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Hubble Takes Major Step in Determining the Age of the Universe
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home Hubble Captures an Edge-On… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features spiral galaxy UGC 10043. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043. We don’t see the galaxy’s spiral arms because we are seeing it from the side. Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that we see edge-on.
This edge-on viewpoint makes the galaxy’s disk appear as a sharp line through space, with its prominent dust lanes forming thick bands of clouds that obscure our view of the galaxy’s glow. If we could fly above the galaxy, viewing it from the top down, we would see this dust scattered across UGC 10043, possibly outlining its spiral arms. Despite the dust’s obscuring nature, some active star-forming regions shine out from behind the dark clouds. We can also see that the galaxy’s center sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disk. All spiral galaxies have a bulge similar to this one as part of their structure. These bulges hold stars that orbit the galactic center on paths above and below the whirling disk; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disk is possibly due to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why its disk appears warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.
Like most full-color Hubble images, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times, each capturing different wavelengths of light. One notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of data that comprise this image were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble’s Galaxies
Galaxy Details and Mergers
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Finds… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Finds Sizzling Details About Young Star FU Orionis
An artist’s concept of the early stages of the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) outburst, surrounded by a disk of material. Credits:
NASA-JPL, Caltech In 1936, astronomers saw a puzzling event in the constellation Orion: the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) became a hundred times brighter in a matter of months. At its peak, FU Ori was intrinsically 100 times brighter than our Sun. Unlike an exploding star though, it has declined in luminosity only languidly since then.
Now, a team of astronomers has wielded NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope‘s ultraviolet capabilities to learn more about the interaction between FU Ori’s stellar surface and the accretion disk that has been dumping gas onto the growing star for nearly 90 years. They find that the inner disk touching the star is extraordinarily hot — which challenges conventional wisdom.
The observations were made with the telescope’s COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) and STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instruments. The data includes the first far-ultraviolet and new near-ultraviolet spectra of FU Ori.
“We were hoping to validate the hottest part of the accretion disk model, to determine its maximum temperature, by measuring closer to the inner edge of the accretion disk than ever before,” said Lynne Hillenbrand of Caltech in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the paper. “I think there was some hope that we would see something extra, like the interface between the star and its disk, but we were certainly not expecting it. The fact we saw so much extra — it was much brighter in the ultraviolet than we predicted — that was the big surprise.”
A Better Understanding of Stellar Accretion
Originally deemed to be a unique case among stars, FU Ori exemplifies a class of young, eruptive stars that undergo dramatic changes in brightness. These objects are a subset of classical T Tauri stars, which are newly forming stars that are building up by accreting material from their disk and the surrounding nebula. In classical T Tauri stars, the disk does not touch the star directly because it is restricted by the outward pressure of the star’s magnetic field.
The accretion disks around FU Ori objects, however, are susceptible to instabilities due to their enormous mass relative to the central star, interactions with a binary companion, or infalling material. Such instability means the mass accretion rate can change dramatically. The increased pace disrupts the delicate balance between the stellar magnetic field and the inner edge of the disk, leading to material moving closer in and eventually touching the star’s surface.
This is an artist’s concept of the early stages of the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) outburst, surrounded by a disk of material. A team of astronomers has used the Hubble Space Telescope’s ultraviolet capabilities to learn more about the interaction between FU Ori’s stellar surface and the accretion disk that has been dumping gas onto the growing star for nearly 90 years. They found that the inner disk, touching the star, is much hotter than expected—16,000 kelvins—nearly three times our Sun’s surface temperature. That sizzling temperature is nearly twice as hot as previously believed. NASA-JPL, Caltech
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The enhanced infall rate and proximity of the accretion disk to the star make FU Ori objects much brighter than a typical T Tauri star. In fact, during an outburst, the star itself is outshined by the disk. Furthermore, the disk material is orbiting rapidly as it approaches the star, much faster than the rotation rate of the stellar surface. This means that there should be a region where the disk impacts the star and the material slows down and heats up significantly.
“The Hubble data indicates a much hotter impact region than models have previously predicted,” said Adolfo Carvalho of Caltech and lead author of the study. “In FU Ori, the temperature is 16,000 kelvins [nearly three times our Sun’s surface temperature]. That sizzling temperature is almost twice the amount prior models have calculated. It challenges and encourages us to think of how such a jump in temperature can be explained.”
To address the significant difference in temperature between past models and the recent Hubble observations, the team offers a revised interpretation of the geometry within FU Ori’s inner region: The accretion disk’s material approaches the star and once it reaches the stellar surface, a hot shock is produced, which emits a lot of ultraviolet light.
Planet Survival Around FU Ori
Understanding the mechanisms of FU Ori’s rapid accretion process relates more broadly to ideas of planet formation and survival.
“Our revised model based on the Hubble data is not strictly bad news for planet evolution, it’s sort of a mixed bag,” explained Carvalho. “If the planet is far out in the disk as it’s forming, outbursts from an FU Ori object should influence what kind of chemicals the planet will ultimately inherit. But if a forming planet is very close to the star, then it’s a slightly different story. Within a couple outbursts, any planets that are forming very close to the star can rapidly move inward and eventually merge with it. You could lose, or at least completely fry, rocky planets forming close to such a star.”
Additional work with the Hubble UV observations is in progress. The team is carefully analyzing the various spectral emission lines from multiple elements present in the COS spectrum. This should provide further clues on FU Ori’s environment, such as the kinematics of inflowing and outflowing gas within the inner region.
“A lot of these young stars are spectroscopically very rich at far ultraviolet wavelengths,” reflected Hillenbrand. “A combination of Hubble, its size and wavelength coverage, as well as FU Ori’s fortunate circumstances, let us see further down into the engine of this fascinating star-type than ever before.”
These findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The observations were taken as part of General Observer program 17176.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Abigail Major, Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Stars Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Exploring the Birth of Stars
Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge
Hubble Focus: The Lives of Stars
This e-book highlights the mission’s recent discoveries and observations related to the birth, evolution, and death of stars.
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By NASA
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The guitar shape in the “Guitar Nebula” comes from bubbles blown by particles ejected from the pulsar through a steady wind as it moves through space. A movie of Chandra (red) data taken in 2000, 2006, 2012, and 2021 has been combined with a single image in optical light from Palomar. X-rays from Chandra show a filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles, about two light-years long, blasting away from the pulsar (seen as the bright white dot). The movie shows how this filament has changed over two decades. X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./M. de Vries et al.; Optical full field: Palomar Obs./Caltech & inset: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare) Normally found only in heavy metal bands or certain post-apocalyptic films, a “flame-throwing guitar” has now been spotted moving through space. Astronomers have captured movies of this extreme cosmic object using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope.
The new movie of Chandra (red) and Palomar (blue) data helps break down what is playing out in the Guitar Nebula. X-rays from Chandra show a filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles, about two light-years or 12 trillion miles long, blasting away from the pulsar (seen as the bright white dot connected to the filament).
Astronomers have nicknamed the structure connected to the pulsar PSR B2224+65 as the “Guitar Nebula” because of its distinct resemblance to the instrument in glowing hydrogen light. The guitar shape comes from bubbles blown by particles ejected from the pulsar through a steady wind. Because the pulsar is moving from the lower right to the upper left, most of the bubbles were created in the past as the pulsar moved through a medium with variations in density.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./M. de Vries et al.; Optical: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI and (Palomar) Hale Telescope/Palomar/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare At the tip of the guitar is the pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star left behind after the collapse of a massive star. As it hurtles through space it is pumping out a flame-like filament of particles and X-ray light that astronomers have captured with Chandra.
How does space produce something so bizarre? The combination of two extremes — fast rotation and high magnetic fields of pulsars — leads to particle acceleration and high-energy radiation that creates matter and antimatter particles, as electron and positron pairs. In this situation, the usual process of converting mass into energy, famously determined by Albert Einstein’s E = mc2 equation, is reversed. Here, energy is being converted into mass to produce the particles.
Particles spiraling along magnetic field lines around the pulsar create the X-rays that Chandra detects. As the pulsar and its surrounding nebula of energetic particles have flown through space, they have collided with denser regions of gas. This allows the most energetic particles to escape the confines of the Guitar Nebula and fly to the right of the pulsar, creating the filament of X-rays. When those particles escape, they spiral around and flow along magnetic field lines in the interstellar medium, that is, the space in between stars.
The new movie shows the pulsar and the filament flying towards the upper left of the image through Chandra data taken in 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2021. The movie has the same optical image in each frame, so it does not show changes in parts of the “guitar.” A separate movie obtained with data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (obtained in 1994, 2001, 2006, and 2021) shows the motion of the pulsar and the smaller structures around it.
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Hubble Space Telescope data: 1994, 2001, 2006, and 2021.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./M. de Vries et al.; Optical full field: Palomar Obs./Caltech & inset: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare) A study of this data has concluded that the variations that drive the formation of bubbles in the hydrogen nebula, which forms the outline of the guitar, also control changes in how many particles escape to the right of the pulsar, causing subtle brightening and fading of the X-ray filament, like a cosmic blow torch shooting from the tip of the guitar.
The structure of the filament teaches astronomers about how electrons and positrons travel through the interstellar medium. It also provides an example of how this process is injecting electrons and positrons into the interstellar medium.
A paper describing these results was published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available here.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description:
This release features two short videos and a labeled composite image, all featuring what can be described as a giant flame-throwing guitar floating in space.
In both the six second multiwavelength Guitar Nebula timelapse video and the composite image, the guitar shape appears at our lower left, with the neck of the instrument pointing toward our upper left. The guitar shape is ghostly and translucent, resembling a wispy cloud on a dark night. At the end of the neck, the guitar’s headstock comes to a sharp point that lands on a bright white dot. This dot is a pulsar, and the guitar shape is a hydrogen nebula. The nebula was formed when particles being ejected by the pulsar produced a cloud of bubbles. The bubbles were then blown into a curvy guitar shape by a steady wind. The guitar shape is undeniable, and is traced by a thin white line in the labeled composite image.
The pulsar, known as PSR B2224+65, has also released a long filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles approximately 12 trillion miles long. In both the composite image and the six second video, this energetic, X-ray blast shoots from the bright white dot at the tip of the guitar’s headstock, all the way out to our upper righthand corner. In the still image, the blast resembles a streak of red dots, most of which fall in a straight, densely packed line. The six second video features four separate images of the phenomenon, created with Chandra data gathered in 2000, 2006, 2012, and 2021. When shown in sequence, the density of the X-ray blast filament appears to fluctuate.
A 12 second video is also included in this release. It features four images that focus on the headstock of the guitar shape. These images were captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994, 2001, 2006, and 2021. When played in sequence, the images show the headstock shape expanding. A study of this data has concluded that the variations that drive the formation of bubbles in the hydrogen nebula also control changes in the pulsar’s blast filament. Meaning the same phenomenon that created the cosmic guitar also created the cosmic blowtorch shooting from the headstock.
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By NASA
Earth (ESD) Earth Home Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers 14 Min Read NASA’s Brad Doorn Brings Farm Belt Wisdom to Space-Age Agriculture
This image shows corn cultivation patterns across the U.S. Midwest in 2020, with lands planted in corn marked in yellow. Credits:
NASA Earth Observatory/ Lauren Dauphin Bradley Doorn grew up in his family’s trucking business, which hauled milk and animal feed across the sprawling plains of South Dakota. Home was Mitchell, a small town famous for its Corn Palace, where murals crafted from corn kernels and husks have adorned its facade since 1892—a tribute to the abundance of the surrounding farmland.
Trucking was often grueling work for the family, the day breaking early and ending in headlights. Like farming, driving a truck wasn’t just a job; it was the engine of daily life, thrumming through nearly every conversation and decision.
Brad loved the outdoors, and by the time he started college in the early 1980s, studying geological engineering felt like a natural fit. “I wanted to be out in the field somewhere, working under the big skies of the West,” Brad recalled. But in his sophomore year at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the tuition money dried up.
Dean Doorn, Brad Doorn’s father, stands beside a milk truck used in the family’s business of hauling milk across South Dakota in the 1960s and ’70s. Credit: B. Doorn Doorn found himself at a crossroads familiar to many in rural America: return to the certainty of a family trade or chart a new route. “That’s when the Army stepped in,” he said. The ROTC program offered a way to continue with school and a path into the world of remote sensing—a field that would come to define his career.
Brad’s choice to join the Army would eventually place him at the forefront of a mapping revolution, equipping him to see and analyze Earth in ways never possible before the advent of satellites. But more than the technical skills, the military showed him the allure of a life anchored to mission and team.
Even as his career took him far from Mitchell, Doorn would remain connected to his rural America roots. Today, he leads NASA’s agriculture programs within the agency’s Earth Science Division. “My family wasn’t made up of farmers, but farming was a part of everything growing up,” said Brad. “Even now, working with NASA, that connection to the land—the sense of how weather, crops, and people are tied together—it’s still in everything I do.”
Amid the dazzle of NASA’s feats exploring the solar system and universe, it’s easy to miss the agency’s quiet work in fields of soy and wheat. But for more than 60 years, the agency has harnessed the power of its satellites to deliver crucial data on temperature, precipitation, crop yields, and more to farmers, policymakers, and food security experts worldwide.
The Landsat 9 satellite captured this false-color image of Louisiana rice fields in February 2023. Dark blue shows flooded areas, while green indicates vegetation. Grid-like levees separate fields pre-planting. Louisiana is the third largest producer of rice in the U.S. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/ Lauren Dauphin From orbit, satellites beam down streams of data—numbers and pixels that, when paired with farmers’ knowledge of the land, can guide growers as they adjust irrigation levels or plan for the next planting. But the satellites don’t just yield data; they tell stories that call for action, enabling nations to brace for droughts, floods, and the prospect of empty grain silos.
“Under Brad’s guidance, NASA’s agriculture program has become a global leader for satellite-driven solutions, tackling food security and sustainability head-on,” said Lawrence Friedl, the senior engagement officer for NASA Earth Science. Reflecting on years of collaboration, he added: “I am so impressed and grateful for what he and his teams have accomplished.”
Boots Meet Satellites in the First Gulf War
Long before Brad began guiding NASA’s agricultural initiatives, he was already navigating tricky terrain, both literal and figurative, with satellite imagery. His career in remote sensing didn’t start with crops, but with the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait.
As part of the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps, Brad led a company at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina that had just returned from operations in the First Gulf War, in the early 1990s. “I loved being part of a unit, part of something bigger than just me,” Brad recalled. “It felt good to have that purpose and mission.”
Far from the combat zone, Doorn’s company became cartographers of the invisible. Their task: merge data from the Landsat satellite with the gritty reality of desert warfare depicted on military maps.
Brad Doorn, then a U.S. Army officer, sits at his desk during his early career in remote sensing. His military experience would later shape his work at NASA, applying satellite technology to real-world challenges. Credit: B. Doorn Landsat, a civilian satellite built by NASA and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, could see what the soldiers on the ground could not. Its thermal infrared sensor—a camera with a penchant for temperature and moisture—read the desert floor like an ancient script, picking out the cold, soggy signature of mud lurking beneath the desert’s deceptive crust. Each pixel of satellite data became a brushstroke in a new kind of map, keeping tanks out of the mire and the missions on track.
“It was so neat to see the remote sensing techniques I’d learned about in school actually making a difference,” Doorn said.
With this knowledge, he helped guide his unit’s shift from analog maps—paper grids and grease pencils—to the emerging world of digital mapping, a leap that sharpened the military’s ability to read the landscape and steer clear of trouble.
From Desert Muck to Farm Fields
Brad’s military experience gave him an early look at how satellite data could address tangible, on-the-ground challenges. In the Army, he saw how integrating satellite data into military maps could offer soldiers critical information. That experience set the foundation for his later work at NASA, where he would help develop technology with lasting, practical impacts.
Consider OpenET, a NASA-funded initiative that uses Landsat data to give farmers insights into water use and irrigation needs at field scale. The ET in OpenET stands not for the little alien who phoned home, but for evapotranspiration. It’s a combination of water evaporating from the ground and water released by plants into the air.
The program relies on the same thermal technology Doorn used during the Gulf War. Just as cooler, wetter areas in the desert hint at muddy spots, cooler patches in farm fields show where there’s more moisture or plants are releasing more water. These data are key to managing water resources wisely and keeping crops healthy.
“OpenET has transformed our understanding of water demand,” explained Doorn.
To better manage water, state officials and farmers in California are using satellite data through OpenET to track evapotranspiration. Here, the colors represent total evapotranspiration for 2023 as the equivalent depth of water in millimeters. Dark blue regions have higher evapotranspiration rates, such as in the Central Valley. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory using openetdata.org In the late 2000s, when a new generation of Landsat satellites was being planned, the thermal infrared imagers were initially left off the drawing board. “Landsat 8’s design caused a lot of consternation in some Western states that were beginning to use the instrument for measuring and monitoring water use,” said Tony Willardson, the executive director of the Western States Water Council, a government entity that advises western governors on water policy.
Brad played a key role in conveying to NASA the critical need for this technology, both for agriculture and water management, Willardson said. The thermal imager was eventually reinstated and has since “helped to close a gap in western water management.”
“A lot of the technologies that we are using more and more were developed by NASA,” said Willardson. “We need NASA to be doing even more in Earth science.”
Sowing Global Food Stability from Space
Brad ended up serving in the Army for nearly a decade. “You hit that 10-year mark in the military, and you sort of have to decide if you’re staying in for 20 or if you’re getting out,” said Brad. “My wife, Kristen, was able to manage her career as a registered dietician through the first four moves in six years, but eventually it was too much. So, I told her: ‘Your choice. You decide where we go next.’”
She chose southern Pennsylvania to be closer to her family. Brad was 32 years old, and the couple had two small children at the time—one of whom had had open-heart surgery at 6 weeks old to fix a heart defect. They would go on to have another child.
In the late 1990s, within a few years of leaving the military, Doorn found himself someplace he had never imagined: sitting behind a desk at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For a boy who had grown up driving trucks across the plains of South Dakota—who had vowed never to work in an office, much less live east of the Mississippi—this was an unexpected detour. But he had long since learned that the best paths are often the ones you don’t see coming.
At USDA, he moved forward not with a grand plan, but with an instinctive trust in where curiosity and challenge might lead. He rose through the ranks, from a programmer to directing the agency’s international food production analysis program. He was increasingly driven by a conviction that satellite data, if used the right way, could transform how we see the land and the way we feed the world.
While at USDA, and later at NASA, which he joined in 2009, Brad was instrumental in developing and overseeing the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GLAM) system. This real-time interactive satellite platform delivers massive amounts of ready-to-use satellite data directly to USDA crop analysts, eliminating the burden of data processing and enabling them to focus on rapid crop analysis across the globe. It was a pioneering tool, said Inbal Becker-Reshef, a research professor at University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences, who played a central role in developing the GLAM system.
At a 2022 Kansas gathering, Brad Doorn presents to farmers about NASA’s Earth Science Division and its activities supporting agriculture. Credit: A. Whitcraft GLAM set the stage for GEOGLAM, a separate, international initiative launched in 2011 by agriculture ministers from the G20—a group of the world’s major economies—partly as a response to global food price volatility. GEOGLAM, which stands for Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring, uses satellite data to monitor global crop conditions, from drought stress to excessive rain, around the world.
Joseph Glauber, a former USDA chief economist, noted that there was initial uncertainty within USDA about the initiative’s longevity, but he credited Brad’s background with rallying support. Today, GEOGLAM’s monthly crop assessments, produced by over 40 organizations including USDA and NASA, serve as a global consensus on crop conditions, helping governments and humanitarian organizations anticipate food shortages.
“Even today, the G20 points to GEOGLAM and its sister initiative, the Agricultural Market Information System—which tracks how crop conditions affect markets—as major successes,” Glauber said.
Harvesting Data Amid Conflict
Doorn’s work crosses continents. When war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, it rattled global food markets. The Ukrainian government turned to NASA Harvest—a global food security and agriculture consortium led by the University of Maryland and funded by NASA—for help. As manager of NASA’s agriculture program, Brad was a driving force behind the launch of NASA Harvest in 2017, envisioning it as a program that would harness satellite data to provide timely, actionable insights for global agriculture.
From orbit, satellites could observe the sown and the harvested wheat, sunflowers, and barley, offering some of the only reliable estimates for fields in the war zone. Satellite imagery revealed that, despite the conflict, more cropland had been planted and harvested in Ukraine than anyone had expected, a finding that helped stabilize volatile global food prices.
“Brad and the team recognized that providing that type of rapid agricultural assessment for policy support is what NASA Harvest exists for,” said Becker-Reshef, who is the director of the consortium.
NASA Harvest’s reach stretches well beyond Europe. In sub-Saharan Africa, the consortium collaborates with local and international partners, tracking the health of crops and the creeping spread of drought. This information helps equip governments, aid organizations, and farmers to act before disaster strikes, making each data point a crucial defense against hunger.
NASA Harvest has since been joined by NASA Acres, founded in 2023 to provide satellite data and tools that help farmers make well-informed decisions for healthier crops and soil in the United States. One project, for example, involves working with farmers in Illinois to manage nitrogen use more effectively, leveraging satellite data to enhance crop yields while reducing environmental impact.
This image shows corn cultivation patterns across the U.S. Midwest in 2020, with lands planted in corn marked in yellow. The map was built from the Cropland Data Layer product provided by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which includes data from the USGS National Land Cover Database and from satellites such as Landsat 8. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/ Lauren Dauphin Friedl noted that Doorn understands the missions of both NASA and the USDA, and with his agricultural roots, he knows the needs of farmers and agricultural businesses firsthand. “Often in meetings, Brad would remind us that the margins for a farmer are in the pennies,” Friedl said. “They wouldn’t be able to afford remote sensing,” so making sure NASA’s satellite information was free and accessible was that much more important.
“It’s hard to imagine that NASA would have the agriculture program it does without somebody like Brad continuing to advocate and push for this to exist,” said Alyssa Whitcraft, the director of NASA Acres. “He knows how critical it is for satellite data to be accessible and useful to those on the ground. He makes sure we never lose sight of that.”
An Emissary Between Worlds
Colleagues say Doorn’s strength lies in his ability to bridge worlds, whether it’s making connections between agencies like NASA and USDA, or connecting such agencies to state water councils or farming communities. His fluency in translating complex science into simple terms makes him equally at ease in whichever world he finds himself.
“There’s NASA language and there’s farm language,” says Lance Lillibridge, who farms about 1,400 acres of corn and soybeans in Benton County, Iowa, and has helped lead the Iowa Corn Growers Association. “Sometimes you need an interpreter, and Brad’s that guy.” He recalled a meeting where some farmers were skeptical, wary of NASA’s “big brother” eyes in the sky, “but Brad had a way of putting people at ease, keeping everyone focused on the shared goal of better data for better decisions.”
Brad Doorn speaks during NASA’s “Space for Ag” roadshow in Iowa, July 2023, highlighting NASA’s role in supporting sustainable farming practices. Credit: N. Pepper “One of my favorite memories of Brad,” said Forrest Melton, the OpenET project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, “is an afternoon spent visiting with farmers in western Nebraska, drinking iced tea and talking with them about the challenges facing their family farm.”
Colleagues describe Brad as a nearly unflappable guide, one who knows the agricultural landscape so well that he makes the impossible seem manageable. They say his calm, approachable style, paired with a ready smile, puts people at ease whether in Washington conference rooms or Midwestern barns. And he listens closely to understand where there may be opportunities to help.
“Few people in the water and agriculture communities, from the small-scale farmer to the federal government appointee, aren’t familiar with some aspect of the work Brad has enabled over the decades,” said Sarah Brennan, a former deputy program manager for NASA’s water resources programs. “He has supported the development of some of the greatest advancements in using remote sensing in these communities.”
It’s About the People and the Team
Doorn’s leadership is less about issuing directives, colleagues say, and more about cultivating growth—in crops, in data systems, and in people. Like a farmer tending to his fields, he nurtures the potential in every project and person he encounters. “Almost everyone who has worked for Brad can point back to the opportunities he provided them that launched their successful careers,” said Brennan.
Over the years, he’s added layers to this work of creating paths for others to succeed: as president of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, as an adjunct professor at Penn State, and as a youth basketball league director.
“What I’ve learned, probably in the military and I’ve carried it forward, is that it’s the people that matter,” Brad said. “I had great mentors who believed it’s just as important to help others grow as it is to meet the day’s demands. Those roles shift your focus toward the people around you, and often, the more you give of your time, the more you end up getting back.”
Young Brad Doorn (front center) stands with his siblings, capturing a family moment in 1960s South Dakota. His youngest brother isn’t pictured. Credit: B. Doorn It has been a long journey from hauling milk and animal feed across the South Dakota plains to surveying them now as a scientist. The tools of his career have changed—from truck routes to satellite orbits, from paper maps to digital data—but his mission remains the same: helping farmers feed the world.
“Growing up in South Dakota, I saw firsthand the challenges farmers face. Today, I’m proud to help provide the tools and data that can make a real difference in their lives,” Doorn added. “Whether it’s a farmer, an economist, or a military analyst, if you give them the right tools, they’ll take them to places you never even thought about. That’s what excites me—seeing where they go.”
By Emily DeMarco
NASA’s Earth Science Division, Headquarters
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By NASA
Following eight months of intense research, design, and prototyping, six university teams presented their “Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations” concepts to a panel of judges at NASA’s 2024 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge forum.
The challenge, funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Office of STEM Engagement, seeks novel ideas from higher education on a new topic each year and supports the agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative in developing new approaches and innovative technologies to pave the way for successful exploration on the surface of the Moon. This year, teams were asked to develop low Size, Weight, and Power inflatable technologies, structures and systems that could benefit future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Taking top honors at this year’s forum receiving the Artemis Award was Northwestern University with National Aerospace Corporation & IMS Engineered Products, with their concept titled METALS: Metallic Expandable Technology for Artemis Lunar Structures. The Artemis Award is given to the team whose concept has the best potential to contribute to and be integrated into an Artemis mission.
The Northwestern University BIG Idea Challenge team developed METALS, an inflatable metal concept for long-term storage of cryogenic fluid on the Moon. The concept earned the Artemis Award, top honors in NASA’s 2024 BIG Idea Challenge.Credit: National Institute of Aerospace The Artemis Award is a generous recognition of the potential impact that our work can have. We hope it can be a critical part of the Artemis Program moving forward. We’re exceptionally grateful to have the opportunity to engage directly with NASA in research for the Artemis Program in such a direct way while we’re still students.”
Julian Rocher
Team co-lead for Northwestern University
METALS is an inflatable system for long term cryogenic fluid storage on the Moon. Stacked layers of sheet metal are welded along their aligned edges, stacked inside a rocket, and inflated once on the lunar surface. The manufacturing process is scalable, reliable, and simple. Notably, METALS boasts superior performance in the harsh lunar environment, including resistance against radiation, abrasion, micrometeorites, gas permeability, and temperature extremes.
Northwestern University team members pose with lunar inflatable prototypes from their METALS project in NASA’s 2024 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: Northwestern University We learned to ask the right questions, and we learned to question what is the status quo and to go above and beyond and think outside the box. It’s a special mindset for everyone to have on this team… it’s what forces us to innovate.”
Trevor Abbott
Team co-lead for Northwestern University
Arizona State University took home the 2024 BIG Idea Challenge Systems Engineering prize for their project, AEGIS: Inflatable Lunar Landing Pad System. The AEGIS system is designed to deflect the exhaust gasses of lunar landers thereby reducing regolith disturbances generated during landing. The system is deployed on the lunar surface where it uses 6 anchors in its base to secure itself to the ground. Once inflated to its deployed size of 14 m in diameter, AEGIS provides a reusable precision landing zone for incoming landers.
Arizona State University earned the Systems Engineering prize for their BIG Idea Challenge project: AEGIS: Inflatable Lunar Landing Pad System. Arizona State University
This year’s forum was held in tandem with the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium’s (LSIC) Fall Meeting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where students had the opportunity to network with NASA and industry experts, attend LSIC panels and presentations, and participate in the technical poster session. The consortium provides a forum for NASA to communicate technological requirements, needs, and opportunities, and for the community to share with NASA existing capabilities and critical gaps.
We felt that hosting this year’s BIG Idea Forum in conjunction with the LSIC Fall Meeting would be an exciting opportunity for these incredibly talented students to network with today’s aerospace leaders in government, industry, and academia. Their innovative thinking and novel contributions are critical skills required for the successful development of the technologies that will drive exploration on the Moon and beyond.”
Niki Werkheiser
Director of Technology Maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate
In February, teams submitted proposal packages, from which six finalists were selected for funding of up to $150,000 depending on each team’s prototype and budget. The finalists then worked for eight months designing, developing, and demonstrating their concepts. The 2024 BIG Idea program concluded at its annual forum, where teams presented their results and answered questions from judges. Experts from NASA, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and other aerospace companies evaluated the student concepts based on technical innovation, credibility, management, and the teams’ verification testing. In addition to the presentation, the teams provided a technical paper and poster detailing their proposed inflatable system for lunar operations.
Year after year, BIG Idea student teams spend countless hours working on tough engineering design challenges. Their dedication and ‘game-changing’ ideas never cease to amaze me. They all have bright futures ahead of them.”
David Moore
Program Director for NASA’s Game Changing Development program
Second-year mechanical engineering student Connor Owens, left, and electrical engineering graduate student Sarwan Shah run through how they’ll test the sheath-and-auger anchor for the axial vertical pull test of the base anchor in a former shower room in Sun Devil Hall. Image credit: Charlie Leight/ASU News The University of Maryland BIG Idea Challenge team’s Auxiliary Inflatable Wheels for Lunar Rover project in a testing environment University of Maryland Students from University of Michigan and a component of their Cargo-BEEP (Cargo Balancing Expandable Exploration Platform) projectUniversity of Michigan Northwestern University welders prepare to work on their 2024 BIG Idea Challenge prototype, a metal inflatable designed for deployment on the Moon.Northwestern University Brigham Young University’s Untethered and Modular Inflatable Robots for Lunar Operations projectBrigham Young University California Institute of Technology’s PILLARS: Plume-deployed Inflatable for Launch and Landing Abrasive Regolith Shielding projectCalifornia Institute of Technology The Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations theme allowed teams to submit various technology concepts such as soft robotics, deployable infrastructure components, emergency shelters or other devices for extended extravehicular activities, pressurized tunnels and airlocks, and debris shields and dust protection systems. National Institute of Aerospace NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate sponsors the BIG Idea Challenge through a collaboration between its Game Changing Development program and the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement. It is managed by a partnership between the National Institute of Aerospace and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Team presentations, technical papers, and digital posters are available on the BIG Idea website.
For full competition details, visit: https://bigidea.nianet.org/2024-challenge
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