El Astrónomo Errante

A planet with a tail? NASA's Kepler mission has found evidence for what may be a disintegrating planet.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft beams back closest images of Methone as it approaches Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

The Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars.

NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where the spacecraft will continue its exploration of the cosmos.

Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., invites the public to its annual Open House on Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Engineers ran rover-mobility tests on California sand dunes this week in preparation for operating NASA's Curiosity rover after it lands in Mars' Gale Crater.

En route to Jupiter, NASA's Juno mission has snapped a quick photo of a familiar sight in the nighttime sky--the Big Dipper.

NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide moves a step closer to reality with the shipment of its JPL-built science instrument.

The Herschel Space Observatory has shown galaxies with the most powerful, active black holes at their cores produce fewer stars than galaxies with less active black holes.

With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, Greeley Haven.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft provides the first orbital analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta, yielding new insights into its creation with terrestrial planets and Earth's moon.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar system for the first time.

NASA will host a news conference on Thursday, May 10, at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) to present a new analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta using data from the agency's Dawn spacecraft.

A crater NASA's Mars rover Opportunity drove for years to reach is paying off with evidence about wet environments older than any recorded at sites the rover has seen before.

With 2,378 spectral eyes measuring our atmosphere, NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder might well be called a "monster" of weather and climate research. On May 4, it turns 10.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully flies by Saturn's moons Enceladus and Dione.

Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be making a close flyby of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus on May 2.

At 10:31 p.m. PDT today, April 27, (1:31 p.m. EDT), NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, carrying the one-ton Curiosity rover, will be within 100 days from the Martian surface.

Data from NASA's Cassini mission reveal Saturn's moon Phoebe has more planet-like qualities than previously thought.

Images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) reveal an old star in the throes of a fiery outburst, spraying the cosmos with dust.

A research network of Western U.S. GPS stations will be tested to see if it can quickly pinpoint a strong quake's location/size and aid in disaster response/tsunami warning.

Findings from Dawn reveal new details about the giant asteroid Vesta, including its varied surface composition, sharp temperature changes and clues to its internal structure.

Saturn's moon Titan has a thick, smoggy atmosphere that's one of the most complex chemical environments in the solar system. How long has this "factory" been in business?

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., through its Business Opportunities Office, will host a supplier fair featuring 20 to 25 local and national high-tech small businesses.

While some galaxies are rotund and others are slender disks like our spiral Milky Way, new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that the Sombrero galaxy is both.

Scientists have a size estimate for an impressive fireball that was witnessed over California's Central Valley Sunday (4/22).

Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed strange half-mile-sized objects punching through parts of Saturn's F ring, leaving glittering trails behind.

The Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of the potent greenhouse gas methane. A new study with NASA contributions finds the Arctic Ocean may be an important source.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission find that a lake on Saturn's moon Titan most resembles Etosha Pan in Namibia.

Just in time for Earth Day, NASA's Global Climate Change website unveils a new version of its "State of Flux" image gallery, which highlights how our home planet is changing.

NASA's Dawn mission has received official confirmation that 40 extra days have been added to its exploration of the giant asteroid Vesta.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft beams back images of the icy moons Enceladus and Tethys during its course through the Saturn system.

It's been 100 years since the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. JPL scientists demystify these frozen mountains of floating ice.

Less than three weeks after its last swoop over the Saturn moon, NASA's Cassini spacecraft returns for an encore.

New data from the Herschel Space Observatory suggest comets are constantly smashing together around the star Fomalhaut.

Astronomers are hunting a class of supermassive black holes throughout the universe called blazars thanks to data collected by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

Join us in person at JPL, or virtually via the Internet, on April 12 for a public talk about Gale Crater, landing site of NASA's next Mars rover.

NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock will improve the way we conduct deep-space navigation by enabling a spacecraft to calculate its own timing and navigation data in real time.

The swirling flows of tens of thousands of ocean currents are captured in a new NASA scientific visualization created with the help of JPL satellite and model data.

NASA is extending three missions affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as a result of the 2012 Senior Review of Astrophysics Missions.

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high (20 kilometers) was captured whirling its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14.

The cataclysmic history of a giant galaxy is on display in a new image that combines infrared and X-ray observations.

Supernova explosions and the jets of a monstrous black hole are scattering a galaxy's star-making gas like a cosmic leaf blower.

NASA has announced the 2012 Sagan Exoplanet Fellowships, a program designed to encourage new talent in the area of exoplanet research.

The last exhalations of a dying star can be seen in a new image from NASA's SOFIA telescope.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully flies by Saturnian moons.

A stack of geological chapters in the history book of Mars has attracted NASA's big new rover and takes an informal name from a geologist with early Mars missions.

The act of two or more aircraft flying together in a disciplined, synchronized manner is one of the cornerstones of military aviation, as well as just about any organized air show.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, halfway to Mars, adjusted its flight path today for delivery of the one-ton rover Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will fly about 46 miles (74 kilometers) above the surface of the Saturnian moon Enceladus.

Premiering on New York's Times Square today to mark World Water Day: a new visualization of global groundwater depletion created using data from NASA's GRACE mission.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has bestowed its highest group honor, the Trophy for Current Achievement, on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn.

NASA's Webby Award-winning Global Climate Change website has introduced a new version of its "Eyes on the Earth" interactive virtual reality visualization.

One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta.

Cassini mission managers have received confirmation that the plasma spectrometer instrument was successfully turned on.

Student teams from California, Nevada, Brazil and Chile competed in the 21st annual Los Angeles regional FIRST competition this past weekend.

Direct observations linking the tidal pull of Saturn to jets on Enceladus are among highlights of NASA's Cassini mission discussed at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

A free, new iPhone app from NASA literally puts the whole world in the palm of your hands.

A decade after launch, NASA's GRACE space twins continue their orbital waltz, producing amazing science.

The planned launch of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission has been postponed after a March 15 launch status meeting.

Sixty-six high school teams will take their robots to the courts this weekend to compete in the 21st season of the Los Angeles regional FIRST Robotics Competition.

Observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal several galaxies containing feeding black holes, called quasars, which are distorting the appearance of galaxies behind them.

NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has received the top group honor from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum - the Trophy for Current Achievement. Representatives for Cassini will receive the trophy on March 21 at a black-tie dinner in Washington, D.C.

NASA unveiled a new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky today showing more than a half billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

New movies of Jupiter are the first to catch an invisible wave shaking up one of the giant planet's jet streams, an interaction that also takes place in Earth's atmosphere.

The Tuesday, March 13, media briefing to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has been postponed.

Saturn's moon Rhea appears in glorious detail in new images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft

NASA's Kepler mission has been named the winner of the 2012 Aviation Week Laureate Award in the Space category.

NASA will hold a media briefing at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, March 13, to discuss the upcoming launch of an innovative X-ray telescope called NuSTAR.

NASA's GRAIL twins have begun their science collection phase in lunar orbit.

In honor of Women's History Month, JPL is hosting an event on March 8 to recognize the success of women in science and engineering.

Volunteers are helping astronomers find star-blown bubbles throughout our Milky Way galaxy.

A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in a new image from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

For the second straight year, Santa Monica High School beat longtime rival Arcadia High School to retain its title of Regional Ocean Sciences Bowl champions.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has "sniffed" molecular oxygen ions around Saturn's icy moon Dione, confirming the presence of a tenuous atmosphere.

NuSTAR is being encapsulated in its rocket nose cone, or fairing, which will protect it during launch, scheduled for no earlier than March 21.

Community college students team up with NASA for a chance to design robotic rovers through the National Community College Aerospace Scholars program.

A NASA-led study finds Arctic sea ice loss may be intensifying release of bromine into the atmosphere, depleting ground-level ozone and depositing toxic mercury in the Arctic.

Astronomers have spotted young stars in the Orion nebula changing right before their eyes, thanks to the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA's Mars Odyssey, the longest-working spacecraft ever sent to Mars, has now been sending home images for 10 years.

Asteroid 2011 AG5 has been receiving a lot of attention lately because of a very unlikely scenario which would place it on an Earth-interception course 28 years from now.

Proposed Discovery mission concept by JPL to investigate the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior of Mars now has a new name, InSight.

NASA is helping lead a global effort to upgrade systems used to determine a terrestrial reference frame for Earth and improve the accuracy of Earth observations from space.

Recent data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a shifting, Earth-like environment at Saturn's moon Titan.

Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space.

A new university study using data from NASA's Terra spacecraft finds Earth's clouds got about one percent lower on average during the first decade of the 2000s.

Mating of NASA's NuSTAR observatory to its Pegasus rocket is underway.

A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth's forests.

NASA selects 33 small satellites - including two from JPL in partnership with Caltech - to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2013 and 2014.

An orbiting laboratory will soon provide new and improved ways for future space travelers to communicate.

New images from the Planck mission show previously undiscovered islands of star formation and a mysterious haze of microwave emissions in our Milky Way galaxy.

Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.

A new partially NASA-supported study of the April 2010 major quake near the California-Mexico border gives the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet of a quake zone.

New color images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the agency's 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander and the lander that carried its rover Spirit to Mars in 2004.

A new comprehensive University of Colorado-led study used gravity data from NASA's Grace mission to calculate how much Earth's melting land ice is adding to global sea level.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer was placed in standby mode today as engineers prepare to end mission operations, nearly nine years after the telescope's launch.