NASA Spotlight - 2026

January 2026 marked an exciting milestone for Mrs. Meredith Cullen, Cooper Buchman, Khandro Butler, Emma Marmande, Allen Moore, and Sam Williams as they wrapped up their work with the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP). The team traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, where they presented their findings at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS)—joining astronomers and researchers from around the world to share cutting-edge discoveries. Their project focused on creating a catalog of short-term variable active galactic nuclei (AGN)—supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are actively consuming surrounding matter. This work contributes to a larger scientific goal: improving cosmic distance measurements and helping to resolve the Hubble tension, the ongoing discrepancy in how fast the universe appears to be expanding.