News Releases

An ultra-compact motor controller used to revolutionize movement in a state-of-the-art prosthetic arm and an innovative algorithm for improving the performance of undersea sensors are the winners of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Invention of the Year and Government Purpose Innovation awards for 2011.

MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., conducted the second of two maneuvers required to reduce the spacecraft's orbital period about Mercury.

The Modular Prosthetic Limb, developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., is featured on the cover of the May issue of Popular Mechanics, available on newsstands now.

The MESSENGER mission successfully completed the first of two maneuvers designed to reduce the spacecraft's orbital period about Mercury.

Tonight, images from MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System will make their debut on the CBS sitcom, "The Big Bang Theory."

The MESSENGER team has launched a free app that brings you inside NASA's history-making study of Mercury - the first images of the entire planet, along with the detailed data on Mercury's surface, geologic history, thin atmosphere, and active magnetosphere that MESSENGER sends back every day.

On March 25, 1655, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, using a telescope he built himself, observed a small bright dot suspiciously close to the planet Saturn. Huygens correctly surmised that it might be a moon of that planet, and confirmed as much by following it in its orbit over the next few days.

MESSENGER completed its one-year primary mission on March 17. Since moving into orbit about Mercury a little over one year ago, the spacecraft has captured nearly 100,000 images and returned data that have revealed new information about the planet, including its topography, the structure of its core, and areas of permanent shadow at the poles that host the mysterious polar deposits.

On March 17, 2012, MESSENGER successfully wrapped up a year-long campaign to perform the first complete reconnaissance of the geochemistry, geophysics, geologic history, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and plasma environment of the solar system's innermost planet.

Data collected during MESSENGER's third through sixth month in orbit around Mercury were released to the public today by the Planetary Data System (PDS), an organization that archives and distributes all of NASA's planetary mission data.