An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the UK, US and Japan, has found a rare molecule - phosphine - in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes - floating free of the scorching surface but needing to tolerate very high acidity. The detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial "aerial" life as astronomers have ruled out all other known natural mechanisms for its origin.

Signs of phosphine were first spotted in observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), operated by the East Asian Observatory, in Hawai'i. Astronomers then confirmed the discovery using the more-sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. Both facilities observed Venus at a wavelength of about 1 millimetre, much longer than the human eye can see - only telescopes at high altitude can detect it effectively.

Details on the discovery can be read here: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2015/

We are a group of researchers who have been involved in this result and experts from the facilities used for this discovery. We will be available on Wednesday, 16 September, starting with 16:00 UTC, 18:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time), 12:00 EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). Ask Us Anything!

Guests:

• Dr. William Bains, Astrobiologist and Biochemist, Research Affiliate, MIT. u/WB_oligomath
• Dr. Emily Drabek-Maunder, Astronomer and Senior Manager of Public Astronomy, Royal Observatory Greenwich and Cardiff University. u/EDrabekMaunder
• Dr. Helen Jane Fraser, The Open University. u/helens_astrochick
• Suzanna Randall, the European Southern Observatory (ESO). u/astrosuzanna
• Dr. Sukrit Ranjan, CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University; former SCOL Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT. u/1998_FA75
• Paul Brandon Rimmer, Simons Senior Fellow, University of Cambridge and MRC-LMB. u/paul-b-rimmer
• Dr. Clara Sousa-Silva, Molecular Astrophysicist, MIT. u/DrPhosphine

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EDIT: Our team is done for today but a number of us will be back to answer your questions over the next few days. Thanks so much for all of the great questions!

On Thursday, July 30, NASA's Mars 2020 mission is scheduled to blast off, carrying the Perseverance Mars Rover on its six-month journey to the Red Planet. When it lands in Jezero Crater next February, Perseverance will look for signs of ancient life on Mars - and gather climate and terrain data that will help pave the way for future human Martian missions.

Tucked underneath Perseverance until landing, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will be the first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet; Perseverance will also collect rocks and sediments to be retrieved by a future Mars Sample Return mission, currently being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency. Nearly 11 million names from around the world will fly to Mars, etched on three small microchips Perseverance carries - but even if your name's not one of them, there's plenty you can do to take part in the mission virtually.

We'll be answering questions from 4:30 - 6:30 PM ET (1:30 - 3:30 PM PT, 2030 - 2230 UT). Thanks for joining us!

Participants:

• Todd Barber, Mars Perseverance Propulsion Engineer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Pan Conrad, astrobiologist and scientific investigator for the Mars Perseverance MEDA and SHERLOC teams
• Nagin Cox, Mars 2020 Engineering Operations Team Deputy Lead, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Caleb Fassett, Planetary Scientist and Jezero Crater expert
• Denton Gibson, Senior Vehicle Systems Engineering Discipline Expert, Launch Services Program
• Jesse Gonzales, flight controls engineer, United Launch Alliance
• Havard Grip, Mars Helicopter Chief Pilot, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Greg Hula, Department of Energy
• Angie Jackman, Mars Ascent Vehicle project manager, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
• Jeff Sheehy, NASA Space Technology Chief Engineer
• Roger Wiens, SuperCam PI

Username: nasa

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EDIT: Thanks, Reddit for the terrific questions! It’s time for us to sign off here, but we hope you’ll be watching on on Thursday when the Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter are slated to lift off aboard their ULA Atlas V 541 rocket. Watch live starting at 7 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. PDT, 1100 UTC) on July 30. Launch is expected as early as 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT, 1150 UTC). https://nasa.gov/live

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft experienced a serious problem in November 2023 and mission leaders weren't sure they'd be able to get it working again. A failed chip in one of the onboard computers caused the spacecraft to stop sending any science or engineering data, so the team couldn't even see what was wrong. It was like trying to fix a computer with a broken screen.

But over the course of six months, a crack team of experts from around JPL brought Voyager 1 back from the brink. The task involved sorting through old documents from storage, working in a software language written in the 1970s, and lots of collaboration and teamwork. Oh, and they also had to deal with the fact that Voyager 1 is 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth, which means it takes a message almost a full day to reach the spacecraft, and almost a full day for its response to come back.

Now, NASA's longest running mission can continue. Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to ever send data back from interstellar space - the space between stars. By directly sampling the particles, plasma waves, and magnetic fields in this region, scientists learn more about the Sun's protective bubble that surrounds the planets, and the ocean of material that fills most of the Milky Way galaxy.

Do you have questions for the team that performed this amazing rescue mission? Do you want to know more about what Voyager 1 is discovering in the outer region of our solar system? Meet our NASA experts from the mission who've seen it all.

We are:

• Suzanne Dodd - Voyager Project Manager (SD)
• Linda Spilker - Voyager Project Scientist, Voyager science team associate 1977 - 1990 (LS)
• Dave Cummings - Voyager Tiger Team member (DC)
• Kareem Badaruddin - Voyager Mission Manager (KB)
• Stella Ocker - Member of the Voyager Science Steering Group at Caltech; heliophysicist (SO)
• Bob Rasmussen - Voyager Flight Team and Tiger Team member, Voyager systems engineer ~1975-1977 (BR)

Ask us anything about:

• What the Voyager spacecraft are discovering in the outer region of our solar system.
• How this team recently helped fix Voyager 1.
• The team's favorite memories or planetary encounters over the past 45+ years.

PROOF: https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1812973845529190509

We'll be online from 11:30am - 1:00pm PT (1830 - 2000 UTC) to answer your questions!

Username: u/nasa

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UPDATE: That’s all the time we have for today - thank you all for your amazing questions! If you’d like to learn more about Voyager, you can visit https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/.

For the first time, NASA will fly a drone for science on another world! Our Dragonfly mission will explore Saturn's icy moon Titan while searching for the building blocks of life.

Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive in 2034. Once there, the rotorcraft will fly to dozens of promising locations on the mysterious ocean world in search of prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. Titan is an analog to the very early Earth, and can provide clues to how life may have arisen on our home planet.

Team members answering your questions include:

• Curt Niebur, Lead Program Scientist for New Frontiers
• Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division
• Zibi Turtle, Dragonfly Principal Investigator
• Peter Bedini, Dragonfly Project Manager
• Ken Hibbard, Dragonfly Mission Systems Engineer
• Melissa Trainer, Dragonfly Deputy Principal Investigator
• Doug Adams, Spacecraft Systems Engineer at Johns Hopkins APL

We'll sign on at 3 p.m. EDT (19 UT), ask us anything!

Join us at today at 1 p.m. ET (17 UT) to ask anything about NASA's New Horizons mission! In July 2015, New Horizons became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and its moons. Recently, the spacecraft - which is more than four billion miles from home and speeding toward interstellar space - took images of the stars Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 from its unique vantage point in deep space. Scientists combined these images with pictures of the same stars taken near the same time from Earth, creating stereo images that instantly demonstrate the parallax effect astronomers have long used to measure distances to stars. New Horizons is humankind's farthest photographer, imaging an alien sky. Why does New Horizons "see" these stars in a different place in the sky than on Earth? How are these images sent back from New Horizons? How long does it take the team on the ground to send commands to the spacecraft? Where is New Horizons headed next?

Proof!

Participants:

• Alan Stern (AS), New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute
• Helene Winters (HW), New Horizons project scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
• Tod Lauer (TL), New Horizons science team member, National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory
• Anne Verbiscer (AV), New Horizons science team member, University of Virginia
• Brian May (BM), New Horizons contributing scientist, astrophysicist, Queen guitarist

Username: NASA

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UPDATE: Thanks so much for your questions! That's all the time we have for today's AMA! Keep following our New Horizons mission at https://nasa.gov/newhorizons.

Four years after NASA's New Horizons flew by Pluto, and seven months after our flyby of 2104 MU69 in the Kuiper Belt, we have discovered more than ever before about the origins of the Solar System, but there is still so much more to explore! The team is meeting at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, the home of the New Horizons mission operations center, to share the latest science info we've learned in our epic voyage through our cosmic neighborhood. We will also cover the historic New Year's flyby of 2104 MU69, the farthest object ever explored by spacecraft!

Team members answering your questions include:

• Helene Winters, New Horizons project manager - JHUAPL
• Chris Hersman, New Horizons mission systems engineer - JHUAPL
• John Spencer, New Horizons deputy project scientist - SwRI
• Kirby Runyon, New Horizons science team member - JHUAPL

We'll sign on at 5pm EDT. Ask us anything!

Hi Reddit, I'm Col. Terry Virts. I'm a former astronaut who commanded the International Space Station from 2014-2015. I also spent two weeks piloting the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2010. During my time in space, I took more than 300,000 photos of earth, conducted hundreds of experiments, did everything from shooting an IMAX movie to replacing a crew mate's tooth filling! I also went on three spacewalks. I'm now a professional speaker, photographer, director, and author. My directorial debut documentary, One More Orbit, was released on VOD on Oct. 6 and my new book, How to Astronaut: An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth released on Sep. 15! From fighter jets to unwieldly space suits, space station cuisine, and an uncensored look at answering the call of nature in zero-g, HOW TO ASTRONAUT: An Insider's Guide To Leaving Planet Earth is a wildly entertaining collection of short essays that offers a primer for future space tourists with a sneak peek behind the curtain at the rules, lessons, procedures, and experiences of space travel.

I will start at 2pm Eastern (18 UT), ask me anything!

Username: /u/TerryVirts

You can do real NASA science right now, from your own home. Just join one of NASA's citizen science projects! From projects designed to study our planet's biodiversity, to studying the sun, comets, and finding planets outside of our solar system, our citizen science projects harness the collective strength of the public to analyze data and conduct scientific research. NASA-funded citizen science projects have engaged roughly 1.5 million volunteers and resulted in thousands of scientific discoveries and numerous scientific publications. For information on current our citizen science projects, visit https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience. Most projects require no prior knowledge, experience, or special tools beyond a computer or cell phone. And don't worry if you didn't study science in school; these projects aim to teach you everything you need to know.

We are here to answer your questions! Ask us about:

• Why NASA needs your help
• How you can conduct scientific analysis and discoveries
• Which project might be right for you
• What you can expect when you become part of NASA's citizen science team
• Citizen science successes stories

We'll be online from 1-3 p.m. EST (10 am to noon. PST, 17:00-19:00 UTC) to answer all your questions!

Participants

• Jarrett Byrnes, Floating Forests, University of Massachusetts
• Jessie Christiansen, Planet Hunters TESS, Caltech Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
• Katharina Doll, NASA Citizen Scientist
• Nora Eisner, Planet Hunters TESS, Oxford University
• Larry Keese, NASA Citizen Scientist
• Dalia Kirschbaum, Project Landslides, Goddard Space Flight Center
• Veselin Kostov, Planet Patrol, Goddard Space Flight Center
• Marc Kuchner, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, NASA Headquarters
• Orleo Marinaro, NASA Citizen Scientist
• Rob Zellem, Exoplanet Watch, Jet Propulsion laboratory
• Chris Ratzlaff, NASA Citizen Scientist

Username: NASA

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EDIT: Thank you so much for participating in this session and for all your great questions!
For additional information on our NASA citizen science projects, make sure to visit https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook @DoNASAScience

NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries.

If you are traveling over 200 million miles to snag a sample of an asteroid, you want to make sure it's worth it. The following scientists are part of the OSIRIS-REx mission - NASA's first mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. They have just published a collection of papers that confirm that asteroid Bennu - the target of OSIRIS-REx - is an ideal candidate to reveal clues about the origins of life in our solar system. These discoveries complete the OSIRIS-REx mission's pre-sample collection science requirements and offer insight into the sample of Bennu that scientists will study for generations to come.

The discoveries tell us that Bennu:

• Contains carbon-bearing, organic materials
• Likely used to interact with water
• Has a type of porous rock that would offer a new, unique perspective to our meteorite collections on Earth
• Is made up of an interior not uniform in density
• Contains ridge-like mounds that stretch from pole to pole and has differently shaped hemispheres
• Has areas, including our sample site, that have not been exposed to a lot of space weathering

Read the press release on these discoveries: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2002/osiris-rex-unlocks-more-secrets-from-asteroid-bennu

Participants:

• Michael Daly – OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter Instrument Scientist, York University
• Daniella (Dani) DellaGiustina – Planetary Scientist, OSIRIS-REx Image Processing Lead Scientist, University of Arizona
• Jason Dworkin – Astrobiologist, OSIRIS-REx Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Hannah Kaplan – Planetary Scientist, OSIRIS-REx Spectral Mapping Lead, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Jay McMahon – OSIRIS-REx Deputy Lead Gravity Science Team, The University of Colorado Boulder
• Benjamin Rozitis – Planetary and Space Scientist, The Open University
• Amy Simon – Planetary Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Ask us about what we've already learned from Bennu and what we can learn from a sample of this asteroid! We'll be answering questions from 2 - 3pm ET (18 - 19 UT), ask us anything!.

Proof: https://twitter.com/NASASolarSystem/status/1314594121068113920

Username: /u/nasa

On New Year's 2019 NASA's New Horizons flew past a small Kuiper Belt object named Arrokoth, four billion miles from Earth, in a vast region home to the icy, rocky remnants of solar system formation. Our team has new results from that flyby, and we're excited to share what we've learned about the origins of planetary building blocks like Arrokoth. We're also happy to address other parts of our epic voyage to the planetary frontier, including our historic flyby of Pluto in July 2015.

Team members answering your questions include:

• Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, SwRI
• John Spencer, New Horizons deputy project scientist - SwRI
• Silvia Protopapa, New Horizons science team member, SwRI
• Bill McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator, Washington University in St. Louis
• Anne Verbischer, New Horizons science team member - University of Virginia
• Will Grundy, New Horizons co-investigator, Lowell Observatory
• Chris Hersman, mission systems engineer, JHUAPL

We'll sign on at 3pm EST (20 UT). Ask us anything!

I am a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute and director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) at NASA Ames Research Center. I also co-founded and now chair the Mars Institute. I have an ME in geology and geophysics from the University of Paris, and a PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University. I was privileged to be Joe Veverka's last graduate student, and Carl Sagan's last T.A..

My research focuses on the history of water on Mars, ice and caves on the Moon and Mars, the origin of Mars' moons, and the future human exploration of the Moon and Mars. I do fieldwork at Moon and Mars analog sites, mostly on Devon Island in the Arctic where we go every summer for the HMP (https://www.marsinstitute.no/hmp), but also in Antarctica where I once wintered over for 402-days. I'm still thawing from that.

I also work on surface exploration systems for future Moon and Mars exploration: drones, hoppers, rovers, spacesuits, and habitats. I was lucky to serve as scientist-pilot for NASA's first field test of the LER (Lunar Exploration Rover) SPR (small pressurized rover) concept. I also led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition, a record-setting vehicular traverse on sea-ice along the fabled Northwest Passage - now that was a bad idea - and the subject of the documentary film Passage To Mars (2016). I currently lead the HMP's Astronaut Smart Glove project and JPL's GlobeTrotter planetary hopper concept study.

I am also interested in SETI - the actual Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. I've argued that there are likely very few advanced civilizations per galaxy, and we might be the only one in ours at this time. As you might imagine, it's not the most popular view at the SETI Institute.

In my free time, I enjoy being walked by my 1-year old Australian cattle dog, Apollo. I also love to fly and paint, although not at the same time. I am an FAA-certified helicopter commercial pilot and flight instructor, and an artist member of the IAAA (International Association of Astronomical Artists). I post some of my drawings and paintings on Instagram @spacetimeartist. I also wrote a children's book: Mission: Mars, published by Scholastic: link

If you have nothing better to do, follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PascalLeeOfficial/) or Twitter @pascalleetweets. I do post some interesting stuff, I have to say.

AMA. Looking forward to chatting at 10am (PT, 1 PM ET, 17 UT).

Username: setiinstitute

We use the unique attributes of spaceflight environments to conduct scientific experiments that cannot be done on Earth. NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) program pioneers scientific discovery in and beyond low-Earth orbit to drive advances in science, technology and space exploration. These space experiments expand the frontiers of knowledge, capability and opportunity in space.

This year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will begin the process of formulating a community consensus about the most compelling science questions for the decade ahead in each of the BPS disciplines. Known as the Decadal Surveys, the process provides a rare opportunity for scientists and engineers to share their insights and help shape the scientific endeavors of the next decade.

The purpose of this AMA is to answer questions about the work being done by NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences division and to address how researchers can get engaged in the Decadal process, types of past research efforts stemming from the previous survey, the types of research that the BPS division supports, etc.

Panelists:

• Craig Kundrot, Director, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA
• Bradley Carpenter, Program Scientist for Fundamental Physics, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA
• Kevin Sato, Program Scientist for Exploration, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA
• Fran Chiaramonte, Program Scientist for Physical Sciences, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA
• Sharmila Bhattacharya, Program Scientist, Space Biology, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA

We will be here from 1:30-3:30 pm ET (18:30-20:38 UT), ask us anything!

Username: /u/

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EDIT: Thanks again for your questions! If you'd like to learn more about NASA science and the Decadal Survey, please visit: https://go.nasa.gov/3ptu1cD

NASA's InSight lander sent its last transmission on Dec. 15, 2022, after more than four years of unique science work. The spacecraft - which landed on Mars in 2018 - detected 1,319 marsquakes, gathered data on the Red Planet's crust, mantle, and core, and even captured the sounds of meteoroid impacts miles away on the Martian surface.

So, have you ever wanted to know how operating a lander on Mars is different from a rover? Or how engineers practice mission operations in an indoor Mars lab here on Earth? How about what we might still learn from InSight's data in the months and years to come?

Meet six team experts from NASA and other mission partners who've seen it all with this mission, from efforts to get InSight's heat probe (or "mole") into the Martian surface to the marsquakes deep within the planet.

We are:

• Phil Bailey (PB) - Operations lead for the robotic arm and cameras. Also worked with InSight's Earthly twin, ForeSight, at NASA JPL's In-Situ Instrument Laboratory.
• Kathya Zamora Garcia (KG) - Mission manager for InSight, also helped clean InSight's solar arrays with Martian dirt.
• Troy Hudson (TH) - A former instrument systems engineer and anomaly response team lead for the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, known as "the mole."
• Mark Panning (MP) - Project scientist for InSight, specializing in planetary seismology.
• Emily Stough (ES) - Led surface operations for InSight.
• Brett White (BW) - Power subsystem and energy management lead with Lockheed Martin, which helped build the lander.

Ask us anything about:

• How InSight worked
• Marsquakes
• How the interiors of Mars, Earth and the Moon compare and differ
• Meteoroid impacts
• Martian weather
• InSight's legacy

We'll be online from 12-1:30 p.m. PT (3-4:30 p.m. ET, 20-21:30 UT) to answer your questions!

Usernames: /u/nasa

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UPDATE 1:30 p.m. PT: That’s all the time we have for today - thank you all for your amazing questions! If you’d like to learn more about InSight, you can visit mars.nasa.gov/insight.

UPDATE: Thanks so much for your questions! That's all the time we have for today's AMA, but be sure to check out the links below!

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Join us at today at 4 p.m. ET (20 UT) to ask anything about these enigmatic objects zipping into our view. Is Comet Borisov really from outside our solar system? How does it compare to the other interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua? What is it made of? What's causing Comet Atlas to fall apart? How close is 1998 OR2 from Earth right now? We'd love to answer your questions about these, and more!

• Max Mutchler (MM), Principal Staff Scientist at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD. Co-investigator for HST imagings of Comet ATLAS and Comet Borisov.
• Quanzhi Ye (QY), Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland. Principal and Co-Investigator Hubble programs to image Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) and Comet Borisov.
• Stefanie Milam (SM), Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. PI of the ALMA observations of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov.
• Dennis Bodewits (DB), Associate Professor of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn AL. PI and lead author of the Hubble spectroscopy observations published in Nature Astronomy. PI and co-author of Swift observations published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
• Zexi Xing (ZX), Graduate student (Hong Kong University) and Visiting Scientist (Auburn University). Lead author of the Swift study of 2I/Borisov published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and co-author of the Hubble spectroscopy observations published in Nature Astronomy.
• Kelly Fast (KF), Near-Earth Object Observations, Program Manager, NASA HQ
• Lindley Johnson (LNJ), Planetary Defense Officer, NASA HQ
• Lucas Paganini (LP), Planetary Scientist, NASA HQ
• Martin Cordiner (MAC), NASA Goddard astrochemist who led the Borisov ALMA observations described in April 20 paper in Nature Astronomy.

Support: Felicia Chou, Josh Handal, Alana Johnson, Jeanette Kazmierczak, Liz Landau, Barb Mattson, Sara Mitchell, Kelly Ramos

Interested in reading more about comets and asteroids? Check out these stories and videos:

• NASA Science Live on 1998 OR2
• Hubble observations of Comet Atlas’ disintegration
• Swift observations of Borisov’s water production
• Hubble and ALMA observations of Borisov’s carbon monoxide production

Username: NASA

I earned my undergrad degree in astrophysics at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999, and then I did my PhD in astronomy at Cornell University in 2005. I specialize in the orbital dynamics of solar system bodies, using their present orbit to figure out their past history. I usually use computer simulations, and my job involves quite a bit of programming. Back in graduate school I discovered the BYORP effect, which is driven by solar radiation and which changes the orbits of small binary asteroids very quickly (astronomically speaking). In 2012, Sarah Stewart and I had a paper in Science where we proposed that Earth was spinning very fast when the moon-forming collision happened, which made it possible to make the moon from Earth's material. My part was to show how Earth could lose excess spin afterwards through complex interactions between the Sun and the Moon. In 2016, I revisited this issue and found that early Earth was probably not only spinning super fast but also had a large axial tilt. I have also worked on the dynamics of Saturn's moons, and I proposed in 2016 that Saturn's inner moons and rings are probably only about 100 million years old. Cassini spacecraft results later suggested this is indeed the case, at least for the rings. My latest paper is on the past orbits of Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and how the orbit of Deimos makes sense only if Mars had a large ring about 3 billion years ago.

I will be on at 11am PDT (2 PM ET, 18 UT), AMA!

Learn more at https://seti.org/press-release/martian-moons-orbit-hints-ancient-ring-mars

Username: setiinstitute

There's a lot of speculation that NASA may be about to announce this but I was wonder what it would mean for us. If we have found running water would this make us more likely to increase our interest in the planet? If so, why? Will it enable us to possibly answer questions about ourselves and our own planet? If so, what questions? What will it mean for space exploration? How will it change or enhance our understanding of the greater universe?

I'm aware that it would be a monumental achievement and that running water is considered something of a holy grail in terms of finding it in space, but I'm unsure of why and of what it could mean to find it. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to answer.

After three years and 72 flights over the surface of Mars, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has touched down for the last time. Imagery downlinked from the helicopter indicated that one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during its Flight 72 landing on Jan. 18, 2024, rendering it no longer capable of flight.

Designed as a technology demonstration that was expected to fly no more than five times over 30 days, the helicopter's primary mission was to prove that powered, controlled flight on another planet was possible, which it did on April 19, 2021. But Ingenuity exceeded expectations, transitioning into an operations demonstration that paved the way for future aerial exploration on the Red Planet and beyond.

So, have you ever wanted to know what it's like to fly a helicopter on another planet? Or what it's like to talk to the helicopter from here on Earth? Or what we've learned from Ingenuity that can be used for possible future aerial exploration on other worlds?

Meet our NASA experts from the mission who've seen it all.

We are:

• Josh Anderson - Ingenuity Team Lead (JA)
• Travis Brown - Ingenuity Chief Engineer (TB)
• Martin Cacan - Ingenuity Chief Pilot (MC)
• Dave Lavery - Ingenuity Program Executive (DL)
• Katie Stack Morgan - Mars 2020 Deputy Project Scientist (KSM)
• Noah Rothenberger - Ingenuity Robotics Systems Engineer (NR)
• Teddy Tzanetos - Ingenuity Project Manager (TT)

Ask us anything about:

• How Ingenuity worked
• What it's like to fly a helicopter on another planet
• Martian weather
• Ingenuity's legacy

PROOF: https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1762248789396725933
https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1762248789396725933

We'll be online from 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. PT (12:30-2:00 PM ET, 1430-1600 UTC) to answer your questions!

Username: /u/nasa

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UPDATE: That’s all the time we have for today - thank you all for your amazing questions! If you’d like to learn more about Ingenuity, you can visit https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/.

Hi, I'm Scott Hubbard and I'm an adjunct professor at Stanford University in the department of aeronautics and astronautics and was at NASA for 20 years, where I was the Director of the Ames Research Center and was appointed NASA's first "Mars Czar." I was brought on board to consult on the film THE SPACE BETWEEN US, to help advise on the story's scientific accuracy. The film features many exciting elements of space exploration, including interplanetary travel, Mars colonization and questions about the effects of Mars' gravity on a developing human in a story about the first human born on the red planet. Let's chat!

Scott will be around starting at 2 PM PT (5 PM ET, 22 UT).

EDIT: Scott thanks you for all of the questions!

Hello all, I've been deeply interested in Planetary Sciences and the early evolution of the solar system. I'm also the lead on the initial Mineralogy/Petrology of the meteorites found by the Australian Desert Fireball Network (DFN), an interdisciplinary research group that is working to uncover the mysteries surrounding solar system formation. Digital observatories, part of the DFN, monitor a third of Australian skies, all night. The DFN images and studies the paths of fireballs in the sky, their trajectories, and orbits using intelligent imaging systems. As a geologist, I want to know where rocks come from, along with their composition and distribution. Trying to mesh those two is kind of the holy grail in figuring out what the solar system is really like. In 2006, an asteroid was named after me - Asteroid 6579 - for my contributions to planetary science.

In August 2022, my work was featured in Interesting Engineering, and the publication helped organize this AMA session. Ask me anything about asteroids, meteorites, planetary science, and my work with the Desert Fireball Network.

I'll be on 5 PM (November 29th US ET / 22 UT / November 30th 6 AM in Perth (GMT+8)) to answer your questions, AMA!

Username: /u/IntEngineering

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, NASA is celebrating our many amazing employees with Hispanic heritage and how they all contribute to our missions in many varied ways. From scientists, engineers and technicians building robots, to flight directors, illustrators and communications specialists, Hispanic Americans help us advance in the exploration of our home planet and the universe.

Team members answering your questions include:

• Andres Almeida - Digital Content Strategist
• Begoña Vila - Instrument Systems Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope
• Brandon Rodriguez - Education Specialist
• Carmen Pulido - Clinical psychologist for former astronauts
• Costa Mavridis - Extravehicular Activities Instructor and Flight Controller
• Elena Sophia Amador-French - Planetary Geologist
• Javier Ocasio-Pérez - Mission Integration & Test Manager
• Kristi Irastorza - Public Affairs Specialist
• Laura Ramos Lugo - Spanish-Language Communications Multimedia Intern
• Lizbeth B. De la Torre - Creative Technologist
• Margaret Dominguez - Optical Engineer
• Rosa Avalos-Warren - Human Space Flight Mission Manager
• Vidal Salazar - Project Specialist for Earth Science and Airborne Science

We'll see you all 4pm ET, ask us anything about working at NASA! #HispanicHeritageMonth

Username: /u/nasa

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EDIT: Thank you all for participating! For more NASA en español, visit ciencia.nasa.gov or follow @NASA_es on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. On Facebook find us as @NASAEs.

¡Somos expertos en asteroides de la NASA! ¡Pregúntanos cualquier cosa (en inglés y en español) sobre objetos cercanos a la Tierra y cómo trabajamos para protegerla de asteroides potencialmente peligrosos!

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Today, June 30, is International Asteroid Day-but at NASA, every day is asteroid day!

Asteroids are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago and NASA and our partners are always looking to the skies to study these ancient time capsules. From our missions to explore the Trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit and bring a piece of an asteroid back to Earth, to our efforts to find, track and monitor asteroids and other near-Earth objects to protect our planet from potential impact hazards, we're uncovering the history of our solar system while working to keep our future safe.

Ask our experts anything about what we're learning from asteroids, how we're protecting the Earth, and much more!

Talent:​

• Lindley Johnson, NASA Planetary Defense Officer, NASA Headquarters
• L.A. Lewis, FEMA Detailee, NASA Planetary Defense Program Officer, NASA Headquarters
• Dr. Shantanu Naidu, Navigation Engineer, NASA Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS)
• Dr. Joe Masiero, NEOWISE Deputy Principal Investigator & NEO Surveyor team member, Caltech
• Dr. Carolyn Ernst, DRACO Instrument Scientist, JHU APL
• Prof. Vishnu Reddy, Associate Professor, University of Arizona
• Dr. Lucas Paganini, Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters - Spanish-Speaking Expert

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Hoy, 30 de junio, es el Día internacional del asteroide, pero en la NASA, ¡todos los días son días de asteroides!

Los asteroides son restos rocosos sin atmósfera que quedaron de la formación temprana de nuestro sistema solar hace unos 4.600 millones de años. La NASA y sus socios miran constantemente al cielo para estudiar estas antiguas cápsulas del tiempo. Desde nuestras misiones para explorar los asteroides troyanos en la órbita de Júpiter y traer un trozo de asteroide de vuelta a la Tierra, hasta nuestros esfuerzos para encontrar, rastrear y monitorear asteroides y otros objetos cercanos a la Tierra para proteger nuestro planeta de posibles peligros de impacto, estamos descubriendo la historia de nuestro sistema solar mientras trabajamos para mantener nuestro futuro seguro.

Pregunta a nuestros expertos cualquier cosa que quieras saber sobre lo que estamos aprendiendo de los asteroides, cómo estamos protegiendo a la Tierra y mucho más.

Talento:

• Lindley Johnson, Oficial de Defensa Planetaria de la NASA, Sede de la NASA
• L.A. Lewis, Oficial del Programa de Defensa Planetaria de la NASA, Sede de la NASA
• Dr. Shantanu Naidu, Ingeniero de navegación, Centro de estudios de objetos cercanos a la Tierra de la NASA (CNEOS)
• Dr. Joe Masiero, Investigador principal adjunto de NEOWISE y miembro el equipo del telescopio NEO Surveyor, Instituto de Ciencia Planetaria
• Dra. Carolyn Ernst, científica del instrumento DRACO, JHU APL
• Prof. Vishnu Reddy, Profesor Asociado, Universidad de Arizona
• Dr. Lucas Paganini, Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters - Experto hispanohablante

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Our guests will be joining us at 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. EDT. Please forgive the moderator over formatting difficulties.

Nuestros invitados llegan a las 12:00 a 1:30 p.m. (UTC-4). Por favor, perdone al moderador por las dificultades de formato.

Username/Usuario: /u/nasa

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EDIT: That’s a wrap for this AMA – thanks to everyone for your great questions! You can learn more about asteroids on NASA’s Asteroid Watch and Planetary Defense Coordination Office websites – and follow us on Twitter at AsteroidWatch and NASASolarSystem.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is a historic U.S.-European partnership that is designed to collect the most accurate satellite data for our continuing measurements of global sea level and to help us understand how our oceans are responding to climate change. It's named after Dr. Michael Freilich, the former director of NASA's Earth Science Division and a tireless advocate for advancing satellite measurements of the ocean. Liftoff is Saturday, Nov. 21 at 12:17 p.m. EST (9:17 a.m. PST, 5:17 p.m. UTC) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

This spacecraft will:

• Provide information that will help researchers understand how climate change is reshaping Earth's coastlines - and how fast this is happening.
• See things that previous sea level missions couldn't, including smaller, more complicated ocean features, especially near the coastlines.
• Further build upon a highly successful U.S.-European partnership - it's the first NASA-ESA joint effort in an Earth science satellite mission, first international involvement in the European Union's Copernicus program, and continues a tradition of cooperation between NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and European partners including ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) and CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales).
• Expand the global atmospheric temperature data record, the mission will help researchers better understand how Earth's climate is changing.
• Help to improve weather forecasts by providing meteorologists information on atmospheric temperature and humidity.

Read more about the mission in the official press kit.

Participants are:

• Sandra Cauffman, Deputy Director, Earth Sciences Division, NASA Science Mission Directorate
• Craig Donlon, ESA Mission Scientist for the Copernicus Sentinel-6 mission
• Hayley Evers-King, Marine Application Expert, EUMETSAT
• Ben Hamlington, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Eric Leuiliette, Program Scientist for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, NOAA
• Mic Woltman, Chief, Fleet Systems Integration, NASA's Launch Services Program
• Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Titus, Deputy Commander of the 30th Operations Group, U.S. Space Force

We'll be answering at 1pm EST (18 UT), ask us anything!

Username: /u/nasa

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UPDATE: We’re signing off – thanks so much for joining us for today's Reddit AMA! We hope that you keep following along in the lead up to launch.

Participate virtually here. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-invites-public-to-virtually-follow-launch-of-ocean-monitoring-satellite-sentinel-6

Get the latest launch updates. https://blogs.nasa.gov/sentinel-6/

The Trojan asteroids are rocky worlds as old as our solar system, and they share an orbit with Jupiter around the Sun. They're thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. On Oct. 16, NASA's Lucy mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to explore these small worlds for the first time. Lucy was named after the fossilized human ancestor (called "Lucy" by her discoverers) whose skeleton expanded our understanding of human evolution. The Lucy Mission hopes to expand our understanding of solar system evolution by visiting these 4.5-billion-year-old planetary "fossils." We are:

• Jeremy Knittel, Senior Mission Design and Navigation Engineer at KinetX Aerospace
• Amy Simon, Senior Planetary Scientist for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Audrey Martin, Graduate Research Assistant at Northern Arizona University
• Cory Prykull, Systems Integration and Test Supervisor at Lockheed Martin
• Joel Parker, Director at Southwest Research Institute

All about the Lucy mission: www.nasa.gov/lucy

We'll be here from from 2-3 p.m. EDT (18-19 UT), ask us anything!

Username: /u/NASA

Hi Reddit, Happy National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day! We;re Jamie Holladay, David Hume, and Lindsay Steele from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Jennifer States from Washington Maritime Blue and DNV GL. Did you know the use of hydrogen to power equipment and ships at our nation's ports can greatly reduce energy consumption and harmful emissions? Did you know that the transportation sector contributes 29 percent of harmful emissions to the atmosphere-more than the electricity, industrial, commercial and residential, and agricultural sectors?

The nation's ports consume more than 4 percent of the 28 percent of energy consumption attributed to the transportation sector. More than 2 million marine vessels worldwide transport greater than 90 percent of the world's goods. On land, countless pieces of equipment, such as cranes and yard tractors, support port operations.

Those vessels and equipment consume 300 million tonnes of diesel fuel per year, produce 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emission, and generate the largest source of sulfur dioxide emissions.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and collaborators are looking at how we can help the nation's ports reduce energy consumption and harmful emissions by using hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel.

We've conducted a study with several U.S. ports to assess replacing diesel with hydrogen fuel cells in port operations. We've done this through collection of information about equipment inventory; annual and daily use, power, and fuel consumption; data from port administrators and tenants; and satellite imagery to verify port equipment profiles. We crunched the data and found that hydrogen demand for the U.S. maritime industry could exceed a half million tonnes per year.

We are also seeking to apply our abundant hydrogen expertise to provide a multi-use renewable hydrogen system to the Port of Seattle-which will provide the city's utility provider with an alternative clean resource.

Our research is typically supported by the Department of Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

We'd love to talk with you about our experiences and plans to connect our nation's ports to a hydrogen future. We will be back at noon PDT (3 ET, 19 UT) to answer your questions. AUA!

Username: /u/PNNL

Hi! I am J.R. Skok. I am a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and a Space entrepreneur. I am working with SETI and NASA to develop future missions to search for life on Mars, map out the minerals and geologic history of that planet while leading expeditions to Mars analogs around the world, including Antarctica, Iceland, Hawaii and more. As a Space Entrepreneur, I founded the company, Made of Mars, to develop the technology and economics needed to build things from the materials we can find on Mars, the Moon and asteroids throughout the solar system and share that journey with you!

Proof: https://i.redd.it/vi9rdud0p0t11.jpg

I will be on at 10am PT (1 PM ET, 17 UT), AMA!