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Patches of the Sun’s surface often show strong magnetic fields. These fields can emerge within a matter of hours, and can decay slowly or quickly, sometimes over days, weeks, or even months. Thanks to a new study about these long-lived active regions, we now know much more about the patches where these strong magnetic fields take at least a month to decay.

This study relied on inputs from NASA’s Solar Active Region Spotter citizen science project, which asked volunteers to answer a series of questions about pairs of active region images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Project leads Emily Mason (Predictive Science Inc.) and Kara Kniezewski (Air Force Institute of Technology) looked at the data and the analysis done by volunteers. They found that the long-lived active regions produce disproportionately more flares than the shorter-lived regions and are 3-6 times more likely than other active regions to be the source of the most intense kinds of solar flares. These results are a strong indication that long-lived active regions are crucial for predicting space weather and could provide critical information on magnetic fields deeper inside the Sun. 

The Solar Active Region Spotter project is now complete, but you can learn more about the results here: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/eimason/solar-active-region-spotter/about/results

Explore NASA Citizen Science projects you can join today to help advance our understanding of space weather: https://go.nasa.gov/3ZK6nvE.

The Daily Minor Planet citizen science project is expanding! In addition to data received nightly from the Catalina Sky Survey’s Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona, the project’s science team is now processing images from the Bok 2.3-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The Bok is a mighty telescope run by the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory that is used to survey for new near-Earth objects (NEOs) – asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit.

Data from the Bok telescope peers deeper than the data from the Mt. Lemmon telescope–it reveals objects roughly two to three times as faint. Software often struggles with such faint objects, but humans shine at pattern recognition in this kind of data, making your contributions to this search more valuable than ever. 

Another important feature of the new data is that it mostly comes from the ecliptic, the band of sky where asteroids and comets preferentially travel. The project team expects this deeper, ecliptic-focused coverage to substantially increase the number of main-belt asteroids they can recover and confirm and bring fresh waves of near-Earth asteroid candidates. 

Keep an eye out for new Bok subject sets as they are added. They’ll be a little more challenging and a lot more rewarding!

The Daily Minor Planet is a regularly updated citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse using nightly data collected by the Catalina Sky Survey. Anyone with a laptop or smartphone can join.

NASA has selected eight student teams as finalists in the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, giving them the resources to help address a critical challenge for U.S. aviation: maintenance. 

Challenges facing the commercial aviation industry include a shortage of qualified maintenance workers and increasing demands to keep complicated aircraft running for longer. With Gateways to Blue Skies, NASA taps into student innovation to address some of the biggest topics in aviation, and the current competition, RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, is looking for solutions that can have immediate impact. 

“Through this competition, students will learn about aviation maintenance and be empowered to change its future,” said Steven Holz, associate project manager for NASA’s University Innovation Project and judging panel co-chair for Gateways to Blue Skies. “By grounding innovative ideas in real operational needs and presenting them to NASA and industry experts, these teams demonstrate the kind of critical thinking, collaboration, and forward-looking problem solving that will shape a safer, more efficient aviation industry in the near future.” 

This competition challenged teams of postsecondary students to conceptualize innovative systems and practices that could advance current commercial aircraft maintenance and repair operations. It addresses dual goals for NASA: supporting innovative research and also stimulating the potential aviation workforce of tomorrow. 

The goal for RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance is to generate concepts to improve efficiency, safety, and costs for the aviation maintenance industry by 2035. That timeline differs from many NASA research competitions focused on long-term future technologies; RepAir seeks to address the maintenance issues of today. 

NASA made its selections based on a review of participants’ proposals and accompanying videos summarizing the RepAir concepts. The eight finalist teams will receive a $9,000 prize and will advance to Phase 2 of the competition.  

Phase 2 includes a review of each team’s final paper, infographic, and presentation at the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum, held May 18 at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in May and livestreamed globally. Following the forum, members of the winning team who fulfill eligibility criteria will be offered the opportunity to intern with NASA Aeronautics.   

The 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition finalist projects represent an array of capabilities including robotic inspections, augmented reality smart glasses, and sensor and machine learning architectures: 

• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach with Cecil College Maryland 
  Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, Smart Mechanic Glasses 
• Manhattan University  
  Aircraft Enhanced Resilience and Intelligence Systems (A.E.R.I.S) 
• Michigan State University  
  Surface Evaluation Network for Tethered Inspection and Nondestructive Evaluation (SENTINEL) 
• South Dakota State University  
  Surveying Platform and Inspection Device for Enclosed Regions (S.P.I.D.E.R.) 
• South Dakota State University  
  WINGMAN, augmented reality data-logging and information-display system for improved efficiency in line maintenance inspections and reporting 

• South Dakota State University  
  Surface Preservation and Rust Killer (S.P.A.R.K.) Crawler 

• University of California, Irvine  
  Aircraft Structural Health Intelligence for Evaluation and Lifecycle Detection (Air SHIELD) 
• University of Maryland Eastern Shore 
  A Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) Fuel Control Unit Health Management in Aircraft known as APU Sentinel 

The Gateways to Blue Skies Challenge is led through the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, manages the challenge through the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA. 

More on the Gateways to Blues Skies: RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance competition is available on the competition’s site. 

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, invites innovative companies, government agencies, and organizations to attend Partnership Days, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, April 15 and 16, at the center.

The event offers a unique opportunity to explore collaboration with NASA on cutting-edge research and development in areas such as aerospace, autonomy, sustainability, and more. Attendees will engage with NASA experts and learn how Armstrong’s capabilities can help accelerate innovation and bring transformative technologies to life.

Space is limited, and RSVP is required by Wednesday, March 25.

To register, scan the QR code on the event poster or email AFRC-CAL-330-Partnerships@mail.nasa.gov.

What: NASA Armstrong Partnership Days

When:  8 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, and 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, April 16, 2026

Where: NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California

Who: Industry leaders, government agencies, and organizations interested in research and development partnerships with NASA

For information about NASA Armstrong and other agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong

-end-

Dede Dinius
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
661-276-5701
darin.l.dinius@nasa.gov

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament Lab offers the contract capability to run external crowdsourced challenges on behalf of NASA and other agencies.

This three-phase challenge invites geophysicists, sensing specialists, nondestructive testing experts, and creative problem-solvers (including AI/ML practitioners) from any field to develop novel methods for detecting subsurface cracks in embankment dams.

Through this multi-phase challenge, teams will embark on a structured journey that moves from concept to development and ultimately to real-world demonstration. In Phase 1, teams will articulate and frame their solution approach and execution vision. During Phase 2, selected teams will detail and validate their designs. Finally, in Phase 3, the selected teams will demonstrate the most promising solutions in conditions that reflect real embankment dam environments. Each phase intentionally builds on the last, increasing in technical rigor and realism while maintaining focus on practical deployment and impact. Together, the phases are designed to support teams in transforming strong ideas into credible, implementable solutions that advance the state of embankment dam crack detection.

Award: $400,000 in total prizes across all three phases

Open date: March 12, 2026

Phase 1 submission deadline: April 30th, 2026

For more information, visit: https://www.herox.com/CrackTheCase

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