September 1, 2017

September 10, 2026

September 1, 2017September 10, 2026

September 1, 2017

September 10, 2026

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Lake Powell stood at one of its highest levels in the past decade on September 1, 2017 (left), and at a record low on September 10, 2026, in these images acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin.

The effects of a meager mountain snowpack across the Upper Colorado Basin in winter 2025-2026 had made their way downstream to Lake Powell by summer. After seasonal snowmelt declined to a relative trickle, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S. sat at record-low levels in late August and early September.

These images show a portion of Lake Powell just above Glen Canyon Dam as observed by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite on September 1, 2017 (left), and September 10, 2026 (right). In the 2026 image, the water level stood at 3,517.24 feet. About a month prior, it had dipped below the previous record-low level of 3,519.92 feet, set on April 13, 2023, and continued to tick downward in early September. The 2017 image represents one of the highest water levels of the past decade.

The Colorado River feeds Lake Powell and then Lake Mead farther downstream, which also hit record-low levels in August 2026. Managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and other agencies, the river provides water and electric power to more than 40 million people—including in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego—and water to some 5 million acres of farmland in the Southwest.

Much of the Colorado Basin is arid or semi-arid, so a large portion of the river’s flow originates as snowmelt from higher elevations. The Upper Colorado Basin, like many mountainous areas across the U.S. West, saw unusually little snow accumulation in winter 2025-2026, constituting a snow drought. Stretches of record warmth further sapped the snowpack. As a result, water from snowmelt did little to replenish lake levels in spring, as it typically does.

The USBR took steps in April 2026 to stabilize Lake Powell and keep it from falling below the level needed for hydropower production—an outcome the agency deemed possible by August 2026 without intervention. USBR began releasing water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in northern Utah and southern Wyoming into Lake Powell. It also reduced releases from Lake Powell into Lake Mead, canceled a “controlled flood” in April intended to build sandbars for fish habitat, and skipped a “cool mix” release in August aimed at protecting native species.

Drought in the U.S. Southwest has been ongoing since about the start of the 21st century—what experts have called a megadrought—and continues to strain water resources. Several projects and tools funded by NASA and powered in part by NASA Earth observations are helping decision-makers throughout the Colorado Basin monitor drought and respond to its effects.

At the Colorado River headwaters, for example, a dashboard based on the Western Land Data Assimilation System (WLDAS) provides real-time soil moisture, snow water equivalent, and evapotranspiration visualizations that inform Colorado’s drought task force, as well as weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps.

Nearer to Lake Powell, the Drought Severity Evaluation Tool, co-developed with the Navajo Nation, helps leaders monitor localized drought indices, precipitation trends, and vegetation health across tribal lands. (With funding from NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System, its adoption expanded to Oklahoma’s Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations in 2025.) And the Colorado River Integrated Assessment tool, developed by Arizona State University researchers in partnership with the Central Arizona Project, consolidates improved modeling and NASA-satellite-validated information on snowpack, surface and groundwater storage, soil moisture, and more across the entire basin into a single interactive view.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and lake elevation data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, April 27) Snow Is Scarce in the Upper Colorado Basin. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2021) World of Change: Water Level in Lake Powell. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory, Lake Powell. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2026, August 24) Low Water Levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead in August 2026. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• NASA Global Water Measurements (2026) Lake Powell 1. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• NASA Science (2020, December 11) Connecting The Drops: Managing the Navajo Nation’s Water Resources with Satellites and Indigenous Knowledge. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• Science (2026, August 11) Halted dam releases threaten Colorado River ecosystems. Accessed September 17, 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (2026, April 17) Reclamation Acts to Protect Colorado River System During Historic Drought. Accessed September 17, 2026.

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Most kids learn in elementary school that the seasons are caused by Earth rotating on a tilted axis during its yearly orbit around the Sun. The substantial tilt, about 23.5 degrees, is thought to be the result of an ancient planetary body, Theia, smashing into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, in the same cataclysmic collision that formed the Moon.

To visualize why Earth has seasons, imagine the planet as a spinning top tilted to one side. Around the June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere leans toward the Sun, bringing more direct sunlight and longer days. Around the December solstice, the Southern Hemisphere does the same. That’s why June ushers in summer and warm weather in the Northern Hemisphere, while December does so in the Southern Hemisphere.

The March and September equinoxes serve as the midpoints between these two seasonal extremes. On those days, the terminator—the boundary between the sunlit and dark sides of Earth—runs directly through both poles. As a result, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres receive almost the same amount of sunlight, and day and night are nearly equal in length.

What do the seasons look like from about one million miles away? That’s the view provided by NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) aboard the NOAA mission DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory). By maintaining an orbit that puts the spacecraft between the Sun and Earth roughly 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth, the camera has a nearly continuous view of the sunlit hemisphere. As Earth spins during the course of a day, EPIC captures a full-disk image of the planet’s sunlit face every few hours.

The four images above, taken at roughly the same time of day, show how EPIC’s view of the Western Hemisphere changes over the year, from the December solstice (upper left) to the March equinox (upper right), June solstice (lower left), and September equinox (lower right). The most striking difference is between the two solstices. In December, South America lies near the center of the disk and much of Antarctica is visible, while North America is partially out of view. In June, Earth’s tilt means the situation is reversed: the Northern Hemisphere and North America are more centered, Arctic sea ice comes into view, South America is offset, and Antarctica is completely out of view.

There are other notable differences among the four images. Earth looks slightly smaller during the March and September equinoxes, for instance. That’s because DSCOVR was tens of thousands of miles farther away from Earth on those dates than on the solstices. On December 21, 2023, DSCOVR was 1,447,327 kilometers (899,327 miles) from Earth compared with 1,561,901 kilometers (970,520 miles) on September 22, 2024.

The slight difference in Earth’s apparent size has nothing to do with Earth’s tilt. Instead, it occurs because DSCOVR follows a looping, three-dimensional path called a Lissajous orbit to keep the spacecraft near Lagrange point 1, where the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth and the centrifugal pull of the satellite balance out, making it easier for engineers to maintain the spacecraft’s position without using much fuel. DSCOVR’s distance from Earth swings between its maximum and minimum roughly every three months, and the timing drifts throughout the year because of lunar influences and orbital maneuvers. In 2024, the orbit happened to put the spacecraft slightly farther from Earth at both equinoxes, but that is not always the case.

There’s one other notable way the images differ. Because of DSCOVR’s Lissajous orbit, the angle between the Sun, Earth, and satellite varies between 2 and 12 degrees, explained Alexander Marshak, the deputy project scientist for the DSCOVR mission. Earth appears as a fully illuminated disk at smaller angles and less rounded at larger angles, like a “bite” has been taken out, similar to a gibbous phase of the Moon. For this set of images, the September 22 image has a slightly lower angle (8.1°) than the December 21 image (10.3°), making it appear slightly rounder and fuller. The angle between the Sun, Earth, and satellite in the other two images is between 9° and 10°.

“You can see the subtle influence of the changing orbital geometry in these images,” Marshak said. “But the most obvious changes—the apparent location of the continents—are due to Earth’s tilt.”

EPIC’s vantage point offers a perspective that makes it easier to understand and visualize why Earth has seasons, but after more than a decade in space, the mission has also opened up new approaches to understanding and observing how daily and seasonal cycles play out on a planetary scale. It has collected more than a decade of diurnal and seasonal data on many key features on Earth, including vegetation, clouds, ice, snow, UV radiation, ocean color, and aerosols.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using data from DSCOVR EPIC. Story by Adam Voiland.

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December 21, 2023
March 19, 2024
June 20, 2024
September 22, 2024

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References & Resources

• Kostinski, A., et al. (2024) Deep space observations of conditionally averaged global reflectance patterns. Frontiers of Remote Sensing, 5, 1404461.
• Kostinski, A., et al. (2021) Deep space observations of terrestrial glitter. Earth and Space Science, 8, e2020EA001521.
• Lyapustin, A., et al. (2026) Editorial: Earth observations from the deep space: 10 years of the DSCOVR mission. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 7, 1810164.
• NASA (2026, June 19) Earth Polychromatic Image Camera. Accessed September 21, 2026.                                                                                                                                                 
• NASA Earth Observatory (2011, September 23) Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space. Accessed September 21, 2026.
• NASA (2026) EPIC: Publications. Accessed September 21, 2026.
• NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (2012, December 27) Earth Orientation Animations. Accessed September 21, 2026.
• NASA Space Place (2026, July 31) What Causes the Seasons? Accessed September 21, 2026.
• Roberts, C., et al. (2015) Early Mission Maneuver Operations for the Deep Space Climate Observatory Sun-Earth L1 Libration Point Mission. Accessed September 21, 2026.
• Valero, F., et al. (2021) Lagrange Point Missions: The Key to next Generation Integrated Earth Observations. DSCOVR Innovation. Accessed September 21, 2026.

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APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Chance Triple Alignment: Plane, Space Station, Sun

Explanation: This shot captured an unexpected silhouette.   Which is it? It isn’t the sunspots, the small dark regions caused by concentrated magnetic fields visible around the Sun’s bright disk.   Sunspots typically last for weeks and were expected, since these spots were seen previously. It isn’t the International Space Station (ISS), the small dark structure on the middle left.  This is because the featured picture was planned with sub-second timing to record the iconic structure passing before the Sun. It is the airplane. Just as this exposure was taking place in June, from Prasek in the Czech Republic, an airplane began its own miniature partial eclipse. The result is this triply aligned image of our Sun. The photographer estimates that the chance of any random Sun image containing silhouettes of both a space station and an airplane, from that location, is about 30 million to one. 

APOD’s main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Tomorrow’s picture: open space

Date	September 22, 2026
Credit & Copyright	Petr Horalek / Inst. Physics Opava
Authors & editors:	Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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Editor’s Note: This feature was updated Sept. 22, 2026, to note the time change for the in-flight call with students. 

Students in New Hampshire will hear from NASA astronaut Anil Menon as he answers prerecorded STEM questions while aboard the International Space Station.

The Earth-to-space call will begin at 11:40 a.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 24, and will stream live on the agency’s Learn With NASA YouTube channel.

This event is hosted by the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, New Hampshire, for students in grades K-12, and members of the community. This unique opportunity aims to deepen understanding of space exploration and enhance awareness of STEM careers.

Media interested in covering the event must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 23, to Kelly Thompson at [email protected].

For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station helps NASA understand and overcome the challenges of human spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit, and build on the foundation for long-duration missions to the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and to Mars.

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Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers found mysterious objects that give off unusually low-energy X-rays but intense levels of ultraviolet radiation. One of the galaxies they studied, M101, is pictured here in this image released on Sept. 9, 2026. Astronomers suggest these newly spotted objects in other galaxies may help solve not one, but two long-standing questions in astrophysics.

Read more about this discovery.

Image description: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alabama/M. Muhibullah et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

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Lee esta historia en español aquí.

NASA-supported scientists have discovered an organism that lives at extreme temperatures previously thought impossible for complex life. High temperatures can cause the destruction of necessary cell components, which is a big problem for cells with complex parts like a nucleus encasing delicate genetic information.

In the heated waters of California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, a team of scientists observed an amoeba that can reproduce by division at an astonishing 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degree Celsius), setting a record for the upper temperature limit for all known eukaryotes. Incendiamoeba cascadensis, also dubbed the fire amoeba, stops reproducing above 145 degrees Fahrenheit but is still active, moving around to search for food at up to 147 degrees Fahrenheit (64 Celsius). The previous limit of 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius) for eukaryotes was set by a few species of fungi and red algae. The results were published on Tuesday in the journal Cell.

Astrobiologists have long studied the boundaries of life’s survival on Earth to determine how organisms might live on other worlds like Mars where conditions are less hospitable than our home planet. Organisms that endure at the edges of habitability under extreme temperature, pH levels, radiation, and other environmental conditions are known as extremophiles. Studying them helps scientists understand what life as we know it is capable of. Extremophiles also produce unique proteins that can have promising uses in biotechnology, from industrial applications to medicine.

Previous extremophile research has mostly focused on single-celled bacteria and archaea. The new study shows that the more complex cells of eukaryotes might be more durable than previously thought and could even help scientists understand locations in the universe where complex life could survive.

Complex life on Earth

Life on Earth is broadly divided into two categories, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are single-cell organisms that do not have a nucleus or membrane-bound organelles inside their single cell. This means that they have less cellular ‘machinery’ that can be damaged by extremes, such as blistering heat, bitter cold, caustic acidity, or damaging radiation.

Organisms that live in extreme heat are known as thermophiles. To be a true ‘heat-loving’ thermophile, the organism must be able to replicate, move, eat, and survive above 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius).

Prokaryotes include bacteria and archaea, with archaea being particularly adept at surviving extremes. Because of their relative simplicity, scientists also believe that prokaryotes were the first forms of life to appear on Earth, billions of years ago when the environment of our planet was much more inhospitable than it is today.

Eukaryotes are more complicated organisms that are thought to have evolved later in the history of life on Earth. These organisms have a separate cell nucleus inside their cells that contains fragile genetic information. Eukaryotes also contain membrane-bound organelles, such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum. These organelles are like mini cellular machines that perform specific functions. Eukaryotes include a wide span of life, from single-celled algae to multicellular organisms like plants and human beings.

Complexity in Extreme Heat

High temperatures lead to the breakdown of proteins and other biomolecules that living cells need to function. Heat also can cause membranes to break apart, thereby destroying cells. It has been suggested that organelle membranes in eukaryotes could not remain stable above 144 degrees Fahrenheit (62 degrees Celsius). The discovery of I. cascadensis proves that assumption wrong.

“In part, studies on eukaryotes may have been limited because of assumptions about membrane stability,” says Beryl Rappaport, graduate student at Syracuse University and lead author of the study. “We are hoping that the discovery of I. cascadensis encourages others to keep searching for high temperature eukaryotes.”

The team sequenced the I. cascadensis genome, studying the expression of genes at multiple temperatures. They found many genes that help the amoeba stabilize DNA and protect it from breaking down. Other genes allow the organisms to sense the external environment. At high temperatures, the expression of certain genes also increased, including those involved in maintaining protein folding.

“We were able to uncover many strategies that could help I. cascadensis survive at high temperatures, and some of these strategies could be used by thermophiles across all life,” says Rappaport. “For instance, some proteins in I. cascadensis have a high positive surface charge that could help them remain stable. These protein charges are similar to those found in thermophilic bacteria and archaea.”

The team also compared genetic information from other studies world-wide. In this trove of data, they found similar pieces of DNA from geothermal samples in places like New Zealand and Yellowstone National Park. This means that additional thermophilic amoebas related to I. cascadensis might be living all around the globe just waiting to be discovered.

Search for life beyond Earth

Earth is the only planet we know of that is inhabited with life. For life as we know it to survive on other planets in the solar system or beyond, organisms might have to cope with environmental conditions that are very different from those found here at home.

“Studying extremophiles helps us better understand the biochemical and physiological limitations of life as we know it on Earth,” says Alison Olcott, program scientist for Exobiology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This information, in turn, helps guide NASA’s search for life as it expands the range of conditions we think life could potentially be inhabiting elsewhere.”

In particular, the study increases our understanding of where and how life with complex cells might persist on Earth and beyond.

“Finding eukaryotes surviving in high temperature environments not only expands our understanding of where life could be found, but also of how complex that life could be,” says Olcott.

However, the researchers do point out that survival depends on many factors that are part of a larger ecosystem.

“It could certainly be possible for complex life like I. cascadensis to survive on another planet, but Earth is the only planet we currently know of to have all the requirements for I. cascadensis to be happy,” says Rappaport. “It’s not just about temperature. An environment also needs the right acidity, oxygen levels, pressure, water, and food. I. cascadensis could not survive on its own. It needs other life to be supported as well.”

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The purpose of this working group was to assemble a panel of experts to review the most recent data related to extravehicular activity (EVA) prebreathe testing and decompression sickness (DCS) events, venous thromboembolism (VTE) in-flight occurrences, and patent foramen ovale (PFO) implication as they relate to NASA’s Artemis (lunar and beyond) missions. The recommendations from this working group are built upon and integrate the outcomes of the September 2024 Assessment of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) as Related to Decompression Sickness (DCS) in the Spaceflight Environment and During Ground Testing (NASA/SP-20240010473), the April 2026 NASA Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in Spaceflight Working Group (NASA/SP- 20260005258/REV1), and the updated DCS prevention standard reviewed by the DCS panel in NASA-STD-3001 Volume 2 Human Factors, Habitability, and Environmental Health (NASA-STD-3001 Vol 2 Rev F), with a specific focus on risk mitigation interventions such as PFO closure.

Recommendations

The following is a summary of the working group’s recommendations:

1. Ground-based studies should no longer remove subjects from research solely due to the presence of LVGE. Protocols should balance subject safety with population representativeness, and subjects must be fully informed of their LVGE status and any associated risks.
2. The consensus was that the presence of a PFO is not considered a major risk factor for VTE formation, nor for complications from an embolism traveling from an initial formation site in the left internal jugular or cerebrum at normoxic or proposed hypoxic space habitats. No changes to astronaut selection criteria regarding PFOs are recommended with respect to VTE.
3. The consensus of the group is that there is no definitive link between bubble grades and the risk of DCS at altitude for prebreathe protocols involving partial gravity and ambulation.
4. The panel concluded that while minimizing bubbles is desirable, the predictive value of bubble scores for DCS remains uncertain, especially for lunar surface operations.
5. It was determined that a “small” PFO (Grade 1 or 2) does not pose a significant risk. There were mixed opinions on whether closing or screening out crew members with a “large” PFO (Grade 3 or above) significantly reduces the risk of a venous gas embolism (VGE) passing to the arterial side and causing a significant mission health event. The group did not recommend universal screening or exclusion of astronauts with large PFOs but emphasized the importance of risk mitigation through protocol design and ongoing data collection. If crews are assessed, they should be informed of their status and offered closure for a large PFO.
6. The panel concluded that clear clinical guidance is required regarding medication use for all crewmembers prior to Extravehicular Activities (EVAs). Specifically, protocols must address the use of aspirin for Decompression Sickness (DCS) prevention and pain relief. Additionally, guidance is needed for the pre and post-EVA use of analgesics (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen, celecoxib), as these medications have the potential to mask DCS symptoms.

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Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University New Brunswick, NB, Canada

Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 11, 2026

This week we had two planning days (Tuesday and Friday), as Monday was Labor Day in North America, where many of the Curiosity team are based. Labor Day (the first Monday in September) marks the end of summer holidays and thrills, and the return to more typical routines and back to school.

The MSL team has marked several important milestones within the past few weeks — marking our 14th “Landiversary” on Aug. 6 and surpassing the 1-kilometer elevation mark and our 5000th sol (Martian day) in early September. Our next big date is not until Nov. 26, the 15th anniversary of launch, and so it feels like Curiosity is also back to a more routine schedule at this point.

We are moving up the valley known informally as “Valle Grande.” In recent weeks, we climbed up over what we interpreted as an “erosional supersurface” (which marks a gap in the usual rock record) and are now traversing through a subtly banded area. Bands are 25-200 meters (about 80-650 feet) in diameter, with morphological changes, such as bands with more sand and less rocky outcrops (which often appear darker from a distance because there is more sand) and others where outcrops seem more continuous that allow us to mark out rough contacts between them.  

The terrain this week was characterized by sparse outcrops with a rough texture, often nodular, surrounded by lots of sand and coarse pebbly sand. On Tuesday APXS and MAHLI investigated brushed nodular bedrock at “Cerro Armazones” and “Monte Melimoyu.” ChemCam acquired LIBS on a knot of dark-toned nodules at “Tuta Huallpas” and the dark-toned float rock “Acllahuasi.”

On Friday, after a drive of about 60 meters (nearly 200 feet), we found ourselves with mostly sand close to the rover and just one small rough-textured outcrop close enough for contact science and LIBS. Fortunately, the block was extremely interesting, with abundant small flakes and chips incorporated and laminated areas that are a bit smoother. We will investigate the rougher textures with MAHLI (“Yungay” and “Chiu Chiu”), APXS (Chiu Chiu) and ChemCam LIBS (“Puya Raimondii”) and a smoother area with LIBS (“Liolaemus Tacnae”).

Across both plans, the ChemCam long-distance imager and camera teams were hard at work. In addition to near-field images, which focus on areas close to the rover, both Mastcam and ChemCam acquired several larger mosaics on the buttes on either side of us (“Mishe Mokwa” and “Cordillera”) and looking back to the small butte “La Linea.” Mastcam also took some mosaics documenting the “Chocolatal” scuff, which we analyzed last week, and a larger mosaic of the “Sullivan Field” sand field where Chocolatal is located. Sullivan Field contains sand ripples, mega ripples, and transverse aeolian ridges, and was named by the team in honor of the late Robert Sullivan, a world expert on Martian sands and cherished member of the Curiosity science team.

In parallel to all the geology activities, the environmental team planned their usual full schedule of monitoring activities, such as dust-devil movies, suprahorizon movies looking at the crater rim, and tau images, which look at dust in the atmosphere.

Navcam and Mastcam acquired images of the path ahead in our drive direction. The subtle bands can just about be picked out here, by looking at tonal differences. It will be very interesting to see how these look and vary from each other when we get close enough to each one.

• Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?

  
  
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August 30, 2026

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August 19, 2025

August 30, 2026

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Arid shrublands in Western Australia were bursting with life in late austral winter 2026, when a profusion of wildflowers brought vivid colors to the rusty ochre landscape. After several wetter-than-normal months earlier in the year, dormant seeds in the soil awoke to produce carpets of blooms. Local experts think the display could be the best the area has seen in nearly two decades.

The images above, captured with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the NASA-USGS Landsat 8 satellite, compare the more verdant landscape of late August 2026 (right) with a similar time in 2025 (left), when it was drier. This area is located about 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Perth in the Murchison region, one of Western Australia’s main areas for grazing sheep and cattle. The local vegetation includes grasses, saltbush, and the slow-growing evergreen mulga tree.

Every so often, a variety of wildflowers makes an appearance, too. In 2026, rainfall totals were above average in June and very much above average in August due to several cold fronts moving through the area, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. The rains helped rouse a diverse mix of flowers to bloom across the outback, including on a radio astronomy site managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency. The flower show included some threatened species, which the observatory has helped monitor on its formerly pastoral land.

Though the spectacle underfoot might have momentarily stolen the show, Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, is primarily focused on what’s overhead and the exploration of deep space. At the Murchison site, CSIRO operates several antenna arrays that observe and catalog objects in the southern sky. The remote facility is situated within a “radio quiet” zone, where terrestrial communications and electronic devices are controlled to limit electromagnetic interference with the instruments.

Other telescopes in CSIRO’s purview in Australia have played crucial roles in NASA missions from the agency’s early years to today. The Murriyang radio telescope in Parkes, New South Wales, tracked Mariner 2—the first successful planetary science mission—in 1962 and was an important receiving station for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. CSIRO also manages and operates the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, one of three facilities in NASA’s global Deep Space Network that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and collects radar and radio astronomy observations. Both supported the Artemis II mission in April 2026.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photos © CSIRO Australia, September 16, 2026. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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References & Resources

• Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2026) Australian climate history – Climate summaries. Accessed September 22, 2026.
• Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2008, August) Murchison bioregion (WA). Accessed September 22, 2026.
• CSIRO (2026, September 16) World-leading radio telescopes give space for stunning wildflowers. Accessed September 22, 2026.
• CSIRO (2024, June 24) NASA and CSIRO: partners in space. Accessed September 22, 2026.
• CSIRO, Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, our Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. Accessed September 22, 2026.
• The Guardian (2026, September 13) Blankets of colour: Western Australia’s wildflower season bursts into life – in pictures. Accessed September 22, 2026.

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