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NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind.

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Space related activities

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Resources Here you will find activities and links to use at home or in the classroom. All are designed to get your students finding out about how the space industry helps us here on Earth, following the principles championed through Our Space Our Future.

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In a week's time, Tuesday 13 October, it's Ada Lovelace Day.

But how much do your students know about this pioneering female? Lovelace - widely considered to be the world's first computer programmer - is an inspirational woman of science. The annual celebration of her achievements - and those of other women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) - is a great chance to get girls excited about a traditionally male-dominated field. So this week we bring you a selection of whizz-bang lesson ideas to help inspire the next generation of female scientists.

Kick off with a look at Lovelace's fascinating life: her father was the famously erratic poet Lord Byron, who separated from her mother, Annabella Milbanke, a month after Lovelace was born in 1815. Millbanke encouraged her daughter to pursue her interest in maths, reportedly to control the emotional streak she inherited from her father.

Get students to create a timeline of Lovelace's life; this cartoon strip is brilliant for exploring her work with Charles Babbage to invent the first computer.

There are countless other incredible women in Stem history, including Katherine Johnson (a leading figure in astronomy), Rachel Carson (a groundbreaking marine biologist) and Sally Ride (the first woman in space). The White House website has a handy interactive about these past luminaries and even lets you add your own success stories.

Did you know that under the right conditions, diamonds can be made from peanut butter? Or that you are 1% shorter in the evening than you are in the morning? Or how about the fact that the entire internet weighs about the same as one large strawberry? You can get your students excited about Stem by presenting the weird and wonderful gems in this flipbook as an attention-grabbing display in your classroom.

Blow your students' minds with some amazing science tricks. The first, as shown in this video of 10 cool tricks, involves making a slow motion ball. All you'll need is a large ball bearing, a clear round case for it to go in and some honey. What does this tell the class about speed and motion?

Another idea involves making a bottle invisible. For this, all you'll need is a glass and bottle filled with glycerin. Pop the bottle into the glass, and then watch it disappear. This happens because light refracts from two different substances with the same index of refraction so the materials cannot be distinguished from one another.

Introducing some mystery is a great way to inspire young students. One activity involves setting a birthday candle in the middle of a plate, pouring a little water around it and covering it with a glass beaker. Ask your students what they expect to happen - and watch their surprise at what actually does (find out in the video below).

Another fun lesson for primary students is the Big Egg Mystery, which introduces them to the idea of a hypothesis. The aim of the lesson is to learn how birds sit on their eggs without breaking them. Get them to predict whether or not egg shells can hold heavy books. You can use the Egg Experiment teacher sheet to assist with this part of the lesson. Once they've made their predictions and completed the experiment, get them to explore why the eggs didn't break and if there are any ways to test their hypotheses.

Your students will be floating on air when they see how a CD, a bottle top, a balloon and some glue can be repurposed into a DIY hovercraft. This simple experiment offers a memorable way to explore friction and air flow - as well as providing a fun opportunity for some competitive hovercraft racing.

Once you've got your students fired up about Stem, it's time to get them thinking about possible career paths - and that means making sure female students know it is just as open to them as their male classmates.

With only 20% of girls choosing physics at A-Level, Girl-Friendly Physics and WISE campaign have created 10 tips to help with engagement. This TED talk from engineer Debbie Stirling challenges the perception of engineering as a sector dominated by men in glasses (and train drivers). The ScienceGrrl website offers support for women of all ages in science, with campaigns, forums and advice from experts who are already making their mark.

For a tasty way into science, get your students to bake cookies using sunlight, or make a solar oven simply using a pizza box, some tin foil and a few other household materials. Or they can explore how much sugar is in fizzy drinks. And you can celebrate the myriad leaps that women have made in Stem with this list of inventions from female scientists, including windscreen wipers, tippex and bomb disposal robots.

Finally, make your science area stand out with this colourful bottle banner from Twinkl. They also have some great vocabulary flash cards, a working wall banner to share science ideas and questions, as well as a "What would happen if?" banner, which would feature nicely at the top of a scientific investigation display area.

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Six creative ways to inspire girls in science lessons

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In a week's time, Tuesday 13 October, it's Ada Lovelace Day. But how much do your students know about this pioneering female? Lovelace - widely considered to be the world's first computer programmer - is an inspirational woman of science.

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https://www.astronaut-test.com/quiz/

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Do You Have What It Takes?

Take The Test And Find Out

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, with the July 16th 1969 mission kickstarting decades of cosmic curiosity for space agencies, scientists and space enthusiasts alike. But how suited are you to space? Astronaut Aptitude Test asks a series of questions based on official NASA Astronaut Candidate requirements and real-life psychological tests to see if you've got what it takes for intergalactic exploration, or if you're galactically grounded...

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Do You Have What It Takes? Take The Test And Find Out This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, with the July 16th 1969 mission kickstarting decades of cosmic curiosity for space agencies, scientists and space enthusiasts alike. But how suited are you to space?

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Test your knowledge about women in astrophysics

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Koliko znate o ženama u (astro)fizici i svemiru?

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Provjerite koliko znate o o ženama u (astro)fizici i svemiru. Zaigrajte i podijeliti rezultate s prijateljima na društvenim mrežama.

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What does it mean for a person to be “literate” in astronomy? After years of discussions and debates over the essential things that an astronomically literate person should know, the “Big Ideas in Astronomy: A Proposed Definition of Astronomy Literacy” booklet has finally been released

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The best way to improve the representation of women in the field of astronomy is to promote them and create role models. To push them into positions of influence.
“Dava Sobel shines a light on seven 19th- and 20th-century women astronomers who began as ‘human computers,’ interpreting data at Harvard Observatory, then went on to dazzle…An inspiring look at celestial pioneers.” —People

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There is a long history of women active in the field of astronomy going all the way back to Caroline Herschel in the early 19th century. Caroline Herschel was a German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which bears her name.

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The year 2020 is the twentieth anniversary of humans living aboard the International Space Station. Microsoft Education in partnership with NASA have developed this collection of lessons.

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Ludo

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Juna Kollmeier: The most detailed map of galaxies, black holes and stars ever made

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Humans have been studying the stars for thousands of years, but astrophysicist Juna Kollmeier is on a special mission: creating the most detailed 3-D maps of the universe ever made. Journey across the cosmos as she shares her team's work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, imaging millions of stars, black holes and galaxies in unprecedented detail.

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Clicking on content like buttons will cause content on this page to change. Items will update when they are liked.

Astrophysicist Enrico Garaldi spoke to the pupils of grades 5.b and 5.c of Osnovna škola Petra Preradovića, Zadar. Croatia

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Clicking on content like buttons will cause content on this page to change. Items will update when they are liked. Astrophysicist Enrico Garaldi spoke to the pupils of grades 5.b and 5.c of Osnovna škola Petra Preradovića, Zadar. Croatia

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Our e-book

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Skype a scientist, OŠ Petra Preradovića, Croatia

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Read Skype a scientist, OŠ Petra Preradovića, Croatia by Anita Simac on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

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Why did you decide to become an astrophysicist?
Is mathematics important in your job?
What is the most interesting part of your job?
What is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way?
Does the Milky Way have a definite beginning and end?
How far away have sattelites managed to travel?
How long do stars live?
What happens to stars when they die?
When did the Milky Way form (how old is it) ?
How is a black hole formed?
How big is our galaxy in light years?
Would you like to visit the International Space Station?
Can you explain what a supernova is?
Is there gravity on the Moon? Why?
Where would you go if you could travel at the speed of light?
What is the distance between the Moon and Earth?
How many times is Jupiter bigger than Earth?
Do you think mankind will have to leave planet Earth and live on another planet?
Do you believe that there are other civilisations in our Galaxy?
What are your plans and dreams for the future?

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Forward to the Moon with Artemis Explorer Activities

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Send Your Name to Mars. View and share your Boarding Pass. See your Frequent Flyer points.

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APOD: 2019 May 20 - Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins

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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. Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins Video Credit: NASA, Animation: James O'Donoghue (JAXA) Explanation: How does your favorite planet spin?

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This NASA poster set showcases the beauty of our solar system and beyond. Website links and an optional poster backs with orbit diagrams and context provide additional details and a deeper dive to explore our galactic neighborhood.

The posters are best printed on 11x17 paper.

Got a suggestion for a new poster? Let us know.

Trading Card Set (New)

Fifteen select cards are available in trading card size.

Individual Poster Download Options

The full set of posters includes 21 deep space destinations (with a variety of views and download options).

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Solar System and Beyond Poster Set | NASA Solar System Exploration

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This NASA poster set showcases the beauty of our solar system and beyond. Website links and an optional poster backs with orbit diagrams and context provide additional details and a deeper dive to explore our galactic neighborhood. The posters are best printed on 11x17 paper. Got a suggestion for a new poster?

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Hubble Assembles Wide View of Evolving Universe

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Astronomers have put together the largest and most comprehensive "history book" of galaxies into one single image, using 16 years' worth of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

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For thousands of years, people have looked up at the night sky with questions. As technologies have advanced so to has our ability to investigate those questions. First, with telescopes, then with satellites, then space rovers, and ultimately with manned spacecraft. Humans have set foot on the moon, successfully landed rovers on Mars, and even photographed other galaxies.

Take your classroom into the great beyond with these out-of-this-world resources.

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For thousands of years, people have looked up at the night sky with questions. As technologies have advanced so to has our ability to investigate those questions. First, with telescopes, then with satellites, then space rovers, and ultimately with manned spacecraft. Humans have set foot on the moon, successfully landed rovers on Mars, and even photographed other galaxies.

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Famous astronomer participates in our STEM week activities

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Activities including astronomy

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Marc Rowlands meets Croatia's best-known astronomer Korado Korlević and learns that not all is what it seems at the world-famous Višnjan Observatory

'We are living in something called the dream society,' begins Korado Korlević in rather abstract fashion as we meet for lunch. Standing well over six feet tall, aged 61, it is not merely his imposing physical stature and the wisdom of his years that make you submit to his train of thought and listen intently; his incredible reputation precedes him. Korado Korlević is Croatia's most famous astronomer, the public face of the Višnjan Observatory. A relatively small facility, located in continental, northwest Istria, it no less holds a global significance, thanks largely to Korlević's work. As a result, he is a well-known face in Croatia's media, called on to appear in TV discussion shows, offering informed opinions on science and the future. A kindly, personable soul with tremendous communication skills, he agrees to these requests. But after no short time in his company, it becomes apparent this is not his main motivation. Neither is astronomy, for that matter. Korado Korlević is an educator. 'Society is selling dreams. You can choose if you want to be the buyer or the seller of dreams. We teach that it is better to produce than buy'.

The 'we' Korlević refers to are his fellow teachers in Višnjan. For, although founded as an observatory, the facility has grown to become the Višnjan Science and Education Centre. In classic Istrian fashion, it stands outside of the regular school system and curriculum in Croatia. A privately funded centre of excellence that teaches thousands of students of all abilities between the ages of 11 and 18 from across Croatia, it also welcomes hundreds of youngsters with an aptitude for science, who travel from all over the world to take part in its internationally renowned summer schools. In recent years, over 150 students have visited the camps each summer, travelling to Istria from countries as diverse as France, India, Japan, Canada, USA, Russia, Serbia and Turkey, a much more cosmopolitan cabal even than you would find on Istrian beaches in the same period. But why Višnjan? Why Istria?
'Only stupid people make an observatory in the north Adriatic,' says Korlević, half laughing, half serious. 'You have clouds, rain and fog. But it is not the place of the observatory which is important. It is a place to which kids can travel. It would be better to make an observatory on one of our most remote islands, or on a mountain in the desert in Namibia. No clouds, no light pollution, no nothing. But it would be useless to do so because nobody could come.'

Although he uses Istria's easy accessibility as an explanation, Korlević does so modestly. For Korado Korlević, like his ancestors before him, has always been in Istria. And it is probably true to say that without his foresight, determination and independent nature of thinking, the observatory or education centre would exist here at all.
'I was living in a place where you can really see the stars,' recalls Korlević of his youth spent in the local vicinity. 'But, it doesn't actually mean anything if you just go outside and see little dots in the sky without knowing what they are. I really only saw the stars after I started to read about them. After reading, I realised just how immense space is.'
Books about the stars were not the only thing the youthful Korlević read. A gifted student with a curious mind, by the eighth grade he had read all of the books in his school library. But, in a trait he now sees mirrored in his some of his own students from the locale, his ambitions did not match his abilities. He had every intention of becoming a blacksmith or a tractor driver.
'Often, if you ask kids "What would you like to become?", many would say "A receptionist in Poreć", "A waiter", "A cook". But when you are working with these kids you see that you have the potential in your hands of a Nobel Prize winner. Their hopes are so low'

After others had to almost force him to attend a well-regarded school in Pula, where his sponge-like mind could finally get the exercise it needed, he completed his studies and shrugged off the opportunity of pursuing high academia. Instead, he returned to Višnjan to take up a post as a teacher in an elementary school.
While still a student there, in 1976, he had already co-founded an astronomical society alongside another student and his teacher. After leaving his post at the elementary school, this modest club, through his tireless endeavours, would eventually become the major observatory and educational centre it is today, its facilities bolstered over the years by donations from private supporters and admiring sectors of the international astronomical community. But it was not always an easy ride.
'In Yugoslavia, the only place where you could coat optics was at a military factory in Sarajevo,' remembers Korlević of the times of war in the '90s. His observatory had already suffered a major setback when Yugoslavia disintegrated as all of their contacts for sharing information had previously been in Russia.
'And so the telescope became an optical instrument of the Bosnia army. I received a letter through the Red Cross in '93 from a commander saying "I am wounded. And probably the telescope will be lost. Sorry". So, we started to build a new one from scratch. It cost 75 Deutschmarks, about 35 Euros. But, at the end of the war, the Bosnian commander managed to save the optics and returned them. We no longer use them, it is just at the observatory as part of our history. But it is also a part of the history of Sarajevo.'

After the observatory became fully functional again following the war, Korlević more than made up for lost time. In the period just from 1996 to 2001, he discovered 947 asteroids and participated in the discovery of a further 110, placing him as the18th most productive tracer for asteroids of all time. Over 1400 asteroids have been discovered in Višnjan, making it the twelfth most productive observatory of all time.
'We are a small observatory, run by teachers and students, yet we are the second observatory in the world in terms of support for potentially hazardous objects which might hit the earth,' says Korlević matter-of-factly. 'In the past, we did roughly 38% of the work in that field for the world. Since the beginning of 2019, we have done 54.5% of it. If you compare us with our peers, the Chinese Academy of Science, with 13 full-time employees, or the European Space Agency...'
As alien-looking within the beautiful natural surroundings of sleepy, continental Istria as the objects far from earth which it observes, Višnjan observatory, despite its significance and achievements, is viewed by Korlević as somewhat of a ploy in a greater scheme.
'The observatory for us is like the bait for a fisherman,' he says, smiling warmly. 'It is bright, shiny, sparkly, exciting. But really we only use it to attract the little fish. That is astronomy.'
Now somewhat derisive of the science of astronomy, Korlević has helped direct the educational centre into what he regards as more pioneering and prescient areas. The centre now holds a biological laboratory, a geological laboratory, a lab for advanced technologies and robotics, Korlević being of the opinion that the most valuable sciences of the future will be biology, astrobiology, artificial intelligence, robotics and genetics.

Despite the gradual shift in focus, the same ethos lies at the heart of Korlević's teaching process. Eschewing the systems of modern education, which many think of as an exercise in learning and repetition in order to pass exams, Korlević's approach is to unlock the potential of the mind and to let it run free, aided by imagination and unafraid to learn by making mistakes.
'One of our key mottos is "Best practices are stupid",' he says. 'Because, if you follow best practices, at best you will always be second. Sometimes this works for us, sometimes it does not. But we always teach our children that they have the capacity to be the first.'
It is a modus operandi that has worked. Despite Višnjan being a quiet, 600 person village, the alumni of Višnjan Science and Education Centre can now be found as leaders in their fields in the world of science and academia. Former students now attend universities like Harvard and Cambridge and graduates include Marija Jurić, a PhD from Princeton, winner of NASA's Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Fellowship and a professor at the University of Washington. Also, Silvia Gradečak, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Marina Rejkuba, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory and Marina Brozović, who works detecting dangerous asteroids in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Despite the far-flung diaspora of former students, their teacher remains at home in the peaceful village of Višnjan, teaching by day, watching the skies by night and venturing home for only a few hours daily to enjoy the company of his wife and the menagerie of rescued animals they keep at their home. But, having earned such a name for himself on the global stage of astronomy, had Korlević never considered travelling away from the gently rolling slopes of vineyards and olive groves that surround Višnjan, in pursuit of this science?
'If you are alone, it is simple to travel. If you have a family, it is difficult. If you have students, it is impossible,' says Korado Korlević, as a man adamant his calling was greater than the pursuit of career. 'In the '90s I had an offer to move to Arizona to take a position there, but then one of the kids asked me 'Professor, what will happen with us when you go away?' I understood then that I had no right to go. I felt like the path of learning they were on was something I had promised them that we would do together. And so that is what I did.'

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Marc Rowlands meets Croatia's best-known astronomer Korado Korlević and learns that not all is what it seems at the world-famous Višnjan Observatory 'We are living in something called the dream society,' begins Korado Korlević in rather abstract fashion as we meet for lunch.

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How did we get here? How do stars and planets come into being? What happens during a star's life, and what fate will its planets meet when it dies? Come along on this interstellar journey through time and scientific detective work.
Begin Reading

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national aeronautics and space administration

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Introduction | Life and Death of a Planetary System - Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System

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How did we get here? How do stars and planets come into being? What happens during a star's life, and what fate will its planets meet when it dies? Come along on this interstellar journey through time and scientific detective work. Begin Reading

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Published: February 28, 2019

What can you see in the March sky? Jupiter and other planets in the morning, the start of spring with the spring equinox and viewing an open star cluster called the Beehive.

Transcript

What's Up for March? Jupiter in the morning, the start of spring, and a visit to the Beehive.

Jupiter greets early risers all month long (sky chart). Look low in the southeast an hour before sunrise. (And if you have an unobstructed view toward the horizon, you'll be able to spot Saturn and Venus as well, a bit lower in the sky.)

March marks the 40th anniversary of the Voyager 1 spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter, in 1979. Voyager gave us our first detailed, close-up look at the giant planet and its moons.

March also brings the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, starting on the 20th, with the Spring Equinox. Equinoxes occur twice a year, in spring and fall, on the dates when day and night are of equal length. From here until the beginning of fall, in September, daytime will be longer than nighttime, as the Sun travels a longer, higher arc across the sky each day, reaching a peak at the start of summer. It's just the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where March 20th marks the fall Equinox.

The arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere brings fresh flowers and the buzzing of bees, which makes March a great time to try to spot the Beehive Cluster. This grouping of young stars sits about 600 light years away and consists of several hundred stars that are only a few hundred million years old. That's compared to our Sun's four-and-a-half billion years. Although the Beehive can be seen as a small fuzzy patch with unaided eyes under dark skies, it's best viewed with binoculars.

To find the Beehive Cluster, look south and follow a line from brilliant Sirius - the brightest star in the sky - upward and slightly to the left, toward another of the sky's brightest stars, Procyon. Continue that path about the same distance upward and then a couple of finger widths to the left.

While the Beehive Cluster is visible in the first half of the night all month long, the best times to look for it are the first and last weeks of the month, as the Moon shines brightly mid-month, making faint objects like this cluster more difficult see.

And here are the phases of the Moon for March.

You can catch up on all of NASA's current and future missions at nasa.gov

That's all for this month.

About The Beehive Cluster

The Beehive Cluster is also known as M44, or Praesepe (Latin for trough or manger). It's an open cluster of stars - that is, a grouping of tens or hundreds of relatively young stars - thought to be about 600 million years old and a little under 600 light years distant. It appears as a small, fuzzy patch of stars to the naked eye under clear, dark skies, but it looks fantastic through binoculars. The cluster has a width on the sky of 1 to 1.5 degrees, or about the width of your index finger held at arm's length.

From Sirius to Procyon the angular distance is about 25 degrees - the width of your outstretched hand at arm's length from your thumb to your little finger. From Procyon to the Beehive Cluster, the distance is about 20 degrees - twice the width of your fist held at arm's length.

About the Seasons

Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun. This means that, as the planet orbits the Sun each year, different parts of Earth get the Sun's direct rays. It also means the Sun is in the sky longer during part of the year- summer - making for longer days and warmer temperatures, and for less time during part of the year - winter - making for shorter days and cooler temperatures. In 2019, the fall equinox is on September 23. The beginning of summer, or summer solstice, is on June 21.

More about the reasons for the seasons from NASA's Space Place: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/

Additional Resources

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What's Up: March 2019 Skywatching from NASA | NASA Solar System Exploration

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Published: February 28, 2019 What can you see in the March sky? Jupiter and other planets in the morning, the start of spring with the spring equinox and viewing an open star cluster called the Beehive. What's Up for March? Jupiter in the morning, the start of spring, and a visit to the Beehive.

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Explore the Universe with robotic telescopes, for children and adults from 8 years and up, for free!

Serol is the brain behind our unique network of robotic telescopes. With their help you will choose targets for the robotic telescopes to observe, just for you. You will be emailed when your pictures have been taken and are ready for you to analyse.

Robotic Telescopes

By simplifying the use of robotic telescopes, Serol allows anyone to become an astronomer

Ownership

You choose what to observe. We never send you a picture taken by someone else

Science

With Serol, you will learn about the different types of objects in space, and analyse your own pictures of them.

It is free to join Serol and become a Cosmic Explorer. With Serol, we have created a way for children 8 years and up to explore the Universe, using Las Cumbres Observatory's robotic telescopes. You don't need to know anything about astronomy to start the adventure. You just need a sense of adventure!

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Serol's Cosmic Adventures | powered by Las Cumbres Observatory

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Explore the Universe with robotic telescopes, for children and adults from 8 years and up, for free! Serol is the brain behind our unique network of robotic telescopes. With their help you will choose targets for the robotic telescopes to observe, just for you.

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Measuring the circumference of planets in our city by the Adriatic sea.

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The number π is a mathematical constant originally defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is approximately equal to 3.14159 and has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes spelled out as "pi". It is also called Archimedes' constant.

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NASA just graduated its newest class of astronauts. Out of the over 18,300 applicants from all around the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico, there are the 12 who were selected. For those doing the math, that puts the odds of being selected at less than 1 in 1,500. 2017's class is full of incredibly talented people with backgrounds ranging from engineering, the Navy, the Marines, to geoscience. One of the most exciting parts? Roughly half of them are women!

They join a group of only 350 who have been chosen to become astronauts since the beginning of the space program in 1959, but they're not off to outer space just yet. Before they can become eligible to go on a mission to the International Space Station, they will report to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August for a training program that lasts two years.

Out of the very select few who made the cut, here is a bit about the five women joining the ranks of NASA.

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NASA's New Astronaut Class Is Full Of Talented Women

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NASA's new class of astronauts is full of incredibly talented people from around the United States and U.S. Territories. One of the most exciting parts? Half of them are women!

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LEGO's new collection, "Women of NASA" features four game-changing space pioneers.

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Peanuts and NASA:A 50th Anniversary Celebration - ymiclassroom.com

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 10, the NASA mission that made Charlie Brown and Snoopy part of the U.S. space program when their names were used as call signs for the command and lunar landing modules. Now NASA and the Peanuts gang are teaming up again to help students explore the history...

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NASA offers a variety of roles across the STEM fields. From the traditional roles you might imagine when you think of NASA, like aerospace engineer and astrophysicist, to roles that support our mission in areas such as accounting-we have a variety of opportunities to support NASA's critical missions across STEM.

Engineering: To tackle our diverse missions, NASA hires 20 different types of engineers; the most common fields are aerospace, general, and computer engineers. Learn more about engineering careers.

Science & Research: NASA scientists conduct groundbreaking research across earth science, planetary science, heliophysics and astrophysics to answer some of the most profound questions facing humanity. Read more about science and research careers.

Data Science, Information Technology & Cybersecurity: We're bringing together the best minds to cultivate groundbreaking solutions to complex information technology, cyber and data challenges. Read more about data science, information technology, and cybersecurity careers.

Mathematics: Our business professionals contribute to critical support operations. We rely on accountants and finance experts to manage budgets for complex projects and ensure our technical teams have the resources they need to perform their mission. Read more about business services careers.

"I recognize that I am a minority in my work area, not only for my gender but also my race. Because NASA has a very inclusive culture, I don't ever feel the need to change my ways as a woman in a male-dominated field." -Josephine Santiago-Bond

As a NASA employee you'll welcomed into a diverse environment. We strive to ensure that everyone feels empowered to speak up and that their insights and opinions are respected and valued. This culture is part of why NASA is consistently named the best place to work in the federal government and ranked #1 for inclusion which measures the extent to which employees believe that leadership promotes and respects diversity. We believe that diversity drives innovation. Programs like our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) provide a sense of connection and belonging. Some of these groups are dedicated to bringing women together to provide opportunities for personal and professional growth through leadership, education, and networking.

At NASA, we are continuously learning and growing. You'll have the opportunity for professional development through a variety of mentoring, coaching, and leadership programs-some of which are targeted for women and women of color. We ensure you have access to training in areas such as project management, systems engineering, and technical communication, which can open doors for new project opportunities. And you'll have the freedom to shape your own career path based on your personal and professional goals. Whether you're interested in pursuing a different project within your field, expanding your expertise in another STEM discipline, or moving into management by leading more complex projects and teams.

We believe if you take care of the people, they will take care of the mission. We offer fantastic benefits, like health insurance, life insurance, retirement plan, and a generous leave program, including paid holidays, paid parental leave, vacation, and sick time. We are also committed to providing flexibility in your work hours and telecommuting options to help you achieve the balance that works for you. Our "Work from Anywhere" initiative is designed to ensure that employees are equipped to do just that-work from anywhere-their office, a lab, an airstrip, the space station, or their dining room table. In addition, most NASA locations offer onsite or nearby childcare facilities.

We also aim to inspire young girls to pursue STEM careers, which is why we partner with schools and organizations to support girls and create mentorship and internships opportunities.

Learn more about NASA's STEM Engagement efforts here: https://www.nasa.gov/stem

Women's History Month: LinkedIn Q&A Session

NASA has held career question and answer sessions on LinkedIn during Women's History Month. Our women leaders answer questions about what it's like to work for NASA, their career paths, and advice for applying to NASA. We've compiled a list of all of the Q&As from the last event here!

Society of Women Engineers Conference

NASA Attends SWE yearly. At SWE 2021, several of our NASA women In STEM, Deboshri Sadhukhan, Erika Alvarez, Nicole Smith, and Helen Vaccaro, discussed their experiences working at NASA in preparation for going to the Moon during the Pandemic.

Join our Women in STEM Talent Community! Sign up below to receive bi-monthly communications about job opportunities, career tips, and guidance from NASA employees on how to position yourself to join our team! Click here to register.

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NASA offers a variety of roles across the STEM fields. From the traditional roles you might imagine when you think of NASA, like aerospace engineer and

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Interactive 3D introduction

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An interactive 3D introduction to the InSight Mars mission, its technology and its scientific objectives.

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Home | Curiosity - NASA's Mars Exploration Program

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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars. View the latest news, images, and discoveries from the Red Planet.

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NASA's real-time portal for Mars exploration, featuring the latest news, images, and discoveries from the Red Planet.

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In 2021, Rosalind Franklin will set down on the rust-stained sands of Mars before setting off in hunt for chemical building blocks that could indicate the presence of life.

The new name of the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars rover was selected to honour a British chemist who contributed to the discovery of DNA's helical structure, yet never lived to see the recognition her work deserved.

A panel of experts dug through more than 36,000 entries submitted by citizens from the 22 states making up ESA membership before settling on Rosalind Franklin as the perfect name for a rover tasked with searching for complex organic chemicals.

"This name reminds us that it is in the human genes to explore. Science is in our DNA, and in everything we do at ESA," says ESA Director General Jan Woerner.

"Rosalind the rover captures this spirit and carries us all to the forefront of space exploration."

The ExoMars 2020 Mission will include surface surveillance of Martian soil and rock near the equator in the hope that signs of past or even present biochemistry might be discovered.

The previously unnamed roving laboratory will drill to a depth of up to two metres (seven feet) into the soil and analyse samples with an array of instruments.

While it's unlikely to dredge up active life forms of any real complexity, it just might find some sort of precursor to the kind of organic chemistry that kicked life off on Earth billions of years ago.

Our search for understanding of life in shared chemistry has its origins in scientific advances made early last century, as we unravelled the mysteries of molecular genetics.

Rosalind Franklin is today a name synonymous with that pioneering period. Her career as a chemist and X-ray crystallographer earned her recognition for unravelling the structures of viruses and the molecular matrix of coal.

But it's the DNA's twisted ladder that Franklin has come to be best known for.

It wasn't always the case. In the years after University of Cambridge's Francis Crick and James Watson confirmed the molecule's helical structure based on her X-ray diffraction images, Franklin's name was at best a footnote.

Watson and Crick famously went on to receive the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with a colleague of Franklin's.

Her passing ultimately excluded her from the prize. Whether she would have received such prestigious recognition at all is a matter of debate.

What does seem to be clear is her role in the landmark discovery was downplayed, occluded by laboratory politics and sexism, depriving her of the recognition her colleagues duly received over the ensuing years.

With more of her story emerging in recent decades, Franklin has come to be celebrated as a great mind of her time.

Having her name bestowed on advanced interplanetary scientific equipment is an honour she almost certainly would have appreciated according to her sister Jenifer Glynn.

"In the last year of Rosalind's life, I remember visiting her in hospital on the day when she was excited by the news of the [Soviet Sputnik satellite] - the very beginning of space exploration," Glynn told the BBC.

The name 'Rosalind Franklin' is more of a mouthful than, say, 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity'. But 'Rosalind the Rover' is still pretty nice.

And, despite some suggestions, we think it's best to not call it 'Rosie' or 'Rosy' - a nickname Franklin herself would almost certainly hate to hear.

An excellent choice of name for the life-seeking ExoMars rover & wouldn't it be perfect if it was found to have a DNA basis, indicating primitive life travelled between Earth & Mars (or vice versa) on meteorites? 😎

And you just know it's going to become Rosie the Rover 👍 https://t.co/IRvnTksqDS
- Mark McCaughrean (@markmccaughrean) February 7, 2019

Franklin's skills and expertise contributed to a revolution in understanding life on Earth. Now her namesake just might do the same thing for life among the stars.

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Here's Why Rosalind Franklin Is The Perfect Name For ESA's New Mars Rover

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In 2021, Rosalind Franklin will set down on the rust-stained sands of Mars before setting off in hunt for chemical building blocks that could indicate the presence of life. The new name of the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars rover was selected to honour a British chemist who contributed to the discovery of DNA's helical structure, yet never lived to see the recognition her work deserved.

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LEGO's new collection, "Women of NASA" features four game-changing space pioneers.

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NASA just graduated its newest class of astronauts. Out of the over 18,300 applicants from all around the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico, there are the 12 who were selected. For those doing the math, that puts the odds of being selected at less than 1 in 1,500. 2017's class is full of incredibly talented people with backgrounds ranging from engineering, the Navy, the Marines, to geoscience. One of the most exciting parts? Roughly half of them are women!

They join a group of only 350 who have been chosen to become astronauts since the beginning of the space program in 1959, but they're not off to outer space just yet. Before they can become eligible to go on a mission to the International Space Station, they will report to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August for a training program that lasts two years.

Out of the very select few who made the cut, here is a bit about the five women joining the ranks of NASA.

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NASA's New Astronaut Class Is Full Of Talented Women

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NASA's new class of astronauts is full of incredibly talented people from around the United States and U.S. Territories. One of the most exciting parts? Half of them are women!

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Celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy for the chance to attend an IAU Symposium on Diversity and Inclusion in Japan!

A new special prize has been announced for event organisers that conduct activities for IAU100 that innovatively celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy. We strongly encourage the organization of activities throughout 2019, as the perfect opportunity to celebrate girls and women in astronomy - encouraging girls to consider careers in astronomy and by recognizing the important role of women for the advancement of astronomy.

More than 150 events in 45 countries are registered with IAU100 to celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy in February and throughout the year. 11 February marks the United Nations' International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which represents the perfect opportunity to celebrate the achievements and activities of women and girls in astronomy worldwide. This can include public talks, activities, workshops, and more. You can find examples of ideas for organising activities and information on how to run inclusive and accessible events on the Inclusive Astronomy website. The IAU100 poster for Women and Girls in Astronomy can be found .

We invite event organisers and participants to share their activities on social media using and #WomenInAstronomy . IAU100 also encourages everyone to share their favourite roles models in astronomy, space and science using these hashtags throughout the month of February.

A new prize has been established for event organisers who conduct a registered activity for IAU100 celebrating women and girls in astronomy:

Contest Rules

-Eligible events include those that will be held on or before 30 June 2019 and that are registered on the IAU100 Event Calendar under the category "IAU Women and Girls in Astronomy Event".

-Event organisers will be invited to complete a feedback form to gather information about their event. IAU100 will use this information to select one event organiser who conducted an event that most innovatively and inclusively celebrated women and girls in astronomy through their activities. Eligible events will be assessed for innovation, creativity, sustainability, inclusivity and accessibility.

-This individual will be invited to attend the IAU Symposium: "Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion" in Tokyo, Japan from 12-15 November 2019, hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). This symposium will lay the groundwork for future IAU Resolutions on Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies in Astronomy.

-IAU100 will cover the chosen winner's registration cost for the symposium, up to €1000 for travel and up to €500 for accommodation.

Contest Agreement

- All decisions made by the IAU100 competition organizers about any aspect of the competition including eligibility or disqualification of applications, comments or images are final and cannot be appealed.

- By submitting information to the contest, contestants consent to the use, reproduction, publication, transmission and dissemination of their name and information relating to the award by the competition organizers and/or partners, without compensation, in any publications or promotional material, to promote the competition and its chosen winner.

- The IAU Secretariat will arrange the travel and accommodation for the winner

- IAU100 reserves the right to make changes to the competition at any time without prior notice, to temporarily interrupt the competition, or to cancel the competition without justifying or being in any way accountable for this decision. No damages or compensation may be claimed.

Project Manager, IAU100 Inclusive Astronomy
hannah.harris@wellesley.edu
On behalf of the IAUS358 Organizing Committees
lina.canas@nao.ac.jp
Jorge Rivero González
IAU100 Coordinator
rivero@strw.leidenuniv.nl

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Celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy | IAU100:Under One Sky

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Celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy for the chance to attend an IAU Symposium on Diversity and Inclusion in Japan! A new special prize has been announced for event organisers that conduct activities for IAU100 that innovatively celebrate Women and Girls in Astronomy.

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This special issue of Explorer celebrates three generations of women whose work has already left indelible impact on their fields of study.

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Beyond Curie-a design project celebrating women in STEM

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As a way to connect the Women's March to the March for Science, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya has created
6 custom posters to help celebrate both women and science. On April 22, march to safeguard the scientific community.
The posters are free to download below. Click to download and drag the file onto your desktop.

Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson (one of the three black female mathematicians portrayed in the film Hidden Figures) made calculations for NASA that were instrumental to America's first manned spaceflight in 1960, the orbital mission of John Glenn in 1962, and the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969.

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March for Science Posters - Beyond Curie-a design project celebrating women in STEM

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Mae Jemison (1956 - ) Mae is the first African American woman in space, traveling aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. She entered college for chemical engineering at Stanford University when she was only 16 years old. She is also a trained medical doctor, dancer, actress, author, and teacher.

Annie Easley (1933 - 2011) Annie was a computer scientists, mathematician, and rocket scientist who worked at NASA, starting before it was even called NASA. She co-authored numerous papers about nuclear engines in rockets throughout her career. In her personal life, she trained African Americans to take the voting test that Alabama required prior to the 1960s civil rights law which banned that practice.

Chein Wu (1912 - 1997) Chein was an experimental physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project in Hanford, Washington. Her experiments helped two colleagues win the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics. Chein taught at Princeton and Columbia Universities and won many awards for her work.

Ellen Ochoa (1958 -) Ellen is the first Hispanic woman in space, traveling aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1993. She worked as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory, where she co-invented two patents for hybrid optical/digital image processing before she began her NASA career. She is a classically trained flutist and has four schools named after her in three states (so far!).

One of the most powerful ways for a young woman to pursue STEM is to have someone encourage her to do so. Stories, visits by STEM professionals to classrooms and events, and images of women in STEM show girls the possibilities available to them, and make it harder to fall into stereotypes that boys and men are more accomplished than girls and women in these fields.

Gender diversity in STEM is good for the global economy and for business. For instance, a McKinsey January 2015 report found that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform companies that rank lower in diversity.

It's good for increased innovation, good for decision-making, and good for the stability of our future workforce in the energy sector and at the Energy Department.

If you can see it, you can be it.

For more information on the Department of Energy's STEM resources like events, classes, open houses, and student competitions, visit www.energy.gov/STEMRising.

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New Classroom Poster Series Spotlights Women in STEM

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DOE releases posters to highlight historical and present-day inventors, astronauts, explorers and mathematicians for classroom use.

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Download our STEM Role Models posters for your school or workplace - now in 7 additional languages

The STEM Role Models Posters are available in 8 different languages.

At the end of Nevertheless Season Two, we commissioned another four female illustrators from South America, Africa, the Middle East and China to produce a new set of posters. They were originally produced in English but we are delighted to say you can now download the complete set in 8 languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese Brazilian, French Canadian, Simplified Chinese and English.

The women featured serve as amazing role models in their fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM as it's often referred to). You can listen to our episode on STEM Role Models here.

We'd love you to download the posters and print them out for your school or workplace. By taking part, you'll help raise awareness of their achievements, and hopefully inspire a new generation of girls and women in STEM.

We're really enjoying seeing these posters on walls all around the world. Share your photos with us on Twitter or Instagram. And please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcast.

The podcast and posters were produced by the team at Storythings.

Tu Youyou - Pharmaceutical Chemist and Educator DOWNLOAD THE POSTER
Tu Youyou is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and educator. She discovered artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, drugs used to treat malaria. Her discovery was a significant breakthrough in 20th-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives around the world.

For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. She is the first Chinese Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine, and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu Youyou was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China.

Artist: Xu Hui. Xu Hui is an illustrator from Jinan, China. You can see more of her work on Behance.

Nevertheless is a a podcast celebrating the women transforming teaching and learning through technology. Supported by Pearson. Subscribe on
Listen to the first episode of a new season in which we look role models and what needs what needs to be done to ensure that those who want to be it, can see it.
iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, TuneIn or RadioPublic. Listen to a sample episode:

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STEM Role Models Posters - In 7 Additional Languages

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At the end of Nevertheless Season Two, we commissioned another four female illustrators from South America, Africa, the Middle East and China to produce a new set of posters. They were originally...

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international day of women and girls in science

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International Day of Women and Girls in Science

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National Geographic

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The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is what watercolor dreams are made of. Vibrant bands of clouds ripple around its thick atmosphere, making up a world so large that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside. Its Great Red Spot seems to peer out from the swirling vapors like an enormous eye in the face of a striped giant.

Though seemingly serene when viewed from the relative safety of our home world, Jupiter is a chaotic and stormy place. The gas giant planet's spots and swirls come from massive storms that whip up prevailing winds as fast as 335 miles an hour at the equator-faster than any known winds on Earth.

That includes the Great Red Spot, which is a massive hurricane-like storm called an anticyclone. It's far bigger and longer lasting than any tempests that have ever raged across our planet's surface: It rotates in an ever-present oval that's more than the width of the entire Earth, although it has been shrinking for as long as humans have been observing it.

Gas, liquid, or solid?

Jupiter is a massive ball of gas. Its clouds are composed of ammonia and water vapor drifting in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The particular cloud chemistries are likely the magic behind the planet's vibrant colors, but the exact reasons for Jupiter's painted appearance remains unknown.

Below the gassy upper layers, the pressure and temperature increase so much that atoms of hydrogen eventually compress into a liquid. Pressures climb so high that the hydrogen loses its electrons, and the soupy mess can host an electrical charge, just like metal.

The planet's fast spin on its axis means that one Jupiter day lasts less than 10 Earth hours, and it sparks electrical currents that may drive the planet's intense and massive magnetic field, which is 16 to 54 times as powerful as Earth's.

Multitude of moons

Jupiter is the second brightest planet in the night sky, after Venus, which allowed early astronomers to spot and study the massive planet hundreds of years ago. In January 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei spotted what he thought were four small stars tagging along with Jupiter. These pinpricks of light are actually Jupiter's four largest moons, now known as the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Many of these celestial orbs are as remarkable as Jupiter itself. The largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede is also the only moon known to have its own magnetic field. Volcanoes rage on Io's surface, earning it the title of the solar system's most volcanically active body. And scientists believe Europa sports a deep, vast ocean beneath its icy crust, making it a top candidate in the hunt for alien life.

But these are not the planet's only celestial tag-alongs. Jupiter has dozens more-and there may still be more to find. In 2003 alone, astronomers identified 23 new moons. And in June of 2018, researchers discovered 12 more Jovian moons that wander in oddball paths around the giant world.

Missions to Jupiter

Since Galileo first laid telescope-enhanced eyes on Jupiter, scientists have continued to study the curious world from both the ground and the sky. In 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft zipped by the gas giant, taking tens of thousands of pictures as they passed by. Among the surprises from these missions, the data revealed that giant Jupiter sports thin, dusty rings.

And when NASA's Juno spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter in 2016, it quickly started sending back breathtaking images. The stunning pictures revealed that the planet is even more wild than we once thought. Juno returned some of the first detailed looks at the planet's poles, which revealed cyclone swarms gyrating on its surface with roots that likely extend deep below the upper bands of clouds.

Though Jupiter has been so intensely examined, many mysteries remain. One enduring question is what drives Jupiter's Great Red Spot, and what will happen to it in the future. Then there's the question of what actually lies at Jupiter's core. Magnetic field data from the Juno spacecraft suggest that the planet's core is surprisingly large and seems to be made of a partially dissolved solid material. Whatever that is, it's searing hot. Scientists estimate the temperature in this region could be up to 90,032 degrees Fahrenheit -hot enough to melt titanium.

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The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is what watercolor dreams are made of. Vibrant bands of clouds ripple around its thick atmosphere, making up a world so large that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside. Its Great Red Spot seems to peer out from the swirling vapors like an enormous eye in the face of a striped giant.

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National Geographic

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Mars, the red planet: Facts and information

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The rusty world is full of mysteries—and some of the solar system’s most extreme geology. Learn more about Earth’s smaller, colder neighbor.

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National Geographic

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Named for the fleet-footed Roman messenger god, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, zipping around our parent star at an average of 36 million miles away. However, Mercury's orbit is not a perfect circle. The planet can pass as close as 29 million miles and as far away as 43 million miles.

Living up to its name, Mercury is the fastest planet in the solar system, speeding along at about 29 miles per second and completing each orbit around the sun in just 88 Earth days. Mercury is also the smallest planet in the solar system, measuring just 3,032 miles wide at its equator. That makes it only slightly larger than Earth's moon.

Because Mercury is so small and so close to the sun, it is the most elusive of the five planets that are visible to the naked eye. You can only catch Mercury at dawn and dusk, and it usually does not rise far above the horizon. But that's not the only time the tiny planet makes an appearance. Because of its position in the solar system, Mercury passes between Earth and the sun 13 times each century in an event known as a transit. During a transit of Mercury, observers on Earth can see the planet in silhouette as it seems to sweep across the sun's disk.

Since ancient times, people observing the heavens have noticed that the naked-eye planets sometimes appear to move backward, briefly shifting from their usual eastward motion to a westward path across the sky. This retrograde motion is an illusion created when one planet moves faster in its orbit than another, so that it catches up to and passes the slower world. For observers on Earth, Mercury is in retrograde about three to four times a year.

If you could watch the skies from the surface of Mercury, you would sometimes catch the rare sight of the sun in retrograde. As Mercury makes its closest approach to our smoldering star, its orbital speed exceeds its rate of rotation on its axis. That means someone standing on Mercury would see the sun start to rise, then briefly set, then rise again all within the same day.

Mercurial origins

Like the other planets in the solar system, Mercury was born about 4.5 billion years ago, condensing from the swirling ring of dust and gas left over from the sun's formation. Mercury became what's known as a terrestrial planet, with a dense metallic core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust. However, the small planet cooled very quickly, contracting enough within the first billion or so years to prevent magma from escaping through the outer crust and ending geologic activity such as volcanism on the surface.

Despite its proximity to our star, Mercury is not the hottest planet in the solar system. With no atmosphere to trap heat, surface temperatures on Mercury can swing from 800 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to -290 degrees Fahrenheit at night. Mercury may even have reservoirs of ice sitting deep inside permanently shadowed craters at its poles. By contrast, the surface of hazy Venus sits at a sweltering 880 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, making it the hottest planet in our solar system.

Lack of an atmosphere also means Mercury's surface is pockmarked by numerous impact craters, since incoming meteors don't encounter any friction that would cause them to burn up. Seen via telescopes and spacecraft, Mercury looks like a battered world covered in overlapping basins, soaring cliffs, and occasional smooth plains.

Bright lines called crater rays also crisscross the surface where impacts crushed the rock and kicked up reflective debris. One of the most notable features on Mercury is Caloris Basin, an impact crater about 960 miles wide that formed early in the planet's history. Mercury has no rings, no moons, and a relatively weak magnetic field.

Missions to Mercury

NASA's Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Mercury, conducting a series of three flybys in 1974 and 1975. During this mission, Mariner 10 photographed about 45 percent of the planet's surface.

A NASA mission called MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) became the first probe to orbit Mercury in March 2011. It investigated the planet's composition, the structure of its core, and its magnetic field, in addition to capturing global images of the surface in multiple wavelengths. The mission ended with a planned impact on Mercury's surface in April 2015.

In 2018, the European Space Agency is set to launch the BepiColombo mission, which will use two orbiters to further study the innermost planet inside and out.

This article was updated on October 19, 2018.

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Named for the fleet-footed Roman messenger god, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, zipping around our parent star at an average of 36 million miles away. However, Mercury's orbit is not a perfect circle. The planet can pass as close as 29 million miles and as far away as 43 million miles.

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National Geographic

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Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child.

Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour. That soothing sapphire expanse does reveal some of the whirling chaos below in the form of cloudy bands and massive gyres that look like dark smudges on its surface.

One "Great Dark Spot" captured by Voyager 2 in 1989 could have fit an entire Earth inside. Though it's since disappeared, others have taken its place. In March of 2019, astronomers revealed for the first time that they witnessed the birth of one of Neptune's massive storms. Nearly as big as the maelstrom that Voyager documented, the baby storm seemed to take shape from bright white clouds between 2015 through 2017, emerging as a full-fledged gyre in 2018.

Dreaming of blue

Orbiting at a distance of roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun, Neptune is the furthest planet yet discovered in our solar system (that is, after Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006). Neptune rotates quickly compared to Earth, with one day taking 16 Earth hours. But its great distance from the sun means the years are long, requiring 165 Earth years to make one trip around our glowing star.

At such a distance from Earth, Neptune is the solar system's only planet that can't be seen in our night sky without a telescope. Even neighboring Uranus, though faint, glints overhead on a clear dark night. That means that Neptune wasn't an easy planet to discover. Some suggest that Galileo Galilei first spotted Neptune as early as 1613. Many believe that he mistook it for a star at the time, yet some scientists think that may not be the case.

Most attribute Neptune's discovery to mathematical mastery in the 1800s. After the discovery of Uranus at the turn of the century, astronomers noticed it seemed to be affected by a strange gravitational tug. This oddity led British mathematician John Couch Adams to calculate Neptune's potential position in the 1840s. A couple of years later, French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier did the same.

The calculations were finally confirmed in 1846 when German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle used Le Verrier's predictions to locate the ice giant, which was dubbed Neptune after the Roman god of the sea.

Frosty but hot

Neptune is just one of two ice giants in our cosmic family, along with Uranus. It's blanketed in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, with traces of methane, water, and ammonia. Underneath an initial chilly layer, temperatures and pressures rapidly increase.

Deep under its cloud tops, Neptune might sport a vast, roiling-hot ocean of water that envelops its rocky core. But not all scientists agree that the planet is cool enough for such liquid to stick around without evaporating.

Methane in the atmosphere reflects blue light, painting the world in vibrant color. In most pictures, Neptune seems to be a deeper and more brilliant blue than Uranus, which looks like a pale turquoise dot. But Neptune is likely similarly pale as its neighbor and just appears darker in images because of its greater distance from the sun. Still, according to NASA, there may be some other, unknown component of Neptune's atmosphere that colors the world a slightly different hue.

Celestial tagalongs

Neptune has 14 known moons as of 2019. Its largest celestial tagalong, Triton, is the solar system's only large moon that has a retrograde orbit, which means it zips around Neptune in the opposite direction than its host planet's rotation. This curious orbital direction may be evidence that it wasn't always a moon.

Instead, researchers propose Triton started as a binary system-similar to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. As it passed by, Neptune's gravity kidnapped Triton from the pair and trapped it in orbit. Triton has a thin atmosphere that seems to be growing warmer, but scientists are unsure why.

Five known rings of rocks and dust encircle Neptune-all named after astronomers who helped bring to light details about the windy world. The ring names are Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams. Neptune also has several partial rings, known as arcs.

Only one spacecraft has ever visited the dark blue world. Voyager 2 whipped by in 1989, collecting captivating data and images. Though many scientists have proposed additional visits, none have yet been approved.

Until another plan is crafted to visit Neptune, researchers will have to appease their curiosity from afar, capitalizing on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as telescopes that have their bases firmly planted on the ground.

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Neptune may seem like a serene sapphire world at first glance. But don't let its quiet azure hues fool you: The eighth planet from the sun is a wild child. Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach more than 1,200 miles an hour.

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The planet explained

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Saturn was the most distant of the five planets known to the ancients. In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to gaze at Saturn through a telescope. To his surprise, he saw a pair of objects on either side of the planet. He sketched them as separate spheres and wrote that Saturn appeared to be triple-bodied. In 1659, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, using a more powerful telescope than Galileo's, proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a thin, flat ring.

The Ringed Planet

In 1675, Italian-born astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered a "division" between what are now called the A and B rings. It is now known that the gravitational influence of Saturn's moon Mimas is responsible for the Cassini Division, which is 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide.

Like Jupiter, Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of Earth. Winds in the upper atmosphere reach 1,600 feet (500 meters) per second in the equatorial region. (In contrast, the strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth top out at about 360 feet, or 110 meters, per second.) These superfast winds, combined with heat rising from within the planet's interior, cause the yellow and gold bands visible in the atmosphere.

Saturn's ring system is the most extensive and complex in the solar system, extending hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the planet. In the early 1980s, NASA's two Voyager spacecraft revealed that Saturn's rings are made mostly of water ice. They also found "braided" rings, ringlets, and "spokes," dark features in the rings that circle the planet at different rates from that of the surrounding ring material. Material in the rings ranges in size from a few micrometers to several tens of meters, and the size and structure of the rings are partly a product of the gravitational influenceof several of Saturn's moons, known as "shepherd moons." Two of Saturn's small moons orbit within gaps in the main rings, and the rings are divided into seven sections.

Many Moons

Saturn has 52 known natural satellites, or moons, and there are probably many more waiting to be discovered. Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, is a bit bigger than the planet Mercury. (Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system; only Jupiter's moon Ganymede is bigger.) Titan is shrouded in a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that might be similar to what Earth's was like long ago. Further study of this moon promises to reveal much about planetary formation and, perhaps, about the early days of Earth. Saturn also has many smaller "icy" satellites. From Enceladus, which shows evidence of recent (and ongoing) surface changes, to Iapetus, with one hemisphere darker than asphalt and the other as bright as snow, each of Saturn's satellites is unique.

Though Saturn's magnetic field is not as huge as Jupiter's, it is still 578 times as powerful as Earth's. Saturn, the rings, and many of the satellites lie totally within Saturn's enormous magnetosphere, the region of space in which the behavior of electrically charged particles is influenced more by Saturn's magnetic field than by the solar wind. Hubble Space Telescope images show that Saturn's polar regions have aurorae similar to Earth's. Aurorae occur when charged particles spiral into a planet's atmosphere along magnetic field lines.

Missions to Saturn

Voyagers 1 and 2 flew by and photographed Saturn in 1981. The next chapter in our knowledge of Saturn took place between 2005 and 2017, as the Cassini spacecraft continued its exploration of the Saturn system. The Huygens probe descended through Titan's atmosphere in January 2005, collecting data on the atmosphere and surface. Cassini has orbited Saturn more than 70 times during a 12-year study of the planet and its moons, rings, and magnetosphere. With its fuel running out, it drew closer to saturn than ever in late 2016, showing an up-close view of the planet for the first time. Cassini is sponsored by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency.

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Saturn was the most distant of the five planets known to the ancients. In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to gaze at Saturn through a telescope. To his surprise, he saw a pair of objects on either side of the planet.

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The planet explained

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On September 14, 2020, scientists announced the possible detection of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus. It's too early to say what's creating the gas, but if the result is confirmed, one possibility is that it was made by microbial life floating in the planet's thick atmosphere. Find out more about the tantalizing, if controversial, finding here.

The first spacecraft to set mechanical feet on another planet landed on Venus. In the 1960s and '70s, the former Soviet Union's Venera probes plunged through the planet's punishing atmosphere, with a handful even sending back data from its rocky surface. In December 1970, for instance, the Venera 8 lander transmitted atmospheric data for more than 50 minutes after its turbulent touchdown. These early missions provided an important lesson: Venus is like a massive pressure cooker.

Although the planet is the second closest planet to the sun, it's by far the hottest of the eight worlds in our solar system. Its thick atmosphere is mostly made of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, which traps the sun's heat and creates a runaway greenhouse effect.

Thanks to this atmospheric blanket, temperatures on Venus' surface can soar over 880 degrees Fahrenheit-hot enough to melt lead. The surface pressure is around 90 times that on Earth, which would feel like standing under about a half a mile of water. Wintertime doesn't even provide a reprieve from the heat. With an axial tilt of three degrees, Venus has just one season: hot.

Orbital oddball

The only planet named after a female figure, Venus is a celestial oddball. Though its rocks are shades of grey, its atmosphere imparts an eerie orange glow to the landscape. Together with Mercury, it's one of the few planets in our solar system without a moon. And like Uranus, it turns on its axis in the opposite direction to the rest of our celestial family. Due to this retrograde rotation, if you were to stand on Venus' surface, the sun would rise in the West and set in the East.

But don't count on catching many Venusian sunsets; the planet turns stunningly slow. A single day there takes 243 Earth days-longer than a Venusian year, which lasts 225 Earth days. And because the planet rotates in the opposite direction as its orbit, 117 Earth days pass between each sunrise and sunset.

Hellish Earth twin

Despite the strange and scorching conditions, Venus shares a surprising number of features with Earth. Measuring 7,520 miles across, Venus is roughly the same diameter as our home planet. It also has a similar structure, sporting a rocky surface and an iron core, although the planet doesn't rotate fast enough to generate an Earth-like magnetic field.

Thousands of volcanoes dot Venus' surface, some of which may still be active. Volcanic rock from cooled lava covers most of its surface-the oldest of which dates back some 500 million years. Many mountains also rise into Venusian skies. Its largest, dubbed Maxwell Montes, stands 36,000 feet tall.

The processes driving the formation of this network of formations is unusual, however. Venus doesn't appear to harbor a churning seismic engine like that on Earth, which drives our bumper-car network of tectonic plates. Yet the planet does appear to have a spidery network of breaks in its surface, hinting at an entirely new type of plate tectonics.

Scientists suspect that for up to two billion years after it formed, the planet may have even been habitable-harboring liquid oceans on its surface. Fascination with what drove that transition from happy to hellish has led many scientists to campaign for more robotic visits to Venus.

Light bringer

Venus' dense cloud cover has benefits for us Earthlings. It reflects the sun's rays, making the planet the brightest in the night sky. It's often called the morning star or evening star because its bright, steady glow persists either around sunrise or sunset. Ancient peoples spotted these dazzling points in the sky and believed them to be two different objects, one that glows in the morning and another that glows in the evening.

Similar to Mercury, Venus can occasionally be seen making a lazy trip across the sun's face, known as a transit. But while Mercury zips across the sun every 13 to 14 years, Venus transits are much more rare. The planet's orbit is almost a perfect circle but is slightly tipped relative to Earth's path around our star. This means it's incredibly hard for the sun, Venus, and Earth to align in the right way.

The last time a transit of Venus happened was in 2012, and it won't happen again until 2117.

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On September 14, 2020, scientists announced the possible detection of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus. It's too early to say what's creating the gas, but if the result is confirmed, one possibility is that it was made by microbial life floating in the planet's thick atmosphere.

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The planet explained

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Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, may initially look like a bland, blue-green ball. But there's a lot to love about the icy giant, from its 13 rings to its 27 known moons to the fact that it may even rain diamonds from its hazy atmosphere.

Uranus was the first of three planets in our solar system discovered thanks to the invention of the telescope. In March 1781 British astronomer Sir William Herschel spotted the glinting object in the sky, initially mistaking it for a comet. When it was accepted as a planet years later, Herschel lobbied to call the discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead, it got its official name from the Greek god of the sky, Uranus, who was both son and husband to Gaea, the goddess of Earth.

The planet Uranus was so hard to find in part because it is a whopping 1.8 billion miles away. But it is actually the third-largest planet in our solar system, and is roughly four times wider than Earth.

Like Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune, Uranus is a big ball of gas, often called a jovian or gas giant world. Uranus owes its vibrant blue-green hues not from unusual oceans but from an upper atmosphere flush with methane, which absorbs the sun's red light and scatters blue light back to our eyes.

The rest of planet's atmosphere is largely made of hydrogen and helium, with scant amounts of ammonia, water, and methane. Trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide also hint that, if you could visit this distant place without a spacesuit, the planet would smell like rotten eggs. While Saturn wears the crown for the least dense planet in our celestial family, Uranus is not far behind: Most of its mass is made up of an icy dense fluid of water, ammonia, and methane.

Side spinner

One particularly curious feature of Uranus is its off-kilter positioning. The gas giant is tipped on its side, spinning on its axis at nearly a right angle to its orbital path around the sun, which requires a lengthy 84 Earth-years to complete. Scientists believe that this unexpected tilt is the result of a massive collision with something the size of Earth far in the planet's past.

Thanks to its sideways turn, Uranus has some wild seasons, with the sun blazing across each pole for 21 Earth-years at a time while the opposing side lingers in the pitch blackness of space. And that's not the only strange thing about its spin. Like Venus, Uranus has what's known as a retrograde rotation, turning on its axis in the opposite direction to the rest of the planets.

Also topsy turvy is Uranus' magnetosphere, the magnetic field enveloping the gaseous world. It's tipped nearly 60 degrees from the axis of rotation. That sets the planet's auroras out of line, making them appear far from the poles, unlike those on Earth.

Beneath the blue

Only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has ever flown by Uranus at close range. The craft came as near as 50,600 miles to Uranus' cloud tops in 1986, giving scientists their first detailed peek at both the planet and its many curious moons.

During that encounter, Voyager 2 snapped what is perhaps the most famous picture of Uranus-a pale turquoise orb in a sea of darkness. But follow-up observations have since shown that there's more there than initially meets the eye. Voyager 2 captured the planet during its solstice, when one pole was bathed in sunlight and so kept a constant temperature. The lack of thermal change keeps winds to a minimum, making the planet seem bland and static.

But when Uranus moves toward its equinox-a period of time when day and night are of equal length-the sun illuminates the planet's equator. Different parts of the orb absorb the sun's rays during its 17-hour-long day, and the difference in temperature drives a swirl of storms.

What's more, Uranus's methane acts like a blue shroud, obscuring the features that lie below to telescopes operating in optical light. Infrared images, however, can pierce the layer and peer at the swirl of clouds that hide below.

There's still much more to learn about these tempests. In 2014, between Uranus's infrequent equinoxes, astronomers using the 10-meter Keck telescope spotted eight stunning squalls below its blue blanket. Scientists suggest that perhaps these vortices are rooted deeper in the atmosphere, like the storms of Jupiter. But to know for sure, researchers would need a closer look.

Voyager 2's flyby also revealed 10 previously undiscovered moons and two new rings, and its data continued to be a trove of information long after the spacecraft sailed by. In 2016, scientists reexamining Voyager 2 data discovered the possibility that the planet may harbor two more tiny moons.

Though no plan is currently in the works to go back for an even closer look, Uranus likely holds many more secrets just waiting to be discovered.

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Uranus, the Seventh Planet in Our Solar System

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Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, may initially look like a bland, blue-green ball. But there's a lot to love about the icy giant, from its 13 rings to its 27 known moons to the fact that it may even rain diamonds from its hazy atmosphere.