Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Astronomy Activation Ambassadors: Embracing Multiple Perspectives

5 min read

Astronomy Activation Ambassadors: Embracing Multiple Perspectives

The Astronomy Activation Ambassadors (AAA) project, part of the NASA Science Activation program, aims to measurably enhance student STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) engagement via middle school, high school, and community college science teacher professional development. AAA participants draw on NASA resources and subject matter experts to enhance their teaching and help share their excitement about astronomy and planetary science with their students. An important component of AAA teacher professional development is STEM immersion experiences, including guided tours of working observatories.

Teacher visits to observatories offer a rare chance to connect science with history, culture, and place. Framing those visits around the historical context of astronomy and the cultural significance of “high places” helps students see science as a human endeavor shaped by many voices. People everywhere look to the sky for meaning and knowledge, and mountain peaks often carry spiritual, cultural, and historical weight for local communities. The significance of these locations can be shared with their students.

AAA STEM immersion experiences took place in Hilo, Hawaii, and Tucson, Arizona, respectively, in April and September 2025. During the weekend of April 12-13, 16 teachers from across the state of Hawai`i gathered in Hilo for a full agenda involving a hands-on electromagnetic spectrum and multiwavelength astronomy curriculum workshop, subject matter expert presentations regarding astronomy research and native Hawaiian perspectives on Maunakea, and a visit to the summit of Maunakea (Figures 1 & 2). Teacher participants expressed their appreciation especially for the summit visit portion of the workshop and had numerous discussions during the journey about ways they could incorporate this content into their teaching.

The tour paused on the way up the mountain at the mid-level Onizuka Visitors Center. There, workshop participant, local high school teacher, and native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Toni Kaui addressed the group: “Standing here, we have passed through the wao kele (vah-oh kay-lay; forested uplands) and are about to enter the wao akua (vah-oh ah-koo-ah), the heavenly realm where our spirits and our elements of sacredness lie. […] This is where we come to have our spiritual connection with the mauna (mountain). In the wao akua, all of our sacred and elemental processes happen, and those processes help to determine the well-being of our ‘aina (-eye-nah; homeland) down below in the wao kanaka (vah-oh kah-nah-kah; human realm) where we came from.”

Group of people gathered in front of a radio telescope dish pointed skyward, with guide holding a large rock.

AAA STEM participants stop at one of the antennas of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to hear about Maunakea observatories, geology and ice age history of the summit plateau, and Hawaiian legends regarding Big Island volcanoes.

SETI Institute / ASU / Center for Maunakea Stewardship / NASA

Rectangular stack of rocks on a mountain summit; another mountain is in the distant background.

An ahu (sacred cairn) at the summit of Maunakea, the highest point in the Pacific.

Center for Maunakea Stewardship

The Maunakea visit was recorded by the NASA Science Activation program’s Infiniscope (Arizona State University) team, who joined AAA in the production of a virtual (video) tour highlighting both native Hawaiian and scientific researcher respect for the mountain. The virtual tour will be placed in the Infiniscope library (https://infiniscope.org) to be shared with a world-wide public audience.

The AAA program’s final workshop and STEM immersion experience was offered September 13-14 to 25 teachers from throughout the U.S. at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab headquarters in Tucson, Arizona and at Kitt Peak National Observatory (Figure 3).

Group of people, one gesturing with arms spread, gathered around a wide circular table.

NOIRLab outreach staff talking with AAA STEM participants about the image plane of the McMath-Pierce solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / SETI Institute / NASA

Logo created by Jeffry Antone Sr., Tohono O’odham artist, representing the spirit of cooperation between the astronomy research community and their native hosts.

KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / SETI Institute / NASA

Kitt Peak National Observatory is located within the land of the Tohono O’odham (tuh-hoh-noh aw-tuhm) Native American tribe, whose name for Kitt Peak is I’oligam Du’ag (ee-oh-lih-gahm doo-ahg), meaning “Manzanita Shrub Mountain”. Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Tohono Oʼodham Education Development Liaison with the NOIRLab, spoke with workshop participants regarding the long history of productive collaboration between local indigenous authorities and organizations developing and managing astronomy facilities on the mountain (Figure 4). She noted that the lease agreement between the Tohono O’odham nation and the NSF: “… is in perpetuity, as long as the mountain is used for astronomical study and research/education.” The AAA participant teachers found Dr. Ramon-Sauberan so inspiring that they enthusiastically gave up part of their scheduled lunch hour so she could have more time for her presentation.

The AAA project is winding down operations after 10 years as an active part of the NASA Science Activation’s collective efforts. In 2025, the ensemble of SciAct projects reached millions of learners in the U.S. and around the world via web-based content, public events, and education resources. As of the end of 2025, the AAA project alone had 780 teacher participants in 46 U.S. states plus 10 countries; 420 teachers have received STEM immersion experiences including flights on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) or visits to ground-based observatories. An estimated 70,000 students nation-wide have been influenced and inspired by AAA educators.

Participant or Team Member Quotes

Lillian Reynolds, Hawai`i middle school science teacher, stated: “I was fortunate to go to this STEM experience at Maunakea. One thing that I learned is about how many other jobs and people it takes to run all the telescopes and everything up there. I had this preconceived idea that it’s mostly astronomers, PhD people that I didn’t really relate to. I got to meet a lot of the technicians and other folks and that really opened my eyes to other opportunities for my students. So, that’s what I’m looking forward to taking back. It made me feel hopeful that we can really increase our base of home-grown scientists here in Hawai`i.”

Olivia Kuper, Tennessee high school science teacher, noted: “The inclusion of the Indigenous history and perspectives connected to Kitt Peak was one of the most important aspects of the training for me. It reinforced the importance of teaching astronomy in ways that respect the land and the people tied to it. This approach deepened my understanding and will help my students recognize the value of cultural perspectives and historical context in scientific practice.”

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NASA to Cover 33rd SpaceX Resupply Mission Station Departure

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft with its nosecone open and carrying over 5,000 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for NASA's SpaceX CRS-33 mission approaches the International Space Station for an automated docking to the Harmony module's forward port. Both spacecraft were flying 261 miles above the Atlantic Ocean south of the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago, at the time of this photograph.

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, carrying more than 5,000 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for NASA’s SpaceX CRS-33 mission, approaches the International Space Station on Aug. 25, 2025, for an automated docking to the Harmony module’s forward port.

Credit: NASA

NASA and its international partners will receive scientific research samples and hardware when a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, Feb. 26, and returns to Earth.

Watch NASA’s live coverage of the undocking and departure of the agency’s 33rd SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission starting at 11:45 a.m. EST on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content on a variety of online platforms, including social media.

A Dragon spacecraft will autonomously undock from the Harmony module’s forward-facing port at 12:05 p.m. and fire its thrusters to move safely away from the space station. Splashdown is scheduled later that evening at approximately 11:44 p.m. PST off the California coast. NASA will not stream the splashdown but will post updates on its space station blog.

Several scientific investigations are returning aboard Dragon, offering insights that could help shape future space exploration and life on Earth. The Euro Material Ageing study exposed 141 samples to space for a year to examine how coatings, insulation, and 3D-printed materials degrade, while Thailand’s Liquid Crystals experiment observed the stability of films used in electronics in microgravity. Both could lead to stronger spacecraft, better displays, and improved optical devices on future missions.

Frozen samples from the Stellar Stem Cells Mission 2 experiment are helping study how microgravity affects brain and heart stem cell growth, which could improve treatments for diseases such as ALS and Parkinson’s disease. The SpaceDuino project is paving the way for more low-cost instruments after successfully measuring vibrations using a commercially available single-board computer and open-source software. The Moon Microscope also successfully tested a portable diagnostic kit for blood analysis in space that could support future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting the mission also introduced a new capability to reboost the space station, helping maintain its altitude and counter atmospheric drag, which is critical for safe operations and the long-term sustainability of the orbital complex. During its time docked to the station, Dragon performed six reboosts — five in 2025 and a final maneuver on Jan. 23 — before preparations for its departure began.

Loaded with thousands of pounds of crew supplies, science experiments, and equipment, the spacecraft arrived at the station on Aug. 25, 2025, following its launch a day earlier on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs that are not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies concentrate on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing its resources on deep space missions to the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign in preparation for future astronaut missions to Mars.

Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and X.

Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov

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Feb 23, 2026

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Monday, 23 February 2026

Perseverance’s Landing

A rover descends toward Mars. The view is top-down. The rover looks like a white rectangle with 6 small black wheels attached to it. Mars' terrain is a brown blur.

This high-resolution still image is part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on February 18, 2021.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Perseverance Rover approaches Mars in this Feb. 18, 2020, top-down still image captured by a camera on the rover’s descent stage.

Perseverance is searching for signs of ancient microbial life, to advance NASA’s quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing because scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta. In summer 2024, the rover collected a sample from the “Chevaya Falls” rock which was found to have potential biosignatures — clues that suggest past life may have been present, but that require more data or further study before any conclusions about the absence or presence of life.

In addition to making discoveries on Mars, the rover itself is demonstrating technological advances: A new technology developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California enables Perseverance to figure out its whereabouts without calling humans for help. Dubbed Mars Global Localization, the technology features an algorithm that rapidly compares panoramic images from the rover’s navigation cameras with onboard orbital terrain maps.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Locates Former Star That Exploded as Supernova

4 Min Read

NASA’s Webb Telescope Locates Former Star That Exploded as Supernova

An image labeled “SN 2025 p h t in NGC 1637, Hubble W F C 3 2024 + Webb NIRCam 2024.” Most of the image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. About halfway from the core to the edge of the image at about 4 o’clock, a small region in one of the galaxy’s spiral arms is outlined with a white box. A shaded, nearly transparent white triangle extends to a pullout at upper right labeled “before explosion,” which shows a magnified image of the area within the box. Short lines form a crosshair that points to a red star at the center. Below this are three more square images, all with crosshairs at the same location. 1) Hubble August 2024, with nothing visible in the crosshairs, 2) Webb October 2024, with a red star in the crosshairs, 3) Hubble July 2025, with a blue supernova in the crosshairs.

The main image at left shows a combined Webb and Hubble view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637. Panels at right show a detailed view of a red supergiant star before and after it exploded. Before exploding, it is not visible to Hubble, only to Webb. Hubble shows the glowing aftermath.

Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Charles Kilpatrick (Northwestern), Aswin Suresh (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Forty million years ago, a star in a nearby galaxy exploded, spewing material across space and generating a brilliant beacon of light. That light traveled across the cosmos, reaching Earth June 29, 2025, where it was detected by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae. Astronomers immediately turned their resources to this new supernova, designated 2025pht, to learn more about it. But one team of scientists instead turned to archives, seeking to use pre-supernova images to identify exactly which star among many had exploded. And they succeeded.

Images of galaxy NGC 1637 taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope showed a single red supergiant star located exactly where the supernova now shines. This represents the first published detection of a supernova progenitor by Webb. The results were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“We’ve been waiting for this to happen – for a supernova to explode in a galaxy that Webb had already observed. We combined Hubble and Webb data sets to completely characterize this star for the first time,” said lead author Charlie Kilpatrick of Northwestern University.

Image: SN 2025pht in NGC 1637

An image labeled u201cSN 2025 p h t in NGC 1637, Hubble W F C 3 2024 + Webb NIRCam 2024.u201d Most of the image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. About halfway from the core to the edge of the image at about 4 ou2019clock, a small region in one of the galaxyu2019s spiral arms is outlined with a white box. A shaded, nearly transparent white triangle extends to a pullout at upper right labeled u201cbefore explosion,u201d which shows a magnified image of the area within the box. Short lines form a crosshair that points to a red star at the center. Below this are three more square images, all with crosshairs at the same location. 1) Hubble August 2024, with nothing visible in the crosshairs, 2) Webb October 2024, with a red star in the crosshairs, 3) Hubble July 2025, with a blue supernova in the crosshairs.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Charles Kilpatrick (Northwestern), Aswin Suresh (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Case of missing red supergiants

By carefully aligning Hubble and Webb images taken of NGC 1637, the team was able to identify the progenitor star in images taken by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in 2024. They found that the star appeared surprisingly red – an indication that it was surrounded by dust that blocked shorter, bluer wavelengths of light.

“It’s the reddest, most dusty red supergiant that we’ve seen explode as a supernova,” said graduate student and co-author Aswin Suresh of Northwestern University.

This excess of dust could help explain a long-standing problem in astronomy that could be described as the case of the missing red supergiants. Astronomers expect the most massive stars that explode as supernovas to also be the brightest and most luminous. So, they should be easy to identify in pre-supernova images. However, that hasn’t been the case.

One potential explanation is that the most massive aging stars are also the dustiest. If they’re surrounded by large quantities of dust, their light could be dimmed to the point of undetectability. The Webb observations of supernova 2025pht support that hypothesis.

“I’ve been arguing in favor of that interpretation, but even I didn’t expect to see it as extreme as it was for supernova 2025pht. It would explain why these more massive supergiants are missing because they tend to be more dusty,” said Kilpatrick.

Carbon “burps”

The team was not only surprised by the amount of dust, but also by its composition. Applying computer models to the Webb observations indicated that the dust is likely carbon-rich, when astronomers would have expected it to be more silicate-rich. The team speculates that this carbon might have been dredged up from the star’s interior shortly before it exploded.

“Having observations in the mid-infrared was key to constraining what kind of dust we were seeing,” said Suresh.

The team now is working to look for similar red supergiants that may explode as supernovas in the future. Observations by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope may help this search. Roman will have the resolution, sensitivity, and infrared wavelength coverage to not only see these stars, but also potentially witness their variability as they “burp” out large quantities of dust near the end of their lives.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

To learn more about Webb, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/webb

Downloads & Related Information

The following sections contain links to download this article’s images and videos in all available resolutions followed by related information links, media contacts, and if available, research paper and Spanish translation links.

Related Images & Videos

SN 2025pht in NGC 1637

Image titled u201cJames Webb Space Telescope, S N 2025 p h t, NGC 1637u201d. The image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right.

NGC 1637 Compass Image

Image of galaxy NGC 1637 captured by Hubble’s WFC3 and Webb’s NIRCam, with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

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Feb 23, 2026

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Laura Betz
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laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Saturday, 21 February 2026

NASA Is Helping Bring Giant Tortoises Back to the Galápagos

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NASA Is Helping Bring Giant Tortoises Back to the Galápagos

Floreana-ancestry giant tortoise resting in grass in the Galápagos, part of efforts to reintroduce tortoises to Floreana Island.

Giant tortoises disappeared in the mid-1800s from Floreana Island in the Galápagos.

For the first time in more than 150 years, giant tortoises are returning to the wild on Floreana Island in the Galápagos — guided by NASA satellite data that helps scientists discover where the animals can find food, water, and nesting habitat.

The effort, a collaboration between the Galápagos National Park Directorate and Galápagos Conservancy, marks a key milestone in restoring tortoise populations to one of the most ecologically distinctive archipelagos on Earth.

On Floreana Island, tortoises disappeared in the mid-1800s after heavy hunting by whalers and the introduction of new predators like pigs and rats, which consumed tortoise eggs and hatchlings. Without the tortoises, the island began to change. Across the Galápagos, giant tortoises historically helped shape the landscape by grazing vegetation, opening pathways through dense plant growth, and carrying seeds across islands.

“This is exactly the kind of project where NASA Earth observations make a difference,” said Keith Gaddis, the manager for NASA Earth Action’s Biological Diversity and Ecological Forecasting program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’re helping partners answer a practical question: Where will these animals have the best chance to survive — not just today, but decades from now?”

Matching Tortoises to Landscape

On Feb. 20, the Galápagos National Park Directorate and conservation partners released 158 giant tortoises at two sites on Floreana.

“It’s a huge deal to have these tortoises back on this island. Charles Darwin was one of the last people to see them there,” said James Gibbs, the Galápagos Conservancy’s Vice President of Science and Conservation and a co-principal investigator of the project.

In 2000, scientists made an unexpected discovery. Gibbs and other researchers found unusual tortoises on northern Isabela Island’s Wolf Volcano, the tallest peak in the Galápagos, that did not look like any other known living tortoises. About a decade later, DNA extracted from bones of the extinct Floreana tortoises — found in caves on the island and in museum collections — confirmed the tortoises carried Floreana ancestry, launching a breeding program that has since produced hundreds of offspring expected to return to the island. Researchers believe that whalers likely moved tortoises between the islands more than a century earlier.

The Galápagos National Park Directorate has raised and released across the Galápagos more than 10,000 tortoises over the last 60 years, one of the largest rewilding efforts ever attempted. But each island presents a different puzzle.

Some hills and small mountains in the Galápagos intercept clouds and stay cool and damp with evergreen vegetation. Others are dry enough that green vegetation appears only briefly after rain. Where these zones occur on the same island, tortoises move between them, with some animals traveling miles each year between seasonal feeding and nesting areas.

“It’s difficult for the tortoises because they get introduced from captivity into this environment,” Gibbs said. “They don’t know where food is. They don’t know where water is. They don’t know where to nest. If you can place them where conditions are already right, you give them a much better chance.”

Aerial view of Floreana Island’s rugged coastline and dry interior in the Galápagos, where habitat restoration is underway.

Part of Floreana Island is shown in the Galápagos, where ongoing restoration efforts aim to make the landscape ready for the return of giant tortoises.

That’s where NASA satellite data comes in.

NASA Earth observations allow scientists to map environmental conditions across the islands and track how vegetation, moisture, and temperature shift over time — clues to where tortoises can find food and water.

Using those records, Gibbs and Giorgos Mountrakis, the project’s principal investigator, and their team built a decision tool that combines satellite measurements of habitat and climate conditions with millions of field observations of tortoise locations across the archipelago to guide where, and when, to release the animals.

“Habitat suitability models and environmental mapping are essential tools,” said Christian Sevilla, the Director of Ecosystems at the Galápagos National Park Directorate. “They allow us to integrate climate, topography, and vegetation data to make evidence-based decisions. We move from intuition to precision.”

Habitat suitability map of the Galápagos showing areas from low to high suitability for giant tortoises across islands including Isabela, Santa Cruz, and Floreana.

This map shows modeled giant tortoise habitat suitability across the Galápagos under current environmental conditions, with colors ranging from low to high, indicating increasing likelihood of suitable food, moisture, and nesting habitat availability.

Wanmei Liang/NASA Earth Observatory

The decision tool draws on multiple NASA and partner satellite missions. Landsat and European Sentinel satellites track vegetation conditions. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission provides rainfall data. The Terra satellite helps estimate land-surface temperature, and terrain data adds elevation and landscape features. In some cases, high-resolution commercial satellite images, acquired through NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program, help teams evaluate potential release sites before field surveys begin.

With tortoise-environment relationships in hand, the team can map habitat suitability today and forecast how it may shift decades into the future as environmental conditions change.

“The forecasting part is critical,” said Mountrakis, of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. “This isn’t a one-year project. We’re looking at where tortoises will succeed 20, 40 years from now.”

Because the tortoises can live more than a century, habitat conditions decades from now matter as much as conditions today.

More Than Conservation

The tortoise release is part of the larger Floreana Ecological Restoration Project, which aims to remove invasive species like rats and feral cats and eventually return 12 native animal species to the island, with tortoises serving as the keystone for rebuilding the ecosystem.

Satellite image of Floreana Island showing brown dry coastal areas surrounding greener vegetation in the island’s higher central region, with ocean waters around the island.

This Landsat 8 image of Floreana Island from October 6, 2020, shows dry coastal lowlands surrounding greener, higher-elevation vegetation toward the island’s center.

Wanmei Liang/NASA Earth Observatory

The Galápagos Conservancy is also using NASA satellite data and the decision tool developed to help guide tortoise releases on other Galápagos islands and to plan future reintroductions across the archipelago.

If successful, Floreana Island could once again support a large tortoise population, helping restore relationships between animals, plants, and the landscape that shaped the island for thousands of years.

“For those of us who live and work in Galápagos, this [release] is deeply meaningful,” Sevilla said. “It demonstrates that large-scale ecological restoration is possible and that, with science and long-term commitment, we can recover an essential part of the archipelago’s natural heritage.”

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Feb 20, 2026

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Tuesday, 24 February 2026