Ask a sixteen-year-old about a social media ban, and you get an answer sharper than most adults arguing about bans. She says, “It doesn’t prepare us for the real world when we will have to deal with these distractions in our life”. The teenager’s response strikes at the core of the ban vs
How I got hooked on chasing solar eclipses Traveling the globe for celestial events may seem downright loony—until you get a taste of the addictive world of ‘eclipse chasing’ Published on: Aug 23, 2026, 18:30:10 IST WSJ Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link ‘It was glorious
Made-in-India semiconductor chips are now powering key Indian space missions. These domestically manufactured components support lunar and solar exploration efforts. Specialized chips from Mohali's Semiconductor Laboratory are used in Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1
India's space program began with a small rocket range in 1962. It progressed to launching its first satellite and developing indigenous launch vehicles. Chandrayaan-3's lunar landing marked a significant achievement for the nation. The program now includes private sector involvement and ambitious
India plans to establish its own space station by the year 2035. The first module for the Bharatiya Antariksha Station has already received approval. This ambitious project aligns with the nation's growing space capabilities and aspirations. National Space Day celebrates India's achievements and
NASA unveils new space telescope to give
NASA has revealed the Roman space telescope. This new instrument will search the universe for planets beyond our solar system. It will also investigate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. The telescope is set to launch in September. It promises to discover tens of thousands of new planets and billions of galaxies.
NASA unveiled a new telescope on Tuesday to scan vast swathes of the universe for planets outside our solar system and probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
The Roman space telescope is expected to discover tens of thousands of planets, possibly offering clarity abut how many could be out there.
"Roman will give the Earth a new atlas of the universe," NASA administrator Jared Isaacman told a news conference at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where the telescope went on display.
Also Read: NASA finds key ingredient for life on Mars, are we closer than ever?
The 12-metre (39-feet), silvery contraption with massive solar panels will be transported to Florida ahead of a launch into space aboard a SpaceX rocket planned for September at the earliest.
Roman, which took more than $4 billion and over a decade to build, is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, nicknamed the "Mother of Hubble" for her role in developing the landmark space telescope.
Thirty-six years after Hubble launched into space, revolutionizing astronomical observations, NASA hopes Roman will help to shed light on questions that remain unresolved.
Boasting a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's, the telescope will sweep across vast regions of space from its position 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth.
The telescope will send 11 terabytes of data a day down to Earth, said Mark Melton, a systems engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center.
"In the first year, we'll have sent down more data than Hubble will have for its entire life," he told AFP.
The telescope's wide-angle lens will allow NASA to conduct a census of the objects that make up our universe, said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
"Roman will discover tens of thousands of new planets outside our solar system. It will reveal billions of galaxies, thousands of supernovae and tens of billions of stars," she said.
This wealth of information will enable NASA to tease out areas of interest that can then be investigated by complementary telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Study the invisible -
But Roman will also study the invisible -- dark matter and dark energy, whose origins remain unknown but which are thought to constitute 95 percent of our universe.
Also Read: Nancy Roman Grace Space Telescope ready with 100x Hubble field of view as NASA completes assembly ahead of launch
Dark matter is believed to be the glue that holds galaxies together, while dark energy pulls them apart by making the universe expand faster and faster over time.
Thanks to its infrared vision, the telescope will be able to observe light emitted by celestial bodies billions of years ago, effectively looking back in time to hopefully discover more about the two phenomena.
Complementing the work of Europe's Euclid space telescope and the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, Roman will probe "how the dark matter structures itself throughout cosmic time" and "calculate how fast galaxies are moving away from us," Darryl Seligman, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, told AFP.
These discoveries could fundamentally change our understanding of the structure of our universe, said astrophysicist Julie McEnery, who led the Roman project.
"If Roman wins a Nobel Prize at some point, it's probably for something we haven't even thought about or questioned yet," said Melton.
Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
Source: EconomicTimes
Related Posts: NASA space telescope,universe atlas,Roman space telescope,NASA unveiling telescope,dark matter and dark energy,exoplanets discovery
India observed its third National Space Day, commemorating the Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing. ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan recalled the agency's humble beginnings and current global standing. He highlighted Chandrayaan-3's soft landing near the Moon's south pole in August 2023
1 days ago
The Indian government created the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) to offer students an intellectually vibrant research environment and to bring them into research at a relatively — vis-à-vis the Indian milieu — early stage
1 days ago
Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to lure global expertise to India's expanding space landscape. He identifies the private sector's potential as a crucial asset for global competition. Key advantages include India’s affordability and its appetite for innovation
1 days ago
The Northeast India Space Workshop 2026 will convene in Guwahati to explore regional transformation. This event aims to leverage space technology for global reach and economic growth. Stakeholders will discuss Northeast India becoming a developer and testbed for space solutions
1 days ago
The dramatic 1° Celsius rise in global temperatures since industrialisation has already proved to have upended the lives of wild flora and fauna: that of at least 15,801 species on the Red List of Threatened Species, according to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
2 days ago
India faces a substantial cost gap with the United States for launching payloads. A recent study estimates India's cost at over $13,000 per kilogram by 2025. This contrasts with the United States' estimated cost of $3,225 per kilogram. The study highlights scale and experience as key factors for
2 days ago
Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged young space entrepreneurs to innovate for agriculture and daily life. He highlighted the potential of India's private space sector for global impact. Startups were urged to engage with schools and inspire future generations
2 days ago
Rock-solid evidence for the origins of birds Stones in dinosaur stomachs may help understanding of avian evolution Published on: Aug 20, 2026, 21:09:09 IST The Economist Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link How do you know what a dinosaur ate? Guts rot away after death
3 days ago
Was it meat or glucose that fueled the growth of the human brain? If evolutionary science told us, hitherto, that human brain expansion relied on meat to grow, a new study has an interesting addition to this theory. Published in a recent issue of Science
4 days ago
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch the GISAT-1A satellite in September, in a mission that will be watched closely for many important reasons. Since the two successive PSLV mission failures, in 2025 and early 2026, ISRO had paused launches as it investigated the reason
4 days ago
The Hara forests are a vital ecological treasure of the Persian Gulf. Spanning the Strait of Hormuz, these mangrove forests consist mainly of grey mangrove trees (Avicennia marina), which have a special filtration system in their roots that allows them to thrive in saline conditions
5 days ago
India spends more to put a kilogram of payload into orbit than any other major spacefaring nation, marring its public image as a cost-effective launcher, according to a new peer-reviewed analysis of more than six decades of rocket launches published in Economics Letters
7 days ago
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there,” the English novelist L.P. Hartley wrote famously in his 1953 novel The Go-Between. In a peculiar twist, the same cannot be said of the Moon. It is not a foreign country, or even a foreign world: the U.S
7 days ago
The computer did not create a virus. It did not touch a test tube or handle a living cell. What it did may ultimately be more consequential: it helped decide what the virus’s genome should be. Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute used artificial intelligence (AI) to design
8 days ago
Spectators across Spain watched in wonder, some whipping off their protective glasses and rising to their feet in unison, as a rare total solar eclipse swept across the north of the country on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) evening, plunging it into darkness
8 days ago
Japan's MMX mission will blast off soon to collect Martian moon samples. The spacecraft will orbit Mars for three years and land on Phobos. This mission aims to understand Solar System origins and life's emergence. A rival Chinese mission also plans to return Mars samples around 2031
8 days ago
Draft rules for the SHANTI Act, 2025, mandate financial security for nuclear damage. Operators must maintain insurance or financial security until spent fuel removal. Foreign reactor designs require certification by their country of origin's regulatory body
9 days ago
As a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Europe on August 12 for the first time since 1999, solar physicists at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru, along with collaborators, have predicted the magnetic structure of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or its ‘crown’
9 days ago
When a young man was brought to my clinic after his first episode of psychosis, his parents wanted to know when he could return to college. This is not an atypical first interaction. However, in many instances, after a few consultations later and especially once the immediate crisis had settled
11 days ago
Some people can live apparently ordinary lives even when both copies of a gene (one inherited from the mother and the other from the father) have stopped working. Until their DNA is sequenced, they may never know that this has happened. A large study from Pakistan, published in Nature (June 2026)
11 days ago
Physicist Deepak Dhar received the 2026 Dirac Medal for his statistical mechanics work. He shares the award with three other scientists for their complex systems research. Their contributions span biology, finance, computer science, and artificial intelligence
12 days ago
Colombia and Venezuela experienced deadly earthquakes due to tectonic plate friction. The Nazca plate sliding beneath the South American plate caused tremors. Earthquake magnitude and depth significantly influenced the destructive impact. Building codes and terrain also played crucial roles in the
12 days ago
India has been invited to join NASA's Moon Base program. Discussions focused on expanding civil and commercial space cooperation. Both nations agreed to advance open scientific data sharing under Artemis Accords. They also reaffirmed commitment to UN guidelines for outer space sustainability
12 days ago
A team led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has found that several inherited traits in the mouse genome break the rules Gregor Mendel laid down in the 19th century about how genes work. This is not because the genes mutate but because of chemical modifications of the genome
13 days ago
Urban India’s water emergency will not be fixed by better crisis management alone. Over the coming decades, hundreds of millions more people will live and work in Indian cities, driving a sharp increase in the urban water demand. And unless we change how we design, finance
15 days ago
IN-SPACe seeks private partners to manage ISRO's new launch complex. This facility will support small rocket launches and enhance launch efficiency. Private entities will handle end-to-end operations and maintenance of the complex. ISRO will provide initial technical and operational support for
15 days ago
NASA astronauts Anil Menon and Jessica Meir on Friday (August 6, 2026) concluded their spacewalk outside the International Space Station to assemble the modification kit for its power channel that would allow addition of solar arrays. The spacewalk – 281st in support of the space station –
15 days ago
