Science & Environment

Sun's mood swings not so strange after all, say scie...
The Sun has long been known to go through eleven-year cycles of high and low activity, including sunspots, which Struga...

Astronomers discover smallest known star
Space Related articles 14 July 2017: Astronomers discover smallest known star 8 June 2017: Astronomers reveal discove...

India Supreme Court overrules High Court: rivers Yam...
Days after the Whanganui River was identified as living being in New Zealand, Uttarakhand's high court ruled in favour of granting the two rivers — Ganga and Yamuna — status as living persons. The bench of justices Rajeev Sharma and Alok Singh hearing a related case ruled the rivers "legal and living entities, having the status of a legal person with all corre...

Curiosity Rover analysis suggests chemically complex...
Analysis shows the chemical index of alteration fluctuated over time in a way that suggested the lake varied between hot, wet periods and colder, drier periods. The shallow water would have been rich in oxidants brought in from the atmosphere and groundwater, and the deeper water would have been oxidant poor. Phosphates, carbon, nitrogen, iron and sulfur, indi...

Simulations show planet orbiting Proxima Centauri co...
The University of Exeter's lead exoplanet modeller, Dr. Nathan Mayne, in remarks to Wired, said, "If, and it is a huge if, the composition of the atmosphere was Earth-like then we showed the planet could indeed support temperatures which would allow liquid water on the surface". In another statement, he emphasized researchers could also "exploit this to hopefu...

President Trump tells NASA to aim for Mars
On Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing US$19.5 billion in funding for the 2018 fiscal year to go to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and specifically naming the exploration of Mars as one of the agency's goals. According to Senator Ted Cruz, NASA has not been the recipient of this kind of authorization bill for...

Former NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan dies aged 82
Eugene Cernan, former NASA astronaut and the most recent human to walk on the Moon, died on Monday aged 82, according to a NASA statement. Cernan, who commanded the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in 1972, was in Houston, Texas, at the time of his death. Cernan, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 14, 1934, earned engineering degrees from Purdue Univers...

A female cheetah with her two cubs (Image: Charles Sharp.)

Around 7,100 cheetahs remain, say experts
According to a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), is down to 7,100 individuals remaining worldwide, most of them in Africa and, rarely, in Asia. The number establishes cheetahs as much less commonplace than just over one hundred years ago. There are now scientists calling for the...

3-D model of Rosetta. The actual Rosetta is black. (Image: IanShazell.)

Twelve-year journey of Rosetta ends; spacecraft cras...
On Friday, European Space Agency's (ESA) spacecraft Rosetta ended its mission, crashing into Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to orbit a comet; it traveled in space for twelve years and about eight billion kilometres (about five billion miles). 3-D model of Rosetta. The actual Rosetta is black. Image: IanShaz...

Photo of the construction of FAST, 2015 (Image: Psr1909.)

Final panel added to China's FAST radio telescope
On Sunday China announced the final panel attached to its telescope named Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). This piece marks the end of a five-year-long US$180 million (CNY¥1.2 billion) construction project. FAST comprises about 4,500 panels and spans a diameter of 500 meters (about 1640 feet). The telescope is part of a series of ventur...

Juno approaching Jupiter; simulation. (Image: NASA.)

NASA's Juno spacecraft enters Jupiter orbit
Yesterday, NASA announced their spacecraft Juno has reached Jupiter orbit. It was launched almost five years ago to investigate the largest planet of the Solar System, especially its past. Juno approaching Jupiter; simulation. Image: NASA. Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, said, "Independence Day always is something to celebrate, but today we can add ...

File photo of The Great Barrier Reef. (Image: Jorge Láscar.)

Australian Opposition Leader pledges to save Great B...
Recent surveys indicated coral bleaching has killed more than a third of coral in the Great Barrier Reef's north and central regions. "All of this", said Mr Shorten, "is at risk if serious action is not taken to protect it. The Great Barrier Reef is an environmental treasure Australia holds on trust for the world". The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre...

MESSENGER image of Mercury from file, 2008. (Image: NASA/JPL.)

NASA releases first topographical map of Mercury
On Friday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released the first ever global digital elevation model (DEM) of Mercury. The DEM was created using data gathered by NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, including over 100,000 photographs, and shows a variety of Mercury's topographical...

Crescent Pluto. (Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.)

NASA releases complete image of Pluto's crescent
On Thursday, NASA released the first complete picture of Pluto's crescent from the New Horizons probe. The probe captured the image with its Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, fifteen minutes after closest approach to the planet. After nine years' journey, New Horizons made closest approach to Pluto on July 14 and released the first co...

After Mars, NASA announces water ice on Pluto
NASA released yesterday the first coloured pictures of Pluto's blue atmosphere and water ice on the surface taken by the space probe New Horizons. NASA said the haze particles may be grey or red in colour, but the scattering of light producing blue colour indicates the size of the particles. Smaller particles results in the scattering of the blue light. Scien...

Mars from the Viking Orbiter, 1980. (Image: NASA/USGS.)

NASA announces water on Mars
On Monday, NASA announced that signs of liquid water have been found on Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft found evidence of the liquid on the Martian surface, in long dark spots on the Red Planet thought to be formed because of water flow. In a news conference, NASA's planetary science director, Jim Green said, "We now know Mars was once a plan...

A young tree in Saudi Arabia (Image: Francisco Anzola.)

Study estimates Earth has over three trillion trees
A study published yesterday by Nature estimates the global tree population at just over three trillion. Previous work estimated the total at 400 billion. A young tree in Saudi Arabia Image: Francisco Anzola. The international research, led by Yale University in the US, used satellite images to examine over 400,000 plots of land for estimated tree densit...

The Atlas V 551 rocket, used to launch New Horizons, being processed a month before launch. (Image: NASA.

Image of Pluto and its natural satellite Charon by New Horizons on July 11, 2015.
Image: NASA.

New Horizons at the Kennedy Space Ce

NASA's New Horizons space probe performs first close...
On Tuesday, NASA's space probe New Horizons reached near Pluto. It was launched about nine-and-a-half years ago on January 19, 2006 to collect data about the dwarf planet, amongst other targets. With its flyby on Tuesday it became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto closely. NASA collected data regarding the geology of the planet. The space probe had seven ...

File photo of a Texas family being rescued from flood conditions, 2007. (Image: Unknown U.S. Army official.)

Torrential rains wreak havoc, cause deaths across mu...
Various rainfall records have been broken all over the state in recent days. On Sunday alone, over three inches of rain fell in the city of Dallas. In Hays County, one official described the flooding as "the largest flood in the history of this region" — at least 350 homes there were destroyed and an additional 1,000 homes suffered damage. While both Oklahoma...

A bottle of nitrogen dioxide, from file. (Image: "Greenhorn1".)

University of Utah study finds suicide may be linked...
The team analysed suicide records for over 1,500 people from Salt Lake County, Utah from 2000 through 2010. Comparing to air pollution exposure in the three days prior to death the scientists noticed an increase of 20% for deaths amongst those exposed to high nitrogen dioxide. High exposure to fine particulates in the three days prior to death led to a 5% inc...

Page: 1 2

Recently Viewed: