It's a well-known fact that if humanity wishes to explore deep space and to live and work on other planets, we need to bring Earth's environment with us. This includes life support systems that leverage biological processes - aka. Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) - but also the many species of microbes that are essential to living systems. Humans already bring microbes with them when they travel to space, in particular, to the International Space Station (ISS). These microbes become part of the natural environment, sticking to surfaces, growing in nooks and crannies, and getting into everything.
Space News & Blog Articles
A jellyfish or a brain? Tell us what you see in this gorgeous deep-space nebula photo
The nebula was formed when a star went supernova 5,000 light-years from Earth.
This Week In Space podcast: Episode 200 — Our 200th Episode Listener Special!
On Episode 200 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik celebrate their 200th episode with their annual listener special!
Bungie explains Marathon's 'graphic retro futurism' aesthetic and the 'live narrative' lessons it learned from 'Destiny' (Interview)
As "Marathon" finally launches, we grill a trio of Bungie developers about the world, aesthetic, and ambitions of this sci-fi extraction shooter.
Sigweis night vision binoculars review
We love these night vision binoculars, but we don't love having to buy new batteries so often.
Living in space can change where your brain sits in your skull – new research
Going to space is harsh on the human body, and as a new study from our research team finds, the brain shifts upward and backward and deforms inside the skull after spaceflight.
Fujifilm X-H2 camera review
While not having any astro-specific features, the X-H2 still performed well — although we'd hesitate to recommend it over the cheaper X-T50 for the average astrophotographer.
NASA contract confirms selection of ULA’s Centaur 5 as new upper stage for the SLS rocket
United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Centaur 5 upper stage for the Vulcan Certification-1 (Cert-1) flight heads into pressure cell testing. Image: United Launch Alliance
NASA officially selected United Launch Alliance’s Centaur 5 as the upper stage for its Space Launch System rocket starting with the Artemis 4 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than early 2028.
Will Proba-3 phone home? European solar-eclipse satellite goes dark
One of Europe's two Proba-3 spacecraft suffered an anomaly last month, putting the future of the solar eclipse-creating mission in doubt.
The universe is humming with ripples in spacetime: Scientists just doubled our catalog of black hole and neutron star collisions
The catalog of gravitational waves "heard" by LIGO, KAGRA and Virgo has doubled with detections of spacetime ripples.
Lunar Impact from Asteroid 2024 YR4 Ruled Out
The latest JWST images, along with archival images taken before the asteroid was even discovered, combine to refine its trajectory.
VLT Image Captures a "Cosmic Hawk" Spanning its Wings.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) just released its photo of the week. This image, acquired by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, shows the RCW 36 nebula, located about 2,300 light-years away in the Vela Constellation. But to observers, it looks like a cosmic hawk spreading its wings: the dark clouds at the center resembling the hawk's head and body, and the filaments extending to the right and left serving as the wings. And in a nice twist, the image itself was acquired by the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager-1 (HAWK-1) instrument on the VLT.
Mars orbiters witness solar superstorm striking the Red Planet: 'The timing was extremely lucky'
The ESA's Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft watched as a superstorm that ravaged Earth also struck the Red Planet.
20% off at Amazon, this super-cool Lego Marvel Iron Spider-Man Bust has never been cheaper
Can't wait for Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Make the wait a little less painful, with 20% off this seriously super Lego Marvel Iron Spider-Man Bust.
NASA wants to accelerate its Artemis missions to the moon. It will need to drop some big hardware to do it.
A big restructuring of NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon is adding missions and speeding up the timeline, but some hardware might have to be cut loose in the process.
The Marathon Collector’s Edition nails the assignment as Bungie's sci-fi shooter finally launches
As Bungie’s extraction shooter welcomes players to Tau Ceti IV, we’ve taken a good look at its hefty collector’s edition.
Cosmic Hawk spreads its wings| Space photo of the day for March 6, 2026
The Milky Way nebula RCW 36 resembles a stunning cosmic bird of prey in an incredible Very Large Telescope image.
Did Earth life actually begin on Mars? Asteroid impacts could let microbes planet-hop, study suggests
"Life might actually survive being ejected from one planet and moving to another."
Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 70AZ beginner telescope review
This Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 70AZ is best for observing planets and the moon.
Making New Solar Activity Connections From Old Data
Astronomers gain new key insights from old solar observations.

