NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

10/30/2026

🎃 What's that lurking just beyond the light of our own Sun? Something haunts the universe.

Gather 'round the campfire for a Halloween tale of terror: a planet that never existed at all.

10/29/2026

🪐 Nearly a billion miles away, an extraordinary destination awaits. NASA’s Dragonfly mission will journey across the solar system to Saturn’s largest moon Titan, and your name can come along!

Add your name to the passenger list and receive a personalized boarding pass for the adventure ahead. Become a Dragonflyer today: go.nasa.gov/dragonfly-names

10/29/2026

Higher waters, warmer waters, bluer waters

El Niño is a natural weather pattern that occurs roughly every 2-7 years. This year’s is on track to be the strongest on record. While El Niño occurs in the Pacific Ocean, its effects can be felt all around the world. NASA satellites like PACE and Sentinel-6 are equipped to measure some of the key features of the phenomenon.

As months pass in 2026, notice the large swath of higher-than-normal waters and warmer-than-normal waters, appearing red, growing along the equator. Phytoplankton are also feeling the heat and are changing the color of the ocean — bluer, in areas that are typically greener from phytoplankton abundance.

10/29/2026

All treats, no tricks!

Grab yourself something sweet: a pixel of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's first images. Adopt your own and become part of our bigger picture of the universe, no costume needed!
go.nasa.gov/AdoptAPixel

10/27/2026

Witnessing a total solar eclipse can be a mind-blowing experience. The beauty of the cosmos, the celestial geometry at play... People travel thousands of miles to see one. Just ask the crew of NASA Artemis II.

During their journey, they had the ultra-rare opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse from the far side of the Moon. This eclipse lasted much longer than those seen on Earth and allowed the crew to study features of the Sun's outer atmosphere usually drowned in light. The darkness also gave them the chance to observe impact flashes on the lunar surface, planets such as Mars and Saturn, galaxies, stars, and a soft glow around the Moon called “zodiacal light,” which is created by sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust.

10/26/2026

Eye see you 👁️

The sonification of the Helix Nebula scans from left to right, where redder colors correspond with lower pitches while bluer colors are associated with higher pitches. This nebula formed when a low-mass star shed its outer layers at the end of its lifetime. It has been called "The Eye of Sauron" for its uncanny and all-seeing appearance.

This Halloween sonification transforms this cosmic phenomena into a haunting audio landscape. Sonifications convert astronomical data, like brightness and position, into auditory data allowing people to experience the universe in a different way. By listening to the data, scientists can notice patterns that might go otherwise unseen, and they allow blind and visually impaired communities to hear the hymns of the cosmos.

10/23/2026

Science that never goes out of style 🎶

Managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was originally designed to last just two years but is now concluding science operations over two decades later. To celebrate its contributions, let’s reflect on the legacy of a mission that far outlived expectations.

Swift’s specialty was gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) — powerful flashes of high-energy light. They typically last for seconds and are produced by extreme events, like massive stars collapsing. Swift constantly surveyed the sky for these bursts and autonomously slewed its telescopes toward them within moments, capturing their afterglows before they faded.

During its mission, Swift made groundbreaking discoveries, including ultralong GRBs that can last for hours. It also detected the first known “anti-glitch,” a rare event in which a rapidly spinning neutron star suddenly slowed down. The mission discovered over 1,700 GRBs, contributing to our understanding of the collapse of stars and formation of black holes.

10/23/2026

This planet is haunted! 👻

Ghosts of volcanoes, lakes and more are visible in echoes seen from space. Explore a spot on our planet haunted by its past: a lake that dried up but never really left.

About 55,000 years ago, a lake formed across Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. Lake Bonneville was nearly as large as modern-day Lake Michigan, formed partly by volcanic eruptions diverting the Bear River. About 18,000 years ago, the lake burst a natural dam holding it back, causing water levels to plummet hundreds of feet and eventually dry up.

But Lake Bonneville left ghosts: The dried lakebed — where fine-grained clay, marl, and sandy sediment settled out of the water — appears pale in comparison to the darker, rockier, more vegetated surroundings. In deep parts of the basin, where runoff and groundwater still pool, bright deposits of evaporite minerals still haunt the land surfaces, forming salt flats. These remarkably flat surfaces formed from water gradually evaporating and concentrating minerals to produce brines and hard mineral crusts, like halite and gypsum.

10/22/2026

10/20/2026

Sometimes bringing NASA’s missions to the public means you get closer to the mission than expected!

James Tran is a Public Affairs Intern in Goddard's Office of Communications. His work supports engagement events, internal communications, and visual storytelling. He’s gaining hands-on experience in public speaking, shooting photography, and crafting the communications that help people connect to NASA and its missions.

This fall, James supported emeritus astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman’s visit to Goddard as part of the event's photography team, capturing moments that were later shared and credited across NASA communications and social media.

“I’ve spent my internship helping NASA share its mission, but meeting Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman showed me that interns get to feel part of that story, too. It’s moments like these that I’ll carry with me well beyond my internship.”