Zooming in on outer space

Ice ice baby

Satellite images revealing vast quantities of ice on Mars rekindle hopes about life existing on the planet

Vital statistics

Universe has 70 sextillion stars

US embraces nuclear reactors to power spacecrafts

Thirty years after they were abandoned for good, nuclear reactors are making a fatal comeback in the US spacecrafts. In 2003, the US National …

First hiker's map of Mars

Tricolour on moon

A star spender with clipped wings

The ambitious Indian space programme, despite occasional setbacks, has had its share of success. A backgrounder to the programme which is very …

Tapping into the source

These are the days of frenetic crossborder data networking. Electronic cilia have crawled into almost every nook in the world where information …

The most powerful space telescope ever built will look back in time to the Dark Ages of the universe

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch into orbit and usher in the next era of astronomy December 18, 2021

China became the first country to sprout a seed on the moon

This is the farthest point from the Earth where humans have grown plants. A lone cottonseed sprouted in a canister aboard the Chang’e-4, …

Sugar molecule found in DNA could be floating in deep space

NASA-led study sheds light on the possibility of these molecules being scattered across the universe, potentially aiding life forms on other planets

The Earth has not one, but three moons

New research confirms a 1961 discovery of two new moons, made up of extremely tiny dust particles and located at the same distance as the Earth&…

NASA's Juno arrives at Jupiter to lift cloudy veil

The Juno mission could help reveal how Jupiter formed, whether it has a rocky core and whether it influenced life on earth

How much radiation damage do astronauts really suffer in space?

Astronauts get the equivalent of a lethal x-ray dose during a six-month stay at the ISS. We don't have to worry too much though.

The model man

Whether it is his well-known monsoon model or his new population model, Vasant Gowarikar enjoys defying the classical definitions of a specialist.…

The halo is hotter than the star

An astrophysicist tries to explain why, in violation of the laws of thermodynamics, the corona is hotter than the Sun.

Continued cooperation

Rocket row will delay space plan

Economy launch for satellites

A cost-effective motor to launch satellites is being developed in the US

Trouble for SOHO

Umbrella for the Earth

In Court

Danger mark

Scientists monitor riverbank erosion to predict floods

2008 A lunar odyssey

From a pariah after Pokhran II to scientific self esteem, India raced its way to the moon. Archita Bhatta tracked the nation's voyage to find …

Countdown to self-reliance

Indian space scientists have been forced on the indigenisation track to launch communications satellites