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4 MIN READ
Lauren Leese
News

Astromat Launches New Data Submission Interface

NASA’s Astromaterials Data System (Astromat) has updated its data submission interface to support a more streamlined curation and review process. Astromat is a public database that shares laboratory analytical data for geological samples collected by planetary science missions, including lunar, meteorite, asteroid, and cosmic dust samples.

Astromat allows researchers to submit astromaterials data that can be shared in the archive after passing a review process. The repository’s new interface ensures that submitted datasets move more efficiently toward approval and publication.

To read more updates from Astromat, visit the Astromat news page.

PSI Database Publishes Three New Datasets for Microgravity Research

In the month of February, NASA’s Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) database published new datasets about physical processes in space, including studies of microgravity plant watering techniques, glass structures, and colloidal gels.

  • PSI-187: This record contains data from Plant Water Management experiments, which demonstrated recirculating hydroponic and ebb-and-flow watering techniques in microgravity. Results from this research can lead to technical risk reduction for future bioregenerative life support architectures and potentially strengthen NASA’s ability to develop reliable, scalable crop production systems for sustained lunar and Mars exploration.
  • PSI-178: This investigation used the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Electrostatic Levitation Furnace aboard the International Space Station to levitate and melt oxide samples, enabling precise measurements of density, thermal expansion, viscosity, and surface tension without the interference of convection. The experiment represented the first direct comparison of glass structures formed in microgravity versus on Earth, laying the groundwork for new functional glasses and related technologies for both Earth and space applications.
  • PSI-182: Additional data was recently added to the public PSI grant dataset “Colloidal Gels: Aging in Microgravity, Structure of Highly Polydisperse Gels.” The release of Version 2 included 10.6 GB of new data, focusing on the study of highly polydisperse particles using confocal microscopy.

NASA Exoplanet Archive Adds 41 New Planets

In the month of February, NASA’s Exoplanet Archive published datasets for a total of 41 new planets in its public repository. This includes the first few confirmed planets from the KOINTREAU (Keck Observations in the Infrared of Taurus and ρ Oph Exoplanets and Ultracool dwarfs) survey.

The archive also publishes spectra of exoplanet atmospheres captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, and it added 16 new exoplanet spectra in February, hot on the heels of the 468 new spectra published at the end of January. All together, these recently added spectra make up nearly 45% of all the spectra currently in the Exoplanet Archive.

For more exoplanet data news, see the NASA Exoplanet Archive News page.

11 Data Products from PACE Mission Added to ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission monitors key indicators in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. In February, Esri’s ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World made 11 PACE data products available on its platform. These products include PACE’s observations of Chlorphyll-a, Aerosol Optical Depth, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).

PACE data products unlock key insights for a variety of Earth science contexts, including water resources, land management, and air quality. For more information about the new PACE imagery in the Living Atlas of the World, read the news article on the NASA Earthdata website.

Open Science Data Repository Team Releases 31 New Datasets

The Open Science Data Repository team curated and released 31 new datasets in February. These datasets represent two studies from the same RRRM-1 (RR-8) spaceflight mission and animal cohort, organized by tissue type. They provide a unique opportunity to conduct a comprehensive, system-wide comparison across the entire organism. Now that these datasets are publicly available, they can be reanalyzed in the context of other datasets.

Datasets from the “MicroRNAs shape mouse age-independent tissue adaptation to spaceflight via ECM and developmental pathways” study:

Datasets from the “Spaceflight induces systemic effects on extracellular matrix and immune system in different age-stages” study: