Science

A moderately strong solar storm hit Earth recently and created a spectacular light show that was visible from New York. This event took place as Earth entered a period of heightened solar activity. On October 11, a massive solar flare was spotted on the Earth-facing side of the Sun and it reached the planet on

NASA’s upcoming mission to explore asteroids in order to learn about the earliest era of our solar system is ready to launch. The spacecraft named Lucy is expected to take off this week on a mission that is estimated to take 12 years. The spacecraft is looking at a possible launch date of October 16

Inside a huge crater in Israel’s sun-baked Negev desert, a team wearing space suits ventures forth on a mission to simulate conditions on Mars. The Austrian Space Forum has set up a pretend Martian base with the Israeli space agency at Makhtesh Ramon, a 1,600 feet (500m) deep, 25 miles (40km) wide crater. The six

Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin is set to take William Shatner of Star Trek fame to space and back safely on October 13. Though the launch was pushed back by a day due to anticipated winds in Texas, it isn’t holding Shatner’s fans back from gearing up for the liftoff. Late last week, a user tweeted

Blue Origin announced Sunday it was delaying an upcoming flight set to carry actor William Shatner to space due to anticipated winds. Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the cult classic TV series Star Trek, is due to become the first member of the iconic show’s cast to journey to the final frontier as

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched Indian Space Association (ISpA), an industry body aspiring to be the voice of the country’s space sector, and underlined his dispensation”s commitment to reforms, saying the country never had a more decisive government. PM Modi cited the government’s success in privatising loss-making public airline Air India to assert that

Singapore now has robots on its streets to carry out safety-related surveillance of citizens. The patrol robots, named Xavier, have been programmed to roam around the streets of Singapore and detect “undesirable social behaviour.” The robots move amidst people on regular pathways. They have been fitted with seven cameras to detect any anomaly in proper

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually launch the Indian Space Association (ISpA) at 11 am on Monday. He will also interact with representatives of the space industry on the occasion. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister on Sunday wrote, “At 11am tomorrow, 11th October, I will join the programme to launch the Indian Space Association. I

Remnants of solidified lava brought back by a Chinese mission were 1 billion years younger than material acquired by other missions decades ago, according to an article in the journal Science, suggesting the moon cooled down later than thought. Samples brought back from US and Soviet missions were more than 2.9 billion years old. The

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is in for a ride. The valuation of his space exploration company has reportedly skyrocketed to over $100 billion (Rs. 75,30,000 crores) following a secondary-share sale last week. SpaceX investors sold up to $755 million (Rs. 5,685 crores) in privately held stock at the price of $560 (Rs. 42,171) a share,

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew carried out medical research during their space mission, talked to their family back on Earth, and enjoyed the company of a xenomorph, like those seen in Aliens. But they also took time out to capture the breathtaking views of the Earth through the huge glass dome named “cupola” on the SpaceX Dragon

Astronomy enthusiasts are celebrating World Space Week from October 4 to October 10. To make this event memorable for young girls and encourage them to consider a career in space research and STEM, the European Space Agency (ESA) has put a special Barbie doll — modelled after European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti — in zero-gravity at

NASA will launch a mission this November to strike an asteroid that may pose a threat to Earth. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will be launched in order to prevent a hazardous asteroid from striking Earth. The mission is set to launch at 10:20pm PST, November 23 (10:50am IST on the following day).

Germany’s Benjamin List and David MacMillan of the United States on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction, the jury said. The duo was awarded “for their development of a precise new tool for molecular construction: organocatalysis. This has had a great impact on

Egypt is famous for its gargantuan pyramids and the ancient mummies that are buried there. The ancient process of mummification to preserve a body has long fascinated people all over the world. Researchers have now been able to reconstruct the faces of three men who lived in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. Based on

A Russian crew of two cosmonauts, a movie director, and an actress blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday to shoot the first movie in space, the latest twist in decades of Russia-US space rivalry. The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft is set to dock at 12:12 GMT (5:42pm IST) at the station, which orbits

US-Japanese scientist Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany, and Giorgio Parisi of Italy on Tuesday won the Nobel Physics Prize for climate models and the understanding of physical systems, the jury said. Manabe and Hasselmann share one half of the prize for their research on climate models, while Parisi won the other half for his

A gigantic comet — one of the largest ever seen — is heading toward the solar system. The comet, named Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB), was discovered earlier this year and will reach its closest approach to the Sun in 10 years from now, around 2031. However, the comet poses no threat to the Earth. It is likely

ISRO’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) on Friday announced its first “demand-driven” communication satellite mission as part of Space reforms announced by the Government in June last year. NSIL, incorporated in March 2019, got mandated to undertake operational satellite missions on a “demand-driven” model, wherein it has the responsibility to build, launch, own and

During monsoon, or even otherwise, there have been innumerable times that have we stepped out of our homes without an umbrella only to find the rain surprising us. To add to our troubles, on days even the weather forecasts have been bad at predicting the chances of rain and have let us down miserably. Now,