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Breaking Records, Returning Asteroid Samples Among NASA’s Big 2023
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By European Space Agency
Image: This image shows Webb’s recent observation of the asteroid 2024 YR4 using both its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Data from NIRCam shows reflected light, while the MIRI observations show thermal light.
On 8 March 2025, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope turned its watchful eye toward asteroid 2024 YR4, which we now know poses no significant threat to Earth in 2032 and beyond.
This is the smallest object targeted by Webb to date, and one of the smallest objects to have its size directly measured.
Observations were taken to study the thermal properties of 2024 YR4, including how quickly it heats up and cools down and how hot it is at its current distance from the Sun. These measurements indicate that this asteroid does not share properties observed in larger asteroids. This is likely a combination of its fast spin and lack of fine-grained sand on its surface. Further research is needed, however this is considered consistent with a surface dominated by rocks that are roughly fist-sized or larger.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was recently under close watch by the team at ESA's Near Earth Objects Coordination Centre, located in Italy. Planetary defence experts from the Agency's Space Safety programme worked with NASA and the international asteroid community to closely watch this object and refine its orbit, which was eventually determined to not pose a risk of Earth impact. Read details on this unusual campaign via ESA's Rocket Science blog and in news articles here and here.
Webb’s observations indicate that the asteroid measures roughly 60 meters (comparable to the height of a 15-story building).
The new observations from Webb not only provide unique information about 2024 YR4’s size, but can also complement ground-based observations of the object's position to help improve our understanding of the object’s orbit and future trajectory.
Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
[Image description: A collage of three images showing the black expanse of space. Two-thirds of the collage is taken up by the black background sprinkled with small, blurry galaxies in orange, blue, and white. There are two images in a column at the right side of the collage. On the right side of the main image, not far from the top, a very faint dot is outlined with a white square. At the right, there are two zoomed in views of this area. The top box is labeled NIRCam and shows a fuzzy dot at the center of the inset. The bottom box is labeled MIRI and shows a fuzzy pinkish dot.]
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By NASA
Explore This Section Exoplanets Home Exoplanets Overview Exoplanets Facts Types of Exoplanets Stars What is the Universe Search for Life The Big Questions Are We Alone? Can We Find Life? The Habitable Zone Why We Search Target Star Catalog Discoveries Discoveries Dashboard How We Find and Characterize Missions People Exoplanet Catalog Immersive The Exoplaneteers Exoplanet Travel Bureau 5 Ways to Find a Planet Strange New Worlds Universe of Monsters Galaxy of Horrors News Stories Blog Resources Get Involved Glossary Eyes on Exoplanets Exoplanet Watch More Multimedia ExEP This artist’s concept pictures the planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, as seen from close to the surface of one of them. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld The Discovery
Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star.
Key Facts
Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the latest discovery — a family of four — appears to be solidly confirmed. The tiny size of the planets is also remarkable: Capturing evidence of small worlds at great distance is a tall order, even using state-of-the-art instruments and observational techniques.
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Watching for wobbles in the light from a star is one of the leading methods for detecting exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars. This “radial velocity” technique tracks subtle shifts in the spectrum of starlight caused by the gravity of a planet pulling its star back and forth as the planet orbits. But tiny planets pose a major challenge: the smaller the planet, the smaller the pull. These four are each between about a fifth and a third as massive as Earth. Stars also are known to jitter and quake, creating background “noise” that potentially could swamp the comparatively quiet signals from smaller, orbiting worlds.
Astronomers measure the back-and-forth shifting of starlight in meters per second; in this case the radial velocity signals from all four planets amount to faint whispers — from 0.2 to 0.5 meters per second (a person walks at about 1 meter per second). But the noise from stellar activity is nearly 10 times larger at roughly 2 meters per second.
How to separate planet signals from stellar noise? The astronomers made detailed mathematical models of Barnard’s Star’s quakes and jitters, allowing them to recognize and remove those signals from the data collected from the star.
The new paper confirming the four tiny worlds — labeled b, c, d, and e — relies on data from MAROON-X, an “extreme precision” radial velocity instrument attached to the Gemini Telescope on the Maunakea mountaintop in Hawaii. It confirms the detection of the “b” planet, made with previous data from ESPRESSO, a radial velocity instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope in Chile. And the new work reveals three new sibling planets in the same system.
Fun Facts
These planets orbit their red-dwarf star much too closely to be habitable. The closest planet’s “year” lasts a little more than two days; for the farthest planet, it’s is just shy of seven days. That likely makes them too hot to support life. Yet their detection bodes well in the search for life beyond Earth. Scientists say small, rocky planets like ours are probably the best places to look for evidence of life as we know it. But so far they’ve been the most difficult to detect and characterize. High-precision radial velocity measurements, combined with more sharply focused techniques for extracting data, could open new windows into habitable, potentially life-bearing worlds.
Barnard’s star was discovered in 1916 by Edward Emerson Barnard, a pioneering astrophotographer.
The Discoverers
An international team of scientists led by Ritvik Basant of the University of Chicago published their paper on the discovery, “Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO,” in the science journal, “The Astrophysical Journal Letters,” in March 2025. The planets were entered into the NASA Exoplanet Archive on March 13, 2025.
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By NASA
Based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, or ARES, curates the most extensive collection of extraterrestrial materials on Earth, ranging from microscopic cosmic dust particles to Apollo-era Moon rocks. Soon, ARES’ team of world-leading sample scientists hopes to add something new to its collection – lunar samples from the Moon’s South Pole region.
As the Artemis campaign sample curation lead, Dr. Juliane Gross is helping ARES and NASA prepare to collect and return those samples safely. “I’m responsible for representing the voice of the Moon rocks and advocating for their protection, preservation, and maintaining their integrity during the planning and execution of all stages of the different Artemis sample return missions,” she said.
Juliane Gross leads a geology lesson for Artemis II crew members as part of their field training in Iceland in 2024.NASA Her multifaceted role includes preparing the Johnson facility that will receive new lunar samples, developing curation strategies, and collaborating with mission teams to plan sampling operations, which encompass collection, handling, transport, and storage processes for all stages of Artemis missions. She trains program managers and engineers on the importance of sample return and teaches crew members how to identify lunar samples and collect them without contamination. She also works with the different programs and teams that oversee the vehicles used at different stages of lunar missions – collaborating with the human landing system team around tool storage and delivery to the lunar surface, the Orion Program to coordinate sample stowage for the return to Earth, and Exploration Ground Systems to plan sample recovery after splashdown.
Once samples are returned to Earth, Gross and the ARES curation team will conduct a preliminary examination of the materials and release a sample catalog from which members of the global scientific community may request loans to carry out their respective research.
Working across Artemis teams raised an unexpected but fun challenge for Gross – learning to communicate effectively with colleagues who have different academic and professional backgrounds. “Scientists like me speak a different language than engineers, and we all speak a different language than managers or the general public,” she said. “I have worked hard to find common vocabulary and to ‘translate’ science needs into the different types of languages that exist within the Artemis campaign. I’m trying to use our differences as strengths to enable mission success and to connect and build relationships with all these different teams through my love and passion for the Moon and rocks from the Moon.”
That passion emerged shortly after Gross completed her Ph.D. in geology, while working on lunar samples with the Lunar and Planetary Institute. She went on to become a research scientist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and then a tenured professor of planetary sciences at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.
In 2019, NASA asked Gross to join the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program. Under the program, NASA preserved some of the 382 kilograms of lunar samples returned by Apollo missions, keeping them sealed for future generations to open and analyze. “NASA had the foresight to understand that technology would evolve and our level of sophistication for handling and examining samples would greatly increase,” Gross said.
She and two other scientists had the incredible opportunity to open and examine two samples returned by Apollo 17. Their work served as a practice run for Artemis sample returns while building upon the fundamental insights into the shared origin and history of Earth and the Moon that scientists previously derived from other Apollo samples. For example, the team extracted gas from one sample that will provide information about the volatiles that future lunar missions may encounter around the Moon’s South Pole.
“The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program linked the first generation of lunar explorers from Apollo with future explorers of the Moon with Artemis,” Gross said. “I’m very proud to have played such an important role in this initiative that now feeds forward to Artemis.”
Juliane Gross examines lunar samples returned by Apollo 17 in Johnson Space Center’s Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility. NASA Gross’ connection with NASA began even earlier in her career. She was selected to join the agency-sponsored Antarctic Search for Meteorites team and lived in the deep ice fields of Antarctica for two months with seven other people. “We lived in tiny two-person tents without any support and recovered a total of 263 space rocks under challenging conditions,” she said. “I experienced the powerful forces of Antarctica and traveled 332 miles on skidoos. My body changed in the cold – I stuffed my face with enough butter, chocolate, and peanut M&Ms to last a lifetime and yet I lost weight.”
This formative experience taught Gross to find and celebrate beauty, even in her toughest moments. “I drank tea made with Antarctic glacier ice that is thousands to millions of years old. I will never forget the beautiful bell-like sounds that snow crystals make when being blown across the ice, the rainbow-sparkling ice crystals on a really cold day, the vast expanses of ice sheets looking like oceans frozen in eternity, and the icy bite of the wind on any unprotected skin that made me feel so alive and reminded me how vulnerable and precious life is,” she said. “And I will never ever forget the thrill and utter joy of finding a meteorite that you know no one on this planet has ever seen before you.”
Gross ultimately received the Antarctica Service Medal of the United States Armed Forces from the U.S. Department of Defense for her work.
Juliane Gross returns to McMurdo Station in Antarctica after working in the deep field for two months as part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites team.Image courtesy of Juliane Gross Transitioning from full-time academia to her current position at NASA has been a big adjustment for Gross, but she has learned to love the change and the growth opportunities that come with it. “Being part of this incredible moment in history when we are about to return to the Moon with Artemis, our Apollo of today, feels so special and humbling that it made the transition easier,” she said.
The job has also increased Gross’ love and excitement for space exploration and reminds her every day why sample return missions are important. “The Moon is a museum of planetary history,” she said. “It has recorded and preserved the changes that affected the Earth-Moon system and is the best and most accessible place in the solar system to study planet-altering processes that have affected our corner of the universe.”
Still, “The Moon is only our next frontier,” she said. “Keep looking up and never give up. Ad astra!”
Watch below to learn about NASA’s rich history of geology training and hear how scientists and engineers are getting ready to bring back samples that will help us learn about the origins of our solar system.
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By Space Force
The TRICARE Online Patient Portal will no longer be available April 1.To retain health records, download them from the TOL Patient Portal before April 1.
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By European Space Agency
As ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission flew past planet Mars it autonomously locked onto dozens of impact craters and other prominent surface features to track them over time, in a full-scale test of the self-driving technology that the spacecraft will employ to navigate around its target asteroids.
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