Nature Hub

 From -  MONGABAY By   Malaka  Rodrigo   Edited by  - Amal Udawatta Recent research on Sri Lanka’s mushrooms has resulted in the discovery of two species previously unknown to science — Termitomyces srilankensis and Candolleomyces ruhunensis — and the discovery of Crepidotus striatus, a mushroom previously thought endemic to China. A tropical island in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is known for its rich diversity of fungi and mushrooms, but there was little research until now, making the group one of the least-studied organisms in the country. As deforestation, habitat degradation and climate change threaten mushroom species, researchers urge the establishment of a national fungarium to preserve fungi specimens. Edible wild mushrooms have been a part of Sri Lankans’ diets for centuries, but present generations have lost traditional knowledge about identifying non-poisonous mushrooms and instead rely on commercially cultivated mushrooms. COLOMBO — In Lewis Carroll’s popular children’s boo

             From- Sky & Telescope    By - Govert Schilling,   Edited by - Amal Udawatta The CHARA array took two false-color images of RW Cephei, one in December 2022 (left), when the star had dimmed, and one in July 2023 (right), when the star had recovered its usual brightness. The patchy appearance results from dust created by a huge ejection from the star. The star is huge but it is so far away that it appears about one million times smaller than the full Moon in the sky, resolvable only by an interfereometer. CHARA / Georgia State University Betelgeuse isn’t the only giant star to undergo a “Great Dimming.” Remember the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse? In late 2019, this red supergiant in Orion became 1.2 magnitudes fainter than normal. Detailed observations of the star with the European Very Large Telescope in Chile, enabled by Betelgeuse’s relatively short distance of 640 light-years, revealed that the southern hemisphere of the star’s disk had darkened. The light was temporari

    Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Ella Cao and Ryan Woo;      Editing by Josie Kao, Grant McCool and William Mallard,     Blog Editor - Amal Udawatta The success could boost investor confidence in methane as a potential rocket fuel, which is deemed able to help slash costs and support reusable rockets in a cleaner and more efficient way. Several private Chinese rocket startups have lined up test or commercial launches, aiming to prepare their products for the increasing demand in China's expanding  commercial  space industry, amid growing competition to form a constellation of satellites as an alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink. Zhuque-2 Y-3 blasted off at 7:39 a.m. (1139 GMT on Friday) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Inner Mongolia region, becoming the third LandSpace test rocket for Zhuque-2, and the first that succeeded in lifting satellites. A second attempt, without real satellites, in July made LandSpace the world's first company to launch methane-liq

 From - BBC NEWS  By  - Richard Garry  Edited by - Amal Udawatta By Richard Gray 27th December 2023 From new artificial islands to the environmental devastation caused by  From new artificial islands to the environmental devastation caused by the breach of Ukraine's Kakhovka Dam – this is how humanity has changed the face of our planet throughout the past year. T There are few places on the Earth where humans have not left a mark of some kind. An estimated  95% of our planet's landmass  – not including Antarctica, even though humanity has left its imprint there, too – now show some signs of human activity. About  16% of that land has been heavily modified , according to one recent analysis. Urban development, large-scale engineering works and mining projects are reshaping entire landscapes, while deforestation and agriculture are altering entire ecosystems. Pollution produced by humans can be found in almost  every corner of our planet . Pearson Reef – also known as Phan Vinh I

  From - BBC News, By - Ben Fell, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, NASA Image caption, Who will be the next human to leave their footprint on the surface of the Moon? They were the pioneers of space exploration - the 24 Nasa astronauts who travelled to the Moon in the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. Now, in 2024, the race to put people back on the lunar surface is set to heat up once again. On 8 January, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur - one of the private competitors to Elon Musk's SpaceX -  launched on its maiden Moon mission , carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine 1. Peregrine aims to be the first US craft to make a soft lunar landing since the Apollo programme when it reaches the Moon in February. And, in November, Nasa hopes to launch Artemis 2, its first crewed lunar expedition in more than 50 years. It hopes the new programme will lead to  astronauts living on the Moon this decade . China is also hoping to have people on the lunar surface by 2030. T