Highlights

JPL missions are redrawing the limits of the physically possible, from the quantum to the barely quantifiable. A giant light filter will unmask planets circling other stars, a near-infrared observatory will take snapshots of the kinetic cosmos, and a collaboration with the European Space Agency has started to expose the hidden forces scattering the visible universe.

From a journey to the core of planetary formation, to the search for life in hidden oceans, JPL spacecraft embody humanity’s restless drive to explore, to understand, and to prove or disprove our singular standing in the universe.

As humanity once again seeks to plant its flag on the Moon, return samples from across our solar system, and push farther out into the stars, gentle giants at home – and the engineering experts behind the antennas – help ensure we make the right moves to achieve mission success.

Climate change is here now, impacted by and impacting every population on the planet. Measurement and analysis are critical to adaptation and mitigation. A new JPL mission surveys nearly all the world’s lakes and large rivers. Another has spotted hundreds of methane sources. And a future mission will monitor land movements with game-changing frequency.

Determining the composition of Earth’s surface minerals from space, mining and caching Martian rock, detecting single photons from the depths of the cosmos, and expanding the Lab’s world-leading store of space navigational knowledge: newly developed JPL technology vaulted from promising to proven in 2023.

Whether testing the first telescope to map the near-infrared universe, catching a star swallowing a planet, planning to map deposits of water on the Moon, or discovering the true extent of local methane emissions, researchers on campus and on Lab worked together in 2023 to enable the fundamental leaps in knowledge for which Caltech and JPL are known worldwide.