JWST Searches for Life in Our Solar System
There are three places in our solar system, beyond Earth, that are good candidates to look for life: Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, Enceladus, and Titan, two of Saturn’s moons.
How NASA Colors Images of the Universe
The James Webb Space Telescope detects infrared light, which our eyes can’t see. Data image developers bring those observations into the visible light spectrum, where they take on the colors of the rainbow.
New Eye on the Universe Preview
Join scientists as they use NASA’s brand new James Webb Space Telescope to peer deep in time to hunt for the first stars and galaxies in our universe, and try to detect the fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
Ancient Pyramids Uncovered in the Amazon
The pyramid was built over 5,000 years ago, even before the pyramids of Egypt and Mesopotamia, a time when archeologists had believed the Amazon was populated only by hunter-gatherers.
Ancient Cliff Paintings in the Amazon
Ancient paintings on rock walls feature human figures and animals of today’s rainforest, like deer, tapirs, and jaguars. But they also appear to show animals that went extinct thousands of years ago.
Ancient Builders of the Amazon Preview
Recent discoveries in archaeology are exploding the myth of the Amazon as a primeval wilderness, revealing traces of ancient civilizations that flourished for centuries, with populations numbering in the millions.
The Mystery and Physics of the Spiral Football Pass
Why does the nose of the football go from pointing upward to rotating downward when most things stay the same orientation when they move through the air? (Think of frisbees, bean bags, even paper airplanes.) The reason is something called "conservation of angular momentum." Discover the physics that explains how a perfect football pass moves through the air.
These Ancient Stones Helped Track the Seasons
Along the river Gambia in Senegal, there are more than a thousand stone circles. The people who placed these stones would have observed how the locations of sunrise and sunset varied over the year.
How to Calculate Time With an Islamic Astrolabe
The instrument only requires the observation of the sun’s position to begin making calculations.
Star Chasers of Senegal Preview
A NASA spacecraft named Lucy blasts off from Cape Canaveral on a mission to the Trojans, a group of asteroids over 400 million miles from Earth thought to hold important clues about the origins of our solar system. Just hours before, in Senegal, West Africa, a team of scientists sets out to capture extraordinarily precise observations vital to the success of the Lucy mission.
These Trains Take Over for Their Drivers to Cut Travel Time
To keep trains running on schedule, a new feature allows them to reverse direction and change tracks while the driver walks to the other end.
How Engineers Soundproof a New Underground Train Track
Construction teams use springs to quiet the Elizabeth Line trains as they pass under a concert hall.
London Super Tunnel Preview
Thousands of engineers, technicians and workers race to build Europe’s biggest construction project–London’s new railroad, the Elizabeth Line.
Astronaut Walter Cunningham on the Historic Apollo 7 Mission
Walter Cunningham was the last surviving member of the Apollo 7 mission. He died at the age of 90, in January of 2023.
3 Major Space Stories of 2022
From rocket launches, to dazzling new images, and even planetary defense, 2022 was a big year for space discovery.
This Teen Calculates Mind-Boggling Math in Her Head
Panidapu executes complex problems with mental math using the abacus method of calculation, a technique that relies on an ancient tool.
Scientists Make Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion
For the first time, lab-made fusion released more energy than it used to start the reaction, a feat that has eluded researchers for decades.
Oldest DNA Ever Found Reveals Secrets of the Ancient Arctic
Scientists have retrieved the oldest DNA ever, which points to an ecosystem unlike anything on Earth today.
Thought Experiment: The Infinite Hilbert's Hotel
In a thought experiment first proposed in the 1920s, the Hilbert’s Hotel has an infinite number of rooms and helps demonstrate some of the strange properties of infinity.
The Area of a Circle, Explained with Pizza
One of the oldest calculus problems, finding the area of a circle, can be visualized using a pizza. By dividing it up into ever smaller slices and laying them out next to one another, eventually you get something close a rectangle.
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