Science

NASA said it has completed deploying all the hexagonal mirror segments of its James Webb Space Telescope. The delicate operation to move the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,500 crore) space observatory’s individual mirror segments out of their launch positions took nearly a week, during which the motors made over a million revolutions. The space agency said

Researchers on Thursday reported the latest in a surprising string of experiments in the quest to save human lives with organs from genetically modified pigs. This time around, surgeons in Alabama transplanted a pig’s kidneys into a brain-dead man — a step-by-step rehearsal for an operation they hope to try in living patients possibly later

Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) is planning to launch what it claims is the world’s first entertainment studio and multi-purpose arena in zero gravity. The company is co-producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming space movie. SEE has unveiled plans to build a space station module that contains a sports and entertainment arena as well as a content studio by

A Chinese satellite had a near collision with one of the many chunks of debris left by the fallout of a recent Russian anti-satellite missile test, state media reported. Moscow blew up one of its old satellites in November in a missile test that sparked international anger because of the space debris it scattered around

NASA said its Curiosity rover, looking for signs of life on Mars’ Gale Crater, has found intriguing carbon signatures. While this is no definite suggestion that Curiosity has found proof of ancient microbial life, it does, however, suggest its possibility. The rover has been collecting powdered rock samples on the Red Planet’s surface. When scientists

An asteroid bigger than the tallest building on Earth safely flew by on January 19. The giant rock, named 7482 (1994 PC1), zipped past our planet, nearly 1.93 million kilometres away. That’s more than five times the distance between Earth and Moon. It has been classified as “potentially hazardous” because of its size and its

ExoMars — a joint project of European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos — has moved a step closer to landing on the Red Planet after it rehearsed how to drive off its Kazachok landing platform on the Martian surface. The simulation involved the UK-built Rosalind Franklin rover making a carefully choreographed move on the

Elon Musk-founded SpaceX has successfully launched 49 more Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to take the total number to more than 2,000. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US, on January 19. About nine minutes later, the rocket’s first stage returned back to Earth for a

Scientists have discovered more than 10,000 exoplanets, those that lay quietly beyond our solar system, but they have not been able to locate a moon orbiting any of them – so far. In a new study, they have outlined a discovery that they say could change this. Researchers think the celestial body they have now

Extra-terrestrial living comes with a number of complications, but astronauts tackle those all the time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in their endeavour to solve the many mysteries of the Universe. And scientists back home keep trying to find ways to make living on the ISS easier. One of the biggest problems astronauts face

Volunteers interested in astronomy and curious about celestial objects have helped NASA find a super giant planet outside our solar system. This exoplanet is three times the size of Jupiter and located about 379 light-years away from Earth. The super-Jupiter orbits a star with the same mass as our Sun.  NASA said this discovery was

A measuring system that measures the thermal conductivity of bridgmanite in the laboratory, under the pressure and temperature conditions that prevail inside the Earth, has been developed by a team of researchers. The study has been published in the ‘Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal’. The evolution of our Earth is the story of its cooling: 4.5 billion years

Macro photography in its truest form deals with photographing minute things to make them appear larger than life, characteristics that the naked eye would often miss. That by itself can make things magical — making the mundane appear awesome! That flower you see from far as pretty can be pretty captivating up-close, with the anthers,

Joshua Martinangeli, 7, is too ill to go to school. But the German student can still interact with his teacher and classmates through an avatar robot that sits in class in his place and sends a blinking signal when he has something to say. “The children talk to him, laugh with him and sometimes even

An international team of scientists has produced the most detailed 3D map of the universe yet, with astrophysicists unveiling details of the first 7.5 million galaxies out of 35 million. The stunning image shows the cosmic web of galaxies going back billions of light-years. And, this is only the beginning of the project, which is

Just like Earth, most planets we know of are shaped like orbs, except Jupiter, which has several rings around it. Still, Jupiter too appears like a globe. But do all planets, including those outside our solar system, have a spherical shape? The answer is no, as per a new research paper., which says it is

The dawn of humanity is a subject that has long intrigued us. Scientists have been trying to ascertain the precise date of origin for a long time but with little success. Every once in a while, they find fossils that push the date by a few more centuries. But the effort is still on. Scientists

As NASA completes all major deployments of the James Webb Space Telescope and the observatory enters a “cooling” period, the agency is sharing some interesting facts about the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,100 core) observatory. These include some lenses which are made out of salt. But why does this infrared telescope need a “salty” lens? In

In a recent experiment, scientists have taught a goldfish to operate a robotic car. The experiment was an attempt to test the navigational abilities of goldfish and study animal behaviour. The robotic car was specially designed to suit this purpose. The Fish Operated Vehicle (FOV), designed by scientists from Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Astronomers have long thought that it takes millions of years for a star like our Sun to form completely. But recent observations via the world’s largest radio telescope FAST are casting doubt on this long-held belief. The new study has revealed that stars could form much faster than previously thought. Scientists studied the magnetic field