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2026-04-03 13:34

A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from the Orion spacecraft's window. The image features two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

NASA/Reid Wiseman

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

This and another photo of Earth are the first downlinked images from the Artemis II astronauts. See and hear what the astronauts do with our 24/7 feed.

Image credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman

Barents Sea Tied to Low Arctic Sea Ice

2026-04-03 04:00

Dark open water lies south of thin, broken up sea ice near Franz Josef Land, with a thin layer of clouds covering part of the scene.

Thin, broken-up sea ice and areas of open water dominate the northern Barents Sea in this image acquired on March 17, 2026, by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

At the top of the planet, the cap of sea ice across Arctic waters grows and shrinks with the seasons, usually reaching its annual maximum extent in March. In 2026, this peak occurred on March 15, when the extent reached 14.29 million square kilometers, matching the lowest maximum observed since satellite monitoring began in 1979. One of the key areas contributing to the low maximum this year was the Barents Sea.

The Barents Sea lies at the periphery of the Arctic Ocean, bordered to the northwest by the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, and to the northeast and east by the Russian islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, respectively. It is one of more than a dozen subregions—including the Central Arctic Ocean and nearby seas, bays, and waterways—across which scientists use remote sensing to track sea ice. The region is important for fisheries, shipping routes, and scientific research.

On March 17, 2026, the Terra satellite captured this image of the northern Barents Sea. Near Franz Josef Land, broken sea ice drifted near areas of open water closer to Novaya Zemlya. The region is often cloudy, as it was that day, but most clouds were thin enough to reveal the sea ice and water below.

In addition to the low extent, data from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite indicate that Barents sea ice in mid-March 2026 was also very thin, according to Nathan Kurtz, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Previous years, such as 2021 and 2025, also saw especially thin ice around the time of the maximum. “What was striking this year, however, was that the ice was also completely melted away in more of the Barents Sea, in addition to areas of thinning spreading northward,” Kurtz said.

On the opposite side of the Arctic, the Sea of Okhotsk also contributed to the low total sea ice extent across the Arctic in March 2026. But the factors driving the losses differ between the two regions.

In the Barents, studies have shown that the main driver is large-scale atmospheric circulation, with winds channeling warm, humid air from the North Atlantic straight into the area, accelerating melt. These winds can be influenced by tropical weather thousands of miles away. Disturbances originating over the Maritime Continent near Indonesia can “send ripples through the atmosphere that reach the Arctic within one to two weeks,” Kurtz said.

In contrast, the Sea of Okhotsk mostly has thin, seasonal ice that changes thickness from year to year. Local winds play a big role, sometimes pushing the ice together to create thicker, ridged areas, and other times spreading it out, making it thinner. Because of this, the ice loss there is mainly driven by local weather, unlike in the Barents Sea, where distant atmospheric forces have a greater impact.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

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References & Resources

NASA (2026, March 26) Arctic Winter Sea Ice Ties Record Low, NASA, NSIDC Scientists Find. Accessed April 2, 2026.
National Snow and Ice Data Center (2026) MASIE-NH Daily Image Viewer. Accessed April 2, 2026.
National Snow and Ice Data Center (2026, March 25) Arctic sea ice record low maximum strikes again. Accessed April 2, 2026.
Nihashi, S. et al. (2018) Estimation of sea-ice thickness and volume in the Sea of Okhotsk based on ICESat data. Annals of Glaciology, 59 (76pt2), 101-111
NOAA (2025) Regional Sea Ice. Accessed April 2, 2026.
Yu Feng Siew, P. et al. (2023) Physical Links from Atmospheric Circulation Patterns to Barents–Kara Sea Ice Variability from Synoptic to Seasonal Timescales in the Cold Season. Journal of Climate, 36, 8027–8040.
Zheng, C. et al. (2022) Turbulent Heat Flux, Downward Longwave Radiation, and Large-Scale Atmospheric Circulation Associated with Wintertime Barents–Kara Sea Extreme Sea Ice Loss Events. Journal of Climate, 35, 3747–3765.

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NASA’s Artemis II Mission Leaves Earth Orbit for Flight around Moon

2026-04-03 02:48

Earth’s crescent is seen from a solar array camera on the Orion spacecraft on the first flight day of the Artemis II mission.

Credit: NASA

For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts on a NASA mission are bound to fly around the Moon after successfully completing a key burn of Orion’s main engine.

With the approximately six-minute firing of the spacecraft’s service module engine on Thursday, known as the translunar injection burn, Orion and its crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen accelerated to break free of Earth’s orbit and began the outbound trajectory toward Earth’s nearest neighbor.

“Today, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans have departed Earth orbit. Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy now are on a precise trajectory toward the Moon. Orion is operating with crew for the first time in space, and we are gathering critical data, and learning from each step,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each milestone we reach marks meaningful progress on the path forward for the Artemis program. While we have eight intensive days of work ahead, this is a big moment, and we’re proud to share it with the world.”

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, sending the four astronauts on a planned 10-day test flight around the Moon and back.

After reaching space, Orion deployed its four solar array wings, enabling the spacecraft to receive energy from the Sun, while the crew and engineers on the ground immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to flight operations to start checking out key systems.

About 49 minutes into the test flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second planned burn by the stage propelled Orion, which the crew named “Integrity,” into a high Earth orbit extending about 46,000 miles above the Earth for about 24 hours of system checkouts. After the burn, Orion separated from the stage, flying free on its own.

The crew then conducted a manual piloting demonstration to test Orion’s handling qualities using the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) as a docking target.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely back away from the ICPS, after which the stage performed its own disposal burn and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.

Prior to its re-entry, four small CubeSats were deployed from SLS rocket’s Orion stage adapter.

Other tasks completed so far include a transition to the Deep Space Network for communications, the crew becoming acclimated to the space environment, completing their first rest periods, performing the first flywheel exercise, restoring the spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations, and configuring the spacecraft for the translunar injection burn.

During a planned lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, the astronauts will take high resolution photographs and provide their own observations of the lunar surface, including areas of the far side of the Moon never seen directly by humans. Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes, and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination.

Following a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Follow the latest mission progress, including more images from the test flight, at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii

-end-

Cheryl Warner / Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

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Apr 02, 2026

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Artemis II Astronauts Launch to Moon

2026-04-02 16:50

The Artemis II Moon rocket lifts off. There is a bright yellow-orange plume of fire underneath the rocket. The trees in the foreground appear in shadow.

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lift off in this April 1, 2026, image. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft.

See more launch day photos.

Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Réunion Island Lava Reaches the Sea

2026-04-02 04:01

Thermal image of Piton de la Fournaise showing a bright lava flow on the southeastern flank contrasted with cooler vegetation and rock.

Lava flows east in this thermal image captured by the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) on Landsat 9 on March 28, 2026.

NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

Located 700 kilometers (440 miles) east of Madagascar, Réunion Island is the product of a long-lived mantle hotspot on the floor of the Indian Ocean. The island first emerged above the ocean’s surface about 2 million years ago. It remains active today, with frequent eruptions from Piton de la Fournaise, a shield volcano on the island’s eastern side.

Since the 17th century, the volcano has had more than 150 documented eruptions. The most recent began within the Enclos Fouqué caldera on February 13, 2026, with the opening of four fissures that fueled sustained lava fountains reaching 10 to 50 meters (30 to 160 feet). Throughout February and March, basaltic lava spilled down the volcano, advancing through forested and grassy areas toward its eastern side.

This thermal satellite image shows lava flowing east toward the ocean on March 28, 2026. The signal reveals the amount of heat emanating from surfaces on Earth based on detections of thermal radiation in two wavelengths. Warmer areas are mapped in yellow and cooler surfaces in blue. The thermal data were overlaid on a digital elevation model of the island.

The current activity likely marks the onset of a new cycle of frequent eruptive activity at Piton de la Fournaise

Diego Coppola

University of Turin

“The hottest areas, shown as the brightest tones, correspond to the eruptive vent, the active lava channel, and the flow front,” said Adele Campus, a University of Turin volcanologist. From the vent, lava flows downslope for several kilometers, often through lava tubes. “The places where lava re-emerges at the surface through breakouts appear as localized hotspots,” she added. Campus and colleagues analyzed more than two decades of NASA and NOAA satellite observations in a 2025 study, identifying key trends and patterns in the volcano’s thermal activity and rate of lava effusion.

On March 13, lava cut through the island’s Route Nationale 2 (RN2). By March 16, it had begun to spill into the Indian Ocean, producing acidic plumes of steam and volcanic gases, known as laze, according to the Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF). Scientists on the ground measured lava temperatures of 1,100 to 1,130 degrees Celsius (2,010 to 2,070 degrees Fahrenheit) as lava neared the ocean. Thermal surveys also showed that water temperatures exceeded 36°C (97°F) up to 600 meters from the entry point, according to OVPF. As of March 24, materials entering the ocean had created a new lava delta that extended the coastline by 190 meters.

“This eruption appears to be longer and to have produced a larger volume of lava than usual,” said Diego Coppola, a professor of volcanology at the University of Turin who coauthored the analysis with Campus. Such characteristics are often associated with the onset or end of an eruptive cycle. The most recent cycle began in 2014, culminated in 2015, and ended in July 2023. “The current activity,” he said, “likely marks the onset of a new cycle of frequent eruptive activity at Piton de la Fournaise.”

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Story by Adam Voiland.