NASA is returning to Earth in a big way. The space agency announced two new satellite missions that might change ‘how we see’ and ‘understand our home planet’. These are not just any satellites; rather, they are supposed to track everything from the ozone layer high up in the sky to glaciers and ice sheets…
NASA SpaceX Crew 12 launch reaches orbit and begins journey to the ISS (Image Source – NASA) Morning light had only just settled over the Florida coast when the Falcon 9 rose from Space Launch Complex 40. At 5.15 a.m. EST, which is 3.45 p.m. IST, the rocket carrying NASA’s SpaceX Crew 12 mission cleared…
Trapped in Antarctic ice for 66 years, body of British scientist Dennis Bell was recovered (AI-generated) It was not expected that the ice would give anything back. Yet among rocks newly exposed by a retreating glacier on King George Island, a set of human remains was found and documented. A Polish research team working near…
Aditya Pandya, at the age of 17, achieved something most adults would dream of. He became India’s youngest male analogue astronaut after completing a simulated lunar habitat mission in Dholavira. A teenager, living inside a container-based habitat for eight days, cut off from the outside world, following strict mission rules. And on top of that,…
Astronomers find a solar system in the Milky Way that breaks the rules of planet formation (AI-generated) A small red dwarf star in the Milky Way has drawn attention after astronomers mapped four closely orbiting planets around it. The system, known as LHS 1903, does not follow the layout many scientists associate with planet formation….
NASA, SpaceX set for Crew 12 launch to the space station: Mission objectives explained (Image Source – NASA) Launch preparations are moving ahead at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, where a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off at 5.15 a.m. EST (3:45 PM IST) from Space Launch Complex 40. The…
World’s quietest room: Inside the silent chamber of Microsoft where you can hear your own heartbeat (AI-generated) Inside Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, there is a room where sound behaves in an unfamiliar way. Noise from the outside does not enter, and any sound made within its walls fades almost at once. The space is…
Astronomers have observed a rare event in the solar system, a comet slowing its rotation and then spinning in the opposite direction.Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, a small icy body about 0.6 miles across, displayed this unusual behaviour as it approached the sun in 2017. David Jewitt, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied images…
Marie Curie (Image source: Wikipedia) Marie Curie was a scientist whose research changed how people thought about radioactivity and made it possible for new discoveries to be made in chemistry and physics. She was born in Poland in 1867 and moved to France for college, where she had to deal with a lot of problems…
Did Uranus’ Moon Miranda once hold a 100-kilometre-deep ocean? See what new study suggests (AI-generated) Miranda does not look like a typical small moon. The surface, seen in detail only once during Voyager 2’s flyby in 1986, carries scars that seem out of scale with its size. Wide fault systems cut across older cratered ground….
Comets usually fade quietly once they swing past the Sun. Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS did not follow the same path. Instead, as it began to exit the solar system, it flared up dramatically. NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope caught the outburst in December 2025, spotting water vapour, carbon dioxide, and complex organic compounds streaming into space. For…
BENGALURU: India’s Space regulator-cum-promoter the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) Wednesday formally announced that it has selected Bengaluru-based Astrome Technologies, Hyderabad’s Azista Industries and Dhruva Space to to develop indigenous small satellite bus platforms under its Satellite Bus as a Service (SBaaS) initiative.TOI was the first to report in Jan that IN-SPACe…
1,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, a sun-like star is reaching the closing chapter of its life. And it is not slipping away quietly. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured what many are calling the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula, a glowing, swirling cloud of gas and dust created by this dying…
Shubhanshu Shukla (PTI image) BENGALURU: India’s astronaut corps is not a one-off experiment but a permanent national capability, Indian astronaut Group Captain Prashanth Nair (Papa) said Wednesday, while Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (Shux) said that a civilian flying to space will happen as the Gaganyaan programme matures.Speaking at the US-India Space Business Forum event in…
For decades, the Indian Ocean has been known for some of the saltiest waters on Earth. But it seems that’s changing. Experts say parts of the Southern Indian Ocean have become noticeably “fresher” over the last 60 years. Some reports suggest salinity has dropped by roughly 30 per cent. It might not sound like much,…
Europe’s space ambitions seem to be taking a bold leap forward. The Ariane 64, the most powerful version of the Ariane 6 rocket, has finally made its maiden launch. It seems like a small step, but in reality, it might be a game-changer. For years, Europe has relied on established players in space, but this…
Elon Musk (Image source: Reuters) Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind SpaceX and the artificial intelligence company xAI, has unveiled one of his most ambitious plans yet. During an all-hands meeting with xAI staff on Tuesday, February 10, Musk announced a proposal to establish a manufacturing facility on the Moon that would build satellites equipped with…
Universe colour is cosmic latte When you look up at the night sky, it seems deep black with bright stars scattered across it. That familiar view leads many to assume that the universe itself must be black. But astronomers have asked a different question: If all the light from every star and galaxy were combined…
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, has suggested that the company is now prioritising the Moon over Mars, with plans to help build a self-growing city on the lunar surface in less than ten years. The idea sounds ambitious, even bold, but experts say the shift reflects practical realities as well as growing global…
Lake Erie, one of North America’s largest lakes, has surprised everyone this week. A massive crack formed in the ice, stretching so far that it can reportedly be seen from space. People on the north shore in Canada could reportedly spot it all the way down to Cleveland, Ohio. The crack grew over Saturday, pushed…
