From launchpads to low Earth orbit and beyond, space companies and their affiliates are deploying a familiar marketing tactic—with a new twist. In a space economy projected to reach US$1.8 trillion by 2035, they sell space exploration narratives by appealing to a desire to expand humankind beyond Earth—while downplaying or omitting the negative repercussions for Earth and the space environment. Welcome to the age of starwashing.

Using unique equipment installed on NASA's WB-57 aircraft flying above heavy clouds off the coast of Iceland, a Southwest Research Institute-led team successfully observed a total solar eclipse on Wednesday. The high-altitude jet followed the moon's shadow at 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) to take measurements of the solar corona in nine different wavelengths, ranging from visible to infrared light.

Decades of climate change have not left Europe's mountain vegetation unscathed. However, the changes observed do not always match expectations. As a new international study by a research team led by researchers from the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the BOKU University shows, alpine vegetation has shifted significantly towards warmth-associated species. However, the direct link between this so-called thermophilization and local warming is surprisingly weak. The study has recently been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

During a reading lesson, Mateo, an elementary multilingual learner (MLL) in a Delaware public school, read "sit" as "seat." Jon Kittle, his reading interventionist, walked him through the short vowel sound, but Mateo made the same "mistake" and grew frustrated. Kittle began to wonder if these "errors" were actually the result of Mateo applying what he knew from Spanish, where the letter "i" carries the sound of the English long "ē."