Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA Systems Engineering Team Details HWO Mission Architecture
Posted on: 27 Oct 2026

Finding an Earth-like world beyond the solar system is the Holy Grail of exoplanet research, and the field has experienced incredible technological advancements in searching for and identifying exoplanets since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1995. This includes both ground- and space-based telescopes, specifically the powerful James Webb Space Telescope. However, directly imaging exoplanets remains elusive, primarily due to the enormous technological challenge of imaging a point of light so far away.

Unveiling Starbirth Mysteries
Posted on: 27 Oct 2026

In 1985, the physicist Heinz R. Pagels wrote, "Stars are like animals in the wild. We may see the youung, but never the actual birth, which is a veiled and secret event." In the decades since then, astronomers have drawn closer and closer to figuring out what actually goes in the veiled stellar nurseries throughout the Universe. The tale of starbirth we know today invokes collapse of clouds of gas and dust into prestellar cores, but it still has many unknowns, such as the role of magnetic fields in the clouds where stars are born.