Category: Science

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has discovered ingredients for water on a relatively nearby skyscraper-sized asteroid, a rocky acorn-shaped object that may hold clues to the origins of life on Earth, scientists said on Monday. OSIRIS-REx, which flew last week within a scant 12 miles (19 km) of the asteroid Bennu some 1.4…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Voyager 2, a NASA probe launched in 1977 and designed for just a five-year mission, has become only the second human-made object to enter interstellar space as it continues its marathon trek billions of miles (km) from Earth, scientists said on Monday. Data from instruments aboard the spacecraft showed it crossed the…

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Saturday launched a first probe ever to explore the dark side of the Moon, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The probe, the Chang’e-4, is expected to make the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon, according to Xinhua.…

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A woman in Brazil who received a womb transplanted from a deceased donor has given birth to a baby girl in the first successful case of its kind, doctors reported. The case, published in The Lancet medical journal, involved connecting veins from the donor uterus with the recipient’s veins, as…

BRISTOL, England (Reuters) – Gorillas at a zoo in England have demonstrated a distinctly human trait while attempting to solve a new puzzle game – cheating. The gorillas were presented with a wall-mounted device where the aim is to guide a peanut through a series of obstacles by poking a stick through various holes to…

(Reuters) – NASA’s deep space explorer Osiris-Rex flew on Monday to within a dozen miles of its destination, a skyscraper-sized asteroid believed to hold organic compounds fundamental to life as well as the potential to collide with Earth in about 150 years.  Launched in September 2016, Osiris-Rex embarked on NASA’s unprecedented seven-year mission to conduct a…

(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California on Monday carrying 64 small satellites into low orbit around the Earth, which the company called the largest-ever “rideshare” mission by a U.S.-based rocket. The mission, dubbed SSO-A, also marked the third voyage to space for the same Falcon 9 rocket – another…

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – A Russian-made Soyuz rocket blasted a three-man crew into orbit on Monday, beginning the first manned voyage to the International Space Station since a mission in October was aborted in midair because of a rocket malfunction. The Soyuz lifted off at 1131 GMT from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Russian…

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday named nine U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp, that will compete for funding under the space agency’s renewed long-term moon program, a private-public undertaking to develop technology that will explore the lunar surface. The companies, some which will develop small launch vehicles and robotic rovers over the next…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prehistoric 15-foot-long (4.5 meters) whale that sucked prey into its mouth represents a key missing puzzle piece concerning the evolution of today’s huge filter-feeding whales, scientists said on Thursday. The researchers described fossils unearthed in Oregon of a whale named Maiabalaena nesbittae that lived 33 million years ago and possessed neither…