Science

Homegrown space sector start-up Dhruva Space has tested and space-qualified its satellite orbital deployer, setting the stage for its plans to launch indigenously built satellites soon. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C53 mission that placed in orbit three foreign satellites, also proved to be a testbed for Dhruva Space’s Satellite Orbital Deployer (DSOD-1U), that

Researchers have developers a flexible implant capable of relieving pain in patients. In what could be termed as a game-changing discovery, the implant is a water-soluble and biocompatible device that can serve as an alternative to painkillers — eliminating the need for addictive medications. By wrapping around the nerves to provide cooling in the region, the

The US Federal Communications Commission on Thursday authorised Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet network with moving vehicles, green-lighting the company’s plan to expand broadband offerings to commercial airlines, shipping vessels and trucks. Starlink, a fast-growing constellation of internet-beaming satellites in orbit, has long sought to grow its customer base from individual

The solar system is unlikely to lose stability for the next 1,00,000 years, according to a new study. While outer space may be filled with mysterious and sometimes violent interstellar phenomena that could have an impact on the Earth and the solar system it resides in, the orbits of bodies in the solar system are

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said on Wednesday that the agency will reveal the “deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken” on July 12, thanks to the newly operational James Webb Space Telescope. “If you think about that, this is farther than humanity has ever looked before,” Nelson said during a press briefing

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday. China’s Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has

US space agency NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars and digging for signs of life since it landed on the planet in February last year. Besides the rocks and alien atmosphere, the rover witnessed some intense dust winds called dust devils in the Jezero Crater. In a new study, scientists have tried to examine

In the quest to find habitable exoplanets that can host life like Earth, liquid water has played a key role in indicating the possibility of life. While scientists have looked for water bodies similar to that on Earth, a study suggests that liquid water could exist on the surface of exoplanets for billions of years

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Amazon on Thursday announced a tool to help software developers write code, the latest such effort by the tech industry. The service, called Amazon CodeWhisperer, suggests how to program, and also scans for security and bias issues in web developers’ projects, Swami Sivasubramanian, a vice president at Amazon’s cloud division, said at a company conference

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

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday said it will be launching — the second dedicated commercial mission of its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) — ‘PSLV-C53’ carrying three satellites from Singapore on June 30. The launch vehicle carrying DS-EO satellite along with two other co-passenger satellites is scheduled to lift off at 6pm

The planetary formation theory that scientists have been referring to for decades seems to have been jeopardised by a recent study regarding an old meteorite. The theory explained how rocky planets like the Earth and Mars acquire volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and noble gases during the formative stages. During the research,