NASA Now: Space Science: Voyager's Grand Tour of the Solar System

NASA NowRebecca Wood from Lebanon Middle School in Lebanon, Kentucky introduces this NASA Now program.

Planetary scientist Lou Mayo discusses what we’re learning from the Voyager missions, where the two spacecraft are currently located and some of the incredible discoveries made on the long journey to the edge of our solar system.

This NASA Now classroom video is available on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus beginning May 1, 2013.


NASA Now Minute

NASA Mission Suggests Sun and Planets Formed Differently

Artist rendition of GENESIS satellite in orbit around Earth.Analysis from NASA’s Genesis mission indicates our sun and its inner planets may have formed differently than previously believed.

Slight differences exist in the types of oxygen and nitrogen present on the sun and planets. Although the differences are slight, they could help determine how our solar system evolved.

“The implication is that we did not form out of the same solar nebula materials that created the sun — just how and why remains to be discovered,” said Kevin McKeegan, a Genesis co-investigator from the University of California, Los Angeles and the lead author of one of two science papers published recently.

For current updates, go to the GENESIS mission website when you’re teaching either of the NES lessons Chemical Elements: GENESIS — What Are We Made Of? (Grades 5-8) or Graph Analysis: GENESIS — Exploring Data (Grades 10-12).

NASA Now: Solar Storms

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Dr. Holly Gilbert discusses what a solar storm is and how it occurs. She explains how solar storms affect objects that aren’t protected by our atmosphere such as astronauts on the International Space Station.


Every day our Earth experiences storms of all kinds including thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes. One type of storm we often don’t realize we are experiencing is a solar storm. Thanks to our protective atmosphere and magnetic field called the magnetosphere, we’re safe from the dangers of solar storms.

NASA Now Minute: Solar Storms