Science

Scientists planning to build one of the world’s largest telescopes on a Hawaii mountain said Wednesday construction won’t begin until at least next year. TMT International Observatory Vice President Gordon Squires told Hawaii News Now that the coronavirus pandemic presents a complicated and unsafe situation for moving ahead. “With the pandemic and other factors that

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it would delay the launch of its “Hope” Mars probe for a second time, again due to bad weather. The probe was originally due to be launched from Japan on Wednesday but had been postponed until Friday for the same reason. “After extensive meetings, the @UAESpaceAgency and @MBRSpaceCentre,

Holding its own against aerospace giants like pan-European Airbus Space or French-Italian Thales Alenia, German minnow OHB has carved out a space as a national champion in satellite building. Its latest coup was claiming a hefty slice of business from contracts signed in early July by the European Space Agency (ESA) as it builds up

Astronomers have spotted one of the most powerful and oldest explosions that took place nearly 10 billion years ago. The explosion that has been named SGRB181123B occurred just 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang – the cosmological event that led to the formation of our universe. Astronomers claim that the discovery offered a “rare

The Moon may actually be 85 million years younger than previous believed as a new study on the natural satellite’s magma ocean offers new insight into the age of Earth’s closest celestial neighbour. It was earlier believed that the Moon may be 4.51 billion years old, formed nearly 60 million years after the formation of

The United Arab Emirates has postponed to July 17 the launch of its mission to Mars due to weather conditions at the launch site in Japan, the UAE government communications office said on Tuesday. The UAE’s Hope Probe was due to set off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 12:51am UAE time on Wednesday (02:21

After sending humans into orbit and landing a probe on the Moon, China is aiming for another milestone in its space ambitions with the launch of a Mars rover next week. China is among a trio of nations, with the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, sending a mission to the Red Planet this

Mars may now be considered a barren, icy desert but did Earth’s nearest neighbour once harbour life? It is a question that has preoccupied scientists for centuries and fired up sci-fi imaginings. Now three space exploration projects are gearing up to launch some of the most ambitious bids yet to find an answer. Scientists believe

Astronomers have captured a red dwarf star called “AD Leonis” that is found to have massive flares — one of them was even 20 times larger than the solar flares emitted by our own Sun. The star is notably just 16 light-years away from Earth. However, it was seen with an extreme large flare, termed

Lucky skywatchers across the world are currently able to see a newly discovered comet, dubbed Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE at predawn. This comet NEOWISE will reach its maximum point in the dawn sky on July 11 before disappearing below the horizon. But there’s some good news for skywatchers, especially for the ones living India as

Britain is betting that satellite operator OneWeb will help it boldly go into a post-Brexit era. But it faces formidable challenges to complete a working constellation and rebuild a collapsed venture that has proved a money pit for investors. The British government and Indian telecoms conglomerate Bharti Enterprises said last week they would together put

Last year, China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover discovered a unique, green-tinged gel-like substance in a crater after the Chang’e 4 mission landed on the far side of the Moon. It set off a series of speculations among experts, who tried to determine what the substance was. Based on gathered data, researchers have now published an analysis

Supercomputer-driven models simulated in Japan suggested that operating commuter trains with windows open and limiting the number of passengers may help reduce the risk of coronavirus infections, as scientists warn of airborne spread of the virus. In an open letter published on Monday, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined evidence that they say shows floating

Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is “a genius who defies common sense and can be overly optimistic,” Panasonic’s CEO said on Tuesday, as the Japanese firm cautiously moves to expand a battery partnership with the US carmaker. “I believe only geniuses can hold onto big visions, and a genius I know is Elon Musk,”

NASA has added more safety fixes for Boeing’s space capsule before it can fly astronauts following a pair of close calls during last year’s test flight. In closing out the seven-month investigation, NASA officials said Tuesday they have now identified 80 corrective actions, mostly involving software and testing, that must be done before the Starliner capsule

A rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff from New Zealand on Saturday, the company said, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space. “An issue was experienced today during Rocket Lab’s launch that caused the loss of the vehicle,”