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Cyclone Rains Spur Papua New Guinea Landslides

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Cyclone Rains Spur Papua New Guinea Landslides

 




Sept. 24, 2025
April 20, 2026

A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

Sept. 24, 2025

April 20, 2026


During a break in the clouds, the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 captured an image of landslide fallout in the forested Gazelle district of East New Britain on April 20, 2026 (right). A second image from Landsat 9 shows the same area on September 24, 2025 (left), before the landslides.

Since much of Papua New Guinea lies close to the equator where the Coriolis effect is weak, the risk of tropical cyclones striking the island nation is relatively low, especially in its northern areas. Nevertheless, unusually warm sea surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions favorable to storm formation brought powerful Tropical Cyclone Maila dangerously close to the islands of Bougainville, New Britain, and New Ireland in April 2026, fueling intense rainfall.

The heavy rains saturated steep terrain in the Gazelle district of East New Britain, triggering landslides on and around April 9 that led to several deaths, according to news reports. The Landsat 9 satellite captured an image of the fresh landslide scars cutting through the dense tropical forests in the Baining Mountains on April 20, 2026. The Toriu River and other sediment-laden waterways are visible to the east of the landslides.

The landslides appear as light-brown swaths of exposed soil and debris extending north toward a nearby river valley, contrasting with the surrounding green vegetation and scattered white clouds. A second image from Landsat 9 shows the same area on September 24, 2025, before the landslides.

Maila was notable for its intensity—reaching Category 4 strength on Australia’s cyclone intensity scale (Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale used for U.S. hurricanes)—and also for its slow movement near Papua New Guinea. Instead of passing quickly through the region, Maila lingered, allowing rainbands to repeatedly strike East New Britain. Satellite-based precipitation estimates from NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission indicate that hundreds of millimeters of rain likely fell across the region in less than a week.

NASA’s Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness (LHASA) model uses precipitation estimates from GPM along with slope, soil, and land cover data to identify areas where rainfall is likely to trigger landslides. During the height of the storm, LHASA highlighted parts of East New Britain—including the Baining Mountains—as having an elevated risk of slope failure.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

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A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.

September 24, 2025

JPEG (18.10 MB)
A narrow, light-brown landslide scar cuts through dark green forested mountains in East New Britain and extends south toward a stream valley. Rivers swollen with floodwaters, areas of forest clearing, and scattered clouds are also visible in some parts of the image.

April 20, 2026

JPEG (17.23 MB)

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Life Science, Space Gardening Top Thursday’s Research Schedule

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Life Science, Space Gardening Top Thursday’s Research Schedule

Expedition 74 flight engineers Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency work together in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox, processing genetic-material samples for the DNA Nano Therapeutics‑3 experiment. The investigation is exploring DNA‑inspired assembly techniques as a way to manufacture treatments—such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy—that can kill cancer cells and activate the immune system.
Astronauts Chris Williams of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA work together in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox, processing genetic-material samples for the DNA Nano Therapeutics‑3 experiment.
NASA/Jessica Meir

A new exercise device, artery scans, and space gardening topped the research schedule for the Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The orbital residents also worked on a spacesuit and continued unpacking the Progress 95 cargo craft.

NASA flight engineer Chris Williams had a busy day inside the Columbus laboratory module trying out new workout gear and watering plants to support ongoing research. Williams first performed rope-pull exercises on the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) while a computer monitored his pulling speed, power, and heart rate. The E4D was delivered on April 13 inside the Cygnus XL resupply ship to test its ability to support crew workouts on long-term missions farther away from Earth. Afterward, he watered and photographed alfalfa plants growing inside the Veggie facility to investigate how plants and microbes interact in microgravity.

Flight engineers Sophie Adnot of ESA (European Space Agency) and Jack Hathaway of NASA partnered together for blood pressure checks and neck, shoulder, and leg artery scans using the Ultrasound 3 device that was delivered on Sept. 18, 2025. Doctors on the ground constantly monitor a crew member’s heart health to prevent and detect blood clots and other space-caused conditions.

Adenot later joined NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir inside the Quest airlock and swapped out components on a spacesuit. Meir also worked with Hathaway inside the Kibo laboratory module rearranging cargo to optimize space for research activities. Adenot and Hathaway later split up and worked on a pair of different space botany investigations to observe how seeds germinate in microgravity. One experiment is to interest students in space and while to the other is to promote space agriculture.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer respectively, were back inside the Progress 95 continuing to unpack some of the three tons of food, fuel, and supplies it delivered on April 27.

Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev started his shift inspecting laptop computer batteries then reconfiguring the ventilation system between the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos and U.S. segments. Fedyaev wrapped up his day checking the operation and cable connections of the Roscosmos segment’s video recording system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

NASA Invites Media to Ireland Artemis Accords Signing

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NASA Invites Media to Ireland Artemis Accords Signing

NASA meatball
Credit: NASA

Ireland will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 3 p.m. EDT Monday, May 4, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will host Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America Geraldine Byrne Nason; Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, T.D., of Ireland; and U.S. Department of State officials for the ceremony.

This event is in person only. Media interested in attending must RSVP no later than 12 p.m. on May 4 to: hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

In 2020, during the first Trump Administration, the United States, led by NASA and the State Department, joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies.

The accords introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety, transparency, and coordination of civil space exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

-end-

Camille Gallo / Elizabeth Shaw 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1600 
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov 

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Apr 30, 2026

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Elizabeth Shaw

Odyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars

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Odyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars

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Odyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars

A group of several dozen scientists and engineers pose together, standing atop an auditorium-size colorful map of the Martian globe that shows patches of blue, green, red, and yellow.
PIA26722
Credits:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

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Odyssey Team Celebrates on a Global Map of Mars

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Team members past and present from NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter mission gathered on April 15, 2026, to celebrate 25 years since the spacecraft’s launch, which took place April 7, 2001. For the occasion, the team rolled out a giant global map of Mars created using imagery from Odyssey’s THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) infrared camera. The celebration took place at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the mission.

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