A new multimillion-rand telescope in the Karoo will offer astronomers an unprecedented view of the stars. The MeerLICHT instrument in Sutherland will be specifically linked to the MeerKAT radio telescope array near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. Unlike its bigger brother SALT (Southern African Large Telescope), the MeerLICHT is meant …
Paris: European and US scientists will bid a fond farewell on July 1 to the space probe Ulysses, which has circled the Sun gathering data for 17 years, almost four times its expected lifetime. The first major collaboration between Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1990, "changed …
There is no conflict in believing in God and having some "extraterrestrial kinsmen'. It's not Steven Spielberg saying this but Jose Gabriel Funes, Vatican's chief astronomer. "The possibility of life on other planets exists,' says Funes, a Jesuit priest who heads the Vatican Observatory and is a scientific adviser to …
London: For decades, astronomers have pictured our galaxy as sporting four major, spiral arms, however new images effectively sever two appendages, revealing the Milky Way has just two major arms. An astronomer is calling for demoting two entire arms of our galaxy, after they failed to turn up in a …
Cosmologists Are Unable To Understand What Is Making The Galaxies Defy Cosmic Gravity Baltimore: Mario Livio tossed his car keys in the air. They rose ever more slowly, paused, shining, at the top of their arc, and then in accordance with everything our Galilean ape brains have ever learned to …
Capa Canaveral (Florida): Nine months ago, Nasa's Phoenix probe blasted off for Mars with an unprecedented mission to sample water on another world. Before that can happen, however, the space agency faces a formidable challenge: landing. The odds are not great. Historically, 55% of all attempts to land on Mars …
Scientists have come up with a controversial theory which suggests that huge comet impacts wiped out North America's large mammals 13,000 years ago. According to a report in National Geographic News, the hypothesis proposes that an onslaught of extraterrestrial bodies caused the mass extinction known as the
A new model developed by scientists has suggested that the ancient catastrophe that led to the creation of the moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth's skies for tens of millions of years. According to a report in New Scientist, model suggests moonlets may have once occupied …
Astronomers have uncovered part of the missing matter in the universe, a discovery which they claim will help in understanding the evolution of the cosmic web in the future. Ten years ago, scientists predicted about half of the missing "ordinary' or normal matter made of atoms exists in the form …
While we may never know what it looks like inside a black hole, astronomers recently obtained one of the closest views yet. The sighting allowed scientists to confirm theories about how these giant cosmic sinkholes spew out jets of particles travelling at nearly the speed of light. Ever since the …
Washington: Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been thinking a lot about the cosmic question, "Are we alone?' The answer is probably not, he says. If there is life elsewhere in the universe, Hawking asks why haven't we stumbled onto some alien broadcasts in space, maybe something like "alien quiz shows?' …
Astronauts may be at increased risk of premature aging due to exposure to radiation found in space, suggests a study that could have major implications for long-duration space travel. The findings from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Georgetown University Medical Centre in US shows that astronauts may be at …
Berlin: A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected Nasa's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported on Tuesday, after spotting that the boffins had miscalculated. Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 …
London: A new controversial analysis by an astronomer of Indian origin has suggested that the Big Bang might not have come at the beginning of the Universe, but after a long and slow period of shrinkage. According to a report in Nature News, the theory has been put forward by …
NASA says it is extending the international Cassini mission that is touring Saturn and its moons for another two years. The space agency announced the extension Tuesday. Since 2004, the unmanned probe has beamed back about 140,000 images. Its prime mission is slated to end in July. The agency says …
seeing is believing: Watching fights make male crayfish docile. Researchers in an experiment put two males into a fighting arena and a bystander was allowed to watch. After seeing the fight, the observer was placed in another arena with a new opponent. Crayfish that previously observed an encounter rarely initiated …
Astronomers using robotic cameras said on Wednesday that they had found 10 new planets outside our solar system, while a second team said they had found the youngest planet yet. The findings add to a growing list of more than 270 so-called extrasolar planets, they told a meeting of astronomers …
Not Even Fragments Will Remain When The Sun Expands In 7.59 Billion Years In the end, there won't even be fragments. If nature is left to its own devices, about 7.59 billion years from now Earth will be dragged from its orbit by an engorged red Sun and spiral to …
New York: Scientists claim to have built a supercomputer which has confirmed the Standard Model theory of the Universe to even greater precision than before. The 30-year-old theory encapsulates understanding of all the material that makes up the universe. However, it excludes the force of gravity which is the missing …
Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) human space mission proposal has got its first significant budgetary share, Rs 125 crore, while the Department of Space has got 24 per cent raise in outlay for its 2008-09 activities. The space budget of Rs 4,074 crore, compared with Rs 3,290 crore last fiscal, …
Allocation Will Help Begin Work Related To Manned Flight, Says Isro TEAM TOI India's ambitious plan to launch manned space missions received a boost on Friday with the government sanctioning more than Rs 100 crore for the initiative. With the budgetary allocation jumping from Rs 4 crore to Rs 125 …
