Briley Lewis

Contributor

About

Dr. Briley Lewis (she/her) is a freelance science writer and astronomer. Follow her on Twitter @briles_34 or visit her website www.briley-lewis.com.

More from Briley Lewis

Illustration: HIP 41378 f is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 0.233 Jupiters and it takes 3 years to complete one orbit of its star. Its discovery was announced in 2016.
Deep Space

What if ‘cotton candy’ planets are actually Ring Pops?

By Briley Lewis

NASA astronaut Andre Douglas raises an American flag as NASA astronaut Kate Rubins looks on during their first simulated moonwalk in a week-long field test consisting of four simulated moonwalks and six advanced technology runs in the San Francisco Volcanic Field in Northern Arizona on May 13, 202
Science

At Earth’s most extreme locales, astronauts find ideal places to prep for space

By Briley Lewis

Artist concept: The LSST will carry out a deep, ten-year imaging survey in six broad optical bands over the main survey area of 18,000 square degrees.
AI

How AI’s data-crunching-power can help demystify the cosmos

By Briley Lewis

The cool ways ISS astronauts conduct experiments using household items
Science

The cool ways ISS astronauts conduct experiments using household items

By Briley Lewis

NASA astronaut Ed White free floating in space during a spacewalk in 1965.
Private Space Flight

How does Polaris Dawn fit into the history of spacewalks?

By Briley Lewis

Sunset behind the IceCube Lab
Science

Astronomers really like the South Pole, but why?

By Briley Lewis

The Green Bank Observatory contains eight dishes that detect radiation from objects in space in the form of radio waves.
Deep Space

Why the ‘Wow!’ signal is probably not from aliens after all

By Briley Lewis

ALMA antennae bathed in red light. in the background there is the southern Milky Way on the left and the Magellanic Clouds at the top.
Deep Space

Why astronomers keep staring at the same spot in the sky

By Briley Lewis

Astronomy: the corona of the sun, viewed during a total solar eclipse. Process print after a photograph, 1871.
Moons

‘The sun has been eaten’: A brief history of solar eclipses

By Briley Lewis

Ancient star, but not one of the first: One of the oldest known stars ever observed is a subgiant star in the Milky Way, just 190 light-years from Earth. The star, known as HD 140283 or the Methuselah star, appears to be almost as old as the universe. However, we know it is not one of the first stars because of it contains metals that must have formed in the core or during the explosion of even earlier stars.
Deep Space

The hunt for the first stars in the universe

By Briley Lewis

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming.
Science

What happens when you don’t have enough ingredients to make a planet?

By Briley Lewis

Mercury colorful
Science

What ‘Mercury in retrograde’ actually means

By Briley Lewis

NASA asteroid concept
Science

How often do asteroids come near Earth?

By Briley Lewis

SpaceX will attempt the first commercial spacewalk
Private Space Flight

SpaceX will attempt the first commercial spacewalk

By Briley Lewis

In the era of private spaceflight, who gets to be an astronaut?
International Space Station

In the era of private spaceflight, who gets to be an astronaut?

By Briley Lewis

Illustration of an astronaut on Mars, using a remote control drone to inspect a nearby cliff.
Health

Traveling to Mars could destroy your kidneys

By Briley Lewis

Steve
Science

Have you seen Steve? Look up and you might spot the sky phenomenon.

By Briley Lewis

Zebrafish
Animals

Why do we send so many fish to space?

By Briley Lewis

NASA and Boeing’s Starliner delays expose the challenges of space travel
International Space Station

NASA and Boeing’s Starliner delays expose the challenges of space travel

By Briley Lewis

Eros in Stereo
Mars

Mars might have an asteroid problem

By Briley Lewis