This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy called NGC 6000.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko; Acknowledgment: M. H. Özsaraç
Stars of all ages are on display in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the sparkling spiral galaxy called NGC 6000, located 102 million light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
NGC 6000 has a glowing yellow center and glittering blue outskirts. These colors reflect differences in the average ages, masses, and temperatures of the galaxy’s stars. At the heart of the galaxy, the stars tend to be older and smaller. Less massive stars are cooler than more massive stars, and somewhat counterintuitively, cooler stars are redder, while hotter stars are bluer. Farther out along NGC 6000’s spiral arms, brilliant star clusters host young, massive stars that appear distinctly blue.
Hubble collected the data for this image while surveying the sites of recent supernova explosions in nearby galaxies. NGC 6000 hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2007ch in 2007 and SN 2010as in 2010. Using Hubble’s sensitive detectors, researchers can discern the faint glow of supernovae years after the initial explosion. These observations help constrain the masses of supernovae progenitor stars and can indicate if they had any stellar companions.
By zooming in to the right side of the galaxy’s disk in this image, you can see a set of four thin yellow and blue lines. These lines are an asteroid in our solar system that was drifting across Hubble’s field of view as it gazed at NGC 6000. The four lines are due to four different exposures recorded one after another with slight pauses in between. Image processors combined these four exposures to create the final image. The lines appear dashed with alternating colors because each exposure used a filter to collect very specific wavelengths of light, in this case around red and blue. Having these separate exposures of particular wavelengths is important to study and compare stars by their colors — but it also makes asteroid interlopers very obvious!
NASA, Blue Origin Launch Two Spacecraft to Study Mars, Solar Wind
NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission launched at 3:55 p.m. EST atop a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Credit: Blue Origin
A pair of NASA spacecraft ultimately destined for Mars will study how its magnetic environment is impacted by the Sun. The mission also will help the agency prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft launched at 3:55 p.m. EST, Thursday, aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
“Congratulations to Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, UC Berkeley, and all our partners on the successful launch of ESCAPADE. This heliophysics mission will help reveal how Mars became a desert planet, and how solar eruptions affect the Martian surface,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “Every launch of New Glenn provides data that will be essential when we launch MK-1 through Artemis. All this information will be critical to protect future NASA explorers and invaluable as we evaluate how to deliver on President Trump’s vision of planting the Stars and Stripes on Mars.”
The twin spacecraft, built by Rocket Lab, will investigate how a never-ending, million-mile-per-hour stream of particles from the Sun, known as the solar wind, has gradually stripped away much of the Martian atmosphere, causing the planet to cool and its surface water to evaporate. The mission is led by the University of California, Berkeley.
Ground controllers for the ESCAPADE mission established communications with both spacecraft by 10:35 p.m. EST.
“The ESCAPADE mission is part of our strategy to understand Mars’ past and present so we can send the first astronauts there safely,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding Martian space weather is a top priority for future missions because it helps us protect systems, robots, and most importantly, humans, in extreme environments.”
New Glenn also carried a space communications technology demonstration from Viasat Inc., supporting NASA’s efforts to commercialize next-generation satellite relay services for science missions. Funded by the agency’s Communications Services Project, the demonstration transmitted launch telemetry data from the rocket’s second stage to an operations center on Earth through Viasat’s geostationary satellite network.
Blazing new trails
Recent solar activity, which triggered widespread auroras on Earth, caused a slight delay in launch to prevent solar storms from negatively impacting post-launch spacecraft commissioning. When ESCAPADE arrives at Mars, it will study present-day effects of the solar wind and solar storms on the Red Planet in real time. This will provide insights about Martian space weather and help NASA better understand the conditions astronauts will face when they reach Mars.
“The ESCAPADE spacecraft are now about to embark on a unique journey to Mars never traversed by any other mission,” said Alan Zide, ESCAPADE program executive at NASA Headquarters.
Rather than heading directly to Mars, the twin spacecraft will first head to a location in space a million miles from Earth called Lagrange point 2. Right now, Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun, which makes it harder to travel from one planet to the other. In November 2026, when Earth and Mars are closely aligned in their orbits, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will loop back to Earth and use Earth’s gravity to slingshot themselves toward Mars.
In the past, Mars missions have waited to launch during a brief window of time when Earth and Mars are aligned, which happens roughly every two years. However, with the type of trajectory ESCAPADE is using, future missions could launch nearly anytime and wait in space, queueing up for their interplanetary departure, until the two planets are in position.
This original “Earth-proximity” or “loiter” orbit also will make ESCAPADE the first mission to ever pass through a distant region of Earth’s magnetotail, part of our planet’s magnetic field that gets stretched out away from the Sun by the solar wind.
Studying Mars in stereo
After a 10-month cruise, ESCAPADE is expected to arrive at Mars in September 2027, becoming the first coordinated dual-spacecraft mission to enter orbit around another planet.
Over several months, the two spacecraft will arrange themselves in their initial science formation, in which the twin spacecraft will follow each other in the same “string-of-pearls” orbit, passing through the same areas in quick succession to investigate for the first time how space weather conditions vary on short timescales. This science campaign will begin in June 2028.
Six months later, both spacecraft will shift into different orbits, with one traveling farther from Mars and the other staying closer to it. Planned to last for five months, this second formation aims to study the solar wind and Mars’ upper atmosphere simultaneously, allowing scientists to investigate how the planet responds to the solar wind in real time.
In addition, ESCAPADE will provide more information about Mars’ ionosphere — a part of the upper atmosphere that future astronauts will rely on to send radio and navigation signals around the planet.
The ESCAPADE mission is funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division and is part of NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Advanced Space support the mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, secured the launch service with Blue Origin under the Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4702-4708: It’s Only Spooky Here on Earth Today!
4 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4702-4708: It’s Only Spooky Here on Earth Today!
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image at the start of the drilling activity at the “Valle de la Luna” site, “caught in the act” as this image was taken on Oct. 19, 2025. Curiosity used its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) on Sol 4693, or Martian day 4,693 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, at 01:54:37 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
By Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, U.K.
Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 31, 2025
I am writing this blog and it’s still daytime — and I am looking forward to accompanying one of my favorite kids to trick-and-treating afterwards. That’s a new feeling for me because I am usually in the U.K., which means my Curiosity shifts start in the late afternoon when everyone else finishes working. But for now, I am in the U.S. (Houston, Texas), and it’s daytime, which is a lovely change, especially today as I don’t have to hide from trick-and-treaters’ interruptions but instead can give out all the candy they can possibly eat! Looking forward to that… but before, let’s see what Curiosity was up to this week!
You’ll have seen the blog by my colleague Bill, “Searching for Answers at Monte Grande,” about our analysis of the “Valle de la Luna” sample with CheMin and SAM EGA. This week we were continuing the SAM analysis of the 44th drilled sample, which always takes a lot of power, so that leaves less room for other investigations. Hence, you might notice that there were fewer ChemCam and Mastcam activities. The rover also did not drive while sample is still in the turret ready for delivery of the next SAM activities. Curiosity has now completed the deliveries to CheMin and SAM, though, and the last action in Friday’s plan was to clean out the remaining sample from the drill in preparation for driving away here in Monday’s plan.
In Monday’s plan we’ll reposition the rover to get a very good look at the potential next drill targets on the ridge. We’ve been able to scout them already in previous images and have a few candidates, but decision-making will require images from Monday’s parking position, since we are currently parked in a hollow and cannot really see what’s up on the ridge.
That said, being stationary has always been a golden opportunity for looking at wind action, and this week was no difference as Mastcam looked at the drill fines several times over the time we were stationary, to ascertain the safety for MAHLI to approach — and of course to use those images for atmospheric science, too. In addition, Mastcam took the opportunity to get comprehensive imaging of the entire area. There are several mosaics that document the near-field, for example at target “Nazareth.” In the mid- and far-field distances, Mastcam assembled a large mosaic on “Monte Grande” and “Ticaco” to document the different rocks in the surrounding ridge walls and wider afield. There are so many interesting textures and alteration features, alongside troughs and fractures, that the team will have a fun time analyzing them all in great detail individually, as well as their relationships to each other.
ChemCam has investigated the Valle de la Luna drill hole and tailings as per the usual cadence of post-drilling activities, and in addition investigated target Nazareth to understand how the block that Curiosity drilled might vary chemically. Another ChemCam target was “Pachica,” as the team observed many nodules in this target and we are interested in their chemical variability and “Palpana,” a more smooth block. Further investigations of the Valle de la Luna drill hole with ChemCam are targets “Anapia” and “Bandara” to further investigate the chemical diversity of the drill target block.
ChemCam Remote Micro Imager (RMI) observations were also taken in the near-field and farther away. In the near-field, RMI images are documenting further details on the Valle de la Luna drill hole and its tailings, while further afield the Monte Grande Wall is one of the RMI targets alongside with other details in the boxwork ridges around us. On Friday, the RMI was pointed far uphill to continue imaging the yardang unit, which is one of our next goals in the longer term future.
In addition to all the drill activities and rock investigations, the atmosphere received attention too. We have the usual cadence of environmental investigations, building our long-term pressure, temperature, and humidity record of Mars; and we observe the atmospheric opacity, dust-devil activities, and clouds. Of course, we are all looking forward to next week, when we will decide on the second drill target in this area, this time on the ridge. Let’s see what block will be looking best, both from a science and an engineering point of view – we’ve got a short list of candidates; the detailed images are for Monday’s plan. Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy trick-and-treating here on Earth and our weekends while Curiosity finishes the drill activities at Valle de la Luna.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4695-4701: Searching for Answers at Monte Grande
3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4695-4701: Searching for Answers at Monte Grande
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the “Valle de la Luna” drill hole using its Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Oct. 19, 2025 — Sol 4693, or Martian day 4,693 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 02:04:29 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute
Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 24, 2025
Curiosity has successfully drilled its 44th hole on Mars, which is a major milestone in our investigation of the enigmatic “boxwork unit,” a region of resistant ridges surrounding pits or “hollows” of less-resistant rock. The drilling took place over the past weekend within the “Monte Grande” hollow at the “Valle de la Luna” target.
Rover planning this week consisted of ensuring that the granular drill tailings from Valle de la Luna were transferred to the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) and CheMin (X-ray diffraction) instruments, and analyzing the results. Results from these instruments, which will provide mineralogical and other compositional information, will be especially critical for determining how the boxwork features formed, since chemistry from the APXS and ChemCam instruments and reflectance spectra from ChemCam have revealed subtle, but not striking, differences between the rocks making up the ridges and those making up the hollows. Thus, a compositional explanation for the differences between the two terrain types has yet to be determined.
While these internal studies of the Valle de la Luna samples were going on, remote sensing data were collected by Mastcam of a series of targets, as well as atmospheric remote sensing. Among the Mastcam studies being conducted is a photometry study, a kind of study usually only carried out during an extended stationary period, such as the current drill campaign. Photometry is the study of changes in the apparent reflected brightness of rocks and soils based on the illumination geometry (for example, whether the Sun is low on the horizon or high in the sky). During this photometry campaign, multiple images are collected of the same target regions at different times of day.
In the final plan of the week, as part of the ongoing assessment of the Valle de la Luna sample, material will undergo an evolved gas analysis (EGA) in which the drilled sample is baked in an oven in SAM and volatile molecules including H2O, CO2, and SO2 are released and used to further aid in the characterization of the target materials. Mastcam observations will include further images collected as part of the photometry campaign. Also mosaics of the west wall of the Monte Grande hollow will be collected as well as several atmospheric measurements.
Next week the rover will continue analyzing the drilled sample with more SAM experiments, and also analyze the tailings. The team is also starting to search for a suitable drilling location on a ridge as the next drilling site, in order to compare with the results from the Monte Grande hollow.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4689-4694: Drill in the Boxwork Unit is GO!
3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4689-4694: Drill in the Boxwork Unit is GO!
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image showing the “Valle de la Luna” block in the “Monte Grande” hollow, a location it targeted for drilling the weekend of Oct. 18-19, 2025. Curiosity captured the image with its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) on Oct. 12, 2025 — Sol 4687, or Martian day 4,687 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 23:11:12 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick
Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 17, 2025
Curiosity has been investigating the “boxwork unit” for several months now. Readers might remember we drilled at the edge of the boxwork at “Altadena,” back in June. Since then, we have driven just under a kilometer across the boxwork unit (about 0.6 miles) and now we are ready to acquire the next drill target, in an area where the structure is really well preserved.
The boxwork structures are a series of ridges and hollows, so our plan is to drill within one of the hollows and then on one of the adjacent ridges. On Monday, we did our drill triage on “Valle de la Luna” within the hollow “Monte Grande” – a multi-instrument endeavor. We assessed the chemistry using APXS and ChemCam, to make sure it is within the expected range and not something completely different from the bedrock compositions we have been tracking. The rover planners (RPs) use a “pre-load” test, putting pressure on the bedrock surface to characterize how the rover arm and rock might behave during drilling. We take multiple images (including images before and after the pre-load test), using MAHLI and Mastcam to help the RPs assess the surface of the potential drill area.
Finding a suitable place to drill in the hollows was a challenge, as the low point of each hollow (what we are most interested in) is often covered in sand or small pebbles, with just sparse bedrock peeking through, as you can see in the accompanying image. However, we got lucky here in Monte Grande. The chemistry shows that this rock is within our expected compositional range. The MAHLI images show a smoother surface in the center of the brushed area (where the drill will focus), and the before-and-after images indicated that the rock reacted well to the pre-load test. On Friday, the RPs and mission scientists pored over the data in a very intensive meeting called the “Target Acquisition Assessment Meeting,” or TAAM. We have drilled 43 holes on Mars now and it’s always nerve-wracking, waiting to see if the information we gathered during our initial contact science and preload give us a go-ahead. About midway through the planning day, we got the news that TAAM said yes to drilling here, so we will drill on the first sol of this weekend plan.
If the drill is successful, we will have no contact science for at least a week, as the arm cannot be deployed during a drill campaign. Normally, as I’m APXS PUDL (responsible for uplinking new APXS targets and assessing downlink of previous targets), the idea of a week with no contact science would be disappointing to me — but not during a drill campaign! CheMin (Chemistry Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) will use the drilled sample to give us extra depth of information, looking at mineralogy and composition in a way that is not possible for APXS and ChemCam.
We can then use that drill data to help us interpret the APXS and ChemCam data and better understand the formation of these boxworks, especially if we can pair it with a suitable target on the ridges.
In the meantime of course, we continue to monitor the atmosphere and environment around us. The Mastcam team are planning some amazing images from this site and ChemCam will continue to characterize the nearby bedrock and image the far-off hills.
