Cedar Falls native and NASA astronaut Raja Chari was joined by Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, at Grinnell College Monday for a round table discussion about the agriculture research that’s being done in space.
Bolstered by tens of millions in federal stimulus and COVID aid, both of Iowa’s public research universities busted external funding records in fiscal 2022 – by $49 million at the University of Iowa and $42.6 million at Iowa State University.
“It revealed just innumerable galaxies in this one deep image, staring back to almost the dawn of the universe,” she said. “It’s seeing galaxies that were just forming. I was at a loss for words. I was just absolutely stunned.”
Over the most recent decade on record, only 28 percent of NASA’s “competed missions” had female principal investigators — a primary and substantial position — and NASA over that time didn’t fund any female PI-led mission proposals in two of their four divisions: astrophysics and earth science.
A NASA climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday.
Cedar Falls, Iowa, native Raja Chari “spacewalked” for nearly seven hours Wednesday.
University of Iowa investigators over the weekend flew to Alaska for a three-week mission to better understand a rarely viewed type of aurora — also known as Northern Lights — that flashes or “pulsates.”
From a young age, inquiry drove Don Gurnett to discovery. He’s recounted for The Gazette memories walking the UI campus as a teenage freshman with his eyes heavenward in awe of Sputnik, the novel Russian satellite fueling the international space race.
A new high-powered NASA-led infrared telescope with a sun shield the size of a tennis court is set to launch Christmas Day, with expectations of revolutionizing astrophysics by expanding the science around how galaxies formed and enabling a glimpse back in time to billions and billions of years ago.
Although the retreat from daylight saving time might have worn off by Nov. 19, anyone still riding that extra hour into predawn wakefulness might get to see this month’s beaver moon turn “blood” red when North American gets a front-row seat for the century’s longest lunar eclipse.
Both University of Iowa and Iowa State University this week reported new external funding records for the budget year that wrapped June 30.
All the talk of sending more people into the weightless expanse above Earth has NASA thinking more intentionally about the risk of cancer-causing radiation exposure to astronauts; what constitutes an acceptable level; how to communicate risks; and when and how to take them.
Scientists could gain a better understanding of the “basic science” impacting the environment surrounding satellites like those used for weather monitoring and communications.
NASA’s Artemis program aims to put humans back on the moon
The Iowa native spent 665 days in space, more than any other U.S. astronaut
© 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
Daily Newsletters