A spacecraft just captured strange magnetic ‘tadpoles’ falling into the Sun, what they reveal changes everything.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS from Oct. 18 to Nov. 5, 2025, with its WISPR (Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument. The spacecraft snapped around 10 images of the comet per day. During this period, Parker Solar Probe was speeding away from the Sun following its 25th solar flyby on Sept. 15. […] The post NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Observes Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS appeared first on NASA Science.

In late 2025, as comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) swept past the Sun and brightened in Earth’s night skies, NASA’s Earth-orbiting PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission was watching the comet blaze through its field of view, providing a natural tracer of the Sun’s effects across the inner solar system. Discovered in January […] The post NASA’s PUNCH Spies Comet Lemmon appeared first on NASA Science.

The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

During trajectory correction maneuvers for NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft on Dec. 8 and Dec. 12, the mission operations team noticed low thrust during the burn for one of the spacecraft. The team is working to identify the cause and will attempt a trajectory correction maneuver in the coming weeks. The other spacecraft has successfully completed […] The post NASA’s ESCAPADE Trajectory Correction Maneuver Delayed appeared first on NASA Science.

F.10 Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) solicits development and flight of a science-driven suite of instruments and supporting technology demonstration payloads tailored to complete scientific investigations at a lunar landing destination, that address the science goals of 1) any SMD division, e.g., Planetary Science, Earth Science, Heliophysics, Astrophysics, and […] The post Amendment 31: F.10 PRISM Additional Required Content appeared first on NASA Science.

ROSES-2025 is an omnibus or umbrella solicitation that contains many program element appendices (listed in Tables 2 and 3) and the ROSES-25 Summary of Solicitation (SoS) lays out the backstop rules that apply by default to those program element appendices. ROSES-2025 Amendment 30 makes a few changes to the ROSES-25 SoS: Section I(e) on High-End […] The post Amendment 30: Updates to the ROSES-25 Summary of Solicitation appeared first on NASA Science.

NASA’s Center for Geospace Storms, or CGS, publicly released the cutting-edge MAGE (Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment) model, a supercomputing powerhouse that uses NASA mission data to reveal how different parts of geospace react to solar disturbances. The MAGE model will help space weather experts better predict how solar events impact Earth by pulling together several smaller predictive […] The post NASA’s Center for Geospace Storms Releases New Space Weather Model appeared first on NASA Science.

NASA’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission has started collecting preliminary science data, including tandem measurements that are key to the mission’s science goals. One of the two satellites, Space Vehicle 2, completed commissioning and is fully operational. The other satellite, Space Vehicle 1, is also operating with some limitations following an issue earlier this […] The post NASA’s TRACERS Spacecraft Begin Preliminary Science Data Collection appeared first on NASA Science.

NASA NASA has selected one small explorer mission concept to advance toward flight design and another for an extended period of concept development. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Science Management...

NASA has selected a heliophysics mission to move into the next phase of development amid broader concerns about the state of the field. The post NASA advances heliophysics mission into next phase appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA has selected one small explorer mission concept to advance toward flight design and another for an extended period of concept development. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Science Management Council selected CINEMA (Cross-scale Investigation of Earth’s Magnetotail and Aurora) to enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight and mission operations. The […] The post NASA Selects Two Heliophysics Missions for Continued Development appeared first on NASA Science.

The Science Mission Directorate Science Activation Program encourages all people to actively participate in science through activities and resources developed by a collaborative network of project teams drawing on NASA SMD assets (science content, experts, data, etc.). The Science Activation program element (F.6 SciAct) of ROSES-25 solicits a portfolio of projects that together cover the […] The post Amendment 29: F.6 Science Activation Final Text and Due Date. appeared first on NASA Science.

Images captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather escape from the Sun — and how sometimes they don’t. Like a toddler, our Sun occasionally has disruptive outbursts. But […] The post NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Solar Wind ‘U-Turn’ appeared first on NASA Science.