Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA engineer Hanbong Lee demonstrates capabilities to manage busy urban airspace traffic during a recent simulation at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete
NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air taxis and drones can successfully operate within busy areas.
The demonstration, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley earlier this year, focused on a system called the Strategic Deconfliction Simulation, which helps coordinate flight plans before takeoff, reducing the risk of conflicts in busy urban environments
At the event, researchers demonstrated NASA’s Situational Viewer and Demand-Capacity Balancing Monitor, which visualizes air traffic and adjusts flight plans in real time. The simulation demonstrated traffic scenarios involving drone operations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testing how preplanned flights could improve congestion and manage the demand and capacity of the airspace – ensuring that all aircraft can operate smoothly even in crowded conditions.
Working with industry partners is critical to NASA’s efforts to develop and refine technologies needed for future air mobility. During the simulation, the company, ANRA Technologies, demonstrated its fleet and vertiport management systems, which are designed to support the coordination of multiple aircraft and ground operations.
“Simulating these complex environments supports broader efforts to ensure safe integration of drones and other advanced vehicles into the US airspace,” said Hanbong Lee, engineer at NASA Ames. “By showcasing these capabilities, we’re delivering critical data and lessons learned to support efforts at NASA and industry.”
This demonstration is another step toward the NASA team’s plan to hold a technical capability level simulation in 2026. This upcoming simulation would help shape the development of services aimed at managing aircraft flying in urban areas.
The simulation was created through a NASA team from its Air Mobility Pathfinders project, part of the agency’s continuing work to find solutions for safely integrating innovative new aircraft such as air taxis into U.S. cities and the national airspace. By developing advanced evaluations and simulations, the project supports safe, scalable, and publicly trusted air travel in urban areas, paving the way for a future where air taxis and drones are a safe and reliable part of everyday life.
The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, with Expedition 73 NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky aboard, Dec. 9, 2025.
NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, wrapping up an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and future space exploration.
They made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 12:03 a.m. EST (10:03 a.m. local time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after departing the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Dec. 8, aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.
Over the course of 245 days in space, the crew orbited Earth 3,920 times, traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the space station on April 8. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey to space, logging a total of 603 days in space.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim shows off the Matroyshka (stacking) doll he received upon his return to Earth, Dec. 9, 2025. Kim and his crewmates landed safely aboard their Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
NASA
While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Kim contributed to a wide range of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations. He studied the behavior of bioprinted tissues containing blood vessels in microgravity for an experiment helping advance space-based tissue production to treat patients on Earth. He also evaluated the remote command of multiple robots in space for the Surface Avatar study, which could support the development of robotic assistants for future exploration missions. Additionally, Kim worked on developing in-space manufacturing of DNA-mimicking nanomaterials, which could improve drug delivery technologies and support emerging therapeutics and regenerative medicine.
Following post-landing medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Kim will then board a NASA aircraft bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs that are not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies concentrate on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing its resources on deep space missions to the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign in preparation for future human missions to Mars.
Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:
Michelle Hoehn is a cost accountant at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, where her work contributes to NASA’s Artemis program that will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Michelle Hoehn vividly remembers the day a seed was planted for her future at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
As a seventh grader, the Bogalusa, Louisiana, native joined her dad for Father/Daughter Day at NASA Stennis. Hoehn knew she wanted to be part of something bigger, something that sparked wonder and purpose, in the moment she visited her dad’s office. She recalled feeling a sense of awe and possibility that day.
It was not until her second year at Southeastern Louisiana University – after the birth of her first child – that she focused on building a career, though. Finance and accounting have always been a part of her life. She filed paperwork at her grandfather’s store and helped her mom during tax season.
“It was clear that this field was the right fit for me,” she said.
Today, Hoehn works as a cost accountant in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at NASA Stennis. She ensures all costs are accurately recorded and reported. Her work supports financial integrity, enabling informed decisions and efficient use of resources.
“It is incredibly rewarding to know that my work helps keep NASA’s operations transparent and efficient because every accurate number supports the bigger mission of space exploration and discovery,” said Hoehn.
Hoehn’s financial management work supports NASA’s Artemis program that will send astronauts to the Moon to establish a sustainable presence and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
“I’m honored to be a part of NASA’s Artemis effort,” she said. “Knowing that my work helps enable the next chapter of lunar exploration, and ultimately the journey to Mars, is both humbling and deeply motivating.”
One of the most fascinating parts of Hoehn’s work at NASA Stennis is seeing how even the smallest financial details can have a ripple effect on major NASA missions.
Although her work is often behind the scenes, the data she manages helps guide decisions that impact propulsion testing, technology development, and even future space exploration.
“It is incredible to realize that a spreadsheet I work on today could be tied to a rocket engine test of the future,” she said. “That connection between everyday tasks and extraordinary outcomes is something I never take for granted, and it is what makes working at NASA Stennis so rewarding.”
Working as an accountant on large, complex projects – some worth millions of dollars – also comes with challenges.
The projects demand precision, attention to detail, and a deep understanding of evolving financial regulations and systems. To stay ahead, Hoehn keeps an open mind and embraces continuous learning. She is always looking for ways to grow, adapt, and strengthen her role in supporting NASA’s financial integrity and broader mission.
This year marks 15 years as a NASA employee for Hoehn and 21 years of service overall at NASA Stennis, where she began as a contractor in 2004.
“The workforce at NASA Stennis is highly collaborative and mission-driven,” Hoehn said. “Whether you are working in engineering, finance, or support services, there is a collective sense of purpose and pride in contributing to space exploration and scientific discovery. It is an environment where ideas are welcomed, excellence is encouraged, and every individual plays a vital role in the success of NASA’s mission.”
From the time Hoehn walked in her dad’s office as a seventh-grade student, she has experienced firsthand the opportunities NASA Stennis offers.
“NASA Stennis is a place of unlimited potential, not only in its contributions to NASA’s missions, but in the opportunities it offers to current and future employees, customers, and stakeholders,” Hoehn said. “It is where I have been empowered to exceed the goals I once set for myself and continue to grow, both personally and professionally. NASA Stennis is a place where you are encouraged to be part of something greater than yourself.”
A pilot signals to a crew member before takeoff from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Aug. 21, 2025. Accompanying him in the high-flying ER-2 aircraft is one of the most advanced imaging spectrometers in the solar system.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark
Called AVIRIS-5, it’s the latest in a long line of sensors pioneered by NASA JPL to survey Earth, the Moon, and other worlds.
Cradled in the nose of a high-altitude research airplane, a new NASA sensor has taken to the skies to help geoscientists map rocks hosting lithium and other critical minerals on Earth’s surface some 60,000 feet below. In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the flights are part of the largest airborne campaign of its kind in the country’s history.
But that’s just one of many tasks that are on the horizon for AVIRIS-5, short for Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-5, which has a lot in common with sensors used to explore other planets.
NASA’s AVIRIS flies aboard a research plane in this animation, detecting minerals on the ground such as hectorite — a lithium-bearing clay — by the unique patterns of light that they reflect. The different wavelengths, measured in nanometers, look like colorful squiggles in the box on the right. Credit: NASA’s Conceptual Image Lab
About the size of a microwave oven, AVIRIS-5 detects the spectral “fingerprints” of minerals and other compounds in reflected sunlight. Like its cousins flying in space, the sensor takes advantage of the fact that all kinds of molecules, from rare earth elements to flower pigments, have unique chemical structures that absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light.
The technology was pioneered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in the late 1970s. Over the decades, imaging spectrometers have visited every major rocky body in the solar system from Mercury to Pluto. They’ve traced Martian crust in full spectral detail, revealed lakes on Titan, and tracked mineral-rich dust across the Sahara and other deserts. One is en route to Europa, an ocean moon of Jupiter, to search for the chemical ingredients needed to support life.
Image cubes illustrate the volume of data returned by JPL imaging spectrometers. The front panel shows roads and fields around Tulare, California, as seen by AVIRIS-5 during a checkout flight earlier this year. The side panels depict the spectral fingerprint captured for every point in the image.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Another imaging spectrometer, NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, was the first to discover water on the lunar surface in 2009. “That dataset continues to drive our investigations as we look for in situ resources on the Moon” as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA JPL who’s contributed to multiple spectroscopy missions across the solar system.
Prisms, black silicon
While imaging spectrometers vary depending on their mission, they have certain hardware in common — including mirrors, detector arrays, and electron-beam gratings — designed to capture light shimmering off a surface and then separate it into its constituent colors, like a prism.
Light-trapping black silicon is one of the darkest materials ever fabricated. The technology is standard for JPL’s ultraprecise imaging spectrometers.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Many of the best-in-class imaging spectrometers flying today were made possible by components invented at NASA JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory. Instrument-makers there combine breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, and material science with the classical properties of light discovered by physicist Isaac Newton in the 17th century. Newton’s prism experiments revealed that visible light is composed of a rainbow of colors.
Today, NASA JPL engineers work with advanced materials such as black silicon — one of the darkest substances ever manufactured — to push performance. Under a powerful microscope, black silicon looks like a forest of spiky needles. Etched by lasers or chemicals, the nanoscale structures prevent stray light from interfering with the sample by trapping it in their spikes.
Treasure hunting
The optical techniques used at the Microdevices Laboratory have advanced continuously since the first AVIRIS instrument took flight in 1986. Four generations of these sensors have now hit the skies, analyzing erupting volcanoes, diseased crops, ground zero debris in New York City, and wildfires in Alabama, among many other deployments. The latest model, AVIRIS-5, features spatial resolution that’s twice as fine as that of its predecessor and can resolve areas ranging from less than a foot (30 centimeters) to about 30 feet (10 meters).
So far this year, it has logged more than 200 hours of high-altitude flights over Nevada, California, and other Western states as part of a project called GEMx (Geological Earth Mapping Experiment). The flights are conducted using NASA’s ER-2 aircraft, operated out of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The effort is the airborne component of a larger USGS initiative, called Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI), to modernize mapping of the nation’s surface and subsurface.
The NASA and USGS team has, since 2023, gathered data over more than 366,000 square miles (950,000 square kilometers) of the American West, where dry, treeless expanses are well suited to mineral spectroscopy.
An exciting early finding is a lithium-bearing clay called hectorite, identified in the tailings of an abandoned mine in California, among other locations. Lithium is one of about 50 minerals at risk of supply chain disruption that USGS has deemed critical to national security and the economy.
Helping communities capture new value from old and abandoned prospects is one of the long-term aspirations of GEMx, said Dana Chadwick, an Earth system scientist at NASA JPL. So is identifying sources of acid mine drainage, which can occur when waste rocks weather and leach into the environment.
“The breadth of different questions you can take on with this technology is really exciting, from land management to snowpack water resources to wildfire risk,” Chadwick said. “Critical minerals are just the beginning for AVIRIS-5.”
More about GEMx
The GEMx research project is expected to last four years and is funded by the USGS Earth MRI, through investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The initiative will capitalize on both the technology developed by NASA for spectroscopic imaging, as well as the expertise in analyzing the datasets and extracting critical mineral information from them.
This composite image of the Cassiopeia A (or Cas A) supernova remnant, released Jan. 8, 2024, contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), infrared data from Webb (red, green, blue), and optical data from Hubble (red and white). A study by the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft has made the first-ever X-ray detections of chlorine and potassium in the wreckage.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Milisavljevic et al., NASA/JPL/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and K. Arcand
The Cassiopeia A supernova remnant glows in X-ray, visible, and infrared light in this Jan. 8, 2024, image that combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble, Webb, and Spitzer space telescopes. A study by the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft has made the first-ever X-ray detections of chlorine and potassium from the wreckage; a paper about the result was published Dec. 4, 2025, in Nature Astronomy.
By the time the Artemis II Orion spacecraft launches to the Moon next year, its many components will already have traveled thousands of miles and moved across multiple facilities before coming together at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Branelle Rodriguez, Artemis II vehicle manager for the Orion Program, has overseen many parts of that journey. Her job is to ensure the spacecraft is ready for its historic mission – carrying humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Branelle Rodriguez crouches inside an Orion spacecraft training unit aboard the USS San Diego in March 2024. The training unit was used during a full recovery simulation with the Artemis II crew.
Image courtesy of Branelle Rodriguez
Based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Rodriguez has been involved in every stage of the spacecraft’s lifecycle – from development and production through testing and final launch readiness. Her program-level leadership focuses on ensuring the spacecraft’s hardware and subsystems are integrated and flight-ready. Most recently, she collaborated closely with Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy to oversee the spacecraft’s move to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where it was mated with NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. “We are getting our teams trained and ready so that we are GO for the Artemis II mission,” she said.
Her 21-year NASA career spans numerous roles at Johnson. She started in the center’s Engineering Directorate, developing and building life support and habitation hardware for the Space Shuttle Program and the International Space Station Program. She went on to lead teams of engineers and flight controllers tasked with real-time resolution of anomalies aboard the International Space Station before transitioning to the Orion Program in 2022.
“Looking back, every role I’ve held, every team I’ve been a part of, and every milestone we’ve achieved together has been truly remarkable,” she said. “I’m incredibly proud to have played a part in it all.”
Rodriguez has been fascinated by space since she was a little girl. “Growing up in northern Minnesota, I was lucky to experience the beauty of clear, starlit skies on a regular basis,” she recalled. When Rodriguez was a teenager, her family encouraged her to attend Space Academy in Huntsville, Alabama, where she participated in mock astronaut training, flight controller simulations, and hands-on engineering projects. “It was a pivotal experience that only deepened my passion for space exploration.”
Branelle Rodriguez stands in front of the Artemis II Orion spacecraft as it completes processing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Image courtesy of Branelle Rodriguez
Rodriguez applied to NASA’s internship program while studying mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota. She was not accepted, but she did not give up. She spent a semester interning at Dow Chemical to gain more experience while continuing to apply for internships across multiple NASA centers. “On my eighth attempt, I was accepted at Johnson,” she said. Three internships and one graduation later, Rodriguez landed a full-time position in the Engineering Directorate’s Crew and Thermal Systems Division. “It’s been an incredible journey—and a dream realized,” she said.
As a student athlete, Rodriguez knew the importance of teamwork from a young age, but said its value really became clear after joining NASA. “Some goals take time. There will be setbacks and struggles, but when you stick together, you build the kind of trust and relationships that are the foundation for long-term success,” she said. “That’s exactly what NASA represents. We take on some of the most complex and ambitious challenges imaginable—and we do it as a team.”
She added, “Especially now, it’s more important than ever to remember what we’re capable of when we work together, and to celebrate the wins—big or small—because each one brings us closer to the extraordinary.”
Rodriguez also appreciates having a team outside of the office. One of the greatest challenges she has faced is balancing the demands of a fulfilling, high-impact career with the needs of her family. “Like many parents, there are days when everything feels in sync, and days when I know I’ve fallen short,” she said, acknowledging that she must continually adapt to shifting needs and prioritize tasks to remain focused on what matters most at any given moment. “I’m beyond grateful for my family,” she said. “They are my foundation, and they truly understand and support my passion for the work I do. Without their love, and the broader village that helps make it all possible, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Branelle Rodriguez, her husband Scott, and her children Samantha and Brooks in the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center during the Artemis I mission in 2022. The family had an opportunity to ask the Artemis I Orion spacecraft questions via the Callisto technology demonstration carried aboard the 25-day mission.
Image courtesy of Branelle Rodriguez
To her children and future generations, Rodriguez hopes to pass on a desire to keep exploring. “As humans, we are naturally driven to grow, learn, and push beyond our limits,” she said. “Space exploration is still in its early stages when viewed through the lens of history, and the achievements of the next generation will be truly extraordinary. I want them to carry forward the curiosity, courage, and determination needed to reach new frontiers and unlock the unknown.”
Student teams competed in the 2025 Invention Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Dec. 5. The event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to get handmade devices to accomplish a task.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The 2025 Invention Challenge at JPL called on teams to build devices capable of moving about 2 gallons (8 liters) of water from a holding reservoir into a bucket about 16 feet (5 meters) away within 60 seconds.
Teams at JPL’s 2025 Invention Challenge built their devices with plywood, PVC pipe, duct tape, and even soda cans.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now in its 26th year, the event brings teams of middle and high school students to the lab to compete with home-built contraptions.
Teenagers wielding power tools and plywood demonstrated their engineering prowess at the annual Invention Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Friday. Also in evidence: lots of small motors, 3D-printed gears, PVC pipe, and duct tape.
First held at JPL in 1998, the event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to get handmade devices to accomplish a task that changes annually. For this year’s challenge, dubbed the “Bucket Brigade Contest,” teams needed to create devices capable of moving about 2 gallons (8 liters) of water from a holding reservoir into a bucket about 16 feet (5 meters) away in 60 seconds while satisfying a long list of rules.
Arcadia High School’s Team Still Water won first place among student teams in the 2025 Invention Challenge at JPL.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
In all, 18 teams of students from middle and high schools across Los Angeles and Orange counties competed. First place went to Arcadia High School’s Team Still Water, which completed the task in just 6.45 seconds. Mission Viejo High’s Team Senior Citizens was close behind, finishing in 6.71 seconds. The Samo Seals of Santa Monica High came in third, at 9.18 seconds.
Five teams from outside the area — four from schools in Colorado and Massachusetts and one involving professional engineers — were invited to compete as well. Of those, the team led by retired JPL engineer Alan DeVault’s Team “Trial and Error Engineering” came in first (a repeat from last year). And “Team 6” from Pioneer Charter School of Science in the Boston area took second place (also a repeat performance from 2024). No team qualified for third place.
Some of the devices in the 2025 Invention Challenge at NASA JPL made a big splash.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Judges named Team Clankers from Mission Viejo High most artistic, Team 6 from Pioneer Charter School of Science most unusual, and Team Winning Engineering Team (WET) from Temple City High most creative.
The event was supported by dozens of volunteers from JPL staff. JPL Fire Chief Dave Dollarhide, familiar with a bucket brigade, was a guest judge.
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s broadcast of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse has won an Emmy Award for Excellence in Production Technology.
At the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on Dec. 4, in New York City, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the win. Walt Lindblom and Sami Aziz accepted the award on behalf of the agency. For the broadcast, Lindblom served as the coordinating producer and Aziz served as the executive producer.
“By broadcasting the total solar eclipse, this team brought joy and wonder for our Sun, Moon, and Earth to viewers across America and the world,” said Will Boyington, associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Congratulations to the production team, whose efforts demonstrate the hard work and dedication to the sharing the marvel that makes our solar system something we strive to understand.”
NASA’s live broadcast coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse was the most complex live project ever produced by the agency. In total, NASA’s eclipse broadcasts garnered almost 40 million live and replay views across its own distribution channels, including on NASA+, the agency’s free streaming service. Externally, the agency’s main broadcast was picked up in 2,208 hits on 568 channels in 25 countries.
“Our unique place in the solar system allows us on Earth to witness one of the most spectacular science shows nature has to offer. NASA’s production team captured the action every step of the way across the path of totality, including the rare glimpse of the Sun’s corona,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “Congratulations to the NASA team for successfully showing the 2024 total solar eclipse through the eyes of NASA for the whole world to experience together.”
The broadcast spanned three hours, showcasing the eclipse across seven American states and two countries. From cities, parks, and stadiums, 11 hosts and correspondents provided on air commentary, interviews, and live coverage. Viewers tuned in from all over the world, including at watch parties in nine locations, from the Austin Public Library to New York’s Times Square. An interactive “Eclipse Board” provided real time data analysis as the Moon’s shadow crossed North America.
Live feeds from astronauts aboard the International Space Station and NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft were brought in to provide rare and unique perspectives of the solar event. To make this possible, NASA deployed and enabled 67 cameras, 6 NASA Wide Area Network control rooms, 38 encoders, and 35 decoders. The team coordinated 20 live telescope feeds which represented 12 locations across the path of totality.
NASA’s eclipse broadcast won another Emmy award earlier this year at the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Live News Special. Additionally, the show received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Show Open or Title Sequence – News. NASA’s eclipse communication and broadcast efforts also won two Webby Awards and two Webby People’s Voice Awards.
Tropical cyclones almost never form over the Strait of Malacca. The narrow waterway separating Peninsular Malaysia from the Indonesian island of Sumatra sits so close to the equator that the Coriolis effect is usually too weak to allow storms to rotate enough to organize into cyclones. But on November 25, 2025, meteorologists watched as a tropical depression intensified into Cyclone Senyar—just the second documented case of a tropical cyclone forming in the strait.
Hemmed in by land on both sides, Senyar made landfall in Sumatra later that day as it made a U-turn and headed east toward Malaysia. As the slow-moving storm passed over Sumatra’s mountainous terrain, it dropped nearly 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain in many areas, according to satellite-based estimates from NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. (Due to the averaging of the satellite data, local rainfall amounts may differ when measured from the ground.)
The torrent caused extensive flash floods and landslides in Sumatra’s rugged terrain. Streams and rivers rapidly overflowed with sediment-laden, debris-filled waters that swept through villages, cities, and towns. News reports suggest that the damage was worsened by an earthquake that struck on November 27 and the abundance of loose piles of timber in the region that became destructive battering rams in high water. As of December 4, Indonesian authorities reported several hundred deaths and more than 700,000 displaced people.
The OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 captured this image of flooding in Aceh and North Sumatra provinces on November 30, 2025. Muddy sediment-filled water appears to have swamped much of Lhoksukon, a town of 40,000 people, and several surrounding villages.
Other tropical cyclones and monsoon rains hitting Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam at roughly the same time have also caused extensive destruction in the broader region. According to one estimate from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, flooding has affected more than 10.8 million people in the region and displaced more than 1.2 million.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.
References & Resources
BNPB (2025) News Index. Accessed December 4, 2025.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy named NGC 1792.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a stormy and highly active spiral galaxy named NGC 1792. Located over 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba (the Dove), the bright glow of the galaxy’s center is offset by the flocculent and sparkling spiral arms swirling around it.
NGC 1792 is just as fascinating to astronomers as its chaotic look might imply. Classified as a starburst galaxy, it is a powerhouse of star formation, with spiral arms rich in star-forming regions. In fact, it is surprisingly luminous for its mass. The galaxy is close to a larger neighbor, NGC 1808, and astronomers think the strong gravitational interaction between the two stirred up the reserves of gas in this galaxy. The result is a torrent of star formation, concentrated on the side closest to its neighbor, where gravity has a stronger effect. NGC 1792 is a perfect target for astronomers seeking to understand the complex interactions between gas, star clusters, and supernovae in galaxies.
Hubble studied this galaxy before. This new image includes additional data collected throughout 2025, providing a deeper view of the tumultuous activity taking place in the galaxy. Blossoming red lights in the galaxy’s arms mark Hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) emission from dense clouds of hydrogen molecules. The newly forming stars within these clouds shine powerfully with ultraviolet radiation. This intense radiation ionizes the hydrogen gas, stripping away electrons which causes the gas to emit H-alpha light. H-alpha is a very particular red wavelength of light and a tell-tale sign of new stars.
