Looking back at the busy year, through the lens of astronomy. From mysterious monoliths to crewed spaceflights, 2020 in a nutshell. — To rewind means to replay the reel. Was 2020 a year to relive? Most of us certainly don’t want to. Despite things being pretty disheartening on Earth, the world of astronomy and astrophysics seems to have had a good year, overall. …

Exploring the exquisite Dark matter, water on the moon and much more... — There are truths which one can see only when it’s dark. – Isaac Bashevis Singer Developments in space exploration have been on a substantial rise even though most of 2020 was spent in our homes. Over the past months, we saw several exciting breakthroughs: like the discovery of Moon’s magnetic…

Unraveling dark energy, OSIRIS-REx mission update, NASA at home, and more — “There are billions of places out there that we know nothing about. The fact that we know nothing about them excites me, and I want to go out and find about them. And that’s what Science is” — Brian Cox As we step on to the pre-penultimate month of 2020…

Going backpacking across the inner Solar System. Where can we pitch our tents? — Life. Let’s talk about life. To a scientist, life is that which can breathe, move, grow or reproduce. We can think of several exceptions to these at once, but laypeople will agree on what it vaguely means to be “living”. Before we go any further, this article is not of…

We at Nakshatra recently had the opportunity to get in touch with Dr Natalie Hinkel, Senior Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio and Co-Investigator for the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research network at Arizona State University. Specialising in the study of elemental compositions of Sun-like…

The threshold to spring and wistful nostalgia, this April was a month that was beautiful not merely Earth-wise, but celestially, too. From the iconic black hole image that made headlines to rainfall on the Sun (yes, you saw that right), read on to find more about the fascinating happenings in…

The following short story by Chahat Khanna is the first-place winning entry of the ‘Celestia — Tales From Beyond’ short story writing competition held by Nakshatra as a part of World Asteroid Day. Read on! — He stared out of the small round window, lost in thought. The only thing visible for miles was the overwhelming darkness of the void which he should have been used to but wasn't. He had always found it depressing. The emptiness, the darkness. The feeling that should he ever leave…

The following short story by Renga Prasad is the second-place winning entry of the ‘Celestia — Tales From Beyond’ short story writing competition held by Nakshatra as a part of World Asteroid Day. Read on! — The SS Deckard lumbered carefully through the asteroid belt, loosely pointed towards the origin of the location signal. The ship’s navigation AI had plotted a visible course through the space rubble with an ETA of three hours, and now the ship made its progress patiently, bit by bit. The engines…

Back-to Back Eclipses, Meteor Showers and More! — Man has always found answers to his question of existence while looking up to the overwhelming universe. Every aspect of the society has been influenced by the cosmos. Let’s start with a small story: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a…