Space Trace

Want to go to space like Jeff Bezos? It’ll cost an arm, a leg…and a liver? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Thank your hardworking liver! It breaks down our cocktails AND removes chemicals from the body! Of course, we evolved to live on Earth

Continue reading

Space Race

Traveling to Mars? Don’t forget the sunblock! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying – Pop on those shades! Both the sun AND our galaxy put out some deadly stuff. Too much basking in cosmic rays can lead to cancer and even deadly radiation poisoning.

Continue reading

Red Planet, Blue Planet

Image of astronaut with red mountains behind him.

Mars is the RED planet … right? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Snaps from NASA’s Perseverance rover show a dry, dusty red landscape. But Mars used to be BLUE with water! Possibly as much as half the Atlantic Ocean. Where’d it go? Enter Eva

Continue reading

Origami Spaceship

Spaceship launching into outer space.

What ancient craft is out of this world?!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh, with the Loh Down on Science. Space is COLD! About minus four hundred and fifty five degrees Fahrenheit. Brr! Such chilly temperatures can turn spaceship materials brittle. Is there a way to make them more sturdy at

Continue reading

Space Spiders

Spiderweb

Oh what a tangled web we weave…in space?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many spider webs found in nature are asymmetrical: their top part is smaller than the bottom. Could GRAVITY play a role in this off-center web weaving? Samuel Zschokke from the University

Continue reading

Vanishing Planets

Who can solve the Case of the Vanishing Planet…?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science… and a cold case from outer space. In two thousand four, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a photo of the planet Fomalhaut-b.  Astronomers noticed something odd about Foh-b. It wasn’t

Continue reading

Space Cans

Can you build a spaceship out of a soda can? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Space is a tough place to be. Flying debris, intense radiation, and alien blasters will tear you apart! So, spaceships gotta be tougher. That usually means building materials that

Continue reading

Stormy Stripes

Five hundred leagues under the WIND? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Jupiter – it’s one stylish planet! Its red, gold, and orange stripes – formed by violent winds and weather – give it an unmistakable look. For years, scientists have wondered how deep the

Continue reading

Laser Sailing

Space…the final frontier! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Breakthrough Starshot is a globally funded engineering research project. Their mission? To send thin, sheetlike “starChips” into space and take closeup pictures of alien stars. A whole fleet of these objects is designed to sail through

Continue reading

Life in Space

Men are from Mars. Women, from Venus. Really? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying not exactly. But check out this intriguing new cosmic discovery from the University of Nice. Researchers there were simulating conditions commonly found in comets. Why? To see if life might

Continue reading