Science

Three days before Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter, the world’s richest man tweeted a photo of Bill Gates and used a crude sexual term to make fun of his belly. Playful, aggressive and often juvenile, Musk’s past tweets show how he has used social media to craft his public image as a brash billionaire

In its more than 30 years of service, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made over 1.3 million observations of intriguing cosmic events and bodies. It once captured a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147, using its prime working camera – the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The “Hubble Classic” image has been

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX was due to launch the next long-duration astronaut crew to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA early on Wednesday, including a medical doctor turned spacewalker and a geologist specializing in Martian landslides. The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule

With its proton beams, the newly enhanced Large Hadron Collider (LHC) set a new world record. The LHC, which is housed at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, reopened on April 22 after a planned three-year sabbatical during which the facility was upgraded. These improvements are already being put to the test, and the LHC has already

Three wealthy businessmen and a former NASA astronaut splashed down Monday off the Florida coast after spending more than two weeks aboard the International Space Station, in a landmark mission for the commercial sector. After a dizzying descent, a SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the Axiom-1 gently floated down to the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville at

Jeff Bezos has asked in a post on Twitter if Elon Musk’s $44 billion cash deal to buy Twitter gives China “a bit of leverage over the town square”. The purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk has generated a debate about whether the deal is good for the social media network. In many countries, Twitter

Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world’s richest person. Discussions over the deal, which last week appeared uncertain, accelerated over the weekend after Musk wooed Twitter

Ever wondered how the Earth and the Moon would appear when seen from a Martian orbit? NASA has shared an image that showed them together in a single frame. The image was caught by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) when the Earth was 142 million kilometres from Mars. In the image, only the visible parts

A seismometer placed by NASA’s InSight lander on Mars has detected the two biggest marsquakes to date. According to a new study, the seismic events were of magnitude 4.2 and magnitude 4.1. Both these quakes were five times stronger than the previous largest seismic event recorded.  Researchers now hope to learn more about the interior

Since Pluto – the dwarf planet – was discovered in 1930, it has generated considerable interest among astronomers, primarily over its highly eccentric and inclined orbit. New research claims that it is also subject to chaotic perturbance and changes over shorter timescales. At larger timescales, the orbit appears relatively stable. What it really means is

The Large Hadron Collider restarted Friday after a three-year break for upgrades that will allow it to smash protons together at even greater speeds, in the hope of making new ground-breaking discoveries. It will further study the Higgs boson, the existence of which it proved in 2012, and put the Standard Model of particle physics

If you ever imagined how a solar eclipse would appear from the surface of Mars, you are in for a treat. NASA has shared a “sped-up” video that showed one of Mars’ two moons shadowing the Sun as seen from the Martian surface. The interesting video was shot by the space agency’s Perseverance rover when

SpaceX signed its first deal with an air carrier to provide in-flight wireless Internet using the Starlink satellite network, the space company said on Thursday as it jockeys with other burgeoning satellite firms to put high-speed Internet on commercial airlines. The company, owned by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, has been in talks for months

Bharti group-backed OneWeb and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have entered into an agreement that will help ensure OneWeb completes its satellite launch programme, a statement said on Thursday. The first launch with NewSpace India is expected in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)

NASA is celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope (aka HST or Hubble) by sharing a stunning view of five galaxies in deep space depicted in a single image. To recall, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, and deployed the next day. Thus, this week serves as the telescope’s

Amazon’s satellite venture, SpaceX’s Starlink network and other satellite firms on Wednesday won a combined $278.5 million (roughly Rs. 2120 crore) in contracts from NASA to demonstrate communications in space as the US space agency moves to replace its current satellite network in orbit with privately-built systems. NASA is increasingly looking to rely on private

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted a series of dashes for a missing word followed by “is the Night”, days after he offered to buy Twitter Inc for $43 billion (roughly Rs. 3,28,534 crore). The offer from Musk, who has hinted at the possibility of a hostile bid, has prompted the social media company to adopt

NASA has further delayed the undocking of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) – the first private astronaut mission to ISS – from the International Space Station (ISS) due to bad weather conditions. The Expedition 67 and Axiom Mission 1 will have to spend extra hours aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for this reason. The

China will launch three more astronauts to its newest space station in June after the latest crew returned this weekend following a six-month stay in orbit, an official said Sunday. The crew of the Shenzhou 14 capsule will spend six months on the Tiangong to add two modules to the station, Hao Chun, director of

SpaceX successfully launched one of its Falcon 9 carrier rockets with a US intelligence satellite on board on Sunday, broadcasting the launch live. The launch took place at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:13am local time (9:43pm IST). The rocket is putting into orbit the NROL-85 mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office

NASA’s InSight Mars lander has recently shared an incredible sight. On April 10, it captured the stunning view of a sunrise on the Red Planet. InSight is NASA’s first mission to study the interior of Mars — its crust, mantle, and core — in depth. It has been on the Red Planet since late 2018.

The return to Earth of three astronauts on Saturday after six months at China’s new space station marks a landmark step in the country’s space ambitions, ending its longest crewed mission ever. The world’s second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of eventually sending humans to the Moon. China has

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth safely on Saturday after spending a record six months aboard China’s new space station, doubling the previous stay of the country’s longest single flight in space.The Shenzhou-13 capsule carrying astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu touched down successfully at 9:56 am local time in the Dongfeng landing

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a grand view while exploring patches of the sky. In an infrared image captured by the telescope and posted on social media by NASA, we see a cosmic cloud that resembles a butterfly. But don’t be fooled. This image is of a cluster of “baby stars”, a nebula of

NASA’s Perseverance is breaking the record for longest distance covered by a rover on the Red Planet. It is using its self-driving capabilities as it treks across the Jezero Crater, seeking signs of ancient life and gathering samples for planned return to Earth. On an Instagram post, NASA said the rover is “now capable of

The European Space Agency on Wednesday ended cooperation with Russia on three missions to the Moon due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, following a previous decision to do the same for a Mars mission. The ESA said it would “discontinue cooperative activities” on Luna-25, 26 and 27, a series of Russian lunar missions on which

Scientists are expecting a major solar storm to hit the Earth on April 14. This event could cause possible damage to Earth, researchers suggest. Space agencies say that this geomagnetic solar storm could be particularly powerful as the Sun has been quite active lately. Recently, the Sun has been flaring up more. This is because it

Sending miniature robots deep inside the human skull to treat brain disorders has long been the stuff of science fiction — but it could soon become reality, according to a California start-up. Bionaut Labs plans its first clinical trials on humans in just two years for its tiny injectable robots, which can be carefully guided

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory ever sent to space, is gearing up to begin its science mission this summer. In the run-up to that milestone, work is underway to deploy the many instruments aboard the $10 billion (roughly Rs. 76,165 crore) telescope. One of those instruments is NIRSpec, the Near Infrared

Scientists are all eyes on the behemoth comet, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has determined that the nucleus of this comet is the largest ever found. The estimated diameter of this comet’s nucleus is approximately 80 miles across. According to astronomers, the nucleus is almost 50 times bigger than found in most known

Russia will launch a lunar probe later this year and deepen cooperation with Belarus on space infrastructure and technology, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. Speaking at a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, Putin recalled Soviet successes in space and said no sanctions on Russia

With a four-member crew from Houston-based startup Axiom Space, the first fully private mission reached the International Space Station (ISS) early on Saturday. For a long time, NASA has attempted to hand over the reins of space exploration to private companies. The space agency has welcomed the three-way collaboration with Axiom and SpaceX as a

NASA scientists have found planets where the temperature goes past 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 1650 degrees Celsius), enough to melt even titanium. During their studies of ultra-hot exoplanets, teams of astronomers working with the NASA Hubble Telescope reported on WASP-178b, an exoplanet 1300 light-years away.  Using NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope, the astronomers found that