SpaceDiscoveries

To understand fires on Earth, you need a broad view — spanning from the poles to the equator and looking from high above the planet to down deep under the soil. That’s where NASA Explorers come in! With satellites, with airplanes, with their own hands and with a data record spanning decades, Explorers are studying how our planet burns… and how that burning changes with the climate. This season, we’re headed to the western Pacific Ocean to the Northwest Territories and beyond to look fires on Earth.

With the experiment’s journey complete, Elaine Horn-Ranney Ph.D. and Parastoo Khoshaklagh Ph.D. now join the thousands of scientists who’ve performed research aboard the International Space Station, making the most of what microgravity has to teach us. Although the thrill of the rocket launch may be over, our scientists still have one of the most exciting parts of their journey ahead: sharing their results with the world.

Now that our researchers’ experiment is on the International Space Station, it’s time to test how their samples behave in microgravity. This week on NASA Explorers, the astronauts conduct science in space, while a team back here on Earth runs their own piece of the project.

The day has finally arrived. After years of work, our team of scientists is at the Kennedy Space Center in the hopes of seeing their research liftoff to the International Space Station. Join us this week on NASA Explorers for the countdown, the emotion and, hopefully, the launch.

Our team of scientists is just days away from their research being loaded onto a SpaceX rocket that will carry their experiment to the International Space Station. This week on NASA Explorers, we are following along with them in the busy days leading up to launch at Kennedy Space Center, as they do all of the last-minute preparations to get their experiment ready for microgravity.

Astronauts train all over the world, including at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Here, they learn not just how to live in space, but also how to conduct science in microgravity. Astronauts serve as the eyes and hands of researchers while their experiments are aboard the space station, so they must be trained in everything from using a microscope, to maintaining the equipment for combustion experiments.

Putting your life’s work on top of a rocket may seem like a daunting task, but that’s exactly what scientists have been doing for decades as they launch their research to the International Space Station.

Things behave a bit differently aboard the International Space Station, thanks to microgravity. Sure, floating looks like fun, but it could also unlock new scientific discoveries. Microgravity makes the station the perfect place to perform research that is changing the lives of people on Earth, and preparing us to go deeper into space. This season on NASA Explorers, we are following science into low-Earth orbit and seeing what it takes to do research aboard the space station

It was Touch-and-Go there for a few seconds…literally! OSIRIS-REx had only 6 seconds to collect a sample of asteroid Bennu – in a maneuver called TAG – while the NASA Explorers behind the mission waited anxiously 200 million miles away.

When Artemis astronauts land on the Moon, they’ll travel to sites never before visited by humans. Namely, they’ll explore the South Pole region, home to the Moon’s largest crater, areas of near-constant light and deep shadows, and some of the coldest temperatures in the solar system.

Before Jessica Watkins was an astronaut, she was a geologist. Now working on the International Space Station, Jessica and her fellow astronauts are preparing to explore the Moon and beyond. But collecting and investigating rocks on other worlds is very different from digging dirt here on Earth. That’s where tools engineer Adam Naids comes in. Tools designed for Earth geologists may not work in the lower gravity and extreme temperatures of the Moon, and that’s before you bring in the bulky spacesuits! NASA Explorers come together at space school to train astronauts to conduct science on the Moon.

Meet NASA’s rock detectives. Using tiny samples of lunar rock brought back by Apollo astronauts, these NASA Explorers are looking into the origins of our Moon, our planet, and ourselves. They might be among the first scientists to study samples from the Moon’s South Pole that will be delivered to Earth by Artemis astronauts. In episode 2 of “NASA Explorers: Artemis Generation,” we’re joining scientists like Natalie Curran and Jose Aponte, who are looking at clues buried in Moon rocks.

These are our explorers. They’re the people who will get us to the Moon, collect Moon rocks, deliver them to Earth safely, and ensure that we can study them for years to come. On episode one of “NASA Explorers: Artemis Generation,” meet astronaut Jessica Watkins, engineer Adam Naids, Moon rock curator Julie Mitchell, and astrobiologist Jose Aponte. They each had a different path to NASA, from conducting hazardous kitchen chemistry experiments in Lima, Peru, to exploring the Louisiana Bayou, to dissecting a cow’s eye in a science program in Colorado. Each person is a vital part of NASA’s goal to conduct science on the Moon’s surface.

When it comes to space exploration, expect the unexpected. As OSIRIS-REx approached asteroid Bennu, scientists were surprised to find a loosely packed rubble pile. This episode, NASA Explorers get a closer look at Bennu and the surprises in store.

It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. Go inside the space agency and follow the pioneers, risk-takers and experts at the frontline of exploration. This season, follow along with the OSIRIS-REx team, as they launch a spacecraft to an asteroid, collect a sample of Bennu, and bring it home to Earth.

Are you looking for a new vacation spot? Perhaps one with spectacular fireworks? While gamma-ray bursts produce brilliant displays of light across the entire spectrum, we cannot recommend visiting one.

Have you ever thought about visiting a black hole? We sure hope not. However, if you’re absolutely convinced that a black hole is your ideal vacation spot, watch this video before you blast off to learn more about them and (more importantly) how to stay safe.

Open Video Player Share Even though you’ve learned about basic black holes, and fancy black holes, and social black holes, and giant black holes, there are always stranger things out there! In this final chapter, you can learn about some of the rarest black holes – biggest, smallest, farthest, strangest, and more!

It’s not just smaller black holes that have all the fun – really, really massive black holes also enjoy being the center of attention! Watch this chapter to learn more about these giant black holes and all their companions!

Watching black holes by themselves is fun, but what about ones that like being more social? Some black holes really LOVE to dance with other objects in the universe. Learn more about them by watching this helpful video!

Through Artemis, NASA will once again land humans on the Moon. But before that can happen, we must first launch our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—the most powerful rocket we’ve ever built—and Orion spacecraft on a flight test around the Moon. Join us as we document this moment in history and watch as we follow SLS and Orion on their Path to the Pad.

The planets of our solar system are full of mysteries. Meet a few of the scientists who are using the James Webb Space Telescope to look at our solar system and beyond.