Earth

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which collected the dust samples of an asteroid 320 million km from Earth, has started its return-journey on May 11. First launched in 2016, the $800 million spacecraft had found traces of hydrogen and oxygen molecules in asteroid 'Bennu' in 2018. While the NASA mission is expected to reach Earth in two years, currently Japan is the only country to have retrieved asteroid samples back home. 

An astrophysical study has revealed that a black hole measuring 3mn times of the Sun is in motion. Spotted around 228 million light years from the Earth, the black hole is travelling within its own galaxy J0437+2456. Beside its enormous size, the scientists also found its motion state as extraordinary. Concluding on varied possibilities of two black holes merging or a binary system of black holes, experts claimed its speed to be 177,027.84 km… read-more

The NASA has revealed that the largest asteroid to fly past the Earth in 2021 will come closest (within a distance of 1.3 million miles) on March 21. Named '2001 FO32', the asteroid is a massive rock classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) orbiting the Sun in proximity to the Earth. The NASA has classified 2,100 NEOs as potentially dangerous. Hazardous NEOs orbit within 4.6-million-miles distance from the earth, having a diameter of over 460-… read-more

Astronaut Victor Glover, now a resident of the International Space Station (ISS), shared his first video from space, via Twitter on November 25. Shot through the window of rocket 'Dragon Resilience', the video of the Earth has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on Twitter. "The scale of detail and sensory inputs made this a breathtaking perspective!" Glover wrote for the video. Many Twitter users thanked Glover for sharing the video.

NASA is all prepared to send its 'Mars Sample Return' mission to bring Mars rocks to Earth in a mission partnered by European Space Agency. While the enroute Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will drill and collect samples, ESAs 'fetch' rover will deliver the samples to NASAs ‘MARS Ascent vehicle.’ Later the samples would be brought back by ESAs ‘Earth Return Orbiter’ in 2030. NASA said this will help them send humans on Mars.