Tag: NASA

Sunita Williams came to New Delhi this week with a story that few astronauts can tell. What began as a short, eight-day test flight in June 2024 turned into an unplanned stay of nearly nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after problems forced NASA to change how she and her crewmate would return to Earth. Speaking at the American Center, the veteran astronaut reflected on the mission, the risks involved, and why human spaceflight still matters.

Williams launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket, marking the first crewed flight of that system. During docking, five thrusters failed. The crew took manual control and worked with mission control to restart the engines. Engineers later decided the spacecraft was not ready to bring them home. As Williams put it, “All the tees were not crossed.” NASA chose a safer option. A SpaceX Dragon arrived at the station with only two astronauts, leaving open seats for Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The delay pushed the ISS close to its limits. At one stage, 12 people lived on a station built for about seven. Williams said daily life still ran smoothly. The crew ran experiments on stem cells, DNA sequencing, and microbes collected from open space. They also handled repairs themselves. “We’re our own IT guys,” she joked, recalling a spacewalk where a simple crowbar helped remove outdated radio gear.

Staying healthy remained a daily task. Astronauts trained on treadmills, bikes, and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device to slow bone and muscle loss. Williams even ran the Boston Marathon in orbit, strapped to a treadmill. Holiday meals offered small comforts. Thanksgiving included smoked turkey and vegetables, though she admitted missing her husband’s grilled cheese and fresh bread.

Williams also spoke openly about mental health. Astronauts meet a flight surgeon weekly and a psychology support specialist every two weeks. Small gestures help. A care package once included 3D-printed figures of her dogs. “They can actually tell… if there’s something that’s going on,” she said.

Her path to space was far from planned. A former student athlete, she first aimed to become a veterinarian. She joined the US Navy, became a helicopter pilot, and later attended test pilot school, where she realized her skills fit future lunar missions.

Looking ahead, Williams warned about growing space debris, noting how often Starlink satellites now pass the station’s orbit. She also pointed to needs in long-duration missions, from better bathrooms to medical robots. With private companies playing a larger role, she said students will have more ways to work across the space sector.

Her visit struck a personal chord in India. “It’s really humbling to be here in India,” Williams said, thanking those who prayed for her safe return. From delayed spacecraft to crowded stations, her story showed how spaceflight still tests limits, demands patience, and connects people far beyond Earth.

Scientists from NASA and NOAA have reported advancements in predicting when solar storms will reach Earth, cutting forecast errors by several hours in some cases. The progress comes from upgraded computer models tested on dozens of past coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, using real spacecraft data. The findings matter as solar activity remains high and modern society depends more than ever on satellites, power networks, and space missions that solar storms can disrupt.

CMEs erupt from the Sun when magnetic fields snap and fling huge clouds of charged particles into space. These clouds can race toward Earth at speeds of up to 2,000 kilometers per second and arrive within two to four days. When they hit, they can trigger bright auroras but also interfere with GPS signals, damage satellites, and stress power grids. Even a few extra hours of warning helps operators protect equipment or adjust operations.

The new report examined 38 Earth-directed CMEs recorded between 2012 and 2019. Researchers ran more than 1,200 simulations to compare older forecasting methods with updated ones. They used observations from the ACE spacecraft near Earth to measure how close each prediction came to the real arrival time.

At the center of the work are two linked models that simulate conditions from the Sun to Earth. One estimates solar wind speed near the Sun, while the other tracks how a CME moves through space. In the past, these models relied on a single daily snapshot of the Sun’s surface. That approach ignored how fast the Sun changes as it rotates.

The team tested time-updated magnetic maps that refresh every few hours. They also added an ensemble system that runs multiple versions of the Sun’s magnetic field to cover unknowns, especially on the far side of the Sun that telescopes cannot see directly. In addition, they corrected long-standing measurement offsets in ground-based data, which improved how the models matched real solar wind conditions.

Results varied by time period. For older events, some upgrades showed little benefit. For storms after 2017, however, the improved setup reduced average arrival-time errors by three to six hours compared with earlier methods. Time-updated maps helped most when CMEs traveled through fast or uneven solar wind.

Challenges remain. Storms that clip Earth rather than hit head-on remain hard to time, and far-side solar changes still introduce uncertainty. Even so, the study shows clear progress.

NOAA plans to move these tools into daily operations later this decade. As solar cycle 25 slowly declines toward its next quiet phase, better forecasts will remain essential. Solar storms may be natural events, but with smarter prediction, their impact on life and technology does not have to be a surprise.

Source: NASA/NOAA MOU Annex Final Report: Evaluating Model Advancements for Predicting CME Arrival Time

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has crossed a hidden boundary around the Sun that shapes how solar wind escapes into space, and new research shows that this boundary expands, contracts, and grows more uneven as the Sun moves through its activity cycle. By combining close-range measurements from Parker with data from Europe’s Solar Orbiter and spacecraft near Earth, scientists tracked how this zone, known as the Alfvén surface, changed from the calm phase of solar cycle 25 to its recent peak.

Parker has flown closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before, reaching about 3.8 million miles above the surface. During several of these close passes, the probe moved inside the Alfvén surface, where the Sun’s magnetic field still controls the motion of charged particles. Above that boundary, the solar wind escapes freely and carries energy and rotation away from the star.

The study shows that the height of this surface is not fixed. Near the quiet period of 2019, it sat roughly 12 to 17 solar radii from the Sun. As solar activity climbed toward its peak in 2024, the boundary swelled outward to about 15 to 23 solar radii. This expansion matters because a higher boundary allows the Sun to lose spin more efficiently over time, shaping how stars age.

To map this shifting region, researchers blended observations from multiple spacecraft. Parker supplied direct crossings close to the Sun, Solar Orbiter filled in the middle distances, and satellites near Earth provided steady long-range measurements. By tracking wind speed, magnetic strength, and particle density, the team reconstructed the surface’s shape and confirmed their results against Parker’s direct encounters.

The maps also show that the boundary grows rougher during busy solar periods. Its shape becomes more uneven, with bumps and dips linked to solar storms and erupting regions on the Sun’s surface. During quieter times, the boundary appears smoother and closer in.

These findings carry practical value for space weather forecasting. Changes in this boundary affect how energetic particles travel through the solar system, which can influence satellites, astronauts, and missions to the Moon and Mars. The results also help scientists understand how stellar winds may affect planets around other stars.

Parker Solar Probe will continue its close passes for several more years as solar activity declines again. Along with future high-latitude views from Solar Orbiter, these observations will help build a clearer picture of how our star breathes, spins, and shapes the space around it.

Source: Multispacecraft Measurements of the Evolving Geometry of the Solar Alfvén Surface over Half a Solar Cycle

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a second set of images of 3I/ATLAS, a comet from outside our solar system that made a brief pass near the Sun in late 2025. The updated view, recorded on November 30, shows the comet still active as it moves away, giving scientists another chance to study material that formed around a distant star.

Hubble used its Wide Field Camera 3 to photograph the visitor from about 286 million kilometers. The comet appears as a bright, hazy drop of dust and gas, while background stars stretch into faint streaks because the telescope tracked the comet’s quick motion. These new images help astronomers follow how the object behaves after its closest approach to the Sun.

This session followed Hubble’s first look in July 2025, captured shortly after the comet’s discovery. Those early images suggested a small icy core, likely under one kilometer wide, surrounded by a broad dust cloud. The November images show the coma slightly uneven, which hints that the nucleus is still venting gas as it cools.

The comet was first spotted on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile. It moved at 61 kilometers per second and followed a path that proved it came from beyond the solar system. By the next day, observatories around the world confirmed it. With that, 3I/ATLAS joined a very short list as only the third known interstellar visitor, after Oumuamua in 2017 and comet Borisov in 2019.

Once confirmed, the discovery set off a coordinated effort across the solar system. JWST observed the comet in August and detected carbon dioxide along with smaller amounts of water ice and gas. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) found cyanide and nickel.

NASA’s Psyche and Lucy spacecraft captured long-distance views that helped refine trajectory models. Even the Perseverance rover managed to spot a faint blur from the surface of Mars.

ESA’s Juice spacecraft observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in November 2025 using five of its science instruments. While the full data set will not reach Earth until February 2026, the team downloaded a small portion of a single Navigation Camera image to get an early look. The camera, meant for navigation rather than detailed science, still captured the comet with surprising clarity.

The cropped image, taken on 2 November from about 66 million kilometers, shows the comet’s glowing coma and hints of two tails: a plasma tail extending upward in the frame and what may be a fainter dust tail stretching toward the lower left. The view came during the spacecraft’s first observation window and just before its closest approach on 4 November.

Juice is currently using its main antenna as a heat shield, so it must rely on a slower backup antenna to send data home. That is why the full instrument data from JANUS, MAJIS, UVS, SWI, and PEP will not arrive until 18 and 20 February 2026.

Scientists say the combined data gives a rare chance to compare material from another system with comets in our own. Early results show familiar ingredients, although the high level of carbon monoxide hints that the object formed in a colder region around its parent star.

The comet will skim near Jupiter’s orbit in March 2026 before fading from view. Hubble and JWST plan more observations into early next year.