Hubble's NGC 1827 image puts a foreground star in the spotlight
The edge-on galaxy shares the frame with foreground stars, background galaxies and traces of the telescope's optics. Understanding those layers changes what the image shows.
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NASA sharpens Roman’s focus as the telescope prepares for survey science
Instrument checks and optical adjustments are turning a launched observatory into a calibrated measuring system.
Why Japan’s MMX mission wants to bring a piece of Phobos home
Returned grains could distinguish competing origins for Mars’s moons. The spacecraft, Idefix rover and laboratories each supply a different part of the evidence.
Mars’s long morning cloud is testing a familiar assumption about ice
An October study reproduces the Arsia Mons cloud by allowing ice to form without dust nuclei. The images and the model provide different kinds of evidence.
Webb's first images turned an engineering achievement into evidence
The July 2022 images were more than a spectacle: they demonstrated an observatory ready to support new scientific measurements.