Could Jupiter's moon support life in its salty seas?

At NASA, defending the planet from space rocks is serious business.

As the Moon's shadow fell across the U.S., NASA sent us into the field.

For the first time, a NASA spacecraft is flying through the Sun's atmosphere.

Close up, our star is a wild, stormy place.

It's almost time for a once-in-a-lifetime show.

You can help NASA solve our star's enduring mysteries.

When the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, the world looks up in awe.

A journey from the surface of the Earth into our Sun's core.

This year, get to know your friendly neighborhood star.

In this special episode, we turn the tables and put host Padi Boyd in the interview seat. Padi shares stories from her time with NASA’s groundbreaking Kepler mission, which showed us many more exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—than we had previously discovered. She also tells us about her dream astronomical dinner companion and her go-to karaoke song. Plus, we'll wrap up another season of wild and wonderful adventures by answering questions from listeners like you and sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits from Season 6 episodes. For the first time, this episode of Curious Universe is also available as a video podcast. Check it out at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse and NASA’s YouTube channel: youtu.be/h0wLZJeYGxw

To prepare for the day when humans travel to Mars, NASA is conducting a one-year experiment in a Mars simulation environment. So what’s it like to spend a year in CHAPEA, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog? In this season finale episode, travel through the airlock with voice recordings made by the four-person crew, including what it feels like—and smells like—inside their realistic 3-D printed habitat and how virtual reality gives them the sensation of walking on the Red Planet. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

The James Webb Space Telescope promised to show us “baby pictures” of the universe. Now in its second year of science, Webb is fulfilling that promise—and more. NASA scientists Jane Rigby, Taylor Hutchison, and Gerónimo Villanueva explain how they use Webb to peer back to the earliest stages of the universe and examine stunning plumes of water in our own solar system. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

On September 24, 2023, a capsule from space parachuted down into the Utah desert. Tucked inside it were 4.5-billion-year-old bits of rock and dust from a faraway asteroid named Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. These pristine space rocks, which contain carbon and other building blocks of life, could rewrite scientists’ understanding of our solar system. In this episode, sit in mission control and ride aboard helicopters with asteroid mission leaders like Dante Lauretta and Mike Moreau for a behind-the-scenes look at the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission’s epic conclusion. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

What do air pollution, thunder clouds and climate change have in common? Aerosols! These tiny particles, generated by everything from desert dust storms to car exhaust, play a huge role in our atmosphere, affecting our health when we breathe them in and even changing the weather. Globally, they play an even bigger role, changing how much sunlight gets through to Earth’s surface and heating or cooling our entire planet. Through new satellite missions, NASA atmospheric scientists like Kirk Knobelspiesse and public health experts like Susan Anenberg are working together to untangle aerosol mysteries. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

Anyone can participate in the process of NASA science and engineering through what we call citizen science, regardless of your citizenship. You might have heard it called “participatory science” or “community science.” It all means that thousands of people around the world are helping the professionals make discoveries about our planet, our solar system, and our universe at large, through these projects. Meet three volunteers whose perspectives have changed by participating in citizen science. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

What does space sound like? It’s a question that has fascinated composers and scientists alike throughout history. Through a process called data sonification, heliophysicists are using NASA satellites like audio recorders to listen to the electromagnetic symphony our Sun plays, and making new discoveries along the way. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

Normal matter—the kind that makes up our home planet and everything we can see—adds up to just five percent of the known universe. The other 95 percent is dark matter and dark energy, a tag team that ranks among the biggest mysteries in all of science. NASA astrophysicists Jason Rhodes and Ami Choi explain how we study this dark side and why it’s making scientists reconsider what we think we know about the universe. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

In season six, meet researchers who are using sounds from the Sun to unlock new details about our star, explore the “dark side” of the universe with scientists who study dark matter and dark energy, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the first NASA mission to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth. A new episode drops every Tuesday. NASA's Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

In this special season five finale episode, join NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, self-proclaimed “rock nerd” on a journey to the stars.

Spacesuits are more than just garments – in the airless vacuum of space or on the freezing surface of the moon, they keep astronauts alive. Explore how NASA engineers like Amy Ross and Paromita Mitra have contributed to the development of the next generation of spacesuits.

Tropical rainforests, snowy mountain peaks, even the Australian outback – NASA experts travel to a wide range of environments right here on Earth to better understand our universe. Miles Hatfield, NASA heliophysics science writer, recaps a recent reporting trip to cover a sounding rocket launch in Australia’s remote Northern Territories.

Spacecraft go through a lot - exploring dangerous worlds across the cold expanse of space. Not to mention the chaos of a launch! So how do we build a mission that can take on dangerous environments and the harrowing trip to reach them? Explore the world of mission-building with scientists from Venus’ DAVINCI mission.

The night sky isn’t just for experts, it belongs to all of us! And we here at NASA love to encourage people to go out and take a look. Amateur astronomer Kevin Hartnett, Hubble Social Media Lead Elizabeth Tammi, and the Astronomical Society of Greenbelt take us on a tour of the stars and share how you can join from your own backyard.

Wherever you live on Earth, wildfires touch your life. Explore how NASA scientist Doug Morton and Canadian firefighter-turned-researcher Josh Johnston use satellites to track the changing landscape of wildfires from space.