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IGARSS 2026
Join NASA in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #100) for Hyperwall Storytelling by NASA experts. Full Hyperwall Agenda below.
MONDAY, AUGUST 10
| 3:00 PM | Technology Enabling the Future of Earth Science | Mike Seablom |
| 3:15 PM | Discovery Earth: New Missions & Technical Innovation Advancing Earth System Insights |
Karen St. Germain |
TUESDAY, AUGUST 11
| 10:00 AM | STELLA: Open-Source Multisenor Platforms For Real-Time Environmental Monitoring | Mike Taylor |
| 10:15 AM | NOAA Geostationary Satellites: Valuable Data for both Research and Operational Use | Dan Lindsey |
| 3:00 PM | Discovering Mineral Resources with NASA Imaging Spectroscopy | Robert O. Green |
| 3:15 PM | The Importance of Satellite Ocean Observations at NOAA |
Paul Chang |
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
| 10:00 AM | Enabling Earth Science Data to Serve Society | Joel Scott |
| 10:15 AM | Microwaving the Solar System | Shannon Brown |
| 3:00 PM | NISAR Updates, One Year After Launch | Paul Rosen, Marco Lavalle |
| 3:15 PM | Office of the Chief Science Data Officer: Data Driven Exploration |
Lauren Leese |
2026-08-07 14:27
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
2026-08-07 06:25

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.
2026-08-07 04:05
APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
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.
Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy shapes and sizes is astonishing. Some of them are so far away that their light has traveled for billions of years before reaching Earth. Rubin will come back every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will allow a dynamic view of the COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.
Tomorrow’s picture: What’s next?
| Date | August 7, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit & Copyright | NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA |
| Authors & editors: | Cecilia Chirenti, Jerry Bonnell, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |
2026-08-07 04:00
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.
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