Science

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan has decided to participate in a U.S. plan for putting astronauts back on the moon by 2024 and the government will officially inform the United States within this year, the Kyodo News agency reported on Thursday. The decision was made by the Cabinet Office’s space policy committee, the news agency said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists who resurrected a 50,000-year-old gene sequence have analyzed it to figure out how the world’s deadliest malaria parasite jumped from gorillas to humans – giving insight into the origins of one of human history’s biggest killers. The researchers said their work also deepens understanding of a process known as zoonosis –

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – U.S. astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will make history on Friday when they conduct the first ever all-female spacewalk to replace the power source on the International Space Station (ISS). FILE PHOTO: The International Space Station (ISS) crew member Jessica Meir of the U.S. boards the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA on Tuesday showed off two new spacesuits tailored for future moonwalking astronauts, signaling development of a crucial component to the space agency’s accelerated drive to return to the moon by 2024. Two NASA engineers strutted on a stage inside the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, donning the new spacesuits, modeling and doing

People attend a mourning ceremony and a funeral for Alexei Leonov, the first man to conduct a space walk in 1965, in Mytishchi, outside Moscow, Russia October 15, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina MOSCOW (Reuters) – Hundreds of Russians bade farewell to cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space, at a solemn funeral ceremony

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian politicians and academics cheered the Nobel economics prize awarded on Monday to Indian-born American Abhijit Banerjee, whose proud mother told visitors crowding into her apartment that he came from “a family of economists”. Nirmala Banerjee, mother of Abhijit Banerjee, one of the winners of 2019 Nobel Economics Prize, speaks on

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The second interstellar object ever spotted passing through the solar system is a comet that appears quite like those formed in our neighborhood of the cosmos, providing fresh evidence that other planetary systems may be very similar to our own. A two-color composite image shows comet 2I/Borisov captured by the Gemini North

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Friday gave the green light for genetically modified cotton to be used for human consumption, paving the way for a protein-packed new food source – edible cottonseed that tastes a bit like chickpeas – that its developers said could help tackle global malnutrition. Genetically modified cotton plants with an

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Stratolaunch Systems Corp, the space company founded by late billionaire and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) co-founder Paul Allen, said on Friday it was continuing operations after transitioning ownership, but did not name the new owner. FILE PHOTO: The world’s largest airplane, built by the late Paul Allen’s company Stratolaunch Systems, makes its first

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Alexei Leonov, who became the first human to walk in space in 1965, died on Friday at the age of 85 after a long illness, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. FILE PHOTO: Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (L), the first human to conduct a space walk, and his compatriot Valentina Tereshkova, the first

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut capsule will be ready for its first manned test flight into orbit in the first quarter of next year, provided that “everything goes according to plan” in upcoming tests, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks to media during a

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two-thirds of bird species in North America, already disappearing at an alarming rate, face extinction unless immediate action is taken to slow the rate of climate change, the National Audubon Society said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Pelicans silhouetted by a setting sun fly as they look for fish along the California

LONDON (Reuters) – A lunar rover which will explore the moon on foot in 2021 was unveiled in London on Thursday. The new concept, with four legs rather than wheels, will send data back to a larger mothership, which will transmit it back to Earth. UK startup Spacebit signed a contract with U.S. space robotics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saturn is now being recognized as the “moon king” of our solar system, with astronomers spotting 20 more of them orbiting the giant ringed planet, bringing its total count to 82 – three more than Jupiter. FILE PHOTO: One of the last looks at Saturn and its main rings as captured by

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fossils of a large carnivorous dinosaur that was a top predator about 115 million years ago have been unearthed in Thailand — a brute that was among the early members of an impressive group of flesh-ripping dinosaurs known for their shark-like teeth. A reconstruction of the skull of the large meat-eating dinosaur

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany should aim to be a leader in technologies needed to make and utilize hydrogen, which offers a green alternative to fossil fuels in the shift toward a low carbon economy, the economy minister said on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO: German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier attends a joint news conference after a meeting