Great Dark Spot

Episode 1: Launch. Meet Lucy as she prepares for the first-ever journey to the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. 

How can you communicate with Mars spacecraft when the Sun is in the way? Learn more about 'solar conjunction' in this 60-second video.

December 2, 2020, marked the 25th anniversary of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO – a joint mission of the European Space Agency and NASA. Since its launch on that date, the mission ...

On Earth, the ocean floor is home to hydrothermal vents that spout hot water, nourishing life in an otherwise inhospitable environment. Scientists think similar vents could exist on other worlds.

With kaleidoscopic forms and hues, these two false-color views from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the patterns that come and go in the course of one Saturn day within the huge storm in the planet'...

On Nov. 24, 2021, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will lift off on a ten-month journey to crash into a distant asteroid – on purpose.

What's Up for August? This month our main focus is the Perseid meteor shower.

~13 minute video featuring Navajo, Cherokee and Northern Arapaho traditional knowledge of solar eclipses.

This Cassini movie -- the first of its kind -- shows lightning on Saturn's night side flashing in a cloud that is illuminated by light from Saturn's rings.

Mars makes a triangle with reddish stars, Aldebaran and Betelgeuse, the Moon hangs out with Jupiter, and September 23rd brings the equinox.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission launched Aug. 12, 2018, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

This movie created from images obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows a propeller-shaped structure created by a hidden, embedded moon moving through one of Saturn's rings.

Project Scientist Linda Spilker and Mission Planner Molly Bittner answer questions about Cassini's Ring-Grazing orbits during this Jan. 30, 2017 Facebook Live event. 

MESSENGER captured this departure sequence of Venus after a close flyby of the planet in 2007.

What can you see in the December sky? Beautiful pairings of planets and the crescent Moon throughout the month, at sunrise and sunset.

During its first operating cycle, the James Webb Space Telescope will set its sights on the TRAPPIST-1 system.

This graphic and animation depicts a cross-section of the Saturnian moon Titan.

~2 minute video from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows several visualizations of what Earth's shadow would look like from space during a lunar eclipse.

The winds in the outermost “lane” of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are accelerating – a discovery made possible by Hubble.

~2 minute video explaining how life can survive on Earth.

This spectrogram and video show a changing pattern of radio waves from Saturn known as Saturn Kilometric Radiation, as detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Look for Mars close to the Pleiades in the first weeks of March. Then wake up early to observe the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.

Seeking August 2020 skywatching highlights? The Moon poses with the planets, and the Perseid meteors peak!

Hello from Saturn, essentially on the opposite side of the sun as seen from Earth! This annual occurrence called solar conjunction, when Saturn (and Cassini) nearly disappear behind the sun.

Learn more about the best-known black hole systems in our galaxy and its neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.