United News of Bangladesh

Astronomers have found possible chemical signs of life on a distant planet outside our solar system, though they caution more work is needed to confirm their findings. The research, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, detected evidence of compounds in the exoplanet's atmosphere that on Earth are only produced by living organisms and contended it's the strongest potential signal yet of life. Independent scientists described the findings as interesting, but not nearly enough to show the existence of life on another planet. “It is the strongest sign to date of any possibility of biological activity outside the solar system," Cambridge astrophysicist Nikku Madhusudhan said during a livestream on Thursday. By analyzing data from NASA and the European Space Agency's Webb Space Telescope, the researchers found evidence of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of the planet known as K2-18b. The planet is 124 light-years away; one light-year is equivalent to nearly 6 trillion miles. On Earth, those two compounds are produced primarily by microbial life, such as marine phytoplankton. Telescope finds promising hints of life on distant planet The planet is more than double Earth’s size and more than 8 times more massive. It's in the so-called habitable zone of its star. The study appeared in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. Madhusudhan stressed that further research is needed to rule out any errors or the possibility of other processes, besides living organisms, that could produce the compounds. David Clements, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London, said atmospheres on other planets are complex and difficult to understand, especially with the limited information available from a planet so far away. “This is really interesting stuff and, while it does not yet represent a clear detection of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, it is a step in the right direction,” he said in comments released by the Science Media Center in London. More than 5,500 planets orbiting other stars have been confirmed so far. Thousands more are in the running out of the billions out there in our Milky Way galaxy alone. Launched in 2021, Webb is the biggest and most powerful observatory ever sent into space.

A new Tatooine-like planet outside the solar system may orbit two failed stars, scientists reported Wednesday. Located about 120 light years away, the exoplanet appears to take an unusual path around two brown dwarfs, whipping around at a right angle. Brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars because they’re lighter than stars, but heavier than gas giant planets. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles. The brown dwarf pair was first spotted years ago. Scientists noticed that the twins eclipse each other so one is always partly blocked when seen from Earth. In a new analysis, researchers found that the brown dwarfs' motion was changing — a quirk that's less likely to happen if they circled each other on their own. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. Chinese doctors implant world's smallest artificial heart in 7-year-old boy Scientists know of over a dozen planets that orbit two stars like the fictional “Star Wars” scorching desert planet Tatooine with double sunsets that Luke Skywalker calls home. The new planet’s odd orbit sets it apart. But it hasn't been directly spied, and scientists say more research is needed to be sure it's out there and figure out its mass and orbit. “I wouldn't bet my life that the planet exists yet,” said Simon Albrecht, an astrophysicist with Aarhus University who had no role in the new study. Probing these wacky celestial bodies can help us understand how conditions beyond our solar system may yield planets vastly different from our own, said study author Thomas Baycroft with the University of Birmingham. Planets circling twin stars "existed in sci-fi for decades before we knew that they could even really exist in reality,” he said.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has provided the first close-ups of Jupiter’s largest moon in two decades. Juno zoomed past icy Ganymede on Monday, passing within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers). The last time a spacecraft came that close was in 2000 when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft swept past our solar system’s biggest moon. Read:NASA picks Venus as hot spot for two new robotic missions NASA released Juno’s first two pictures Tuesday, highlighting Ganymede’s craters and long, narrow features possibly related to tectonic faults. One shows the moon’s far side, opposite the sun. “This is the closest any spacecraft has come to this mammoth moon in a generation,” said Juno’s lead scientist, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “We are going to take our time before we draw any scientific conclusions, but until then we can simply marvel at this celestial wonder – the only moon in our solar system bigger than the planet Mercury.” Read:Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station Ganymede is one of 79 known moons around Jupiter, a gas giant. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered Ganymede in 1610, along with Jupiter’s three next-biggest moons. Launched a decade ago, Juno has been orbiting Jupiter for five years.

NASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbor, after decades of exploring other worlds. The space agency’s new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system’s hottest planet, during his first major address to employees Wednesday. Read:Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station “These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface,” Nelson said. One mission named DaVinci Plus will analyze the thick, cloudy Venusian atmosphere in an attempt to determine whether the inferno planet ever had an ocean and was possibly habitable. A small craft will plunge through the atmosphere to measure the gases. It will be the first U.S.-led mission to the Venusian atmosphere since 1978. The other mission, called Veritas, will seek a geologic history by mapping the rocky planet’s surface. Read:Forecast: 40% chance Earth to be hotter than Paris goal soon “It is astounding how little we know about Venus,” but the new missions will give fresh views of the planet’s atmosphere, made up mostly of carbon dioxide, down to the core, NASA scientist Tom Wagner said in a statement. “It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.” NASA’s top science official, Thomas Zurbuchen, calls it “a new decade of Venus.” Each mission — launching sometime around 2028 to 2030 — will receive $500 million for development under NASA’s Discovery program. The missions beat out two other proposed projects, to Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s icy moon Triton. The U.S. and the former Soviet Union sent multiple spacecraft to Venus in the early days of space exploration. NASA’s Mariner 2 performed the first successful flyby in 1962, and the Soviets’ Venera 7 made the first successful landing in 1970. Read: Cosmic 2-for-1: Total lunar eclipse combines with supermoon In 1989, NASA used a space shuttle to send its Magellan spacecraft into orbit around Venus. The European Space Agency put a spacecraft around Venus in 2006.

Partners of Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL)want  to install solar system at all the hospitals including 18,000 community clinics, 100,000 solar-powered irrigation pumps and1 million solar street lights in rural areas across the country.