Exoplanet K2-18b offers clues to alien life: 5 major discoveries about life beyond Earth

Exoplanet K2-18b offers clues to alien life: 5 major discoveries about life beyond Earth

This week has been a big leap for science. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have detected the presence of at least one of two molecules of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the atmosphere of the distant planet K2-18b, located some 124 light years away. DMS and […]

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‘City killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 will likely impact Moon, not Earth: Here’s why

‘City killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 will likely impact Moon, not Earth: Here’s why

A massive asteroid that was earlier reported to collide with Earth in 2032 may not smash into our home planet after all. According to the latest reports, the asteroid named 2024 YR4 has a near chance of 4 per cent of impacting the Moon.  Observations conducted by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope give some new […]

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Space News Weekly Recap: India’s first private spaceflight, ISRO Mars return, and more

Space News Weekly Recap: India’s first private spaceflight, ISRO Mars return, and more

ISRO’s plans for Mars return During a presentation on ISRO’s future missions, Anil Bharadwaj, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory, announced that the space agency planned to send a probe to the red planet. According to the initial plans charted out by the Indian space agency, it will build a lunar lander and rover […]

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James Webb Space Telescope resumes science operations after glitch

James Webb Space Telescope resumes science operations after glitch

MIRI mechanism issue On August 24, Webb engineers discovered that a grating wheel mechanism which supports the telescope’s “medium-resolution spectroscopy” (MRS) mode was showing signs of increased friction. The wheel is only used for one of the telescope’s four modes, which includes imaging, low-resolution spectroscopy, coronagraphic imaging and MRS. After preliminary health checks and investigations, […]

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Webb captures ‘haunting portrait’ of the pillars of creation

Webb captures ‘haunting portrait’ of the pillars of creation

This is not an illustration of dementors from the Harry Potter universe, nor is it a digital artist’s imagination of what spirits look like. This is actually an image of the pillars of creation—clouds of interstellar gas in the Eagle Nebula—captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in the mid-infrared spectrum. These pillars were first […]

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Webb captures galaxies merging through shroud of dust

Webb captures galaxies merging through shroud of dust

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, showing two galaxies plunging into one another in a galactic merger. The galactic merger is named IC 1623 and lies around 270 million light-years away from us in the constellation Cetus. Starburst caused by galactic merger By colliding into […]

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Space news weekly recap: NASA’s UFO team, Martian bacteria and more

Space news weekly recap: NASA’s UFO team, Martian bacteria and more

The word “space” may conjure up images of planets, stars and other heavenly bodies that are light-years away from us, but that is because we forget that “space” is just 100 kilometres above us at any given time. And things that happen in space can sometimes have a profound impact on life on Earth. For example, a NASA […]

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Webb captures ‘unprecedented’ image of galaxies merging near supermassive black hole

Webb captures ‘unprecedented’ image of galaxies merging near supermassive black hole

According to Johns Hopkins University, this image offers an “unprecedented opportunity to observe how billions of years ago galaxies coalesced into the modern universe.” “We think something dramatic is about to happen in these systems. The galaxy is at this perfect moment in its lifetime, about to transform and look entirely different in a few […]

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Space news weekly recap: Returning asteroid samples, birth of a black hole and more

Space news weekly recap: Returning asteroid samples, birth of a black hole and more

Sometimes it is hard to remember that we and everyone we know live on a rock that is rapidly moving across an endless and mysterious place that we still know very little about—space. From a gamma-ray burst sweeping across our planet due to the birth of a star to how some stars give a “warning” […]

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Space news weekly recap: Martian microbes, black hole ‘burp’, and more

Space news weekly recap: Martian microbes, black hole ‘burp’, and more

According to research published in the journal Nature Astronomy, ancient Mars could have had an environment which was capable of harbouring underground microscopic organisms. Elsewhere, astronomers say they have witnessed a “never seen before” event where a black hole “burped” out stellar material three years after consuming a star. Read about all that and more […]

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