Nature Hub

   From - Sky & Telescope   By - David Dikinson,   Edited  by - Amal Udawatta,          The first surface image received from Chandrayaan 3.             ISRO In a first for the nation, India’s Chandrayaan 3 soft-landed in the lunar south pole region of the Moon. Russia’s Luna 25 lander crashed, however. Today was a “historic day for India’s space sector,” says India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on   X , formerly known as Twitter. "Congratulations to ISRO for the remarkable success of Chandrayaan 3 lunar mission.” The landing occurred near Manzinus U Crater on the lunar nearside at 12:34 Universal Time (UT) (8:34 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, or EDT) on Wednesday, August 23rd. This makes India the fourth nation to soft-land on the Moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. ESA’s European Space Tracking system (ESTRACK) and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) partnered with ISRO ...

    From-  Sky & Telescope,   By -  ASS NOVA  Edited by - Amal Udawatta, An image of Halley’s comet. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; CC BY 4.0 Where is all of the water around hyperactive comets coming from? A recent article asked if it could be “Ice, Ice, Maybe?” and concluded that it likely isn’t. Where is all of the water around hyperactive comets coming from? A recent article asked if it could be “ Ice, Ice, Maybe? ” and concluded that it likely isn’t. ICY MYSTERY Comets spend most of their time far from the Sun, where it’s too cold (too cold) for ices trapped within their cores to sublime into gas. When their travels bring them inwards, though, these frozen materials transform into a gas cloud that escapes and enshrouds the nucleus. At this point, the comet is considered “active,” and though this happens to all comets, the severity of this outgassing varies widely. Some comets only sputter, and not much of their ...

 From BBC News,   By Pallab Ghosh-   Science correspondent, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, PHILIPPE PSAILA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption, Remains of a primitive human species known as Homo erectus have been found in Europe dating back to 1.4 million years ago. A big freeze previously unknown to science drove early humans from Europe for 200,000 years, but they adapted and returned, new research shows. Ocean sediments from 1.1 million years ago show temperatures suddenly dropped more than 5C, scientists say. They say our early ancestors couldn't have survived as they didn't have heating or warm clothes. Until now, the consensus had been that humans had existed in Europe continuously for 1.5 million years. Ancient humans' stone tools found in Kenya Ancient human remains found in County Armagh Ancient humans survived longer than we thought Evidence for the big freeze is found in sediments in the seabed off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal. Layers are deposi...

From - BBC News, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES By Georgina Rannard, Mark Poynting, Jana Tauschinski, Becky Dale BBC climate reporter & data team The oceans have hit their hottest ever recorded temperature as they soak up warmth from climate change, with dire implications for our planet's health. The average daily global sea surface temperature beat a 2016 record this week, according to the EU's climate change service Copernicus. It reached 20.96C (69.73F) - far above the average for this time of year. Oceans are a vital climate regulator. They soak up heat, produce half Earth's oxygen and drive weather patterns. Warmer waters have less ability to absorb carbon dioxide, meaning more of that planet-warming gas will stay in the atmosphere. And it can also accelerate the melting of glaciers that flow into the ocean, leading to more sea level rise. Hotter oceans and heatwaves disturb marine species like fish and whales as they move in search of cooler...