Science

BENGALURU: Isro has completed the fifth Integrated Main Parachute Airdrop Test (IMAT-05), clearing another milestone towards the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission by qualifying the crew module’s main parachute system to withstand the maximum expected loads during descent.“The test, conducted on July 7 at the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) drop zone in Sheopur…

Seaweed is no longer just an aquatic flora, it has now transformed into a nuisance, especially for scientists. Sargassum, a genus of brown macroalgae that was once largely confined to the Sargasso Sea has evolved into the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt that stretches across 5,000 miles. In May alone, scientists detected 37.5 million tons of…

Mangrove forests rank among the world’s most valuable coastal ecosystems, shielding communities from storms, storing vast amounts of carbon and providing nurseries for countless marine species. For decades, scientists warned that these unique forests were disappearing faster than many tropical rainforests because of coastal development, aquaculture and pollution. Now, new satellite observations from Nasa present…

When roads, railways or new buildings are planned, centuries-old trees are often among the first casualties of development. In Japan, however, some of the country’s most valuable trees are given a second chance. Rather than cutting them down, arborists and horticultural experts sometimes relocate them using a painstaking process that can take months or even…

For years, the idea that Mars once held vast amounts of water has remained one of planetary science’s most persistent questions. Dry river valleys, mineral deposits, and ancient lake basins have all hinted that the planet looked very different billions of years ago, but proving the existence of a true ocean has been far more…

Football has a habit of borrowing the language of space. Players become stars, matches are described as astronomical, and careers are measured by how brightly they shine. Every so often, though, the comparison drifts into something more literal. More than a decade ago, astronomers studying one of the earliest known galaxies in the universe chose…

For decades, astronomers have searched for the birthplace of globular clusters, the dense spherical collections of stars that orbit galaxies today. These ancient systems are among the oldest visible structures in the Universe, yet their earliest history remains surprisingly difficult to reconstruct. Most theories have focused on crowded regions inside young galaxies, where gas was…

As humans dream of venturing to other planets and creating a virtual world with the help of AI, the hand that was holding tight with the past seems to be losing its grip. In the race to develop the future, the rich depths of the past are getting lost. Those that define our origins, reveal…

Far beyond Pluto, where sunlight is faint and temperatures remain extremely low, countless icy bodies drift through the outer reaches of the Solar System. These distant objects, known as trans-Neptunian objects, have long been viewed as frozen relics left over from the Solar System’s formation. Most are thought to be too small to hold onto…

Most years, skywatchers have to wait patiently for different celestial events to arrive one at a time. An eclipse might dominate one month, while a meteor shower steals attention weeks later. This August, however, the calendar has produced a rare overlap. On 12 August 2026, a solar eclipse will unfold across parts of the Northern…