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Breaking Barriers at 3rd Annual Findings from the Field Symposium

2026-05-04 16:58

One student and one adult stand in front of a research poster having a discussion.

Students had the opportunity to practice their science communication skills during the poster session portion of the Findings from the Field Symposium, held in Portland Maine.

On March 30, 2026, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) and the NASA Science Activation program’s Learning Ecosystems Northeast (LENE) project hosted the third installment of the Findings from the Field Student Research Symposium. This annual event and associated Findings from the Field journal are where students are the experts and the usual “white coat” barriers associated with science communication come down. This year’s event welcomed 106 students, grades four through eight, 29 educators, and 15 Subject Matter Experts, and it featured 68 research posters, 14 lightning talks, and 5 discussion sessions.

To continue to foster a sense of belonging, the 2026 symposium introduced several shifts in how students interacted with science experts, data, and each other. In a move that subverted the traditional “look but don’t touch” rule of science, the first part of the day had students engaging in an activity inspired by the Data Vandals art group. They marked up visuals and treated data as a living, breathing conversation rather than a static fact. Another shift occurred within small discussion groups – the physical layout helped position the student scientists as the professionals. Students sat at the main table, while adults and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) sat behind them. This put the youth, and their findings, at the center of the room.

A keynote speech given by Dr. Dave Reidmiller, Chief Impact Officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, delivered what became the day’s unofficial mantra – “Science is a team sport”. This idea was reinforced in discussion groups with youth where they realized that scientific inquiry isn’t isolated. Students from different schools discovered they were essentially colleagues working on the same problems.

In the “Ash and Hemlock” groups, students who had only read about invasive pests found themselves swapping notes with students who had actually identified them in the field. Guiding questions posed by facilitators helped bridge any gaps in their knowledge and move the conversation forward:

What happened?
How do we know?
Why does it matter?

These three questions allowed youth and adults to speak the same language, connecting the dots between their local data and the broader community issues they impact.

A new addition to the “Team Sport” this year was the increased presence of undergraduate students. Serving as a middle ground between the younger students and the career scientists, these mentors made the path to a scientific career feel reachable.

The second part of the day featured the students’ poster presentations. Here, they practiced communicating their work to an audience of peers and professional scientists, including leaders from the Maine Forest Service and NASA-affiliated researchers.

Perhaps the most defining moment of the symposium didn’t come from a keynote or a professional scientist. It happened in a breakout room during a discussion about environmental data. When a question was posed by another student toward a SME, a student leaned forward and jumped in to answer instead. This wasn’t just confidence; it was the manifestation of the symposium’s primary goal. Youth are experts too.

In the two previous iterations, the Symposium was hosted throughout the entire GMRI building, with posters lining the hallways and every conference room booked with lightning talks. When planning began for 2026, it quickly became clear that we had outgrown the space. Community supporters at GMRI corporate partner, Unum, graciously offered their office to host the growing number of students interested in participating. With the immediate feedback received, 2027 should be even bigger:

“I really enjoyed being able to connect with others on the cool science topics, and being able to share what I’ve learned.”

“I’ve never done something like this before… I might want to research more.”

“Hopefully, I get to do this next year.”

The 3rd Annual Findings Symposium proved that when you give young people a platform, and a sense of agency, they don’t just participate in science, they lead it. After all, they are the experts in the room.

The Learning Ecosystems Northeast project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AB94A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/about-science-activation/

Blue Origin Moon Lander Completes Testing at NASA Vacuum Chamber

2026-05-04 16:31

Environmental testing of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lunar lander has been completed inside Thermal Vacuum Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Also known as Endurance, MK1 is an uncrewed cargo lander funded by Blue Origin as a commercial demonstration mission to advance Human Landing System capabilities in support of NASA’s Artemis program. The tests in Chamber A represent a public-private partnership model, with Blue Origin conducting work through a reimbursable Space Act Agreement.

Endurance will demonstrate precision landing, cryogenic propulsion, and autonomous guidance, navigation, and control capabilities in support of future lunar surface operations. In addition to its primary objectives, MK1 will carry two NASA science and technology payloads under the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative to the lunar South Pole region this year: the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies, an array of high-resolution cameras that will collect imagery of the interaction between the lander’s engine plume and the lunar surface during descent and landing, and the Laser Retroreflective Array, which helps orbiting spacecraft determine a more precise location using reflected laser light.

Through CLPS, NASA partners with American companies to deliver science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon, advancing understanding of the lunar environment and supporting future crewed missions as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign.

Testing in NASA Johnson’s Chamber A, one of the world’s largest thermal vacuum test facilities, enabled engineers to model the vacuum of space and the extreme temperature conditions the spacecraft would experience during flight. By recreating these conditions on the ground, teams evaluated system performance and verified structural and thermal integrity prior to launch. NASA and Blue Origin will incorporate lessons learned from MK1’s design, integration, and testing to support NASA’s future Artemis missions that will return American astronauts to the Moon.

MK1’s development contributes to technology maturation and risk reduction for future human-class systems, including Blue Moon Mark 2 (MK2), a larger crewed landing system designed to safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back, enabling sustained human exploration at the Moon’s South Pole region.

Testing of MK1 at NASA Johnson is enabled through the agency’s “front door” approach — a coordinated process that provides commercial partners access to NASA facilities and technical expertise while maintaining safety, mission assurance, and alignment with agency objectives.

More information about Thermal Vacuum Chamber A is available at https://www.nasa.gov/setmo/facilities/thermal-vacuum-chamber-a/

Hubble Spots a Starry Spiral

2026-05-04 15:17

A close view of spiral galaxy that is tilted at an angle, so that its disk fills the view from corner to corner. Its disk is yellow near to the center and pale blue farther out, showing cooler and hotter stars, respectively. Thin brown clouds of dust, glowing pink spots of star formation, and sparkling blue patches filled with star clusters swirl through the galaxy. Behind it, small orange dots are very distant galaxies.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker and the PHANGS-HST Team

In this new picture from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a spiral galaxy glittering with star clusters is the center of attention. NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump). As a nearby spiral galaxy, this target offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the cycle of stellar birth and death, as well as giving researchers a glimpse of a galactic system similar to our own.

NGC 3137 is of particular interest to astronomers because it travels through space with a group of galaxies that is thought to be similar to the Local Group, the galaxy group that contains our Milky Way. Similar to the Local Group, the NGC 3175 group contains two large spiral galaxies: NGC 3137 and NGC 3175, which Hubble has also observed. In the Local Group, the largest members are the Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda, another spiral galaxy. In addition to two large spiral galaxies, both groups also contain a number of smaller dwarf galaxies, although it’s not yet known how many of these tiny companions the NGC 3175 group has; researchers have found more than 500 dwarf galaxy candidates. By studying this nearby galaxy group, astronomers can learn about the dynamics of our own galactic home.

For NASA’s TESS, Stellar Eclipses Shed Light on Possible New Worlds

2026-05-04 13:32

4 min read

For NASA’s TESS, Stellar Eclipses Shed Light on Possible New Worlds

A study of NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data on stellar pairs undergoing mutual eclipses has uncovered more than two dozen candidate exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system. This method allows the mission to locate planets it couldn’t otherwise detect.

A gas giant planet looms in the foreground at right, illuminated by a pair of stars, in this artist’s concept of a world in a binary system. NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has found planets in two binary star systems by looking for stellar dimming as the planets cross in front of one of the stars. Astronomers have now demonstrated a new method of finding planets in these systems by focusing on the timing of the stars’ mutual eclipses.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

To date, TESS has discovered 885 confirmed exoplanets and identified more than 7,900 candidates, nearly all found because the planets pass in front of their stars from our perspective. These events, called transits, produce a small, regular dip in the brightness of the planet’s host star. TESS also observes tens of thousands of eclipsing binary stars — two orbiting stars that alternately eclipse each other from our vantage point. Astronomers can detect the gravitational tug of exoplanets in these systems by carefully measuring the exact timing of many eclipses. Prior to the new study, discoveries by NASA’s retired Kepler mission and other facilities had recorded 16 transiting worlds around binary stars, while TESS had found an additional two.

“Identifying transits in binary systems clearly is challenging, but we’d like to know more about the range of planets that can form around two gravitationally bound stars,” said study lead Margo Thornton, a doctoral candidate at UNSW (University of New South Wales) in Sydney. “So we developed a survey to search for planets using stellar eclipses that is not limited to the orientation of the planet’s orbit.”

A paper describing the findings published May 4 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

For planets located in binary systems, the orientation of the planet’s orbit can tell us about how that system formed. Some models of planet formation in binary systems suggest planets mainly form near the plane formed by the two orbiting stars, increasing the likelihood of binaries hosting transiting worlds. But other models indicate a much more disorderly formation process, with the stellar pair stirring its young planets into wider and more tilted paths much less likely to undergo transits.

The timing of stellar eclipses can gradually change through tidal and rotational interactions between the stars, the effects of general relativity, and the presence of other unseen masses, such as planets, in the system. All of these forces cause the entire orbital plane of the binary to rotate, or precess, and this in turn alters the eclipse timing.

“The key to calculating all of these different influences is the long, rich set of observations available from TESS,” said co-author Benjamin Montet, a Scientia associate professor at UNSW Sydney. “After analyzing 1,590 binaries with at least two years of TESS data, we found 27 with candidate planets that now await confirmation.”

Infographic outlining the new discovery method

Explore how observations of stellar eclipses can expand the capabilities of NASA’s TESS, leading to the discovery of new candidate planets it couldn’t otherwise detect.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy

Since science operations began in 2018, TESS has tiled the sky by observing large swaths, called sectors, for nearly a month. Currently, the mission’s cameras capture a single image of the entire sector, measuring 24 by 96 degrees, about every 3 minutes, with even faster observations of selected targets.

The masses of the new candidates remain uncertain, but the team estimates the smallest world may hold as little 12 Earth masses, with the largest topping out around 3,200 Earths, or about 10 times Jupiter’s mass. Confirming these planets will require future ground-based observations that precisely measure the velocities of the host stars, which will reveal the slight gravitational tugs of any possible planets.

“The TESS mission was built to find transiting planets, and it’s great to see how the same measurements are driving discoveries far beyond its original mission,” said Allison Youngblood, the TESS project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The mission’s continuing data collection is a treasure trove that enables new findings across a wide range of astronomical topics, from asteroids in the solar system to active galaxies powered by black holes in the distant universe.”

You could discover the next exoplanet! Join the Planet Hunters TESS citizen science project, and you’ll learn how to read light curves — plots of light data from distant stars — to find telltale signals from orbiting exoplanets.

By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Additional releases

UNSW Sydney: New Star Wars-like planet candidates with two suns discovered

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Last Updated

May 04, 2026

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LAGEOS: An Earth Science Mission Built for Enduring Precision

2026-05-04 13:15

2 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

Technicians at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center helped complete prelaunch testing of the Laser Geodynamic Satellite (LAGEOS). LAGEOS was the first satellite devoted exclusively to laser ranging studies.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

On May 4, 1976, a spacecraft resembling a disco ball entered orbit almost 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above Earth. This shiny, two‑foot‑wide (60‑centimeter) sphere called the Laser Geodynamics Satellite, or LAGEOS, is covered with 426 retroreflectors—small mirrored prisms designed to bounce laser light directly back to where it came from. Beneath its aluminum exterior sits a dense brass core that makes LAGEOS incredibly heavy (900 pounds or 400 kilograms) for its size.

That weight was intentional. The satellite’s high mass and compact, spherical design allow it to follow an exceptionally stable orbit, perfect for satellite laser ranging. From stations around the world, scientists fire pulses of laser light at LAGEOS and measure how long the light takes to return. Because the speed of light is known so precisely, researchers can calculate the distance to the satellite within just a few millimeters.

Artwork showing the LAGEOS satellite in space reflecting a red laser beam emitted from the Eastern United States

Historic concept art illustrating how the LAGEOS satellite reflects laser light emitted from a ground station on Earth.

NASA

Over these last 50 years, these ultra‑precise measurements have helped track the slow movements of Earth’s tectonic plates, monitor tiny shifts in the planet’s crust, and measure motion along major fault lines. LAGEOS’s data have sharpened our understanding of Earth’s shape and refined models of the planet’s gravity field. LAGEOS has even contributed to tests of Einstein’s theory of general relativity by helping confirm predicted effects on the orbits of massive bodies around Earth.

In 1992, the Italian Space Agency–built LAGEOS II, a near‑twin of the original LAGEOS satellite, was launched aboard space shuttle Columbia. With two satellites to compare, scientists could make even more accurate measurements. Together, they have become long-term benchmarks for Earth science.

Despite being among the oldest scientific satellites still in service, LAGEOS is still going strong. Its simple, maintenance-free design, along with minimal drag in its high orbit, means that it will likely continue to circle the globe for millions of years.