Latvia’s Minister for Education and Science Dace Melbārde, second from right, signs the Artemis Accords, as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, second from left, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, left, and chargé d’affaires a.i. at the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United States Jānis Beķeris, right, look on Monday, April 20, 2026, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
The Republic of Latvia signed the Artemis Accords Monday during a ceremony hosted by NASA at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, becoming the 62nd nation to commit to responsible space exploration for all humanity.
“We are proud to welcome Latvia to the Artemis Accords,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Each new signatory strengthens a coalition committed to the transparent and peaceful exploration of space. The accords are the foundation for real missions and real cooperation on the lunar surface, and Latvia’s commitment strengthens our shared vision for this next great era of exploration.”
Latvia’s Minister for Education and Science Dace Melbārde signed on behalf of the country. Chargé d’affaires a.i. at the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United States Jānis Beķeris and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg also participated in the event.
“Today, Latvia aligns with a shared vision for humanity beyond Earth, grounded in international cooperation and the peaceful, transparent, and responsible exploration of outer space,” said Melbārde. “By joining the Artemis Accords, we make a clear commitment to these principles. Latvia already contributes to the global space ecosystem through its industry and research, and we look forward to the opportunity to deepen cooperation with the United States and NASA, contributing to future space activities under the Artemis framework. Participation in the Artemis Accords is also an investment in the development of our students, researchers, and innovators.”
Last month, NASA announced plans to return to the Moon routinely and affordably, establishing an enduring presence and building a sustained lunar base. More than 40 Artemis Accords countries across six continents sent representatives to Washington for the event, announcing new opportunities for exploration and science. The group represented more than two thirds of the current Artemis Accords signatories.
In 2020, during the first Trump Administration, the United States, led by NASA and the U.S. Department of State, 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 and coordination between like-minded nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Signing the Artemis Accords means committing to explore peaceably and transparently, to render aid to those in need, to enable access to scientific data that all of humanity can learn from, to ensure activities do not interfere with those of others, and to preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices for space exploration for the benefit of all.
More countries are expected to sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues its work to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies over the Mojave Desert in California in this April 14, 2026, image. The transition to flying with wheels up is a key milestone and an important step in the experimental aircraft’s test campaign.
The X-59 has made its highest and fastest flights so far, expanding its operational range and making progress toward supersonic flight. In future flights, the team will also be looking at factors like the performance of its controls, loads and structural dynamics, and subsystems including hydraulics, fuel, avionics, landing gear, and more. They will also be monitoring the performance of the eXternal Vision System, the series of cameras located on the X-59 connected to a display in the cockpit. The system takes the place of a traditional forward windscreen.
NASA’s Quesst mission, which features the one-of-a-kind X-59 aircraft, will demonstrate technology to fly supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, without generating loud sonic booms.
NASA’s Hubble Dazzles With Young Stars in Trifid Nebula
NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
This shimmering region of star-formation, a close-up of the Trifid Nebula about 5,000 light-years from Earth, was captured in intricate detail by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The colors in Hubble’s visible light image, which marks the 36th anniversary of the mission’s launch on April 24, are reminiscent of an underwater scene filled with fine-grained sediments fluttering through the ocean’s depths.
Several massive stars, which are outside this field of view, have shaped this region for at least 300,000 years. (See them in a wider view.) Their powerful winds continue to blow an enormous bubble, a small portion of which is shown here, that pushes and compresses the cloud’s gas and dust, triggering new waves of star formation.
NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.
NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
This isn’t the first time Hubble has gazed at this scene. The telescope observed the Trifid in 1997 and now, 29 years later, it has leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales. Why look at the same location again? In addition to seeing changes over time, Hubble is also equipped with an improved camera with a wider field of view and greater sensitivity that was installed during Servicing Mission 4.
Star formation in ‘Cosmic Sea Lemon’
Hubble’s view of the Trifid Nebula (also known as Messier 20 or M20) focuses on a “head” and undulating “body” of a rusty-colored cloud of gas and dust that resembles a marine sea lemon, or sea slug, that appears as if it is gliding through the cosmos.
The Cosmic Sea Lemon’s left “horn” is part of Herbig-Haro 399, a jet of plasma periodically ejected over centuries by a young protostar embedded in the head of the sea lemon. Changes, as seen in the video below, allow researchers to measure the speeds of the outflows and determine how much energy the protostar is injecting into these regions. These measurements will provide insights into how newly formed stars interact with their surroundings.
Compare Hubble’s two observations of a portion of the Trifid Nebula, one taken in 2026 with the telescope’s current Wide Field Camera 3 and the other in 1997 with an earlier instrument (the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2). This portrait of star formation spotlights…
Video: NASA, ESA, STScI, Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
To the immediate lower right is evidence of the counter jet: jagged orange and red lines that ”run” down the back of the sea lemon’s neck, where a natural V appears in the brown dust.
The darker, more triangular “horn” on the right of the “head” hosts another young star at its tip. Zoom in to see a faint red dot with a tiny jet. The green arc above it may be evidence that a circumstellar disk is being eroded by the intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive stars. The clearer area around this protostar suggests it may almost be finished forming.
To the immediate left of the Cosmic Sea Lemon is a small, faint pillar that resembles a water bear. Much of this pillar’s gas and dust has been blown away, but the densest material at the top persists.
Streaks and sharp lines offer more clues about other young stars’ activities. Spy an example by looking near the center for a rippling angled line that begins in a bright orange and ends in a blazing red. In the image comparison, it appears to move, which means it may be a jet shot out by another actively forming star buried deeply in dust.
NASA is celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with a stunning new look at the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,000 light-years away. Powerful ultraviolet light from massive stars carved out this glowing bubble, triggering new waves of star birth. Sit back and relax as Hubble Senior Project Scientist, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman takes us on a tour of this beautiful image. Credit: NASA; Lead Producer: Paul Morris
Prismatic ‘sea’ of color
In Hubble’s visible light observations, the clearest view is toward the top left, where it’s bluer. Strong ultraviolet light from massive stars, not in the field of view, stripped electrons from nearby gas, creating a glow, with winds sculpting a bubble by clearing out surrounding dust.
At the top of the Cosmic Sea Lemon’s head, bright yellow gas streams upward. This is an example of ultraviolet light plowing into the dark brown dust, stripping and dismantling the gas and dust.
Many ridges and slopes of dark brown material will remain for a few million years, as the stars’ ultraviolet light slowly eats away at the gas. The densest areas are home to protostars, which are obscured in visible light.
The far-right corner is nearly pitch black. This is where the dust is the densest. The stars that appear here may not be part of this star-forming region — they might be closer to us, in the foreground.
Now, scan the scene for bright orange orbs. These stars have fully formed, clearing the space around them. Over millions of years, the nebula’s gas and dust will disappear — only stars will remain.
Unprecedented longevity, nonstop discoveries
Hubble’s varied instruments and the expansive range of light it collects — from ultraviolet through visible to near-infrared — have helped researchers make ground-breaking discoveries for decades and supply new data daily that will inevitably lead to more.
The telescope has taken over 1.7 million observations to date. Almost 29,000 astronomers have published peer-reviewed science papers using Hubble data collected over the telescope’s 36-year lifetime, resulting in more than 23,000 publications, with almost 1,100 in 2025 alone. Hubble’s observational data is publicly available in the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, while its mission descriptions, history, and gallery of popular images are found on NASA’s Hubble website.
Since 2022, researchers have regularly combined Hubble’s observations with those from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to push opportunities for discovery further. Very soon, astronomers will begin diving into huge near-infrared datasets from vast surveys from NASA’s new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and will seek to compare them to existing or new Hubble observations to clarify what is at work. For context, Roman’s camera can cover the entire Trifid Nebula, showing the full bubble, with a single pointing — and may turn up interesting objects for follow-up.
Another flagship to look forward to? The mission concept known as the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would have a significantly larger mirror than Hubble — leading to higher resolution images — and, like Hubble, capture ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. This next-generation space telescope would advance science across all of astrophysics, and would be the first specifically engineered telescope to identify habitable, Earth-like planets next to relatively bright stars like our Sun and examine them for evidence of life.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.
Image: Full Trifid Nebula (Rubin Image with Hubble Close-up)
A pullout shows where the Hubble Space Telescope’s close-up image is located within the wider Trifid Nebula. The image at left was taken by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. The color assignments in the images vary based on the filters in the telescopes’ cameras.
Image: Trifid Nebula (WFC3 Compass Image)
This closeup image of the Trifid Nebula (Messier 20 or M20) captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.
Video: Changes in the Trifid Nebula (1997 and 2026 Observations)
Compare Hubble’s two observations of a portion of the Trifid Nebula, one taken in 2026 with the telescope’s current Wide Field Camera 3 and the other in 1997 with an earlier instrument (the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2).
Video: Explore the Trifid Nebula
“Fly” through the Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the Trifid Nebula. The video “floats” over the ridges of gas and dust and moves up toward Herbig-Haro 399, at the top of a brown cloud that resembles a head with horns.
Article: New Hubble Image Reveals Details in the Heart of the Trifid Nebula
This June 2004 release of Hubble images provided astronomers with detailed views of structures at the heart of the Trifid Nebula.
Image: The Trifid Nebula, Stellar Nursery Torn Apart by Radiation from Nearby Star
This Hubble image, taken in 1997, revealed a stellar jet protruding from the head of a dense cloud.
Along the western coast of Southern Thailand, a series of bright tan beaches lines the Andaman Sea. These sandy expanses fill the gaps between the myriad other features touching the sea, from limestone karst towers to mangroves to built-up areas.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured these images on March 23, 2026, showing part of the coastal area along Thailand’s Krabi Province. These beaches lie about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Phuket across Ao Phangnga, a bay of the Andaman Sea. The beaches are a tourism hotspot and draw visitors from around the world.
Railay Beach and Phra Nang Beach, accessible by boat, are especially a draw for rock climbers who come here to scale the seaside walls of limestone. The towering formations are an iconic part of the region’s tropical karst landscape, resulting from the just-right ingredients of rock type and climate conditions.
Limestone in this region formed from the accumulation of calcium carbonate, the skeletal remains of marine organisms that settled here when the area was covered by a shallow sea hundreds of millions of years ago. Over time, continental collisions lifted the rock upward and shaped it into complex patterns. Rainwater, made slightly acidic due to the tropical environment, assisted in the chemical weathering that eroded the limestone, sculpting the rock into unique shapes.
Limestone towers stand above the sea off the coast of Southern Thailand.
Photo by Shawn via Unsplash.
March 23, 2026
The karst landscape extends into the sea in the form of islands. For instance, Ko Po Da Nai and Ko Hong, visible in the wide satellite image above, feature steep limestone cliffs and caves, making them a popular destination for paddlers. Larger boats also cut through the water, their wakes appearing as white streaks.
On the mainland, the landscape beyond the sandy beaches includes varied terrain. Green forests cover the slopes of Khao Hang Nak, where hikers can take in views of the Andaman Sea and surrounding karst formations. At lower elevations, green mangroves line several rivers, including Khlong Chi Lat.
Human activity is most visible in the flatter plains, where urban development and agriculture have transformed the landscape. Krabi, the province’s capital, and nearby towns appear gray. To the northwest, patches of brown and green in geometric patterns indicate agricultural land, where oil palm and rubber trees are commonly grown alongside other crops such as pineapple.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo by Shawn used under the Unsplash license.Story by Kathryn Hansen.
Artistic rendering of the MDA Space CHORUS-C (right), RADARSAT-2 (centre), and CHORUS -X (left) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Earth observation constellation in orbit above Earth.
NASA/CSDA
NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) established the Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program to explore the potential of commercial satellite data in advancing the agency’s Earth science research and application objectives. The program aims to identify, assess, and acquire data from commercial providers, which may offer a cost-effective means of supplementing Earth observations collected by NASA, other U.S. Government agencies, and international collaborators.
During this NASA CSDA program vendor webinar, speakers will introduce MDA Space and the company’s satellite constellation; show participants how to discover, access, and work with these satellite C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) products; and speak to how these data products complement NASA Earth science data holdings for research and applications. Additional topics will focus on the services available to data users and getting assistance with the NASA CSDA program vendor MDA Space datasets, services, and tools.
art002e013365 (April 7, 2026) – The Artemis II crew – (clockwise from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover – pause for a group photo with their zero gravity indicator “Rise,” inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Following a swing around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, the crew exited the lunar sphere of influence (the point at which the Moon’s gravity has a stronger pull on Orion than the Earth’s) on April 7, and are headed back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.
NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) uses research to develop methods to protect the health and performance of astronauts in space. In support of NASA’s goals for long-term missions on the surface of the Moon and human exploration of Mars, HRP is using ground research facilities, the International Space Station, and analog environments to monitor human health in deep space.
NASA’s Artemis II mission was the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The mission carried four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a trajectory into deep space – farther than any humans have gone before – marking a pivotal milestone in the history of human exploration. For the first time in more than half a century, human beings experienced the full physiological and psychological conditions of space travel beyond low Earth orbit, including an environment with space radiation, the isolation and confinement of a new spacecraft, and the operational demands of a test mission profile.
For HRP, Artemis II represents an irreplaceable research opportunity. The data collected from the four-person crew will expand an existing body of knowledge built primarily from missions in low Earth orbit, extending it into the deep space environment. It will provide direct measurements of how the human body responds to conditions that ground-based simulation cannot fully replicate.
The unique dataset will also present a profound analytical challenge. Though the sample size is only four subjects, the data will span multiple physiological systems, data modalities, and time points. That combination is what the NASA Artemis II Human Research Data Methodology Challenge seeks to address.
