Science

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

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

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

NASA has shared an image of a stunning cosmic duo of galaxies, located roughly 215 million light-years away from Earth in the Pisces constellation. The image was clicked by the Hubble telescope, NASA’s current workhorse to study the mysteries of deep space. NASA said the galaxies appear to be plunging into each other, but in

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is in the process of collecting rock samples to send back to Earth  via a future human mission to Mars. But some pebble-sized debris is creating problems for the machine. At first, things went smoothly. Perseverance successfully extracted a sample from a Martian rock, named Issole. However, while transferring the sample

“Space now,” was what Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to tweet for years. He finally really did it, from the International Space Station. “The space market holds so much potential,” he said Friday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo, his first news conference in Japan after returning to earth before Christmas. Maezawa, who heads

We have often heard and read about giant stars dying violently in deep space. Ever imagined what kind of a sight it would be? How would a star appear as it nears its end from Earth? We may finally have an answer. In a first for astronomy, researchers were able to see in real time

Through the past week, NASA engineers have been working diligently to deploy major equipment and tools aboard James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including its sunshield and secondary mirror. On Saturday, January 8,  the primary camera of the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,340 crore) space observatory will be deployed, which will study the origin of the Universe

James Webb Space Telescope, a day after fully tensioning the sunshield, has now completed another complex procedure. The space observatory’s secondary mirror was deployed using what a Webb engineer described as the “world’s most sophisticated tripod.” The 2.4-feet-wide mirror is located on the tips of three carbon fibre tubes which extend out from the large

China’s first independent interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, pulled a new year’s surprise by clicking incredible selfies on Mars above its north pole. The images showed the mission’s solar arrays and antennas as well as a partial closeup of the orbiter. It also showed the Red Planet’s northern ice cap. Tianwen-1 released a small camera to fly

China is experimenting with an “artificial sun,” dubbed Experiential Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), to make way for clean energy in the future. The device setup is a fusion reactor which ran successfully for almost 20 minutes at a stunning 70 million degrees Celsius in a recent test. The machine strives to utilise the power of nuclear

James Webb Space Telescope has completed the complex process of deploying its kite-shaped sunshield. The sunshield, about the size of a tennis court, has five layers. The first three were deployed initially and the last two were done late last night. Deploying all five layers was crucial for the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,525 crore) space

Mars has long been a sort of an enigma to astronomers. An image released recently by the European Space Agency (ESA) reinforces the mystery around the Red Planet. The image, captured by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), showed Mars as a stunningly delightful cake. The ESA said the image made the Earth’s neighbour appear “like

NASA engineers have begun a crucial phase in deploying the James Webb Space Telescope. The engineers have started to tighten the tension in its tennis court-sized sunshield. The stretching of the first three layers of the five-layer sunshield was successful and the final two layers will be deployed today, January 4, the space agency said.

Finding signs of alien lives on other planets has been one of the significant preoccupations of explorers and scientists. Yet, not much has been achieved so far. But scientists are not giving up their quest and appear determined to unravel the mysteries surrounding our solar system. Promisingly trying to answer the most puzzling questions of

Capturing great bird photographs has its own set of challenges. Many beginners wanting to try their hand in bird photography may have a perception that they need to buy an expensive camera and lenses to match. While it is true that the top-of-the-line cameras and premium lenses produce superior results in challenging conditions, still don’t

The Korean government is planning to develop a technology for Korea’s first artificial sun KSTAR to maintain 100 million degrees for 300 seconds by 2026. The 300 seconds is the minimum time required for the commercialisation of nuclear fusion technology. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on December 30 that it held the 16th National

Aerospace engineers are always looking for newer ways to support their experiments on extra-terrestrial bodies like the Moon and asteroids. One of the main impediments to their work is the lack of energy sources to continue using an equipment for a longer duration. So, MIT researchers are trying a new concept to harness the Moon’s