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California Institute of Technology

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Asteroids, Hydrogen Make Great Recipe for Life on Mars

Laser blasts in lab tests suggest asteroid bombardment could have provided key ingredients for life on ancient Mars.Read more

Cold Water Currently Slowing Fastest Greenland Glacier

Formerly the island's fastest-flowing glacier, Jakobshavn Glacier slowed dramatically when a nearby ocean current cooled, though it's still adding to global sea level rise.Read more

NASA Instruments Image Fireball over Bering Sea

Two NASA instruments captured imagery of a meteor that exploded over the Bering Sea on Dec. 18, 2018.Read more

Catch NASA's JPL at the Clippers SciFest This Weekend

Explore the galaxy with NASA's JPL this weekend at a free STEM festival for Los Angeles students and families.Read more

NASA's JPL Seeking Applicants for First Space Accelerator

The experimental program will develop technologies with startup companies for future space missions.Read more

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What's Happening Now

news

| March 5, 2019

After the mission's heat probe began hammering last week, it appears to have hit a rock. The team is analyzing data before they hammer again.

NASA's InSight lander set its heat probe

Mars InSight Lander's 'Mole' Pauses Digging

video

| February 28, 2019

See Jupiter and other planets in the morning, a change of seasons and an open star cluster called the Beehive.

What's Up - March 2019

image

| March 21, 2019

This striking view of Jupiters Great Red Spot and turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASAs Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet.

Jupiter Marble

news

| March 19, 2019

In January, Mars 2020 engineers and technicians took over JPL's cleanroom to put the mission's cruise, entry capsule, descent stage and rover through their paces.

NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Is Put to the Test

VideoS

| June 22, 2012

Team members share the challenges of Curiosity's final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.

Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

images

| March 21, 2019

This striking view of Jupiters Great Red Spot and turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASAs Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet.

Jupiter Marble

news

| February 22, 2019

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is in good health but takes a short break while engineers diagnose why it reset its computer.

NASA's Curiosity Mars took this image with its Mastcam

Curiosity Resumes Operations After Switching Computers

VideoS

| December 10, 2018

Forty-one years after it launched into space, NASA's Voyager 2 probe has exited our solar bubble and entered the region between stars.

Voyager 2 Enters Interstellar Space

images

| March 21, 2019

NASAs MODIS instrument, aboard the Terra satellite, captured this true-color image showing the remnants of a meteors passage, seen as a dark shadow cast on thick, white clouds on Dec.

MODIS Images Fireball over Bering Sea

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Missions

JPL is the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, and has 19 spacecraft and 10 major instruments carrying out planetary, Earth science and space-based astronomy missions.

Explore

Download free 2019 JPL Anniversary calendar

Download our calendar and celebrate space exploration with us.

Eighty two years ago, seven young men drove out to a dry canyon wash in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and helped jump-start the Space Age. Discover more from JPL's 82-year history of daring mighty things with our free calendar. It features photos from JPL and NASA history as well as key anniversaries and happenings at the Laboratory. Click here to download.

Earth-like Planets

What's an Exoplanet?

A trillion planets in our galaxy alone and many of them in Earth’s size range.

What is an Exoplanet?

All of the planets in our solar system orbit around the Sun. Planets that orbit around other stars are called exoplanets. Click here to see how many we have found so far.

Big ideas, small satellites

What are CubeSats?

At the forefront of helping redefine the way we do science in space.

What are CubeSats?

A CubeSat (U-class spacecraft) is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×10 cm cubic units. Click to learn more.

Deep Space Network

What is the DSN?

The largest international array of giant radio antennas supporting interplanetary spacecraft missions.

What is the Deep Space Network?

The DSN consists of three facilities spaced equidistant from each other – approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude – around the world. These sites are at Goldstone, near Barstow, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. Click to learn more.

exotic travel poster art to download for free

Visions of the Future

Free Travel Posters

Download and print our futuristic space tourism posters.

JPL Travel Posters

Take a virtual trip to 14 alien worlds, and maybe even plaster your living room with planetary art, via the new, futuristic space tourism posters. The posters are available free for downloading and printing.

Voyager 40th Anniversary

Voyager Posters

Download, print and share with friends and family.

Download Voyager posters for free.

Download three commemorative posters of the Voyager mission and celebrate the spacecraft's incredible 40 year journey.

A Caldera's Steep Slopes

Image of the Day

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Education and Public Events

Earth is the most-observed planet in our system.

April 18 & 19

The Future is Cloudy: NASA’s Look at Clouds and Climate

Some are the size of a toaster. Others a suitcase.

May 9 & 10

Cubesats

Walk through the lifecycle of a mission from its start as a crazy idea, to concept, to development, construction, testing and launch.

June 20 & 21

Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On: Designing Tomorrow’s Space Missions Today

The Apollo program's "giant leap" took a decade of intense preparation to accomplish, and required a huge support system back on Earth throughout.

July 11 & 12

Apollo 50th Anniversary

Don’t let the name fool you. Our solar system’s small worlds pack big surprises.

August 8 & 9

Small Worlds, Big Science

Stories of how we repair and save missions when spacecraft are millions if not billions of miles away.

September 19 & 20

It Broke! Stories of How we Fixed It

All the material we can see is just a small fraction of the universe. The rest, a full 95 percent, is invisible and mysterious.

October 17 & 18

The Other 95% Of The Universe

Learn about how we use the International Space Station as a platform for Earth Science Research.

November 14 & 15

Science From the International Space Station