The ATHLETE rover is poised to go 40 kilometers in the Arizona desert as part of the 2010 Desert RATS test.

Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover that will be on Mars two years from now, has been flexing the robotic arm that spacecraft workers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory attached to the rover body in August 2010.

Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life.

Two advanced weather instruments from JPL are busy flying above Hurricane Earl, as NASA's field campaign to study how hurricanes form and intensify continues.

NASA has begun development of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before.

New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions.

As the U.S. East Coast prepares to duke it out with large and powerful Hurricane Earl, NASA satellites and instruments are busy gathering valuable information on the storm.

How did water end up around an old, dying star? The Herschel space observatory has new clues.

One of the instruments on a 2016 mission to orbit Mars will provide daily profiles of the changing structure of the planet's atmosphere.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered the first confirmed planetary system with more than one planet crossing in front of, or transiting, the same star.

Unicorns and roses are usually the stuff of fairy tales, but a new cosmic image taken by NASA's WISE mission shows the Rosette nebula in the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn.

A new type of El Niño is becoming more common and progressively stronger, according to a new NASA/NOAA study that has potential implications for long-term weather forecasting.

NASA has cool tools to share with armchair astronauts at the 2011 South By Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas. Here's how you can help make that happen.

Tight double-star systems might not be the best places for life to spring up, according to a new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

A series of new NASA satellite images provides useful perspectives on the origins, extent and effects of the massive flooding devastating large parts of Pakistan.

NASA's Viking 1 mission, launched on Aug. 20, 1975, put a spacecraft into orbit around Mars and delivered the first successful lander to the Martian surface.

Astronomers have devised a new method for measuring perhaps the greatest puzzle of our universe -- dark energy.

Astronomers have experienced the galactic equivalent of discovering pictures of a mild-mannered grandmother partying as a wild youth.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has returned Saturnian moon images from its flyby late last week, revealing light and dark contrasts worthy of chiaroscuro painters like Caravaggio.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed its flyby over the "tiger stripes" in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus and returned intriguing images.

A new NASA satellite image shows the continued movement of a massive iceberg that broke off Greenland's Petermann Glacier on Aug. 5.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be hunting for heat signatures at the "tiger stripes" in the dim south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Friday, Aug. 13.

Saturn's moon Titan ripples with mountains, and scientists have been trying to figure out how they form.

Wildfires in Russia, eastern Siberia and Canada are spreading hazardous air pollution far beyond their borders, as seen in a pair of new NASA satellite animations.

Astronomers have found mysterious, giant loops of ultraviolet light in aged, massive galaxies, which seem to have a second lease on life.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is warming up. Team members say the spacecraft is running out of the frozen coolant needed to keep its heat-sensitive instrument chilled.

Clouds, our fluffy friends in the sky, are essential to life on Earth. They're also not unique to our planet. Scientists ponder the role of clouds in our universe.

Drought and the worst heat wave Russia has seen in 130 years have sparked a devastating outbreak of wildfires across the nation this summer, primarily in the country's western and central regions.

The latest NASA radar images of the Southern California region rattled by a 7.2 quake in Mexico's Baja California on April 4 show continued deformation in Earth's surface.

A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories.

The most powerful telescopic camera ever to orbit Mars reveals a fresh crater, an ice mound, climate-recording layers and many other views in 314 newly released observations.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a new project manager: Phil Varghese, who has managed another veteran NASA Mars mission - the Mars Odyssey orbiter - since 2004.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission.

NASA mission controllers have not heard from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit since March 22, and the rover is facing its toughest challenge yet - trying to survive the harsh Martian winter.

ATHLETE moon rover must prove it can go the distance before it heads to the Arizona desert for field testing.

The answer to the mystery of dune patterns on Saturn's moon Titan did turn out to be blowing in the wind.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has photographed its first dust devil, a challenging feat in the area where Opportunity is working.

Engineers have conducted a fuel tank check of one of NASA's GRAIL mission spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2011.

Tropical Storm Bonnie, now a depression, rakes South Florida in this July 23 NASA infrared image, en route to a weekend run-in with the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf oil spill.

Like proud parents, mission team members gathered in a gallery above a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to watch the Mars Curiosity rover roll for the first time.

In one week, Curiosity grew by approximately 1 meter (3.5 feet) when spacecraft technicians and engineers attached the rover's neck and head (called the Remote Sensing Mast) to its body.

A camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever.

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered carbon molecules, known as "buckyballs," in space for the first time.

NASA-funded researchers searching for extreme environments for life have discovered the world's deepest hydrothermal vent, 5,000 meters below the surface of the Caribbean.

A downward-pointing camera on the front-left side of NASA's Curiosity rover will give adventure fans worldwide an unprecedented sense of riding a spacecraft to a landing on Mars.

While orbiting Saturn for the last six years, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has kept a close eye on the collisions and disturbances in the gas giant's rings.

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode, and the mission team has begun steps to resume the spacecraft's science and relay operations this week.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, will complete its first survey of the entire sky on July 17, 2010.

This lake on Saturn's moon Titan turns out to be a perfect exotic vacation spot, provided you can handle subzero temperatures and enjoy soaking in liquid hydrocarbon.

Workers at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif., are making progress on a major renovation on the 70-meter-wide "Mars antenna."

A new discovery has the potential to answer the long-standing question of how massive stars are born -- and hints at the possibility that planets could form around the galaxy's biggest bodies.

The wheels that will touch down on Mars in 2012 are several rotations closer to spinning on the rocky trails of Mars.

In 2005, scientists saw a spike in tree deaths in the Amazon, which was attributed to drought. Now a NASA-funded study finds a single, massive thunderstorm was also to blame.

NASA and Microsoft Research are bringing Mars to life with new features in the WorldWide Telescope software that provide viewers with a high-resolution 3-D map of the Red Planet.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with NASA instruments aboard, did a close flyby of asteroid Lutetia on Saturday, July 10.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, which is currently being assembled, recently received its protective shield.

Scientists using NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn have stalked a new class of moons in the rings of Saturn that create distinctive propeller-shaped gaps in ring material.

Three NASA aircraft will begin flights to study tropical cyclones on Aug. 15 during the agency's first major U.S.-based hurricane field campaign since 2001.

A dragon-shaped cloud of dust seems to fly with the stars in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (bottom). In visible light (top), the creature disappears into the mist.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured the closest images of Saturn's moon Daphnis to date.

A new image from the Planck mission shows what it's been up to for the past year -- surveying the entire sky for clues to our universal origins.

As American schoolchildren head out to pools for a summer splash, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be taking its own deep plunge through the Titan atmosphere this week.

A new set of spiffy wheels is now affixed to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Engineers added the wheels and suspension system this week, during preparations for a planned launch in late 2011.

In a new analysis of a lunar sample collected by Apollo 17, researchers have detected and dated carbon on the moon in the form of graphite.

Tropical Storm Alex, soon to be a hurricane, churns its way through the western half of the Gulf of Mexico in this NASA infrared image taken Tuesday afternoon, June 29.

Engineers are studying the reaction wheels on NASA's Dawn spacecraft after automatic sensors detected excess friction building up in one of them.

A super-resolution view toward Endeavour Crater from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows discernible features in the rim of that long-term destination.

NASA's EPOXI spacecraft "hitched a ride" on Earth's gravity field and is now heading toward its appointment with comet Hartley 2 this fall.

NASA's plucky Voyager 2 spacecraft has hit a long-haul operations milestone today -- operating continuously for 12,000 days.

NASA's Curiosity rover, coming together for a late 2011 launch to Mars, has a newly installed component: a key onboard X-ray instrument for helping the mission achieve its goals.

A NASA-led team has expanded the growing global armada of remote sensing satellites capable of studying carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas driving changes in our climate.

NASA's Deep Impact/EPOXI spacecraft will fly past Earth this Sunday, June 27.

Astronomers have uncovered what appear to be 14 of the coldest stars known in our universe.

Minerals in northern Mars craters seen by two orbiters suggest that a phase in Mars' early history with conditions favorable to life occurred globally, not just in the south.

NASA has released the first-ever airborne radar images of the deformation in Earth's surface caused by a major earthquake.

Many scientists speculate that our galaxy could be full of places like Pandora from the movie "Avatar" -- Earth-like worlds in solar systems besides our own.

Cassini has successfully completed its lowest pass through Titan's atmosphere.

NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission.

The moderate El Niño of the past year has officially bowed out, leaving his cool sister, La Niña, poised to potentially take the equatorial stage.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will take its lowest dip through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan in the early morning of June 21 UTC, or June 20 Pacific Time.

Some might see a blood-red jellyfish, while others might see a pair of lips. In fact, the red-colored object in this new image from WISE is a sphere of stellar innards.

California middle school students using the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have found lava tubes with one pit that appears to be a skylight to a cave.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has discovered a galaxy tail studded with bright knots of new stars.

NASA's Kepler Mission has released 43 days of science data on more than 156,000 stars.

Enjoy some creative fantasy space vacation ideas from our friends on the NASAJPL Facebook page.

A NASA-led research team has successfully demonstrated for the first time elements of a prototype tsunami prediction system that quickly and accurately assesses large earthquakes and estimates the size of resulting tsunamis.

Engineers have finished a key step in testing the radar system for NASA's next mission to Mars, using helicopter flights at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden kicked off the agency's new Summer of Innovation initiative today while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calf.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and German Aerospace Center Executive Board Chairman Johann-Dietrich Wörner signed an agreement to extend the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.

Six hundred recent observations of the Mars landscape from an orbiting telescopic camera include scenes of sinuous gullies, geometrical ridges and steep cliffs.

A Japanese spacecraft will return a capsule to Earth on June 13 in a uninhabited area of South Australia. NASA scientists and engineers have played a contributing role in the mission.

NASA officially kicks off its Summer of Innovation initiative at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday, June 10.

NASA's ion-propelled Dawn spacecraft has eclipsed the record for velocity change produced by a spacecraft's engines.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be eyeing the north polar region of Saturn's moon Titan this weekend, scanning the moon's land o' lakes.

Rocks examined by NASA's Spirit Mars Rover hold evidence of a wet, non-acidic ancient environment that may have been favorable for life.

Two new papers based on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.

By combining data from multiple cameras of JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, scientists gain new perspectives on the spread of oil into Louisiana's fragile wetlands.

Going against the grain may turn out to be a powerful move for black holes.

NASA's Deep Impact/Epoxi spacecraft successfully performed a maneuver to refine its orbit prior to an upcoming Earth flyby June 27.

JPL's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer instrument has completed its initial assessment of the Gulf oil spill.