ScientistPankaj: Space & Physics: Artemis II is only the beginning

April 9— This week, all eyes are still on NASA’s Artemis II crewed moon mission. After their spectacularly successful lunar flyby, the four astronauts of Artemis II are now just a day away from a high-tension atmospheric re-entry and splashdown back on Earth. You can follow our full mission coverage here. But if you’re getting tired of the moon, why not try our stories about OMG particles, the dubious physics of the CIA’s “Ghost Murmur” tool, and the math of pizza slicing?

Enjoy—and stay tuned for more updates tomorrow on the Artemis II crew’s homecoming.

Thoughts? Questions? Let me know via e-mail (lbillings@sciam.com), X or Bluesky.

—Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences

Top Stories

The Artemis II capsule heat shield in the clean room at NASA’s facilities.

Heat shield worries resurface as the Artemis II moon mission nears reentry

Before NASA’s moon mission launched, experts sounded the alarm over the Orion capsule’s heat shield and reentry. Now splashdown is just one day away

Claire Cameron

Burned-out wreckage of an aircraft scattered across a barren desert landscape, with twisted metal debris, charred components, and light smoke rising in the distance under a clear blue sky.

Is the ‘Ghost Murmur’ quantum device possible? Scientists are skeptical

Ghost Murmur was described as a futuristic CIA tool that could detect a heartbeat from vast distances. Physicists say the public story clashes with the basic limits of magnetic sensing

Deni Ellis Béchard

A Chinese Long March 10 rocket soars through a clear blue sky on a fiery exhaust plume

How China could still win the new moon race

China is working toward its own moon landing. Could it put astronauts on the moon before NASA’s Artemis program does?

Andrew Jones

A view of the moon's surface in striking detail, full of craters.

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts celebrate epic lunar flyby with stunning new images

Artemis II’s sixth day was a whirlwind of science and awe, with the mission’s astronauts glimpsing parts of the moon never before seen by any human—and talking to the U.S. president

Lee Billings, Joseph Howlett

Immerse yourself in the universe of science with a subscription to Scientific American.

Trump administration proposes massive budget cuts to science

The White House budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing

Max Kozlov, Dan Garisto, Edward Chen, Nature magazine

Screengrab from a short animation of NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, roaming the surface of the moon.

Is this the year the U.S. finally lands a robotic rover on the moon?

A hidden milestone lurks in the U.S.’s Artemis-focused lunar ambitions—the nation’s first-ever successful robotic moon rover

Christopher Cokinos

A burst of light radiating from the center of a dark background, evoking extreme cosmic events.

Where did the ‘Oh-My-God’ particle come from?

A single subatomic particle from deep space had the same energy as a baseball pitch, and scientists still don’t know how it got here

Phil Plait

Lunar surface with a number of small rovers on wheels with mirrors collecting beams of light.

NASA’s Artemis moon missions are a game changer for astronomy

After decades of planning, NASA’s Artemis program is giving astronomers their long-awaited moonshot

Joseph Howlett

The mathematically correct way to slice a pizza

The intermediate value theorem shows us how to find an even center on an irregular shape

Manon Bischoff

A false-color view of the moon's Orientale Basin.

NASA’s Artemis era may finally solve three major moon mysteries

If NASA’s ambitious lunar exploration plans succeed, scientists will cover the moon with sensors—and find answers to several long-standing questions about the inner solar system

Robin George Andrews

In this animated video, a knob-shaped space craft with solar panels attached in an X-shape (the Orion capsule) flies over the moon's surface.

How Artemis II is beaming back stunning video from the moon

A new laser system aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft is sending sharper video and more data back to Earth

Adam Bluestein

To the left, the gray, cratered surface of the moon. To the right, a crescent Earth.

See NASA’s Artemis II mission’s first incredible photos of the moon, Earth and a total solar eclipse

The first images from NASA’s Artemis II mission’s lunar flyby were worth the wait

Meghan Bartels

A cratered view of the far side of the moon, separated by a large crater from the smoother surface of the near side visible in the top half the disk.

NASA’s Artemis II ‘free return’ trajectory lets gravity do the work

An elegant mix of math and gravity powers the Artemis II “free return” trajectory from Earth to the moon and back

Dan Vergano

What We're Reading

Save NASA Science | The Planetary Society
Astronauts Dedicate Moon Crater to Carroll Wiseman, Wife of NASA Commander | The New York Times
The Moon is already on Google Maps—did Artemis II really tell us anything new? | Ars Technica