Even before splashdown, Artemis II is delivering a scientific treasure trove

Even before splashdown, Artemis II is delivering a scientific treasure trove Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Science & Society Snippets of hair may expose chronic stress in war refugees By Sujata GuptaApril 6, 2026 Health & Medicine When our minds wander to the body, it may affect mental health By Diana KwonApril 3, 2026 Health & Medicine Supreme Court ruling on ‘conversion therapy’ puts medical talk in the hot seat By Aimee CunninghamApril 3, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Animals For gray whales, San Francisco Bay is becoming a deadly pit stop By Gennaro Tomma2 hours ago Neuroscience Seeing and imagining activate some of the same brain cells By Diana KwonApril 9, 2026 Paleontology Mummified reptile hints at the origins of how we breathe By Carolyn GramlingApril 8, 2026 Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Animals For gray whales, San Francisco Bay is becoming a deadly pit stop By Gennaro Tomma2 hours ago Climate Emperor penguins are marching toward extinction. 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The Artemis II crew captured the image during its April 6 flyby of the moon. NASA By Lisa Grossman April 8, 2026 at 5:53 pm Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) HOUSTON — As the Artemis II astronauts make their way inexorably back toward Earth, with splashdown scheduled for April 10, scientists on the ground are already poring over the data taken during a historic flight around the moon. “We actually got to be scientists doing science,” says Artemis II deputy lunar science lead Marie Henderson, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The four Artemis II astronauts, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, made the first flyby of the moon in more than 50 years on April 6. The crew spent about seven hours taking carefully choreographed science observations, with two astronauts at a time poised at the windows of the Orion spacecraft taking photos and making recordings while the other two communicated with the ground. Science officers Angela Garcia, Kelsey Young and Trevor Graff (left to right, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston) monitor incoming data from the Artemis II astronauts about 10 minutes before the space crew captured the first-ever images of “Earthset.”NASA The astronauts, who had prepared for the mission with extensive science and geology training, regularly called down to mission control with science “sit reps,” or situational reports. The crew’s evocative descriptions of lunar features included handprints, pinpricks of light shining through a lampshade, islands in a sea of darkness, deep holes, a healing wound, a frozen choppy sea and a dinosaur footprint. “We trained them to describe it like they see it,” Artemis lunar science lead Kelsey Young said during an April 7 news briefing. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. For scientists, the best may be yet to come. The thousands of photos and audio recordings of detailed observations are still being relayed from the spacecraft back to Earth, and scientists are debating what they mean. “Spirits are very high,” Young said. Here’s a tantalizing hint at the scientific treasure those data may hold. Impact flashes One of the things scientists are most excited about is the astronauts’ observations of impact flashes. These brief blinks of light are caused by micrometeorites smacking into the darkened lunar surface. Near the end of the flyby, the crew oriented the spacecraft so that the moon blocked the sun from the astronauts’ perspective for almost an hour, creating a solar eclipse. If any impact flashes were going to show up, it would have been then. A halo of light surrounds the moon as it blocks the sun. The Artemis crew experienced 54 minutes of totality.NASA “I don’t know if I expected to have the group see any on this mission,” Young said. But the astronauts reported seeing flashes as soon as they intentionally looked for them. “The eclipse occurred, and then we had five minut