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 …
it's going to be termed as the most famous about-turn in the history of science. Stephen Hawking, who is regarded as the modern-day Albert Einstein, has recently accepted that black holes do not destroy everything they consume. Instead, they eventually emit out matter and energy in a mangled form, he …
like most inventions, the birth of the Sun was also dramatic. It began not as a mere glimmer buried in an obscure cloud, but amidst the glare and turmoil of restless celestial bodies. So says a radical new theory. For years, astronomers have argued that the Sun and the Solar …
air stinkers: Harmful smog can form inside homes through reactions between air-fresheners and the ozone pollutant, indicates findings of researchers from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The reactions generate formaldehyde, classed as a probable carcinogen, and related compounds that many experts believe are responsible for respiratory problems. touch and infect: …
only mother's son: Japanese and Korean scientists have created a mouse without using a sperm. The feat is akin to the birth of Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal. Bees, ants, aphids, some fish and reptiles reproduce without having sex in a process called parthenogenesis. But creating a living mammal …
four billion years ago, the Moon orbited much closer to the Earth than it does now, causing massive tides to flow every few hours. These tides could have led to the evolution of early dna-like molecules. Richard Lathe of the uk-based organisation Pieta Research has recently propounded this hypothesis in …
astronomers have found a large world of ice and rock circling the Sun beyond the most distant planet Pluto. Preliminary observations suggest it may be up to 1,800 kilometres across, making it the largest body to be discovered orbiting the Sun since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Designated as 2004 …
Are humans alone in the Milky Way galaxy? To date, no one has an answer to the question, but US astronomers have found that Earth-like planets with enough water to support life could be fairly common. They ran 44 computer simulations of the planet formation process, and in each simulation …
a good seven decades after Pluto was discovered in 1930, astronomers have discovered another object beyond Pluto. The discovery is significant because it might throw light on the very origins of the planets in our solar system. The new object, tentatively named Quaoar, is about six billion kilometres away from …
by extracting gases from inside the famous Martian meteorite alh 84001, researchers have revealed tantalising mixed news for people who believe that the planet could support life. The work suggests that Mars once had a magnetic field as strong as the Earth's. alh 84001 was kicked off Mars 15 million …
Electromagnetism and gravity influence one another enough for gravity's pull to be noticeably affected by the Earth's magnetic field, indicates a new research. The research conducted by Jean-Paul Mbelek and Marc Lachieze-Ray of French Atomic Energy Commission is based on theories such as the string theory that try to unify …
old galaxies huddled together in clusters have always been dismissed as the rest homes of the cosmos, but scientists have recently found that many of them have massive black holes that are busy gobbling gases. Black holes are celestial objects whose gravity is so great that nothing, not even light, …
our planet has been getting a little bulky around the equator since 1998. The intriguing observation has been made by Christopher Cox from the Maryland-based technology company Raytheon, and Benjamin Chao from us National Aeronautical and Space Administration. The researchers analysed observations made by nine satellites and found that Earth's …
after 15 years of observation, a team of astronomers has found a planetary system that reminds us of our home solar system. Geoffrey Marcy, astronomy professor at Berkeley-based University of California, and astronomer Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington dc, usa, have recently discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting …
With evidence being unearthed of huge amounts of frozen water below the surface of Mars, the likelihood of life existing on the red planet has increased. The finding made by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft of nasa has solved one of the biggest puzzles: where did the water on the planet …
Astronomers have recently discovered 11 small moons encircling Jupiter. The team of astronomers led by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt from the University of Hawaii had previously found 11 new moons of Jupiter. This brings the total of Jupiter's satellites to 39, more than any other planet's. "We found them …
Clear pictures of a galaxy colliding with another smaller one and spewing trails of stars, billowing pillars of dust and enormous gas fields splashed with different hues: the Hubble Space Telescope, with its new camera, has produced the most spectacular images of the universe. The two galaxies are 300 million …
for the first time, astronomers have observed a very young galaxy. This observation could offer crucial clues about one of the most complicated puzzles of modern cosmology that pertains to the formation of structure in the universe. Though, in the past, several theories have been evolved about the formation of …
With astronomers getting a glimpse of the most distant galaxy, a door to gaining precious new knowledge about the crucial evolutionary stages of the universe has been opened. The newly discovered galaxy designated ms 1512-cB58 has a redshift of 6.56, which means it is about 14 billion light years away …
