Category: 7. Science

But is such a concentration of species within a few exceptionally large groups a universal phenomenon of life on Earth? This question, important for our understanding of evolution and ecology, has long been the subject of controversy among biologists. But until recently, it was difficult to answer due to our poor knowledge of the number of species in existence, their evolutionary relationships, and the age of each group. But now, scientists in the US finally have provided an answer, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

“Here we show for the first time that most living species do indeed belong to a limited number of rapid radiations: that is, they form groups with many species which evolved in a relatively short period of time,” said Dr John J. Wiens, a professor at the University of Arizona.

“Specifically, if we look among the kingdoms of life, among animal phyla, and among plant phyla, we find in each case that more than 80% of known species belong to the minority of groups with exceptionally high rates of species diversification.”

Wiens and his coauthor Dr Daniel Moen, an assistant professor at the University of California Riverside, here analyzed the distribution of species richness and diversification rates across ‘clades’ – groups of species that each evolved from a single ancestor, such as phyla, classes, or families.

Out on a limb

They did this for land plants, insects, vertebrates, for all animals, and for all species across life. They analyzed data on each clade’s species richness, age, and estimated diversification rate: that is, the accumulation of new species over time.

They focused on 10 phyla, 140 orders, and 678 families of land plants, jointly spanning more than 300,000 species; 31 orders and 870 families of insects, encompassing more than one million known species; 12 classes of vertebrates, encompassing more than 66,000 species; and 28 phyla and 1,710 families of animals with more than 1.5 million species. Finally, they analyzed 17 kingdoms and 2,545 families across all of life, including more than 2 million species.

The results were clear and consistent: irrespective of hierarchical level or group of organisms, the majority of extant species proved to be restricted to a few disproportionately large clades with higher-than-average diversification rates.

‘Rapid radiations’ of species are thought to occur when a new ecological niche opens up: for example, when a flock of grassquit birds dispersed from Central America to the virgin territory of the Galápagos Islands approximately 2.5 million years ago to diversify into the famous Darwin’s finches; or when an evolutionary innovation like powered flight prompted the radiation of bats 50 million years ago.

Seeing the forest for the trees

“Our results imply that most of life’s diversity is explained by such relatively rapid radiations. We also suggest key traits that might explain these rapid radiations, based on our results and results of earlier studies,” said Wiens.

“These traits include multicellularity in plants, animals, and fungi across the kingdoms of life; the invasion of land and the adoption of a plant-based diet in arthropods among animal phyla; and the emergence of flowers and insect pollination in flowering plants among plant phyla,” said Wiens.

However, one ‘known unknown’ remains: the distribution of species within the kingdom bacteria. Approximately 10,000 species of bacteria are known to science, but current estimates for the true number range from millions to trillions. However, the origin of bacteria dates back to 3.5 billion years ago, and so the overall diversification rate among them is actually quite low.

“If actual bacterial richness really is much higher than described richness for other groups, then a clade with low diversification rates [namely bacteria] would contain the majority of species across life – this would be in stark contrast to our results. Therefore, we caution that our results apply primarily to known species diversity,” wrote the authors.

Long-term studies help scientists understand how species and ecosystems change, adapt, or struggle. With today’s fast-paced global shifts and growing environmental threats, this kind of monitoring is more important than ever. Antarctica is changing fast, and that’s a big deal for the plants and animals specially built to survive its extreme conditions. Keeping a close eye on these changes helps researchers protect what’s most vulnerable.

A new study from University of Wollongong researchers urges a significant boost in long-term monitoring to protect Antarctica’s fragile ecosystems. As climate change reshapes the continent, consistent research helps scientists and policymakers respond with innovative strategies and strong protections.

From mosses to microbes, Antarctica’s lesser-known life forms play vital roles in its ecosystem. Their survival affects not just the icy south, but ecosystems around the world.

The study warns that without large-scale monitoring, we risk losing biodiversity that’s deeply connected to life on other continents. Protecting Antarctica means protecting a piece of Earth’s ecological puzzle.

Scientists reviewed nearly 140 long-term studies on Antarctic life. While over half lasted a decade or more, most focused on penguins and marine mammals. The tiny but mighty organisms, like mosses and lichens, got far less attention.

Most studies have been conducted in the more accessible West Antarctic Peninsula. Remote East Antarctica? Barely explored.

Study lead author Dr Melinda Waterman said, “Antarctica’s biodiversity is still largely a mystery. From emperor penguins to freeze-tolerant plants and tiny animals to microbes that live on air, how are they responding to growing threats?”

“Many of the species thriving beneath the ice shelves and across the harsh tundra are so little studied that we’re only beginning to understand their roles. Long-term monitoring is our window into this hidden world, showing how subtle changes can ripple through entire ecosystems.”

Distinguished Professor Sharon Robinson AM, who has spent more than 30 years studying Antarctic plants, said tiny organisms support the continent’s entire food web. “Every moss patch, microscopic worm, and deep-sea coral is part of a fragile balance. If we lose them, the consequences could be global. Sustained research gives policymakers the evidence needed to act on climate change and help Antarctica’s wildlife endure.”

Journal Reference:

1. Shae Jones, Diana King, Vonda Cummings, Sharon Robinson, and Melinda Waterman. Research bias in long-term monitoring of Antarctic nearshore marine and terrestrial biota. Global Change Biology: DOI: 10.1111/gcb.70392

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has unveiled stunning pictures of “Hand of God” stretching across 150 light-years of space that is created by one of the galaxy’s most powerful electromagnetic generators.

The combined data came from Australia’s telescope array and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, demonstrating the impressive look at the pulsar B1509-58, nicknamed cosmic hand, and nebulae it generates and surrounds.

The “cosmic hand” measures almost 900 trillion miles across space which is 75 times the size of the solar system.

The stunning cosmic display also hosts a neutron star just 12 miles across and spins nearly 7 times per second.

A pulsar is a dense neutron star. It forms as the result of the explosion of a massive star in a supernova. Nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space.

The magnetic field of pulsar is much stronger than Earth and estimated at 15 trillion times powerful enough to divert the stream of charged particles outward and turn them into hand-like structures known as MSH 15-52.

This is not the first-of-its-kind picture of a cosmic hand. NASA first captured the image in 2009.

But the new image reveals new and distinguished features.

NASA shed light on RCW 89 which is also the collapsed core of supernova.

In the snap, RCW 89 looks patchy with X-ray, radio and optical emissions interwoven with each other.

Shumeng Zhang from the University of Hong Kong said, “This object continues to surprise us. By combining different types of light, we’re uncovering new details about how pulsars and supernova remnants interact.”

Bees are the quiet workers behind much of the world’s food. Their role in pollination underpins ecosystems and agriculture alike. Yet honeybee populations are shrinking due to climate stress, pesticides, diseases, and loss of floral diversity. This crisis now threatens global food security.

A new international study led by the University of Oxford introduces an innovative food supplement for honeybees. Using engineered yeast, the researchers recreated essential sterols usually found in pollen, creating a diet that supports healthier, more resilient colonies.

Why sterols matter

Honeybees cannot make sterols on their own. Unlike most insects that convert dietary sterols into cholesterol, bees must directly consume them. These molecules are critical for cell membranes and hormones. Without them, colonies fail to reproduce and collapse.

Normally, bees obtain sterols from pollen stored as bee bread. Nurse bees digest this pollen, transfer sterols into their glands, and then feed larvae through glandular secretions.

Despite the diversity of sterols in pollen, only six dominate in bee tissues: 24-methylenecholesterol, campesterol, isofucosterol, β-sitosterol, cholesterol, and desmosterol.

Yeast-based bee diet

To replace these rare compounds, scientists turned to Yarrowia lipolytica, a yeast already considered safe in aquaculture. Using CRISPR-Cas9 editing, they reprogrammed its metabolic pathways to produce the precise sterols bees require.

This involved deleting certain genes and introducing others from plants, algae, and even bacteria. Over several steps, the yeast was redesigned to yield a mixture of all six sterols.

The yeast biomass was then dried into powder and added to artificial diets. This made it possible to deliver complete nutrition without harvesting natural pollen at unsustainable scales.

Feeding trials in glasshouses

Colonies were placed in controlled glasshouses and fed only these diets for three months. The results were clear: bees given the sterol-rich yeast raised up to 15 times more larvae than those on standard substitutes.

These colonies also kept brood production going long after sterol-deficient colonies had stopped.

Interestingly, when researchers measured sterols in the larvae, they matched those found in naturally foraging colonies. This showed that bees selectively transfer only the most vital sterols to their young.

Yeast diets help bees outdoors

Additional semi-field trials reinforced the results. Colonies fed the mixed-sterol yeast diet maintained strong brood production into late summer, while control groups dwindled.

Even when a heatwave reduced bee numbers across all groups, supplemented colonies recovered more quickly once nurse bees were added back.

Sterols from the engineered yeast accumulated in nurse bees but were selectively passed to the brood, confirming a fine-tuned biological mechanism.

The sterol surrogate produced during yeast engineering, tetrahymanol, was consumed but never appeared in larvae, suggesting bees filter out unnecessary molecules.

Competition for limited pollen

Honeybees pollinate more than 70% of leading crops, including almonds, apples, and cherries. Yet losses in U.S. colonies have reached nearly half per year, with forecasts predicting even higher numbers.

For honeybees, poor nutrition amplifies the damage caused by mites, viruses, and pesticides.

“Honey bees are critically important pollinators for the production of crops such as almonds, apples, and cherries and so are present in some crop locations in very large numbers, which can put pressure on limited wildflowers,” said study co-author Professor Phil Stevenson.

“Our engineered supplement could therefore benefit wild bee species by reducing competition for limited pollen supplies.”

Bee diets and food security

“We rely on honey bees to pollinate one in three bites of our food, yet bees face many stressors,” said Danielle Downey of Project Apis m., who was not involved in the study.

“Good nutrition is one way to improve their resilience to these threats, and in landscapes with dwindling natural forage for bees, a more complete diet supplement could be a game changer.”

The yeast biomass also offers proteins, fats, and vitamins. The researchers suggest it could be further engineered to add antioxidants, carotenoids, or beneficial fatty acids, creating a truly holistic feed for pollinators.

Future of bees and yeast nutrition

While the results are promising, large-scale field studies are still needed. These will test how colonies perform in open environments and measure long-term pollination effects. If successful, farmers could see this supplement within two years.

Beyond honeybees, this approach could extend to other pollinators or even farmed insects, strengthening the foundation of sustainable agriculture worldwide.

What began as a molecular tweak in yeast could reshape the survival prospects of pollinators and, in turn, our global food future.

The research was in collaboration with Kew Gardens, the University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

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Asteroids are organized by researchers into categories based on similar characteristics, and a recent paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, led by IPAC scientist Joe Masiero, shares evidence that two distinct types of asteroids may have actually shared the same harsh past.

“Asteroids offer us the chance to look at what was going on in the early solar system like a freeze frame of the conditions that existed when the first solid objects formed,” said Masiero.

Using data from Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, Masiero’s research focuses on two categories of asteroids, one that is metal-rich and another made of a mix of silicates and other materials. While they have completely different compositions, the two share a unique dusty layer of a material made of both iron and sulfur, called troilite.

“Troilite is very uncommon, so we can use it as a fingerprint that links these two different types of objects to each other,” said Masiero.

It’s just a phase

Asteroids are separated into different classes based on the spectrum of light reflected off of their surface, denoted by letters such as M, K, C, and more. The spectra can show the presence of carbon, silicates, or metals in the regolith, or surface dirt, of the asteroid.

In this study, Masiero looked at M- and K-type asteroids. M-types are metal-rich, while K-types are composed of silicates and other materials and thought to be linked to an ancient giant collision between asteroids. About 95 percent of Earth’s crust and mantle are made up of silicates.

But the same materials on asteroids can appear differently depending on the shape of the asteroid, the size of the regolith (dust, pebbles, boulders), and the phase angle of the asteroid relative to the Sun.

Asteroids in our solar system are constantly moving: orbiting the Sun and rotating on their own axis, and because of this, just like how the Moon has phases, asteroids do too. The phase angle is the angle between the Sun, asteroid, and the Earth.

“While spectra indicate that there are different minerals on the surface of these objects, we’re trying to figure out how different these bodies truly are,” said Masiero. “We want to wind the clock back to when these formed and what conditions they formed under in the early solar system.”

Same asteroids; new techniques

Masiero turned to polarization, particularly in the near-infrared, as a method for studying asteroids. By measuring the polarization of the reflected light on the M- and K-type asteroids he was studying, Masiero shows that the two previously discrete asteroid spectral classes may actually be linked through their surface composition.

Polarization describes the direction of the waves that make up light, similar to how brightness is a measurement of how many photons there are, or how color is a measurement of the wavelength. Different surface minerals have different polarization responses when they reflect light, the same way they can have different colors.

Changes in an asteroid’s phase angle can significantly affect polarization, and this response is a result of the variety of materials on the surface. Masiero used the way the degree of polarization changes with phase angle to investigate the makeup of the asteroids’ surfaces. This technique can probe the composition even when the minerals don’t show any color or spectral response.

“Polarization gives us insight into the minerals in the asteroids that we can’t get from just how well the asteroid reflects sunlight, or what the reflected light’s spectrum looks like,” said Masiero. “Polarization gives you a third axis to ask questions about the surface mineralogy that’s independent of brightness or spectral information.”

Masiero used the WIRC+Pol instrument at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in the mountains above San Diego, California.

“Palomar is such a fabulous facility. It’s great to interact with the observing team there; the telescope operators and the support astronomers really are helpful in making sure you can get the best data possible,” said Masiero. “For the infrared polarization data I needed, there is no other instrument that can get nearly as deep. This is an asset unique to Palomar.”

When the dust settles

After the polarization studies, Masiero concludes that both M- and K-type asteroids share the same dusty surface of troilite, an iron sulfide material.

Masiero argues that the evidence of troilite is a sign that these two types of asteroids actually came from similar types of original larger objects that later broke apart to create the asteroids we see today.

The different overall compositions of the asteroids can be linked to the different layers within the large original objects. Like how Earth has a core, mantle, and crust made of different materials, these types of asteroids could originate from the different layers.

The troilite dust may have been abundant on an original object before breaking up, or it could have been a cloud of dust that covered everything after it broke up, but its roots are still unknown.

“You can’t go and rip the Earth open to see what is inside, but you can look at asteroids — the leftover bits and pieces, the unused components from solar system formation — and use them to see how our planets were built,” said Masiero.

IPAC at Caltech is a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary sciences. Palomar Observatory is owned and operated by Caltech, and administered by Caltech Optical Observatories.

The Boeing-built X 37B Orbital Test Vehicle launched yesterday on its eighth mission, lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center.

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Press Release, Kennedy Space Center, 22 August 2025: The Boeing-built X 37B Orbital Test Vehicle launched yesterday on its eighth mission, lifting off at 11:50 p.m. ET aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The vehicle is healthy on orbit and proceeding with standard checkout.

Less than six months after completing its seventh mission with a landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on March 7, 2025, the spaceplane is back in space. This mission includes a Boeing integrated service module to increase payload capacity for experimentation activities on orbit.

“Our role is to make sure the spaceplane is the most reliable testbed it can be,” said Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing Space Mission Systems. “None of this happens without teamwork. Launch is the starting line for this mission, but the work that follows –the quiet, methodical work on orbit, analysis and eventual return is where progress is earned.”

The X-37B is hosting several technology demonstrations from government partners on this mission, include laser communications and a quantum inertial sensor designed to support navigation when GPS is unavailable. On its previous mission, the vehicle executed a first of its kind aerobraking manoeuvre to change orbits while conserving propellant.

“Having a returnable space platform allows us to learn faster,” said Col. Brian Chatman, installation commander for Space Launch Delta 45. “The data we gather from the X-37B speeds decisions, hardens our architectures, and helps Guardians stay connected and on course even in contested environments. This is how we move from promising ideas to fieldable capability at pace.”

The X 37B is a government–industry partnership led by the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, with the US Space Force overseeing operations. Boeing teams primarily based in Seal Beach, Calif., and Kennedy Space Center, Fla., design, build, integrate and operate the reusable spaceplane. Since first flight in 2010, the orbital test vehicle has completed seven missions and accumulated more than 4,200 days in space, returning after each flight for inspection and augmentation.

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“Solitons” are waves that refuse to spread out or slow down, a stubborn breed that keeps its shape as it travels. In 1834, a Scottish engineer named John Scott Russell chased one along the Union Canal and recorded it in detail.

A new study reports a version of that wave that pulses as it goes and yet survives in systems where energy normally leaks away. 

Lead author Jonas Veenstra and his colleagues at the University of Amsterdam’s Institute of Physics (IOP) carried out the experiments with collaborators in London and Marseille. 

Solitons vanish in real materials

After Russell’s sighting, mathematicians wrote down an equation in 1895 that explains these solitary waves in shallow water.

Their equation, the KdV equation, became a template for understanding stable wave packets across physics.

The world is rarely lossless, though. Friction and drag steal energy, so even a classic soliton eventually smears out in real materials.

What makes this result different

The Amsterdam team built a tabletop metamaterial that breaks symmetry on purpose.

Key ingredient is nonreciprocity, where element A nudges element B differently than B nudges A, a behavior that can produce the non-Hermitian skin effect and strong one-way amplification in active media.

The authors introduce and stabilize a special pulsing wave called a breather that keeps moving without fading, even when the system is losing energy. 

“Breathing solitons consist of a fast beating wave within a compact envelope of stable shape and velocity,” wrote Veenstra and colleagues.

In their summary, the team noted that the asymmetry was crucial, and this insight shaped both the experimental design and the theoretical framework.

Creating stable pulsing waves

The lab setup is a chain of 50 active oscillators connected with flexible bands and powered by tiny motors, so each unit can push and sense its neighbors.

By programming an asymmetric coupling, the researchers made waves that prefer one direction and keep a tidy envelope as they travel.

In that regime the breather’s carrier oscillation sits near 5 Hz, while the envelope marches along at about 8 units per second in the experiment’s scaled coordinates.

Those numbers come straight from the team’s measurements and appear alongside the models the authors tested against the data.

The nonreciprocal link is implemented with embedded sensors, microcontrollers, and motors that inject a controlled torque bias between neighbors.

That active feedback breaks Newton’s third law at the material level and sets the stage for one-way transport.

Dynamics of breathing solitons

To explain the dynamics, the team connected their mechanical chain to two workhorse equations in nonlinear physics.

The sine-Gordon equation and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation capture how a compact envelope can host a rapid internal oscillation that beats as it moves.

Nonreciprocity and damping would normally spoil that structure. Here they create a delicate balance controlled by a mathematical fixed point and a nearby bifurcation, which together govern when a breather decays, explodes, or persists for a long time.

Discrete materials help solitons

In a continuous medium the long-lived state appears only in a tight range of parameters, so getting it is a precision act. The experiment shows that discreteness in the chain actually helps, widening the island where breathers last.

That practical twist matters if you want devices to work outside a perfect lab. Real materials are made of parts, and that granularity can stabilize waves that theory says should be fragile.

Breathers are not just eye-candy. They can shuttle information or energy while resisting loss, which is one reason optical researchers have studied breathing dissipative solitons in microresonators used for frequency combs and sensing.

A mechanical platform adds new options. Think of distributed sensors, robust signal paths in soft robots, or energy-harvesting architectures that selectively route motion where you want it.

How it fits with recent progress

This result builds on earlier work showing that nonreciprocal driving can push solitons and antisolitons in the same direction, unlocking unidirectional transport in active lattices. That mechanism was demonstrated by members of the same community in 2024.

Nonreciprocity is also tied to fresh ideas in non-Hermitian physics that reframe how waves respond to boundaries and defects. Those ideas are now appearing across optics, acoustics, and mechanics.

Russell’s canal wave was a landmark observation, but it lived in a clean natural channel and still faded with distance. Modern experiments push these waves into driven, noisy environments where old assumptions break.

Korteweg and de Vries gave physics an enduring equation, and that heritage still shows up in today’s models and simulations.

Yet the new work gives those equations a fresh twist by adding asymmetric interactions and active feedback.

Why the claims hold up

The paper pairs millimeter-scale hardware with simulations and perturbation theory, so the team can check the same behaviors in three ways.

They report that a careful balance between energy injection, dissipation, and initial conditions pins the system near the right fixed point.

Crucially, the paper notes that discreteness stabilizes breathers over a broader range of conditions than the continuum predicts.

That insight is already steering the next experiments toward two-dimensional surfaces of nonreciprocal oscillators.

The study is published in Physical Review X.

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The latest astronomical studies show that 2032 is going to be a miraculous year for the Moon and Meteor science. For the first time in recorded human history, we might get a direct meteor shower on Earth from our very own Moon.

Usually, meteor showers on Earth are caused by dust particles or small chunks of rocks ejected from comets orbiting the sun. This time it is going to be a totally different story. There is a chance that an asteroid may collide with our Moon and this would create some particles from the Moon to reach the Earth. Those lunar particles (or lunar ejecta) will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere due to friction and create bright streaks of light and shooting stars in our sky.

This will likely make 2032 a very special year for our Earth, Moon and Meteor Science. The asteroid 2024 YR4 has been a cause of constant worry for astronomers.

At first, orbital simulations showed that this asteroid has a small chance of hitting the Earth. Luckily, the latest observations show that it will miss our Earth for sure, but has about a 4 per cent chance of hitting our Moon.

When this object was first discovered at the end of December 2024, it looked as if it might hit Earth on December 22, 2032. It is the riskiest asteroid ever observed so far.

With more precise observations and detailed orbital simulations, astronomers were able to rule out this asteroid-Earth impact for the time being.

Present studies clearly show there is a likely impact possible for the Moon, although this asteroid will miss the Earth. If it hits the Moon in 2032, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for the whole of humanity to witness.

It is not going to destroy our Moon entirely. It will create some extra craters on multiple sites of the lunar surface.

This asteroid is about 60 metres in diameter as per the latest observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest space telescope in history.

It is a city-killer asteroid if it hits the Earth. Hundreds of Hiroshima bomb blast energy is expected. Luckily, we do not have to worry about that for the time being.

Space rocks that are larger than 10km can be potential planet-killers. Outer space objects that are 1km or above can destroy a whole civilisation. For example, the dinosaur extinction, which occurred 66 million years ago, was caused by an asteroid approximately 10km in size.

Astronomers have a reasonably good database of all such asteroids. They are constantly tracked. We are reasonably safe from such massive threats in the near future.

This asteroidal collision with the Moon will create a bright flash on the Moon, which will be visible for many seconds to the naked human eye in 2032.

This asteroid-lunar collision would create an impact crater of 1 km in diameter on the Moon. Roughly the same size as Barringer Meteor Crater in the Arizona desert in the USA.

This will be the largest impact on the Moon in the last 5,000 years. This impact would release 100 million kg of lunar rocks and dust to space.

A small fraction of that dust will reach our Earth as well. That is how these lunar meteors will happen on Earth for the first time in our modern human history. This study has been led by meteor and orbital dynamics expert Prof Paul Wiegert at University of Western Ontario, Canada. The results have been accepted and published by the American Astronomical Society journals.

The lunar ejecta could reach Earth in a few days, and every shooting star you see at that time could be pure moon stuff. It will be a lunar meteor storm for the first time in our lifetime.

Spacecraft, satellites and astronauts in orbits need to be extra careful at this time due to such lunar ejecta. Space agencies worldwide will aim to avoid lunar missions and rover activities during the time span of these impacts.

Soft landing on the Moon by our ISRO Chandrayaan Mission propelled our country into the elite super space power league. Hence, the Moon has always had a special place in our hearts.

There will be some beautiful shooting stars from our very own Moon in 2032. In a way, Earthlings need to be thankful to the Moon for taking this impact on our behalf. Otherwise, it would have been a deadly game for many humans on our Earth.

On this National Space Day, commemorating our successful Chandrayaan landing, it is a good thing to know that sometimes our Moon comes to our rescue when killer asteroids come close to us!

(Prof Aswin Sekhar is an Indian astrophysicist and a member of the leadership committee of International Astronomical Union Commission in Meteor Science)

Stargazers are excited as a rare planet parade is expected to happen this weekend bringing some of the main characters of our solar system together in a dazzling line-up that won’t happen again until October 2028.

Astronomers are thrilled to watch this unusual happening as they won’t get a chance to explore this rare event till next three years.

A planet – parade also labeled as “Planetary alignment” by NASA, will most probably happen this weekend.

According to NASA, this stellar line-up will feature six planets including Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

While orbiting the sun the planets in our solar system have occasional meet cues. These planetary alignments are referred to as “oppositions” and “conjunctions”.

Moreover, other alignments occur when planets like, the moon or starts appear to line up in the sky from Earth’s perspective, as per NASA.

Embellishing the night sky since this past weekend, sky watchers are presented with one final opportunity this Saturday, August 23, 2025 to marvel at the planet parade.

Which planets will be visible during the planet parade?

In the weekend’s cosmos show Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are ready for the breath taking celestial event.

Of those, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye, while the others will require high-powered binoculars or, preferably, a telescope.

Even though they’re spread out across the eastern and southern skies, the planets pair up with this one, making many of them pretty easy to find if you know what to look for. From east to west, here’s where each one will be.

Mercury – Eastern sky near the Cancer constellation. It’ll pop over the horizon just before sunrise, so you’ll have limited time to view it before the sun comes up and obfuscates it.

Venus – At the lower tip of the Gemini constellation in the eastern sky, a couple of hours before sunrise.

Jupiter – Will be near Venus, also in the Gemini constellation. It rises about an hour before Venus does.

Uranus – Will be near the upper tip of Taurus, rising after midnight. This one will require some magnification. If you see Pleiades, a cluster of stars at the upper tip of Taurus, you’ve gone too far upward.

Saturn and Neptune – These two are right next to each other and will be sitting between the Pisces and Cetus constellations in the southern skies. Neptune will be closer to Pisces while Saturn will be closer to Cetus.

The finale is especially dazzling, but not as easy to see! A thin crescent moon will sit alongside Mercury, while a stunning cluster of stars glimmers between the two.

When will the planets be visible?

Early stargazers will be treated to a sweet sight on weekend most likely on Saturday, August 23, 2025, or Sunday night as a sleek wanning crescent moon will glow right above mercury in the low eastern sky, about an hour before sunrise.

Still, the magic doesn’t end there! As the planet parade steals the show, a seasonal “black moon”, when there’s a rare third new moon in a season of four — will clear the night sky, gracing stargazers in the northern hemisphere with one of the best views of the Milky Way.

How to watch the planet parade?

Hoping to catch a glimpse of the planet parade? You’ll need a pair of binoculars and telescope for a clear view of the eastern horizon.

According to Andrew Fazekas astronomy columnist radio, the planet will resemble bright points of lights.

“To the naked eye, you’re not going to see anything spectacular,” he said, advising that it’s a “wonderful observing challenge,” attempting to spot so many planets at once.

If you’re looking to capture all the planets at once, Fazekas notes that there will be “a very short window of time” to do so.

When is the next planet parade?

According to NASA, the next planet parade won’t occur till next three years and is expected again in October 2028.

Scientists have developed an innovative “superfood” to combat the decline of honeybees against the threats of environmental degradation.

Honeybees are a pivotal part of food production and contribute to pollinating 70% of the world’s leading crops.

Senior Professor Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford has told BBC News regarding this revolutionary discovery, stating, “This technological breakthrough provides all the nutrients bees need to survive, meaning we can continue to feed them even when there’s not enough pollen.”

Honeybees have been repudiating due to various factors including natural deficiencies and climate factors.

It has been observed that in the US, annual encampments losses have ranged between 40-50% in the last decade, and are expected to increase in the coming time.

The original source of food for honeybees are pollen and nectar from flowers which contain certain nutrients including lipids called sterols.

Sterols are crucial for their development, and this diet is pivotal for the bee’s survival and the health of the entire colony.

Honey farmers use supplementary food made from protein, flour and sugar to feed their bees when not enough pollen is available, specifically when they are accumulating money for sale.

It lacked the nutrients which honeybees required for their growth.

For that purpose, a group of scientists have been making efforts to identify which exactly sterols bees need for 15 years.

The series of experiments for months have proved successful to make a yeast that can produce the six sterols that bees need.

Geraldine Wright shed light on this successful innovation stating, “It’s a huge breakthrough. When my student was able to engineer the yeast to create the sterols, she sent me a picture of the chromatogram that was a result of the work.”

The “superfood” was fed to bees in the lab’s hives for a continued period of three months.

Nonetheless, new technology could be used to develop dietary supplements for other pollinators as well and subsequently opening new avenues for sustainable growth.

Whilst these results are promising, more field trials are needed to assess long-term implications on colony health. 

Wright says that food will be specifically used during summers like this one when flowering plants appear to have stopped producing earlier.