Track all future solar eclipses and their projected paths of totality around the world

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Explore an interactive visualization of the solar system

This tool allows you to view the orbits of planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and other significant objects in the solar system. Clicking on an object reveals key facts and historical data.

Ancient civilizations predicted eclipses by tracking different cycles of their recurrence

The periodic nature of the orbits of the sun, moon, and Earth results in several series called saros cycles, in which the geometric configuration of these celestial bodies that produces an eclipse recurs after about 6585 days. Because eclipses are viewable from different locations on Earth, there exist many saros cycles, one for each ecliptic configuration.

Explore global solar resources with this interactive map

One of the biggest challenges to deploying solar panels is whether electricity can be generated reliably when needed, day after day. This detailed interactive map calculates the solar power output potential of regions worldwide and provides a visual comparison between locations such as North Africa and the US Midwest.

Spectacular shots of 2022's Blood Moon eclipse

A total lunar eclipse took place early Tuesday on Election Day. This occurs when the moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth, NASA says. See photos of the event here.

Explore Earth's future climate under different levels of warming

An incredible interactive project showing how global warming is projected to affect the world, from temperatures to rainfall, droughts and flooding, and more.

Tracking the accuracy of past and future predictions of the apocalypyse

Religious figures, scientists, technologists and others have long heralded the ending of the world in what in some traditions is called the apocalypse. This site tracks those failed predictions in the past and charts those coming up in the future.

Explore the Earth at night from space

See the planet in all its luminosity with this NightEarth app, an interactive spherical globe showing real satellite imagery of Earth. Toggle between views of real-time clouds, aurora borealis activity, and more.

Visualize your city’s annual daylight map

Type in your town or region and see sunrise and sunset for each day of the year. A separate view shows the number of hours of day versus night for each day. Search a city far north like Oslo, Norway, and compare its graphs to one near the equator (like Singapore).

Watch the sunset at Stonehenge during the 2025 Summer Solstice

Each year, tens of thousands gathered at Stonehenge to witness the sun’s alignment with the stones during the solstice. Watch a replay of a lifestream of the event from 2025.

View media of the sun's south pole, taken for the first time in 2025

Captured in March 2025 by the Solar Orbiter—a satellite developed by ESA and NASA—the images and video are the first to be taken by an object not moving around the sun's equator. The orbiter moved outside the plane of the planets by using Venus to slingshot it into a tilted orbit, and the data it collected will help scientists better understand the sun's magnetic activity.

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

NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor can detect asteroids coming from the sun

Telescopes directed at the sun or lacking heat shields may become damaged, limiting our ability to monitor potentially dangerous objects coming from that direction. The NEO Surveyor is built to overcome this problem and spot asteroids that reflect as little as 5% of incoming light.

A composite of telescope images of the sun, which each reveal unique solar features

While traditional cameras can reveal sunspots—cooler regions on the sun's surface—in visible light, x-ray detectors can highlight explosions of high-energy plasma and magnetic fields known as coronal mass ejections. Hydrogen-alpha filters can reveal clouds and filaments of material suspended in magnetic fields above the sun's surface.

Find which comets are currently visible in the night sky

Incorporating sightings reported in the Comet Observation database and information from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this list provides a finder chart, star map, tracker, simulated orbit, and key properties for each comet, all viewable based on a user's input position on Earth.

A global list of every space exploration mission

Learn how and why we explore our solar system and beyond with space exploration missions, and find out how you can get involved.

Through 2025, two-thirds of known exoplanets have been detected via transits

This technique involves observing periodic, consistent dips in a star's brightness caused by an exoplanet passing in front of it. Observing wobbles in a star as it is pulled by an orbiting exoplanet's gravity has become the second most common detection method, followed by microlensing and direct exoplanet observation.

View maps of the Milky Way across all wavelengths of light

By combining imaging from ground- and space-based telescopes designed to capture specific wavelengths of light, phenomena across a range of energies can be observed. If limited to a single frequency range, astronomers would not be aware of some cosmological events, such as those whose visible light is blocked by dust.

View maps of seafloor topography, earthquakes, and volcanic activity

Earthquakes and volcanoes are most common at plate boundaries, where moving plates interact. Mapping the locations of these events creates outlines for the different tectonic plates on Earth, whose movements can be tracked via GPS satellites.

Track individual sharks around the world in real time

OCEARCH provides essential data on shark populations and marine ecosystems to support broader conservation efforts. Foster your understanding of marine ecosystems by exploring different species and their movement.

Track lightning strikes around the world

The Blitzortung platform triangulates the positions of this phenomenon from stations that detect atmospheric interference in low-frequency signals that are characteristic of lightning strikes. A network of nearly 2,000 stations transmits the required data to a central server, where its software performs these calculations and generates the subsequent visualization.

Visualizing the year in US tornadoes, 2024

Between January and November 2024, over 1,700 tornadoes were documented to have touched down in the US, a relatively high number (and similar to the numbers in 2004, 2008, and 2011). This map shows their location across the country to help capture the number.

The next five asteroid approaches

Asteroids are zinging by our planet regularly, and some of them you can see without a telescope. Here's a regularly updated list of the next five asteroid approaches.

Could the world's largest solar storm happen again?

In 1859, the world witnessed the most intense solar storm in recorded history. The electromagnetic deluge of dust and gas lit up the night sky and sparked fires, disrupting Earth's magnetic field and putting on a show for the millions. If a storm with a similar intensity today occurred, scientists believe it would be catastrophic for our communications systems. Learn what would happen if the Carrington Event happened again here.

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.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Forecasting worldwide 5G adoption and economics

A collection of 10 regional reports from the world on all things 5G, including key trends and a range of technology, socioeconomic, and financial datasets, including forecasts out to 2025. Data charts and graphics included.

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

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

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.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

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.

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 El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

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

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

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

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.