Author: Bhavana Das

The Marine Park Authority has confirmed that the fifth mass coral bleaching has hit Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Increasing global temperature causes heat-stress coral reefs to expel algae, which turns the reefs white, known as coral bleaching. Previously, two mass bleaching events were recorded until 2016. This time, the fifth bleaching has happened in the Great Barrier Reef in only eight years. The alarming increase in the frequency of mass bleaching is worrisome. The authorities and scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science have conducted aerial surveys for around two-thirds of coral reefs. Further water surveys are ongoing…

In 2019, the cargo of the Beresheet spacecraft crashed on the moon’s surface. The cargo contained tardigrades, organisms known to survive in any environment. Over five years ago, Beresheet, a lunar probe built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency, was launched to the moon. But on the day of landing, its fate met a tragic end: the probe crashed into the lunar surface. The moon mission, launched on February 22, 2019, was intended for the first private spacecraft to make a soft landing. On April 11, the spacecraft ran into trouble after its…

The Space Telescope Science Institute has announced the upcoming Cycle 3 General Observer (GO) Programs for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on February 29th. The program will span the next two years, and 253 GO programs are selected for this duration. These programs will use approximately 5,500 hours of JWST prime time for conducting various cosmic explorations. Space.com says Cycle 3 initiatives are worth $10 billion, which will further build two years of scientific advancements that began in 2022. The JWST’s upcoming missions include exomoons surrounding exoplanets, supermassive black holes, and distant galaxies. These studies will reveal the details…

NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-8 of four new astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) to supervise the arrival of two new rocket ships during this six-month mission in space. They will be on a 16-hour flight to the ISS. The team comprises astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Alexander Grebenki. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 Mission NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission is the eighth crew rotation mission for human spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS). It is also a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and the…