New evidence suggests possible existence of ‘Planet Nine’ beyond Neptune

NEW DELHI: Recent studies have introduced compelling evidence supporting the existence of a hypothetical ‘Planet Nine‘ in the outer reaches of our solar system, challenging previous skepticism around the topic. This potential planet, first hypothesized in 2016 by Caltech researchers Konstantin Batygin and Michael Brown, is thought to influence the orbits of distant icy bodies … Read more

No planet comes close to the life-giving properties of planet Earth — at least not yet

With the discovery of more than 5,600 planets orbiting other stars and images from robots we have sent to all the planets in our solar system, it is becoming abundantly clear that Earth is unique among worlds. Almost all of the exoplanets scientists have discovered since the 1990s fall into four main types: gas giants like Jupiter … Read more

Engineers attempt to fix a computer glitch on Voyager 1

Last November, the Voyager 1 spacecraft began sending gibberish radio signals back to Earth. Engineers have now identified the problem, but trying to repair a 46-year-old device on a craft 24 billion kilometres from Earth is not easy. Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 were both launched in 1977 on a reconnaissance mission to … Read more

How Nasa’s Roman telescope plans to revolutionize star age measurement

NEW DELHI: Nasa’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the Milky Way by accurately determining the ages of stars. Launching by May 2027, this advanced space telescope will measure the rotation periods of hundreds of thousands of stars, leveraging the principle that stars slow down as they age due … Read more

Nasa’s James Webb telescope discovers an enigmatic ancient galaxy

NEW DELHI: Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled a behemoth of a galaxy in the nascent stages of the universe, which, by current cosmological theories, shouldn’t exist. This discovery presents a “significant challenge” to conventional cosmological models, assert the researchers involved in the study.JWST primarily observes the universe in the infrared spectrum.This allows … Read more

Canadian contribution to private lunar lander could lead to a telescope on the moon

The first private spacecraft to softly land on the moon carries a Canadian instrument that will test the possibility of building an observatory at the Lunar south pole. The phone booth-sized lander by Intuitive Machines, named Odysseus, launched on Feb. 15 and touched down on Thursday near a small impact crater about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south … Read more

Cosmic Super Bowl? This black hole warping spacetime into a football

Nasa’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Reveals Milky Way‘s Black Hole Spinning at High SpeedsCAMBRIDGE: A groundbreaking study utilizing data from Nasa’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) has unveiled that the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is … Read more