Science

NASA blasted a nanosatellite barely bigger than a microwave oven into outer space Tuesday, part of a landmark mission to return humans to the Moon. A rocket carrying the tiny Capstone module successfully launched from New Zealand’s eastern Mahia Peninsula to a deafening blast and a wash of fiery propulsion. All being well, in four months Capstone

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

In the first of three planned launches from the Arnhem Space Centre, the rocket, carrying technology likened to a “mini Hubble” telescope, lifted off – blasted about 350 kilometres (218 miles) into the night sky. “It is a momentous occasion for us as a company in particular, but it’s historic for Australia,” Equatorial Launch Australia

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

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

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

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

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

Combining data obtained from several sources, scientists have managed to unravel the mystery behind the red cap on Pluto’s moon Charon and its composition. NASA’s interplanetary space probe New Horizons had captured the reddish region on the top of Charon and collected data in 2015. After the encounter, scientists soon speculated that the tholin-like material

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