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Eugene Parker, Namesake of NASA’s Sun-Touching Spacecraft, Dies at Age 94

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Eugene Parker, the pioneering astrophysicist whose name graces NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission, died Tuesday (March 15) at age 94. Parker’s work focused on understanding the sun. In a key contribution to the field, he proposed that the sun produces a phenomenon called solar wind, a steady stream of charged particles that flows off the sun and across … Read more

Namesake of NASA’s sun-touching spacecraft dies at age 94

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Eugene Parker, the pioneering astrophysicist whose name graces NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission, died Tuesday (March 15) at age 94. Parker’s work focused on understanding the sun. In a key contribution to the field, he proposed that the sun produces a phenomenon called solar wind, a steady stream of charged particles that flows off the … Read more

What happens when someone dies in space? Space tourism brings new legal and moral issues

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Commercial spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are now offering exclusive opportunities for celebrities and civilians to travel to space. Traditionally, astronauts have been subject to rigorous training and medical scrutiny before going to space, and the risk of death from natural causes was considered remote. But in this new era of space tourism, … Read more

Renowned paleoanthropologist, conservationist Richard Leakey dies | Science

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Paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and political leader Richard Leakey died at his home near Nairobi, Kenya, on 2 January. He was 77 years old. The son of Louis and Mary Leakey, whose fossil discoveries in East Africa helped prove that humans evolved in Africa, Richard Leakey added to their legacy with numerous important finds in Kenya, where … Read more

Biologist E. O. Wilson Dies at 92. His Legacy Is More Critical Now Than Ever

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E. O. Wilson was an extraordinary scholar in every sense of the word. Back in the 1980s, Milton Stetson, the chair of the biology department at the University of Delaware, told me that a scientist who makes a single seminal contribution to his or her field has been a success.   By the time I … Read more

Rich Clifford, NASA astronaut who secretly flew with Parkinson’s, dies at 69

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Michael “Rich” Clifford, who as a NASA astronaut flew on three space shuttle missions, including one after his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease, has died at the age of 69. Clifford’s death on Tuesday (Dec. 28) was confirmed by the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional organization for astronauts and cosmonauts that included Clifford as … Read more