Science

A recent research based on Hubble Space Telescope findings showed that black holes could go against their all-absorbing nature at times and may aid creation. The research showed a supermassive black hole at the centre of a dwarf galaxy, some 30 million light-years away, creating stars rather than swallowing it. The black hole is apparently

Sun’s surface is marked by electrically charged gases that keep generating powerful magnetic forces. Their area of influence is called magnetic fields. As these gases are dynamic, they continuously stretch and twist the magnetic fields. Sometimes, this tangling of magnetic fields causes a sudden explosion of energy called solar flares. These flares, if strong enough,

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

NASA has shared an image that shows two stunningly luminous centres of light surrounded by what appears to be waves of gases let loose in the sky. NASA said the two lights are recently discovered quasars that appear to be merging into a single object. Quasars are distant objects that shine so brightly that they

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

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

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

The race for space exploration is heating up with major powers focussing on having a base on the Moon, to help operate beyond the International Space Station (ISS). As the US is realigning its strategy to return humanity to the Moon, China is not far behind. Its scientists have created an “artificial moon” on Earth

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

While the Artemis I is yet to take off, NASA and its partners across the US are already working on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the second Artemis launch, which will be the first crewed Artemis mission. NASA said the teams of scientists working on the SLS rocket have made “great progress” in

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

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

A Virgin Orbit rocket released from a jet flying off the California coast carried seven small satellites into space on Thursday as the company kicked off a year in which it plans to ramp up the pace of launches, including two originating from Britain. Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 took off from Mojave Air &

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

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

NASA on Wednesday embarked on a months-long, painstaking process of bringing its newly launched James Webb Space Telescope into focus, a task due for completion in time for the revolutionary eye in the sky to begin peering into the cosmos by early summer. Mission control engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland,

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

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

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, houses the Solar System and its varied mysteries. But there are hundreds of galaxies like ours in the cosmos and all of them are hiding multiple enigmas. They arouse acute interest among scientists, who are drawn towards them because of these puzzles. One of the most interesting puzzles is how galaxies

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