Space Studies

Room for experiments on the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station is hard to come by. Sometimes scientists have to mimic the effects of space right here on Earth. --by Margaret Coulombe

Scientists have learned plenty about how life in outer space affects the human body. But what about germs and other nasty microorganisms? Cheryl Nickerson wants to know how disease-causing pathogens themselves are affected by space travel. --by Margaret Coulombe

Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera have found the first evidence for deposits of salts in numerous places on Mars. These deposits show where water was once abundant and may also provide evidence for the existence of former Martian life. --by Robert Burnham

Scientists have long known that most compounds in living things exist in mirror-image forms. The two forms are like hands; one is a mirror reflection of the other. But amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, are all "left-handed," while the sugars of DNA and RNA are "right-handed." ASU scientists have found new evidence that extraterrestrial amino acids, found in meteorites, are also largely left-handed. Their work suggests that precursor molecules, the aldehydes, also carried an excess of left-handedness. --by Jenny Green

U.S. and Chinese high school students are taking aim at the Red Planet using an ASU-designed camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. --by Robert Burnham

Quick: What's the order of the planets in the solar system? It's Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, right? That's right today. But four billion years ago, Uranus and Neptune switched places. How do we know? With the help of a very Nice model, for starters. --by Nikki Staab

Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue to make new discoveries--like a deposit of silica--more than three years after landing. Meanwhile, NASA is planning where to send its next-generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory. A promising site is Melas Chasma, a dried-up ancient lake that could hold evidence of microbial life.--by Robert Burnham

Space flight has been shown to have a profound impact on human physiology as the body adapts to zero gravity environments. New research shows that microbes are affected as well. Space flight may turn normal germs into highly infectious superbugs, according to Cheryl Nickerson. --by Joe Caspermeyer

For almost 40 years, the complete photographic record from the Apollo moon project sat in a freezer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Now, scientists at Arizona State University and NASA are working together to create a new digital archive. High-resolution scans of the original Apollo flight films will be available publicly on the Internet. --by Robert Burnham

Paul Davies likes the big questions. The bigger the better. As director of ASU's BEYOND Center, his job is to ask and explore the fundamental questions of our existence. Are we alone in the universe? Is there more than one universe? Is time travel possible? And more. --by Diane Boudreau