New Horizons Offers New View of Ultima Thule

In the early hours of New Year’s Day, the New Horizons spacecraft came within 2,200 miles Ultima Thule, a distant, icy object on the edge of our solar system and now the most distant world ever visited by a spacecraft.

SwRI’s Alan Stern Appointed to National Science Board

Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute, has been appointed to the National Science Board (NSB) by the Trump Administration.

Collisions after Moon Formation Remodeled Early Earth.

Southwest Research Institute scientists recently modeled the protracted period of bombardment following the Moon’s formation, when leftover planetesimals pounded the Earth. Based on these simulations, scientists theorize that moon-sized objects delivered more mass to the Earth than previously thought.

By SwRI

SwRI Scientists Find Early Planetary Shake-up

Scientists at Southwest Research Institute studied an unusual pair of asteroids and discovered that their existence points to an early planetary rearrangement in our solar system.

By SwRI

SwRI scientist helps characterize water on lunar surface

A Southwest Research Institute scientist with expertise in how water reacts with lunar soil contributed to a new study that indicates water and/or hydroxyl may be more prevalent on the Moon’s surface than previously thought.

SwRI-led Team Creates High-fidelity Images of Sun’s Atmosphere

A Southwest Research Institute-led team discovered never-before-detected, fine-grained structures in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. The team imaged this critical region in detail using sophisticated software techniques and longer exposures from the COR-2 camera on board NASA’s Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A).