Science

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said on Wednesday that the agency will reveal the “deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken” on July 12, thanks to the newly operational James Webb Space Telescope. “If you think about that, this is farther than humanity has ever looked before,” Nelson said during a press briefing

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday. China’s Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has

NASA recently launched the first of three rockets headed to the stars Alpha Centauri A and B — the two stars closest to our solar system. Launched from Australia on June 26, the X-ray Quantum Calorimeter (XQC) mission is the first to be launched from a commercial facility outside the US. The first rocket will

US space agency NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars and digging for signs of life since it landed on the planet in February last year. Besides the rocks and alien atmosphere, the rover witnessed some intense dust winds called dust devils in the Jezero Crater. In a new study, scientists have tried to examine

A technology-driven approach and initiatives such as digital university in line with the new National Education Policy (NEP) will be key to enhance access to quality education, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. “There is a need to adopt innovative and out-of-the-box methods to enhance access to quality and affordable education and to bring our

Rocket launches are taking a larger toll on the climate like no other, a study, published in the journal Earth’s Future, has concluded. The study was led by researchers from UCL, the University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Using a 3D model to explore the impact of rocket launches and re-entry

While dyslexia is characterised by learning difficulties, researchers from the University of Cambridge have concluded that people with the disorder are skilled at exploring the unknown. This strength, according to researchers, has helped humans adapt and survive in changing environments. The findings came as researchers carried out a study on behaviour, cognition and the brain.

The Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has started authorising Indian private firms, marking the beginning of private space sector launches in India. IN-SPACe is an autonomous, single window nodal agency; formed to promote, authorise, monitor, and supervise the space activities of Non-Governmental Private Entities (NGPEs) in India. Dhruva Space, Hyderabad, and Digantara research

When you read a sentence like this one, your past experience tells you that it’s written by a thinking, feeling human. And, in this case, there is indeed a human typing these words: [Hi, there!] But these days, some sentences that appear remarkably humanlike are actually generated by artificial intelligence systems trained on massive amounts

NASA put an asteroid mission on hold on Friday, blaming the late delivery of its own navigation software. The Psyche mission to a strange metal asteroid of the same name was supposed to launch this September or October. But the agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab was several months late delivering its software for navigation, guidance and

Astronomers last year discovered the body of a rocket headed for a lunar collision. The impact occurred on March 4, and the resulting crater was later discovered by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Surprisingly, the crater actually consists of two craters, an eastern crater (18 meters in diameter, about 19.5 yards), overlying a western crater (16

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and has a mass that is 2.5x more than all the other planets put together. Most would remember that Jupiter is mostly made out of helium and hydrogen. But unlike most other gas giants, there is a significant presence of metals in the planet’s composition. Scientists

Scientists have managed to find signs of microbial life in one of the harshest spots on Earth, giving further hope that life may also be found in some of the unknown environments of space. In the depths of the Canadian Arctic, scientists managed to identify signs of life in the low-oxygen, super-salty waters of the

The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft is set to get a major software upgrade that will boost its capabilities. The Mars Express was ESA’s first mission to Mars, launched on June 2, 2003 and it ran Windows 98. It has been

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a human tissue model to demonstrate the functioning of nanoparticles. Cancer types like glioblastoma have a high fatality rate and treating them is difficult due to the blood-brain barrier. The barrier doesn’t allow most chemotherapy drugs to penetrate through the blood vessels around

Astronomers had a rare opportunity to observe a galaxy in the early universe that is providing its surroundings with the building blocks required to create later generations of stars and galaxies, thanks to a fortunate cosmic alignment. The experts have found that the distant galaxy has been spewing elements required for the formation of galaxies

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traversing over a transitional region between a clay-rich region to a sulphate-rich region. In the process, the rover has been capturing images of rocks that had once been at the bottom of multiple stream beds on the red planet. Harkening to a distant past when water was found on

A startup in West Bengal has come out with a device that produces oxygen from water just by pressing of a switch, the founders of the technology claimed. ‘OM Redox’, the device developed by Solaire Initiatives Pvt Ltd, which is incubated in the Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre here, provides pure oxygen from water, they said.

Researchers have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. The study was published in the journal, Nature Food. Researchers used a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, the form of the main component of vinegar.

Stargazers may want to glue their eyes to the night sky this week as a stellar formation of celestial bodies is set to take place. In a rare occurrence, five planets will appear aligned in order in the predawn sky along with the moon. The planets namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will align

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) launched GSAT-24 in its first “demand-driven” communication satellite mission post space sector reforms, leasing the entire capacity on board to Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Tata Play. Built by the Indian Space Research Organisation for NSIL, the satellite was successfully placed into geostationary orbit by the Ariane 5 rocket, operated by French

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s GSAT-24 satellite, built NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), was successfully launched by French company Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana (South America) on Thursday. GSAT-24 is a 24-Ku band communication satellite weighing 4180kg with pan-India coverage for meeting DTH application needs. It was the first “demand driven” communication satellite mission

In a groundbreaking finding, researchers have developed a technology that can help effectively treat heart diseases in humans. The technology repairs heart muscles in mice after a heart attack and also successfully regenerates them. Researchers, from the University of Houston, have used a synthetic messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to deliver mutated transcription factors to the

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said a 10 percent cut in salaried staff at the electric car maker will happen over three months, as the world’s richest man predicted a US recession was more likely than not. His remarks were his most detailed explanation of job cut plans and his first in-person appearance since Reuters

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Tuesday approved a proposal to change land use of a plot in Narela for setting up a ‘first-of-its-kind’ park in the city for management of electronic waste, officials said.   The decision was taken during a meeting of the Authority, the highest decision-making body of the DDA, chaired by

Astronomers have made an exciting new discovery, identifying a newborn pulsar that may possibly be only 14 years old. Scientists were finally able to observe the pulsar after the dense debris and bright energy emissions from the supernova explosion that created the pulsar finally thinned enough. This celestial formation is known as a pulsar wind

Alzheimer’s disease may soon be detected using a single magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, according to UK researchers. Getting tested for Alzheimer’s disease — the most common form of dementia — can involve taking a painstaking number of tests and scans, along with several memory and cognitive tests. The study focussed on the regions of the brain which were traditionally not

Scientists at MIT have shared detailed images of Asteroid Psyche, a large asteroid that is believed to be the ancient core of an early planet. The maps of the asteroid have been shared months ahead of NASA’s scheduled launch of its Psyche probe to study the asteroid belt in August, an area between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where remains

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, have indigenously developed a metal 3D printer for aerospace, defence and general engineering applications. According to officials, all the components of the metal 3D printer, except the laser and robot systems, are designed and manufactured in India. The project’s main objective is to reduce the cost

While wildfires have posed a threat to animals and local residents in recent years, they have been a part of Earth’s processes for millions of years without human intervention. Now, scientists have discovered the world’s oldest wildfires thanks to 430-million-year-old charcoal deposits found in Wales and Poland. They reveal a lot about what life was