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Expert Voices

SPACE.com invites experts in space exploration, science & technology to provide insightful commentary and informed perspective on news, current events, innovations, big ideas and ongoing research. Expert Voices includes Op-Ed analysis and opinion as well as interesting observations from the field and space exploration efforts around the world.

Related Topics: Expert Voices - Don Lincoln, Expert Voices - Leroy Chiao, Expert Voices - Paul Sutter, Expert Voices - Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Expert Voices - The Kavli Foundation 

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The Selene III crew pose as Jedi knights to cheer themselves up during their stressful confinement in the HI-SEAS habitat.

Selene III commander's report: When all hope drains away from the crew on the 'moon' — Day 8

By Michaela Musilova

Confined to the inside of the HI-SEAS habitat, the Selene III crew is starting to succumb to despair and the "dark side" when they're repeatedly not able to go on a moonwalk.

gravitational waves black hole

A tiny crystal device could boost gravitational wave detectors to reveal the birth cries of black holes

By David Blair

In 2017, astronomers witnessed the birth of a black hole for the first time.

Satellites affect your life every day.

Six ways satellites make the world a better place

By Ciara McGrath

Satellites provide a vital service.

light pollution

If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise?

By Tony E. Wong

Let’s start by considering a smaller version of the same question.

The dingo fence in Strzelecki Desert.

The dingo fence from space: Satellite images show how these top predators alter the desert

By Adrian G. Fisher, Charlotte Mills, Mike Letnic, Mitchell Lyons, Will Cornwell

Our research has, for the first time, used satellite imagery to show the effects of predators on vegetation at a vast scale.

The two giant radio galaxies found with the MeerKAT telescope. In the background is the sky as seen in optical light. Overlaid in red is the radio light from the enormous radio galaxies, as seen by MeerKAT.

Discovery of two new giant radio galaxies offers fresh insights into the universe

By Jacinta Delhaize

Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa’s powerful MeerKAT telescope, located in the Karoo region, a semi-arid area in the south west of the country.

mangroves

Mangroves from space: 30 years of satellite images are helping us understand how climate change threatens these valuable forests

By Nicolás Younes Cárdenas, Karen Joyce, Stefan W Maier

Mangroves play a crucial role in the ecosystem thanks to the dizzying array of plants, animals and birds they feed, house and protect.

Where do the hydrogen and oxygen that make up the earth’s water come from?

Why is there water on Earth?

By Laurette Piani, Guillaume Paris

Water is essential to life as we know it and it seems completely normal to have water all around us.

This snapshot from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a stunning prominence associated with a Sept. 8, 2010 solar flare.

Why we need to get better at predicting space weather

By Rami Qahwaji

The Sun is the most important source of energy for sustaining life on Earth, but it gives us a lot more than just light and heat.

The Paraná basin in Brazil provides evidence that one of the world's largest super-eruptions did not cause a mass extinction.

Huge volcanic eruption didn’t cause climate change and mass extinction 140 million years ago

By Joshua Davies, Brenda Chung Rocha, Nicolas Greber

Mass extinctions are times in Earth’s past when large proportions of life suddenly and catastrophically died.

Virgin Galactic's first test passenger Beth Moses looks out the window of the VSS Unity during a test flight with pilots Dave Mackay and Michael "Sooch" Masucci, on Feb. 22, 2018.

The future of space tourism: op-ed

By Dylan Taylor

The NewSpace industry has its sights set on space tourism, a growing market expected to be worth at least $3 billion by 2030.

Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind, guiding the solar particles to the polar regions.

Climate explained: How particles ejected from the sun affect Earth's climate

By Annika Seppālā

When we consider the sun's influence on Earth and our climate, we tend to think about solar radiation.

Uranus and Neptune have each only been visited by one spacecraft, Voyager 2.

A mission to Uranus and Neptune could act as massive gravitational-wave detector

By Paul Sutter

What if one mission could study the gravitational ripples triggered by some of the most violent events in the universe — on the way to observing the least-known planets of our solar system?

This artist's rendition shows the exoplanet KELT-9b, the hottest known exoplanet.

How can some planets be hotter than stars? We've started to unravel the mystery.

By Quentin Changeat, Billy Edwards

Until the early 2000s, the only known planets were located in our own neighborhood, the Solar System.

A tiny speck of asteroid dust, circled, can only be manipulated by a glass needle.

How asteroid dust helped us prove life’s raw ingredients can evolve in outer space

By Queenie Hoi Shan Chan

Scientists have long known that certain ingredients are needed to support life, especially water and key organic chemicals like carbon.

deep space nine spaceship

The Space Force sounds like a joke thanks to pop culture. That could be a problem for an important military branch.

By Wendy Whitman Cobb

The U.S. Space Force has a serious role to play in the modern world. Its stated mission is to train and equip personnel to defend U.S. interests in space.

The brain is deeply affected by the change of gravity.

Astronauts on Mars missions could suffer cognitive and emotional problems, new research suggests

By Elisa Raffaella Ferrè

Deep space missions to Mars will be much more physically and mentally demanding than the journeys we’ve made so far during 60 years of human space exploration.

Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite on March 19, 2019 shows the extent of flooding (depicted in red) around Beira, Mozambique, after Cyclone Idai made landfall.

Integrating diverse satellite images sharpens our picture of activity on Earth (op-ed)

By Amanda Ziemann

A new mathematical application provides a more complete picture of our changing world by drawing on data from several kinds of sensors.

Artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the far outer solar system.

What if Planet Nine is a baby black hole?

By Paul Sutter

The hypothetical Planet Nine may not be a planet but rather a small black hole that might be detectable from the theoretical radiation emitted from its edge, so-called Hawking radiation.

ufo

Curious Kids: We have been trying to contact aliens – but do they want to contact us?

By Jacco van Loon

This is a great question – and the truth is that we don’t know the answer.