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Neptune Completes Its First Circuit Around The Sun Since Its Discovery
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
On Sept. 9, 2025, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the Sun.NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory It looked like the Sun was heading toward a historic lull in activity. That trend flipped in 2008, according to new research.
The Sun has become increasingly active since 2008, a new NASA study shows. Solar activity is known to fluctuate in cycles of 11 years, but there are longer-term variations that can last decades. Case in point: Since the 1980s, the amount of solar activity had been steadily decreasing all the way up to 2008, when solar activity was the weakest on record. At that point, scientists expected the Sun to be entering a period of historically low activity.
But then the Sun reversed course and started to become increasingly active, as documented in the study, which appears in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It’s a trend that researchers said could lead to an uptick in space weather events, such as solar storms, flares, and coronal mass ejections.
“All signs were pointing to the Sun going into a prolonged phase of low activity,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, lead author of the new study. “So it was a surprise to see that trend reversed. The Sun is slowly waking up.”
The earliest recorded tracking of solar activity began in the early 1600s, when astronomers, including Galileo, counted sunspots and documented their changes. Sunspots are cooler, darker regions on the Sun’s surface that are produced by a concentration of magnetic field lines. Areas with sunspots are often associated with higher solar activity, such as solar flares, which are intense bursts of radiation, and coronal mass ejections, which are huge bubbles of plasma that erupt from the Sun’s surface and streak across the solar system.
NASA scientists track these space weather events because they can affect spacecraft, astronauts’ safety, radio communications, GPS, and even power grids on Earth. Space weather predictions are critical for supporting the spacecraft and astronauts of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as understanding the space environment is a vital part of mitigating astronaut exposure to space radiation.
Launching no earlier than Sept. 23, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory missions, as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s SWFO-L1 (Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1) mission, will provide new space weather research and observations that will help to drive future efforts at the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Solar activity affects the magnetic fields of planets throughout the solar system. As the solar wind — a stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun — and other solar activity increase, the Sun’s influence expands and compresses magnetospheres, which serve as protective bubbles of planets with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, including Earth. These protective bubbles are important for shielding planets from the jets of plasma that stream out from the Sun in the solar wind.
Over the centuries that people have been studying solar activity, the quietest times were a three-decade stretch from 1645 to 1715 and a four-decade stretch from 1790 to 1830. “We don’t really know why the Sun went through a 40-year minimum starting in 1790,” Jasinski said. “The longer-term trends are a lot less predictable and are something we don’t completely understand yet.”
In the two-and-a-half decades leading up to 2008, sunspots and the solar wind decreased so much that researchers expected the “deep solar minimum” of 2008 to mark the start of a new historic low-activity time in the Sun’s recent history.
“But then the trend of declining solar wind ended, and since then plasma and magnetic field parameters have steadily been increasing,” said Jasinski, who led the analysis of heliospheric data publicly available in a platform called OMNIWeb Plus, run by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The data Jasinski and colleagues mined for the study came from a broad collection of NASA missions. Two primary sources — ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) and the Wind mission — launched in the 1990s and have been providing data on solar activity like plasma and energetic particles flowing from the Sun toward Earth. The spacecraft belong to a fleet of NASA Heliophysics Division missions designed to study the Sun’s influence on space, Earth, and other planets.
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Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Abbey Interrante
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 15, 2025 Related Terms
Heliophysics Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Solar System Explore More
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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen at dawn with firetrucks and safety personnel nearby during a hydrazine safety check at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. The operation highlights the extensive precautions built into the aircraft’s safety procedures for a system that serves as a critical safeguard, ensuring the engine can be restarted in flight as the X-59 prepares for its first flight. Credits: Lockheed Martin As NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft approaches first flight, its team is mapping every step from taxi and takeoff to cruising and landing – and their decision-making is guided by safety.
First flight will be a lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing focused on verifying the aircraft’s airworthiness and safety. During subsequent test flights, the X-59 will go higher and faster, eventually exceeding the speed of sound. The aircraft is designed to fly supersonic while generating a quiet thump rather than a loud sonic boom.
To help ensure that first flight – and every flight after that – will begin and end safely, engineers have layered protection into the aircraft.
The X-59’s Flight Test Instrumentation System (FTIS) serves as one of its primary record keepers, collecting and transmitting audio, video, data from onboard sensors, and avionics information – all of which NASA will track across the life of the aircraft.
“We record 60 different streams of data with over 20,000 parameters on board,” said Shedrick Bessent, NASA X-59 instrumentation engineer. “Before we even take off, it’s reassuring to know the system has already seen more than 200 days of work.”
Through ground tests and system evaluations, the system has already generated more than 8,000 files over 237 days of recording. That record provides a detailed history that helps engineers verify the aircraft’s readiness for flight.
Maintainers perform a hydrazine safety check on the agency’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. Hydrazine is a highly toxic chemical, but it serves as a critical backup to restart the engine in flight, if necessary, and is one of several safety features being validated ahead of the aircraft’s first flight.Credits: Lockheed Martin “There’s just so much new technology on this aircraft, and if a system like FTIS can offer a bit of relief by showing us what’s working – with reliability and consistency – that reduces stress and uncertainty,” Bessent said. “I think that helps the project just as much as it helps our team.”
The aircraft also uses a digital fly-by-wire system that will keep the aircraft stable and limit unsafe maneuvers. First developed in the 1970s at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, digital fly-by-wire replaced how aircraft were flown, moving away from traditional cables and pulleys to computerized flight controls and actuators.
On the X-59, the pilot’s inputs – such as movement of the stick or throttle – are translated into electronic signals and decoded by a computer. Those signals are then sent through fiber-optic wires to the aircraft’s surfaces, like its wings and tail.
Additionally, the aircraft uses multiple computers that back each other up and keep the system operating. If one fails, another takes over. The same goes for electrical and hydraulic systems, which also have independent backup systems to ensure the aircraft can fly safely.
Onboard batteries back up the X-59’s hydraulic and electrical systems, with thermal batteries driving the electric pump that powers hydraulics. Backing up the engine is an emergency restart system that uses hydrazine, a highly reactive liquid fuel. In the unlikely event of a loss of power, the hydrazine system would restart the engine in flight. The system would help restore power so the pilot could stabilize or recover the aircraft.
Maintainers perform a hydrazine safety check on NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. Hydrazine is a highly toxic chemical, but it serves as a critical backup to restart the engine in flight, if necessary, which is one of several safety features being validated ahead of the aircraft’s first flight. Credits: Lockheed Martin Protective Measures
Behind each of these systems is a team of engineers, technicians, safety and quality assurance experts, and others. The team includes a crew chief responsible for maintenance on the aircraft and ensuring the aircraft is ready for flight.
“I try to always walk up and shake the crew chief’s hand,” said Nils Larson, NASA X-59 lead test pilot. “Because it’s not your airplane – it’s the crew chief’s airplane – and they’re trusting you with it. You’re just borrowing it for an hour or two, then bringing it back and handing it over.”
Larson, set to serve as pilot for first flight, may only be borrowing the aircraft from the X-59’s crew chiefs – Matt Arnold from X-59 contractor Lockheed Martin and Juan Salazar from NASA – but plenty of the aircraft’s safety systems were designed specifically to protect the pilot in flight.
The X-59’s life support system is designed to deliver oxygen through the pilot’s mask to compensate for the decreased atmospheric pressure at the aircraft’s cruising altitude of 55,000 feet – altitudes more than twice as high as that of a typical airliner. In order to withstand high-altitude flight, Larson will also wear a counter-pressure garment, or g-suit, similar to what fighter pilots wear.
In the unlikely event it’s needed, the X-59 also features an ejection seat and canopy adapted from a U.S. Air Force T-38 trainer, which comes equipped with essentials like a first aid kit, radio, and water. Due to the design, build, and test rigor put into the X-59, the ejection seat is a safety measure.
All these systems form a network of safety, adding confidence to the pilot and engineers as they approach to the next milestone – first flight.
“There’s a lot of trust that goes into flying something new,” Larson said. “You’re trusting the engineers, the maintainers, the designers – everyone who has touched the aircraft. And if I’m not comfortable, I’m not getting in. But if they trust the aircraft, and they trust me in it, then I’m all in.”
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Last Updated Sep 12, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Boarding passes will carry participants’ names on NASA’s Artemis II mission in 2026.Credit: NASA Lee este comunicado de prensa en español aquí.
NASA is inviting the public to join the agency’s Artemis II test flight as four astronauts venture around the Moon and back to test systems and hardware needed for deep space exploration. As part of the agency’s “Send Your Name with Artemis II” effort, anyone can claim their spot by signing up before Jan. 21.
Participants will launch their name aboard the Orion spacecraft and SLS (Space Launch System) rocket alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“Artemis II is a key test flight in our effort to return humans to the Moon’s surface and build toward future missions to Mars, and it’s also an opportunity to inspire people across the globe and to give them an opportunity to follow along as we lead the way in human exploration deeper into space,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The collected names will be put on an SD card loaded aboard Orion before launch. In return, participants can download a boarding pass with their name on it as a collectable.
To add your name and receive an English-language boarding pass, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/artemisnames
To add your name and receive a Spanish-language boarding pass, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/TuNombreArtemis
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the approximately 10-day Artemis II test flight, launching no later than April 2026, is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.
To learn more about the mission visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
-end-
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 09, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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