News that made international headlines WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED WITH THE LATEST ON SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS AND DISCOVERIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD. By: Zakiyah Ebrahim
NEWLY DISCOVERED EXOPLANET FORMED IN A STRANGE WAY NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, has photographed a newly discovered exoplanet right in the act of formation. Named AB Aurigae b, researchers say it came to be in an entirely unexpected way – potentially through a violent implosion of gas and dust. It is nine times the mass of Jupiter, and is still growing. The discovery is only the second direct observation of a protoplanet – a large body of matter in orbit around the sun or a star, and is thought to be developing into a planet. "Nature is clever; it can produce planets in a range of different ways," said lead researcher Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and Eureka Scientific. JESSICA WATKINS: THE FIRST BLACK FEMALE ASTRONAUT ON EXTENDED ISS MISSION In a huge milestone, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins is the fifth Black woman to go to space and the first to be aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where she will spend six months – from April 2022 – with three fellow astronauts in the ISS laboratory (in space), conducting research. Watkins, who joined NASA as an intern and was an astronaut candidate in 2017, told NBC News: “The reason we’re able to arrive at this time is because of the legacy of those who have come before to allow for this moment.” ELON MUSK SAYS LIFE ON MARS WILL BE "DANGEROUS, CRAMPED, DIFFICULT, HARD WORK" South African-born Elon Musk says life on Mars will be far from comfortable. The SpaceX CEO, who is on a mission to enable people to live on other planets, and to build a full-sized city on Mars, said in April: “It's very important to emphasise that Mars,
NASA DESIGNS EPIC SENSOR ‘BACKPACK’ FOR MOON EXPLORERS
especially in the beginning, will not be luxurious." Musk was
NASA is currently designing a backpack-sized device to help
chatting to Chris Anderson, the head of TED conferences, in a
astronauts navigate terrain on future expeditions to the Moon
video interview. "It will be dangerous, cramped, difficult, hard
– and there are photos! Named the Kinematic Navigation and
work,” said Musk. The billionaire anticipates that SpaceX could
Cartography Knapsack (KNaCK), the portable scanner will help
have its first orbital launch for the spacecraft, named Starship,
astronauts walk around areas with poor visibility and that are
"within a few months”.
unchartered (areas that are not mapped). It will achieve this by constantly scanning the ground as the astronaut walks around, and will collect detailed information on the surrounding surface topology in the process.
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