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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 1h

🚀 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission will fly aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft named Grace! Previously flown during Axiom Mission 4 in 2025, Grace is heading back into orbit to safely transport four crew members to the International Space Station. 🌌 #Crew13 #NASA #SpaceX

Crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Using the combined power of The Hubble Space Telescope(visible light) and Webb Telescope (infrared), astronomers conducted the deepest survey yet of objects beyond Neptune—discovering 27 new, ultra-faint Trans-Neptunian Objects! 🌌🔭

This artist’s concept depicts a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO), a small, faint, icy body orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Often more than 100 million times dimmer than objects visible to the unaided eye, TNOs are so small that even with NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes, they appear only as tiny points of light. Artwork: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Using AI to search through decades of NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory data, scientists discovered 7 previously unknown pairs of galactic cavities—the direct result of explosive outbursts from supermassive black holes! 🌌 #Astronomy #AI #Space

Artist's illustration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space. (Credit: NASA/CXC & J.Vaughan)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

🚀 NASA and Boeing are holding a joint news conference on Monday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m. EDT. Leaders will share updates on Starliner’s ongoing development and outline plans for regular crewed missions to the International Space Station. #Starliner #NASA #Space

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is pictured approaching the International Space Station for docking.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

🚀 NASA and SpaceX are targeting Oct. 1 at 11:10 AM EDT for the launch of Crew-13 to the International Space Station! The mission will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

The SpaceX Crew-13 members pose for a portrait in their pressure suits during a preflight training session at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. From left are, Roscosmos Sergey Teteryatnikov, NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk.
SpaceX

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

✨ Deep in the heart of our galaxy, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a brilliant star field surrounding Sagittarius A*. Webb’s powerful mid-infrared eyes are giving us unprecedented views of the extreme environment at the center of the Milky Way!

$A bright, densely populated star cluster lies near the center of the image, surrounded by intricate clouds of glowing gas and dust in shades of red, pink, orange, and blue. Dark lanes of dust weave through the nebula, contrasting with the luminous central region. Countless stars are scattered across the field, with a few brighter foreground stars showing Webb's characteristic diffraction spikes. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan$

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Next stop: Titan! 🪐 NASA’s Dragonfly mission is scheduled to launch in summer 2028 and will reach Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan in late 2034 to begin a 3.3-year primary exploration mission.

Highlighted in purple, located in the equatorial dune fields of Saturn’s moon Titan, Ahmakiq Undae has a diameter of approximately 500 miles (810 kilometers) and borders the roughly 50-mile (80-kilometer) diameter Selk impact crater, to the upper right. Deposits formed during the impact that created Selk Crater are primary exploration targets for NASA’s Dragonfly mission. The yellow box on the global image of Titan denotes the approximate area.
NASA/Jason Barnes

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered McGetchin crater, the largest newly formed crater ever spotted in the solar system! Formed in early 2024, scientists estimate an impact of this massive scale happens on the Moon only about once every century. 🌕💥

An aerial view of a lunar crater. A bright, circular impact crater sits in the center of a dark, cratered surface, with white rays of ejected lunar material radiating outwards in all directions, creating a stark contrast against the gray terrain.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🪐 Scientists discovered a giant 10-sided atmospheric wave—a decagon—encircling Saturn's south pole! Captured by Hubble Space Telescope, this is the first large, regular-sided jet pattern ever seen in the planet's southern hemisphere.

Two views of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveal a giant, evolving 10-sided atmospheric wave encircling the planet’s south pole. The feature, called a decagon, is the first large, persistent, regular-sided pattern observed at Saturn’s southern hemisphere.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

NASA’s Webb Telescope discovered brown dwarfs in star cluster IC 348 that are just TWICE the mass of Jupiter! 🌌 Weighing only 0.19% of our Sun's mass, these are the least massive brown dwarfs ever found—challenging current models of how stars form.

A star-forming region. The left two thirds of the image is blanketed in thick clouds of green and yellow gas and dust that form swirling patterns. Some of the gas is spread into thin, thready wisps. The right third of the image is the black background speckled with stars and multi-colored dots that represent distant galaxies. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the center of the scene. Each is crowned with six long spikes and two shorter spikes created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Two missions, one launcher! 🚀 Europe's Vega-C rocket is carrying both Sentinel-3C and FLEX into orbit. During flight VV30, Vega-C will deploy Sentinel-3C first, then perform key maneuvers to release FLEX from its Vespa+R payload adapter

FLEX and Sentinel-3C in the launch tower

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 astronauts (Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev) will hold an in-orbit news conference at 2:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to discuss their mission and return to Earth. 🌍

The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 (from left: Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot) posing in white space suits. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory uncovered a new class of cosmic objects: 84 “hypersoft X-ray sources” scattered across six different galaxies, including Andromeda and the Pinwheel galaxy!

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alabama/M. Muhibullah et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

🚀 NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman are transitioning to emeritus status at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston! Following their historic Artemis II mission around the Moon, both will step into mentor roles while pursuing new opportunities.

From left, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, and Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, conduct leak checks on their spacesuits inside the crew suit-up room in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, ahead of the Artemis II test flight.
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Nebula N44 is located about 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud—a dwarf satellite galaxy orbiting our Milky Way. Hubble’s view offers an up-close look at active star birth in the constellation Dorado! 🌌✨

This Hubble Space Telescope image features the picturesque nebula LHA 120-N44, or N44.
NASA, ESA/Hubble, D. Gouliermis

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A new NASA study published in Nature suggests there may be no upper limit to how intensely Earth reacts to solar storms. For decades, scientists thought Earth's response capped out, but new data shows solar storm effects on technology could be far worse than realized. 🛰️⚡ 1/4

A diagram featuring a detailed space visualization alongside two comparative line graphs. Top Right: Earth is shown surrounded by a complex network of blue magnetic field lines. Far Right: A blue, curved line denotes the “Bow shock,” which transitions into an orange-red turbulent region labeled the “Magnetosheath.” The “WIND” spacecraft is positioned far to the left in the “Solar wind” stream, connected to a label reading “Measured solar wind strength.” The “THEMIS” spacecraft sits closer to Earth inside the magnetosheath, labeled “Corrected solar wind strength.” Left Graph: Plots “Earth's response [mV/m]” against “Measured solar wind strength [mV/m].” A blue line initially follows a linear path but then flattens out, marked with the text “illusion of saturation due to measurement uncertainty.” Right Graph: Plots “Earth's response [mV/m]” against “Corrected solar wind strength [mV/m].” A pink line continues steadily upward diagonally, labeled as the “True linear response.”

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Did you know Saturn’s north pole is wrapped in a massive, six-sided jet stream? 🪐 This geometric storm spans 20,000 miles (30,000 km) across—more than twice the width of Earth—with winds reaching 300 mph (500 kph)! 1/4

Black-and-white photo of the north polar region of Saturn, which is surrounded by a hexagonal pattern of wind flow in the clouds

The globe of Saturn, seen here in natural color, is reminiscent of a holiday ornament in this wide-angle view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The characteristic hexagonal shape of Saturn's northern jet stream appears somewhat yellow here. At the pole lies a Saturnian version of a high-speed hurricane, eye and all. Images taken using red, green and blue filters were combined to create this natural-color view, taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 22, 2013, at a distance of approximately 611,000 miles (984,000 kilometers) from Saturn.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

NASA’s Titan-bound Dragonfly rotorcraft is getting wired up! Its electrical harness acts as a "nervous system," featuring 17,315 feet of conductor wire and 374 connectors to route power and data across the spacecraft. 🛰️⚡ #NASA #Dragonfly #Space 1/4

Clockwise from center, Joe Minty, Ben Thistle, Sam Rutan-Weeks, Carlisa Drew, Jackie Perry, Erika Dorsey, and Alan Busbey connect sections of electrical wiring harness to components inside NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander in a clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Milestone in orbit! 🛰️ NASA astronaut Jessica Meir completed her 7th spacewalk during U.S. Spacewalk 99 outside the @Space_Station. With this achievement, Meir now ranks 3rd all-time among NASA women for total spacewalks! #SpaceStation #WomenInSTEM #NASA 1/4

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir prepares to enter the Quest airlock and complete a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
NASA

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

🌌 Did you know NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has a view 100x larger than Hubble? Over its lifetime, it will capture light from over a billion galaxies to paint an unprecedented map of our universe! 🔭✨ #NASARoman #Space #Astrophysics 1/4

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope lifting off from NASA Kennedy Space Centre on 30th August, 2026 at 7:26am ET

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

We have lift off! It's a great day to be a space fan! The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope has lifted off on its journey of discovery at 7:26am ET (1126 UTC) NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre 🔭🚀🛰️

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived at the SpaceX hangar at Kennedy Space Center ahead of launch! Roman is launching 9 months ahead of schedule to help transform our view of the universe. 🚀 1/3

A nighttime shot of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope encapsulated in its payload fairing, traveling to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Sydney Rohde (Rocz)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🚀 Major milestone for Artemis III! NASA technicians at Kennedy Space Center have begun installing the 4 RS-25 engines into the SLS rocket core stage. Each 7,700 lb engine generates nearly 500,000 lbs of thrust to launch the next crewed lunar mission. 🌕 1/4

Technicians prepare to transfer the #2 RS-25 SLS (Space Launch System) rocket engine (front) to the work stand with the #3 engine (back) for integration with the Artemis III core stage rocket on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA/Clayton Rougelot

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Humans carry about 1 million bacteria on every patch of skin the size of a pencil eraser! NASA research shows these human-related microbes can vent from spacesuits and survive in the shaded regions of the Moon's South Pole. 🚀🌕 1/4

This image was taken by an Artemis II astronaut from the Orion capsule in April 2026, as the spacecraft traveled past the Moon and back over 10 days. The gray-brown, heavily cratered Moon dominates the frame against black space, with a partially lit crescent Earth setting behind its upper-left edge. Credit: NASA

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

✨ NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has released a new gallery featuring 16 galactic images! Each image combines Chandra X-ray data with observations from telescopes like Webb and Hubble to showcase the diverse beauty and structure of the universe. 🌌 1/4

This gallery displays a collection of 16 galactic images from Chandra and other telescopes. Astronomers put galaxies into three main categories: spirals like our own Milky Way, ellipticals that are older and likely the results of mergers, and irregulars that can encompass a wide range of galactic phenomena. All types are represented in this collection. Each galactic image contains X-ray data from Chandra combined with data from telescopes such as NASA’s Webb, Hubble, IXPE, Swift, and NuSTAR, and others both in space and on the ground.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Mark your calendars! 🚀 NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Sunday, Aug. 30, at 7:26 a.m. EDT for the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A. #NASARoman #SpaceX 1/4

Teams inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida encapsulate the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope within the payload fairing on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, ahead of mating to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Spotted by Hubble: Spiral galaxy NGC 4654! Located 72 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster, this galaxy features a bizarrely asymmetric shape caused by titanic cosmic forces. 🌌✨ #Hubble #Space 1/3

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4654, located 72 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden).
NASA, ESA/Hubble, D. Thilker, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST Team

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

NASA’s Webb Telescope just revealed the "Treasure Chest" in the Carina Nebula! 🌌✨ This cosmic "cometary globule" is an isolated cloud of gas and dust featuring a dense, dark head and a sweeping tail. Pure celestial beauty! 🔭💫

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

To travel further on the Moon, we need better wheels. NASA’s "Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge" aimed to find next-gen lunar rover wheel designs that are lightweight, durable, and capable of handling rugged lunar terrain. The goal? To expand what we can build and explore on the lunar surface. 1/4

NASA engineers, NASA Robotics Academy students, and teams from the Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge pose with the wheel prototypes at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Rock Yard in Houston on July 31, 2026.
NASA/Luna Posadas Nava

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found definitive proof that a dwarf galaxy merged with the young Milky Way 11.8 billion years ago. This discovery extends our understanding of our home galaxy's collision history by 1.8 billion years farther back in time! 🌌 🔭 1/4

About 12 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy known as LKH collided with a young Milky Way and merged with it. This artist’s concept portrays that collision. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope uncovered definitive evidence of this collision by studying globular star clusters.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is warming up its cameras! 📸 Scientists are testing the spacecraft’s view of its future targets—the Trojan asteroids—from millions of miles away. These tests are key to capturing perfect surface details during the upcoming flybys. #NASALucy #SpaceNews 1/4

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

NASA’s Webb Telescope captured a stunning new view of the Lion Nebula (NGC 2392). Its iconic lion-like "face" is actually a expanding bubble of ionized gas, while the surrounding "mane" is made up of dense dust clumps illuminated by a dying central star. 🌌 ✨ 1/4

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope imaged the planetary nebula NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, using the observatory’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The central star’s remains are responsible for the nebula’s structure, including a lion face-shaped bubble of ionized gas and dust “mane.”
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Europe went dark, North America caught the magic, and the skies put on an absolute show! 🌑✨ Did you catch yesterday’s incredible solar eclipse? Drop your photos and experiences below! 👇📸 Here are some of the best taken by NASA photographers across the globe #SolarEclipse

2026 Total Solar Eclipse (NHQ202608120204)
A total solar eclipse is seen from San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

2026 Total Solar Eclipse (NHQ202608120205)
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain on, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

2026 Total Solar Eclipse (NHQ202608120201) (explored)
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from San Millán de los Caballeros, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

This composite image made of eight frames shows the International Space Station, with a crew of seven onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial solar eclipse, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, near Houlton, Maine.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

A cosmic masterpiece! 🎨 NASA’s Chandra, Hubble, and Webb telescopes have teamed up to create a stunning, multiwavelength image of the Tarantula Nebula. By combining X-ray, optical, and infrared data, we’re seeing this star-forming region in incredible new detail. #NASA #SpaceArt #Astronomy 1/4

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ./J. Rodriguez et al; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

NASA’s new lithium-fed thruster is a game-changer for deep space travel! By utilizing lithium as a propellant—which is lighter and more efficient than traditional fuels—this powerful tech paves the way for faster, more sustainable journeys to Mars and beyond. 🚀 #NASA #SpaceTech #Innovation 1/4

testing of a lithium-fed electromagnetic thruster, reaching 5x more power than today's electric propulsion systems. Paired with a nuclear power source, this tech could slash travel time to Mars!

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Did you know NASA is racing the Moon’s shadow? On August 12, a WB-57 high-altitude jet will fly at 460 mph along the eclipse path. By soaring at 50,000 feet, the jet extends the duration of corona observation to nearly 3 minutes—beating the 2 minutes and 18 seconds seen from the ground! ✈️🌑 1/3

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

✨ Star formation in our neighboring Andromeda galaxy is slowing down! Data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals star birth has been in a 500-million-year decline, dropping from ~1 solar mass per year to just 1/5 of that rate today. 🌌 1/3

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a detailed view of millions of stars in the Andromeda galaxy. Regions that have experienced recent star formation (1) appear significantly bluer than regions with less recent star formation (2).
NASA, ESA, Benjamin Williams (UWashington), Zhuo Chen (UWashington), L. Clifton Johnson (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Empty space acting like a lens? NASA's IXPE space telescope observed magnetar 1E 1547-5408 and gathered strong evidence for "vacuum birefringence"—a 90-year-old quantum electrodynamics theory predicting extreme magnetic fields alter empty space! 🌌 1/3

This illustration depicts the complex radio and X-ray emission from a magnetar. In the center, the magnetar is a bright blue ball amidst a starry sky, surrounded by thin blue lines showing the looping arcs of its magnetic field. Bright white plumes of particles emanate from the top right and bottom left of the magnetar, aligned with the poles of the magnetic field, and stream out into space. The top right plume is thicker with a cone near the surface formed by two thin white disks inside showing the main location of the magnetar’s radio emission. This depicts the lens effect theorized to be created by strong magnetic fields. Three light blue wavy lines between the disks represent particles aligning as they pass through these “lenses.” Below, another cone represents the main location of the magnetar’s X-ray emission with three purple wavy lines between the “lenses” and a fainter plume streaming into space. The image is watermarked “Artist’s concept.”

Credit: NASA/Pablo Garcia

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Early Wednesday, Aug. 5: A SpaceX rocket fragment hit the Moon’s surface! 🚀 Got questions? One of NASA’s lunar scientists Dr. Kelsey Young answers your questions in the below video #NASA

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

🚀 NASA’s commercial partners are prepping for Moon Base operations! Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK1 lander completed thermal-vacuum testing at NASA Johnson Space Center, verifying it can endure lunar conditions ahead of its upcoming mission. 🌕 1/4

Artist’s rendering of the Moon’s South Pole region. Glowing points of light scattered across the lunar surface represent surface assets supporting sustained human and robotic operations near the South Pole.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

NASA’s new NavCube3-mini navigation receiver is about half the size of a shoebox and weighs only 3.5 pounds! Operating on less than 20 watts of power (like a laptop), it tracks Earth-based GPS and Galileo signals across lunar distances. 1/3

NavCube3-mini in the Space Navigation Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., prior to delivery to Intuitive Machines for integration into the Altus-1 lunar relay satellite.
NASA/Dave Ryan

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

🚀 NASA has opened the Flight Dynamics Research Facility at Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA! It marks NASA’s first major new wind tunnel in more than 40 years, giving researchers a cutting-edge platform to test future aircraft, rockets, and spacecraft. 1/4

A group of people in suits stand in front of a massive square building that has two big square openings in it that go all the way through. The people all hold big pairs of scissors, as they wait to cut a red, white, and blue ribbon placed in front of them. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Did you know NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will feature a view 100x larger than Hubble’s? By capturing vast swaths of space in infrared light, Roman can survey millions of galaxies in record time! 🌌 #NASA #Space #Science 1/4

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

NASA has announced CAPSTONE 02, targeted to launch in 2027! The mission will deploy two identical 400 kg (882 lbs) small spacecraft into lunar orbit to test essential infrastructure for future deep space exploration and NASA’s Moon Base. 🚀 1/4

Artist's rendering of two identical spacecraft in lunar orbit. One spacecraft appears in the foreground with extended solar arrays spanning the width of the image, while the second appears behind it. The Moon fills the left side of the background. Credit: Terran Orbital

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Using NASA Hubble data, astronomers found that star formation in the Andromeda galaxy has been slowing for 500M years. 500 million years ago, it formed 1 solar mass of stars per year—today, that rate has plummeted to just 1/5th of our Sun’s mass per year. 🌌✨ 1/4

An image showing countless stars in the Andromeda galaxy, with two small portions labeled "1" and "2" inset on the left side. Squares at the top and bottom of the image, which were not covered in the survey, are displayed in black. Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, Benjamin Williams (UWashington), Zhuo Chen (UWashington), L. Clifton Johnson (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

📸 Earth & Moon family portrait! NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft snapped new images of Earth and the Moon in visible and thermal infrared light. Testing its cameras on these familiar targets acts as a vital calibration check before heading off to study Mars. 1/4

Against black space, Earth appears at left as a thin white-green crescent lit along its right edge. The Moon, slightly smaller and dimmer, sits at upper right as a matching tan crescent lit on the same side. Only a sliver of each world catches sunlight; the rest of both disks is lost in darkness.

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Did you know Mars has auroras formed by a mini version of Earth's "Dungey cycle"? 🌌 MAVEN data revealed that magnetic reconnection fires charged particles into Mars' atmosphere on a smaller scale, creating localized auroral displays! 1/4

This illustration depicts charged particles from a solar storm stripping away charged particles of Mars' atmosphere, one of the processes of Martian atmosphere loss studied by NASA's MAVEN mission.
NASA/GSFC

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NASA | ESA Space Updates @nasaupdates.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

NASA’s Juno mission has officially measured temperatures below the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io for the first time! Using its Microwave Radiometer, scientists can now peer into the volcanic world’s shallow crust rather than just surface lava. 🌋✨ 1/4

TThe north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during the spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from that flyby and one on Feb. 3, 2024, is helping scientists understand Io’s interior.
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt

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