causing the same stellar explosion to appear more than once at times separated by months or even years depending on the path it took. Supernova Athena, discovered by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2025, is predicted to reappear between now and early March 2027. Measuring the timing of Athena’s reappearances can help researchers map the mass of MACS J0417, which acts as a magnifying, foreground lens for distant objects, and refine our understanding of the expansion rate of the universe.

After more than 36 years in space, Hubble still is reaching new heights of scientific productivity and impact. Hubble’s unique ability to observe and analyze light in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths complements NASA’s James Webb and Roman Space Telescopes’ capabilities. As a result, demand for Hubble observing time remains high as astronomers request about seven times as much observing time as is available each year.

Hubble continues to observe targets across every area of astronomy around the clock, with real-time tracking of those observations available on NASA’s website .

Claire Andreoli NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

APOD - Science - APOD - APOD: 2026 September 20 –… - Today’s APOD - Archive - Submissions - Index - Search - Calendar - RSS - Education - About - Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!

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.

Explanation: If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun , how would the Sun's position change? A visual answer to that question is an analemma , a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland , UK . In the foreground are the Callanish Stones , a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age . It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance. The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this and all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun . At the solstice s, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. The featured image was taken near the December solstice and so the Sun appears near the bottom. Equinox es, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point . In two days there will be an equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox . APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: open space

Cosmic Origins - … - Cosmic Origins Community - Ad ASTRA Post-Workshop Debrief… - About - Community - Executive Committee - Science Groups - Conferences - Cosmic Pathfinders - Early Career Workshop - Opportunities - M...

Dear Astrophysics Strategic Technology & Research Accelerator (ASTRA) community members-

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Ad ASTRA Community Science Workshop in Pasadena, CA!. Over 450 people registered to attend the workshop, both in person and online. A group photo of the in-person participants can be found on the workshop webpage .

Special thanks to those who gave science and technology presentations as posters or talks, and to the moderators and panelists who managed the sessions and synthesized the material for late discussion.

Slides from all the talks can be found in PDF format on the workshop webpage ; PDF versions of the posters are being added to the page as we receive them. If you presented a poster and haven’t yet supplied a PDF, please upload it to our Google Workspace folder , with a descriptive file name that includes your own name and the poster’s abstract number from the “Abstract Booklet: Poster Contributions”.

If you need a letter of attendance in the workshop, please contact Elise Furlan at furlan@ipac.caltech.edu . We anticipate that these will be available in early October.

The next steps in the ASTRA process are being overseen by the three Program Analysis Groups (PAGs): COPAG, ExoPAG, and PhysPAG, which are planning community meetings in the near future to discuss ASTRA concepts. The best way to keep up to date with these and other PAG activities is to join the respective mailing lists:

5 min read NASA-JAXA XRISM Mission Sees Pulsar Gathering Companion’s ‘Wind’ Using data from the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, astronomers have directly observed a giant star’s o...

Using data from the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, astronomers have directly observed a giant star’s outflow, called a stellar wind, being captured by its compact companion and providing the power source for strong X-ray flares. The research is part of NASA’s exploration of the extreme universe to better understand how the cosmos works. “We’ve never before seen clear indications of wind plasma falling onto a compact object,” said Roi Rahin, a researcher at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now test our understanding of these processes in much greater detail.” A paper describing the findings published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The target system is BP Crucis, a high-mass X-ray binary located about 13,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Crux. The primary star, known as Wray 977, is a blue hypergiant about 40 times the Sun’s mass and 60 times its size. It’s so big, hot, and luminous that ionized gas constantly streams away from it, a phenomenon astronomers call a stellar wind.

The supergiant’s companion is a tiny-but-mighty neutron star called GX 301-2. The crushed core of a star that long ago exploded as a supernova, it packs more than the Sun’s mass into a ball roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) across. Rotating every 11 minutes, it sweeps an X-ray beam toward Earth, which classifies it as a pulsar. Twice during the pulsar’s 41.5-day orbit, near its closest and farthest points from the primary star, strong X-ray flares occur for several days. Astronomers think the pulsar’s gravitational influence on the star creates an especially dense stream of plasma. Flares occur when the pulsar traverses this stream and captures some of its matter. The strongest eruptions happen closer to the star, where the stream is denser. The researchers targeted the system with XRISM on Feb. 1, 2025, observing it for about 16 hours near the end of one of these stronger flares. The observatory’s Resolve instrument, jointly developed by NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), captured highly detailed X-ray spectra, revealing rapidly changing emission and absorption lines. In particular, absorption lines from highly ionized iron revealed the speed and direction of plasma relatively close to the pulsar.

When Rahin first saw these spectra, he realized he hadn’t seen anything like them before. He scoured the scientific literature for similar observations and came up empty-handed.

“It was clear that these observations were groundbreaking, but at the same time this meant the analysis had to be especially detailed,” said Nazma Islam, a co-author formerly at UMBC and NASA Goddard and now an assistant professor at Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, India. “We could see how the dense stream of plasma acts very close to the neutron star.”

Rahin and his team show that the iron absorption lines they observed are displaced to lower energies than they would be if measured in a laboratory. This displacement, called a redshift, indicates motion away from the observer, which means the gas is flowing toward the pulsar. The extent of the redshift indicates the plasma’s velocity. The team’s analysis indicates gas is racing toward the pulsar at speeds of around 335,000 mph (540,000 kph). Here’s what the researchers think is going on: As the pulsar enters the stream, it sweeps up gas into a thick, messy, turbulent disk. This gas spirals down to the pulsar, heats up, and emits X-rays to power the flares. As the pulsar pushes farther into the stream, the turbulent disk breaks down. Astronomers suspect that as the pulsar moves more directly into the flow, the stream no longer has the angular momentum required to maintain the disk. Once the disk dissipates, plasma flows directly onto the neutron star. Observations with XRISM occurred near the end of this phase.

Then, as the pulsar nears the end of the stream, a messy disk briefly returns, this time spinning in the opposite direction. And then it, too, disappears as the pulsar exits. In all, the pulsar takes about four days to transit the stream.

APOD - Science - APOD - APOD: 2026 September 19 –… - Today’s APOD - Archive - Submissions - Index - Search - Calendar - RSS - Education - About - Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!

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.

Explanation: Also known as the false dawn , a luminous band of zodiacal light is captured in this dark night skyscape. The serene view was recorded just before the beginning of astronomical twilight during September's star party at the remote Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, Ladakh, India, planet Earth. At about 4,500 meters altitude, the dark sky reserve presents a haven for hardy stargazing and astrophotography enthusiasts. While meteors streak through the night, bright planet Jupiter appears immersed in the faint zodiacal glow near the eastern horizon. Follow the zodiacal band toward the zenith to find open star cluster M44 and a yellowish tinged planet Mars near the center of the frame. In fact, serendipitous detections of interplanetary dust by NASA's Juno spacecraft suggest Mars itself is the source of dust that back scatters sunlight and creates zodiacal light in planet Earth's night. APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: only sunny days

Earth Observatory - Science - Earth Observatory - Lake Powell Drops to… - Earth - Earth Observatory - Image of the Day - EO Explorer - Topics - All Topics - Atmosphere - Land - Heat & Radiation - Life on Earth - Human...

Snow drought and unusually warm temperatures in the Colorado Basin in 2026 helped drive down reservoir water storage in the U.S. West.

The effects of a meager mountain snowpack across the Upper Colorado Basin in winter 2025-2026 had made their way downstream to Lake Powell by summer. After seasonal snowmelt declined to a relative trickle, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. sat at record-low levels in late August and early September.

These images show a portion of Lake Powell just above Glen Canyon Dam as observed by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite on September 1, 2017 (left), and September 10, 2026 (right). In the 2026 image, the water level stood at 3,517.24 feet. About a month prior, it had dipped below the previous record-low level of 3,519.92 feet, set on April 13, 2023, and continued to tick downward in early September. The 2017 image represents one of the highest water levels of the past decade.

The Colorado River feeds Lake Powell and then Lake Mead farther downstream, which also hit record-low levels in August 2026. Managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and other agencies, the river provides water and electric power to more than 40 million people—including in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego—and water to some 5 million acres of farmland in the Southwest.

Much of the Colorado Basin is arid or semi-arid, so a large portion of the river’s flow originates as snowmelt from higher elevations. The Upper Colorado Basin , like many mountainous areas across the U.S. West , saw unusually little snow accumulation in winter 2025-2026, constituting a snow drought . Stretches of record warmth further sapped the snowpack. As a result, water from snowmelt did little to replenish lake levels in spring, as it typically does.

The USBR took steps in April 2026 to stabilize Lake Powell and keep it from falling below the level needed for hydropower production—an outcome the agency deemed possible by August 2026 without intervention. USBR began releasing water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in northern Utah and southern Wyoming into Lake Powell. It also reduced releases from Lake Powell into Lake Mead, canceled a “controlled flood” in April intended to build sandbars for fish habitat, and skipped a “cool mix” release in August aimed at protecting native species.

APOD - Science - APOD - APOD: 2026 September 18 –… - Today’s APOD - Archive - Submissions - Index - Search - Calendar - RSS - Education - About - Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!

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.

Explanation: The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, Messier 33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for the view from the Milky Way, this sharp telescopic image shows off M33's blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 5 o'clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the distance scale of the Universe . APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: star party weekend

3 min read NASA’s Hubble Spots an Out-of-Sync Galaxy The spiral galaxy NGC 4698 shines in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Though the spiral galaxy in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret. This galaxy is NGC 4698, and it lies about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It’s one of over a thousand galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies bound together by gravity.

As a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC 4698 has spiral arms that curl around within a thin disk of stars, gas, and dust. These arms are marked by opaque clumps of brown dust and dotted with small collections of bright blue stars. Unlike many other spiral galaxies, like this one recently photographed by Hubble , NGC 4698’s delicate spiral arms are only prominent in the outer reaches of the disk; spiral arms often wind down to the very center of a galaxy, but NGC 4698’s spiral arms appear to shy away from its glowing center. The arms instead hover in a ring-like structure around the perimeter of the galaxy.

NGC 4698’s center is dominated by an elongated galactic bulge . The diffuse off-white glow of the galaxy’s bulge comes from stars smaller, older, and cooler than the massive blue stars that dot the galaxy’s outer disk. These tightly packed stars orbit a supermassive black hole containing millions of times the Sun’s mass. Scientists have found signs that this black hole is actively growing, drawing gas inward with its gravitational pull.

With a flat, starry disk and diffusely glowing center, NGC 4698 looks a lot like a typical spiral galaxy — but this galaxy is far from normal. NGC 4698 is one of only a few known spiral galaxies with a bulge that extends out from the disk at a right angle. The elongation is faintly visible in this Hubble image, which shows the ghostly glow of the starry bulge peeking above and below the dusty disk. What’s more, the stars and gas nearest the galaxy’s center rotate perpendicular to the rest of the disk!

What could cause a galaxy to be so out of sync? Astronomers have found that the culprit likely lies outside the galaxy. If NGC 4698 funneled in gas from an outside source, the newly collected gas could have formed a disk of gas and stars in the galaxy’s center, at an angle relative to the rest of the disk. Some observations suggest that this galaxy once experienced a minor galactic merger, as evidenced by a short ‘tail’ of hydrogen streaming from one side of the galaxy.

The data used to create this image come from an observing program focusing on galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. This program zooms in on the details of these relatively nearby galaxies, such as individual star clusters and nebulae. At the same time, researchers will use these data to take stock of the larger picture, learning how a galaxy’s journey through a cluster affects the galaxy’s evolution and ability to form new stars.

Explore This Section - … - ROSES-25 Blog - Amendment 74: A. 14 Atmosphere NASA is soliciting proposals for data analysis and modeling of NASA supported airborne campaign data.

A.14 Atmosphere required a mandatory Notice of Intent (NOI) to propose. Proposers who have not already submitted a compliant NOI are not eligible to submit a proposal.

ROSES-2025 Amendment 74 delays the due date for A.14 Atmosphere to December 2, 2026. Also, Section 4.3.3 "Use of Generative AI" now mentions a related NSPIRES cover page question on the use of AI. An updated FAQ has been posted under "Other Documents" on the NSPIRES page for this program element .

Questions concerning A.14 Atmosphere may be directed to Ken Jucks at kenneth.w.jucks@nasa.gov , Emma Knowland at k.e.knowland@nasa.gov , and the other points of contact that appear in Section 4 of the text.

NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater

NASA Watches Earth’s Weight, Finds Center of Mass

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will allow scientists to explore wide swaths of the cosmos very quickly without...

Roman’s planet imager — the Coronagraph Instrument — also stretched its digital, electronic, and mechanical “limbs” as part of an initial test after waking up earlier this month.

These steps are part of a monthslong series of calibrations and tests, as Roman continues its million-mile journey to its destination at the second Lagrange point, L2.

Each image taken by the Wide Field Instrument, or WFI, will capture a patch of the sky bigger than the apparent size of a full moon with all the sharpness of space telescopes like NASA’s Hubble. Its sweeping cosmic surveys will help scientists discover new information about planets beyond our solar system , untangle mysteries like dark energy , and map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos. The mission’s broad, crisp view will also produce an exciting new resource for a wide range of additional scientific studies .

“After years of effort to build and test the instrument on the ground, we now have confirmation that it is operational in space. This is a huge milestone for the team at Goddard, our industry teams at BAE Systems, Inc. and Teledyne, and our science centers,” said Josh Schlieder, the Wide Field Instrument scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “There is much to do, but we are on our way to groundbreaking science.”

Before the team could activate the WFI, they had to let it rest for 10 days to dry out and decontaminate with the detectors at a relatively warm (compared to their final operating temperature) minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 65 Celsius. On the morning of Sep. 11, they turned off the instrument heater and let the WFI cool down to minus 225 Fahrenheit (minus 143 Celsius), at which point they could activate Roman’s 18 infrared detectors, which combined have a sensing area about the size of a laptop screen.

Physics of the Cosmos - … - Physics of the Cosmos Community - XRISM Key Program Call for… - About - Community - Program Analysis Group (PhysPAG) - Science Groups - Meetings - Cosmic Pathfinders - Science Gaps - Early...

This weekend, we celebrated 3 years since the launch of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) . Observations to date have yielded groundbreaking results across a wide range of topics—including the formation of large-scale cosmic structures, the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes, and plasma physics—while also highlighting new scientific questions through numerous unexpected discoveries. Building on these achievements and insights, the XRISM project announces the launch of Key Programs , and invites proposals from researchers worldwide.

The aim of Key Programs is to generate legacy data and scientific results of broad value to the astronomical community through the execution of strategic, large-scale observation programs. Observations for the first Key Programs are scheduled to begin in June 2027, with an allocation of approximately 3 Ms of observing time. The proposal submission deadline is 4 December 2026 , at 8:59a Japan Standard Time (3 December 2026 at 6:59p Eastern , 3:59p Pacific) . Please note that data obtained through Key Program observations will be made publicly available to the community without an exclusive access period.

For details regarding the program, application guidelines, and updated science objectives, please refer to the Call for Proposals, found on the Key Program webpage .

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Explore This Section - … - Mars Exploration Program… - SkyFall Landing Site Workshop - Planetary Home - Overview - Focus Areas - Programs - Programs Overview - Mars Exploration - Discovery - New Frontiers - Lunar Disc...

Science-focused workshops to identify potential landing sites and adjacent exploration zones of high scientific value.

First Landing Site Workshop for the SkyFall Mission

Given the rapid development cadence of the SkyFall mission, the LSW process will necessarily be abbreviated compared to those of prior missions, though the Mars Exploration Program and SkyFall project are committed to using the available time and resources to maximize science value in the selection of landing site.

The expected outcome of the First LSW will be a ranked list of potential landing sites that will be studied in more detail by the SkyFall project and science community, prior to the Second Landing Site Workshop to be held later in 2027. The project will assess the engineering safety of proposed sites, while community consensus will be solicited regarding potential science value and notional flight trajectories of individual landing sites given the capabilities and payload of the SkyFall helicopters.

Prior to the First Landing Site Workshop, individuals and self-organized groups are encouraged to identify potential landing sites for preliminary assessment by the SkyFall team. Information on how to submit potential sites may be found in the SkyFall Mission Information Package . Individuals/teams that propose a site that satisfies engineering constraints and demonstrates promising science value will be invited to present their site at the First LSW. For sites that do not meet these constraints, individuals/teams will be notified prior to the LSW.

APOD - Science - APOD - APOD: 2026 September 13 –… - Today’s APOD - Archive - Submissions - Index - Search - Calendar - RSS - Education - About - Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!

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.

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Explanation: This sight was worth getting out of bed early. Just over four years ago, Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) rose before dawn to the delight of northern sky enthusiasts awake that early. Up before sunrise on July 8th, the featured photographer was able to capture in dramatic fashion one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this century, an inner- Solar System intruder that has become known as the Great Comet of 2020. The resulting video detailed Comet NEOWISE from Italy rising over the Adriatic Sea . The featured time-lapse video combines over 240 images taken over 30 minutes. The comet was seen rising through a foreground of bright and undulating noctilucent clouds , and before a background of distant stars. Comet NEOWISE remained unexpectedly bright for over a month, with its ion and dust tails found to emanate from a nucleus spanning about five kilometers across. APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: open space

Physics of the Cosmos - … - Physics of the Cosmos Community - FLAG SAG Meeting, 28… - About - Community - Program Analysis Group (PhysPAG) - Science Groups - Meetings - Cosmic Pathfinders - Science Gaps - Early Career Workshops - Opportunities - Missions - Studies - News & Events - Resources FLAG SAG Meeting Future Large Gamma-Ray Mission Concepts Science Analysis Group FLAG SAG about FLAG SAG Meeting Location Virtual Dates 28 August 2026 2:00pm ET Community FLAG SAG type Meeting FLAG SAG Pre-Ad ASTRA Discussion Community meeting to prepare for the Ad ASTRA Workshop, including feedback on the FLAG SAG presentation. Meeting Connection Join the Meeting News Straight to Your Inbox Subscribe to your community email news list We will never share your email address. Privacy Policy Sign Up The post FLAG SAG Meeting, 28 Aug 2026 appeared first on NASA Science .

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Learning to See Sharper: Deep Learning for Astronomical Data Enhancement

Astronomical surveys inherently trade off coverage, depth, and resolution, presenting an ill-posed inverse problem where classical deconvolution methods plateau. By leveraging survey overlaps as empirical priors, deep learning models learn direct low- to high-resolution mappings to enhance wide-area archives. I will present specialized neural architectures tailored to distinct imaging and spectroscopic challenges, from generative models that deblend crowded fields and super-resolve infrared observations, to shape-preserving residual networks for weak lensing, diffusion models for realistic survey simulations, and physics-informed models that resolve blended spectral emission lines. Matching right-sized architectures to specific scientific measurements shows how learned priors can scale data enhancement across next-generation surveys.

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Cosmic Origins - … - Cosmic Origins Community - Community Science (Ad ASTRA)… - About - Community - Executive Committee - Science Groups - Conferences - Cosmic Pathfinders - Early Career Workshop - Opportunities - Mis...

The workshop will take place in Baxter Lecture Hall on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, California

The Community Science (Ad ASTRA) Workshop is organized by the NASA Astrophysics Division to engage the community in defining future large, strategic astrophysics missions. Structured over three thematic days—Science, Capabilities, and Missions—the workshop provides a comprehensive framework to connect scientific priorities with technological readiness and mission implementation. Across all three days, plenaries, panels, breakout sessions, and poster contributions are designed to maximize community input. The outcomes of the workshop will help NASA prioritize mission concepts and shape a balanced, forward-looking astrophysics portfolio.

This workshop is organized by the NASA Astrophysics Program Offices in partnership with the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC).

Session Connection: Registrants to the conference will receive a link via email to register for the Zoom webinar, in advance of the meeting.

Moderators: Dida Markovic / Johannes Ulf Lange

Moderators: Tiffany Kataria / Thomas Beatty

Roman - Home - About Roman - Mission Overview - Why is Roman Important?

Claim your pixel on the first image from NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! When Roman captures its first image, each pixel will represent a piece of the cosmos never seen before at this resolution. Claim your pixel and be part of this historic moment!

Your email address is your pixel identifier, so each email address can only be assigned one pixel.

You will receive a certificate like the one below with your pixel number. Print it out and share it on social media!

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a next-generation space observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters in diameter and a Wide Field Instrument that will give Roman a field of view 100 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared instrument, allowing it to capture more of the sky with less observing time.