NASA’s most complicated telescope ever is almost ready for takeoff
NASA’s most technically complex space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, was slated for launch in 2007. Now, after years of delay-plagued development, the telescope may finally get its place in the night sky. NASA recently announced that it’s completed its final litany of critical Read More...
Eau de Space: NASA-designed perfume smells like outer space
You’ll never get a whiff of it directly — but astronauts have long said that space leaves a distinctive residual smell on their suits. Though it varies with the teller, some say it evokes gunpowder, burned meat, and even raspberries. “At first I couldn’t quite place it,” former ISS Read More...
This photo contest will get you lost in cosmic and Earthly beauty
Visiting Earth’s most stunning natural landscapes can leave you with a sense of wonder. The same is true for when you sit beneath the bright stars of the Milky Way. But when you combine the two together, it makes for an indescribable feeling, one that is bigger than ourselves and reminds us just Read More...
Scientists are battling locust swarms from space
Locust swarms are serious. In a single day, a desert locust swarm (about 40 million bugs) can eat as much food as 35,000 people in a single day — and in the summer of 2020, billions of locusts were devouring crops across East Africa and the Middle East as part of an outbreak the size of which Read More...
NASA just released a decade-long time lapse of the sun
At the Optimist Daily, we’re always excited when NASA releases new images of our solar system and beyond. This week, NASA marked the 10th anniversary of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite, which has been photographing the sun from its orbit around the Earth since 2010. In Read More...
Museum in Bilbao uses advertising banners to help purify the city’s air
Advertising banners rarely add any value to the aesthetic of urban areas, and even less so to residents’ health. But that doesn’t necessarily stand for the Spanish city of Bilbao, where a museum has recently unveiled a project that wants to help purify the city’s air through its outdoor Read More...
Mary W. Jackson: NASA renames its HQ after first Black female engineer
In Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book Hidden Figures, the author celebrates the pioneering work of Mary W. Jackson, the first Black female engineer at NASA. Now, in tribute to the incredible mathematician, NASA has announced it will rename its Washington DC headquarters after Jackson. “We are Read More...
Mysterious spots on one of Saturn’s moons found to be dry lake beds
In the early 2000s, astronomers noticed mysterious bright spots on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. A new study has determined that the spots, which are more than 3,000 miles wide, are remnants of dried-up lakes. “Titan is still currently the only other place in the universe that we know to Read More...
First US woman to walk in space reaches deepest known point in the ocean
Kathy Sullivan, the NASA astronaut who 36 years ago became the first American woman to walk in space, has now become the first woman to reach the deepest known spot in the ocean. On Sunday, Dr. Sullivan, 68, an astronaut and oceanographer, emerged from her 35,810-foot dive to the Challenger Deep Read More...
NASA engineers use their incredible engineering capacity to build ventilator
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is typically busy with building spacecraft. But due to the increasing shortage of ventilators in hospitals, in the last month, the engineering lab has shifted in high gears to make the best use of its scientific capacity to develop the life-saving medical Read More...