Science

NASA recently announced that it has tested a communication technology called “holoportation” — a word that sounds like it is straight out of a sci-fi movie with little relevance to daily life. However, the word is a combination of “hologram" and "teleportation." In October last year, NASA used this innovative 3D technology to “holoport” its flight surgeon Dr Josef Schmid onto the International Space Station while he remained physically present on Earth.The technology created 3D holograms of Dr Schmid and his team members…

NASA's Hubble telescope has captured the interstellar visitor Comet Borisov to our solar system and shared its movement as a runaway point of light in a time-lapse video. The agency said that it “was a rocky visit”. Discovered by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov in 2019, it is the first confirmed comet to enter our solar system from outside our Sun's influence. Comet Borisov is the only second interstellar object to ever enter our solar system: the first such visitor was an object officially named "Oumuamua". It came…

Scientists at Europe's physics research centre will this week fire up the 27 kilometer-long Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the machine that found the Higgs boson particle, after a shutdown for maintenance and upgrades was prolonged by COVID-19 delays.Restarting the collider is a complex procedure, and researchers at the CERN centre have champagne on hand if all goes well, ready to join a row of bottles in the control room celebrating landmarks including the discovery of the elusive subatomic particle a decade ago."It's not…

NASA has further delayed the undocking of the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) - the first private astronaut mission to ISS - from the International Space Station (ISS) due to bad weather conditions. The Expedition 67 and Axiom Mission 1 will have to spend extra hours aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for this reason. The delay is being done considering unfavourable weather at the splashdown location for the recovery of the Dragon Endeavour and the Ax-1 crew. NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space have collectively postponed the…

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted a series of dashes for a missing word followed by "is the Night", days after he offered to buy Twitter Inc for $43 billion (roughly Rs. 3,28,534 crore).The offer from Musk, who has hinted at the possibility of a hostile bid, has prompted the social media company to adopt a "poison pill" to protect itself.Musk, who is also the chief executive of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, on Monday tweeted "Love Me Tender", an Elvis Presley song, after Twitter opted for a plan to sell shares at…

As tempting as access to Elon Musk's wealth may be, Twitter is not eager to be ruled by a billionaire known for shooting from the hip with little regard for the consequences.The global one-to-many messaging platform is moving to prevent the Tesla boss from getting his hands on all of Twitter's outstanding shares, signalling that worries about where he would lead the company outweigh the proffered payoff."It's management, the board, that feels something is wrong," said Endpoint Technologies analyst Roger Kay. "Musk is…

The United Arab Emirates has purchased a seat on a SpaceX rocket for an Emirati astronaut to journey to the International Space Station for a six-month stay, officials said Friday, the oil-rich federation's first long-term mission as it advances its ambitions in space.The UAE purchased the seat on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket through a private Houston-based company, Axiom Space, a space tour operator that has been leading efforts to commercialise the industry. The mission is scheduled for launch next year from the Kennedy…

Amazon's satellite venture, SpaceX's Starlink network and other satellite firms on Wednesday won a combined $278.5 million (roughly Rs. 2120 crore) in contracts from NASA to demonstrate communications in space as the US space agency moves to replace its current satellite network in orbit with privately-built systems.NASA is increasingly looking to rely on private space companies for its operations and wants to stimulate more commercial activity in areas from space communications to sending humans to orbit.Amazon's Project…

NASA is celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope (aka HST or Hubble) by sharing a stunning view of five galaxies in deep space depicted in a single image. To recall, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, and deployed the next day. Thus, this week serves as the telescope's 32nd anniversary or birthday. It entered service on May 20, 1990.As for the image shared by NASA, it is of a group of galaxies called the Hickson Compact Group 40. This closely knit group includes a giant…

If you ever imagined how a solar eclipse would appear from the surface of Mars, you are in for a treat. NASA has shared a “sped-up” video that showed one of Mars' two moons shadowing the Sun as seen from the Martian surface. The interesting video was shot by the space agency's Perseverance rover when Phobos, a small, potato-shaped moon of the Red Planet, moved between Mars and the Sun. “You're just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off of you,” NASA said, sharing the video on its Instagram account.These observations…