Voyager science teams still collect valuable space data using four active tools

Intended to last four years, the Voyager spacecraft have lasted nearly five decades

Launched in 1977, the Voyager probes still send data from billions of miles away, guided by engineers who’ve turned down promotions to stay with the mission. The team continues to support the probes as they move 37,000 mph through space.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft to reach and study interstellar space

The Voyager Interstellar Mission extended beyond the original planetary flybys to explore the solar system's edge and beyond. Voyager 1 and 2 crossed the heliosheath—the boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium—in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

View a media gallery from the assembly of Voyager 1 and 2

This archive includes the many steps it took to put together each Voyager probe. Photos focus on individual parts, like the 8-track tape deck, the large dish-shaped antenna, and its long arm magnetometer boom.

The Deep Space Network keeps NASA linked to spacecraft billions of miles away

NASA's DSN is a global system of giant radio antennas that receive data from faraway spacecraft like Voyager 1 and the James Webb Space Telescope. It is sensitive enough to detect a signal as weak as a single light bulb from billions of miles away.

Voyager carries Earth's hopeful greeting into deep space as a message of peace

Along with scientific instruments, each Voyager carried a golden record containing multilingual greetings—ranging from Sumerian and Akkadian to Thai and Cantonese—music, and sounds of Earth intended for any intelligent life that might find it.

View galleries of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft during planetary flybys

The images and videos include close-ups of Uranus, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's ring system, and Neptune's Great Dark Spot. The Pale Blue Dot color image of Earth is included as part of the solar system's family portrait.

Hubble's average used power is less than half the power generated by its solar arrays

The space telescope's components use about 2,100 watts, or about as much power as five refrigerators. When exposed to sunlight, the solar arrays can generate over 5,200 watts for the observatory, which was engineered by a team that included Judith Love Cohen, mother of actor Jack Black.

The Hubble Space Telescope made discoveries within our solar system and across the universe

The observatory helped confirm the presence of water on Jupiter's moon Europa, and uncovered seasonal variations on planets like Uranus. It also observed exoplanets and gravitational lensing, proved the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and detected the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Climate data is monitored globally using tools from satellites to backyard gauges

Scientists use satellites, balloons, ocean buoys, and land-based instruments to track climate variables like temperature, precipitation, and wind. These tools gather data from deep ocean waters to the upper atmosphere.

The history of helioseismology, which studies seismic waves traveling within the sun

Following World War II, scientists began studying the sun's influence on radio waves, the most popular form of mass communication at the time. NASA missions to study the sun's interior have since helped develop explanations for various phenomena in its atmosphere and protect digital infrastructure.

How do scientists study far away stars?

Astronomy is the only science that is purely observational: meaning, scientists can't study stars in a lab. Here's a breakdown of how modern researchers use new tools to understand objects billions of light years away. As it turns out, the rules of science allow us to identify, categorize, and experiment with phenomena light years away.

There are trillions of pieces of space trash that are too small to be tracked

Although scientists monitor more than 24,000 pieces of large orbital debris, space junk can be as small as a paint fleck. The density of this trash is steadily increasing with the growth of the space industry on Earth.

See where the James Webb Space Telescope is in space right now

Webb travels through space in a stable orbit, but unlike the Hubble, it doesn't orbit around Earth. The Webb orbits around the sun in a way that allows it to always be in line with the Earth, as you can see in this visualization of the telescope's real-time position.

NASA's ESCAPADE mission will study Mars' atmosphere

The $80M mission—a collaboration between private companies, universities, and NASA—sent two copy machine-sized orbiters on a Blue Origin rocket to the red planet to study its magnetic field and atmospheric loss.

Since 2017, Virgo has helped LIGO localize astronomical phenomena

The detector near Pisa, Italy, coordinates its experimental runs with those in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. Scientists can triangulate the locations of celestial events that generate gravitational waves using signal arrival times, just as earthquake locations can be determined from measurements at three seismic stations.

Space-based solar power systems may beam energy to Earth

Researchers have successfully collected power from solar panels on a plane and transmitted it to a receiver on Earth's surface, achieving a milestone for space-based energy. The proof of concept is a precursor for a satellite-based solar farm that would transmit energy 24 hours a day.

Listen to the sounds of pulsars, which emit radio pulses up to hundreds of times a second

Just as figure skaters spin faster by tucking in their arms, these celestial objects acquire high rates of spin from the collapse of the cores of massive stars. The star's rotation spins its magnetic field, generating beams of radio waves from its magnetic poles. If either of these poles faces a detector, the signals can be picked up and converted to audio signals.

Comets serve as time capsules of the early solar system

The frozen objects preserve the molecular composition of the solar system's formation, dating back about 4.6 billion years. Spectral analysis of the gases they release when heated upon approaching the sun in eccentric orbits reveals this composition and helps assess solar system formation models.

The NOAA has a specialized team of researchers that fly directly into hurricanes

The reconnaissance missions gather data for computer models to forecast hurricanes and improve disaster preparedness. Each flight can last eight to ten hours and uses a specialized Air Force fleet.

Explore an interactive diary of the International Space Station

The tool enables users to learn about the daily events that occurred on the ISS since continuous human occupancy began on November 2, 2000. Upon selecting a date in the calendar, users can explore activity logs, relevant news, and multimedia content, including videos, photographs, and audiologs, from the onboard crew.

Scientists monitor volcanoes with a suitcase-sized observatory called SKATE

Short for Setup for the Kinematic Acquisition of Explosive Eruptions, the device is left to record heat, sound and visual data while volcanologists remain at a safe distance. The $58,000 tool is the successor to the FAMoUS (Fast Multiparametric Setup) prototype.

Except for Mercury, every planet in the solar system experiences auroras

Lacking magnetic fields, Venus and Mars exhibit auroras when the solar wind collides directly with their atmospheres, without deflection. Some particles behind the atmospheric collisions that generate auroras on gas giants come from their moons and the surrounding environments.

Gravity assists are crucial for space travel beyond Mars

By traveling near a moving celestial object, a passing object can gain or lose speed and change direction due to the acceleration provided by their mutual gravity. Some missions are planned around spacecraft performing multiple assists, or slingshots, to reduce fuel requirements for long-distance travel.

Watch the motion of an individual photon using a high-speed camera

Although light travels over 3 million football fields per second, cameras that capture trillions of frames per second can observe individual particles of light as they interact with atoms in materials they travel through. Such observations can be used to determine the speed of light in different materials.

NASA uses a specialized plasma wind tunnel to test heat shield technology

The ArcJet Complex ionizes compressed air that fires onto shields at hypersonic speeds, replicating the conditions of high-speed, planetary reentry. An enhanced facility incorporates lasers to mimic the radiant heating experienced during high-energy atmospheric traversal.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.