Study Reveals How Traveling To Mars Could Damage Astronaut’s Brains

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The supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula. Supernova remnants produce cosmic rays / NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, NOAO/AURA/NSF, JPL-Caltech/UCLA

To observe changes to the brain that may occur en route to the Red Planet, researchers exposed mice to charged particles like those found in galactic cosmic rays. And unfortunately, turns out exposure to space radiation may put Mars-bound astronauts at risk for cognitive problems, like losing the ability to problem solve. The work was published in Science Advances this week.