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Scientists using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) conducted more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408, shown in this Aug. 5, 2026, artist’s concept, between March and April 2025. In doing so, they may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed.

Magnetars are a special class of neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, the strongest of any object in the observable universe, around a trillion times stronger than the strongest permanent magnets ever built on Earth.

Image credit: NASA/Pablo Garcia

Before astronauts return to the Moon’s surface through NASA’s Artemis program, the hardware they depend on must first prove it can survive the unforgiving lunar environment. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers at the Lunar Development and Test Facility are tackling one of exploration’s biggest challenges: Moon dust. 

Unlike sand on Earth, lunar dust is sharp, abrasive, and clings to nearly everything. Without mitigation, lunar dust could damage equipment and spacesuits while posing health risks to astronauts. Understanding and mitigating the effects of lunar dust is essential as astronauts prepare to live and work on the surface of the Moon.  

Located within the Energy Systems Test Area and managed by NASA engineers, the Lunar Development and Test Facility supports the development and testing of hardware in simulated lunar conditions. Engineers evaluate systems and subsystems inside vacuum chambers using lunar regolith simulant to better understand how spacesuits, spacecraft components, and mechanisms with moving parts and joints will perform during future Artemis missions. 

NASA Johnson’s Propulsion and Power Division developed specialized systems that make the facility’s lunar simulations possible. The facility includes a dust containment and preparation laboratory for ambient testing, a 3-foot cube vacuum chamber, and a 15-foot thermal vacuum chamber. 

Inside the chamber, engineers test hardware under realistic lunar conditions using lunar regolith simulant. The chamber uses a closed-loop nitrogen system to recreate the harsh lunar environment.  

“The facility helps develop and test technologies needed for long-duration lunar exploration,” said Mike Salinas, Propulsion and Power Division branch deputy chief. “Engineers are advancing techniques to extract resources from lunar regolith, which can be turned into oxygen for astronauts and liquid oxygen for rocket propellant.” 

The spirit of exploration extends beyond the facility’s walls. Its exterior features a large-scale mural depicting astronauts exploring the lunar surface beneath a view of the cosmos. Completed in 2024 by artist Sebastian Boileau, the artwork celebrates the innovation, ingenuity, and discovery happening inside the building every day. 

Now, anyone can step inside the facility from anywhere. Explore NASA’s new 3D virtual tour of the Lunar Development and Test Facility to see where engineers are helping prepare the technologies that support this Golden Age of exploration and innovation.  

At the top and bottom of the planet, the seasons arrive on a schedule all their own. Satellite data from a mission measuring infrared energy reveal just how differently—and how dramatically—surface temperatures swing across two full years at the poles.

In this animation, surface temperatures across the Arctic and Antarctic pulse between cold (dark blue) and milder to warm (lighter blue to red). Data for the animation come from NASA’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) satellites. The mission’s twin CubeSats began collecting science data in July 2024 and have now captured two complete seasonal cycles at each pole.

Because the two poles sit in opposite hemispheres, their seasons occur at opposite times—and the swing between seasons differs, too. In the Arctic, cold, dark winters give way to summers warm enough to thaw vast stretches of tundra and sea ice. In Antarctica, Earth’s coldest continent, summer temperatures rarely climb above freezing before the bitter cold of winter returns.

Surface temperatures, and how they fluctuate, offer a window into Earth’s energy budget, the net flow of energy into and out of the Earth system. Sunlight absorbed by the surface is re-radiated as infrared heat, which bounces between Earth’s surface and atmosphere before escaping to space. The poles play an important role in this process. Atmospheric and ocean circulation carries excess heat absorbed in the tropics toward the poles, where it radiates away to space, helping regulate the planet’s temperature.

“By measuring invisible heat radiating from Earth’s coldest places, PREFIRE is helping scientists understand why the poles are changing so rapidly, and what those changes might mean for the rest of the planet,” said Chad Greene, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Scientists have long known that far-infrared radiation accounts for nearly 60 percent of the energy Earth loses to space, but that portion of the spectrum—invisible to human eyes—had never been comprehensively measured on a global scale. By directly tracking this invisible energy in near-real-time, the PREFIRE mission is helping scientists refine models and gain a better understanding of the Earth system.

“Weather systems, river flows, shipping routes, and ice sheet stability are all influenced by energy movement in a part of the spectrum that only PREFIRE can see,” said Tristan L’Ecuyer, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator of the PREFIRE mission. “Now that the invisible has been made visible, we can begin to improve weather and climate predictions that industries, our national defense, and Arctic communities rely on.”

Maps courtesy of Chad Greene, NASA/JPL, using data from NASA’s PREFIRE mission. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

References & Resources

• NASA Earthdata, PREFIRE. Accessed August 5, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2009) Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget. Accessed August 5, 2026.
• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2025, August 15) NASA’s PREFIRE CubeSat Mission Extended. Accessed August 5, 2026.
• L’Ecuyer, T.S., et al. (2021) The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 102(7).

The NASA Science Activation Program’s Cosmic Storytelling with NASA Data (CosmicDS) project, led by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, works to bring authentic NASA data into the hands of educators and learners. From July 27–29, 2026, the CosmicDS team partnered with the Smithsonian Institution’s BEST AQI (Breathing Easier: Supporting Teen Air Quality Investigations) project to host a Leadership Institute at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, MA. The Institute brought together 13 formal and informal educators who serve as advisors to BEST AQI, an initiative that guides teens through their own air quality research to support actions that improve air quality in their communities.

On Day 1 of the Institute, the CosmicDS Science Principal Investigator Pat Udomprasert led a hands-on immersion session introducing educators to TEMPO-Lab, a free online tool built with NASA Science Activation Program funding. TEMPO-Lab lets learners explore and analyze near-real-time air quality measurements collected by NASA’s TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission, which measures pollution across North America hourly during daylight hours. During Days 2 and 3 of the Institute, as educators worked together to co-develop BEST AQI curriculum and resources, they used TEMPO-Lab to build case studies covering a variety of real-world air quality scenarios, including wildfire smoke and emissions from rush-hour traffic, power plants, and agriculture. These case studies will give the teens in their programs a strong foundation for investigating air quality where they live and deciding what actions they might take in their own communities.

One moment made the workshop especially memorable. During a science briefing, TEMPO scientist Heesung Chong shared that a new beta-version ground-level ozone data product had recently become available. TEMPO-Lab’s flexible design made it possible for CosmicDS software developer and educator John Lewis to integrate the new data product into the tool overnight, letting workshop participants explore cutting-edge ozone data themselves the very next morning. It was a striking example of how CosmicDS’s data tools can match the pace of active NASA science, giving educators and their learners access to data almost as soon as scientists themselves do.

“The BEST AQI Leadership Institute reinforced the value of the TEMPO-Lab as a tool for empowering youth to investigate local air quality issues using authentic NASA data. Educators were excited not only by the scientific capabilities of the platform, but by its potential to help young people use evidence to make informed decisions and contribute to positive change in their communities.”

— Erika Wright, Education Specialist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), and BEST AQI Principal Investigator

Equipping educators with both the technical skills and the curriculum to bring NASA air quality data into their classrooms matters because it builds data literacy skills that teens can carry into any career, while also giving them the tools to investigate issues that affect their health and their own communities. Air quality is a subject teens can see, smell, and feel the effects of — and BEST AQI is designed to help them turn that lived experience into evidence-based understanding and, ultimately, action.

The CosmicDS team will continue supporting these efforts in the year ahead. The 13 educators who attended this Leadership Institute plan to share the BEST AQI toolkit and TEMPO-Lab with approximately 100 additional educators across their partner sites in South Dakota, Maryland, and New York, potentially extending this work to thousands of teen air quality researchers.

Experience TEMPO-Lab at https://projects.cosmicds.cfa.harvard.edu/tempo-lab and learn more about the CosmicDS project at https://cosmicds.cfa.harvard.edu.

Cosmic DS is supported by NASA cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0002 and is part of the NASA Science Activation Program portfolio, which connects learners with authentic NASA science experiences through partnerships with educators and community organizations.

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