SCIENCE

The planetary odometer turned on March 21, with the latest batch of 65 exoplanets - planets outside our immediate solar family - added to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. The archive records exoplanet discoveries that appear in peer-reviewed, scientific papers, and that have been confirmed using multiple detection methods or by analytical techniques.

A team of astronomers who scammed about 87 per cent of the southern sky have found no trace of Planet Nine in our solar system yet. Pluto, discovered in January 1930, was earlier known as the Planet Nine. However in 2006, astronomers reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Although ACT was designed to study the cosmic microwave background radiation, its relatively high angular resolution and sensitivity makes it suitable for this type of search.

March or spring equinox, occurring on Sunday, marks the beginning of the astronomical spring season for people living in the Northern Hemisphere, including in India. Spring equinox - also called the vernal equinox - marks the beginning of longer and warmer days. On the other hand, people living in the Southern Hemisphere Southern will see autumn, also known as fall.

Webb's team now expects that the telescope's optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve. The team completed the stage of alignment known as "fine phasing" on March 11. With the fine phasing stage complete, the team fully aligned Webb's primary imager, the Near-Infrared Camera, to the observatory's mirrors.

A team of researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) and MIT in the US had in 2018 detected a signal from stars emerging in the early universe using data from the EDGES radio telescope. The study published in journal Nature had then created much excitement in the astronomy community around the world.

The map reveals an astonishingly detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million objects and a very dynamic picture of our Universe, which now has been made public for the first time. The vast majority of these objects are billions of light years away and are either galaxies that harbour massive black holes or are rapidly growing new stars.

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) scientists have developed a new variety of medicinal plant Rishyagandha which has the properties to treat all types of cancer, especially cervical. After eight years of long research, the new variety was developed using nano-biotechnology. The research done on the basis of Indian Ayurveda is now being approved by scientists of many countries.

The Boltzmann Medal is given every three years by the C3 Commission on Statistical Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) at the Statphys Conference. The Award, comprising a gilded medal, honours outstanding achievements in statistical physics. The award will be given during Statphys 28 to be held in Tokyo from August 8 to 12.

Sea-level rise is an important indicator of broader climate changes. Identifying the time of sea-level rise helped researchers to pinpoint the onset of a significant period of climate change. The team used a global database of sea-level records spanning the last 2,000 years. They found that globally Industrial Revolution paved the way for the onset of modern rates of sea-level rise occurred in 1863.

Coastal flooding will increase significantly over the next 30 years because of sea level rise, according to the report by an inter-agency sea level rise task force that includes NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other federal agencies.