United News of Bangladesh

The Orionid meteor shower, one of the two major annual meteor showers produced by debris from Halley’s comet, is set to reach its peak this week, although a bright moon may hinder visibility until it sets late at night. The shower is expected to peak from Wednesday night into Thursday morning, with up to 20 meteors an hour visible under ideal viewing conditions, according to the American Meteor Society. The meteors can also be seen for several weeks before and after the peak. The Orionids are visible in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, particularly after midnight. Although the shower takes its name from the Orion constellation, its meteors can appear across the night sky, according to NASA. Known for their speed and brightness, Orionid meteors sometimes leave glowing trails that remain visible for several seconds. What causes a meteor shower? Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through trails of debris left behind by comets and, occasionally, asteroids as it orbits the Sun several times a year. The Orionids originate from Halley’s comet, which passes near Earth approximately once every 75 years. When pieces of debris enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, friction with the air heats them until they burn up. The process can cause the surrounding air to glow briefly, creating the streak of light commonly known as a shooting star. No special equipment is needed to observe a meteor shower. However, choosing a location away from city lights and other sources of light pollution can significantly improve visibility. How to watch the Orionids The best time to observe the shower is generally after midnight and during the early hours before dawn, when viewing conditions are often more favourable. Moonlight and artificial lighting can make faint meteors difficult to spot. Clear skies and a darker environment offer the best chance of seeing the celestial display. Observers should also allow several minutes for their eyes to adjust to the darkness and be patient while watching the sky. When is the next meteor shower? The next major meteor shower, the Southern Taurids, is expected to peak on November 5. A crescent moon is forecast for the peak, which could provide more favourable viewing conditions than those expected during the Orionid shower.

Japan is preparing to launch a spacecraft on Tuesday on a five-year mission to collect and return samples from Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, in a bid to uncover clues about the formation of the moons and the origins of the solar system. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard its H-3 rocket. It will be the first mission aimed at bringing samples back to Earth from a moon of Mars. Scientists hope the findings will help determine whether Phobos and its smaller sibling, Deimos, formed from debris following a major impact on Mars or are asteroids captured by the planet's gravity. The mission is led by Japan with equipment and communications support from NASA and other international space agencies. MMX project manager Yasuhiro Kawakatsu said studying Phobos could also help scientists assess the potential use of a Martian moon as a base for future crewed missions to Mars. Although numerous spacecraft have explored Mars since the 1960s, its two moons remain poorly understood. Phobos is about 20-30 kilometres in diameter and orbits roughly 6,000 kilometres from Mars. JAXA principal investigator Kiyoshi Kuramoto said analysing samples from Phobos could help scientists reach a clearer conclusion about the moons' origins. Researchers chose Phobos because it is closer to Mars than Deimos and may contain more material from the planet. JAXA estimates that about 0.1 percent of the collected material could consist of Martian debris. After launching, the spacecraft is expected to reach the Mars region around August 2027. It will spend about three years studying Phobos, collecting data and gathering samples before returning to Earth in 2031. The mission also includes a flyby of Deimos to gather additional observations. The roughly five-tonne spacecraft has three modules for propulsion, exploration and sample return. It will carry 13 instruments, including a rover jointly developed by France and Germany, a NASA sampling device and a European Space Agency communications instrument. The French-German rover, named Idefix, is expected to land on Phobos around 2029 and explore its surface for about 100 days to help identify suitable sites for sample collection. JAXA aims to collect at least 10 grammes of material through two sampling attempts. The spacecraft will use US-developed equipment to collect surface dust and a Japanese coring device to obtain material from about two centimetres below the surface. The samples will be stored in a heat-protected capsule designed to withstand re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. The capsule is expected to land in Australia before being transported to Japan for analysis. Scientists say material collected from different locations could improve the chances of identifying traces of past microbial life originating on Mars. Landing on Phobos presents significant technical challenges because the moon has extremely weak gravity, about one-two-thousandth of Earth's, and a heavily cratered surface. The spacecraft's exploration module has shock-absorbing landing gear designed to reduce bouncing, while the rover is equipped to maintain traction and recover if it tips over. Japan previously returned asteroid samples through its Hayabusa missions in 2010 and 2020.

Scientists from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed spiky silica nanoparticles that significantly improve pesticide adhesion on crops, addressing a major agricultural challenge where up to 90 percent of conventional sprays wash off or degrade. In a study published in the Journal of Controlled Release, researchers mimicked gut bacteria pili-hair-like structures that function as hooks-to design hollow, rough-surfaced silica nanoparticles loaded with imidacloprid, a common insecticide. When sprayed on waxy leaf surfaces, the spiky particles lock in physically like anchors and form chemical hydrogen bonds. This "double grip" prevents wash-off from rain, resists UV damage, and enables slow release, said researcher Wang Guozhong. In tests on cotton, soybean, and tomato leaves subjected to simulated rainfall, the new formulation retained over 4.8 times more pesticide than commercial imidacloprid products. Safety evaluations on plants and zebrafish indicated no clear harm, offering an eco-friendly path toward low-dose, high-efficiency green pesticides.

India's private space company Skyroot Aerospace has secured a major commercial contract from US-based Reflect Orbital for two dedicated rocket launches to deploy future spacecraft, shortly after its Vikram-1 rocket successfully reached orbit. The deal marks a significant step for India's emerging private space industry, highlighting growing international interest in the country's commercial launch services. Reflect Orbital is developing technology that uses mirrors or reflectors in space to redirect sunlight towards specific locations on Earth. The company believes the technology could extend solar power generation beyond sunset, support nighttime search and rescue operations and provide light in areas without conventional infrastructure. Skyroot said the agreement would expand its commercial launch pipeline across its Vikram family of launch vehicles, adding to other missions already planned. Reflect Orbital co-founder and CEO Ben Nowack said the shortage of available launch opportunities had encouraged the company to work with a new provider. "There's a real launch capacity shortage right now. We're excited to work with a new launch provider, Skyroot, to help ensure access to space," he said. Reflect Orbital describes itself as a company developing space-based infrastructure to deliver sunlight to specific locations on Earth. Skyroot co-founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana said the partnership reflected the company's ambition to support advanced space missions worldwide. "Reflect Orbital represents the kind of ambitious global space mission the Vikram family is being built to serve. We are pleased to partner with Ben and the Reflect Orbital team across two dedicated launches, providing schedule certainty and mission flexibility," he said. Founded in 2018 by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, Skyroot aims to make space more accessible and establish India as a competitive player in the global private launch market. The company drew international attention in 2022 when its Vikram-S rocket became the first rocket launched by an Indian private company. After years of development, Skyroot achieved another milestone with Mission Aagman, the maiden orbital flight of its Vikram-1 rocket. In July 2026, the rocket successfully reached orbit on its first flight, becoming India's first privately developed orbital launch vehicle to achieve the feat on its maiden mission. The latest contract is expected to strengthen the company's commercial prospects following that achievement. The agreement also highlights the growing role of private companies in India's space sector. For decades, the country's launch capabilities were led largely by ISRO, but a new generation of private firms is now seeking international customers and competing for commercial launch contracts. Reflect Orbital's decision to book two launches with Skyroot signals growing overseas interest in India's privately developed launch vehicles and their ability to support international space missions. Source: NDTV

China successfully launched a Long March-12 carrier rocket from a commercial spacecraft launch site in the southern island province of Hainan on Saturday, sending a new group of internet satellites into space, official sources said. The carrier rocket lifted off at 3:27am (Beijing Time) from the commercial launch site in Wenchang and successfully deployed its payload-the 27th group of low-orbit internet satellites-into its preset orbit.

Nikon has disqualified the winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition after concerns were raised by scientists over the authenticity of the entry. The company said the video violated the rules of its Small World In Motion contest, which showcases photographs and videos captured using powerful microscopes, because generative artificial intelligence was used in its creation. However, Nikon clarified that the decision was not a judgement on the entrant’s professional reputation or scientific contributions. The company said it reached the decision after reviewing the video and supporting materials in detail and consulting members of the judging panel. It also announced plans to review the rules and procedures of the annual competition, which has been running for 15 years and focuses on microscopic imagery. The disqualified entry was submitted by Dr Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in China. It featured tiny, hair-like structures known as cilia moving in the airway of a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a respiratory condition. The BBC has contacted Xu for comment. Several scientists, including former competition judges, questioned the video's authenticity in comments on Nikon's LinkedIn page. Xu had acknowledged using AI but said he believed his submission complied with the rules and cooperated with Nikon's investigation. Dr Robert Hirst, a University of Leicester scientist who was among the first to raise concerns, said he was not surprised by the decision, adding that he immediately recognised the video as fabricated. Hirst, who has spent 20 years diagnosing PCD by examining cilia movement patterns, length, and cell size and shape, said the cells and cilia shown in the video bore little resemblance to those of PCD patients. He leads the NHS centre for PCD diagnosis at the university and said the controversy had affected patients, scientists, doctors and PCD support networks worldwide. Source: BBC

Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering computer scientist who led the team that developed onboard flight software for NASA's Apollo moon missions, has died at the age of 90. She later became an influential symbol of women's achievements in technology. Hamilton died on Sept 30 at a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her daughter, Lauren Hamilton, told The Associated Press on Thursday. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on social media platform X that her work helped make humanity's first journeys to the Moon possible. Calling Hamilton a trailblazer, Olivier de Weck, an Apollo programme professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and interim head of its aeronautics and astronautics department, said her achievements went far beyond being ahead of her time. Hamilton worked as a software engineer when the field was still developing. She wrote advanced computer code herself and led a team that used the emerging technology to build one of the most complex systems of its time, de Weck told MIT News, the university's news publication. In recent years, Hamilton gained wider public recognition through a photograph showing her in her early 30s standing beside a towering stack of computer code pages used in the Apollo programme. She was also featured as a figure in a Lego set celebrating women at NASA, unveiled in 2017. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 2019 further increased public interest in her contributions, her daughter said. Lauren Hamilton said her mother went from being relatively unknown to widely recognised, particularly within the technology sector. Although she appreciated the recognition, she was naturally reserved and not accustomed to being in the spotlight, her daughter added. Born in Indiana on Aug 17, 1936, Hamilton earned a mathematics degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, in 1958. She joined MIT in 1959, initially working with a meteorology professor on software for weather forecasting. In the mid-1960s, she joined MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory, which held a NASA contract for the Apollo programme. Hamilton initially worked on software for uncrewed space missions before leading the team responsible for onboard flight software for crewed missions. By 1968, she was an assistant director overseeing the command and service module team, according to MIT News. In a 2009 interview with the publication, Hamilton recalled that many members of her team began working on the programme while in their 20s and treated their responsibilities seriously. “Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure,” she said. She explained that software was still poorly understood at the time, giving the team considerable freedom and trust from senior management. “We had to find a way, and we did,” she said, adding that the team had been fortunate to work during a period when they had to pioneer new approaches. Hamilton continued working at the Instrumentation Laboratory into the 1970s before founding two software companies, MIT News reported. Her daughter said Hamilton was particularly interested in abstract mathematics and how ideas could be translated into software. She also described her mother as an eccentric and fun-loving person who collected vintage clothing and had a mischievous sense of humour. Despite facing sexism in the technology field, Hamilton rarely responded aggressively, her daughter said. Instead, she used humour to disarm critics or quietly established her authority. Hamilton grew up mainly in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and lived in Cambridge from her early 20s until her death, according to her daughter. Among her many honours, Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, from President Barack Obama in 2016.

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Thursday after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where they had arrived earlier than planned to replace a colleague who fell ill and his crewmates. SpaceX brought the US, French and Russian astronauts home with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France's Sophie Adenot and Russia's Andrey Fedyaev left the orbiting laboratory on Wednesday, looking forward to reuniting with their families after months apart. However, their return was delayed because their replacements arrived three weeks behind schedule due to capsule repairs. The astronauts were eager to feel fresh air, take showers and return to their favourite activities. Adenot, in particular, was looking forward to water sports after spending 237 days in orbit, setting an endurance record for the European Space Agency. “We are so excited to be back on Planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station,” Meir said in a radio message shortly after landing. While still in space, she had described the crew's feelings as a mixture of emotions, saying they would miss the “extraordinary views of our home planet.” All four astronauts emerged from their capsule within an hour of landing, waving and raising their fists in celebration aboard SpaceX's recovery ship. They were scheduled to travel by helicopter to shore before heading to Houston. Meir and her crewmates launched into space in February to replace four astronauts who returned home early after one of them, retired NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, became ill. It was NASA's first medical evacuation during 65 years of human spaceflight. Two months later, the crew watched proudly as the Artemis II astronauts travelled around the Moon. They also celebrated the United States' 250th anniversary in space, with Meir playing the piccolo alongside the Boston Pops for a Fourth of July concert. During the mission, Meir completed four spacewalks, while Adenot ventured outside the station three times to carry out maintenance and upgrade work on the 28-year-old facility. Despite their demanding schedules, the astronauts also made time for recreation. They held a dance party last month and regularly demonstrated cooking techniques while wearing aprons and chefs' hats. Meir shared a video tutorial for women with curly hair in space, drawing on her own experience. Hathaway, meanwhile, carefully maintained his thick moustache, an unusual sight among astronauts. The naval aviator-style moustache was grown before his launch to reflect his connection to the US Navy. He said maintaining it in weightlessness was no more difficult than doing so on Earth. Some ground controllers also grew moustaches in support. Asked in August whether he would shave it after returning home, Hathaway said the moustache had become part of his identity in space and he might keep it for a while. Seven astronauts remain aboard the ISS, representing the United States, Russia and Canada. According to NASA, the station has hosted 298 visitors from 26 countries since it first opened to crews in 2000. SpaceX is preparing for another supply mission to the station next week. The company, founded by Elon Musk, plans to deliver more than 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilogrammes) of cargo, including the final set of a series of solar panel additions, a toilet pump, a spacesuit for spacewalks, fresh fruit and other supplies.

Experienced strawberry farmer Rod Koda is harvesting fruit from his California fields well beyond the usual growing season, thanks to a promising technique that uses steam to improve soil health. Koda said plots treated with steam before planting produced nearly twice as many organic strawberries this year as other fields on his farm. The green fields near the Pacific Coast are part of a project exploring alternatives to chemical fumigants used to control soil-borne diseases and weeds. “It's a very noticeable difference,” Koda said. Steam has been used in greenhouses for decades, but California researchers are working to adapt the technology for open fields where strawberries, one of the state's major crops, are grown. The effort aims to help organic farmers increase production while reducing the use of chemicals that environmental groups say can threaten the health of farmworkers and people living near agricultural fields. Rick Tomlinson, president of the California Strawberry Commission, said researchers have been studying steam treatment for more than a decade. They are now working to make the process faster and more practical for large farms. The industry is also exploring other alternatives to chemical fumigants, including removing oxygen from the soil to control diseases and developing strawberry varieties with greater resistance to them, he said. “Fundamentally, there's this disease in the soil and if you don't have some solution, you're just rolling the dice and one of the years you're going to end up bankrupt,” Tomlinson said, warning that soil-borne diseases can destroy an entire field. California produces about nine out of every 10 strawberries grown in the United States. The crop covers around 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares) in the state and ranked among its top 10 agricultural commodities in 2025. Farmers have traditionally relied on chemical fumigants because strawberries grow close to the ground and their soft flesh makes them vulnerable to diseases. Jenny Broome, a University of California, Santa Cruz researcher involved in the project, said machines can inject steam into the soil before planting to kill harmful organisms and weeds, potentially improving crop yields. Four California growers took part in trials last autumn, Broome said. On Koda's farm, steam-treated fields produced more strawberries and experienced less damage from fusarium wilt, a fungal disease. The technique could also be useful for growing lettuce, carrots and other high-yield crops, she said. However, making the process affordable remains a challenge. Researchers are working to improve the machines so they can treat larger areas of farmland in less time. “We're going back to the future, where we're looking back at an older technology but we're finding more ways to engineer more efficiently and use it,” Broome said. David Andrews, chief science officer at the Environmental Working Group, welcomed efforts to find alternatives to traditional soil fumigants. He said farmworkers and their families have faced exposure to the chemicals, while technological improvements and growing health concerns have increased interest in other methods. “The economics are shifting,” Andrews said.

Four astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday after spending eight months in orbit on a mission that included replacing an astronaut who had fallen ill. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles aboard a SpaceX spacecraft. The astronauts left the space station on Wednesday after their return was delayed by three weeks because their replacements arrived late due to capsule repairs. They had been looking forward to reuniting with their families after the lengthy separation. “We are so excited to be back on Planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station,” Meir said over the radio shortly after splashdown. She earlier said the crew had “a lot of mixed, swirling emotions” and would miss the “extraordinary views of our home planet.” All four astronauts emerged from the capsule within an hour of landing, waving and celebrating aboard SpaceX’s recovery ship before being taken ashore by helicopter and heading to Houston. Meir and the other crew members launched in February to replace four astronauts who were brought home early after NASA astronaut Mike Fincke became ill. It marked NASA’s first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight. During their mission, the astronauts watched the Artemis II crew fly around the Moon and celebrated the United States’ 250th birthday aboard the space station. Meir also joined the Boston Pops Orchestra for a Fourth of July concert by playing her piccolo from orbit. Meir completed four spacewalks, while Adenot went outside the station three times to conduct maintenance and upgrades to the 28-year-old orbital outpost. The crew also found time for recreation, holding a dance party last month and regularly demonstrating cooking in space. Meir, who has curly hair, made a video showing how to care for curly hair in space. Hathaway, meanwhile, became known for his bushy mustache, which he grew before the mission to honour his Navy background. Several ground controllers also grew mustaches in solidarity. Seven astronauts remain aboard the ISS, representing the United States, Russia and Canada. NASA says the space station has hosted 298 visitors from 26 countries since it began operations in 2000.