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NISAR Views Mount St. Helens

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Description This image captured by U.S.-Indian Earth satellite NISAR on Nov. 10, 2025, shows Washington’s Mount St. Helens. The image is cropped from a much larger swath spanning the Pacific Northwest on a cloudy day; NISAR’s L-band SAR instrument is able to peer through the clouds at the surface below. In Pacific Northwest imagery from […] The post NISAR Views Mount St. Helens appeared first on NASA Science .

SPARCS CubeSat ‘First Light’ Images

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Description This pair of images shows stars observed by the SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat) space telescope simultaneously in the near-ultraviolet, left, and far-ultraviolet, right. These observations were recorded on Feb. 6, 2026, three weeks after the cube satellite, or CubeSat, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Jan. 11. The fact that one star […] The post SPARCS CubeSat ‘First Light’ Images appeared first on NASA Science .

JPL 3D-Printed Part Springs Forward

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Description With a simple motion, a jack-in-the-box-like spring designed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showed the potential of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to cut costs and complexity for futuristic space antennas. Called JPL Additive Compliant Canister (JACC), the spring deployed on a small commercial spacecraft, Proteus Space’s Mercury One, on Feb. 3, 2026. […] The post JPL 3D-Printed Part Springs Forward appeared first on NASA Science .

Curiosity Studies Nodules on Boxwork Formations

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Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover discovered these bumpy, pea-sized nodules while exploring a region filled with boxwork formations — low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in-between. This mosaic is made up of 50 individual images taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on […] The post Curiosity Studies Nodules on Boxwork Formations appeared first on NASA Science .

Curiosity Surveys the Boxwork Region

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Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this panorama of boxwork formations — the low ridges seen here with hollows in between them — using its Mastcam on Sept. 26, 2025, the 4,671st Martian day, or sol, of the mission. These boxwork formations were created billions of years ago when water leaked through rock cracks. Minerals […] The post Curiosity Surveys the Boxwork Region appeared first on NASA Science .

Mars Global Localization Pinpoints Perseverance’s Location

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Description These images were part of the first successful use of a new technology called Mars Global Localization, developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using its navigation cameras, NASA’s Perseverance captured a 360-degree view of the surrounding terrain that was matched to orbital imagery, enabling the rover to pinpoint its location on Mars on Feb. 2, […] The post Mars Global Localization Pinpoints Perseverance’s Location appeared first on NASA Science .

Perseverance Pinpoints Its Location at ‘Mala Mala’

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Description Using its navigation cameras, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured the five stereo pairs of images that make up this panorama on Feb. 2, 2026, the 1,762nd day, or sol, of the mission. A new technology called Mars Global Localization matched this 360-degree view to onboard orbital imagery from the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), […] The post Perseverance Pinpoints Its Location at ‘Mala Mala’ appeared first on NASA Science .

NASA’s SPHEREx Examines Comet 3I/ATLAS’s Coma

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Description These observations by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) show the infrared light emitted by the dust, water, organic molecules, and carbon dioxide contained within comet 3I/ATLAS’s coma. The comet brightened significantly during the December 2025 period when SPHEREx made the observations — about two […] The post NASA’s SPHEREx Examines Comet 3I/ATLAS’s Coma appeared first on NASA Science .

Visualizing Perseverance’s AI-Planned Drive on Mars

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Description This animation of NASA’s Perseverance was created with the Caspian visualization tool using data acquired during an 807-foot (246-meter) drive on the rim of Jezero Crater made by the rover on Dec. 10, 2025, the 1,709th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mission’s “drivers,” or rover planners, use the information to understand the Perseverance’s […] The post Visualizing Perseverance’s AI-Planned Drive on Mars appeared first on NASA Science .

NASA’s Goldstone Planetary Radar Observes Fast-Spinning Asteroid

This series of 41 radar images obtained by the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar on July 28, 2025, shows the near-Earth asteroid 2025 OW as it made its close approach with our planet.

MRO’s ‘Very Large Roll,’ Animated

This animation depicts NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter performing a 120-degree roll that increases the strength of its radar signal by 10 times or more.

Curiosity Views Boxwork Patterns at a Distance

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this scene while looking out across a region filled with boxwork patterns, low ridges that scientists think could have been formed by groundwater billions of years ago.

SPHEREx Scans the Sky

This video shows SPHEREx's field of view as it scans across one section of sky inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, with rainbow colors representing the infrared wavelengths the telescope's detectors see.

Perserverance Captures Crater Rim Dust Devil Eating Its Own

A Martian dust devil can be seen consuming its smaller friend in this short video made of images taken at the rim of Jezero Crater by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on Jan. 25, 2025.

Curiosity Views Twilight Clouds

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured these drifting noctilucent, or twilight, clouds in a 16-minute recording on Jan. 17, 2025.

HiRISE Studies the Dust on InSight

NASA's InSight Mars lander acquires the same reddish-brown hue as the rest of the planet in a set of images from 2018 to 2024 that were captured by the agency's MRO HiRISE camera.

Perseverance Views ‘Pico Turquino Hills’

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to capture this panorama of a location nicknamed Pico Turquino Hills on Oct. 22, 2024.

Perseverance Navcam Movie of a Slippery Drive

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this view of slippery terrain while ascending to the rim of Jezero Crater on Nov. 28, 2024.

View of Rover Driving Software During a Slippery Drive

This animation captured from NASA's rover driving software depicts the agency's Perseverance during a slippery drive as it ascends toward the rim of Mars' Jezero Crater on Oct. 16, 2024.