Patches of the Sun’s surface often show strong magnetic fields. These fields can emerge within a matter of hours, and can decay slowly or quickly, sometimes over days, weeks, or even months. Thanks to a new study about these long-lived active regions, we now know much more about the patches where these strong magnetic fields take at least a month to decay.
This study relied on inputs from NASA’s Solar Active Region Spotter citizen science project, which asked volunteers to answer a series of questions about pairs of active region images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Project leads Emily Mason (Predictive Science Inc.) and Kara Kniezewski (Air Force Institute of Technology) looked at the data and the analysis done by volunteers. They found that the long-lived active regions produce disproportionately more flares than the shorter-lived regions and are 3-6 times more likely than other active regions to be the source of the most intense kinds of solar flares. These results are a strong indication that long-lived active regions are crucial for predicting space weather and could provide critical information on magnetic fields deeper inside the Sun.
Extra Extra! Extra Data Stream Added to the Daily Minor Planet!
The Daily Minor Planet citizen science project is expanding! In addition to data received nightly from the Catalina Sky Survey’s Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona, the project’s science team is now processing images from the Bok 2.3-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The Bok is a mighty telescope run by the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory that is used to survey for new near-Earth objects (NEOs) – asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit.
Data from the Bok telescope peers deeper than the data from the Mt. Lemmon telescope–it reveals objects roughly two to three times as faint. Software often struggles with such faint objects, but humans shine at pattern recognition in this kind of data, making your contributions to this search more valuable than ever.
Another important feature of the new data is that it mostly comes from the ecliptic, the band of sky where asteroids and comets preferentially travel. The project team expects this deeper, ecliptic-focused coverage to substantially increase the number of main-belt asteroids they can recover and confirm and bring fresh waves of near-Earth asteroid candidates.
Keep an eye out for new Bok subject sets as they are added. They’ll be a little more challenging and a lot more rewarding!
The Daily Minor Planet is a regularly updated citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse using nightly data collected by the Catalina Sky Survey. Anyone with a laptop or smartphone can join.
The Bok telescope stands tall under the Milky Way. Join The Daily Minor Planet project to view data from this telescope and hunt for near-Earth asteroids.
NASA has selected eight student teams as finalists in the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, giving them the resources to help address a critical challenge for U.S. aviation: maintenance.
Challenges facing the commercial aviation industry include a shortage of qualified maintenance workers and increasing demands to keep complicated aircraft running for longer. With Gateways to Blue Skies, NASA taps into student innovation to address some of the biggest topics in aviation, and the current competition, RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, is looking for solutions that can have immediate impact.
“Through this competition, students will learn about aviation maintenance and be empowered to change its future,” said Steven Holz, associate project manager for NASA’s University Innovation Project and judging panel co-chair for Gateways to Blue Skies. “By grounding innovative ideas in real operational needs and presenting them to NASA and industry experts, these teams demonstrate the kind of critical thinking, collaboration, and forward-looking problem solving that will shape a safer, more efficient aviation industry in the near future.”
This competition challenged teams of postsecondary students to conceptualize innovative systems and practices that could advance current commercial aircraft maintenance and repair operations. It addresses dual goals for NASA: supporting innovative research and also stimulating the potential aviation workforce of tomorrow.
The goal for RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance is to generate concepts to improve efficiency, safety, and costs for the aviation maintenance industry by 2035. That timeline differs from many NASA research competitions focused on long-term future technologies; RepAir seeks to address the maintenance issues of today.
NASA made its selections based on a review of participants’ proposals and accompanying videos summarizing the RepAir concepts. The eight finalist teams will receive a $9,000 prize and will advance to Phase 2 of the competition.
Phase 2 includes a review of each team’s final paper, infographic, and presentation at the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum, held May 18 at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in May and livestreamed globally. Following the forum, members of the winning team who fulfill eligibility criteria will be offered the opportunity to intern with NASA Aeronautics.
The 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition finalist projects represent an array of capabilities including robotic inspections, augmented reality smart glasses, and sensor and machine learning architectures:
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach with Cecil College Maryland Advancing Aircraft Maintenance, Smart Mechanic Glasses
Manhattan University Aircraft Enhanced Resilience and Intelligence Systems (A.E.R.I.S)
Michigan State University Surface Evaluation Network for Tethered Inspection and Nondestructive Evaluation (SENTINEL)
South Dakota State University Surveying Platform and Inspection Device for Enclosed Regions (S.P.I.D.E.R.)
South Dakota State University WINGMAN, augmented reality data-logging and information-display system for improved efficiency in line maintenance inspections and reporting
South Dakota State University Surface Preservation and Rust Killer (S.P.A.R.K.) Crawler
University of California, Irvine Aircraft Structural Health Intelligence for Evaluation and Lifecycle Detection (Air SHIELD)
University of Maryland Eastern Shore A Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) Fuel Control Unit Health Management in Aircraft known as APU Sentinel
The Gateways to Blue Skies Challenge is led through the Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, manages the challenge through the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA.
More on the Gateways to Blues Skies: RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance competition is available on the competition’s site.
NASA Volunteers Study Biofilm Adaptability in Space
Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that stick to one another and also adhere to a nearby surface. They are intricately associated with life on Earth, enabling functions essential to human and plant systems.
NASA’s Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) Analysis Working Groups study biofilms and many other biological phenomena in an environment that’s important to NASA: the environment of deep space. It’s not well understood how well biofilms react to the many stresses of spaceflight.
Now, a new study, performed in part by NASA volunteers, describes how biofilms adapt to space environments, exploring how biofilms may benefit human and plant health in space.
The volunteers, led by Dr. Katherine Baxter (University of Glasgow) and Dr. Nicholas Brereton (University College Dublin), are part of the Microbes Analysis Working Group. Their findings reframe biofilms from infection risks to essential structures supporting human gut health, immunity, and plant nutrient uptake. The group’s work synthesizes how spaceflight stressors alter biofilm architecture and host interaction.
Interested in collaborating with others to help terrestrial life thrive in space? You can join the OSDR-Analysis Working Groups and help plan the future of human space exploration.
Biofilms support human and plant health on Earth. Spaceflight may disrupt these biofilm-host interactions, with implications for crew health and plant-based life support systems.
npj biofilms and microbiomes, Baxter et al. 2026
Learn More and Get Involved
Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups (OSDR AWG)
Help astronauts and life thrive in space using space biology and health data. Laptop required. Data science knowledge is helpful.
At any given moment, about 20 volcanoes on Earth are actively erupting. Often among them is Mayon—the most active volcano in the Philippines. The nearly symmetrical stratovolcano, on Luzon Island near the Albay and Lagonoy gulfs, rises more than 2,400 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level.
Historical records indicate Mayon has erupted 65 times in the past 5,000 years, with the latest episode beginning in January 2026. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) first reported increased rockfalls near the volcano’s summit and inflation of the mountain’s upper slopes. On January 6, the alert level was increased to three on a five-level scale after lava began flowing from the crater and hot clouds of ash and debris called pyroclastic flows (also called pyroclastic density currents) moved down one side of the mountain.
The volcano was still puffing and lava flowing on February 26, when the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 acquired this rare, relatively clear image. The natural-color scene is overlaid with infrared observations to highlight the lava’s heat signature. On that day, PHIVOLCS reported volcanic earthquakes, rockfalls, and pyroclastic flows. The longest pyroclastic flow had traveled about 4 kilometers (3 miles) through the Mi-isi Gully on the southeast flank.
The level-three alert, which remained in place in March, prompted evacuations within a 6-kilometer (4-mile) radius of the crater, displacing hundreds of families from communities including Tabaco City, Malilpot, and Camalig. Past pyroclastic flows have proven extremely destructive, leading to more than 1,000 deaths in 1814, at least 400 deaths in 1897, and 77 deaths in 1993. More than 73,000 people were evacuated during an eruption in 1984.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions during the current eruption have averaged 2,466 tons per day, with a peak of 6,569 metric tons measured on February 4, 2026. That is the highest SO2 emission level for one day in 15 years, the PHIVOLCS announced in early February. That was later exceeded on March 6, when SO2 emissions reached as high as 7,633 metric tons.
Multiple NASA satellites have also monitored the volcano’s sulfur dioxide emissions, showing sizable plumes of the gas drifting southwest on February 4 and March 6. The Philippine volcanology institute reported a peak in other activity on February 8 and 9, with 469 rockfalls, 12 major pyroclastic flows, and ashfall in the municipalities of Camalig and Guinobatan.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.Story by Adam Voiland.
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft cruises above Palmdale and Edwards, California, during its first flight, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. The aircraft traveled to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
NASA/Lori Losey
The Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project (LBFD) is part of NASA’s effort to help enable new aircraft noise standards that are required to open the market to commercial supersonic flight over land.
The federal government banned all civilian supersonic flights over land more than fifty years ago due to sonic boom noise. If new standards are established, the U.S. aviation industry can position itself to lead the commercial supersonic market, and passengers will benefit from significantly shorter travel times.
Over the past decade, fundamental research and experimentation have demonstrated the possibility of supersonic flight with greatly reduced sonic boom noise – one of several key areas needed to transform commercial supersonic flight.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on a ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, during sunset. The one-of-a-kind aircraft is powered by a General Electric F414 engine, a variant of the engines used on F/A-18 fighter jets. The engine is mounted above the fuselage to reduce the number of shockwaves that reach the ground. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight and enable future commercial travel over land – faster than the speed of sound.
Lockheed Martin Corporation/Garr
The LBFD project will demonstrate a reduced sonic boom by utilizing a purpose-built experimental aircraft designated the X-59.
The LBFD project supports a multi-phase effort aimed at demonstrating the X-59’s ability to fly supersonic without generating loud sonic booms. The LBFD project leads Phase 1 of the Quesst mission, involving the design, fabrication, ground tests, and checkout flights of the X-59.
After ensuring the aircraft is safe and performing as expected, the LBFD project will support the rest of the mission team during Phase 2 to prove the aircraft is producing a quiet sound to people on the ground and is safe for operations in the National Airspace System.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, the X-59 aircraft will transfer to the Integrated Aviation Systems Program’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project.
