How Can Biofilms Help or Hinder Spaceflight?
As humans spread into the cosmos, we will take a plethora of initially Earth-bound life with us for the ride.…
Massive Stars Shine in This Ultraviolet View From Hubble
Just outside the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 210,000 light-years from Earth, there is the dwarf galaxy known as the Small…
Is There a Low-Radiation Path To Europa?
Any mission to Jupiter and its moons must contend with the gas giant's overwhelming radiation. Only a judicious orbital pattern…
How Can Astronauts Avoid Vision Loss from Spaceflight?
Human bodies are sacks of fluids supported by skeletons. The entire human organism has evolved over billions of years on…
The Hardest Bias in Astronomy
A nasty sort of bias called Malmquist bias affects almost every astronomical survey, and the only solution is to...keep doing…
NASA Announces the 2025 Human Lander Challenge
One of NASA's core mission objectives, though not explicitly stated in its charter, is to educate Americans about space exploration,…
NASA Decides to Play it Safe. Wilmore and Williams are Coming Home on a Crew Dragon in February
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain on board the International Space Station until February, returning to Earth on…
JAXA Officially Wraps Up its SLIM Lander Mission
On January 20th, 2024, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) made history when its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)…
After a Boost from Earth and the Moon, Juice is On its Way to Venus and Beyond
The first spacecraft to use gravity assist was NASA's Mariner 10 in 1974. It used a gravity assist from Venus…
X-Ray Telescopes Could Study Exoplanets Too
Exoplanets are often discovered using the transit method (over three quarters of those discovered have been found this way.) The…