Science

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

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have identified a black hole having 200,000 times the mass of the Sun in Mrk 462, a dwarf galaxy with only several hundred million stars. In comparison, our Milky Way has a few hundred billion stars. The black hole was heavily buried in gas and dust in Mrk 462

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found a colossal 180-million-year-old fossilised remains of an ichthyosaur, colloquially known as a ‘sea dragon’. The researchers describe it as one of the most significant discoveries in the region as the fossil is the biggest and most complete skeleton of its kind found in the UK. Ichthyosaurs resembled dolphins

A 1 km-long asteroid is set to zip past Earth next week. But there is no need to worry. The flyby will have a very safe clearance of 1.93 million km from Earth, meaning it would be more than 5.15 times farther away from us than the Moon. Scientists and astronomers keep a regular watch

China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander has found the first-ever on-site evidence of water on the surface of the moon, lending new evidence to the dryness of the satellite. The study published on Saturday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances revealed that the lunar soil at the landing site contains less than 120 parts-per-million (ppm) water or

NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling. The last portion of the 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror swung into place at flight controllers’ command, completing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope. #NASAWebb is fully deployed! ???? With the successful deployment & latching of

NASA has shared an image of a stunning cosmic duo of galaxies, located roughly 215 million light-years away from Earth in the Pisces constellation. The image was clicked by the Hubble telescope, NASA’s current workhorse to study the mysteries of deep space. NASA said the galaxies appear to be plunging into each other, but in

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is in the process of collecting rock samples to send back to Earth  via a future human mission to Mars. But some pebble-sized debris is creating problems for the machine. At first, things went smoothly. Perseverance successfully extracted a sample from a Martian rock, named Issole. However, while transferring the sample

“Space now,” was what Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to tweet for years. He finally really did it, from the International Space Station. “The space market holds so much potential,” he said Friday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo, his first news conference in Japan after returning to earth before Christmas. Maezawa, who heads

We have often heard and read about giant stars dying violently in deep space. Ever imagined what kind of a sight it would be? How would a star appear as it nears its end from Earth? We may finally have an answer. In a first for astronomy, researchers were able to see in real time

Through the past week, NASA engineers have been working diligently to deploy major equipment and tools aboard James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including its sunshield and secondary mirror. On Saturday, January 8,  the primary camera of the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,340 crore) space observatory will be deployed, which will study the origin of the Universe

James Webb Space Telescope, a day after fully tensioning the sunshield, has now completed another complex procedure. The space observatory’s secondary mirror was deployed using what a Webb engineer described as the “world’s most sophisticated tripod.” The 2.4-feet-wide mirror is located on the tips of three carbon fibre tubes which extend out from the large

China’s first independent interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, pulled a new year’s surprise by clicking incredible selfies on Mars above its north pole. The images showed the mission’s solar arrays and antennas as well as a partial closeup of the orbiter. It also showed the Red Planet’s northern ice cap. Tianwen-1 released a small camera to fly

China is experimenting with an “artificial sun,” dubbed Experiential Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), to make way for clean energy in the future. The device setup is a fusion reactor which ran successfully for almost 20 minutes at a stunning 70 million degrees Celsius in a recent test. The machine strives to utilise the power of nuclear