NASA awarded Blue Origin a contract Tuesday to develop the agency’s Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system that will enable reliable, high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions.
The firm-fixed-price contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million to deliver a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter to NASA no later than Dec. 31, 2028.
Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network as a part of the agency’s broader space communications and navigation infrastructure. The architecture will consist of a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitting science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet.
The award marks a milestone in NASA’s strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, establishing the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades.
Under the Artemis program, NASA is sending astronauts to explore the Moon and prepare for missions to Mars. Robotic missions will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and as these missions expand, demand for data will continue to increase. To meet this need, NASA is pursuing a purpose-built network capable of supporting a growing number of missions while providing greater capacity, reliability, and operational flexibility.
The selection follows NASA’s request for proposal issued in May. As the agency increasingly taps commercial partners for transportation and communications services in Earth orbit and to develop the Moon Base, the Mars Telecommunications Network initiative similarly seeks to harness private-sector capabilities while enabling NASA to focus on exploration and scientific discovery.
The network, managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030 and will support both current and future missions to the Red Planet, as NASA ventures deeper into space.
For more information about NASA’s space communications efforts, visit:
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 30. While you wait to watch the launch, brush up on some key facts about this wide-view mission.
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. Encapsulation shields the spacecraft during rollout, ascent, and the early phases of flight. Roman will investigate dark energy and dark matter, conduct a statistical census of planetary systems, and enable a broad range of additional astrophysics research. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy is targeted for no earlier than Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026.
NASA/Sydney Rohde (Rocz)
01
The mission is named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman.
Roman is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), NASA’s first chief of astronomy. She championed space-based observatories that could study the universe above Earth’s hazy atmosphere while making their data broadly available to the scientific community.
While she’s known as the “mother” of the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman played an even broader role as the driving force behind NASA’s entire Great Observatories program, which included Hubble along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope.
Her vision and leadership helped establish NASA as a world-class scientific institution and laid the foundation for generations of space telescopes that continue to expand humanity’s understanding of the cosmos.
02
Roman will transform our view of the cosmos by showing us the bigger picture.
Roman will pair a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to scan vast, deep swaths of sky. This flagship mission is designed to help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets.
Since each of Roman’s surveys will sample such a large volume of the cosmos, the mission will also offer practically limitless opportunities for astronomers to conduct a broad range of additional science. From objects in our outer solar system and exploding stars to growing black holes and galaxies by the billions, very little will be beyond Roman’s reach. Roman’s data will be made public as soon as it’s processed, allowing many teams to analyze it simultaneously.
03
The observatory will journey a million miles to join Webb at Lagrange point 2.
Roman will orbit 1 million miles away at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), the same location as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. At L2, gravity from the Sun and Earth works together with an object’s motion around the Sun to hold it roughly in place. This balance will give Roman a relatively steady orbit without using much fuel.
Like Webb, Roman will trace out a large orbit around the actual L2 point — much larger than the Moon’s orbit around Earth — and the two will easily be kept far apart.
04
The spacecraft carries the names of more than a million people.
This summer, everyone was invited to submit their name to be added to a memory card attached to a plaque on the Roman spacecraft. More than 1.3 million people did so and will have their names carried all the way to L2.
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Roman will scan the skies for at least five years.
Roman will have a primary mission lifetime of five years and is designed to support an additional five-year extended mission. Fuel is expected to be the mission’s life-limiting resource, and while NASA does not currently have an ability to service observatories at L2, Roman is designed to be refuelable.
06
Two instruments will enable myriad discoveries.
The observatory’s Wide Field Instrument is a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will give Roman the same sharpness (angular resolution) as Hubble but with a field of view at least 100 times larger. Using this instrument, each Roman image will capture a patch of the sky about 1.5 times bigger than the apparent size of a full Moon.
Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument is designed to demonstrate the most advanced technologies ever flown in space for directly imaging planets around other stars. It will block the glare from stars and make it possible for scientists to see the faint reflected light from planets in orbit around them, revealing giant worlds that are older, colder, and in closer orbits than the hot, young super-Jupiters direct imaging has mainly revealed so far.
07
Roman joins an international cohort of teamworking telescopes.
Roman will work in tandem with many other NASA-led and international missions to provide the most complete view of our universe yet. Roman’s large panoramas will uncover interesting targets that Hubble could follow up on using infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light to offer a more comprehensive view. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can then use its larger mirror and more powerful vision to deliver even more detailed, ultra-sharp observations. And Roman can view regions around objects Hubble or Webb observe to offer context.
Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with key contributions from NASA, will observe a larger area of the sky than Roman, though with less detail. Since their survey areas will overlap, scientists can use Roman’s higher-quality data to apply corrections to Euclid’s, then extend these refinements over Euclid’s much larger area.
Scientists can also pair Roman’s infrared data with visible-light observations from the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a National Science Foundation–Department of Energy collaboration. That will allow astronomers to inch closer to achieving Roman-like quality over Rubin’s much greater sky coverage.
By showcasing technology to directly photograph Jupiter-like exoplanets, Roman will also provide a crucial stepping stone for NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, a flagship space telescope that would be designed to photograph Earth-like planets in other solar systems for the first time ever.
08
Watch the Roman launch live from anywhere.
NASA will stream this event live through a variety of platforms. Learn where to watch online: nasa.gov/live. The launch broadcast will continue until approximately one hour past launch to follow the first several critical milestones post-launch.
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NASA expects to share Roman’s first images by early 2027.
The Roman team will complete a carefully orchestrated series of deployments, calibrations, and tests in the three months following launch before the observatory reaches its final orbit. Science operations begin once this commissioning period is completed, starting with the release of Roman’s first science images.
Use the Moon to find Antares and the Teapot, spot brilliant Venus, welcome the equinox, and see the Harvest Moon near Saturn and Neptune.
Skywatching Highlights
Sept. 14-20: Use the Moon to find Antares and the Teapot; dark skies may reveal the Milky Way center
Sept 18: Venus reaches peak brilliance for this evening appearance
Sept. 22: September equinox; fall begins in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere
Sept. 26: Harvest Moon rises near Saturn and Neptune
Birds fly over a barn as a harvest Moon rises.
Mike Linnihan
Transcript
The Moon joins a tea party… Venus cranks up the brightness… the seasons officially change… and the Harvest Moon meets up with some planetary neighbors.
That’s What’s Up for September.
A sky chart looking southwest after sunset on Sept. 20, 2026.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
From September 14 through 20, let the Moon guide you to a few celestial landmarks. About an hour after sunset, look south to find the Moon in the evening sky.
Night by night, the Moon shifts position against the background stars, passing near Antares.
This bright, reddish star marks the heart of the constellation Scorpius.
Next you’ll see the Teapot, a group of stars in neighboring Sagittarius that really does resemble a teapot, complete with a handle, lid, and spout.
If you are under an especially dark sky… you may see hazy steam rising from the Teapot’s spout. Follow that steam to its thickest part, and you’ll be looking toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
A sky chart looking west after sunset on Sept. 18, 2026.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Look west on September 18 as Venus hits peak brilliance, shining at its brightest of this evening appearance..
You won’t have to search hard to find it. Shortly after sunset, Venus will stand out as a brilliant point of light low above the western horizon, outshining every star around it. A clear view of the horizon will give you the best chance to catch it before it sets.
On September 19, celebrate International Observe the Moon Night!
People around the world are invited to look up and connect with our nearest celestial neighbor while learning more about lunar science, exploration, and the many ways the Moon has shaped cultures around the world. Find an event near you — or learn how to participate from wherever you are — at go.nasa.gov/ObserveTheMoon.
Then on September 22, it’s officially fall in the Northern Hemisphere …while spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere.
That’s the September equinox, when the Sun is directly above Earth’s equator and day and night are close to equal in length around the world.
From there, daylight keeps getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere and longer in the Southern Hemisphere.
A sky chart looking east after sunset on Sept. 26, 2026.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
And on September 26, the Harvest Moon takes center stage, rising in the east shortly after sunset.
It won’t be alone. Saturn appears nearby, with faint Neptune completing a wide triangle in the sky.
Saturn is the easy one-you can see it with just your eyes. Neptune is a bit more challenging. At around magnitude 8, it’s too faint to see with the unaided eye …so you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to spot it. Darker skies and good observing conditions can help bring it into view.
Here are the phases of the Moon for September.
The phases of the Moon for September 2026.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at NASA Science. I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up this month.
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NASA’s Pandora Mission Begins Study of Exoplanets, Host Stars
Pandora, NASA’s newest exoplanet mission and the first satellite to launch through the agency’s Astrophysics Pioneers program, is now making unique observations of worlds beyond our solar system and the stars they orbit. The mission will determine the atmospheric make-up of at least 20 exoplanets, including the presence of hazes, clouds, and water.
“Pandora’s data will help close a major gap in our knowledge about planets and their host stars because, right now, we can’t be entirely sure how the star’s light affects measurements of what makes up exoplanet atmospheres,” said Elisa Quintana, Pandora’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We designed the Pandora spacecraft and its in-depth observing program to better understand this vexing issue.”
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Pandora mission, which will help scientists untangle the signals from exoplanets’ atmospheres and their stars.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab
The results of the mission will lay a firm foundation for interpreting measurements by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, as well as future observatories focused on finding habitable worlds. In fact, Pandora’s near-infrared detector is a spare originally developed for Webb.
“The spacecraft is healthy and all of the instruments are performing as well as we could have hoped,” said Jordan Karburn, Pandora’s deputy project manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. “Our team’s hard work throughout the commissioning process has paid off, and we can now confidently start science.”
This artist’s concept summarizes NASA’s Pandora mission and its science goals. Pandora will repeatedly observe multiple planets and their host stars in both visible and near-infrared light. These measurements will enable astronomers to separate chemical fingerprints detected in a planet’s atmosphere from potentially misleading signals originating from its host star.
Launched into low Earth orbit on Jan. 11, Pandora is an ambitious small satellite (SmallSat) funded by NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program. Pioneers are designed to explore compelling questions about the universe with fast-paced, low-cost missions that require a higher-than-usual tolerance for failure.
Three factors make Pandora unique. It carries a novel all-aluminum telescope about 18 inches (45 centimeters) in diameter, it will study planets and their host stars simultaneously in both visible and infrared light, and it will observe targets for a much longer time than flagship observatories like Webb are able to.
Telescopes can sample a planet’s atmosphere in systems where the planet passes in front of its star as seen from our perspective. During this event, called a transit, some starlight skims the planet’s atmosphere before making its way to us. As this light interacts with atmospheric molecules, their chemical fingerprints become embedded in it. For each molecule, astronomers see brightness dips at characteristic wavelengths.
But our instruments also see light from the whole star, not just what grazes the planet. Stellar surfaces aren’t uniform. They sport hotter, brighter areas called faculae and cooler, darker regions similar to sunspots. Both can grow, shrink, and change position as the star rotates.
“Water is one of the most important molecules we can measure to understand the composition and physical conditions of an exoplanet atmosphere,” said Benjamin Rackham, a team member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “But features on the star can distort the water signal we’re searching for. Pandora is designed to disentangle the signals from the planet and the star, helping us to understand the planets more accurately and laying the groundwork for the eventual study of planets that could harbor life.”
Watch to learn more about NASA’s Pandora mission, which will revolutionize the study of exoplanet atmospheres. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Pandora’s telescope, jointly developed by Livermore and Corning Incorporated, and its detectors make up the mission’s heart. The detectors will capture the star’s brightness in visible light and its near-infrared spectrum at the same time, while also obtaining a near-infrared spectrum from the planet when it transits the star. Over the course of its year-long primary mission, Pandora will observe at least 20 exoplanets 10 times with a long-duration stare covering 24 hours, with a transit included in each observation.
“Pandora’s advantage is its ability to observe targets for extended periods at multiple wavelengths, something high-demand flagship missions like Webb cannot regularly do,” said Knicole Colón, the mission’s project scientist at NASA Goddard. “Combining Pandora and Webb data will uniquely enable scientists to determine the properties of stellar surfaces and cleanly separate star and planetary signals.”
Pandora is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides the mission’s project management and engineering. Pandora’s telescope was manufactured by Corning and developed collaboratively with Livermore, which also developed the imaging detector assemblies, the mission’s control electronics, and all supporting thermal and mechanical subsystems. The infrared sensor was provided by NASA Goddard. Blue Canyon Technologies provided the bus, performed spacecraft assembly, integration and environmental testing, and is providing mission operations support. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley performs the mission’s data processing. Pandora’s science data is available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by IPAC at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The University of Arizona leads mission operations for Pandora and contributes to its science program. Many additional universities also support the science team.
To learn more about the Pandora mission, please visit:
On Aug. 24, technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida began installing the four RS‑25 engines in the core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will carry the Artemis III crew into low Earth orbit in 2027.
Each RS‑25 engine has a unique serial number that records its detailed flight history. The four engines assigned to Artemis III — E2054, E2057, E2048, and E2052 — previously powered multiple space shuttle missions. Engine 2048 helped launch NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik’s earlier mission aboard space shuttle Atlantis during STS‑129. It also flew on Space Shuttle Discovery during STS‑95 in 1998, the mission that returned 77-year‑old space pioneer U.S. Sen. John Glenn to orbit, making him the oldest person to fly in space at that time.
Galactic Gems Glisten in New Gallery From NASA’s Chandra
Galaxies are like cosmic gems, each with characteristics including size and shape that make them distinct. A new gallery released today from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes displays a collection of galactic images that showcase this variety.
Astronomers put galaxies into three main categories: spirals like our own Milky Way with arms emanating from their cores, ellipticals that are older and likely the results of mergers, and irregulars that can encompass a wide range of galactic phenomena.
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.
Just as gems reveal the history of Earth through how they were forged over billions of years, these galactic gems are a way to study Earth’s place in our home galaxy of the Milky Way. By looking outward to other galaxies, we learn more about our own – including clues to its past and future.
There are 16 new images in this galactic gallery. Each one contains X-ray data from Chandra that has been collected across Chandra’s decades in space. This high-energy data has been combined with data from telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes, IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), and others both on the ground and in space.
NGC 1672
A barred spiral galaxy featuring a prominent central bar or bridge of stars that channels gas toward its core. Chandra X-rays (purple) highlight growing black holes along the bar and core, merged with Hubble optical light (white, yellow and soft blue) and JWST infrared dust filaments (red). Studying barred spirals in action can help reveal how gas in our own Milky Way, which is also a barred spiral, feeds its central black hole and forms new stars.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble Heritage Team; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/J. Lee and T. Williams; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare, J. Major, K. Arcand
II Zw 096
A chaotic, dust-shrouded system of merging galaxies forming stars at a furious rate. Chandra X-ray data (magenta) pinpoint powerful black hole activity and hot gas, while Hubble optical (blue and white) and Webb infrared (red and grey) data illuminate vast stellar nurseries hidden behind interstellar dust. Systems like II Zw 096 show us how powerful galaxy collisions shaped the early universe.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major
M33
A nearby, face-on spiral galaxy whose clear spiral arms offer an unhindered view of its stellar engine. X-ray data from Chandra (purple) highlights point sources like neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes pulling material off companion stars (systems called X-ray binaries), while optical data from the Very Large Telescope’s MUSE instrument (pink and grey) maps glowing pockets of hydrogen gas. Ultraviolet data from NASA’s Swift telescope (blue) reveals populations of young, massive stars sizzling across the spiral arms. M33’s proximity to us allows astronomers to audit individual high-energy objects and map how stellar feedback affects a galaxy’s ecosystem.
A spiral galaxy famous for having two extra, “anomalous” spiral arms composed of hot gas. Chandra’s X-rays (royal blue) show superheated shockwaves created by central black hole jets, combined with optical light from Hubble (red, yellow and pale blue) and infrared dust filaments from Webb (bright orange). M106 helps show how supermassive black holes can create structural features that mimic star-bearing spiral arms, influencing a galaxy’s evolution.
A compact dwarf irregular galaxy undergoing a violent, compact burst of star formation. Chandra and XMM-Newton observations (blue and purple) reveal massive bubbles of million-degree gas inflated by stellar winds, set against a backdrop of optical light (magenta, orange and white) imaged by Adam Block. Dwarf starburst galaxies can serve as local laboratories for studying the conditions of the early universe, where small, primitive galaxies formed stars at frantic rates.
A large spiral galaxy that is being stripped of its gas as it plunges at high speed through hot gas in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Chandra’s X-ray data (magenta) pinpoints high-energy point sources—such as X-ray binaries and supernova remnants—and diffuse hot gas nestled within the spiral disk imaged by Hubble (blue, brown and gold). A ground-based optical light image taken from New Mexico by Timothy Martin reveals red filaments of hydrogen gas streaming over 300,000 light-years behind the galaxy as it falls into the Virgo Cluster.
A giant elliptical galaxy undergoing a dusty merger, featuring a powerful jet of particles blasting tens of thousands of light-years into space. Chandra’s X-rays (blue) showcase the high-energy jet, with additional X-rays from IXPE (orange), while Webb infrared (magenta) and optical light (amber and white) from the European Southern Observatory expose a dark, churning dust lane. As one of the closest active galaxies to Earth, Cen A allows astronomers to study the effects of supermassive black hole jets in extraordinary detail.
X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, X-ray (IXPE): NASA/MSFC; Optical: ESO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare, K. Arcand, and J. Major
M104
Famous for its broad central bulge and dark outer dust ring, this galaxy sits at a nearly edge-on tilt to Earth. Chandra X-rays (cyan and orange) isolate compact point sources and hot gas in the galaxy’s sprawling halo, merged with Hubble optical light (warm white) and Webb infrared vision (purple-red dust lane). Studying M104 may help bridge the gap between spirals and ellipticals, helping astronomers better understand how a galaxy’s giant outer cloud of stars grows and ages alongside its inner disk.
This ring galaxy system formed when a smaller companion galaxy punched straight through its center like a bullseye, creating a powerful cosmic shockwave. Chandra X-rays (purple) uncover bright X-ray binary systems scattered along the collision shock wave, laid over Hubble’s optical image (blue and white) of expanding stellar rings. Such head-on collisions can trigger vast ripple effects, sparking huge waves of star birth across entire galaxies.
A “one-armed” barred spiral galaxy surrounded by a prominent star-forming ring. Chandra’s X-ray data (magenta) pinpoints several bright X-ray sources, likely caused by growing black holes, embedded within the sweeping optical disk (soft blue and white) captured with the Mt. Lemmon Observatory. Galaxies with unusual single arms can offer a window into how the gravity from a passing galaxy can trigger bursts of star formation.
A barred spiral galaxy packed with regions where stars are actively forming. Chandra X-ray data (magenta) highlights stellar nurseries and X-ray binaries scattered along dusty spiral structures brought to life by Hubble optical (white and grey) and Webb infrared (orange and red) observations. Comparing multiwavelength data of barred spirals containing active star formation helps scientists map how local starbursts build up galactic mass over time.
A rare “polar ring” galaxy where a tilted outer ring of stars and dust rotates over the galaxy’s poles, an unusual structure likely caused by a collision with another galaxy about a billion years ago. Chandra’s X-rays (purple) reveal a possible growing supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy, plus X-ray binaries nestled within the stars and dust captured by the Gemini Observatory in optical light (gold, blue and white). Studying polar rings teaches us about the diverse effects of stellar collisions on the shapes of galaxies.
An irregular galaxy undergoing intense star formation because of a gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago. Chandra X-rays (blue), supplemented by NuSTAR data, show towering superwinds of million-degree gas blowing thousands of light-years out of the galactic disk, with Hubble optical light (yellow, orange and white) showing the galaxy shape, and Webb and Spitzer detailing infrared dust emission (red). M82 was nicknamed the Cigar Galaxy mostly because of its edge-on angle to Earth, which makes its central disk look like an elongated, cigar-shaped oval with small optical telescopes. The galaxy illustrates how violent galactic “exhaust systems” can regulate a galaxy’s growth by venting gas outwards.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare, J. Major, and K. Arcand
NGC 3256
A pair of colliding, gas-rich spiral galaxies merging into a single massive system. Chandra’s X-ray data (pink) isolates point sources and shock-heated gas, Hubble’s optical light (blue and white) captures tidal tails of stars, and Webb’s infrared vision (red and orange) cuts through the dust to show hidden star formation. Galaxy collisions like this offer a preview of our far future, showing what might happen if our own Milky Way collides and merges with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.
A face-on spiral galaxy whose orientation gives us an unobstructed view of its disk. X-ray emissions from Chandra (magenta) detail energetic X-ray binaries and supernova remnants scattered across dust lanes in an optical image (white, blue and gold) from Adam Block with Mt. Lemmon Observatory. Face-on orientations are important for galactic studies because they provide the most unobstructed views of a galaxy’s stars and gas.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
NGC 4631
A spiral galaxy viewed from its side, featuring a giant halo of hot gas blowing out of its stellar disk. X-rays from Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton (purple and royal blue) trace hot gas driven out by supernovas and black holes and neutron stars pulling gas from their companions, while optical light (light blue, gold and white) from ground-based observer R. Jay GaBany showcases dense dust lanes. Edge-on views of galaxies allow astronomers to study how flat their stellar disks are and provide the clearest views of material located above or below the disk.
X-rays are critical for the study of galaxies, revealing unique and important information about these cosmic building blocks. For example, Chandra exposes gas that has been superheated to millions of degrees by winds from massive stars, the outflows from supermassive black holes, and the debris from exploded stars. These are key sources of elements in our bodies, in the air we breathe, and the planet we live on. Chandra also sees some of the hottest and most energetic galactic phenomena in the universe, forming a more complete picture of how galaxies live, interact, and evolve when combined with data from other types of light and telescopes.
Spiral and star-forming engines
Face-on spiral galaxies like Messier 33 and NGC 3938 offer unobstructed views of places where energetic pairs of stars and cosmic explosions live along spiral arms. Barred spirals like NGC 1672 and NGC 1385 show how central bar-shaped collections of stars, gas, and dust funnel fuel inward to ignite bursts of star formation. NGC 4725 reveals how star formation can be triggered by a previous collision with another galaxy. Meanwhile, edge-on views of NGC 4631 (the Whale Galaxy) and the starburst Messier 82 (the Cigar Galaxy) showcase giant halos and superwinds of million-degree gas driven thousands of light-years into space by intense explosions of stars, enriching surrounding intergalactic space with vital elements.
Active galactic nuclei, black hole outflows
Powerful, growing black holes in the cores of their host galaxies, known as active galactic nuclei, send energy outward in outbursts and jets that impact entire galaxies. In Centaurus A, Chandra and IXPE data expose a high-energy particle jet blasting tens of thousands of light-years into space from its central engine. In Messier 106, jets from the supermassive black hole heat surrounding gas to create spiral arms that are different from those typically found in spiral galaxies. Meanwhile, the iconic Sombrero Galaxy (Messier 104) highlights a supermassive black hole embedded in a colossal stellar bulge, where Chandra’s X-rays map a diffuse halo of million-degree gas and hot stellar remnants surrounding its sweeping dust lanes.
Collisions, mergers, cosmic disruptions
The gallery also showcases galaxies undergoing extreme gravitational transformations. A direct impact in Arp 143 acts like a cosmic bullseye, creating an expanding ring galaxy and triggering waves of star birth. Violent mergers, such as NGC 3256 and the dust-shrouded starburst II Zw 096, reveal the kind of chaotic galaxy collisions that dominated the early universe and offer a preview of the Milky Way’s distant future merger with nearby galaxy Andromeda. NGC 1569 acts as a local laboratory for studying early universe starbursts, NGC 660 showcases a rare “polar ring” galaxy where a ring of stars orbits over its poles, and Messier 90 shows a spiral galaxy plowing through the Virgo Cluster, having its star-forming gas violently stripped away.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
A Plane Lunar Eclipse
Explanation: Did you need to be on the right side of this airplane to see this eclipse? No. Lunar eclipses are routinely seen from the half of the Earth facing the Moon when the eclipse occurs, making them some of the most commonly witnessed astronomical events. You don’t even need any special equipment to see one — just your unaided eyes. Lunar eclipses are also some of the mostphotographedastronomicalevents because, unlike with a solar eclipse, your eyes and camera do not have to look toward the bright Sun. However, considering the featured image taken last week from Portugal, if you were on the left side of that airplane during takeoff, you might have trouble seeing it — at first. But even then, after takeoff, since lunar eclipses typically last for hours, you might soon be able to safely cross the aisle(s) to see it.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this Aug. 6, 2026, infrared image of part of the Carina Nebula, a star-forming region also home to the Cosmic Cliffs. This feature, called the “Treasure Chest,” is an object known as a cometary globule. A cometary globule is an isolated cloud of gas and dust with a dense, dark head and a sweeping tail.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç
A satellite view shows the iceberg after it pivoted out of the fjord into Nares Strait, wedged against a small, brown island.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
A satellite view shows a large tabular iceberg at the junction of its home fjord and Nares Strait.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
A satellite view shows the iceberg after it pivoted out of the fjord into Nares Strait, wedged against a small, brown island.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
A satellite view shows a large tabular iceberg at the junction of its home fjord and Nares Strait.
NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin
AUGUST 24
AUGUST 23
An iceberg from Petermann Glacier encounters Joe Island in northwestern Greenland, visible in images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 on August 23, 2026 (right), and August 24, 2026 (left). NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin.
Summer is prime iceberg season in Greenland’s glacier-fed fjords, and 2026 was no exception. Especially notable was the berg that broke from the Petermann Glacier along Greenland’s northwest coast in August. Roughly the size of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it was the largest calving event by any Arctic glacier since 2020.
Iceberg calving is a routine part of an outlet glacier’s life cycle. Scientists watch the process closely, however, along with numerous other observations of the ice and its environment, for longer-term signs of instability. Petermann is one of Greenland’s largest marine-terminating glaciers and acts as a gatekeeper for ice flowing from the ice sheet into the ocean. Its future stability has implications for sea level rise.
The calving event of summer 2026 was spotted on August 4 by Adam Garbo, a doctoral student in glaciology at the University of Ottawa, in imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 mission. Garbo and an international team of colleagues have been using remote sensing to study and track the glacier’s ice tongue.
The team reported that the large tabular iceberg, or “ice island,” measured just over 76 square kilometers (29 square miles) at the time it calved—the largest to break from the glacier since the ice island of 2012 (130 square kilometers). The 2012 calving followed earlier major events in 2008 (31 square kilometers) and 2010 (just over 250 square kilometers).
The August 2026 event could have been even bigger. Garbo and colleagues had been expecting a major calving once one of the large rifts they were monitoring finally cut all the way across Petermann’s ice tongue. “What surprised us was that the calving instead followed a different fracture, producing a smaller ice island than we had originally anticipated,” Garbo said. As of late August, two large rifts remained and were expected to eventually produce new ice islands of roughly 94 square kilometers and 84 square kilometers, though the timing remained uncertain.
August 24, 2026
NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin
Glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nichols College has also been tracking the iceberg, using images from NASA-USGS Landsat satellites, as it drifted down Petermann Fjord toward Nares Strait. In the week since it calved, the berg drifted an average of 3 kilometers per day. It continued toward the fjord’s junction with Nares Strait, where it rammed into a small rocky outcrop known as Joe Island (Joe Ø). The brief encounter is visible in images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 on August 23 (top right) and August 24 (top left). A detailed view of the August 24 image is shown above.
Joe Island sits at the mouth of Petermann Fjord, making it one of the first obstacles a departing ice island meets. Collisions with it—like the one that split the 2010 ice island in two—often mark the start of a berg’s breakup. Petermann bergs tend to be thinner and more fragile than those calved by glaciers such as Greenland’s Jakobshavn and Helheim, and thinner still than Antarctica’s behemoths, Pelto noted.
“We were certainly watching closely as it interacted with Joe Island and were impressed that it survived the interaction without further fragmentation,” Garbo said.
The ice island was estimated to be less than 150 meters thick at the time of calving. Wind and surface currents have swept it out of the fjord, and satellite images show it pivoting away from Joe Island and continuing southwest through Nares Strait. As it drifts, it will fracture into smaller pieces as tides, winds, currents, and melting continue to weaken the ice.
Thicker bergs that calve from tidewater glaciers without floating ice-shelf extensions can drag and even become grounded on the seafloor within the fjord, while ice islands, like those from Petermann, might run aground later in their drift. Many ice islands have become “grounded” off the coasts of Coburg and Baffin islands.
Garbo and colleagues noted that ice islands and their fragments have been known to travel considerable distances, posing potential hazards to marine activities and infrastructure while also distributing freshwater through the ocean as they melt.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
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
Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope combine to reveal a vibrant view of 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, in this Aug. 11, 2026, image. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Tarantula has thousands of young stars embedded in a vibrant honeycomb-like structure of gas and dust.
By studying the data from Chandra, Hubble, and Webb, combined with data from the agency’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers determined that the Tarantula may be losing energy from several sources, including hot gas escaping from the nebula.
