Tag Archive for 'International Space Station'

Aguilar et al. used the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on board the International Space Station to measure the deuteron flux.

AMS Detector Reveals Surprising Surplus of Cosmic Rays Made of Deuterons

Aug 13, 2024 by News Staff

Deuterons — atomic nuclei made up of a proton and a neutron — are thought to form in the same way as helium-3 nuclei, in collisions between...

Illustrative workflow showcasing the process of comparative genomics analysis of Enterobacter bugandensis, evaluating its prevalence and metabolic interactions within the microbial community, and its successful adaptation within the ISS habitat. Image credit: Sengupta et al., doi: 10.1186/s40168-024-01777-1.

Biologists Find Mutated and Genetically Distinct Strains of Multi-Drug Resistant Bacterium on ISS

Apr 23, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Enterobacter bugandensis is primarily found in clinical specimens including the human gastrointestinal tract. Illustrative workflow showcasing the process...

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...

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...

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...

An artist’s impression of a black hole X-ray binary. Image credit: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

NICER Detects Echoes from Eight Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

May 2, 2022 by News Staff

As a stellar-mass black hole pulls in gas and dust from an orbiting star, it can give off spectacular bursts of X-rays that bounce and echo off the inspiraling...

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...

An artist’s impression of a giant magnetar flare. Image credit: Universitat de València.

ASIM Detects Huge Pulsating Flare from Extragalactic Magnetar

Dec 27, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The giant gamma-ray flare event, designated GRB 2001415, was emitted by a powerful magnetar in NGC 253, an active starburst galaxy approximately 11 million...

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Compact Object Collision with Companion Star Triggers Supernova Event

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron...

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...

Transmission electron micrograph showing the general cell morphology of Methylobacterium jeotgali. Image credit: Aslam et al., doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.64625-0.

Previously Unknown Species of Bacterium Found on International Space Station

Mar 17, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have found four bacterial strains of the Methylobacteriaceae family in surface samples collected from the International Space Station (ISS)...

Blue jet: (a) the cloud-top altitude of the storm cell over the South Pacific on February 26, 2019, at 15:10 UTC, derived from the Japanese Himawari meteorological satellite data and from a radio sounding at Tarawa at a distance of approximately 700 km (435 miles); the green curve is the ISS orbit and the red marker its position at 15:10:05 UTC; the black curves identify the full field of view of the cameras projected to the Earth’s surface, and the white square is the cropped image, downloaded from the ISS and shown in (b); black markers are the lightning locations detected by the GLD360 network between 15:10:00 and 15:11:40 UTC; (b) the cropped, downlinked ASIM image (777.4 nm) of the cloud backlit by internal lightning; the source locations of the five blue flash events detected between 15:10:00 and 15:11:35 UTC are shown with colored markers, time progressing from red to yellow. The flash leading to a blue jet is event number 3. Image credit: Neubert et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-03122-6.

Blue Jet Observed from International Space Station

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory on the International Space Station (ISS), researchers have observed five intense blue...

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...

Willis et al. performed comparative transcriptomic analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans responses to varying degrees of hypergravity and to two spaceflight experiments. Image credit: Willis et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101734.

Spaceflight-Induced Microgravity Affects Genes, Study Shows

Nov 25, 2020 by News Staff

A genetic analysis of transparent nematodes Caenorhabditis elegans on the International Space Station showed ‘subtle changes’ in about 1,000 genes;...

View of the Chang’E 4 lander with the location of the LND sensor head indicated by the red arrow. LND is mounted in the Chang’E 4 payload compartment; the lid at the tip of the red arrow is closed at night to protect LND from the cold lunar night. Image credit: Chinese National Space Agency / National Astronomical Observatories of China.

Scientists Measure Radiation Dose Rates on Lunar Surface

Sep 28, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND) experiment aboard China’s Chang’E 4 lander, a team of researchers from Germany and China has measured...

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,...

A thermonuclear blast on a pulsar called SAX J1808.4-3658 resulted in the brightest burst of X-rays seen to date by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NICER Detects Thermonuclear Burst from X-Ray Pulsar

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has detected an extremely energetic explosion called a Type I X-ray burst from SAX J1808.4-3658,...

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....

BioRock: Researchers to Examine Microbe-Mineral Interactions in Space

Jul 24, 2019 by News Staff

BioRock, a new investigation on the International Space Station (ISS), is expected to help gain insight into the physical interactions of liquid, rocks,...