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SPACE BRAIN
MRI scans of 11 astronauts revealed
that living in a microgravity
environment increases the volume of
the brain and cerebrospinal fluid, as
well as changes the size and shape of
the pituitary gland. These changes
persisted at least a year after
returning to Earth.ALMOST EARTH
Astronomers found an Earth-sized,
habitable-zone exoplanet hiding in data
from the now-defunct Kepler Space
Telescope. The world, named
Kepler-1649 c, is located about 300 light-
years away and is just 6 percent larger
than Earth. Unlike Earth, however, it
orbits a tiny red dwarf star.MIDSIZED BEAST
New observations provide the
strongest evidence yet for a
theorized “missing link” between the
smallest and largest black holes —
an intermediate-mass black hole.
The object sits in the outskirts of a
star cluster about 800 million light-
years away and has a mass of some
50,000 Suns.CHILLED COMET
The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
contains nine to 26 times more
carbon monoxide than a typical solar
system comet, ALMA observations
show. This suggests it formed in an
extremely cold environment with
temperatures below –420 degrees
Fahrenheit (–250 degrees Celsius).BEPI, SLOW DOWN
Amid coronavirus restrictions, the
European Space Agency monitored
BepiColombo’s successful flyby of
Earth on April 10. The Mercury-
bound spacecraft came within
about 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers)
of our planet, harnessing Earth’s
gravity to reduce its speed.COSMIC CATAPULT
Hyper-realistic computer
simulations show supernovae
clusters near the centers of galaxies
can fling new stars to the galactic
fringes. The researchers propose
this process could account for as
many as 40 percent of stars in a
galaxy’s outer halo. — J.P.QUICK
TAKE S
NASA’s 16-year-old Spitzer Space
Telescope was decommissioned
January 30. Five days prior, the
telescope took its last images.
Its target was a region within the
California Nebula (NGC 1499), which
appears in visible light as a glowing
cloud of gas lit up by the nearby star
Xi (ξ) Persei. But to Spitzer’s infrared
eyes, the nebula is filled with tangles
of warm, sootlike dust heated by high-energy light from the star. This final mosaic shows
images taken with Spitzer’s two filters, which captured light at 3.6 micrometers (cyan) and
4.5 micrometers (red). The central region, which appears gray, shows where the images
overlap, creating a multi-wavelength composite. Mission scientists chose the California
Nebula as the space telescope’s final target because it had never before been studied with
Spitzer and promised high science returns with its wealth of warm dust and gas, which
produce interesting features for astronomers to study at infrared wavelengths. — A.K.California stars in Spitzer’s final mosaic
On March 22, the Curiosity
rover began drilling a rock
sample at a Mars location
called Edinburgh. The
command to do so, which
had been sent two days
earlier, marked the first time
the rover’s actions had been
planned by a team working
completely remotely. Amidst
the coronavirus pandemic
back on Earth, NASA’s
Curiosity mission team tooktheir rover-driving equipment
— headsets, monitors, and
extra computers — home.
The exception was the 3D
goggles normally used to
view images of the martian
landscape, which did not
work without computing
equipment that couldn’t be
easily removed from the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Instead, the team used red-
blue 3D glasses to visualizeCuriosity’s surroundings
and plan arm movements
and driving paths. Although
working remotely presents
many challenges and each
day’s planning takes one to
two more hours than usual,
the group has managed
to keep the rover actively
exploring the Red Planet at
a time when many other
science operations have
come to a standstill. — A.K.NASA drives a Mars rover from home
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