NASA

“One thing you realize working in this lab is that we are really far away from the robot apocalypse,” says MIT senior Sarah Hensley, who is working with a team of researchers to prepare Valkyrie, a humanoid robot, for future space missions.

Prepping a robot for its journey to Mars

Senior Sarah Hensley aims to improve Earth's most advanced humanoid robot, in advance of its trip to the Red Planet.

October 18, 2016

This artist's depiction shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with its Touch-And-Go Sample Arm. The mission aims to return a sample of Bennu's surface coating to Earth and to return detailed information about the asteroid and its trajectory.

MIT’s REXIS is bound for asteroid Bennu

Instrument will help OSIRIS-REx mission identify locations for collecting an asteroid sample.

September 8, 2016

Michael Floyd, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says that in developing seismic hazard assessments, it’s important to consider afterslip and slowly creeping faults, which occur often and over long periods of time following the more obvious earthquake.

2014 Napa earthquake continued to creep, weeks after main shock

Continuing seismic activity could pose additional hazards to infrastructure.

August 19, 2016

Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at MIT.

Scene at MIT: Margaret Hamilton’s Apollo code

A brief history of the famous 1969 photo of the software that sent humans to the moon.

August 17, 2016

Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon, pictured, spans as much as 600 kilometers across and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. The image was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

New technique may help detect Martian life

A novel interpretation of Raman spectra will help the 2020 Mars rover select rocks to study for signs of life.

August 15, 2016

Researchers are developing a new boot with built-in sensors and tiny “haptic” motors, whose vibrations can guide the wearer around or over obstacles. Vibrations will jump from low to high intensity when the wearer is at risk of colliding with an obstacle.

Avoiding stumbles, from spacewalks to sidewalks

Vibrating footwear could help astronauts and visually impaired earthlings skirt obstacles.

July 22, 2016

An artist’s depiction of planets transiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 System

First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds

Two potentially habitable planets in nearby system are confirmed to be rocky.

July 20, 2016

“We don’t necessarily want [air traffic controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information. Instead, we can tell them the three top choices,” says Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.

Ready for takeoff

Hamsa Balakrishnan develops algorithms to reduce airport congestion.

July 15, 2016

In the year since New Horizons flew past Pluto, scientists have discovered intriguing details about the dwarf planet's atmosphere. Seen here, haze particles form numerous intricate, horizontal layers, some extending for hundreds of miles around Pluto. The haze layers extend to altitudes of over 120 miles (200 kilometers).

3 Questions: Richard Binzel on what we've learned so far from New Horizons

Professor Richard Binzel, NASA New Horizons scientist, describes a year of discovery since the spacecraft's historic 2015 Pluto encounter.

July 14, 2016

An X-ray image of the Perseus Cluster from NASA’s Chandra Observatory.

Dead X-ray satellite reveals “quiet” center of massive galaxy cluster

Scientists find gas at center of Perseus cluster travels much more slowly than expected.

July 6, 2016

An image, taken by MESSENGER during its Mercury flyby on Jan. 14, 2008, of Mercury’s full crescent.

Researchers trace Mercury’s origins to rare meteorite

Experiments show planet cooled dramatically in half a billion years.

June 27, 2016

Observed sea surface temperature (SST) trends for 1982-2012 in degrees Celsius per decade.

Southern Ocean cooling in a warming world

Research suggests Antarctica and the Southern Ocean may be experiencing a period of cooling before warming takes over, thanks to the ozone hole.

June 24, 2016

This diagram depicts the way a new surface treatment can improve the efficiency and longevity of perovskite materials for use in applications such as fuel-cell electrodes. Within the bulk of the material (bottom left) oxygen vacancies shown as “holes” are distributed throughout the material, and cause intense chemical reactivity. But on the surface, many of those vacancies get filled by oxygen...

Researchers find a way to extend life and improve performance of fuel cell electrodes

Surface treatment greatly reduces degradation of catalyst material.

June 13, 2016

This illustration depicts the view from outside of a rapidly-accreting black hole. The bright light toward the center represents the super-heating of gas as it falls onto the black hole. Emanating from the center is a jet of accelerated particles moving near the speed of light. Surrounding the black hold is cool, clumpy gas and dust, which are falling inwards and will eventually join the material ...

Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas

Findings suggest two dining styles for black holes.

June 8, 2016

MIT scientists say that the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a period that scientists believe marked the beginning of oxygen’s permanent presence in the atmosphere, started as early as 2.33 billion years ago.

Study pinpoints timing of oxygen’s first appearance in Earth’s atmosphere

Beginning 2.33 billion years ago, atmospheric oxygen built up in just 10 million years.

May 13, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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