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.

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An artist's depiction of a proposed nuclear-powered spacecraft.

To safely explore the solar system and beyond, spaceships need to go faster—nuclear-powered rockets may be the answer

By Iain Boyd

There are a lot of reasons that a faster spaceship is a better one, and nuclear-powered rockets are a way to do this.

Space junk is making low Earth orbit crowded.

Space junk: Astronomers worry as private companies push ahead with satellite launches

By Martin McCoustra

Since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, the lower orbit around the Earth has become an increasingly congested environment.

Antarctica's ice sheets responded most strongly to the angle of Earth's tilt on its axis when the ice extends into the oceans.

Scientists just sampled the most pristine air on Earth. Here's what they found.

By Kathryn Moore, Jun Uetake, Thomas Hill

Atmospheric scientists sampled the most pristine air on Earth, just above the Southern Ocean. They found some surprises.

Artistic depiction of a tunnel or wormhole over curved space-time.

Weirdly-shaped wormholes might work better than spherical ones

By Paul Sutter

Otherwise, they'd be ferociously unstable.

Space, Race and Reality (Op-Ed)

By Rick Tumlinson

The space community has work to do when it comes to inclusion.

Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers

By Esther Jones

Young people who are “hooked” on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something.

NASA recently launched the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative whose aim is to find the best future payloads to deliver to the surface of the moon. These payloads would include instruments for basic science investigations. Shown here, a Lockheed Martin space concept for a commercial lunar lander.

Why a physicist wants to build a particle collider on the moon

By Paul Sutter

A physicist proposes that the moon is a great place to build a particle collider and conduct high-energy physics experiments.

Diligence, technological progress and a little luck have together solved a 20-year mystery of the cosmos.

Half the matter in the universe was missing. Scientists just found it hiding in the cosmos.

By J. Xavier Prochaska, Jean-Pierre Macquart

Scientists just found the universe's missing baryon matter hiding in the cosmos.

How close can you get to a black hole?

By Paul Sutter

Physicists are figuring out how close you can get to a black hole before you are unlikely to escape. That threshold is called the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO).

Four tropical cyclones simultaneously churn across the Western Hemisphere in this image captured by the GOES-16 weather satellite in September 2019. Weather forecasting/monitoring is just one of many ways that space tech improves our lives.

Space technologies can help solve Earth's challenges (op-ed)

By Dylan Taylor

Space exploration technologies have already helped benefit Earth in many ways, especially when it comes to communications, Earth observation and even fostering economic growth.

Earth and Moon as seen by the Galileo spacecraft.

Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

By Gareth Dorrian, Ian Whittaker

Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know.

Early satellite-spotting pioneers. In this 1965 photo, volunteer satellite trackers in Pretoria, South Africa, were part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Moonwatch Network, one of more than 100 teams worldwide.

How amateur satellite trackers are keeping an 'eye' on objects around the Earth

By Leonard David

Around the planet, a loosely knit but closely woven band of amateurs monitor the whereabouts of satellites — be they secretive spacecraft, rocket stages, orbital debris or lost space probes.

Where do baby magnetars come from? Mysterious 'fast radio bursts' may provide clues.

By Paul Sutter

Magnetars — highly magnetized, rapidly rotating super-dense stars — are among the most enigmatic creatures to inhabit the cosmos and their origins are shrouded in mystery.

An artist's depiction of satellites orbiting Earth.

Get out of the way: The 1st restartable solid rocket fuel could help reduce space junk (op-ed)

By Nicholas Dallmann

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently developed and demonstrated the ability to stop and restart solid rocket motors many times — something that has never been done before.

The launch of Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990. This photo captures the first time that there were shuttles on both pad 39a and 39b.

How the Hubble Space Telescope opened our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe

By Rodger I. Thompson

Hubble's infrared eyes provided new major capabilities.

The NOAA/NASA Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite captured this view of Earth from nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away in July 2015.

Earth science is more important than ever (op-ed)

By Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen

Our satellites in space gathering data and images of our home planet unite us in ways that are more important now than ever.

5G is not linked to the coronavirus pandemic in any way. Here's the science.

By Stanley Shanapinda

A conspiracy theory claiming 5G can spread the coronavirus is making the rounds on social media. Peddling such misinformation is not only wrong, it's destructive.