What do margaritas, vinegar, and ant stings have in common? They contain chemical ingredients that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has identified surrounding two young protostars known as IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. Although planets are not yet forming around th... More »
The formation of stars and the chaotic environments they inhabit is one of the most well-studied, but also mystery-shrouded, areas of cosmic investigation. The intricacies of these processes are now being unveiled like never before by NASA’s James Webb Space T... More »
Following in NASA’s storied tradition of sending inspirational messages into space, the agency has special plans for Europa Clipper, which later this year will launch toward Jupiter’s moon Europa. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena is responsible for managi... More »
Celebrate one of the world’s most famous numbers with a set of math problems involving real space missions, courtesy of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. March 14 marks the annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi, aka the Greek letter ?. Its i... More »
Construction and testing are complete on the CADRE rovers, which will map the lunar surface together as a tech demo to show the promise of multirobot missions. A trio of small rovers that will explore the Moon in sync with one another are rolling toward launch... More »
For decades, scientists and pathologists have tried, without much success, to come up with a way to determine which individual lung cancer patients are at greatest risk of having their illness spread, or metastasize, to other parts of the body. Now a team of s... More »
Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, is a world of wonder and intrigue. Beneath its frozen surface, a vast ocean of liquid water may harbor the ingredients for life. Above it, the bombardment of charged particles from the giant planet constantly replenishes a t... More »
What do you picture in your mind’s eye when you hear the word “laser”? A light saber? A cat toy? The sensor at the supermarket reading barcodes as fast as the eye can blink? These are all lasers, but there are so many more in so many sizes and colors with capa... More »
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded a $375 million contract to Pasadena-based Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEK), a leading provider of high-end consulting and engineering services. The contract is for environmental restoration and compl... More »
Jellyfish can’t do much besides swim, sting, eat, and breed. They don’t even have brains. Yet, these simple creatures can easily journey to the depths of the oceans in a way that humans, despite all our sophistication, cannot. But what if humans could have jel... More »
On Feb. 2, a large asteroid safely flew past Earth at a distance of about 1.8 million miles, or 7 ½ times the distance between Earth and the Moon. While there was no risk of the asteroid hitting our planet, a team of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laborat... More »
Caltech’s Science Journeys, sponsored by the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, features Aerospace graduate student Tanner D. Harms on Friday, Feb. 23, as he delves into the intricacies of turbulence and the fascinating allure of uncertainty in compl... More »
