Chelsea Gohd


As a science writer/editor/communicator, I work to share complex science with a public audience in a way that is not just accessible, but awe-inspiring. My work spans a wide range of science topics, with focuses on climate, Earth science, and astronomy.




NASA Science •

Discovery Alert: 'Baby' Planet Photographed in a Ring around a Star for the First Time!  - NASA Science

WISPIT 2b  Researchers have discovered a young protoplanet called WISPIT 2b embedded in a ring-shaped gap in a disk encircling a young star. While theorists have thought that planets likely exist in these gaps (and possibly even create them), this is the first time that it has actually been observed. Researchers have directly detected – essentially photographed – a new planet called WISPIT 2b, labeled a protoplanet because it is an astronomical object that is accumulating material and growi...
NASA Science •

Discovery Alert: Scientists Spot a Planetary Carousel - NASA Science

KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c  A new investigation into old Kepler data has revealed that a planetary system once thought to house zero planets actually has two planets which orbit their star in a unique style, like an old-fashioned merry-go-round.  The KOI-134 system contains two planets which orbit their star in a peculiar fashion on two different orbital planes, with one planet exhibiting significant variation in transit times. This is the first-discovered system of its kind.  Over a decade...
NASA Science •

Dark Matter - NASA Science

Dark matter is the invisible glue that holds the universe together. This mysterious material is all around us, making up most of the matter in the universe. But what exactly is dark matter? That's a question that scientists have been trying to solve for almost 100 years.  Dark matter makes up most of the mass in galaxies and galaxy clusters. In fact, scientists estimate that ordinary matter makes up only about 5% of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27%. (The rest is thought to b...
NASA Science •

What is Dark Energy? Inside Our Accelerating, Expanding Universe - NASA Science

Some 13.8 billion years ago, the universe began with a rapid expansion we call the big bang. After this initial expansion, which lasted a fraction of a second, gravity started to slow the universe down. But the cosmos wouldn’t stay this way. Nine billion years after the universe began, its expansion started to speed up, driven by an unknown force that scientists have named dark energy. But what exactly is dark energy? The short answer is: We don't know. But we do know that it exists, it’s...
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) •

NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope

The Roman Coronagraph is integrated with the Instrument Carrier for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October 2024. The instrument will demonstrate advanced hardware for studying Earth-size planets with the right conditions for life.NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that...

Still Kickin' Since the '70s: NASA's Voyager Mission Keeps Exploring - NASA Science

Voyager is a NASA mission made up of two different spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, which launched to space on Sept. 5, 1977, and Aug. 20, 1977, respectively. In the decades following launch, the pair took a grand tour of our solar system, studying Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — one of NASA’s earliest efforts to explore the secrets of the universe. These twin probes later became the first spacecraft to operate in interstellar space — space outside the heliosphere, the bubble of solar wind an...
one5c •

Plastic pollution in the ocean: What you need to know

More than two-thirds of Earth’s surface is covered in water, so, given our propensity for plastic, it feels almost inevitable that we’d create plastic pollution in the ocean. From unintentional debris runoff from rivers and waterways to illegal dumping, the big blue deep is being consistently polluted by waste. Here’s what you need to know about the causes and consequences of plastic in the ocean.  We’ll get into the dirty details later on, but in a nutshell: Pollution in the deep is a proble...
Space.com •

2020 ties record for the hottest year ever, NASA analysis shows

The year 2020 — which saw the continuing coronavirus pandemic as well as massive wildfires across Australia, Siberia and the United States — also tied the record for the hottest year on record, a new NASA study shows. Up until this past year, 2016 ranked as the warmest year on record for planet Earth. 2020 surpassed this previous record by a very small amount, under one-tenth of a degree, the agency announced Thursday (Jan. 14). However, the difference between the two years is within the margin
NASA Universe Exploration •

What is Betelgeuse? Inside the Strange, Volatile Star – NASA Universe Exploration

A blazing red supergiant shining brilliantly in the night sky, Betelgeuse is a star that has captured humanity's awe and attention for centuries. The "right shoulder" in the constellation Orion (or left shoulder, as seen from Earth), Betelgeuse (or Alpha Orionis) is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and one of the largest stars ever discovered. But there is more to this ultra-bright stellar monster than meets the eye. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star with a distinctive orange-red
Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System •

Discovery Alert: Ultra-hot 'Super-Earth' Could Have No Atmosphere

The discovery: GJ 1252 b, a rocky, terrestrial "super-Earth" discovered in 2020, has been given a closer look and astronomers have found that the exoplanet could have a very minimal atmosphere or possibly no atmosphere at all. The planet, which orbits an M-type star, is "the smallest exoplanet yet for which we have such tight constraints on its atmosphere,” said lead author Ian Crossfield, an astronomer and assistant professor at the University of Kansas. Key facts: Astronomers often discover
NASA Universe Exploration •

What Happens When Something Gets ‘Too Close' to a Black Hole? – NASA Universe Exploration

Can a star be squeezed like a tube of toothpaste, flattened like a pancake, or stretched out like a piece of spaghetti? If there's a black hole nearby, maybe. Scattered across the universe, black holes are objects with gravity so powerful, nothing can escape their grasp. These objects can tear apart whole stars and planets. Scientists have theorized about the existence of black holes since the 18th century. However, it wasn’t until 1964 that astronomers found strong evidence of a black hole fo
NASA Universe Exploration •

Star Clusters: Inside the Universe's Stellar Collections –

Billions of trillions of stars speckle the universe. Star clusters are groups of stars that share an origin, forming at roughly the same time and location, and are tied together by gravity for up to millions or even billions of years. Stars are born within clouds of gas and dust when the conditions are just right. Gravity causes this gas (primarily hydrogen) and dust to collapse. As the cloud collapses and the pressure starts to build, its core will heat up. This hot core, known as a protostar,
Space.com •

Nighttime weather on Venus revealed for the 1st time

In a new study, researchers have revealed the nighttime weather on Venus for the first time. What's the weather like at night on Venus? Scientists are finally finding out. Just one planet away, Venus is relatively close to Earth and we have been studying it for a long time, with the first Venusian probe reaching the planet in 1978. However, scientists have known very little about what the weather is like at night on Venus. That is, until now. In a new study, researchers have devised a new way
Space.com •

Earth is hotter than ever — So what happens next?

This week, NASA revealed that 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record . The announcement, part of an annual release of global temperature data by NASA and NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), revealed that our planet just keeps getting hotter. This data is an important part of our growing understanding of . But what do these new findings mean for the future of our planet and life on Earth? "We're already seeing impacts," Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist
Space.com •

Scientists find first evidence of rare Higgs boson decay

Scientists have spotted the first evidence of a rare decay, expanding our understanding of the strange quantum universe. In 2012, the was awarded to a breakthrough finding: the detection of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle predicted by nearly 50 years prior. The Higgs boson doesn't live very long, quickly decaying into less massive particles like two photons (light particles). Now, researchers using ATLAS and CMS at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have found evidence for a rar
Space.com •

Inspiration4 SpaceX mission carrying indie-pop song to orbit

Inspiration4 astronaut Sian Proctor will bring indie-pop artist Foxanne's new single to space with her as part of a personal playlist. The all-civilian Inspiration4 crew is carrying a special package to space in their personal equipment — a digital copy of an independent artist's song about finding meaning in existence. Independent singer-songwriter Foxanne saw her song "I Could Go On" rocket to space on Sept. 15 when the Inspiration4 mission launched to Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rock
Space.com •

Newly discovered bacteria on space station could help astronauts grow plants on Mars

The Veggie experiment, which is used to grow lettuce on the International Space Station. In a new study, researchers have discovered new bacteria on the space station that they think could support future food growing efforts in space. What will future astronauts living on Mars or traveling in deep space eat? Researchers have discovered three new strains of bacteria on the International Space Station that they think could one day help astronauts to . While space food has evolved from the puree
Space.com •

Ozone pollution levels have increased over the past 20 years, study finds

In a new study, researchers found that, over 20 years, ozone increased in Earth's lower atmosphere over the Northern Hemisphere. Ozone pollution has increased across the over the past 20 years, researchers have found in a new study — the first study to use ozone data collected by commercial aircraft. In the new research, scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder studied levels of ozone — a greenhouse gas which
Space.com •

Dropped emissions during COVID-19 lockdown will do 'nothing' for climate change

A view from space of how emissions are changing in response to coronavirus. While greenhouse gas as the world locked down in response to the pandemic, such dips will do "nothing" to slow climate change unless society moves away from fossil fuels, researchers have found. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, a pandemic, which it remains today. To slow the spread of the virus, countries around the world began implementing lockdown meas
Space.com •

Astronomers spot the fastest spinning magnetar ever seen

Far-off in the Milky Way galaxy, 21,000 light-years from Earth, astronomers have spotted the fastest-spinning magnetar (and possibly youngest, too) ever seen. And that's just the start of what makes this star strange. are a unique type of , which are the collapsed cores of supergiant stars that died in supernova events. What sets magnetars apart from other neutron stars is that they possess extremely powerful magnetic fields — he most powerful ones in the known universe, in fact. They can also
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