First up, we've got an update on Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

These two NASA astronauts set out to spend just over a week in space in June, but now they won't actually be home until around February.

Earlier this month—not long after the ill-fated Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without them onboard—the pair conducted a press release from the International Space Station.

Suni said they're making the most of their extra time in space by being the best crewmates they can be, and both noted that they're looking forward to voting in the 2024 presidential election from space.

They've sent in their requests for absentee ballots, which will be encrypted and downlinked to their local county clerks' offices.

Both will have to list their current address as “low-Earth orbit,” which is kind of adorable.

So if voting on November 5 means standing in a long line or dealing with other inconvenient logistics, just take a second to look up into the sky and be grateful that you're not stuck in space for, like, eight months longer than intended.

Here's a bit more space news.

A study published last Monday suggests that Earth might have once had a cool cosmic fashion accessory: a giant ring like the one surrounding Saturn.

The study authors hypothesize that the ring of space rocks might have formed about 466 million years ago when a big ol' asteroid got too close and succumbed to our planet's tidal forces.

Once it broke apart to form a ring system, it could have blocked enough sunlight to cool the planet—and sent loads of meteorites down to collide with the surface.

In fact, the scientists formed this hypothesis to try to explain a period of frequent meteorite strikes some 485 million to 443 million years ago.

They'll need more evidence to solidify their findings, but in the meantime I think it's pretty cool to imagine our planet with a big, rocky Hula-Hoop.

And speaking of our Pale Blue Dot, a study published last Friday reminds us of just how complex it is.

Researchers found that iron stuck to dust carried on the wind from the Sahara all the way to the Atlantic Ocean plays a crucial role in supporting marine life.

Not all forms of iron in the environment are “bioreactive,” or accessible to living things.

Researchers say that the iron that travels in Saharan dust actually becomes more bioreactive as it blows through the atmosphere, thanks to chemical reactions that take place there, that means that this long-distance delivery is potentially crucial for supporting life in locations like the Amazonian basin and the Bahamas.

In less thrilling environmental news, last Monday scientists published a report about microplastics found in the human brain.

The researchers examined tissue from cadavers, looking specifically at their olfactory bulbs—those are the parts of the brain that begin to process smells, and two of them sit above the nasal cavity.

Samples from eight of the 15 cadavers contained bits of plastic ranging in size from 5.5 to 26.4 micrometers.

It seems likely that we inhale these microplastics, and some worry this means they could make their way into to the rest of the brain.

We do know that some microbes can make that jump.

Microplastics have been linked to inflammatory reactions and could potentially be tied to all sorts of health problems.

Last Thursday an international group of experts in marine biology, sustainability, environmental psychology, global plastics policy and risk assessment published an article in the journal Science calling for international action to combat the plastic and microplastic problem.

They warned of the risk of “irreversible environmental damage” if we don't take pains to drastically lower our plastic production, as well as find ways to lower emissions of and environmental pollution from the plastics we continue to use and discard.

Their call to action actually coincides with the 20th anniversary of the first-ever study to use the term “microplastics,” which was also published in Science.

For more on microplastics check out our June 24 episode.