Space Sciences Laboratory

Big Give is TODAY! 🎉Learn more about SSL's history below, and please consider donating to support our mission in education, innovation and discovery.👇 givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/108…

Happy Psyche asteroid discovery day! Others may refer to this day as St. Patrick's Day, and we're all for it, but on this day in 1852 Annibale de Gasparis discovered (16) Psyche while working at the observatory in Naples. Celebrate both! @MissionToPsyche

Robert Lillis discusses the unique advantages of pursuing a career in space science at Berkeley. 🚀 Support space education, innovation and discovery by donating to SSL. #CalBigGive begins tonight at 9PM.👇 givingday.berkeley.edu/giving-day/108…

NASA Loves ESCAPADE 💙💛🚀🛰️

NASA's @escapade_mars mission is now studying Earth's magnetotail. PI @RobLillis describes this first ever visit to this distant region of the magnetosphere. Read more 👇 ssl.berkeley.edu/escapade-magne…

NASA's Mars-bound @escapade_mars mission is currently exploring Earth's magnetotail. “This is a great opportunity for us to test the operation of the ESCAPADE instruments and explore a brand-new region of space...” said principal investigator Rob Lillis. news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/04/ber…

End of my first 7 days at NASA. Super excited to have the honor and privilege of doing whatever I can to help our nation continue to lead the way in science, and get the US back to the Moon to stay. The energy is high! 🚀🛰️🔭👨🏽‍🚀🇺🇸

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission, run by @UCBerkeley @ucbssl, Ready to Study Space Weather from Earth to Mars science.nasa.gov/science-resear… via @NASA

Thrilled to announce that our twin ESCAPADE spacecraft are now fully commissioned, with instruments deployed, collecting science data in the Earth's distant magnetotail >2 million km away, a previously unexplored region of space. Image credit: NASA SVS & Yusuke Ebihara.

SSL leads the auroral imaging instrument for @NASA's forthcoming CINEMA mission, which will explore the connection between auroras and Earth's magnetotail. 👇Read more here: ssl.berkeley.edu/cinema-mission… 🙏to our partners @JHUAPL, @dartmouth and also @Vincent_Ledvina for story help.

John Tomsick explains how COSI will search the skies for gamma-rays in hopes of learning more about black holes and neutron stars.

Thanks to professor Francis Nimmo of @EpsUcsc, who launched our special Friends of SSL colloquium series with a talk on the Moon's formation. A big thanks also to our friends at @mathmoves for hosting the talk in your beautiful auditorium.

There's a lot of antimatter at the center of our galaxy. Where's it coming from? John Tomsick, PI of COSI, aims to find out.

What's a Compton telescope? John Tomsick, PI of COSI, explains.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been a GAPS partner throughout our program. Read their article about the GAPS mission here! isas.jaxa.jp/en/topics/0041… Photo creds: (1) JAXA (2) JAXA made with Natural Earth

GAPS arrived back safe & sound at the Long Duration Balloon site!! This triumphant return marks a new era for the collaboration as we now embark on the adventure of analyzing our 25 days of flight data!

Berkeley Professor Walter Alvarez, who developed the theory that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, stopped by SSL to present his research. We had a lively debate on the likely composition of the body that created the Chicxulub crater.

@ucbssl and our Mission Operations Team is proud to support NASA and the astronauts on this historic mission

The ESCAPADE mission has won an @Erdayastronaut Astro Award! 🎉 We're proud to be recognized for our role in making interplanetary exploration possible at unprecedented speeds and for a fraction of the cost of traditional missions.

Status set to: Interplanetary Cruise 😎 Our twin spacecraft for @NASA and @ucbssl's ESCAPADE mission have completed their engine burns and are now cruising near Earth–Sun L2 Lagrange point. Blue and Gold will hang tight here until November when they’ll begin their cruise to Mars orbit to begin their science mission studying the Martian magnetosphere. 🎥 Watch what’s ahead