TopNews

Today, more than eight million animal species have inhabited earth, but in the beginning of the world, there were very few species. The first form of life that set up home on the planet was a simple sea sponge, claimed a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

MIT researchers conducted genetic tests and confirmed that molecules found in 640-million-year-old rocks were produced by sea sponges. The rocks in the study are older than the 540 million years old period, known as the Cambrian explosion, when many animal species dwelled in different regions of the world.

NASA scientist Philip Lubin claims he can get a crewed spacecraft to the Red Planet in just 30 minutes and that too without a magic trick. It is possible to reach Mars at a significant fraction of the speed of light using energy propulsion, thinks Lubin.

Speed of a spacecraft heading towards Mars could be accelerated by firing a laser at the craft, said UC Santa Barbara physics professor Lubin. As per the scientist’s 30-minute trip to Mars plan, a powerful laser could be used at the spacecraft to provide it extra acceleration. When the laser will strike the space vehicle, it may be able to achieve frictionless acceleration in space.

Big carnivores, including tigers, cougars and wolves, instill fear in the prey animals hunted by them. It has turned out that fear is needed for an ecosystem to thrive the way it must.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, a latest study has studied the role played by fear in wildlife ecosystems and discovered that, though it looks unpleasant, it's a must. Wildlife communities have been pushed out of whack because the huge carnivores wanted to implant that fear have been dying like never before.

Coral reefs host one-fourth of all marine life, but sadly they have been increasingly facing tough times due to increase in ocean acidification. The calcium-carbonate-based structures are among the latest victims of change in climate and acidification of oceans.

Earlier, researchers discovered that in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, coral growth rates have fallen nearly 40% during the last 30 years.

The reefs are colorful bright marine ecosystems facing many issues due to overfishing, pollution, rising water temperatures and ocean chemistry alteration. For better understanding of how the damage can be reversed, scientists have been putting in efforts to isolate the impact of a stressor in particular, ocean acidification, on coral reefs.

The heart-shaped area besides Pluto’s equator has been the main focus of the US space agency’s New Horizons mission, but in this week’s featured image, the North Polar Region has been in focus.

The area visible in the image belongs to a region informally called Lowell Regio. It is a tribute to Percival Lowell, the millionaire astronomer who started the exploration that ultimately resulted in discovery of Pluto.

On the left side of the featured image, there’s a canyon measuring nearly 45 miles wide. Other canyons present to the east and west are roughly 6 miles wide. According to the New Horizons science team, the formations are indicating towards a tectonic activity in ancient times.

LIGO has found gravitational waves that were formed during collision of two massive black holes. LIGO’s detection was superb, but one must have a look at the name of the detector for a while, it’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory. This clearly says LIGO is first of all an observatory.

It’s a kind of telescope that uses gravitational waves and not electromagnetic waves. It is notable that if you find a gravitational wave and know the source of the wave, you could observe the event using an electromagnetic telescope.