Category: Tech

NASA published photos from the James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, the Penguin and the Egg, combining in a cosmic ballet. This marks two years since the telescope’s first scientific findings were revealed.

Launched in 2021, Webb began gathering data the following year, altering our view of the early universe and producing breathtaking cosmic images. Arp 142 refers to the galaxies in the Hydra constellation, which are 326 million light-years away.

Jane Rigby, NASA Webb senior project scientist, noted that the merging galaxies, each with billions of stars, show how galaxies like our Milky Way form over time. The Penguin galaxy resembles a flightless bird and is officially known as NGC 2936. It is a spiral-shaped galaxy that has been slightly distorted.

NGC 2937, often known as the Egg Galaxy due to its form, is a small elliptical galaxy. Their interaction began between 25 and 75 million years ago, and they are anticipated to fully merge in hundreds of millions of years.

Webb has observed the earliest known galaxies and shed light on planetary composition and star-forming areas. It specialises in detecting infrared light, which allows it to see through dust and gas.

The MV Sea Change, the world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial passenger ferry, will start operations on San Francisco Bay on July 19. As part of a six-month free test programme, this 70-foot catamaran will transport up to 75 passengers from Pier 41 to the downtown San Francisco ferry terminal.

The ferry, which can travel 300 nautical miles and run for 16 hours before refuelling, is intended to reduce carbon emissions by replacing diesel-powered ferries.

Jim Wunderman, chair of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, emphasised the project’s significance, saying that hydrogen-powered vessels will become more common in the United States and around the world. The device generates energy by mixing oxygen and hydrogen, emitting just water, making it a cleaner alternative for the shipping industry, which accounts for approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Frank Wolak, president and CEO of the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association, emphasised the ferry’s potential to reduce emissions from numerous ships worldwide.

The Biden administration is promoting hydrogen as a renewable energy source, offering $8 billion to expand production and distribution. Although current hydrogen production uses natural gas, proponents believe that using renewable energy will make it more environmentally friendly.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched Daichi-4, an advanced Earth observation satellite, on the brand-new H3 rocket. The H3 rocket reached a new level of reliability with its successful launch at Tanegashima Space Centre.

The H3 rocket dropped its payload into orbit while its remnants fell into the Indian Ocean, following a predetermined trajectory. Hiroshi Yamakawa, the head of JAXA, highlighted the progress in preserving Japan’s autonomy and global competitiveness in space access when he announced that Daichi-4 had started its mission.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida praised the launch and expressed optimism for the future of Japan’s space programme. JAXA is planning to replace the older H-IIA rocket with six H3 rockets launched every year. The credibility of the H3 is anticipated to be enhanced if the third launch is successful. The recent success of JAXA is a testament to its growth, despite its history of failed attempts, which includes an aborted launch in February and another in March.

With an impressive 200-kilometre observation range, the Daichi-4 satellite can keep an eye on natural calamities and trace the movements of ships. Its development cost ¥32 billion. Both disaster management and national security depend on this powerful capability.

Scientists from India have revealed a new way to determine pi, which should make it easier to extract pi from phenomena such as the quantum scattering of high-energy particles.

 Arnab Saha and Aninda Sinha of the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) published this research in Physical Review Letters. According to IISc, “The new formula under a certain limit closely mirrors the 15th-century representation of pi by Indian mathematician Sangamagrama Madhava.”

Creating a model with fewer parameters to explain particle interactions in high-energy physics was the original goal of the scientists. On the other hand, they discovered an intriguing new angle on pi. A “series” is the mathematical notation for a set of related variables, such as the components of pi. It has been difficult to find the optimal parameter combination that approximatively represents pi.

A series found by Sinha and Saha enables fast pi approximation, which can be used in calculations like quantum scattering, as emphasised by IISc. Previous mathematicians and physicists needed to have the resources that Sinha mentioned as being necessary to find this series. Despite their theoretical nature, the results may have future practical uses.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing for the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which is designed to retrieve samples from the Moon using India’s most powerful rocket system.

Chandrayaan-4 will be launched in different parts and assembled in orbit, unlike previous missions, because the spacecraft’s size exceeds the rocket’s capacity. This method, which is similar to the construction of the International Space Station, establishes a new standard for space exploration and is unprecedented for lunar missions.

According to ISRO, the mission’s architecture involves numerous launches because of current rocket limitations. It is creating new docking technologies to enable spacecraft components to connect in both Earth and Moon orbits to accomplish this.

Lunar missions often dock in space, but assembling modules in Earth orbit to go to the moon is a novel idea. It is a bold step forward for space exploration, even though ISRO isn’t claiming to be the pioneer. In keeping with ISRO’s Vision 2047, the Chandrayaan-4 mission has set two ambitious goals: the establishment of India’s space station by 2035 and the sending of humans to the Moon by 2040. For the NGLV, ISRO is also constructing a brand-new launch facility, which is necessary for heavier missions.

NASA just released the first pictures the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) ever taken of jets of gas coming from new stars. These jets, which are moving very quickly, hit gas and dust in the Serpens Nebula, which is 1,300 light-years from Earth. 

The picture shows the nebula, which is home to a thick group of stars that are about 100,000 years old. It is made up of thin layers of orange, red, and blue gas and dust.

Klaus Pontoppidan from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that this event records how stars formed in the past. Before, these things were either blobs or couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. But Webb’s infrared vision was able to see through the thick dust to find the stars and their streams.

NASA described the picture, pointing out a bright star in the middle with an hourglass shadow and a vertical crack in the shape of an eye close by. Small spots of light with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are unique to the Webb Telescope are spread out in the field.

The picture has gotten more than four lakh likes and many comments on social media since it was posted. 

On Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) accomplished an important milestone with the successful completion of the third and last Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Landing Experiment (LEX). The LEX series came to an end with this test, which took place at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka, at 7:10 IST.

With an emphasis on the winged vehicle termed Pushpak’s exact horizontal landing, ISRO highlighted the achievement on X, the former Twitter. At a height of 4.5 kilometres, the vehicle was dropped from an Indian Air Force Chinook chopper. Pushpak demonstrated enhanced autonomous capabilities in difficult circumstances by successfully executing runway landings and cross-range correction manoeuvres on its own.

Reusing the winged body and flying components from the LEX-02 mission, the mission’s goal was to replicate high-speed landing conditions for a vehicle returning from orbit, demonstrating ISRO’s strong design and reuse capabilities. Pushpak used its nose wheel steering system and rudder to keep the runway stable during the ground roll phase.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) led a team of ISRO centres, the Indian Air Force, and other organisations in this cooperative mission. S. Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, commended the group for their ongoing achievements.

Using its onboard remote sensing sensors, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Aditya-L1 spacecraft has successfully captured high solar fury. For India’s first dedicated solar mission, which launched on September 2, 2023, and reached the Lagrangian point (L1) on January 6, 2024—127 days later—this is a noteworthy accomplishment. L1, which is positioned about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, enables the spacecraft to keep an eye on the Sun all the time.

In May 2024, two important Aditya-L1 instruments recorded dynamic solar phenomena: the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and the Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT). According to an ISRO statement, these instruments recorded multiple strong solar flares of the X- and M-class and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that caused large-scale geomagnetic storms.

The activity from the solar active area AR13664 was very notable. This region produced several X-class and M-class flares during the week of May 8–15, which were connected to CMEs seen on May 8 and 9. On May 11, a significant geomagnetic storm illustrated the potential effects of these solar outbursts on Earth’s space environment.

On May 17, ISRO released extensive observations from VELC and detailed photos from the SUIT instrument, demonstrating the mission’s success in deepening our understanding of solar processes.

The largest genome ever known, exceeding the human genome by more than 50 times, was found in a little, unassuming plant called Tmesipteris oblanceolata. With 160 billion base pairs, this fern surpasses both the previous record holder, Paris japonica, and the biggest genome, the marbled lungfish, by a substantial margin.

Jaume Pellicer, an evolutionary scientist at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, co-authored the study. Since he had previously assumed that P. japonica had the maximum genome size, this discovery caught him off guard. This plant, which is indigenous to the archipelago of New Caledonia and the surrounding areas, makes one wonder how one can manage a genome that is so large.

The evolution of such a large genome remains a mystery. Although larger genomes usually need more energy and materials for cell growth, in a calm setting with low competition, this may not be an issue. This may account for the fern’s enormous genome as a result of gradual accumulation.

Although current methods may face challenges in sequencing and assembling such a massive genome, understanding such genomes might shed light on how organisms adapt to their environments and how resilient they are.

On Monday, Japan and the European Union published a joint statement pledging to collaborate on improving clean hydrogen consumption and supply, thereby promoting associated technology. This programme aligns with Japan’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 and Europe’s plan to phase out Russian fossil fuels.

The European Commission’s Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, emphasised the importance of hydrogen being a worldwide commodity. She emphasised the need for EU-Japan collaboration to develop renewable and low-carbon hydrogen globally while maintaining regulatory standardisation.

On Monday, Simson met with Ken Saito, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry. They co-chaired a Japan-EU hydrogen business roundtable featuring executives from major companies such as JERA, Tokyo Gas, Mitsui, and Iwatani. The EU intends to produce and import 10 million metric tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030. This step will require significant infrastructure investment.

Simson emphasised that hydrogen was an important part of Europe’s energy strategy for lowering reliance on Russian fossil fuels and decarbonising the industry in the long run.

Japan plans to invest more than 3 trillion yen over the next 15 years to encourage the generation of clean hydrogen.