Science

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon’s surface, the billionaire said on Friday as NASA nears a decision to pick its first privately built lunar landers capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024. “This (BE-7) is the engine that will take the first woman to the

Japan space agency officials on Sunday hailed the arrival of rare asteroid samples on Earth after they were collected by space probe Hayabusa2 during an unprecedented mission. In a streak of light across the night sky, a capsule containing the precious specimens taken from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth after being dropped off by

A Chinese space probe has lifted off from the surface of the Moon to return to Earth, an ambitious effort to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades. Beijing is looking to catch up with the US and Russia after taking decades to match its rivals’ achievements and has poured billions into its

Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory could still have a future after its vast telescope dramatically collapsed this week, US officials said Thursday. The structure was destroyed on Tuesday when its 900-ton receiver platform, which was suspended 450 feet (140 metres) in the air, fell loose and plunged onto the radio dish below. Ralph Gaume, director of

Chinese scientists claim to have built a quantum computer that is able to perform certain computations nearly 100 trillion times faster than the world’s most advanced supercomputer, representing the first milestone in the country’s efforts to develop the technology. The researchers have built a quantum computer prototype that is able to detect up to 76

Call it a special delivery: after six years in space, Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe is heading home, but only to drop off its rare asteroid samples before starting a new mission. The fridge-sized probe, launched in December 2014, has already thrilled scientists by landing on and gathering material from an asteroid some 300 million kilometres (185

A Chinese spacecraft landed on the moon to bring back lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s, the government announced. The China National Space Administration said Chang’e 5 “successfully landed” at its designated site shortly after 11pm (8:30pm Tuesday IST) Tuesday after making a powered descent from its orbiter. It published images

A Chinese space probe sent to gather material from a previously unexplored part of the moon has completed its mission and is preparing to send back the world’s first lunar samples in four decades, Beijing said Thursday. China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by

Singapore has given US start-up Eat Just the greenlight to sell its lab-grown chicken meat, in what the firm says is the world’s first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat that does not come from slaughtered animals. The meat, to be sold as nuggets, will be priced at premium chicken prices when it first launches

A massive radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, one of the world’s largest, collapsed on Tuesday after sustaining severe damage since August, officials said, following 57 years of astronomical discoveries. The deteriorating telescope’s 900-ton instrument platform, suspended by cables 450 feet (137 metres) above a 1,000-foot-wide (305 metres) bowl-shaped reflector dish, fell on Tuesday morning, the

In a corner of the campus at Riga Technical University, a team of scientists is working on technology that could one day stop asteroids from smashing into Earth. The high-precision timers being built by hand in the lab of Latvian start-up Eventech are currently being used to track satellites. This year, the company won a

For decades scientists have been trying to figure out how to swiftly predict the twisting, tangled shape of proteins, and from there unravel a greater understanding of the machinery of life itself.       This week an Artificial Intelligence programme created by Google sister firm DeepMind was shown to have virtually cracked the challenge, forecasting the way in

Lunar eclipse or Chandra Grahan is appearing in the skies today. It will be the fourth and the last eclipse of 2020. The latest lunar eclipse is not likely to be visible in India. However, it will be seen in many parts of Europe as well as Australia, North America, South America, Pacific, Atlantic, and

A material that mimics human skin in strength, stretchability, and sensitivity could be used to collect biological data in real-time. Electronic skin, or e-skin, may play an important role in next-generation prosthetics, personalized medicine, soft robotics, and artificial intelligence. “The ideal e-skin will mimic the many natural functions of human skin, such as sensing temperature

SpaceX will continue beta testing its satellite-based broadband service Starlink into next year, the company said late Tuesday, indicating commercial service would not likely be offered in 2020 as previously planned. Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private space exploration company, has launched nearly 900 Starlink satellites to orbit since 2019 with the goal of offering

Sweden is getting on board India’s Venus orbiter mission ”Shukrayaan” with a scientific instrument to explore the planet. Ambassador of Sweden to India, Klas Molin said Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) is engaged in the venture, its second collaborative project with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “IRF’s satellite instrument Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA)

The Expand will end its run with a sixth and final season on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon Studios has renewed The Expanse — the sci-fi series based on James S.A. Corey’s novel series of the same name — for season 6, three weeks before The Expanse season 5 releases on Prime Video globally. But The

China on Tuesday launched an unmanned spacecraft to bring back lunar rocks, the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from the Moon in four decades. A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang’e-5 probe, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, blasted off from the Wenchang Space Center on the southern island province of

China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks in the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth’s natural satellite since the 1970s. The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists

Giant flash floods once washed through Gale Crater on Mars’ equator around four billion years ago, according to a study which hints at the possibility that life may have existed on the Red Planet. The research, published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, assessed data collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, launched in November 2011, and found

The renowned Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico will be dismantled after 57 years of service due to the rupture of cables that have led to the threat of collapse, the US National Science Foundation announced Thursday. Two cables supporting the 900-ton instruments for the telescope above a radio dish 1,000 feet (305 metres) in diameter

NASA’s inspector general and the US justice department have launched investigations into allegations that Boeing may have benefited from internal information provided by the space agency during a contract bidding process, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The affair led to the abrupt resignation of Doug Loverro, then the head of NASA’s human exploration directorate, in

SpaceX, an American aerospace company owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, has urged the Indian government to kick off approvals for satellite broadband technologies. The move is aimed at expanding SpaceX’s satellite Internet constellation Starlink to the country. SpaceX has expressed its interest in launching Starlink in India in a filing submitted with the Telecom Regulatory

Four astronauts riding a newly designed spacecraft from Elon Musk’s SpaceX docked with the International Space Station Monday night, in the first crewed mission on a privately built space capsule purchased by NASA. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience by its crew of three Americans and one Japanese astronaut, docked at 11:01pm EST (9:31am Tuesday IST), 27 hours

Four astronauts were successfully launched on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience to the International Space Station on Sunday, the first of what the US hopes will be many routine missions following a successful test flight in late spring. Three Americans, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi blasted off at 7:27pm

NASA and high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX announced on Friday a 24-hour weather delay of their planned launch of four astronauts into orbit for NASA’s first full-fledged human mission using a privately owned spacecraft. The liftoff time slipped from Saturday to Sunday evening due to forecasts of gusty, onshore winds over Florida –

NASA is underestimating the amount of time and money it will take to bring Mars rocks back to Earth in the coming decade, an independent panel said Tuesday. The review board suggested that NASA and the European Space Agency consider bumping the next launches in the sample-return effort from 2026 to 2028, given all the

Three NASA crew and one Japanese astronaut are set for launch aboard a SpaceX rocket Saturday, bound for the International Space Station in the program’s first six-month routine mission since the United States resumed crewed space flight in May after nine years of reliance on Russia.   NASA on Tuesday officially certified as safe the

India’s PSLV-C49 carrying its latest earth observation satellite EOS-01 and nine customer satellites lifted off from the spaceport here on Saturday. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C49/EOS-01) blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 3:12pm at the end of a 26-hour countdown. The lift off was originally scheduled for 3:02pm but

Astrophysicists have detected a burst of cosmic radio waves within our solar system for the first time and identified its source, according to research published Wednesday that sheds new light on one of the mysteries of the Universe.  The origin of powerful fast radio bursts (FRBs), intense flashes of radio emission that only last a few