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By NASA
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Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune each emit more energy than they receive from the Sun, meaning they have comparatively warm interiors. NASA’s Uranus flyby with Voyager 2 in 1986 found the planet colder than expected, which challenged ideas of how planets formed and evolved. However, with advanced computer modeling and a new look at old data, scientists think the planet may actually be warmer than previously expected. For millennia, astronomers thought Uranus was no more than a distant star. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that Uranus was universally accepted as a planet. To this day, the ringed, blue world subverts scientists’ expectations, but new NASA research helps puzzle out some of the world’s mystique.
This zoomed-in image of Uranus, captured by the Near-Infrared Camera on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on Feb. 6, 2023, reveals stunning views of Uranus’ rings. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Uranus is unlike any other planet in our solar system. It spins on its side, which means each pole directly faces the Sun for a continuous 42-year “summer.” Uranus also rotates in the opposite direction of all planets except Venus. Data from NASA’s Voyager 2 Uranus flyby in 1986 also suggested the planet is unusually cold inside, challenging scientists to reconsider fundamental theories of how planets formed and evolved throughout our solar system.
“Since Voyager 2’s flyby, everybody has said Uranus has no internal heat,” said Amy Simon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “But it’s been really hard to explain why that is, especially when compared with the other giant planets.”
These Uranus projections came from only one up-close measurement of the planet’s emitted heat made by Voyager 2: “Everything hinges on that one data point,” said Simon. “That is part of the problem.”
Now, using an advanced computer modeling technique and revisiting decades of data, Simon and a team of scientists have found that Uranus does in fact generate some heat, as they reported on May 16 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.
A planet’s internal heat can be calculated by comparing the amount of energy it receives from the Sun to the amount it of energy it releases into space in the form of reflected light and emitted heat. The solar system’s other giant planets — Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune — emit more heat than they receive, which means the extra heat is coming from inside, much of it left over from the high-energy processes that formed the planets 4.5 billion years ago. The amount of heat a planet exudes could be an indication of its age: the less heat released relative to the heat absorbed from the Sun, the older the planet is.
Uranus stood out from the other planets because it appeared to give off as much heat as it received, implying it had none of its own. This puzzled scientists. Some hypothesized that perhaps the planet is much older than all the others and has cooled off completely. Others proposed that a giant collision — the same one that may have knocked the planet on its side — blasted out all of Uranus’ heat. But none of these hypotheses satisfied scientists, motivating them to solve Uranus’ cold case.
“We thought, ‘Could it really be that there is no internal heat at Uranus?’” said Patrick Irwin, the paper’s lead author and professor of planetary physics at the University of Oxford in England. “We did many calculations to see how much sunshine is reflected by Uranus and we realized that it is actually more reflective than people had estimated.”
The researchers set out to determine Uranus’ full energy budget: how much energy it receives from the Sun compared to how much it reflects as sunlight and how much it emits as heat. To do this, they needed to estimate the total amount of light reflected from the planet at all angles. “You need to see the light that’s scattered off to the sides, not just coming straight back at you,” Simon said.
To get the most accurate estimate of Uranus’ energy budget yet, Oxford researchers developed a computer model that brought together everything known about Uranus’ atmosphere from decades of observations from ground- and space-based telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. The model included information about the planet’s hazes, clouds, and seasonal changes, all of which affect how sunlight is reflected and how heat escapes.
These side-by-side images of Uranus, taken eight years apart by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, show seasonal changes in the planet’s reflectivity. The left image shows the planet seven years after its northern spring equinox when the Sun was shining just above its equator. The second photo, taken six years before the planet’s summer solstice, portrays a bright and large northern polar cap. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI) The researchers found that Uranus releases about 15% more energy than it receives from the Sun, a figure that is similar to another recent estimate from a separate study funded in part by NASA that was published July 14 in Geophysical Research Letters. These studies suggest Uranus it has its own heat, though still far less than its neighbor Neptune, which emits more than twice the energy it receives.
“Now we have to understand what that remnant amount of heat at Uranus means, as well as get better measurements of it,” Simon said.
Unraveling Uranus’ past is useful not only for mapping the timeline of when solar system planets formed and migrated to their current orbits, but it also helps scientists better understand many of the planets discovered outside the solar system, called exoplanets, a majority of which are the same size as Uranus.
By Emma Friedman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jul 17, 2025 Editor Lonnie Shekhtman Contact Lonnie Shekhtman lonnie.shekhtman@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA/Jacob Shaw
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power.
NASA test pilot Nils Larson and the X-59 team, made up of NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin personnel, completed the aircraft’s first low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on July 10, 2025.
The taxiing represents the X-59’s last series of ground tests before first flight. Over the coming weeks, the aircraft will gradually increase its speed, leading up to a high-speed taxi test that will take the aircraft just short of the point where it would take off.
During the low-speed tests, engineers and flight crews monitored how the X-59 handled as it moved across the runway, working to validate critical systems like steering and braking. These checks help ensure the aircraft’s stability and control across a range of conditions, giving pilots and engineers confidence that all systems are functioning as expected.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight by reducing the loud sonic boom to a quieter “thump.” Data gathered from the X-59 will be shared with U.S. and international regulators to inform the establishment of new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft taxis across the runway during a low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on July 10, 2025. The test marks the start of taxi tests and the last series of ground tests before first flight.NASA/Carla Thomas NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft moves under its own power for the first time at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, on July 10, 2025. Guided by the aircraft’s crew chief, the event marks the beginning of taxi tests – a key milestone and the final series of ground tests before first flight.NASA/Carla Thomas Share
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By NASA
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NASA to Launch SNIFS, Sun’s Next Trailblazing Spectator
July will see the launch of the groundbreaking Solar EruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph mission, or SNIFS. Delivered to space via a Black Brant IX sounding rocket, SNIFS will explore the energy and dynamics of the chromosphere, one of the most complex regions of the Sun’s atmosphere. The SNIFS mission’s launch window at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico opens on Friday, July 18.
The chromosphere is located between the Sun’s visible surface, or photosphere, and its outer layer, the corona. The different layers of the Sun’s atmosphere have been researched at length, but many questions persist about the chromosphere. “There’s still a lot of unknowns,” said Phillip Chamberlin, a research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and principal investigator for the SNIFS mission.
The reddish chromosphere is visible on the Sun’s right edge in this view of the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse from Madras, Oregon.Credit: NASA/Nat Gopalswamy The chromosphere lies just below the corona, where powerful solar flares and massive coronal mass ejections are observed. These solar eruptions are the main drivers of space weather, the hazardous conditions in near-Earth space that threaten satellites and endanger astronauts. The SNIFS mission aims to learn more about how energy is converted and moves through the chromosphere, where it can ultimately power these massive explosions.
“To make sure the Earth is safe from space weather, we really would like to be able to model things,” said Vicki Herde, a doctoral graduate of CU Boulder who worked with Chamberlin to develop SNIFS.
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This footage from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the Sun in the 304-angstrom band of extreme ultraviolet light, which primarily reveals light from the chromosphere. This video, captured on Feb. 22, 2024, shows a solar flare — as seen in the bright flash on the upper left.Credit: NASA/SDO The SNIFS mission is the first ever solar ultraviolet integral field spectrograph, an advanced technology combining an imager and a spectrograph. Imagers capture photos and videos, which are good for seeing the combined light from a large field of view all at once. Spectrographs dissect light into its various wavelengths, revealing which elements are present in the light source, their temperature, and how they’re moving — but only from a single location at a time.
The SNIFS mission combines these two technologies into one instrument.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” said Chamberlin. “You’re pushing the limit of what technology allows us to do.”
By focusing on specific wavelengths, known as spectral lines, the SNIFS mission will help scientists to learn about the chromosphere. These wavelengths include a spectral line of hydrogen that is the brightest line in the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, and two spectral lines from the elements silicon and oxygen. Together, data from these spectral lines will help reveal how the chromosphere connects with upper atmosphere by tracing how solar material and energy move through it.
The SNIFS mission will be carried into space by a sounding rocket. These rockets are effective tools for launching and carrying space experiments and offer a valuable opportunity for hands-on experience, particularly for students and early-career researchers.
(From left to right) Vicki Herde, Joseph Wallace, and Gabi Gonzalez, who worked on the SNIFS mission, stand with the sounding rocket containing the rocket payload at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.Credit: courtesy of Phillip Chamberlin “You can really try some wild things,” Herde said. “It gives the opportunity to allow students to touch the hardware.”
Chamberlin emphasized how beneficial these types of missions can be for science and engineering students like Herde, or the next generation of space scientists, who “come with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of new ideas, new techniques,” he said.
The entirety of the SNIFS mission will likely last up to 15 minutes. After launch, the sounding rocket is expected to take 90 seconds to make it to space and point toward the Sun, seven to eight minutes to perform the experiment on the chromosphere, and three to five minutes to return to Earth’s surface.
A previous sounding rocket launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This mission carried a copy of the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE).
Credit: NASA/University of Colorado Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics/James Mason The rocket will drift around 70 to 80 miles (112 to 128 kilometers) from the launchpad before its return, so mission contributors must ensure it will have a safe place to land. White Sands, a largely empty desert, is ideal.
Herde, who spent four years working on the rocket, expressed her immense excitement for the launch. “This has been my baby.”
By Harper Lawson
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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A team works together on their project during the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge event in in Arequipa, Peru. Teams have two days to respond to the challenges and submit their project for the chance to win one of 10 global awards. NASA invites innovators of all ages to register for the NASA Space Apps Challenge, held on Oct. 4-5. The 2025 theme is Learn, Launch, Lead, and participants will work alongside a vibrant community of scientists, technologists, and storytellers at more than 450 events worldwide. Participants can expect to learn skills to succeed in STEM fields, launch ideas that transform NASA’s open data into actionable tools, and lead their communities in driving technological innovation.
During the NASA Space Apps Challenge, participants in the U.S. and around the world gather at hundreds of in-person and virtual events to address challenges authored by subject matter experts across NASA divisions. These challenges range in complexity and topic, tasking participants with everything from creating machine learning models and leveraging artificial intelligence, to improving access to NASA research, to designing sustainable recycling systems for Mars, and to developing tools to evaluate local air quality here on Earth.
Dr. Yoseline Angel Lopez, a former space apps challenge winner and now an assistant research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, can attest that the opportunity to Learn, Launch, Lead goes far beyond the hackathon.
“The NASA Space Apps Challenge gave me and my team a meaningful opportunity to apply science to real-world problems and gain validation from NASA scientists and industry experts,” said Angel.
In 2021, her team’s winning web-app prototype was adopted by Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture, connecting smallholder farmers with local buyers. The platform also supported agricultural land-use monitoring using satellite imagery.
After the hackathon, project submissions are judged by NASA and space agency experts. Winners are selected for one of 10 global awards.
“Participating in the hackathon is exciting on its own. But when your project can lead to greater opportunities and make a difference in your community, that’s a dream come true,” said Angel. She will return to the 2025 hackathon as a NASA subject matter expert and challenge author, giving a Golden Age of innovators the opportunity to make a difference in their communities through the use of data from NASA and 14 space agency partners.
This year’s partners include: Bahrain Space Agency; Brazilian Space Agency; CSA (Canadian Space Agency); ESA (European Space Agency); ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation); Italian Space Agency; JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency); Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre of the United Arab Emirates; National Space Activities Commission of Argentina; Paraguayan Space Agency; South African National Space Agency; Spanish Space Agency; Turkish Space Agency; and the UK Space Agency.
NASA Space Apps is funded by NASA’s Earth Science Division through a contract with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, and SecondMuse.
We invite you to register for the 2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge and choose a virtual or in-person event near you at:
https://www.spaceappschallenge.org
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youtube.com/c/NASASpaceAppsChallenge
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By NASA
A collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, NISAR will use synthetic aperture radar to monitor nearly all the planet’s land- and ice-covered surfaces twice every 12 days.Credit: NASA NASA will host a news conference at 12 p.m. EDT Monday, July 21, to discuss the upcoming NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission.
The Earth-observing satellite, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), carries an advanced radar system that will help protect communities by providing a dynamic, three-dimensional view of Earth in unprecedented detail and detecting the movement of land and ice surfaces down to the centimeter.
The NISAR mission will lift off from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, on India’s southeastern coast. Launch is targeted for no earlier than late July.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California will stream the briefing live on its X, Facebook, and YouTube channels. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Participants in the news conference include:
Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters Wendy Edelstein, deputy project manager, NISAR, NASA JPL Paul Rosen, project scientist, NISAR, NASA JPL To ask questions by phone, members of the media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of the event to: rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. Questions can be asked on social media during the briefing using #AskNISAR.
With its two radar instruments — an S-band system provided by ISRO and an L-band system provided by NASA — NISAR will use a technique known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to scan nearly all the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. Each system’s signal is sensitive to different sizes of features on Earth’s surface, and each specializes in measuring different attributes, such as moisture content, surface roughness, and motion.
These capabilities will help scientists better understand processes involved in natural hazards and catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land subsidence, and landslides.
Additionally, NISAR’s cloud penetrating ability will aid urgent responses to communities during weather disasters such as hurricanes, storm surge, and flooding. The detailed maps the mission creates also will provide information on both gradual and sudden changes occurring on Earth’s land and ice surfaces.
Managed by Caltech for NASA, JPL leads the U.S. component of the NISAR project and provided the L-band SAR. NASA JPL also provided the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Near Space Network, which will receive NISAR’s L-band data.
Multiple ISRO centers have contributed to NISAR. The Space Applications Centre is providing the mission’s S-band SAR. The U R Rao Satellite Centre provided the spacecraft bus. The rocket is from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, launch services are through Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and satellite mission operations are by the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network. The National Remote Sensing Centre is responsible for S-band data reception, operational products generation, and dissemination.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov
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Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Andrew Wang / Scott Hulme
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-653-9131
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / scott.d.hulme@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jul 16, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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