The idea of becoming an astronaut is an exciting one. The journey to actually traveling to outer space a much more demanding adventure. You would expect a person who has undergone this experience to change after it’s all done. However, some of the changes may be ones that were rather unexpected, such as changes to the astronaut’s DNA.

NASA has been studying astronaut Scott  Kelly after he spent a year in space. The man has an Earth bound twin named Mark Kelly and the study focused on the differences between the two. Both physiological and psychological changes were expected and found. Not only did Scott have trouble readjusting to the gravity after his return to Earth, there were changes at a physical level to his DNA.

the telomeres or end caps of the chromosomes had become significantly longer after his prolonged stay in outer space. While 93% of these genes returned to normal after he landed back, about 7% of them were still  longer than normal. Several of them related to his immune system, bone formation, hypoxia and hypercapnia along with his DNA’s self repairing ability. Now this is a scientific study that proves that being in outer space really changes you.