The American Geophysical Union (AGU) returned to the nation's capital in 2024, hosting its annual meeting at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC from December 9-14, 2024. NASA Science upheld its long-standing tradition as an AGU partner and exhibitor, leveraging the meeting as an opportunity to share NASA's cutting-edge research, data, and technology with the largest collection of Earth and planetary science professionals in the world. Many of the estimated 25,000 students, scientists, and industry personnel who attended the conference visited the NASA Science exhibit, interacting with NASA subject matter experts as detailed in the essay that follows - see Photo 1. Visitors also watched live Hyperwall presentations and collected NASA Science outreach materials, such as the 2025 NASA Science Planning Guide.
Photo 1. Paulo Younse [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Robotics Systems Group-Engineer,] poses with a model of the sample tube he designed for the caching architecture that was used on NASA's Mars Sample Return mission.
Photo credit: NASA
Highlights from the NASA Science Exhibit
NASA Hyperwall Stories
The NASA Hyperwall has been a focal point of the agency's outreach efforts for over two decades, serving as both a powerful storytelling platform and the primary vehicle through which the public engages with the award-winning visualizations published by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) - see Photo 2. Forty-nine NASA mission scientists and program representatives shared NASA science with the public from the Hyperwall stage during AGU24. NASA leadership shared mission news and outlined upcoming research across all five of the NASA Science divisions: Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, and biological and physical sciences - see Photos 3-8. A catalog of NASA project scientists and mission representatives, who provided colorful overviews of everything from NASA's Mars Sample Return to the Parker Solar Probe's historic flyby of the Sun, delivered additional presentations.
Photo 2. Mark Subbarao [NASA GSFC-Director of NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio] highlighted key visualizations produced by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio during 2024 and presented them as a countdown of the top 10 visualizations of the year.
Photo credit: NASA
The complete AGU24 Hyperwall schedule is available at this link. Readers can view YouTube videos of the presentations via links over the individual names in the photo captions below.
Photo 3. Nicola Fox [NASA HQ-Associate Administrator of Science Mission Directorate] kicked off the week's Hyperwall storytelling series by sharing 12 images selected for the 2025 NASA Science Planning Guide. Each image underscores the beauty of the natural world and the inherent value of scientific endeavors undertaken not only at NASA but by citizens around the globe.
Photo credit: NASA
Photo 4. Karen St. Germain [NASA HQ-Director of the Earth Science Division] provided audience members with an overview of NASA's Earth Science Division - including the latest science from the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and Ecosystems (PACE) mission.
Photo credit: NASA
Photo 5. Jack Kaye [NASA HQ-Director of the Airborne Science Program] highlighted key airborne science missions that flew in 2024 and demonstrated the broad list of airborne satellites and instruments and how their applications enable the advancement of Earth science research around the globe.
Photo 7. Mark Clampin [NASA HQ-Director of the Astrophysics Division] gave AGU attendees a glimpse of NASA missions that will help researchers around the globe observe distant worlds and answer profound questions about the physics of the universe beyond our solar system. His presentation centered around the impact of the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO).
Photo credit: NASA
Photo 8. Lisa Carnell [NASA HQ-Director of the Biological Sciences Division], who sits at the helm of NASA's newest scientific division, gave an overview of the current and future NASA research that is enhancing our understanding of how humans can live and work in space.
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