This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
The universe is a dusty place, as this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image featuring swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula reveals. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby universe, home to the most massive stars known.

The nebula’s colorful gas clouds hold wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust. This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which may include bits of soil, skin cells, hair, and even plastic. Cosmic dust is often comprised of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. The data in this image was part of an observing program that aims to characterize the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies.

Dust plays several important roles in the universe. Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets. Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.   more...

NASA and its international partners are making progress on Gateway – the lunar space station that will orbit the Moon as a centerpiece of the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture.

Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts on missions to and around the Moon. The agency and its international partners report progress continues on Gateway, the first space station that will permanently orbit the Moon, after visiting the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, where initial fabrication for one of two Gateway habitation modules is nearing completion.

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The spiral galaxy UGC 5460 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. UGC 5460 sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerhan

The sparkling spiral galaxy gracing this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is UGC 5460, which sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image combines four different wavelengths of light to reveal UGC 5460’s central bar of stars, winding spiral arms, and bright blue star clusters. Also captured in the upper left-hand corner is a far closer object: a star just 577 light-years away in our own galaxy.

UGC 5460 has hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2011ht and SN 2015as. It’s because of these two stellar explosions that Hubble targeted this galaxy, collecting data for three observing programs that aim to study various kinds of supernovae.

SN 2015as was as a core-collapse supernova: a cataclysmic explosion that happens when the core of a star far more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity, initiating a rebound of material outside the core.   more...

KILAUEA (VNUM #332010)
19°25'16" N 155°17'13" W, Summit Elevation 4091 ft (1247 m)
Current Volcano Alert Level: WATCH
Current Aviation Color Code: ORANGE

Activity Summary:

  The summit eruption of Kīlauea remains paused in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Another episode is likely within the next 1-4 days.

The ninth episode of Kīlauea's ongoing eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu crater within Kaluapele (the summit caldera) paused at 8:43 a.m. HST, February 12, after over 22 hours of lava fountains erupting from the north and south vents feeding lava flows onto the crater floor. This was the ninth episode of the eruption that began on December 23, 2024, with each episode characterized by lava fountaining separated by pauses in activity. All recent eruptive activity has occurred in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. No significant changes have been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone.

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What would happen if a 500-meter asteroid hit Earth? Scientists at the IBS Center for Climate Physics modeled the aftermath, revealing a dramatic plunge into an “impact winter” with temperatures dropping by 4°C, rainfall decreasing by 15%, and ozone depletion reaching 32%.

The result? A global food crisis as land-based photosynthesis declines by up to 30%. But the ocean tells a different story—plankton, fueled by iron-rich asteroid dust, could thrive, triggering massive algae blooms. This unexpected marine boom might provide a lifeline for the biosphere. Could past asteroid impacts have shaped human evolution? Future studies aim to explore how our ancestors might have endured such cataclysms.

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NASA and its partners recently tested an aircraft guidance system that could help planes maintain a precise course even while flying at high speeds up to 500 mph. The instrument is Soxnav, the culmination of more than 30 years of development of aircraft navigation systems.

NASA’s G-IV aircraft flew its first mission to test this navigational system from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in December 2024. The team was composed of engineers from NASA Armstrong, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI) in California’s Silicon Valley.

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