NASA in Silicon Valley Live – Is There Life on Mars?

Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden). Through a small telescope, this galaxy appears extremely faint, giving it the nickname ‘Lost Galaxy’. With a mirror spanning nearly eight feet (2.4 meters) across and its location above Earth’s light-obscuring atmosphere, Hubble can easily observe dim galaxies like NGC 4535 and pick out features like its massive spiral arms and central bar of stars. This image features NGC 4535’s young star clusters, which dot the galaxy’s spiral arms. Glowing-pink clouds surround many…

One of the biggest goals for companies in the field of artificial intelligence is developing “agentic” or autonomous systems. These metaphorical agents can perform tasks without a guiding human hand. This parallels the goals of the emerging urban air mobility industry, which hopes to bring autonomous flying vehicles to cities around the world. One company got a head start on doing both with some help from NASA. Autonomy Association International Inc. (AAI) is a public benefit corporation based in Mountain View, California, near NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In 2022, AAI signed a Space Act Agreement with…

Audio collage begins. LISA LAMB We have kind of a family story that we like to tell… How did… this little education institution, in the – you know – rural, high desert, Southern California get connected with NASA. BOB HAROLDSSON They get the teachers and in schools and stuff plugged in, and they actually operate one of our antennas and gather science. And that’s pretty cool. STEVE LEVIN Students are learning science by doing real science. JENNIFER WEIS I really liked… being able to operate the radio telescope. Usually, you hear scientists with big names doing big things like…