Science

On April 6, NASA’s Perseverance rover took a historic selfie beside the Ingenuity copter on the Martian surface. It used a camera, called WATSON, at the end of its robotic arm to snap the shot. Surprisingly, when the final image was released by the US space agency, the robotic arm was not visible and it

Raheva was only a year old when she died after colliding with a net of power-lines as she was flying through a morning sky from the coastal grasslands of Jakhau towards her natal ground in Naliya, Gujarat. Alfin lived longer, but in melancholy. By the time she matured at the age of three years, her

Billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceship company Virgin Galactic said on Friday it received approval from the US aviation safety regulator to fly people to space, turning up the pressure on rivals in the nascent and expensive space tourism sector. The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) comes at a critical time for Branson as his space

Bones belonging to a “new type of early human” previously unknown to science have been found in Israel, researchers said Thursday, claiming to have shed new light on human evolution. Excavations in the quarry of a cement plant near the central city of Ramla uncovered prehistoric remains that could not be matched to any known

Caviar, known for creating customised, luxury versions of smartphones, has unveiled the first look of its new lineup for iPhone. The company plans to put meteorite fragments, precious metals and stones on the back of the purported iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max smartphones so that they look futuristic. The luxury brand has named

Launching one of the richest individuals on Earth into orbit has proved a leap too far for insurers, who are not ready to price the risk of losing Jeff Bezos or his fellow space travellers. Amazon CEO Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast, has been vying with Elon Musk and Richard Branson to become the first

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk will list SpaceX’s space Internet venture, Starlink, when its cash flow is reasonably predictable, the billionaire entrepreneur said late on Wednesday. “Going public sooner than that would be very painful,” Musk said in a tweet. “Will do my best to give long-term Tesla shareholders preference.” At least a few

A large mass of rock and ice avalanche caused the Chamoli disaster in February 2021 in which over 200 people lost their lives in Uttarakhand, a new study that used satellite evidence has confirmed. The avalanche triggered a mud and debris flood, causing massive destruction along its route. On February 7, 2021, a large mass

The next full Moon, that most people on the planet will be able to watch on June 24 at 2:40pm EDT (June 25 at 12:10am IST) is known by different names in different regions and cultures. Around this time, the Moon appears full for about three days — in this case from the morning of

Starlink, the satellite Internet unit of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, expects to be able to provide continuous global coverage by around September but will then need to seek regulatory approvals, its president Gwynne Shotwel said on Tuesday. “We’ve successfully deployed 1,800 or so satellites and once all those satellites reach their operational orbit, we will have

Betelgeuse, once said to be the ninth most luminous star in the sky, started dimming rapidly in December 2019. Even though Betelgeuse was always a “variable” star, meaning its brightness would fluctuate, by February 2020 it had reported a loss of nearly two-thirds of its brightness. This made astronomers wonder if it was soon going

Plastic waste — that includes carry bags, soft drink or water bottles, more — may soon be converted into vanilla flavouring using genetically engineered bacteria. According to new research by scientists at the University of Edinburgh, there’s a way to turn plastic waste into vanillin — the main flavour component of vanilla beans — using

Summer Solstice is occurring today — the longest day of the summer season in the northern hemisphere when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. This day signals the beginning of the summer season in the northern hemisphere and the start of winter in the southern hemisphere. Through the year two such astronomical

The Hubble Space Telescope, which has been peering into the universe for more than 30 years, has been down for the past few days, NASA said Friday. The problem is a payload computer that stopped working last Sunday, the US space agency said. NASA continues to work to resolve an issue with the payload computer

NASA has shared a stunning image of the Lagoon Nebula, a giant blue cloud of gas and dust where stars are currently forming. The image had thousands of stars, or giant flares, twinkling like dots on a massive black canvas. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as NGC 6523 or Messier 8, is located some 4,400

Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor-author, has said the food production industry will transform as early as 2030 and that 50 percent of all meat eaten by humans on the planet will either be plant-based or cell ag (cellular agriculture) produced within the next 10 years. He said that half of the seafood will also be produced using