Science

A tiny meteoroid struck the newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope in May, knocking one of its gold-plated mirrors out of alignment but not changing the orbiting observatory’s schedule to become fully operational shortly, NASA said on Wednesday. The little space rock hit the $10 billion (roughly Rs. 780 crore) telescope sometime in late May and

According to a study, devices made of commonly available oxide and carbon-based materials can manufacture pure hydrogen from water for weeks. The discovery could aid in overcoming one of the major challenges in solar fuel production: present earth-abundant light-absorbing materials are limited in terms of performance or stability. The move to full decarbonisation and the

The government on Tuesday said it has notified the Green Open Access Rules 2022 to further accelerate India’s renewable energy programmes. These rules are notified for promoting generation, purchase and consumption of green energy including through waste-to-energy plants. It enables a simplified procedure for the open access to green power, the power ministry said in

A 190-feet wide asteroid is going to approach Earth soon and NASA has already announced its approach. To give you some perspective, the asteroid is larger than the Colosseum (157 feet) situated in Rome. According to the space agency, the asteroid will make its closest approach to our planet on Wednesday, June 8. It isn’t

A new study based on asteroids that collided with Earth has given some of the turmoil a chronological frame. Astronomers believe asteroids have remained virtually unchanged since their genesis billions of years ago in the early solar system. However, not all asteroids stayed intact. Repeated collisions gradually robbed the insulating mantles of their iron cores,

Postnatal gene therapy may be able to prevent or repair many of the harmful effects of Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a rare genetic condition, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. This autism spectrum illness is characterised by severe developmental delays, intellectual incapacity, respiratory and movement abnormalities, anxiety, epilepsy, and moderate but

China on Sunday launched a new three-person mission to complete assembly work on its permanent orbiting space station. The Shenzhou 14 crew will spend six months on the Tiangong station, during which they will oversee the addition of two laboratory modules to join the main Tianhe living space that was launched in April 2021. Their

With an upgraded supercomputer and strategic modelling program, a team of geologists have successfully forecasted a volcanic eruption in the Sierra Negra volcano five months before it took place. The volcano forecasting modelling program was set up in 2017 by geology professor Patricia Gregg and her team. They installed the program on the Blue Water

NASA is set to launch a probe to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 10 that will monitor climate change on Earth. Named Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), this probe will study the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions and how the desert dust carried through the atmosphere affects the

In a step that may help achieve better network connectivity in the near future, scientists have developed a beam-steering antenna that enhances data transmission beyond 5G standards. This will give access to a range of frequencies for mobile communications that were earlier out of reach. With the size of an iPhone, the beam-steering antenna has

Making use of artificial intelligence, a team of scientists from the Boston College have shed light on the differences in the behaviour of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its link with neuroanatomy. Autism or ASD is a complicated condition that is characterised by difficulties with communication and behaviour including problems with social interaction,

Marking a significant breakthrough in the research for cancer treatments, scientists have developed a compound that can kill some hard-to-treat cancer types. The findings are part of a new study published recently in the Nature Science. The new compound targets the vulnerability that wasn’t explored by researchers before. According to study leader and professor of

Sony on Thursday said it formed a new company that will build and supply devices that allow small satellites in orbit to communicate with one another via laser beams, dipping into the fast-growing space sector. Sony Space Communications, registered on Wednesday, is meant to take advantage of laser technology to avoid a bottleneck of radio

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip on Thursday said it has partnered with Climes, a climate-tech startup backed by Sequoia, to introduce carbon neutralisation options when booking a flight through its platform. Flyers who booked tickets through MakeMyTrip will find an option to neutralise carbon emissions via a link on their e-ticket from June 5 — World Environment

In a first, researchers have been able to preserve and repair a human liver, which was considered too damaged for transplant, in a machine over three days and then implanted the recovered organ into a cancer patient. Their success is set to have far-reaching consequences in the field of medicine as human livers for transplant

What will happen in next 5 billion years, when the Sun turns into a red giant and consumes Earth? Scientists have been grappling with this question for a long time. Will this event cause the extinction of the human race from the universe? Or is there a way to save the species from this apocalypse?

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which is scurrying Mars for signs of ancient life, completed record-breaking 25 flights in the tenuous atmosphere. When the tiny helicopter was sent to the one-way trip, along with its partner Perseverance rover, engineers had only planned for five flights. While space agencies usually set their goals conservatively to maximise their output,

The discovery of a unique neutron producing unusual radio signals in our Milky Way galaxy has perplexed astronomers. The neutron star emitted strange-looking flash or pulse 1,300 light-years away that lasted roughly 300 milliseconds. The flash resembled a radio-emitting neutron star in appearance. However, the researchers claim that this was unlike anything they had observed

Most of us don’t like to wait at traffic signals till the light turns green to move past them. Sometimes, we try to bypass the signals and end up getting caught in the process, followed by paying a hefty fine. At times, this can also result in accidents. It’s true that waiting at the signal

A new warp speed experiment may provide an indirect verification of physicist Stephen Hawking’s black hole prediction. According to the new idea, scientists can capture a glimpse of the ethereal quantum glow that envelops things travelling at close to the speed of light by coaxing an atom to become invisible. The glow effect, also known