Menu Close

Articles on NASA

Displaying 121 - 140 of 460 articles

China and the U.S. both have big plans for the Moon, but there are a number of reasons why no country could actually claim ownership of any land there. 3dScultor/iStock via Getty Images

NASA’s head warned that China may try to claim the Moon – two space scholars explain why that’s unlikely to happen

A comment by Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, sparked a strong public response from the Chinese government. But due to legal and practical reasons, no country could take over the Moon anytime soon.
The mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and producing incredibly sharp images, like this test image of a star. NASA/STScI via Flickr

The James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to do science – and it’s seeing the universe more clearly than even its own engineers hoped for

It has taken eight months to test and calibrate all of the instruments and modes of the James Webb Space Telescope. A scientist on the team explains what it took to get Webb up and running.
A panorama stitched together from about 100 individual Curiosity images. The ‘door’ is circled, and is tiny and hard to see at this scale. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A ‘doorway’ on Mars? How we see things in space that aren’t there

We should not be surprised that some of the innumerable rocks on Mars have weird shapes, because many have been sand-blasted by wind erosion for billions of years.
David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust in 1972: ‘an androgynous rockstar from outer space’. Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

David Bowie and the birth of environmentalism: 50 years on, how Ziggy Stardust and the first UN climate summit changed our vision of the future

In June 1972, the first United Nations conference on the human environment coincided with the release of David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardust album. Both still feel disturbingly relevant today
An artist’s concept of an astronaut walking on Mars. But what would happen if the astronaut weren’t wearing a space helmet? cokada/E+ via Getty Images

Could people breathe the air on Mars?

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and one of our closest neighbors in space. But it’s not a very welcoming place for an Earthling to visit.
NASA’s Landsat satellites have been monitoring changes on Earth’s landscape for 50 years. NASA illustration

Satellites over the Amazon capture the choking of the ‘house of God’ by the Belo Monte Dam – they can help find solutions, too

When Indigenous peoples lose their river flow to dams, satellite programs like Landsat – which is celebrating its 50th anniversary – can help them fight for their resources.
A giant asteroid struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

An asteroid impact could wipe out an entire city – a space security expert explains NASA’s plans to prevent a potential catastrophe

NASA has only mapped 40% of the potentially dangerous asteroids that could crash into Earth. New projects will boost that number, and upcoming missions will test tech that could prevent collisions.
The International Space Station is run collectively by the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada. NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center/Flickr

Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting US sanctions threaten the future of the International Space Station

What happens to the International Space Station when tensions on Earth rise? A space policy expert explains how the ISS is run and how Russian aggression has threatened its operation in the past – and now.

Top contributors

More