1. Samsung unveils Galaxy Z Fold 8 deal for $1,230 off ahead of July Unpacked - how to qualify  ZDNET
2. Samsung to Get Jump on Apple’s First Foldable With New Phones in July  Bloomberg.com
3. Samsung finally confirms Galaxy Unpacked for July 22  Mashable
4. Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked July 2026 Event: Invites Are Out, Here's What to Expect  CNET
5. Samsung eyes edge over Apple with new shorter, wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July (SSNLF:OTCMKTS)  Seeking Alpha

1. Meta & Ray-Ban glasses rolling out mandatory update that disables the camera when privacy light is broken  9to5Google
2. Smart Glasses Are Putting Cameras on People's Faces. Here's How to Spot Them  CNET
3. Meta’s glasses will turn off the camera if you tamper with the privacy light  The Verge
4. Indecent proposal: why social media’s rebrand of surveillance tech normalises harassment and non-consensual filming  The Guardian
5. AI glasses promise convenience. Critics see surveillance.  NBC News

1. Anthropic is launching Claude Cowork on mobile and web  The Verge
2. Shut Those Laptops! Anthropic Puts Its Claude Cowork Agent on Your Phone  WIRED
3. Claude Cowork expands to mobile and web  TechCrunch
4. Anthropic will make Claude Cowork available to users via the cloud  NBC News
5. Now You Can Direct Anthropic's Claude Cowork AI From Your Phone  Engadget

1. PS Plus Discounts Being Offered to Fans Cancelling in Protest  Push Square
2. Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles  PlayStation.Blog
3. A Sad Kind of Convenience  The Atlantic
4. Sony Is Killing an Iconic Product. It’s a Bleak Sign of Things to Come.  Slate Magazine
5. 71% of gamers still want physical games  Windows Central

1. Anthropic Releases Paper About Claude’s Mental ‘Workspace.’ Don’t Read It Uncritically  Gizmodo
2. A global workspace in language models  Anthropic
3. The more we learn about how AI ‘thinks,’ the weirder it gets  PCWorld
4. AI Behaved Well Until Scientists Made It Think Nobody Was Watching  NDTV
5. Anthropic says Claude has carved out its own space to ponder  Axios

June 5

June 29

June 5June 29

June 5

June 29

CurtainToggle2-Up

Image Details

A burned landscape spans more than 150 square miles (390 square kilometers) of rugged terrain northwest of Junction, Utah, as seen in this pair of images captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 on June 5, 2026 (left) and June 29, 2026 (right). NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison.

After a winter of below-average snowpack and an unusually warm and dry start to summer, the National Interagency Fire Center warned that the Great Basin and parts of the Rockies faced an elevated risk of wildfires in July 2026.

The warning proved accurate. By July 7, firefighters labored to contain nearly three dozen large, early-season wildland fires that raced through forests in several parts of the western U.S. Utah was among the most active states, with fires having charred 558 square miles (1,445 square kilometers) and four major fires that were not fully contained still burning.

The Cottonwood fire ranked as one of Utah’s—and the country’s—largest and most destructive fires of the year so far. As of July 7, it had burned 150 square miles (390 square kilometers), just shy of the Babylon fire in eastern Utah. Landsat 9 captured the false-color image (bands 7-5-4) above (right) on June 29, 2026, when blackened vegetation spanned a large patch of rugged terrain along the Beaver River. The image on the left shows the same area on June 5, a few weeks before the fire ignited. In this band combination of shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light, unburned vegetation appears bright green, snow is blue, and clouds are white.

Ponderosa pine, oak, sagebrush, and grasses were among the vegetation types that burned. Officials with the state’s forestry division told news media that the Cottonwood fire had destroyed up to 150 structures. Eagle Point Ski Resort, which lost more than 100 condos and 30 cabins, also reported damage to four of its five chairlifts.

The damage to forests was extensive, though isolated patches survived largely unscathed, remaining as green oases within the broader burned area. Among them were the forests around Tushar Campground, the site of a 4-H summer camp. Beaver County officials credited years of forest treatments, such as clearing brush and trimming branches, with helping save the campground and surrounding forests.

As the fire spread, NASA’s Fire Events Data Suite (FEDS) tracked its progression and rate of growth. The visualization above, based on the FEDS system, shows the fire surging on June 23 and tripling in size over 12 hours that day as it spread to the north, east, and south. It also grew rapidly on June 26, when it made a run to the north. FEDS draws on data from the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensors aboard the Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites, which detect active fires day and night by their thermal infrared signature.

FEDS is one of several tools available to firefighters and emergency management officials when responding to fires. First responders often rely on higher-resolution airborne imagers or on firefighters walking fire edges to map perimeters. FEDS offers a different advantage: consistent, easily accessible data that do not need to be specially requested, according to Tempest McCabe, a University of Maryland scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who helped develop the tool. As a result, FEDS often detects a fire’s start earlier than other sources and tracks blazes for their full duration. To capitalize on strengths like these, the FEDS team is working closely with operational fire behavior analysts, with support from NASA’s FireSense program, to better understand and anticipate periods of rapid fire spread.

A total of 1,289 firefighters have been deployed to the Cottonwood fire, according to InciWeb, a website managed by the National Interagency Fire Center. As of July 7, the fire was 56 percent contained, but forecasters expect a hot, dry weather pattern to persist in the coming days, with fire behavior likely to be “very active to extreme” over the next 72 hours.

Government satellite data are part of a global system of observations used to track fire behavior and analyze emerging trends. Among the real-time wildfire monitoring tools that NASA makes available are FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), the Worldview browser, and the Fire Event Explorer.

As of July 7, 2026, fires had burned 5,265 square miles (13,636 square kilometers) across the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That’s 46 percent more than the 10-year average (2016-2025) for that point in the season.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and fire perimeter data from the Fire Events Data Suite. Story by Adam Voiland.

Downloads

June 5, 2026

JPEG (1.39 MB)

June 29, 2026

JPEG (1.41 MB)

FEDS fire perimeter (June 23-July 7)

JPEG (1.80 MB)

References & Resources

• 2KUTV (2026, July 6) Babylon Fire surpasses Cottonwood Fire as nation’s largest active wildfire. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KSL.com (2026, July 2) Despite devastation, Cottonwood Fire leaves behind ‘islands of hope’ on Beaver Mountain. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• KUER (2026, July 6) Cottonwood Fire is yet another blow to ranchers in a tough year for rural Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2026) Wildfires. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) National Fire News. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 6) Incident Management Situation Report Monday July 6. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• National Interagency Fire Center (2026, July 1) National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Eagle Point owner shares photos of resort charred by Cottonwood Fire. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• The Salt Lake Tribune (2026, June 30) Utah wildfires rank 1 and 2 as largest in the nation. Here’s the latest on big blazes. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• U.S. Drought Monitor (2026, June 30) Utah. Accessed July 7, 2026.
• Utah Fire Info Home (2026, July 7) 2026 Season Summary. Accessed July 7, 2026.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

Fires Tear Through Nebraska Grasslands

3 min read

Dry, warm, and windy conditions across the U.S. Great Plains led to extreme fire activity in March 2026.

Article

Fire’s Footprint on Santa Rosa Island

3 min read

A wildland fire charred grassland, coastal sage scrub, and chaparral across one-third of the island, the second largest of the…

Article

Smoke Rises Over Big Cypress National Preserve

2 min read

The National fire has burned tens of thousands of acres within the Florida preserve, fueled by vegetation dried by prolonged…

Article

Keep Exploring

Discover More from NASA Earth Science

Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters

Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox.

Earth Observatory Image of the Day

NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery.

Explore Earth Science

Earth Science Data

Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data

2 Min Read

NASA Transfers ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ to Patuxent Research Refuge

NASA ceremonially transferred ownership of about 105 acres of wooded land at its Goddard Space Flight Center’s Greenbelt, Maryland, campus Tuesday to the adjoining Patuxent Research Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The property, formerly known as NASA Goddard’s Area 400, is now part of the largest block of unfragmented forest between Washington and Baltimore. The nearly 13,000-acre woodland is the nation’s only refuge specifically established to support wildlife research. The refuge also supports recreational uses, such as walking, biking, horseback riding, fishing, and hunting.

“For over six decades, NASA Goddard has helped shape humanity’s understanding of Earth,” said Jamie Dunn, center director, NASA Goddard. “We’re glad to present this land to our colleagues in the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose conservation and research helps do the real legwork in preserving our Blue Marble for future generations.”

NASA Goddard had used Area 400 for propellant research beginning in the 1960s. That work has largely since shifted to NASA facilities in other states or to commercial providers, and the property had long been a candidate for divestment. NASA and the Service began discussing a potential transfer in 2021.

Prior to the transfer, Area 400 was still almost entirely wooded aside from a two-and-a-half-acre clearing with 11 small structures. The interagency transfer was effective on Feb. 23, and NASA recently completed its final closeout activities at the property, deconstructing the buildings, roadway, and utility service.

“Through working with partners on the best use of land, as exemplified with this land transfer, we can continue to conserve America’s natural beauty and expand outdoor recreation opportunities for future generations,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik.

Media contacts:

Rob Garner
News Chief, Office of Communications
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Keith Shannon
Regional Communications Lead – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region
U.S. Department of the Interior

Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto.

On June 23, flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed New Horizons, acting on stored commands uplinked to its main computer last July, had safely awakened from a 321‑day hibernation period that began Aug. 7. With the spacecraft now approximately 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, the radio signals carrying that confirmation took about 8 hours and 52 minutes to reach the APL Mission Operations Center via NASA’s Deep Space Network station near Madrid, Spain.

The mission team typically places New Horizons in resource‑saving hibernation mode during long cruise periods. While the spacecraft is hibernating, operators do not send commands or retrieve data, but the spacecraft continues gathering and storing data around the clock from its heliospheric plasma sensors, Solar Wind at Pluto and the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, as well as its space dust detector, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter.

Alice Bowman, the New Horizons mission operations manager at APL, said the spacecraft reported back to Earth, via the Deep Space Network, with a weekly status beacon. “Every status report through this hibernation period was ‘green,’ meaning all was well aboard New Horizons each and every week,” she said.

As New Horizons resumes active operations, Bowman noted, the team will begin downlinking spacecraft health and safety data, followed by data from the three scientific instruments. In about three weeks, the spacecraft’s onboard Alice ultraviolet spectrograph will look at the hydrogen gas distribution in the outer heliosphere, while the Solar Wind at Pluto, the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, and the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter instruments continue their measurements, and the ground team conducts a series of spacecraft and instrument checkouts.

The team also is completing upgrades to the ground‑system software that will make it easier to maintain operations of the spacecraft. Tests are already underway and are expected to continue through the year.

New Horizons is operating on updated autonomy logic designed for operations farther from the Sun and to accommodate the expected reduction in power and the naturally occurring increase in radio‑signal travel time.

The NASA spacecraft’s exploration of this distant region of the solar system marks the latest step in a journey that began in January 2006 with the fastest launch on record; a flyby of Jupiter in February 2007 that included stunning views of the gas giant and its moons; the first exploration through the Pluto system in July 2015; the first exploration of a Kuiper Belt object, Arrokoth, in January 2019, and unique studies of the Sun’s outer heliosphere and dozens of additional Kuiper Belt objects since then.

For more information on NASA’s New Horizons mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

New Horizons

Kuiper Belt

Asteroids, Comets & Meteors

Our Solar System

In this photograph, the Artemis II crew participates in the dedication of the Apollo 14 Moon tree at the Lunar Receiving Park at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on June 25, 2026. This tree is a second-generation Apollo Moon tree of the loblolly pine species. The original Apollo Moon trees were grown from seeds carried aboard Apollo 14 by NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper. Upon return to Earth, the seeds were germinated by the Forest Service, and the resulting seedlings were planted throughout the United States and around the world.

Image credit: NASA/James Blair

Every month, NASA Earth Observatory features a puzzling satellite image. The July 2026 puzzler appears above. 

Your Challenge
Identify the location shown in this satellite image. Share what clues you see, where you think it is, and what makes this place interesting or unique to you.

How to Answer
Submit your response using this form and select “Puzzler Answer” as the topic. Please include your preferred name or alias.

You can keep it simple and just guess the location. Want to impress us? Tell us which satellite and instrument captured the image, which spectral bands were used, or point out a subtle detail about the geology or history of the area. If something catches your eye, or if this is your home or means something to you, we’d love to hear about it.

The Prize
We can’t offer prize money or a trip to space to see Earth like satellites and astronauts do. But we can offer something almost as rewarding: puzzler bragging rights.

About a week after the challenge, we’ll post the answer at the top of this page, along with a link to an Earth Observatory Image of the Day story that explains the image in more detail. We’ll recognize the first person who correctly guesses the location, and we may also highlight readers who share especially thoughtful or interesting answers. By submitting a response, you acknowledge that your comments may be edited, excerpted, and published on this page.

Until then, zoom in, look closely, and enjoy the challenge. See you at the reveal!