Hubble Observes Stars Flaring to Life in Orion - NASA Science (.gov)

A 3D render of an inflamed bowel. (ALIOUI Mohammed Elamine/Canva) For people with inflammatory bowel disease, feeling better on treatment doesn't always mean a permanent improvement – the disease can flare again. A study suggests part of the explanation may lie in intestinal cells that stay fragile even when symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea are controlled. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Both involve chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. Treatment can bring IBD into remission, a period when its activity subsides, but another flare can follow. A form of inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease is an inflammation of the intestinal wall. (CDC)Researchers found signs of abnormal cell death in gut tissue even from patients whose disease was under control. "The bowel may still carry a vulnerability that is not apparent from symptoms alone," gastroenterologist Britt Christensen, head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, told ScienceAlert.

Colorful outflows from young protostars in Orion the Hunter plunge into the thick dust of a molecular cloud in this new infrared image. A small slice of the molecular cloud known as OMC-2 in Orion explodes to life in this new JWST image. Young protostars and their powerful outflows highlight a region chock full of cold gas and dust. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

NASA has confirmed that the Orion heat shield successfully withstood temperatures reaching 2,200 degrees Celsius (4,000 degrees Fahrenheit) while slicing through the atmosphere at almost 48,000 km/h (30,000 mph)—or 39 times the speed of sound. Despite facing extreme asteroid-speed reentry conditions during the Artemis II mission, temperatures inside the crew capsule never exceeded a comfortable 21 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit), keeping the four astronauts safe throughout their return from lunar orbit. The post-flight findings represent a massive engineering triumph for the American space agency, especially after the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022 revealed alarming surface erosion. Critical data now demonstrates that an innovative trajectory adjustment reduced thermal cracking and char loss by a factor of ten, successfully validating the thermal protection system without requiring a physical redesign.