| In this week’s newsletter, discover how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s wide field of view and resulting torrent of data will make it a discovery machine; learn how scientists are working on methods to forecast the frequency of moonquakes along active faults on the lunar surface; and find out where and when to watch NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts discuss their science mission aboard the International Space Station. Plus, more stories you might have missed. |
| THE UNIVERSE Probing Dark Energy  |
| The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be a discovery machine, thanks to its wide field of view and resulting torrent of data. Scheduled to launch no later than May 2027, the telescope’s near-infrared Wide Field Instrument will capture an area 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared camera, and with the same image sharpness and sensitivity. Roman will devote about 75% of its science observing time over its five-year primary mission to conducting three core community surveys designed to investigate some of the universe’s most profound mysteries. One of these surveys—the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey—will peer outside of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy to detect tens of thousands of a particular type of exploding star known as type Ia supernovae, which can be used to study how the universe has expanded over time. TRACING COSMIC EXPANSION |
 | THE UNIVERSE Beyond Our Solar System The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our solar system because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around its star where liquid water on its surface is theoretically possible. But according to a new study using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere. EXPLORE TRAPPIST-1 |
| SCIENCE Wide Field View All four spacecraft of the PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission have successfully maneuvered into their final science orbits as of Aug 7. Launched into Earth orbit on March 11, PUNCH’s four suitcase-sized spacecraft are now spread out along the planet’s day-night boundary, giving the mission a continuous, unobstructed view of the Sun and its surroundings. MISSION UPDATES |  |
 SOALR SYSTEM Moonquake Forecasting As NASA prepares to send the crew of Artemis III to explore the Moon’s South Pole region, scientists are working on methods to determine the frequency of moonquakes along active faults. Rare and weaker than powerful quakes on Earth (magnitude 7.0 or higher), moonquakes pose little risk to astronauts during a mission lasting just a few days, but their effects on longer-term lunar surface assets could be significant. LEARN MORE |  THE UNIVERSE A Cosmic Rarity An international team of astronomers has discovered a cosmic rarity: an ultra-massive white dwarf star resulting from a white dwarf merging with another star, rather than through the evolution of a single star. This discovery, made by Hubble Space Telescope’s sensitive ultraviolet observations, suggests these rare white dwarfs may be more common than previously suspected. LEARN MORE |
| More NASA News |
 | After spending almost five months in space, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts will discuss their science mission aboard the International Space Station during a news conference at 4:15 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 20, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. |
 | NASA’s SpaceX 33rd commercial resupply mission will soon be launching new research to the International Space Station. Investigations making the journey include an implantable device in microgravity that could support nerve regrowth after injuries; a study of bone-forming stem cells in microgravity that could provide insight into the basic mechanisms of the bone loss astronauts experience during space flight; a European Space Agency Metal 3D Printer investigation that builds on recent successful printing of the first metal parts in space; and more. |
 | An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer has challenged our understanding of what happens to matter in the direct vicinity of a black hole. |
 | NASA is calling on the next generation of collegiate innovators to imagine bold new concepts that push the boundaries of human exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The agency’s 2026 NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) challenge fuels innovation for aerospace systems concepts, analogs, and technology prototyping by bridging gaps through university engagement with NASA and industry. |
| ARTEMIS Night Moves Before NASA’s Artemis II test flight launches a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back, astronauts and teams on the ground are training for different scenarios that could take place on launch day. On Aug. 11 and 12 the Artemis II crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—practiced night-run demonstrations of different launch day scenarios like suit-up operations, walk-out, and arriving at the launch pad for the Artemis II test flight. MISSION UPDATES |  |
| Do You Know? |
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| This coming week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of one of NASA’s most transformative solar system exploration missions. On August 20, 1975, the agency’s first Mars lander set out for the Red Planet in search of signs of life on the Martian surface. |
| What was the name of this mission? A. Phoenix B. Pioneer 12 C. Viking 1 D. Mariner 9 |
| Find out the answer in next week’s NASA newsletter! |
 | Last week, we asked what phrase was embroidered on the covered wagon on the first astronaut-designed mission patch. The answer? “8 Days or Bust.” NASA Administrator James E. Webb asked that the phrase be covered out of his concern that the Gemini V mission could be perceived as a failure if it did not last the full eight days. NASA astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad’s 7-day, 22-hour, 55-minute mission broke a space duration record at a time when doctors were unsure if the human body could survive in microgravity for that long. Cooper’s recounting of the mission patch story can be found in his NASA oral history transcript. |
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| Do you have a telescope? Would you like to see some of the same night sky objects from the ground that Hubble has seen from space? We invite you to commemorate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary by accepting our yearlong stargazing challenge! New challenge objects will be featured weekly. This week’s object is Caldwell 6 (C6), commonly called the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Located about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Draco, Caldwell 6 is a planetary nebula—clouds of expanding gas given off by an aging star during its slow death—discovered by astronomer Sir William Herschel in February of 1786. The Cat’s Eye is relatively bright, despite its small size (just 5 light-years across), and is visible during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The nebula’s small size will make it difficult to see in detail, but its brightness should help observers spot it with a telescope. JOIN THE CELEBRATION |
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