Human spaceflight has been racking up new milestones. But we're still grappling with a fundamental question: Why go in the first place? When the four astronauts on board NASA's Artemis II swung around the moon earlier this year, they set a new record for the farthest humans have ever ventured from Earth, surpassing the distance set by Apollo 13 in 1972 by some 4,000 miles. While no space mission can live up to the historic touchdown of Apollo 11--a spectacle that 20% of the world population watched live--Artemis II still attracted massive public interest. It drew tens of millions of viewers and inspired outpourings of "moon joy," a term coined spontaneously during the mission that became a viral sensation. The expedition is only the first in a planned series of ambitious missions.

Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable Selects Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag VidCon with Mashable All Series Can you see any lunar features tonight? Lois Mackenzie is a freelance reporter at Mashable. Over the years she has written for many publications, covering everything from the local news to the best pair of running shoes. You can find bylines in publications including Fit&Well, Metro, and Coach magazine, usually covering deals on everything from earbuds to TVs, or guides on how to beat your half marathon time. After nights of almost complete darkness, the Moon is well and truly back in the sky.

Beyond Elon Musk's interpretation of, Silicon Valley leaders have often misunderstood classic books like and . Why does anyone care what Elon Musk thinks of Homer's, or Christopher Nolan's? Musk is promising to use AI to generate a "historically accurate" version of the --turning epic poetry into atrocious slop--even as AI companies are literally destroying books to ingest them as data more cheaply. Meanwhile, Musk and other Silicon Valley billionaires are building a world they read about, as boys, in the pages of books they failed to understand. I think of that world as the Artificial State.

Say More Creator Hub Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Look Up Mashable Selects Versus Switch Off Trending Now Safety Net In My Bag VidCon with Mashable All Series Can you see the Moon tonight? Lois Mackenzie is a freelance reporter at Mashable. Over the years she has written for many publications, covering everything from the local news to the best pair of running shoes. You can find bylines in publications including Fit&Well, Metro, and Coach magazine, usually covering deals on everything from earbuds to TVs, or guides on how to beat your half marathon time. That crescent will to shrink nothing over the next few nights before the Moon reaches its New Moon phase.

Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are in its arms--each operating independently--including the one it uses to have sex. Octopuses are clever enough to unscrew jars from the inside and throw sand at their annoying neighbors. But only a fraction of their smarts come from their doughnut-shaped brains. Over two-thirds of their roughly 500 million neurons reside in eight sucker-studded arms--a kind of distributed intelligence unique to cephalopods. Each of these powerful appendages can move in any direction and taste and feel with exquisite sensitivity.

A device currently being used to help octogenarians do self-administered eye exams could be part of future space missions to monitor astronauts' ocular health. The European Space Agency is trying to understand why astronauts lose their eyesight in space, in the hope they can figure out how to treat--or even prevent--the condition as looming longer spaceflights heighten the risk of permanent vision damage. The agency has commissioned British eye-scanning startup Siloton to develop a solution ahead of the international Artemis flights to the moon and other deep space missions. The health tech uses quantum technology to shrink core components used in eye-testing equipment found at optometrists to fit on a photonic chip smaller than a coin. Founded by physicists in 2020, Siloton is currently working with the UK's National Health Service to enable patients with retinal conditions to self-scan at home. "The ESA pretty much has the same requirements," says cofounder and chief technology officer Euan Allen.

Look Up Say More Versus Creator Hub Switch Off Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Trending Now Safety Net In My Bag VidCon with Mashable Back to School Furtastic All Series Scientists discovered that it's bleeding. In the frozen outskirts of the solar system, liquid flows on Pluto. Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland.

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Look Up Say More Versus Creator Hub Switch Off Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Trending Now Safety Net In My Bag VidCon with Mashable Back to School Furtastic All Series The Moon is becoming less visible from Earth. Lois Mackenzie is a freelance reporter at Mashable. Over the years she has written for many publications, covering everything from the local news to the best pair of running shoes. You can find bylines in publications including Fit&Well, Metro, and Coach magazine, usually covering deals on everything from earbuds to TVs, or guides on how to beat your half marathon time. The lunar cycle is now in its final phase before the New Moon, when the illuminated side of the Moon faces away from Earth, making it virtually invisible in the night sky.

Look Up Say More Versus Creator Hub Switch Off Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Trending Now Safety Net In My Bag VidCon with Mashable Back to School Furtastic All Series Lois Mackenzie is a freelance reporter at Mashable. Over the years she has written for many publications, covering everything from the local news to the best pair of running shoes. You can find bylines in publications including Fit&Well, Metro, and Coach magazine, usually covering deals on everything from earbuds to TVs, or guides on how to beat your half marathon time. It's a new lunar phase tonight, the Third Quarter, which means the Moon is now halfway between the Full Moon and New Moon phases. During this stage, exactly half of the Moon's surface appears illuminated from Earth, What is today's Moon phase?