The space shuttle Endeavor and its seven astronauts have returned safely to Earth. But after traveling 6.5 million miles in 16 days, and after doing critical repair work on the international space station, and after a picture-perfect landing at Cape Canaveral… the big topic, of course, is the high-tech Japanese underwear of astronaut Koichi Wakata.

You see, Wakata has been wearing an experimental new type of boxer briefs called J-Wear for the past month, without changing them even once. And all in the name of science!

Because it’s impossible to wash clothes in space, astronauts have to toss out their dirty clothes after a while. (They usually get mixed in, and burned up, with the garbage.) But the J-Wear undies are anti-static, flame-retardant, and maybe most importantly, odor-resistant. If they work as advertised — and if the technology works for things like shirts and socks as well — then that could make a big difference to space crews that travel long distances or for long periods of time.

And don’t count out the possibility that YOU might also be wearing month-long undies someday. NASA holds over 6,000 patents and is responsible for inventing a lot of the things we use in our everyday lives: scratch-resistant lenses, shoe insoles, water filters, cordless power tools, and invisible braces, just to name a few. Your skivvies could be next. Video here. And here.

French photographer Thierry Legault has a very nice camera. He must, because he managed to take this picture of the space shuttle Endeavor (docked with the International Space Station) as it passed in front of the sun. It’s really a bit breathtaking.

Legault uses special solar filters, and presumably a lot of other very high-tech equipment, to capture his images. You can see much more of his work right here. including some jaw-dropping images of the recent lunar eclipse, solar flares, and nebulas.

And don’t forget: if you come across any images online that you’d like to share with Club Galahad, send them to us and we’ll post them (and credit you).

An amateur astronomer from Australia took a break from watching sports to discover a blot in Jupiter’s atmosphere that is the size of our own home planet.

Anthony Wesley, a computer programmer who spends up to 20 hours per week watching and photographing Jupiter through his own backyard telescope, first tipped off NASA on Monday. The space agency used its own telescope, based in Hawaii, to confirm the Earth-sized hole and to snap these pictures, which were released late Monday, along with this explanation:

Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark “scar” had suddenly  appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact. New infrared images show the likely impact point was near the south polar region, with a visibly dark “scar” and bright upwelling particles in the upper atmosphere detected in near-infrared wavelengths.

Incredibly, the sighting comes nearly 15 years to the day after the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck Jupiter, which at the time was the first observable comet-planet collision.

Talk about a world-changing, milestone anniversary: July 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. There’s a ton of great coverage that we’ll link to below, beginning with NASA’s video footage, which is a must-see.

NASA has the Apollo 11 video, interactive lunar activities, and much more here.

MSNBC talks about what must of us don’t know about Apollo 11 here.

Britain’s Telegraph has 10 little-known facts here.

A look at the ‘Space Race’ that led the U.S. to the moon is here.

And, just for fun, some information on the (debunked) theories that the landing was faked right here.

There just aren’t very many shows on TV that are as cool or as worthwhile as NOVA ScienceNOW on PBS. Here in Colorado it airs on Tuesday nights, but if you live somewhere else, check your local listings or visit their website.

Come to think of it, everyone should visit their website anyway. Why? Because there is so much fun, interactive stuff for kids and adults alike — games, links, science news, and even an Ask the Expert feature that allows you to communicate with some of the smartest people around about all kinds of topics.

Best of all, you can watch video of any episode you want. Here are a few of my favorites:

Hunt for Alien Earths

Karl Iagnemma: Robot Scientist and Writer(!)

Growth Spurt for a T-Rex

Art and Algorithms