In a galaxy far, far away... the story of black holes in pics

Here is a primer on black holes, about which Albert Einstein had predicted and which we can now observe in real terms

India's marine meadows

Tape seagrass, which has the longest leaves among its kind found in Indian waters, is a major carbon sink. A recent study has some useful insights on its flowering and fruiting

World Sparrow Day: With wooden nests, this man won a war against extinction

Rabindra Mohan Sahoo's efforts helped increase the bird’s population from 11 to now hundreds in a decade in an Odisha village

#FridaysForFuture: Students demand climate action

Inspired by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, thousands of youth from across the globe hit the streets

Sailing against the tides

India’s first and only licensed fisher-woman, Rekha Karthikeyan, has achieved this feat after challenging many social norms and beliefs

How water flows across continents

Hungarian cartographer Robert Szucs has created graphic maps of watersheds across the world. His works can be found here.

How is the view inside a giant marine sinkhole

A private expedition took submarines into the Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize. Here are snapshots

Elephanta caves: Re-carving the old magic

Working for over eight months at a stretch, the Wadars tibals arrive at Elephanta Island to recreate the old magic of the caves by breaking stones and carving out strikingly-similar patterns as the original

Some vertical gardens

Ludhiana's Income-Tax department officials have turned plastic into greenery on a wall under the Green-Plastic Initiative

Salt rush

Every year, marginal farmers from across the country travel to Mumbai's saltpans to earn some extra money

In photos: Australia hit by once-in-a-century floods

Northeastern state Queensland's situation may worsen as unprecedented rainfall continues

Bird watchers' paradise

Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest lagoon in Odisha, celebrated the second edition of National Chilika Bird Festival, January 27-28, 2019

Is the Opportunity lost forever?

Over a decade after NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars, it is feared ‘dead’ after a historic dust storm swept the planet

Onboard the FlipFlopi: A boat made of used plastic

A traditional dhow made of trash, collected from beaches and towns in Kenya, is set for its maiden voyage from Lamu to Zanzibar in Tanzania

Death by a thousand cuts

Kites may add colour to the sky but at the same time, they are fatal for birds that get caught in the strings and suffer severe injuries. As Gujarat celebrates Uttarayan/Makar Sankranti by flying kites, here's a reminder on the harm caused by the deadly Chinese glass-coated manjha

In photos, the cost of a natural disaster

A new report by reinsurance giant Munich Re reveals that natural disasters caused global economic damage upto $160 billion in 2018. As per the report, around 10,400 people lost their lives in 2018 due to natural disasters. It says that 29 natural disasters in 2018 caused more than $1 billion in damage each.

In a different light

Here’s what Stanford University research papers, focusing on areas ranging from supermassive black holes to the intricacies of the human brain, look like when illuminated by light!

NASA’s TESS confirms 3 new exoplanets

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), in its search for extra-terrestrial life, recently confirmed the their existence

Patterns in the sky

It is that time of the year again when starlings roam the skies in huge swarms that form distinct patterns. Down To Earth tells you more about this extraordinary behaviour. Photographs by Getty Images

Fault lines in expressway

To assess the extent of the ecological damage that construction activity is causing, Down To Earth travelled 250 km on the Char Dham Mahamarg from Rishikesh to Gangotri. The evidence is apparent from Muni Ki Reti itself, the traditional gateway to the Char Dham pilgrimage. Photographs by Vikas Choudhary