NASA's Curious Universe

Snowmobile rides. Deep-sea dives. Forest treks. NASA experts travel to some amazing environments, from the very hot to the very cold, to learn more about our planet. Jessica Merzdorf, Earth science writer, recaps a February field campaign in Grand Mesa, Colorado.

Our Sun holds the solar system together and is responsible for life as we know it. Though it may seem calm and unchanging, the Sun is dynamic. Join NASA solar scientists on a trip around the Sun, our lively and mysterious neighborhood star.

In this episode of our Curious Universe podcast, join us on a journey to the Red Planet.

Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. Join NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers on a new adventure each week — all you need is your curiosity. Go asteroid hunting, explore faraway galaxies, and watch a black hole as it begins to form. First-time space explorers welcome.

Orbiting 250 miles above Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station explore farther into our solar system and work on thousands of studies that will help us back here on Earth. Join ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA scientist Sharmila Bhattacharya on an adventure to our “orbiting laboratory.”

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will attempt a daring feat: to briefly reach out its mechanical arm and grab a sample from an asteroid’s surface. Dante Lauretta, Heather Enos, and Ron Mink introduce you to NASA’s asteroid hunter and what this sample return mission means for us here on Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope will explore every phase of cosmic history: from the formation of the very first galaxies in the early universe, to our cosmic backyard of the Solar System. Webb is the largest space telescope NASA has ever built and it is almost ready to make its journey about one million miles from Earth.

Farmers rely on the accuracy of a crucial NASA and USGS mission, Landsat, to make decisions about crops. Those decisions have far-reaching implications that can impact what you see on your dinner plate!

As Earth makes its annual trip around the Sun, we feel the impacts of its journey in the form of seasons. Our planet’s tilt in relation to the Sun determines what season we experience here on Earth. But, did you know that the Sun goes through seasons too? Delores Knipp, Dean Pesnell and Sabrina Savage explain.

A pair of behemoth machines called crawler-trans­porters have carried the load of taking rockets and spacecraft to the launchpad for more than 50 years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Don't let the name fool you: a black hole is anything but empty space. Black holes are some of the most extreme, bizarre and fascinating objects in the universe. Regina Caputo and Jeremy Schnittman describe what it might be like to go hunting for one.

On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover completed its 300 million mile journey and landed safely on the Red Planet. Here’s what it heard. This special episode of NASA’s Curious Universe features the first-ever raw recorded sounds from Mars. Jim Green, David Gruel and Erisa Stilley explain what you're hearing.

Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. Join NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers on a new adventure each week — all you need is your curiosity.

What do we know about the planets outside our solar system? NASA planet hunters Jessie Christiansen and Knicole Colon take us beyond...into the exciting world of exoplanets.

You’ve probably seen beautiful images of space taken from telescopes around the world and out in orbit.  But how does a bunch of intergalactic information become a vibrant photograph?  And what else can we see, feel, and hear from that data? Scientists Kenneth Carpenter, Kimberly Arcand, and Denna Lambert help us translate the universe.