With the James Webb Space Telescope, we are seeing the early universe like never before. Webb produces beautiful images and detailed scientific data that leave astronomers in awe. In this episode, Mic Bagley, a NASA scientist on the Webb team, guides us through new discoveries made possible by Webb. Mic tells the story of a remarkable galaxy discovered in the early days of Webb’s science mission and explains why Webb is teaching us “everything” about how galaxies form and evolve. 

In space, microgravity changes the body. Body fluids shift from the legs toward the head, the back of our eyes flatten, we lose muscle strength, our bones lose some of their density, and even the amount of blood pumped by the heart with each beat drops. To learn more about how microgravity affects the human body and develop new ways to help astronauts stay healthy, scientists are asking dozens of volunteers to spend 60 days in bed with their heads tilted down at a specific angle. This research approach tricks the body into reacting very similarly to how it would if a person was aboard the International Space Station for a longer-term mission. Join Andreas Joshi, a volunteer who agreed to be part of this bedrest work, and two NASA scientists leading the study. They’re investigating different ways to combat space-based muscle loss and improve astronauts’ sense of balance by, among other things, teaching volunteers like Joshi to play video games with their feet.  

The James Webb Space Telescope is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades: peering into our universe’s early past, a period known as cosmic dawn. A new NASA documentary—also called Cosmic Dawn—chronicles the inside story of Webb’s design, construction, and launch. John Mather, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, proposed the telescope and led its science team for decades. In this interview, Mather talks about his life, his research, and the pre-dawn phone call telling him he had won the Nobel Prize.

Find more at nasa.gov/cosmicdawn

NASA has a record of Earth observations going back more than 50 years. What might be in store for the next 50 years? In this finale of our Earth series, we hear from two scientists helping to chart the course of NASA Earth science. There are still many unanswered questions about our home planet. As the only planet that we know to have life, studying Earth is also crucial as NASA searches for other habitable worlds.

Take a deep breath, and you’re inhaling oxygen from Earth’s atmosphere. Take a walk outside, and the atmosphere is shielding you from harmful radiation. NASA research provides crucial data to understand air quality and the intricate processes happening in the sky above us. In this episode, hear the inside story of NASA’s research into the ozone layer. Left unchecked, our reliance on ozone-depleting chemicals threatened to expose the entire planet to dangerous UV radiation. We’ll also fly along with Laura Judd, a NASA scientist studying air quality in the U.S. and around the world.

Earth has an incredibly varied and ever-changing landscape—jagged mountains, arid deserts, lush rainforests, rolling wheat fields. Before NASA came on the scene, no one was keeping a systematic eye on the ground from above. NASA scientist Brad Doorn explains how one long-running satellite program collects the data farmers need to grow the crops that feed the world.  

Life all over the planet—even far from the coasts—depends on the oceans. A pair of NASA satellites, PACE and SWOT, is giving us a fresh look at Earth’s water. PACE tracks color changes driven by tiny plankton, which give us a big-picture view of ocean life. By measuring sea level height from space, SWOT shows ocean currents and other features in new detail. NASA scientists Cecile Rousseaux, Kelsey Bisson, and Josh Willis dive into new research with a lot of color and a little bit of rock and roll.

NASA is an exploration agency, and one of our missions is to know our home. In the 1960s, NASA astronauts orbiting the Moon captured a revelatory view of Earth. Today, NASA explores our home planet with a fleet of dozens of spacecraft. In this episode–the first in a miniseries all about Earth–we take in the view from space with Karen St. Germain, the director of NASA’s Earth Science Division.

There’s one planet NASA studies more than any other: Earth. With our unique vantage point from space, NASA collects information about our home in ways nobody else can. In this podcast miniseries, celebrate our home planet by learning how NASA studies Earth—including unique views of ocean color and sea level, land data that help farmers improve crop production, and researching our atmosphere from the air we breathe to layers high above us that protect every living thing on the planet.

NASA has a long history of bringing together science, engineering and art. Space exploration is a human endeavor—one that requires creativity. In this special live episode, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick and comedian and musician Reggie Watts talk flow states, aircraft ejector seats and more. Plus, a new NASA tool that lets you make music from iconic Hubble Space Telescope imagery.