jet propulsion laboratory tour

Explore JPL will return in 2025

Please know that in addition to “Explore JPL” there are many other ways to experience JPL including our JPL Virtual Tour , monthly von Karman lecture series or weekday JPL Tours . Keep up on the latest news about JPL’s adventures. You can also sign up for JPL’s accounts on Twitter, Instragram, Facebook and Flickr. And to take a ride along with our spacecraft, explore the larger universe, or check the pulse of planet Earth, download our interactive Eyes products.

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory Visitor Center

Visitors must register ahead of time.  See the webpage for details.

All tours are 2 to 2.5 hours in duration and commonly include a multi-media presentation, and seeing our array of models and Solar System gallery, including our full scale Voyager and Galileo spacecraft models.

Guests may also visit the von Karman Visitor Center, the Space Flight Operations Facility, and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

NASA Facility in Pasadena

JPL is a research, development, and flight center for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it is operated and managed by Caltech . All of NASA's Mars rovers were designed and built at JPL; the campus houses the Space Flight Operations Facility , a control room which has monitored and controlled all interplanetary and deep space exploration for NASA and other international space agencies since 1963.

Mars Rover Video

JPL's Public Services Office offers free for groups and individuals on an advance reservation basis, tour reservations should be made at least a month in advance. Tours usually include a video entitled "Journey to the Planets and Beyond," that provides an overview of JPL and its accomplishments. Guests may also visit the von Karman Visitor Center; the Space Flight Operations Facility; and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

Visitor Identification

JPL requires that all U.S. citizens, 18 years of age or older, present official, government issued photo identification (driver's license or passport) before being allowed entry. All non-U.S. Citizens 18 years of age or older must present a passport or resident visa (green card) before being allowed entry. Individuals without proper identification will not be admitted to the laboratory.

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Notes From a Free Visitor Day Tour at JPL

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge is a federally funded research and development center managed by Cal Tech on behalf of NASA. At JPL, they specialize in building unmanned spacecraft that explore the farthest reaches of our solar system, from the Ranger moon missions to Voyager 1 and 2 to the rovers now exploring Mars. As a guide on a recent tour told our group, JPL is where they “build robots and send them to cool places.” Pretty apt.

For the average citizen, the complexity of space travel may seem like a dream almost too distant to wrap their heads around. But the JPL Visitor Day Tour gives you a (free) chance to the who and how and why we explore the cosmos.

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The way I view the tour, it’s an up-close chance to see where we’ve been, and where we’re going. At the end, you realize it’s not fantasy or science fiction. It’s science. In interrogating the process of how it all happens, we expand our idea of what’s possible. I think that’s a pretty valuable insight.

Since JPL re-opened for public tours in spring of 2022, I’ve been back twice. For the totally uninitiated, let me give you the Brian’s Notes on what you can expect:

• Your tour highlights include a short film on the exploration of our solar system, a perusal of exhibits and scale model replicas at the onsite visitor center, and a peek at the Space Flight Operations Center.
• My favorite part was a visit to Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where we watched through a second story glass window as JPL staff inside High Bay 1 worked on the Europa Clipper. You can check out a live feed of their work here .
• Tour guides are friendly and extremely knowledgeable . I appreciated the fact that if they don’t know the answer to a question, they’ll take time to look it up during the tour and get back with the answer.
• All-in, It’s a 2 to 2.5 hour experience.
• There is a decent amount of walking , and a couple of staircases you’ll have to climb. The total walking distance is a bit short of a mile, though it’s broken up into intervals.
• Tours take place on select weekdays , usually at either 11 a.m. or 1 p.m.
• There is free parking (though it is limited)
• If for some reason your guide doesn’t mention it at the end, you should definitely ask about the peanuts !

So that’s the tour in brief. Now, a few quick photos to give you the visual flavor of what’s in store.

Photos from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Getting a Reservation

The good thing about the Visitor Day Tour is that it’s free. The bad news is that, because it’s free, reservations get booked in the blink of an eye.

Right now, the JPL website makes reservations available roughly two months in advance. For example, on the next drop date of April 3, you might be able to reserve a tour for June. I say might because in my experience the slots get scooped up within hours if not minutes of the release. Happy hunting.

For those not located in Los Angeles, or who are unable to snag an in-person reservation, there are Virtual Visitor Day tours, which are held over Zoom and (not surprisingly) have much greater availability. For larger groups, there are also Public Group Tours and Education Group Tours designed for between 20-50 attendees.

You can book tours here .

Concluding Thoughts

All in all, this is one of those L.A.-adjacent tours that I wish everyone in the world had a chance to experience. Not only do we get to see our hard-earned tax dollars at work (well worth it in my opinion) but there is something awe-inspiring about witnessing the painstaking process and incredible attention to detail that goes into space exploration.

As I looked down into High Bay 1 at the de-stacking of the Europa Clipper, I found myself overcome with wonderment, imagining the journey that this collection of circuits and cylinders and solar arrays would soon undertake. By the end of the decade, if all goes according to the plan, the craft now only a football field away will be hundreds of millions of miles from earth, beaming radar waves into Jupiter’s icy moon, and advancing our understanding of the universe.

Cool places indeed.

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Discover Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with a Free JPL Tour

Did you know that you can visit Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory? Taking a free JPL Tour is a great experience that is open to anyone who registers for tickets. Tickets do fill up quickly though so you do have to be on the website when they go live at 9 am. The tour page of the JPL website will always say when the next date to request tickets is. Tickets are released roughly two months in advance. The next set of JPL Tour tickets will go live on Monday, 5/6 for July.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and buy something, I will earn a small commission from the advertiser at no additional cost to you.

My family is extra interested in space-related experiences as my Grandpa worked on the apollos and shuttles. I went to Space Camp with my Grandpa as a child which was so much fun. While Houston and Cape Canaveral may have the big Space Centers where the launches take place, Southern California has a lot to offer those who want a behind-the-scenes look at the robotics side of NASA.

The tour will take around 2.5 hours and involve walking up and down several stairs. While this is a family-friendly tour I would say it isn’t as exciting for children as it is for adults. There is a lot of cool stuff to see but nothing is hands-on or interactive. On my tour, there were a few families and the tour guides did their best to make it engaging and exciting for the children. I think overall they will like the experience but might be a little bored at times while I think adults will have the most appreciation for everything.

When you arrive for the free JPL tour you will be guided to the visitor parking lot. The security guards will most likely tell you to go inside the visitor’s center to check in. I did and was then directed outside near the flagpole to wait for the tour guide. At check-in, you are given a JPL tour lanyard to wear which you are able to keep as a souvenir at the end of your tour. They do not have a gift shop on site, there is an online store you can visit, but they also give a few freebies to you at the end of your experience.

If you want to wear NASA gear, Amazon has some pretty fun choices.

The tour kicks off with a video that showcases what Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is currently working on. Our tour guide also took this time to explain what JPL is, how it is connected to NASA, and what they focus on. While Houston and Cape Canaveral work with astronauts, at JPL they work with robotics and focus on getting data from locations that humans cannot visit. There is a small exhibit that you will get to see after that has some cool displays to see. In the first part of the tour, you are primarily seeing models and replicas of the real creations as most of the robotics stay in space and never return to earth.

For our next stop, we headed over to look into one of the clean rooms where they are currently working on a project that will go to Jupiter. This was so cool to see a team making progress on putting together an incredible creation.

We then headed over to Mission Control. Depending on what is happening in Mission Control you may or may not get to walk down on the floor after you get a birds-eye view of the room. This building was one of my favorite places we went to. When you enter the ceiling is made to look like the night sky with stars, and you’ll even see a few shooting stars.

Upstairs you get to see Mission Control which is really exciting. We were lucky that since there wasn’t much happening at the moment in Mission Control we were able to go below and walk through the area. We made a brief stop on our way back to the entrance to see one last display. Throughout the tour, we only went to 4 locations but the amount of information they cover is incredible. The free JPL tour is truly one of the best free experiences I think you can have in LA. It is a unique thing to do in LA that is something I highly recommend checking out.

You can request free JPL tour tickets here .

If you want to visit more places that have a Space connection I have a few other recommendations. You can see the Endeavour on display at the California Science Center which is also free to visit. In Downey, you can explore the Columbia Memorial Space Center which is dedicated to bringing the wonder of Space to children. There is a sweet tribute to the crews of both the Challenger and Columbia at the Valhalla Memorial Park cemetery. There is also a tribute to astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka in Little Tokyo.

About The Author

Michelle Ares is the founder and creative director of LA Dreaming. I have a passion for Southern California and love sharing my adventures and experiences with you. I love to travel, find new places to check out, and watch movies. You can follow me on Instagram @la.dreaming

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… Where No Spacecraft Has Gone Before!

Visited: March 2018

One can’t talk about the “Space Age” without including the major accomplishments and innovations created by the brilliant minds at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s research facility.  That’s why I was so excited to be able to visit this historic complex that manages NASA’s Deep Space Network, and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and informative tours I’ve taken … anywhere!

JPL’s tours are so popular that it took me five months from securing my reservation until I finally got to take the tour.  During our 2 1/2 hours, I learned about JPL’s history, the spacecraft that were developed here and its out-of-this-world missions.  JPL is the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system.

While there, I toured the JPL Museum, where you learn about the planets and observe up-close replicas of some of JPL’s greatest creations.  I was also able to witness the construction of the Mars Rover that will blast off to the Red Planet two years from now (Matt Damon will not be aboard) …

… and sit above Mission Control where so many of the United States’ most famous space moments were celebrated.

Our group met at the Visitor Center for the 1 p.m. tour.  In true, wimpy Southern California tradition, while there were scheduled to be 50 people on the tour, only 14 hardy souls showed up on this rainy …ok, it was barely sprinkling … afternoon (by the way, 95% of the tour is inside). They don’t know what they missed (well, unless they read this).

First stop was the Theodore von Kármán Auditorium for a short movie.  von Kármán is commonly regarded as the outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century and helped found JPL in 1944.

von Kármán, who was director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), invited them to the school to continue their experiments, but after a “detonation that launched a piece of a gauge straight into one of GALCIT’s walls,” they were asked to find a place in the Arroyo Seco to continue their damage, ahem, experimentation.  Thanks to funding from the National Academy of Sciences, it eventually led to JPL’s formation in 1944. ( photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech. )

The movie describing the planets, asteroids and missions to explore them turned out to be quite interesting, but I could sense the audience was more fascinated by what was located inside the theater … replicas of some of JPL’s rovers.  So was I.

Now it was time to check out Juno , NASA’s spacecraft that launched in 2011 and is exploring Jupiter.  It was the first Jupiter orbiter to get a good look at the planet’s poles.

Across the hall from the auditorium we stepped into the JPL Museum, where we received even further spaced-out information from displays of all the planets, asteroids and the Sun.

… including Mariner 10 that traveled to the “scorched inner planet Mercury” in the 1970s.

We were told by our tour guide that JPL is now working on the Mars 2020 Rover , which will further explore the planet.  It as yet had no name when I visited (subsequently named Perseverance ), but  a contest among school children came later in 2018.  Our guide told us the story of the 8-year-old kid who won for naming “Curiosity,” and let me just say, the perks for the winner are phenomenal.

Fortunately, no cat was in the area when Curiosity landed.

We also took The Pulse of live communications between more than 30 interplanetary spacecraft and the Deep Space Network.

Our guide also recounted some bittersweet moments like the end of the Cassini mission. It spent two decades in space exploring Saturn and its moon Titan (remember we saw it earlier).  Launched in October of 1997, Cassini finally plunged into the planet on September 15, 1997. Although a massive success, more than a few tears were shed in Mission Control when Cassini’s end was confirmed.  (There is a short video of the moment on Youtube.)

On the day of the launch of Ranger 7 , Dick Wilson, mission trajectory engineer, passed out peanuts to “take the edge off the anxiety in the mission operations room.”  Ranger 7 and subsequent Ranger flights were a success, so count on peanuts being in JPL’s Mission Control during every major space event.

On that note, the tour was over … the quickest 2 1/2 hour tour I might have ever been on in my life. Our guides dispensed enlightening information in an entertaining manner, and it turned out to be one of the most illuminative tours I’ve ever taken. Did I tell you it was free?

However, if you want to take one of these tours (and you really should), you have to go on the JPL website (below) and see when they are available.  As stated, I had to wait five months for mine.  When you see a date you like, choose it fast … they fill up fast.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109 Phone: 818.354.4321 Tours: www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/tours/views/

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Inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Our Look at the 'Center of the Universe'

When NASA's Mars Science Laboratory screamed through the Red Planet's atmosphere in a daring feat scientists later dubbed "7 minutes of terror," viewers around the world tuned in to watch.

No one could see the spacecraft during those tense moments; instead, the world studied the men and women in charge of the landing: the engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Far from stodgy, white-coated scientists, the personnel at the California-based facility boasted mohawks and piercings, along with their enthusiasm, at the successful landing, and unintentionally promoted the idea that rocket geeks can be cool.

Founded in the mid-1930s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is nestled in California's San Gabriel Mountains. After several students at the nearby California Institute of Technology were involved in an accidental explosion on the campus, the school strongly suggested they search for a more isolated area to pursue their rocket-building experiments, according to the JPL history website. [ Mars Rover Curiosity's 7 Biggest Discoveries (So Far) ]

In the 1940s, the lab worked to develop rocket technology under the umbrella of the U.S. Army, and it kept its name as a nod to its origin when it joined the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the end of the 1950s. Today, the lab develops many of the scientific payloads for NASA missions.

High security

JPL is located outside Los Angeles, in Pasadena. I gave my name to the guards at the campus entrance before pulling into the visitor parking lot. Another guard booth near the welcome center meant I couldn't take my own tour. (I had come as part of a press group, but JPL provides educational and public group tours as well.)

The institution is highly secure, and requires vetting before the tour. Our press group was met by Jia-Rui Cook and Mark Petrovich, two of JPL's media-relations folks. After everyone checked in, we walked through another checkpoint and boarded a bus to drive us around the expansive facility.

Building a spacecraft

Our first stop was the spacecraft assembly facility, where we were greeted by Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020 . Through a glass panel, we looked into an enormous three-story room filled with various equipment. Oblivious to the observers, a handful of individuals dressed in clean room suits worked earnestly at various stations,  their faces, hands and feet all covered.

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According to Cook and Petrovich, the scientists were working on multiple projects, but the only one they could definitively identify was the heat shield for Mars 2020 , a giant disc covered with a protective silver blanket. The shield, a nearby table and several crates were all cordoned off, and signs read "Flight Hardware, Do Not Touch."

Next to the heat-shield hardware stood "Cleanroom Bob," a dummy covered in a clean room suit that fooled me into thinking he was real, until I realized he hadn't moved throughout the presentation. He serves as a model for tours when no one is working in the clean room, demonstrating how carefully the scientists and engineers must dress for their work assignments.

"Pokémon Go" meets space

Next, we visited the Earth Science Center. When most people think of NASA, they usually recall the agency's role in studying other planets in the solar system. But about a tenth of NASA's budget is spent studying our own pale blue dot . Jason Craig, who works on visualization at JPL, had several interesting computer applications about the Earth to show us.

First up was Eyes on the Earth, a downloadable program that reveals information about the planet, including sea level height, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, and ozone levels. The program provides a real-time glimpse of multiple NASA missions. The app also allows users to track any of the satellites observing Earth, including the smallest " cube satellites ," which can be as small as 10 cubic centimeters (0.6 cubic inches). Using the app, Craig took us on a tour of Earth.

A second program, called Eyes on the Solar System, allows users to check out missions around other worlds. With the app, users can check out new missions, such as OSIRIS-REx , or older ones, like Voyager 1 and 2 .

Both Eyes programs can only be downloaded on a computer, but the next app Craig showed us was made for smartphones. Known as Spacecraft 3D, the app works a lot like "Pokémon Go," though Craig was quick to point out that they were doing it long before people started using their phones to hunt for Pikachu. Instead of encouraging people to search for Japanese cartoon characters, Spacecraft 3D allows users take pictures with their favorite spacecraft by inserting a digital representation of the spacecraft into the phone's camera app. The app requires an augmented-reality target card that can be printed out from the JPL apps website .

My 15-year-old daughter and I had picked up a card from Craig the day before, at a conference we were attending. She spent an hour taking pictures in which the Curiosity rover appeared to be sitting around the hotel room and on her shoulder.

The programs, along with several others, are available on JPL's apps website.

The center of the universe

Our last stop on the tour was the Space Flight Operations Facility, home of the mission control center. Inside the lobby stood a monument to the famed "lucky peanuts," which have made their appearance at important junctures for JPL missions. In 1964, six robotic NASA missions had failed to reach the moon. For the seventh, Ranger 7, mission trajectory engineer Dick Wallace handed out peanuts to the people in mission control, to take off the edge, starting a new JPL tradition.

Our group passed through a set of security doors into the Charles Elachi mission control center. In a room to the left sat two rows of computer panels labeled based on their roles, such as "navigation" and "flight director." Next to each monitor sat a headset, ready to go. In the back corner, holding his own lucky peanuts, stood the Mars Science Laboratory "Mohawk Guy," Bobak Ferdowsi , in a cardboard cutout. Ferdowsi became a minor celebrity when his dramatic haircut drew the public's attention during the landing of the Mars Curiosity rover.

Jim McClure, manager of mission control, welcomed us inside and gave us an overview of the control room and the role it plays in JPL's missions. Then, we watched a video of the infamous " 7 minutes of terror " — when Curiosity was hurtling toward the Martian surface and no one knew if it would survive the fall.  

Through a set of glass windows, we saw the Deep Space Network command center. Data from all over the solar system streams into telescopes in California, Australia and Spain, and it's all managed in this little room in Pasadena.

The room itself is fairly dark, lit primarily by the glow of multiple banks of computers and several large screens overhead. It is overseen by at least five engineers, seven days a week.

According to McClure, four years ago, former JPL Director Charles Elachi was describing how the control center collects information from both inside and outside the solar system. "This must be the center of the universe!" Elachi reportedly said.

Now, a plaque on the floor of the room makes that title official. In a sunken glass box in the floor sits a seal. "JPL" is written boldly in the middle, encircled by the words "NASA" and "the California Institute of Technology." An "X" divides the seal into four wedges, with an image commemorating the various types of missions (telescopes, landers, orbiters and flybys) in each one. The words beneath the seal proclaim the spot to be "The Center of the Universe."

"We fly our nerd flags extremely high here at JPL — so high we have had four marriage proposals at the center of the universe," McClure said.

Fear of the infamous Los Angeles traffic motivates me to leave the tour early to make sure I don't miss my flight. But the high level of security meant I can't go back to my car alone. While Cook continues with the group, Petrovich escorts my daughter and me to the bus, where we ride back to the visitor parking. I convince him to stop above the famous Mars yard , where rovers are tested under Mars-like conditions, and I take a few pictures. Next time, I promise myself, I'll come back to this yard, and take a walk on Earth's Mars.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd Facebook or Google+ . Follow us at @Spacedotcom , Facebook or Google+ . Originally published on Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Nola Taylor Tillman is a contributing writer for Space.com. She loves all things space and astronomy-related, and enjoys the opportunity to learn more. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Astrophysics from Agnes Scott college and served as an intern at Sky & Telescope magazine. In her free time, she homeschools her four children. Follow her on Twitter at @NolaTRedd

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Earth Educators' Rendezvous

Pasadena, ca, july 10-14, 2023, get social with #earther23.

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Tour

Take part in this in-person tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ! The 2.5 hour educational group tour generally includes a multimedia presentation that provides an overview of the activities and accomplishments of the JPL, entitled "Journey to the Planets and Beyond." Participants may also visit the von Karman Visitor Center, the Space Flight Operations Facility, and the Spacecraft Assembly Facility. Please note that the tour includes approximately 1 mile of walking, including multiple flights of stairs. Bus transportation will be provided. Space is limited and pre-registration is required, as JPL requires we provide a roster well in advance. To meet this requirement, the deadline to register for the tour is 7 June 2023. Please also see the note below about required identification documentation.

Space is limited to 50 participants, and pre-registration is required by June 7, 2023. You can register for this lab tour using the Earth Educators' Rendezvous registration form (field trips section). The cost for this tour is $50 and includes transportation to and from JPL.

Please note these requirements from the JPL:

• All US citizens 18 years of age or older visiting JPL MUST present official, government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license or passport , before being allowed entry.
• Anyone not on our approved roster will not be admitted on to the facility. We are unable to make substitutions on the roster.
• All non-US citizens (Foreign Nationals) 18 years of age or older MUST present either a passport or resident visa (green card) before being allowed entry. Individuals without the appropriate identification will NOT be admitted to the facility.
• The tour includes considerable walking and stair climbing. Dress comfortably and appropriately for the weather. Wheelchairs can be accommodated (but not provided) with prior notice. Cameras are allowed on the tour. While a small personal item can be brought on tour, please refrain from bringing any large items, such as duffle bags and suitcases. *Note: All tours are conducted in English*

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First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

Alignment of bipolar jets confirms star formation theories

For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area (seen at the upper left) of this young, nearby star-forming region.

Astronomers found an intriguing group of protostellar outflows, formed when jets of gas spewing from newborn stars collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. Typically these objects have varied orientations within one region. Here, however, they are slanted in the same direction, to the same degree, like sleet pouring down during a storm.

Image: Serpens Nebula (NIRCam)

The discovery of these aligned objects, made possible due to Webb’s exquisite spatial resolution and sensitivity in near-infrared wavelengths, is providing information into the fundamentals of how stars are born.

“Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction,” said principal investigator Klaus Pontoppidan, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “However, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born.”

So just how does the alignment of the stellar jets relate to the rotation of the star? As an interstellar gas cloud crashes in on itself to form a star, it spins more rapidly. The only way for the gas to continue moving inward is for some of the spin (known as angular momentum) to be removed. A disk of material forms around the young star to transport material down, like a whirlpool around a drain. The swirling magnetic fields in the inner disk launch some of the material into twin jets that shoot outward in opposite directions, perpendicular to the disk of material.

In the Webb image, these jets are signified by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shockwaves from the jet hitting surrounding gas and dust. Here, the red color represents the presence of molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

“This area of the Serpens Nebula – Serpens North – only comes into clear view with Webb,” said lead author Joel Green of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “We’re now able to catch these extremely young stars and their outflows, some of which previously appeared as just blobs or were completely invisible in optical wavelengths because of the thick dust surrounding them.”

Astronomers say there are a few forces that potentially can shift the direction of the outflows during this period of a young star’s life. One way is when binary stars spin around each other and wobble in orientation, twisting the direction of the outflows over time.

Stars of the Serpens

The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is only one or two million years old, which is very young in cosmic terms. It’s also home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (~100,000 years old), seen at the center of this image. Some of these stars will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun.

“Webb is a young stellar object-finding machine,” Green said. “In this field, we pick up sign posts of every single young star, down to the lowest mass stars.”

“It’s a very complete picture we’re seeing now,” added Pontoppidan.

So, throughout the region in this image, filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud. In some areas, there is dust in front of that reflection, which appears here with an orange, diffuse shade.

This region has been home to other coincidental discoveries, including the flapping “Bat Shadow,” which earned its name when 2020 data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed a star’s planet-forming disk to flap, or shift. This feature is visible at the center of the Webb image.

Video: A Tour Of The Serpens Nebula

Future Studies

The new image, and serendipitous discovery of the aligned objects, is actually just the first step in this scientific program. The team will now use Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) to investigate the chemical make-up of the cloud.

The astronomers are interested in determining how volatile chemicals survive star and planet formation. Volatiles are compounds that sublimate, or transition from a solid directly to a gas, at a relatively low temperature – including water and carbon monoxide. They’ll then compare their findings to amounts found in protoplanetary disks of similar-type stars.

“At the most basic form, we are all made of matter that came from these volatiles. The majority of water here on Earth originated when the Sun was an infant protostar billions of years ago,” Pontoppidan said. “Looking at the abundance of these critical compounds in protostars just before their protoplanetary disks have formed could help us understand how unique the circumstances were when our own solar system formed.”

These observations were taken as part of General Observer program 1611. The team’s initial results have been accepted in the Astrophysical Journal.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser's popup menu.

View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Science Paper: The science paper by J. Green et al., PDF (7.93 MB) 

Media Contacts

Laura Betz - [email protected] , Rob Gutro - [email protected] NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, Md.

Hanna Braun [email protected] Christine Pulliam - [email protected] Space Telescope Science Institute , Baltimore, Md.

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Glendale library, arts & culture and jet propulsion laboratory present "blended worlds: experiments in interplanetary imagination" at the brand library & art center.

Part of Getty's Regional Art Event PST ART: Art & Science Collide

September 21, 2024 – January 4 , 2025 

GLENDALE, Calif. , June 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Glendale's Library, Arts & Culture Department , in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an operating division of Caltech and a Federally Funded Research and Development Center for NASA, have announced a new exhibition titled "Blended Worlds: Experiments in Interplanetary Imagination," on view at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale from September 21, 2024 to January 4, 2025 . "Blended Worlds" is presented as part of Getty's regional art event PST ART: Art & Science Collide which explores the intersections of art and science — past, present and in the imaginable future.

" Glendale is a vibrant and evolving arts destination, committed to finding opportunities to present thought-provoking and innovative programs that serve our broad audiences," said the City's Principal Arts & Culture Administrator Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones . "We're thrilled to collaborate with JPL to present an exhibition of this scale that contributes to the greater PST ART initiative in a meaningful way, examining urgent topics and asking big questions about the confluence of art and science."

"Blended Worlds" explores the landscape of human relationships with our ever-expanding environment. Through a series of art and science collaborations, the exhibition questions how empathy and connectedness can both reveal new worlds and inspire innovative ways to nurture them. "Blended Worlds" includes artists collaborating with a team of JPL scientists and engineers to present a vision of the future that invites the viewer to consider the impact of greater connectedness with nature and its ability to foster a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity with our planet and the cosmos. Spanning a range of multimedia and cross-disciplinary works from 11 artists, "Blended Worlds" features contributions from renowned contemporary artist Larry Bell and cyborg artist Moon Ribas in addition to David Bowen , Darel Carey , Annette Lee , Ada Limón, Bruce Mau , Viktoria Modesta , Shane Myrbeck , Raffi Joe Wartanian and Saskia Wilson-Brown .

"As a hub of innovation in Southern California , we are thrilled with this collaboration, which merges the worlds of art and science," said Laurie Leshin , director of JPL. "This is a unique opportunity to share the awe-inspiring beauty of space exploration, contemplate profound questions about our vast cosmos, and highlight the creativity at the heart of JPL. Together, we hope to inspire curiosity within our local community and foster a deeper appreciation for both scientific discovery and artistic expression."

Exhibition highlights include Larry Bell's sculpture titled Time Machine and a drum solo performance piece by Moon Ribas titled Seismic Percussion . Bell, a central figure in the California Light and Space movement of the 1960s, is known foremost for his refined surface treatment of glass exploring the interplay between light, reflection and shadow. His experimentation with the deposition of thin films on glass surfaces requires technologies similar to those used by JPL in the development of robotic space missions. Bell's sculpture Time Machine invites two visitors to sit on either side of a barium glass mirror that is both reflective and transparent. When seated, the visitors experience a visual merging with one another, inviting visual play as well as reflections on individuality, mutuality, identity and presence.

In Seismic Percussion , Ribas translates the Earth's seismic activity into a drum score, creating a data-driven performance from the seismic activity of our planet. For "Blended Worlds," Ribas extends her focus to include quake activity on Mars, using data collected by NASA's Mars InSight lander, which studied the interior of Mars through seismic investigations from 2018 to 2022. Seismic Percussion transposes this multi-planetary seismic activity into a musical performance that condenses time, enabling audiences to connect with the natural rhythms of both Earth and Mars.

Additional highlights of the exhibition include David Bowen's Tele-present Wind . This installation features 126 x/y tilting mechanical devices connected to thin grass stalks that move in response to Martian wind data collected by NASA rover and lander missions managed for NASA by JPL. In the gallery space, the stalks move in synchrony with the Martian wind, temporarily uniting Earth and Mars through the dynamic interaction of wind and motion.

As part of PST ART, a number of public programs and community events will also accompany the "Blended Worlds" gallery exhibition including Blended Worlds: An Evening of Art, Theater and Science hosted by Reggie Watts at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on October 5, 2024 ; Earth Data: The Musical , an original musical developed by Caltech Theater Arts exploring the challenges of climate research and science as a human pursuit at Caltech's Ramo Auditorium on November 1-3, 2024 and PST ART: Art + Science Family Festival , created with Edinburgh Science Festival, on November 9-11, 2024 among others. More information on events to be announced soon.

Southern California's landmark arts event, PST ART, returns in September 2024 , presenting more than 60 exhibitions from organizations across the Southern California region exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide , visit: pst.art

JPL acknowledges the generous support of the Glendale Arts & Culture Commission and the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust.

Brand Library & Art Center 1601 West Mountain Street Glendale, CA 91201

Hours Tuesday-Thursday: 11:00AM-8:00PM Friday-Saturday: 10:00AM-5:00PM Closed Sunday-Monday and holidays

Website  | Instagram | Facebook | X

About Glendale   Known as the "Jewel City," Glendale is the fourth largest city of Los Angeles County . With a population of more than 200,000, Glendale is a thriving cosmopolitan city that is rich in history, culturally diverse, and offers nearly 50 public parks, and easy access to a municipal airport. It is the home to a vibrant business community, with major companies in healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, retail, and banking.

About Glendale Library, Arts & Culture   Founded in 1907, the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Department includes eight neighborhood libraries including the Brand Library & Art Center, a regional visual arts and music library and performance venue housed in the historic 1904 mansion of Glendale pioneer Leslie C. Brand , and the Central Library, a 93,000 square foot center for individuals and groups to convene, collaborate and create. The department also serves as the chief liaison to the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission which works to continually transform Glendale into an ever-evolving arts destination. Glendale Library Arts & Culture is supported in part through the efforts of the Glendale Library Arts & Culture Trust (GLACT). For more information visit GlendaleLAC.org , or contact Library, Arts & Culture at 818-548-2021 or via email at [email protected] . Follow on Instagram , Facebook and X at @MyGlendaleLAC.

About Brand Library & Art Center   Brand Library & Art Center has been a cornerstone for the arts in Southern California since 1956. This unique public library focuses on visual arts and music and provides free services and programs for a diverse community, including print and online collections, subject specialist librarians, exhibitions, concerts, lectures, dance performances, films, and hands-on craft programs for children and adults. Brand Library seeks to develop innovative programs, services and collections to serve an ever-widening public interested in the arts. Brand Library & Art Center is a branch of the City of Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Department. For more information visit BrandLibrary.org or contact 818-548-2051. Follow on Instagram , Facebook  and X @BrandLibary.

About The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California , JPL began in 1936 and ultimately built and helped launch America's first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. By the end of that year, Congress established NASA and JPL became a part of the agency. Since then, JPL has managed such historic missions as Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, the Mars Exploration Rover program, the Perseverance Mars rover, and many more.

View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/glendale-library-arts--culture-and-jet-propulsion-laboratory-present-blended-worlds-experiments-in-interplanetary-imagination-at-the-brand-library--art-center-302183791.html

SOURCE The City of Glendale's Library, Arts & Culture Department

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Have you ever wondered where NASA’s Mars rovers are built, or where data from deep space spacecraft is received on Earth? In a typical year, over 30,000 people visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For the first time, you can see the Southern California facility from anywhere in the world on a virtual tour.

Virtually visit the spacecraft assembly facility and clean room. Explore the visitor center museum and mission control center. Watch videos and learn about JPL’s rich history of space exploration.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/virtual-tour/

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APR Consulting Awarded 10-Year Contract With NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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APR Consulting, Inc., is one of the most trusted professional recruitment and contingent workforce solutions providers in the US. Known for exceptional responsiveness, agile strategies and consistently high-level talent, the firm has become a go-to for organizations and managed services providers navigating complex change and urgent challenges. Since its founding in 1980, APR has transformed from a California IT-focused staffing firm to filling a wide range of positions and serving over 15 industries — from aerospace to healthcare, gaming, utilities and telecom –– in all 50 states, with a loyal roster of more than 1,000 specialized professionals. Discover more at   aprconsulting.com .

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NASA Selects Participating Scientists to Join ESA’s Hera Mission

This artist’s concept shows ESA’s Hera spacecraft and its CubeSats in orbit around the Dimorphos moonlet. NASA has selected 12 participating scientists to join the Hera mission.

Three scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are among the dozen selected by the agency for the ESA planetary defense mission slated to launch later this year.

NASA has selected 12 participating scientists to join ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024. Hera will study the binary asteroid system Didymos, including the moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by NASA’s DART ( Double Asteroid Redirection Test ) spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The objectives of DART and Hera collectively aim to validate the kinetic impact method as a technology to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, if one is ever discovered, and to learn more about the near-Earth asteroids that are the source of this natural hazard.

Hera is scheduled to arrive at the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid system at the end of 2026, where it will gather otherwise unobtainable data about the mass and makeup of both bodies and assess the changes caused by the DART spacecraft’s kinetic impact.

The goal of NASA’s Hera Participating Scientist Program is to support scientists at U.S. institutions to participate on the Hera mission and address outstanding questions in planetary defense and near-Earth asteroid science. The participating scientists will become Hera science team members during their five-year tenure with the mission.

The newly selected participating scientists are:

• Bonnie Buratti — NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern California
• Ingrid Daubar — Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
• Carolyn Ernst — Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
• Dawn Graninger — Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• Mark Haynes — NASA JPL
• Masatoshi Hirabayashi — Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
• Tim Lister — Las Cumbres Observatory, Goleta, California
• Ryan Park — NASA JPL
• Andrew Rivkin — Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
• Daniel Scheeres — University of Colorado, Boulder
• Timothy Titus — U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
• Yun Zhang — University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

DART was the first planetary defense test mission from NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office , which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. International participation in DART and Hera, including the Hera Participating Scientist Program, has been enabled by an ongoing worldwide collaboration in the planetary defense research community known as the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment.

DART was designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense.

To learn more about NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

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Karen Fox / Charles Blue

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