discoveries

- Astronaut photograph from the ISS (May 27, 2026) captured downtown San Francisco during a break in unsettled weather. - Image shows the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, dense urban grids, and Golden Gate Park’s 1,000+ acres of green space. - Northeastern waterfront features historic wharves, piers, seawalls

- On June 5, 2026, NASA’s experimental X-59 exceeded the speed of sound for the first time (about Mach 1.1, 713 mph) during an 81‑minute flight from Edwards AFB. - Test pilot Jim “Clue” Less took off and landed; the team evaluated flying qualities in both subsonic and

- NASA’s experimental X-59 flew supersonic for the first time on June 5, 2026, reaching about Mach 1.1 (713 mph) and 43,400 ft during an 81‑minute test from Edwards Air Force Base. - Test pilot Jim “Clue” Less conducted the flight focused on flying qualities across subsonic

- A study published June 5 (Science Advances) combines two decades of NASA MODIS satellite data, ocean surveys, and genetic markers in Prochlorococcus to map phytoplankton nutrient stress globally. - Warming sea-surface temperatures increase stratification, reduce upwelling, and limit surface nutrients, with strongest stress in subtropical gyres and the South Pacific.

- NASA’s Aqua/MODIS imagery captured smoke from numerous fires in Australia’s Northern Territory on May 28, 2026. - Many detected fires are deliberate prescribed burns, typically lit in mornings to manage savanna fuel loads. - Indigenous practices and modern programs (e.g., WALFA, Arnhem Land Fire Abatement) coordinate large-scale

- A NASA-supported study found that over the past decade wildfires have increased ground-level ozone (smog) across much of the contiguous U.S., worsening air quality far from fires. - Nationally, fires offset nearly four years of ozone-control gains; in the Midwest wildfires erased about 5.3 years of