Space

The extended UArizona-led mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, will study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which is expected to have a close encounter with Earth in 2029.

After months of alignment and fine-tuning, the James Webb Space Telescope has produced its first clear image of a star, thanks to the Near Infrared Camera developed and managed by UArizona. NASA is confident that the telescope's optics can achieve the mission's science goals.

Plasma is rare on Earth, but it fills the sky. To more deeply understand this state of matter that makes up 99% of the visible universe, NASA's HelioSwarm mission will deploy a "swarm" of spacecraft to gather data. UArizona assistant professor Kristopher Klein will serve as the mission's deputy principal investigator.

For weeks, UArizona students have been gathering data on a high-profile piece of space junk on a collision course with the moon. They've confirmed it's not a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster as previously believed.

Engineering photos captured by UArizona's Near-Infrared Camera mark an important milestone for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. They confirm that the telescope is functioning and mirror alignment can begin. The public can expect to see the first scientific images from Webb in the summer.

Since the arrival of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope at its orbital destination Jan. 24, the mission operations team has successfully powered on all of the telescope's science instruments, including its primary camera, UArizona's Near Infrared Camera. NIRCam will be used to align the telescope's 18 mirror segments so they work together as one.