NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador: Abbas Mokhtarzadeh

Exploring the Solar System: Europa Clipper & Psyche Mission
Saturday, June 27, 2026
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM
Matthews Library, NC

Celebrate Asteroid Day with a Journey Through the Solar System!

Abbas Mokhtarzadeh

Explore two of NASA's most exciting missions:
Europa Clipper and Psyche

and discover how spacecraft investigate icy moons and metal-rich asteroids. Through interactive activities and hands-on exploration, participants of all ages will experience the excitement of planetary science and space exploration.

This program highlights robotic exploration of our solar system, focusing on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and the Psyche mission to a metal-rich asteroid. Participants will discover how spacecraft investigates worlds that may hold clues to planetary formation and even past habitability.

https://cmlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/69e692fb213814b1b5247b18

One well-done gas giant planet, coming right up!

Webb examined a “hot Jupiter” exoplanet called HD 80606 b, with four times Jupiter’s mass, and a very elliptical orbit that sweeps close by its Sun-like star. Hot Jupiter planets are already considered some of the most extreme exoplanets we know of, typically sitting right next to their stars. But this planet kicks it up a notch.

As the planet swings close to its star, its temperature skyrockets by 1200 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius), also giving it the nickname of the “roasted exoplanet.” Radical temperature swings like this can cause an exoplanet’s chemistry and clouds to fluctuate in real time, and Webb is just the telescope to observe these changes. Webb built upon previous observations from the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, showing that the planet’s increase in temperature was even more extreme than shown in the Spitzer data!

By breaking down the light filtered through this planet’s atmosphere by its star, we can learn about the planet’s composition, temperature, weather, motion, and other physical properties. Webb looked at HD 80606 b in the mid-infrared before, during, and after its closest pass by its star. Webb also caught the planet being eclipsed by its star, so scientists can now compare measurements of just the star’s light, with the total light detected before and after the eclipse. Next it will be up to the scientists to decipher the Webb data and pull out even more detail about this extreme world.

Read more at the link in the comments.

Credit: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Hey neighbor! 👋🌌

Meet the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the nearest major spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It’s similar in size and mass to our own galaxy, and together with M33 and the Milky Way, it’s one of the three largest members of our Local Group.

This image was created using data from the Local Group Survey with the Mosaic camera on the NSF Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory. It combines ten separate pointings across the galaxy in five filters.

For scale: you could line up seven full Moons across this image 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
The colors reveal different wavelengths of light: 🟣 U (violet), 🔵 B (blue), 🔷 V (cyan), 🟠 I (orange), and 🔴 H-alpha (red), highlighting both the stars and glowing star-forming regions in remarkable detail.

At about 600 million pixels in size, this is one of the most detailed images ever made of the entire galaxy.

💬 Would you expect our nearest galactic neighbor to look this big?

Credit: Local Group Survey Team and T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)

Have you ever dreamed of sending your name into deep space?

Now's your chance.

NASA's Roman Space Telescope is preparing for launch on August 30, 2026, and you can add your name to a digital "passenger list" that will travel millions of miles from Earth aboard this groundbreaking mission.

Named in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, often called the "Mother of Hubble," the telescope celebrates her pioneering role in advancing space astronomy and helping make modern space telescopes possible.

Roman will journey to Lagrange Point 2 (L2), nearly one million miles from Earth, where it will investigate some of the biggest mysteries in astronomy, including:
🔭 The nature of dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe
🪐 The discovery and study of exoplanets beyond our Solar System
✨ Large-scale surveys of galaxies, stars, and cosmic structures

Imagine your name traveling alongside a mission designed to transform our understanding of the universe!

Reserve your spot today:
https://go.nasa.gov/3Q1HcUh

Submissions close July 12, 2026.

Join the journey. Leave your mark among the stars.

Asteroid Day 2026
June 30, 2026
6:00–7:00 PM PT
"Lucy: An Epic Journey to the Fossils of the Solar System"

Leonardo O. Espinoza Zepeda, Lucy Mission Ambassador and PhD Candidate in Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego
Live online talk in Spanish followed by a Q&A session
Platform: NOC-Mexico Facebook Live

Dia Internacional del Asteroide 2026
Conferencia:
LUCY: UN ÉPICO VIAJE A LOS FÓSILES DEL SISTENA SOLAR.
Ponente: Leonardo O. Espinoza
Candidato a Docto en Ingeniería Aeroespacial UC San Diego.

Martes 30 de Junio 18:00 h (Tjuana) 19:00 h (CDMX)

Credit: NOC Mexico - IAU
Transmisión en vivo
ASTEROID DAY 30JUNE
facebook.com/nocmex

Celebrate National Dinosaur Day with our dino-sized observatory! 🦖 Roman is both roughly as long and as massive as a T. rex. Prior to launch, the team will load it up with about 62 velociraptors worth of fuel (~2,500 pounds). Learn more about some of the components that bring Roman to T. rex proportions here: https://go.nasa.gov/4dYVqx4

Bonus fact: Did you know that a galactic year (the amount of time it takes for the Sun to orbit the center of the Milky Way galaxy) is about 230 million years? The last time Earth was in its current location, the first dinosaurs were just beginning to emerge on the supercontinent Pangea!

Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is officially slated to launch on Aug. 30!

Get the details and follow Roman's journey on our new Roman Space Telescope blog: https://go.nasa.gov/4a7f8FG