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NASA and space-progress stories — telescopes, missions, and the numbers that left the ground.

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  2. NASA spotted a once-in-132-year Moon crater 728 feet wide

    ·Science & Space

    NASA spotted a once-in-132-year Moon crater 728 feet wide

    On 16 September 2026 NASA reported that Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images caught McGetchin, a fresh Moon crater 728 feet (222 m) wide and 141 feet deep, carved in spring 2024. Science Advances papers call it a once-in-132-year-class event — the largest contemporary impact crater yet found in the solar system — with a multi-kilometer nighttime cold spot.

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  3. Webb just found brown dwarfs twice Jupiter’s mass

    ·Science & Space

    Webb just found brown dwarfs twice Jupiter’s mass

    On 15 September 2026 NASA said James Webb observations of the star-forming region IC 348, about 1,000 light-years away in Perseus, revealed brown dwarfs with masses as low as twice Jupiter’s — about 0.19% of the Sun’s mass — the least massive spectroscopically confirmed brown dwarfs known. One of the lightest also shows a disk. This challenges star-formation models; it is not a claim of free-floating planets as a separate class.

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  4. NASA’s Roman just doubled its fuel life to 22 years

    ·Science & Space

    NASA’s Roman just doubled its fuel life to 22 years

    On 14 September 2026 NASA Goddard said Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science — more than double the 10-year fuel budget — after a >99% accurate first mid-course correction that used ~18 kg of ~200 kg allocated, plus launch propellant surplus and projected second-burn savings. Fuel potential, not a funded 22-year calendar.

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  7. Hubble and Webb just found 27 tiny worlds past Neptune

    ·Science & Space

    Hubble and Webb just found 27 tiny worlds past Neptune

    On 8 September 2026 NASA reported the first joint Hubble–Webb study of Trans-Neptunian Objects. Teams analyzed 27 newly discovered dim TNOs; the smallest is about 5 km across—roughly five times smaller than the best ground telescopes can see. Small TNOs keep the same color relationships as larger family members.

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  8. NASA’s rover found complex carbon in ancient Mars river rocks

    ·Science & Space

    NASA’s rover found complex carbon in ancient Mars river rocks

    In a Science Advances paper published online 24 June 2026, Murphy et al. report that Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument detected macromolecular carbon in mudstones at Bright Angel in Neretva Vallis, Jezero crater — hundreds of organic detections across two rocks, the most robust organic find in Jezero so far and, per the authors, the only MMC detection on a natural rock surface on Mars. Organics appear in both primary silicate and secondary carbonate/sulfate settings. This is not proof of life.

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  9. Hubble found a 10-sided wave on Saturn’s south pole

    ·Science & Space

    Hubble found a 10-sided wave on Saturn’s south pole

    On 2 September 2026 NASA and ESA/Hubble reported a giant 10-sided atmospheric wave encircling Saturn’s south pole — the first large regular-sided jet pattern in the southern hemisphere. Hubble OPAL images back to 2023 show it strengthening near ~63°S, with upper-troposphere winds around 400 km/h. This is an evolving polar jet, not a permanent proven twin of the northern hexagon and not a Cassini rediscovery.

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  10. NASA just powered on Roman’s planet imager

    ·Science & Space

    NASA just powered on Roman’s planet imager

    On 1 September 2026 NASA powered on the Coronagraph Instrument aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — the first active starlight-blocking planet imager in space. Power-on ran from 7:27 to 8:22 a.m. EDT. JPL designed it to detect planets about 100 million times fainter than their stars. This is commissioning, not first science images; those are expected in early 2027.

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  11. JWST finds four black-hole pairs in the infant universe

    ·Science & Space

    JWST finds four black-hole pairs in the infant universe

    A Kavli IPMU / University of Tokyo–led team used JWST COSMOS-Web imaging and a pixel-by-pixel color method to find four dual “Little Red Dot” systems — likely rapidly growing black holes — about 12.5–12.8 billion years ago. Two pairs have matching-line spectroscopy at z = 5.822 and 5.464 (separations 1.64 and 7.36 kpc); clustering on kilo-parsec scales runs roughly 20–30× above an extrapolated JWST AGN power law. Published 31 August 2026 in PASJ. These are merger precursors, not confirmed black-hole mergers.

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  12. NASA’s new Goldstone dish is already talking to Voyager

    ·Science & Space

    NASA’s new Goldstone dish is already talking to Voyager

    NASA and JPL cut the ribbon on 25 August 2026 at Goldstone for Deep Space Station 23, a new 34-metre (114-foot) radio dish. Operations started 3 August — first track Chandra, then Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Psyche, Juno and Voyager 1. It is the fifth of six Aperture Enhancement Project antennas, not a telescope and not a first talk with Mars.

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  13. NASA’s Pandora satellite started watching alien worlds

    ·Science & Space

    NASA’s Pandora satellite started watching alien worlds

    NASA Goddard said on 25 August 2026 that Pandora, the first Astrophysics Pioneers SmallSat, has begun science operations. It will measure atmospheres of at least 20 exoplanets — hazes, clouds and water — staring 24 hours at a time, 10 times each, over a one-year primary mission. No atmospheres have been published yet. The spacecraft launched 11 January 2026; this is commissioning done, not a new launch.

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  14. NASA found spots on the Moon where Earth mold could last a week

    ·Science & Technology

    NASA found spots on the Moon where Earth mold could last a week

    Saxena et al. in Science Advances (19 Aug 2026) combine LRO Diviner temperatures and LOLA illumination with published UV lethal doses for five Earth microbes. At three Artemis III candidate sites, Aspergillus niger could persist on about 3% of mapped non-PSR ground for at least seven Earth days. Survival is not growth. The Moon still lacks liquid water at the surface.

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  15. NASA photographed the crater a Falcon 9 left on the Moon

    ·Science & Technology

    NASA photographed the crater a Falcon 9 left on the Moon

    NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged a new 18-meter crater at 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E after a Falcon 9 upper stage hit the Moon on 5 August 2026. JPL’s CNEOS prediction, handed to South Korea’s Danuri, was accurate to about 0.6 miles. This is catalog hygiene and camera geometry, not a kinetic-deflection test.

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  17. NASA’s next space telescope launches Sunday morning

    ·Science & Technology

    NASA’s next space telescope launches Sunday morning

    NASA’s 25 Aug 2026 Roman blog: the encapsulated observatory arrived Tuesday at the SpaceX hangar at LC-39A. Mating is still ahead. A Launch Readiness Review is Friday 28 August, the final go/no-go before a targeted 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday 30 August (8:26 a.m. BRT) liftoff. Coverage opens 6:20 a.m. EDT. M26-063 still does not list SpaceX’s quoted Monday 31 August 7:22 a.m. ET backup. The WFI is 18 × 4,096² pixels — 301,989,888, which NASA rounds to 300 megapixels.

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