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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s EZIE Launching to Study Magnetic Fingerprints of Earth’s Aurora
High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. These auroral electrojets push about a million amps of electrical charge around the poles every second. They can create some of the largest magnetic disturbances on the ground, and rapid changes in the currents can lead to effects such as power outages. In March, NASA plans to launch its EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission to learn more about these powerful currents, in the hopes of ultimately mitigating the effects of such space weather for humans on Earth.
Results from EZIE will help NASA better understand the dynamics of the Earth-Sun connection and help improve predictions of hazardous space weather that can harm astronauts, interfere with satellites, and trigger power outages.
The EZIE mission includes three CubeSats, each about the size of a carry-on suitcase. These small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string formation, following each other as they orbit Earth from pole to pole about 350 miles (550 kilometers) overhead. The spacecraft will look down toward the electrojets, which flow about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground in an electrified layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.
During every orbit, each EZIE spacecraft will map the electrojets to uncover their structure and evolution. The spacecraft will fly over the same region 2 to 10 minutes apart from one another, revealing how the electrojets change.
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NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission will use three CubeSats to map Earth’s auroral electrojets — intense electric currents that flow high above Earth’s polar regions when auroras glow in the sky. As the trio orbits Earth, each satellite will use four dishes pointed at different angles to measure magnetic fields created by the electrojets. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben Previous ground-based experiments and spacecraft have observed auroral electrojets, which are a small part of a vast electric circuit that extends 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from Earth to space. But for decades, scientists have debated what the overall system looks like and how it evolves. The mission team expects EZIE to resolve that debate.
“What EZIE does is unique,” said Larry Kepko, EZIE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets, and it does so with a completely new measurement technique.”
EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets.
Larry Kepko
EZIE mission scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This technique involves looking at microwave emission from oxygen molecules about 10 miles (16 kilometers) below the electrojets. Normally, oxygen molecules emit microwaves at a frequency of 118 Gigahertz. However, the electrojets create a magnetic field that can split apart that 118 Gigahertz emission line in a process called Zeeman splitting. The stronger the magnetic field, the farther apart the line is split.
Each of the three EZIE spacecraft will carry an instrument called the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram to observe the Zeeman effect and measure the strength and direction of the electrojets’ magnetic fields. Built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, each of these instruments will use four antennas pointed at different angles to survey the magnetic fields along four different tracks as EZIE orbits.
The technology used in the Microwave Electrojet Magnetograms was originally developed to study Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems. Engineers at JPL had reduced the size of the radio detectors so they could fit on small satellites, including NASA’s TEMPEST-D and CubeRRT missions, and improved the components that separate light into specific wavelengths.
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NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission will investigate Earth’s auroral electrojets, which flow high above Earth’s polar regions when auroras (northern and southern lights) glow. By providing unprecedented measurements of these electrical currents, EZIE will answer decades-old mysteries. Understanding these currents will also improve scientists’ capabilities for predicting hazardous space weather. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL The electrojets flow through a region that is difficult to study directly, as it’s too high for scientific balloons to reach but too low for satellites to dwell.
“The utilization of the Zeeman technique to remotely map current-induced magnetic fields is really a game-changing approach to get these measurements at an altitude that is notoriously difficult to measure,” said Sam Yee, EZIE’s principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
The mission is also including citizen scientists to enhance its research, distributing dozens of EZIE-Mag magnetometer kits to students in the U.S. and volunteers around the world to compare EZIE’s observations to those from Earth. “EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, EZIE project manager at APL.
EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground.
Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer
EZIE project manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
The EZIE spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX via launch integrator Maverick Space Systems.
The mission will launch during what’s known as solar maximum — a phase during the 11-year solar cycle when the Sun’s activity is stronger and more frequent. This is an advantage for EZIE’s science.
“It’s better to launch during solar max,” Kepko said. “The electrojets respond directly to solar activity.”
The EZIE mission will also work alongside other NASA heliophysics missions, including PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), launching in late February to study how material in the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.
According to Yee, EZIE’s CubeSat mission not only allows scientists to address compelling questions that have not been able to answer for decades but also demonstrates that great science can be achieved cost-effectively.
“We’re leveraging the new capability of CubeSats,” Kepko added. “This is a mission that couldn’t have flown a decade ago. It’s pushing the envelope of what is possible, all on a small satellite. It’s exciting to think about what we will discover.”
The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard. APL leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats.
by Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Header Image:
An artist’s concept shows the three EZIE satellites orbiting Earth.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
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Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Explore This Section Science Science Activation Sharing PLANETS Curriculum… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 2 min read
Sharing PLANETS Curriculum with Out-of-School Time Educators
Out of school time (OST) educators work with youth in afterschool, community, and camp programs. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning in OST can be challenging for multiple reasons, including lack of materials and support for educators. The NASA Science Activation program’s PLANETS project – Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, and Science – led by Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, provides both written curriculum and virtual educator support on planetary science and engineering.
PLANETS offers three curriculum units focused on themes from NASA’s strategic priorities and mission directives in planetary science over the next decade:
Space Hazards for learners in grades 3-5, Water in Extreme Environments, and Remote Sensing for learners in grades 6-8. PLANETS recently exhibited at two national conferences for educators to share these free NASA partner resources: the Space Exploration Educators Conference at Space Center Houston in Houston, TX on Feb 6-8, 2025 and the Beyond School Hours conference in Orlando, FL on Feb 13-16, 2025. Approximately 500 educators interacted with PLANETS team members to learn about the curriculum and to share their needs for OST learners. Some educators shared how they are already using PLANETS and how much their learners enjoy the lessons. In addition to sharing PLANETS resources, the team also had QR codes and flyers providing information about all the other Science Activation project teams, making sure educators grow in awareness of all that NASA’s Science Mission Directorate does to engage the public.
OST educators appreciate the integrity and quality of NASA-funded resources. One educator shared, “Free resources are always critical to youth-serving organizations. PLANETS also has everyday materials and educator dialogue on how to deliver, making it easy to pick up and use.”
Another OST educator said, “There are programs out there, like PLANETS, that truly help people of all backgrounds,” and yet another expressed, “I love the activities, and could see our youth engaging with it in a fun way.” Disseminating these types of NASA Science Activation program resources at regional and national venues is vital.
The PLANETS project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC53A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
Members of the PLANETS team exhibiting at the Space Exploration Educators Conference in Houston, TX. Share
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Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A new international study partially funded by NASA on how Mars got its iconic red color adds to evidence that Mars had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.
Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being .6km/pixel. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene (lat -8, long 78) shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 2000 kilometers long and up to 8 kilometers deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 25 kilometers high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters.NASA The current atmosphere of Mars is too cold and thin to support liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, on its surface for lengthy periods. However, various NASA and international missions have found evidence that water was abundant on the Martian surface billions of years ago during a more clement era, such as features that resemble dried-up rivers and lakes, and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water.
Adding to this evidence, results from a study published February 25 in the journal Nature Communications suggest that the water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite may be the main culprit behind Mars’ reddish dust. Martian dust is known to be a hodgepodge of different minerals, including iron oxides, and this new study suggests one of those iron oxides, ferrihydrite, is the reason for the planet’s color.
The finding offers a tantalizing clue to Mars’ wetter and potentially more habitable past because ferrihydrite forms in the presence of cool water, and at lower temperatures than other previously considered minerals, like hematite. This suggests that Mars may have had an environment capable of sustaining liquid water before it transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of years ago.
“The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been considered for hundreds if not for thousands of years,” said lead author Adam Valantinas, a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, who started the work as a Ph.D. student at the University of Bern, Switzerland. “From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well. We’re not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason for why Mars is red, but we can now better test this using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab.”
Laboratory sample showing simulated Martian dust. The ochre color is characteristic of iron-rich ferrihydrite, a mineral that provides crucial insights into ancient water activity and environmental conditions on Mars. The fine-powder mixture consists of ferrihydrite and ground basalt with particles less than one micrometer in size (1/100th diameter of a human hair) (Sample scale: 1 inch across).Adam Valantinas “These new findings point to a potentially habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of coordinated research between NASA and its international partners when exploring fundamental questions about our solar system and the future of space exploration,” said Geronimo Villanueva, the Associate Director for Strategic Science of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-author of this study.
The researchers analyzed data from multiple Mars missions, combining orbital observations from instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ESA’s (the European Space Agency) Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter with ground-level measurements from NASA rovers like Curiosity, Pathfinder, and Opportunity. Instruments on the orbiters and rovers provided detailed spectral data of the planet’s dusty surface. These findings were then compared to laboratory experiments, where the team tested how light interacts with ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions.
“What we want to understand is the ancient Martian climate, the chemical processes on Mars — not only ancient — but also present,” said Valantinas. “Then there’s the habitability question: Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral’s formation. What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen from air or other sources and water can react with iron. Those conditions were very different from today’s dry, cold environment. As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet’s iconic red appearance.”
Whether the team’s proposed formation model is correct could be definitively tested after samples from Mars are delivered to Earth for analysis.
“The study really is a door-opening opportunity,” said Jack Mustard of Brown University, a senior author on the study. “It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time. What’s even more important though is the return of the samples from Mars that are being collected right now by the Perseverance rover. When we get those back, we can actually check and see if this is right.”
Part of the spectral measurements were performed at NASA’s Reflectance Experiment Laboratory (RELAB) at Brown University. RELAB is supported by NASA’s Planetary Science Enabling Facilities program, part of the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
By William Steigerwald
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
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Last Updated Feb 24, 2025 EditorWilliam SteigerwaldContactLonnie Shekhtmanlonnie.shekhtman@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Astronaut Jeanette Epps extracts DNA samples from bacteria colonies for genomic analysis aboard the International Space Station’s Harmony module.NASA In an effort to learn more about astronaut health and the effects of space on the human body, NASA is conducting a new experiment aboard the International Space Station to speed up the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, thus improving the health safety not only of astronauts but patients back on Earth.
Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be difficult or impossible to treat, making antibiotic resistance a leading cause of death worldwide and a global health concern.
Future astronauts visiting the Moon or Mars will need to rely on a pre-determined supply of antibiotics in case of illness. Ensuring those antibiotics remain effective is an important safety measure for future missions.
The Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS) experiment, which is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, involves astronauts swabbing interior surfaces across the space station and testing those samples for evidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and in particular Enterococcus faecalis, a type of bacteria commonly found in the human body. The experiment is the first step in a series of work that seeks to better understand how organisms grow in a space environment, and how those similarities and differences might help improve research back on Earth.
“Enterococcus is a type of organism that’s been with us since our ancestors crawled out of the ocean, and is a core member of the human gut,” said Christopher Carr, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-principal investigator of GEARS. “It’s able to survive inside and outside of its host, which has allowed it to become the second highest leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. We want to understand how this type of organism is adapting to the space environment.”
The GEARS experiment seeks to improve the detection and identification of these bacteria, building on existing efforts to understand what organisms grow on the station’s surfaces.
“We’ve been monitoring the surfaces of the space station since 2000, but this experiment will give us insight beyond the identities of present organisms, which is currently all that is used for risk assessment,” said Sarah Wallace, a microbiologist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and co-principal investigator of GEARS. “With the station orbiting close to Earth, it’s a low-risk space to evaluate and learn more about the frequency of this bacteria and how it responds to the space environment so we can apply this understanding to missions to the Moon and Mars, where resupplies are more complex.”
Over the next year, astronauts will swab parts of the station and analyze samples by adding an antibiotic to the medium in which the samples will grow. The results will reveal where this and other resistant bacteria are growing and whether they can persist or spread across the station.
I hope we can shine a light on rapidly analyzing bacteria: if we can do this in space, we can do it on Earth, too.
Sarah WAllace
NASA Microbiologist
The experiment was originally launched to the ISS on the 30th SpaceX commercial resupply services (CRS) mission in March 2024, and the first round of GEARS testing turned up surprising results: very few resistant bacteria colonies, none of which were E. faecalis. This bodes well for the threat of antibiotic resistance in space.
“There was some cleaning done before swabbing the station, which may have removed some bacteria,” said Carr. To better understand how and where risky bacteria may live, the astronauts paused some cleaning before the second round of swabbing.
“We want the astronauts to have a clean environment, but we also want to test those high-touch areas, so they intentionally and briefly avoided cleaning some areas so we can understand how bacteria may grow or spread on the station.”
This experiment is the first study to perform metagenomic sequencing in space, a method that analyzes all the genetic material in a sample to identify and characterize all organisms that are present, an important research and medical diagnostic capability for future deep space missions.
The GEARS team hopes to create a rapid workflow to analyze bacteria samples, reducing the time between swabbing and test results from days to hours. That workflow could be applied in hospitals and make a huge impact when treating hospital-acquired infections from antibiotic-resistant microbes.
The result could save lives – more than 35,000 people die each year as a result of antibiotic-resistant infections. The issue is personal to Wallace, who lost a family member to a hospital-acquired infection.
“It’s not that uncommon: so many people have experienced this kind of loss,” said Wallace. “A method to give an answer in a matter of hours is huge and profound. It’s my job to keep the crew healthy, but we’re also passionate about bringing that work back down to Earth. I hope we can shine a light on rapidly analyzing bacteria: if we can do this in space, we can do it on Earth, too.”
Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS) was funded by the Biological and Physical Sciences Space Biology Program, with pioneering funding and support from the Mars Campaign office.
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5 Min Read Webb Maps Full Picture of How Phoenix Galaxy Cluster Forms Stars
Spectroscopic data collected from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is overlayed on an image of the Phoenix cluster that combines data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. Credits:
NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, M. McDonald (MIT), M. Reefe (MIT), J. Olmsted (STScI) Discovery proves decades-old theory of galaxy feeding cycle.
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have finally solved the mystery of how a massive galaxy cluster is forming stars at such a high rate. The confirmation from Webb builds on more than a decade of studies using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, as well as several ground-based observatories.
The Phoenix cluster, a grouping of galaxies bound together by gravity 5.8 billion light-years from Earth, has been a target of interest for astronomers due to a few unique properties. In particular, ones that are surprising: a suspected extreme cooling of gas and a furious star formation rate despite a roughly 10 billion solar mass supermassive black hole at its core. In other observed galaxy clusters, the central supermassive black hole powers energetic particles and radiation that prevents gas from cooling enough to form stars. Researchers have been studying gas flows within this cluster to try to understand how it is driving such extreme star formation.
Image A: Phoenix Cluster (Hubble, Chandra, VLA Annotated)
Spectroscopic data collected from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is overlayed on an image of the Phoenix cluster that combines data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. Webb’s powerful sensitivity in the mid-infrared detected the cooling gas that leads to a furious rate of star formation in this massive galaxy cluster. Credit: NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, M. McDonald (MIT), M. Reefe (MIT), J. Olmsted (STScI) “We can compare our previous studies of the Phoenix cluster, which found differing cooling rates at different temperatures, to a ski slope,” said Michael McDonald of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, principal investigator of the program. “The Phoenix cluster has the largest reservoir of hot, cooling gas of any galaxy cluster — analogous to having the busiest chair lift, bringing the most skiers to the top of the mountain. However, not all of those skiers were making it down the mountain, meaning not all the gas was cooling to low temperatures. If you had a ski slope where there were significantly more people getting off the ski lift at the top than were arriving at the bottom, that would be a problem!”
To date, in the Phoenix cluster, the numbers weren’t adding up, and researchers were missing a piece of the process. Webb has now found those proverbial skiers at the middle of the mountain, in that it has tracked and mapped the missing cooling gas that will ultimately feed star formation. Most importantly, this intermediary warm gas was found within cavities tracing the very hot gas, a searing 18 million degrees Fahrenheit, and the already cooled gas around 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The team studied the cluster’s core in more detail than ever before with the Medium-Resolution Spectrometer on Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). This tool allows researchers to take two-dimenstional spectroscopic data from a region of the sky, during one set of observations.
“Previous studies only measured gas at the extreme cold and hot ends of the temperature distribution throughout the center of the cluster,” added McDonald. “We were limited — it was not possible to detect the ‘warm’ gas that we were looking for. With Webb, we could do this for the first time.”
Image B: Phoenix Cluster (Hubble, Chandra, VLA)
This image of the Phoenix cluster combines data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Very Large Array radio telescope. X-rays from Chandra depict extremely hot gas in purple. Optical light data from Hubble show galaxies in yellow, and filaments of cooler gas where stars are forming in light blue. Outburst generated jets, represented in red, are seen in radio waves by the VLA radio telescope. NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, M. McDonald (MIT). A Quirk of Nature
Webb’s capability to detect this specific temperature of cooling gas, around 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is in part due to its instrumental capabilities. However, the researchers are getting a little help from nature, as well.
This oddity involves two very different ionized atoms, neon and oxygen, created in similar environments. At these temperatures, the emission from oxygen is 100 times brighter but is only visible in ultraviolet. Even though the neon is much fainter, it glows in the infrared, which allowed the researchers to take advantage of Webb’s advanced instruments.
“In the mid-infrared wavelengths detected by Webb, the neon VI signature was absolutely booming,” explained Michael Reefe, also of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lead author on the paper published in Nature. “Even though this emission is usually more difficult to detect, Webb’s sensitivity in the mid-infrared cuts through all of the noise.”
The team now hopes to employ this technique to study more typical galaxy clusters. While the Phoenix cluster is unique in many ways, this proof of concept is an important step towards learning about how other galaxy clusters form stars.The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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