Tag Archive for 'Astronaut'

This image, taken by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on October 10, 2024, shows comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and its bright tail streaming from the upper left to the right; Mercury appears as a bright dot on the left. Image credit: ESA / NASA.

NASA Astronauts, SOHO Spacecraft Snap New Images of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Oct 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A bright comet from the Oort cloud named C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is passing by Earth and will be visible through the second half of October 2024. This...

Jörges et al. tackled the question of whether body posture influences human perception of self-motion and distance; they found some evidence that the same amount of optic flow can elicit the sensation of having traveled further when supine versus when sitting upright, that is, optic flow is more effective at eliciting a sense of self-motion when supine; this constitutes evidence that visual and non-visual cues are at least partially integrated even when self-motion is presented only visually; however, they did not find any significant differences between performance on Earth and in the microgravity of the ISS, suggesting that vestibular cues play a minor role, if any, in the estimation of visually presented self-motion.

Astronauts Have Surprising Ability to Orient Themselves and Gauge Distance Traveled in Space: Study

Mar 28, 2024 by News Staff

New research has implications for crew safety in space and could potentially give clues to how aging affects people’s balance systems here on Earth. Jörges...

Astronaut David R. Scott, commander, gives a military salute while standing beside the deployed United States flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The flag was deployed toward the end of EVA-2. The Lunar Module, ‘Falcon,’ is partially visible on the right. Hadley Delta in the background rises approximately 4,000 m (about 13,124 feet) above the plain. The base of the mountain is approximately 5 km (about three statue miles) away. This photograph was taken by astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot. While astronauts Scott and Irwin descended in the Lunar Module to explore the Moon, astronaut Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot, remained in lunar orbit in the Command and Service Modules. Image credit: NASA / JSC.

Lunar Anthropocene: Are We in New Epoch of Moon’s History?

Dec 11, 2023 by Natali Anderson

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Kansas Geological Survey researcher Justin Holcomb and his colleagues argue the new epoch may have...

ESA Astronaut Captures Stunning Images of Rare Thunder Phenomenon

Dec 1, 2023 by News Staff

As part of the Thor-Davis experiment on the International Space Station (ISS), ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has captured images of a phenomenon called...

JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide, ISS Expedition 32 flight engineer, taking a space selfie during extravehicular activity on September 5, 2012, with the Sun behind him. Image credit: NASA.

Long Duration Spaceflights Destroy Red Blood Cells and Bone: Study

Aug 23, 2023 by News Staff

But our body can eventually replenish them back on Earth with the help of bone marrow fat, according to new research. JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide, ISS Expedition...

The space salad. Image credit: University of Adelaide.

Researchers Create Space Salad for Astronauts

Mar 3, 2023 by News Staff

The space salad contains ingredients — including soybean, poppy, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato and sunflower seeds — that could be grown...

Gabel et al. examined bone strength, density, and microarchitecture in seventeen astronauts using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography. Image credit: NASA.

Microgravity Induces Irreversible Damage to Bone Strength and Density, Says New Study

Jul 4, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Calgary and elsewhere have followed 17 International Space Station astronauts before and after spaceflight over the last...

Trudel et al. suggest that the destruction of red blood cells, termed hemolysis, is a primary effect of microgravity in space flight and support the hypothesis that the anemia associated with space flight is a hemolytic condition that should be considered in the screening and monitoring of both astronauts and space tourists. Image credit: NASA.

Study: Destruction of Red Blood Cells Contributes to Anemia during Long-Duration Space Flights

Jan 14, 2022 by News Staff

On Earth, our bodies create and destroy 2 million red blood cells every second. In a new study published today in the journal Nature Medicine, a team of...

Astronaut Christina Koch plating Saccharomyces cerevisiae following transformation. Image credit: NASA.

CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Demonstrated aboard International Space Station

Jul 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of U.S. scientists has developed a CRISPR-based method for studying how eukaryotic cells repair DNA in space. Astronaut Christina Koch plating Saccharomyces...

Spaceflight is known to impose changes on human physiology with unknown molecular etiologies. To reveal these causes, da Silveira et al. used a multi-omics, systems biology analytical approach using biomedical profiles from 59 astronauts and data from NASA’s GeneLab derived from hundreds of samples flown in space to determine transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and epigenetic responses to spaceflight. Image credit: da Silveira et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.11.002.

Spaceflight Impairs Mitochondrial Function, New Research Shows

Nov 26, 2020 by News Staff

Critical parts of a cell’s energy production machinery, the mitochondria, can be made dysfunctional due to changes in gravity, radiation exposure and...

Reconstructed sagittal 5-mm orthogonal midline images in the brain using the sagittal 3D T1-weighted data set: (left) preflight baseline image and (right) matching postflight image (postflight day 1) in the same astronaut; the black arrowheads show upward expansion of the anterior, middle, and posterior superior margins of the lateral ventricle with associated narrowing of the marginal sulcus of the cingulate sulcus (white arrowhead); there is subtle expansion of the third ventricle (indicated by a 3), which has displaced the thalamus (T) from midline, making it less visible; there is thickening of the intermediate signal scalp soft tissues (arrows). Image credit: Kramer et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020191413.

Study: Long-Duration Spaceflight Affects Brain Volume

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

A new study led by Professor Larry Kramer from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that the impact of microgravity is far-reaching,...

The Expedition 20 crew members share a meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA.

Spaceflight Can Cause Sustained Defect in Epithelial Barrier Function, New Study Shows

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

Epithelial cells that line our intestines serve as a robust barrier to invasion by viruses, bacteria and exposure to ingested agents. A new study, published...

Long-Duration Spaceflight Alters Brain Connectivity: Study

Aug 20, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has found alterations of task-based functional brain connectivity in a group of astronauts after a long-duration spaceflight....

Acharya et al uncovered striking neurobehavioral and electrophysiological defects in rodents subjected to continuous (6 month) low dose rate (1 mGy/day) neutron exposures. Image credit: NASA.

Exposure to Radiation in Deep Space May Impair Learning and Memory

Aug 6, 2019 by News Staff

In a study by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and elsewhere, exposure to chronic, low dose radiation — the conditions present...

Resveratrol May Protect against Muscle Atrophy Induced by Martian Gravity

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

In a study done in rats, a moderate daily dose of resveratrol — a natural antioxidant found in more than 70 species of plants such as grapes, cranberries,...

Now retired twin astronauts, Scott (right) and Mark (left) Kelly, are subjects of NASA’s Twins Study. Image credit: Derek Storm, www.derekstorm.com.

NASA’s Twins Study Provides Biomolecular View into How Human Body Responds to Spaceflight

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Twins Study brought ten teams of researchers from around the country together to observe what physiological, molecular and cognitive changes could...

The stress of spaceflight gives viruses a holiday from immune surveillance, putting future deep-space missions in jeopardy. Image credit: NASA.

Dormant Herpes Viruses Reactivate in Astronauts During Spaceflight, New Study Shows

Mar 19, 2019 by News Staff

Latent herpes viruses such as herpes-simplex-1 (HSV-1), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivate in...

Novel drugs could one day protect astronauts on deep-space missions from dangerous cosmic radiation. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

New Drug Prevents Memory Impairment in Mice Exposed to Simulated Deep Space Radiation

May 23, 2018 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists from the University of California, San Francisco, and Loma Linda University has identified the first potential treatment for...

Stahn et al observed for the first time a sustained increased astronauts’ core body temperature under resting conditions. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Weightlessness Increases Humans’ Body Temperature: Study

Jan 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Professor Hanns-Christian Gunga of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin has observed that astronauts run hot...

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, STS 41-B mission specialist, participates in a historical spacewalk. He is pictured a few meters away from the cabin of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. This spacewalk represented the first use of a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which allows for much greater mobility than that afforded previous space walkers who had to use restrictive tethers. Image credit: NASA.

Researchers Identify Cause of Visual Impairment in Long-Duration Mission Astronauts

Dec 6, 2016 by News Staff

Astronauts on long-duration flights experience visual impairments due to volume changes in cerebrospinal fluid, the clear fluid that helps cushion the...