UN flags 127 major climate-warming methane plumes this year
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesReuters A United Nations-led effort to use space satellites to detect methane leaks from fossil fuel infrastructure has alerted governments to 127 major methane plumes across four continents since its launch at the start of this year. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide […]
Scientists surprised by source of largest quake detected on Mars
Washington DC, USReuters On 4th May, 2022, NASA’s InSight lander detected the largest quake yet recorded on Mars, one with a 4.7 magnitude – fairly modest by Earth standards but strong for our planetary neighbor. Given Mars lacks the geological process called plate tectonics that generates earthquakes on our planet, scientists suspected a meteorite impact […]
Living income gaps: In Africa’s fields, a plan to pay fair wages for chocolate withers
ANGE ABOA and MAYTAAL ANGEL, of Reuters, report on the plight of cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast and Ghana…
NASA formally retires Mars InSight lander after four-year mission
Los Angeles, USReuters NASA has formally retired its Mars InSight lander, the first robotic probe specially designed to study the deep interior of a distant world, four years after it arrived on the surface of the red planet, the US space agency announced on Wednesday. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles […]
Chinese spacecraft acquires images of entire planet of Mars
Beijing, China Reuters An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday. China’s Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February, 2021, on the country’s inaugural mission there. A […]
Chinese spacecraft successfully lands on surface of Mars
Beijing, ChinaReuters An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on the Southern Utopia Plain, “leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for […]
NASA extracts breathable oxygen from thin Martian air
Los Angeles, USReuters NASA has logged another extraterrestrial first on its latest mission to Mars: converting carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into pure, breathable oxygen, the US space agency said on Wednesday. The unprecedented extraction of oxygen, literally out of thin air on Mars, was achieved Tuesday by an experimental device aboard Perseverance, a […]
Historic Mars helicopter test flight set for early April
Los Angeles, USReuters NASA engineers plan to send a miniature helicopter whirring just above the surface of Mars next month in an interplanetary aviation experiment that, if successful, would mark the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another celestial body. The US space agency is comparing the Martian debut of its 1.8-kilogram solar-powered […]
Mars on Earth: Turkish lake may hold clues to ancient life on planet
Lake Salda, TurkeyReuters As NASA’s rover Perseverance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home at a lake in south-west Turkey. NASA says the minerals and rock deposits at Salda are the nearest match on earth […]
NASA Mars scientists spur girls to “reach for the stars”
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation With “one of the coolest jobs in the world”, NASA rover operator Vandi Verma hopes women’s high profile in the latest Mars mission will inspire a new generation to pursue careers in a sector traditionally dominated by men. Verma’s colleague Swati Mohan made headlines around the world when she narrated the nail-biting […]