Architect of Solar System: New study reveals how Jupiter constructed our world
A new study now provides first look at Jupiter as it was in the beginning, roughly 3.8 million years after the solar system's first solids formed. Jupiter was significantly larger and had an even more powerful magnetic field.
Jupiter's magnetic field at that time was approximately 50 times stronger. (Photo: Nasa)
"Our ultimate goal is to understand where we come from, and pinning down the early phases of planet formation is essential to solving the puzzle. This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire solar system took shape," Konstantin Batygin, professor of planetary science at Caltech said.advertisementThe new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, focussed on Jupiter's tiny moons Amalthea and Thebe, which orbit even closer to Jupiter than Io, the smallest and nearest of the planet's four large Galilean moons.The team said that because Amalthea and Thebe have slightly tilted orbits, analysed these small orbital discrepancies to calculate Jupiter's original size. It was approximately twice its current radius, with a predicted volume that is the equivalent of over 2,000 Earths.But that's not all, the researchers also determined that Jupiter's magnetic field at that time was approximately 50 times stronger than it is today. "It's astonishing that even after 4.5 billion years, enough clues remain to let us reconstruct Jupiter's physical state at the dawn of its existence," Fred C. Adams, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan added.The team focused on the orbital dynamics of Jupiter's moons and the conservation of the planet's angular momentum—quantities that are directly measurable. Their analysis establishes a clear snapshot of Jupiter at the moment the surrounding solar nebula evaporated.The results add crucial details to existing planet formation theories, which suggest that Jupiter and other giant planets around other stars formed via core accretion, a process by which a rocky and icy core rapidly gathers gas.Must Watch
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Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Baba Vanga's chilling predictions for 2025: Natural disasters, diseases, aliens and more
The world seems to never stop being fascinated by Baba Vanga, the blind mystic from Bulgaria who rose to fame for her spooky and strangely accurate predictions. Known as the 'Nostradamus of the Balkans,' she lost her eyesight as a child after being swept away by a tornado. People believe it was around that time when she started to 'see the future.' Baba Vanga's 2025 predictions are getting viral Though she died back in 1996, Baba Vanga's name keeps popping up, especially now, in 2025, when some of her predictions start to feel oddly relevant again. While many of her prophecies were vague, they still manage to send chills down people's spines when they appear to line up with real events. Baba Vanga's predictions for 2025 Bad news for Asia One of her scariest forecasts was about a massive natural disaster in Asia, possibly an earthquake followed by a tsunami. While she did not give a specific date, it is enough to make people in disaster-prone regions uneasy. Collapse of economy Another bold prediction involved the collapse of major global markets. She said there would be a serious economic meltdown that would lead to mass unemployment and financial instability. With growing fears around inflation and debt, this one does not sound that far-fetched. Let's meet some Aliens Baba Vanga also mentioned contact with extraterrestrials, suggesting humans would encounter life from other planets. Given the recent buzz around UFOs and alien research by NASA and other groups, this idea does not sound as crazy as it once did. No more caste system On the more hopeful side, she predicted an end to social divisions like race and caste. She believed humans would eventually accept each other, regardless of background, appearance or culture. Also Read: Will Baba Vanga's 2025 predictions come true? Experts say panic over prophecies unfounded New diseases but also new cures She also foresaw new diseases spreading across the world. But in the same breath, she spoke of medical breakthroughs, including prosthetic organs and cures for previously untreatable conditions. With rapid advances in bioengineering and anti-ageing research, parts of this could actually be within reach. Europe's dwindling population And then there is her warning about Europe's shrinking population. With birth rates falling across the continent, this prediction too feels uncomfortably close to reality. Some people roll their eyes at Baba Vanga's prophecies, but others cannot help but wonder, was she really onto something? Or is it just another hoax? FAQs: 1. What does Baba Vanga predict for 2025? Baba Vanga's 2025 predictions include a global economic crisis, a rise in new diseases, potential contact with extraterrestrial life, and a decline in Europe's population. She also foresaw advances in medicine, like artificial organs, and even the fall of social systems like caste. 2. What is Baba Vanga's prediction? Baba Vanga, known for her past predictions like 9/11 and Barack Obama's election, is said to have predicted events such as natural disasters in Asia, global financial instability, breakthroughs in medical science, and interactions with alien life in the near future. 3. Did Nostradamus predict anything for 2025? While Nostradamus did not list exact years, some believe his cryptic verses can be interpreted to hint at major events around 2025, including political unrest, natural disasters, and shifts in world power.
The Print
3 hours ago
- The Print
Lift the veil, abandon Soviet-era approach. Indian science community wants ISRO to up its PR game
'A kid growing in India learns about NASA (US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration) before it does ISRO because NASA puts so much effort into taking its work to its citizens and the public, from the smallest of things to the biggest,' 'Gareeb Scientist' said in a post on Tuesday. Since then, at least 11,000 people have viewed it. He is part of a digital war. The aim is to awaken the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from its 55-year-old slumber by demanding better public outreach and engagement by the space agency around its space missions and technology development. New Delhi: A science communicator and space enthusiast on social media under the pseudonym 'Gareeb Scientist' sat determined behind his keyboard Tuesday. As soon as the clock struck one, he hit enter on a flurry of posts on X, with the hashtag, 'ISROfixyourPR'. The Indian science community is currently waging a war against the veil around ISRO-supported operations, fighting with memes, personal anecdotes and a carefully crafted list of its work, which has remained hidden from public discourse. Many Indian social media accounts, which dedicatedly post space updates from ISRO, said the campaign started with the aim to highlight the lack of PR from the space agency. The issue also extended to big-ticket missions, such as the recent partnership between ISRO and US-based Axiom Space to jointly send Indian Air Force group captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS). Experts said that the visibility of ISRO missions had improved over the last decade. However, they added, the burden of information dissemination remained limited to media houses and independent science communicators, who often obtained information outside of official statements. Radha Krishna Kavuluru, a space technology expert and former ISRO scientist, said ISRO, in the coming years, would conduct some inspiring missions that could inspire an entire generation of future space scientists. Kavuluru said that maximum public engagement would ensure that the public had an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of ISRO while they witnessed the indigenous scientific advancements. 'Keeping everything behind walls is a tradition of the Soviets. I am sure we are well past that age. Time to inspire and talk the walk,' Kavuluru told ThePrint. Also Read: ISRO commercial arm invites private players to build LVM3 rocket that delivered Chandrayaan mission Silence around recent missions On 25 June, IAF group captain Shubhanshu Shukla kicked off his journey to the ISS as a member of the US-run Axiom-4 mission. He became the first Indian to set foot on the ISS, and after Rakesh Sharma, the second Indian to travel to space. However, the buzz around the mission was limited to newspaper front pages and TV screens. The official social media pages of ISRO stayed content with reposting updates from the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh. Between the 1 June Axiom-4 launch and its 15 July return to Earth, ISRO made 24 posts on its X account about the Axiom-4 mission, including 19 reposts of posts by the science minister, the Prime Minister's Office, or the Public Information Bureau. The remaining five posts on the ISRO X account informed about the multiple postponements of the launch and the technical faults that SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket experienced. In the same period, NASA, through its various X handles, did a run-up to the launch with at least one post per day, while reposting engagement posts by Axiom Space and SpaceX. The US space agency, in partnership with Axiom Space, organised interaction sessions with the astronauts and released not only individual profile films for each but also infographics for the rocket launch and space capsule travel trajectory, among other actions. More recently, updates on missions, such as the demonstration of the advanced technology behind rendezvous, docking, and undocking of a spacecraft in space—SpaDeX—and the upcoming one-of-a-kind NASA-ISRO SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Mission or NISAR, a joint Earth observation mission, have been few and far in between. On Monday, during the announcement of the NISAR launch date, ISRO's PR was limited to a post on X, as NASA held a formal press conference led by the team that will undertake the mission from the US space agency's end. The team members answered all media questions on all aspects of the mission. However, ISRO was not part of the press conference. Vikranth Jonna, a 22-year-old engineer with Hyderabad-based space tech startup Dhruva Space, listed the 'crazy cool' work ISRO has done for the mission. 'ISRO is currently building methalox engines, quantum communications, human spaceflight, reusable rockets, two landers to the Moon, a mission to Venus and a lander to Mars,' Jonna said. 'Give us more opportunities to appreciate our scientists and engineers. Show us your glory,' he added. ISRO refused to respond to ThePrint's request for a response to the ongoing social media campaign. A senior scientist confirmed to ThePrint that ISRO had 'gotten better' in its PR game but accepted that compared to its counterparts, such as NASA or European Space Agency (ESA), there is a long way to go. 'Of course, there is always room for improvement. But you need to acknowledge that the space sector in India has only started opening up, and some projects still need to operate with secrecy,' the scientist said. Also Read: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka to serve as 'manufacturing hubs' for India's homegrown space dreams Global competition From photos of astronauts working on the ISS and open-source data from active satellites to an easy-to-understand space glossary, the space PR game of NASA and its laboratories is top-class. Apart from its active presence, all over social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X, NASA has also been engaging with the general public through its programmes, such as the 'Get involved with NASA', where they invite members of the public to contribute their time and expertise to advancing research and solving problems, as well as potentially winning prizes as a result of their work. Its 'Citizen Science' project is open to the public all over the world and aims to collaborate with volunteers to promote discoveries. 'More than 450 NASA citizen scientists have been [so far] named as co-authors on refereed scientific publications,' the NASA website reads. Over the last few years, the ESA, China National Space Administration and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have also caught on. The agencies realised the global space domain was not only about what happened inside the laboratories, but that a significant portion of their space programme success also depended on how they presented themselves. For instance, the Japanese agency has been organising open houses, town meetings and laboratory tours to help promote the work happening at those sites. Mobilising interest in space When his 16-year-old nephew asked Kavuluru where he could find the link to a documentary on the ISRO Astrosat and Aditya-L1 missions—something on the lines of NASA's 'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey' and 'Apollo-11'—the former ISRO scientist was hit with a sensation of embarrassment. 'He wanted to study how ISRO does deep space missions. I had no response because no such documentaries exist … Why is this the case? When we have done such complex missions and are observing the Sun and the stars, shouldn't Indian students have the luxury to observe them too?' Kavuluru asked. While ISRO missions remain under the shadows of mystery, the movie, as well as the OTT industry, has so far been cashing in on the public appetite for India's space success story. The Indian audiences have accepted 'Mission Mangal', 'Rocket Boys', 'Rocketry—The Nambi Effect', and 'Mission over Mars' with rave reviews. Be it Akshay Kumar portraying space pioneer Rakesh Dhawan, or R. Madhavan acting as senior scientist Nambi Narayanan—they have happily lapped it all up, with a feeling of pride. Now, they need an opportunity to applaud their real heroes. (Edited by Madhurita Goswami) Also Read: Russian rocket takes off with US astronaut on board, Putin's envoy hails joint space effort
Mint
7 hours ago
- Mint
Shubhanshu Shukla shares BIG health update as astronaut learns to walk days after returning from space
Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS), has shared a glimpse of his recovery process following his 18-day space mission. In a video posted online, Shukla is seen taking assisted steps and later walking on a treadmill as part of his physical rehabilitation. 'I have received a lot of messages regarding my health and wishing me a speedy recovery,' he wrote in the caption. 'I want to thank you all and also give an update.' Explaining the effects of space travel, Shukla noted that time in orbit impacts the body in several ways — from fluid redistribution and changes in heart rate to a temporary loss of balance and muscle strength. 'These are adaptations to the new environment,' he said. 'Once the body gets used to this and we return to gravity, these adjustments happen once again.' He added that while recovery varies from person to person, the body is quick to respond. 'I was surprised to observe the pace with which our body can adjust to new settings,' he remarked. According to Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Shukla and his three fellow crew members remain in quarantine until July 23, as per standard post-mission procedures. The isolation period allows doctors to monitor their condition and assist them in readapting to Earth's gravity. Experts note that extended stays in space can result in weakened muscles, bone loss and coordination issues, making rehabilitation essential for a smooth return to everyday life. Shukla's journey is being hailed as a milestone for India's space ambitions. During the mission, he completed over 310 orbits of Earth and covered a distance exceeding 13 million kilometres. Shukla, along with three fellow astronauts, safely returned to Earth with a splashdown off the coast of California at 5:31 AM New York time on July 15. The mission marked a significant step for Texas-based company Axiom Space, which aims to collaborate with nations around the world to make space more accessible. The crew had launched into orbit last month aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They spent 18 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) before heading back to Earth.
