NASA | ESA Space Updates

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Space news from around the globe, all in one place Focusing on NASA & ESA Missions Artemis II 🚀🌕 Note we are not NASA just #Spacenerds #Moonjoy

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NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 21d

Did you know? The pulsar at the heart of the Lighthouse Nebula (PSR J1101−6101) spins an incredible 16 times per second! 🌌 These collapsed star cores pack more mass than our Sun into an area the size of a city—making them extreme natural physics labs. 1/4

The Lighthouse Nebula (upper left) and a pulsar (lower right) are illuminated against a spotty starfield. The part of the nebula shown in this image looks like a diffuse, purple cloud with a bright star in the center. The pulsar looks like a bright white streak of light with a purple jet extending from one end, forming the shape of a checkmark. Credits: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./J.T. Dinsmore et al.; IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J.T. Dinsmore et al., Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA; Optical: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 22d

History made! In April 2026, the Artemis II mission successfully carried four astronauts around the far side of the Moon and safely back to Earth. We are officially paving the way for humanity's permanent return to the lunar surface. 🚀🌕 #Artemis #NASA #Moon 4/4

art002e021110 (April 6, 2026) – As the Artemis II crew came close to passing behind the Moon and experiencing a planned loss of signal, they captured this image of a crescent Earth. Seen from afar, it almost looks like a circular arc – except when backlit, as in other images captured by the Artemis II crew. Earth is in a crescent phase, with sunlight coming from the right. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over muted blue in the Australia and Oceania region. Credit: NASA

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 22d

Happy International Moon Day 🌕! Did you know NASA’s modern return to the Moon started in the '90s? 🚀 The Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions were the first to suggest that water ice might be hiding at the lunar poles, changing how we view the Moon forever. #SpaceHistory #NASA #Moon 1/4

AS17-146-22294 (13 Dec. 1972) --- Scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt is photographed working beside a huge boulder at Station 6 (base of North Massif) during the third Apollo 17 extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. The front portion of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is visible on the left. This picture was taken by astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 commander. Schmitt is the lunar module pilot. While astronauts Cernan and Schmitt descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Challenger" to explore the moon, astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot, remained with the Apollo 17 Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit.

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 23d

🪐 Astronomers using NASA's Webb Telescope studied exoplanet WD 1856 b, a gas giant that is roughly the size of Jupiter but orbits a dead white dwarf star that's only the size of Earth—making the planet 7 times larger than its star! 1/4

Exoplanet WD 1856 b, shown in this artist’s concept, is a gas giant that orbits its star at a distance 50 times closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope determined the planet’s temperature and detected molecules in its atmosphere.
Credits: Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 25d

Before NASA puts boots back on the Moon in 2028, the Artemis III mission in 2027 will pull off an epic test run in Earth orbit! Teams will practice docking NASA’s Orion spacecraft with commercial landers to make sure everything is rock solid for the actual lunar landing. 🚀🌕 1/4

These artist's concepts depict
NASA's Orion spacecraft and
SpaceX's Starship human landing system test article during docking operations as part of NASA's upcoming Artemis III demonstration mission in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX

These artist's concepts depict
Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2
human landing system test article in Earth orbit and docked
with NASA's Orion spacecraft as part of NASA's upcoming Artemis III demonstration
mission in low Earth orbit.
Blue Origin

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 27d

Did you know Europe's history of mythological space names goes way back? The first was the Europa rocket in the 1960s, named after the mother of King Minos. Its successor, the famous Ariane rocket, was named after Ariadne—Europa's granddaughter! 🚀💫 4/4

A test of the separation system for the Europa stages 1 and 2 was carried out at Woomera in Australia, on 14 November 1966, using the UK's Blue Streak first stage and mock-up upper stages. Europa was one of the first European launchers developed by ELDO.

CREDIT: ESA

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 27d

Did you know ESA’s Hera mission got its name from the Greek goddess of marriage? 🌌 The team chose it because Hera is exploring a binary (double) asteroid system, Didymos and Dimorphos. The name perfectly captures the cosmic "marriage" binding these two space rocks together! 1/4

ESA's Hera mission for planetary defence seen approaching the boulder-strewn Dimorphos asteroid. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s approximately half-tonne DART spacecraft impacted the boulder covered Dimorphos asteroid at a speed of 6.1 km/s. This first experiment in the kinetic impact method of asteroid deflection was successful: observations from Earth show the 11 hour 55 minute orbit of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid Didymos was shortened by around 33 minutes (measured to an uncertainty level of plus or minus a minute). Hera, due to arrive in the Didymos binary asteroid system at the end of 2026, will gather close-up data including ascertaining the mass and makeup of Dimorphos to help turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique.

CREDIT
ESA-Science Office

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 27d

Astronomers using NASA’s Webb Telescope have discovered a new giant planet: Beta Pictoris d! Hidden in one of the most studied planetary systems in our galaxy, it's the third planet found orbiting the young star. 🌌🔭 1/4

Artist's concept of the Beta Pictoris planetary system. One edge of a smooth, dusty disk that looks like cloud wisps extends across the upper third of the image. Just below that, in the left third of the image, the star glows white and is small. Just to the left of the star there is a tiny white dot, planet Beta Pictoris c. To the right of the star, about twice the distance between Beta Pictoris c and the star is another bright dot, representing planet Beta Pictoris b. A third planet, Beta Pictoris d is larger than the other two, and appears in the right third of the illustration. The planet has subtle orange cloud bands, and the side facing the star is illuminated. Below this planet, the other wispy edge of the dusty disk that circles the star crosses the bottom right corner of the illustration below Beta Pictoris d from 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock. The black background of space is speckled with distant stars. The words "Artist's Concept" appears at the lower left corner.

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 29d

Progress is stacking up at Kennedy Space Center! Teams have officially begun assembling the twin SLS solid rocket boosters for the upcoming Artemis III mission, securing the first aft segments inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building. 🚀✨ #ArtemisIII #NASA 1/4

The left-hand and right-hand aft assembly solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Artemis III SLS (Space Launch System) rocket are secured to the mobile launcher at the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, July 11, 2026.
NASA/Frank Michaux

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· 29d

Witness baby stars at every stage of their lives! 🌟 This stunning new view from the James Webb Space Telescope shows everything from early stellar embryos and protoplanetary discs to fully-formed stars inside the OMC-2 molecular cloud. #Space #NASA #Webb 1/4

For this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month we return to the constellation Orion (the Hunter), a location familiar to Webb. This area of the sky is replete with star-forming clouds that make up a complex hundreds of light-years across. We find ourselves in the giant molecular cloud Orion A, of which the familiar Orion Nebula (also known as M42) is just a part; Webb has taken both close-up and wide-angle looks at M42 before.

Credit:
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 9

Did you know the galaxy Centaurus A bears the scars of a dramatic past? Roughly 2 billion years ago, it suffered a major collision with another galaxy. Webb’s new views act as galactic archaeology, helping astronomers reconstruct this cosmic timeline! 🌌💥 2/4

This combined view of Centaurus A from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope pairs observations from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Webb’s infrared vision exposes a warped disk of gas and dust left behind by a collision with another galaxy billions of years ago.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 9

To celebrate its 4th science anniversary, NASA’s Webb Space Telescope captured stunning new images of Centaurus A! Using near- and mid-infrared light, Webb cut through thick cosmic dust to expose millions of individual stars in the active galaxy for the first time. 🌟✨ 1/4

A photo of Centaurus A revealing its intricate, highly-detailed inner structure. Rings of gas and stars glow white and twist around a swirling, pinkish center. Distant stars and galaxies densely dot the background with purple light. Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 6

Progress is in motion for the Artemis IV mission! Over at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, the SLS core stage liquid oxygen tank has been successfully relocated. The massive hardware is now lined up for detailed inspections before advancing to the next round of production. 🚀 #Artemis

Image shows NASA teams transporting a towering, silver, 51-foot-tall liquid oxygen tank from the main factory to a nearby high bay at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. The SLS (Space Launch System) hardware stands outside the facility beneath a vivid blue sky dotted with clouds, creating a striking backdrop. Workers positioned alongside the tank emphasize its extraordinary scale, illustrating the immense size of the flight hardware.
Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 6

Talk about working smart! Instead of launching a new satellite, NASA used CAPSTONE's existing hardware after launch to host entirely new software applications. It successfully turned the CubeSat into a highly cost-effective, flexible testing platform. 💻🚀 #Innovation 2/4

Dylan Schmidt, CAPSTONE assembly integration and test lead, right, and Lachlan Moore, systems integration engineer, left, install solar panels onto the CAPSTONE spacecraft at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, California.
NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 6

NASA's CAPSTONE has wrapped up its mission! 🛰️ Launched in June 2022, it became the first U.S. commercial spacecraft to fly and map a unique lunar orbit that uses the combined gravity of Earth and the Moon to save fuel. A major win for future space paths! #SpaceNews 1/4

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 2

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has received two of the four RS-25 engines designated for the #Artemis III moon mission. Combined, these engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of liftoff thrust, powering the Space Launch System rocket during the initial 8 minutes of its journey into space.

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 1

☀️ Did you know ground-based telescopes can miss asteroids approaching from the direction of the Sun? NASA's upcoming NEO Surveyor space telescope will see through the glare, spotting threats leading or trailing our planet's orbit. 🌍 #NASA #Astronomy 2/3

NASA's NEO Surveyor in Deep Space (Artist's Concept)

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jul 1

🌌 Dark asteroids and comets don't reflect much visible light, making them hard to spot. NASA's NEO Surveyor will use sensitive infrared detectors to track these elusive near-Earth objects as they glow from the heat of sunlight! 🛰️ #PlanetaryDefense #Space 1/3

The instrument enclosure for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for environmental testing inside the historic Chamber A in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 30

✨ Meet NGC 6723, the "Chandelier Cluster!" This sparkling group of tens of thousands of stars is located 27,000 light-years away. 🔭 1/3

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster NGC 6723, sometimes called the Chandelier Cluster.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 29

Did you know the Moon actually has an atmosphere? 🌕 But it's extremely thin—containing about one million billion (10¹⁵) times fewer molecules per cubic centimeter than Earth's! It has just one major layer called the exosphere. 🚀 1/4

Earth’s atmosphere has five major layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The Moon’s atmosphere contains only one major layer: its exosphere. These images are not to scale; Earth is much larger than the Moon, and neither world's atmosphere has a fixed outer limit. Credit: NASA/Vi Nguyen

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 25

🍬 Imagine a planet as light as cotton candy! Data from NASA’s TESS mission has revealed TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c—two Jupiter-sized "super-puff" worlds that are the puffiest planets ever discovered. Scientists are amazed by their extraordinarily low density! #Exoplanets #NASA 1/4

$This illustration depicts the Sun-like star TOI-791 and two giant planets that NASA's TESS space telescope discovered in its orbit. These planets, designated TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, are roughly the size of Jupiter but a tiny fraction of its mass, meaning they have an extraordinarily low density. NASA / Daniel Rutter$

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 24

🌌 ESA’s Euclid has captured the largest, most detailed photo ever made of our Milky Way's center in visible light! Taken in just 26 hours, this stunning mosaic reveals a crowded galactic heart packed with over 60 million stars, nebulas, and star clusters. ✨ #Space #Euclid 1/4

A dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. Most of the background is bright yellow and gold. A broad, irregular dark band runs diagonally across the centre, forming connected black and dark-brown patches. Brighter clusters of pale yellow and white points appear above and below this dark band, with a few slightly bluish points scattered throughout.

Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)

On 23 March 2025, Euclid captured this enormous photo in just about 26 hours. It’s a mosaic of nine ‘pointings’ from its visible light camera [1], with each pointing covering a patch of the sky larger than the full Moon.

Credit: ESA

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 23

✨ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has pierced through thick dust to resolve 16.5 million individual stars in the Cigar Galaxy (M82)! Thanks to Webb's infrared vision, astronomers now have a detailed fossil record of this galaxy's history. 🔭🌌 #NASAWebb #Space 1/4

$Composite image of edge-on spiral starburst galaxy Messier 82 as observed by NASA's James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. Hourglass-shaped plumes of gas are shooting outward from above and below a bright blue-white, disk-shaped center. The plumes are yellow near the galaxy’s bright center, denoting areas of ionized hydrogen gas as observed by Hubble, and gradually become redder as you move farther away. Messier 82 is set against the black background of space, which has many distant galaxies that appear as small white and orange spirals, ovals, and points of light. Toward the right of Messier 82 is a blue-white star with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb.$

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 22

🌌 Astronomers using NASA’s Webb telescope estimate that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS could have formed 10 to 12 billion years ago! Born during the universe's “cosmic noon,” it might be the oldest comet ever discovered. ☄️ #JWST #SpaceNews #Astronomy 1/4

Researchers used the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to map specific chemical contents of comet 3I/ATLAS as it moved away from the Sun.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Martin Cordiner (CUA, NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 21

To study auroras up close, NASA uses sounding rockets! 🚀 These rockets take measurements at altitudes between 30 and 800 miles—elevations that are too high for standard weather balloons to reach, yet too low for orbiting satellites to safely fly through. #NASA 1/4

Image credit: NASA/Jessica Meir

This photo from the International Space Station shows the aurora australis arcing over Earth during an active solar event

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 18

Lyrids meteor shower in April, Meteoroid Environments Office captured several lunar impacts! 🌕☄️ The lunar surface provides millions of square kilometers of collecting area visible from Earth, helping scientists measure larger meteoroids and evaluate potential hazards to future spacecraft! 🌕🚀 1/4

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 17

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope caught exoplanet HD 80606 b getting roasted! As this extreme "hot Jupiter" plunges close to its host star on a highly elliptical orbit, Webb observed its temperature skyrocket by a staggering 1,100°F. 🔥🪐 #JWST #SpaceNews 1/4

This artist’s concept imagines exoplanet HD 80606 b orbiting its Sun-like star. During recent observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the planet was near periastron, the point in its orbit when it passes closest to the star. As HD 80606 b approached periastron, its temperature jumped 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, causing environmental changes that scientists are still analyzing.

Credit: NASA

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 16

🚀 Meet Terzan 5! Once thought to be a globular star cluster, new data from NASA’s Webb & NASA’s Hubble reveals it’s actually a "bulge fossil fragment." It’s a newly confirmed class of objects—a rare cosmic relic from the early days of our Milky Way’s formation. 🌌✨ 1/4

$A dramatically crowded starfield that looks like a just-shaken snow globe. The black background of space, which is clearer at the edges, is covered by thousands of tiny white, orange, and blue points of light, which are stars. The stars are most concentrated in the center, forming a roughly circular orb, and sparser at the edges of the image. Several larger orange stars, particularly those largest near the edges of the frame, have prominent diffraction spikes. Credit: NASA$

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 14

🚀 Milestone achieved! NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft just hit its target mission conditions for the first time, flying at Mach 1.4 (~924 mph) and 55,000 feet. This brings us one step closer to quiet commercial supersonic flight over land! ✈️ #Quesst 1/4

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft reached its target speed and altitude for future community overflights for the first time during a flight on Friday, June 12, 2026. The milestone marked the first time the aircraft flew at Mach 1.4 and 55,000 feet — conditions it will fly when gathering community response data to its quiet sonic thump.

Credit: NASA

NASA | ESA Space Updates@nasaupdates· Jun 12

Using data from NASA’s Chandra and XMM-Newton, astronomers have discovered a possible supernova remnant buried 26,000 light-years away. If confirmed, it would be one of the closest remnants ever found to the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way! 🌌 1/4