headshot of temporary astronomy writer Liz Kruesi

Liz Kruesi

Liz Kruesi is a freelance science journalist who focuses on astronomy. She is based in Colorado. She has written about astronomy and space since 2005, and received the AAS High-Energy Astrophysics Division science journalism award in 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc.

All Stories by Liz Kruesi

  1. Astronomy

    This extreme star might have huge tidal waves

    Gravitational forces between two orbiting stars might be creating huge waves of plasma on one of the stars that break and crash to the surface.

  2. Astronomy

    A streak of light may not be a black hole fleeing its galaxy after all

    A suspicious trail of starlight may just be a spiral galaxy seen edge on, not stars that formed in the wake of a runaway supermassive black hole.

  3. Space

    What has Perseverance found in two years on Mars?

    NASA's Perseverance rover has turned up volcanic rocks, signs of flowing water and some of the materials necessary for life.

  4. Space

    Artemis 1’s Orion capsule returned safely to Earth. What’s next?

    The first test flight in NASA’s return to the moon Artemis program ended well with the uncrewed capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

  5. Space

    Artemis I finally launched. Here’s what it means for human spaceflight

    The launch of NASA's Artemis I is a giant step toward sending humans back to the moon and heading beyond.

  6. Astronomy

    Mini-Neptunes may become super-Earths as the exoplanets lose their atmospheres

    Starlight is eroding the atmospheres of a handful of gassy exoplanets that are a bit smaller than Neptune, gradually exposing the rocky cores within.

  7. Planetary Science

    Astronauts might be able to use asteroid soil to grow crops

    Researchers grew romaine lettuce, chili pepper and pink radish plants in mixtures of faux asteroid soil and peat moss.

  8. Space

    Six months in space leads to a decade’s worth of long-term bone loss

    Even after a year of recovery in Earth’s gravity, astronauts who’d been in space six months or more still had bone loss equal to a decade of aging.

  9. Astronomy

    An otherwise quiet galaxy in the early universe is spewing star stuff

    Seen as it was 700 million years after the Big Bang, the galaxy churns out a relatively paltry number of stars. And yet it’s heaving gas into space.

  10. Astronomy

    Seven newfound dwarf galaxies sit on just one side of a larger galaxy

    Seven newly found dwarf galaxy candidates are stick to just one side of the large galaxy M81. Astronomers don’t know why.

  11. Planetary Science

    Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are scientists’ purest pieces of the solar system

    Samples Hayabusa2 brought to Earth from asteroid Ryugu are far fresher than similar types of meteorites that scientists have found.

  12. Astronomy

    A newfound, oddly slow pulsar shouldn’t emit radio waves — yet it does

    The highly magnetic neutron star rotates three times slower than the previous record holder, challenging the theorical understanding of these objects.