Category Astronomy/Space

First-ever examination of medications used by astronauts on long-duration missions to the International Space Station: the meds they used, the reasons they used them and how well they said the medicines worked were analyzed. Much of the medicine taken relates to the unusual and confined microgravity environment in which they work or to the actual work that they are doing to complete their missions. Use of sleep aids and incidence of skin rashes were higher than expected. These findings not only help the world’s space agencies anticipate needs for future ISS inhabitants, but also the day-to-day medical needs of those who may take the trip to Mars.

Wotring examined medical records of ISS crewmembers who gave permission to use their data in this study...

This Microscopic Image Mosaic is the “smoking gun” for this story (the aqueous alteration part, not the acid fog). It shows a pre-existing crack which is being “healed over”, which is evidence for the gel weathering alteration process. This image is from a Watchtower Class outcrop named Hillary on the Husband Hill summit. The full mosaic shown on the left is ~5 cm across. Credit: Image courtesy NASA/JPL and S. Cole.

While Mars doesn’t have much in the way of Earth-like weather, it does evidently share one kind of weird meteorology: acid fog.
Planetary scientist Shoshanna Cole has pieced together a compelling story about how acidic vapors may have eaten at the rocks in a 100-acre area on  ...

Eight small-sized satellites total a big bonus for science. The Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) mission uses a swarm of small spacecraft to carry out scientific measurements. Credits: NASA

A cluster of small and low-cost nanosatellites is ready for liftoff from Hawaii – an inventive effort called the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) mission for scientific, commercial, and academic research tasks in space.

The flock of 8 tissue box-sized satellites is set to ride into Earth orbit as secondary payloads on the U.S. Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space-4 mission.

Two of the assembled Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) mission satellites...

DI Cha star system. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt Text credit: European Space Agency

Star system is DI Cha, and while only 2 stars are apparent, it is actually a quadruple system containing 2 sets of binary stars. As this is a relatively young star system it is surrounded by dust. The young stars are molding the dust into a wispy wrap. The host of this alluring interaction between dust and star is the Chamaeleon I dark cloud — 1 of 3 such clouds that comprise a large star-forming region known as the Chamaeleon Complex. DI Cha’s juvenility is not remarkable within this region...