NASA Twins Study Shows How Space Changes the Human Body

NASA Twins Study Shows How Space Changes the Human Body
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is shown with flight engineer Sergey Volkov (R) from the International Space Station in this NASA image released on Feb. 29, 2016. NASA/Handout/Reuters
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—An American astronaut experienced multiple biological changes in space but returned to normal—with some exceptions—after coming back to Earth, according to a study involving twin brothers that shed light on how space flight affects the human body.

In research published on April 11, scientists compared Scott Kelly to identical twin Mark Kelly after Scott spent 340 days in orbit on the International Space Station and Mark remained Earth-bound. Both are now retired as NASA astronauts, and Mark is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.