SciShorts: Hubble Captures the Collision of Two Galaxies

350 million light years away are two galaxies that seem to be on a collision course. This particular system of the galaxies is known as Arp 256. The picture of the image (above) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows tails of stars, dust and even stellar nurseries*. About four billion years from now, our […]

SciShorts: Chandrayaan 2 to be Cheaper than Interstellar

India’s flagship space project Chandrayaan 2 is set to be cheaper than Hollywood movie Interstellar. Unlike NASA’s missions, this project by the Indian Space Research Organisation aims at landing at the South Pole of the Moon. After landing, the rover will analyse rocks which are billions of years old and send back valuable data through […]

SciShorts: NASA Discovers 95 New Planets

On Feb 16th, NASA revealed a colony of 95 new planets. This feat was accomplished with the Kepler telescope. Scientists went through the immense amounts of data sent by the telescope; dating all the way back to 2014. Since then, there have been about 275 “candidate” signals, which implies that each of them could have […]

SciShorts: Tesla Roadster in Space will Probably Collide with the Earth

A research from the University of Toronto states that the payload of the Falcon Heavy – a Tesla Roadster that is now floating in space – might collide with Earth or Venus. However, this will not happen anytime soon. Researchers ran simulations of what would become of the car hovering aimlessly in space. The outcome […]

SciShorts: JAXA launches the world’s smallest rocket

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has surpassed frontiers in development of space technology as it launched the world’s smallest rocket on the 3rd of February. The rocket was JAXA’s SS-520, which was about 10 meters in length and about half a meter in diameter. The rocket carried a TRICOM-1R cubesat, containing radios and cameras, […]

SciShorts: European Rocket Ariane 5 Suffers a Major Setback

The Ariane 5 launched from French Guiana suffered a major error in its latest launch. The upper portion of the rocket fired the wrong way. Just nine minutes after the launch, the operators lost all contact with the rocket. Communication was then restored on the 25th of January after the payload was believed to be […]

SciShorts: Asteroids Fly Past Earth at Close Distances

On Friday, the 9th of February, an asteroid the size of a 2-3 story building grazed past the earth. The asteroid, called 2018 CB, passed at a distance of 64,000 km from the earth’s surface – a distance lesser than one fifth the distance to the moon. This is the second time this week that […]

SciShorts: NASA Builds Mini Nuclear Reactor to Send to Mars

Many space agencies are figuring out new ways to get to Mars each day. But once humans get to Mars, they would need power to do anything at all. Spacecrafts flying to Mars can only carry a limited weight, and carrying immense amounts of fuel to power up the planet is impossible. This is why […]

SciShorts: Meteor Explosion over Michigan Leads to Fragment Hunt

Over a week after a meteor exploded in Michigan, astronomers and researchers race to collect fragments of the space rock. The six foot wide meteor lit up the skies and even caused a minor tremor as it exploded over Michigan on January 16th. The meteor had been traveling an estimated 45,000 kilometers per hour creating […]

SciShorts: A Very Rare Astronomical Phenomenon on January 31

On the 31st of January, the world will experience a rather rare astronomical event. The event will feature a coincidence of three other events- a lunar eclipse, a blue moon and a super moon. When the moon moves into the earth’s shadow, it’s known as a lunar eclipse or a blood moon. A blue moon […]