Science/Nature

[ad_1] China says its lunar probe has successfully taken off from the far side of the moon to begin its journey back to Earth carrying the first-ever samples collected from that region.State media says a module of the Chang'e-6 craft, named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, successfully lifted off about 07:38 on Tuesday (23:38 GMT Monday) to begin the journey back.The craft had landed on Sunday close to

[ad_1] 1 day agoGeorgina Rannard,Laura BickerA video captured Chang'e-6's final approach to the Moon's surfaceChina says its uncrewed craft has successfully landed on the far side of the Moon - an unexplored place almost no-one tries to go.The Chang'e-6 touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 06:23 Beijing time on Sunday morning (22:23 GMT Saturday), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.Launched on 3 May, the mission aims to

[ad_1] 3 days agoHelen Briggs, Environment Correspondent, BBC News, @hbriggsPol FernandezThe rare fern is found on the Pacific island territory of New CaledoniaA fern has entered the record books for having more DNA than any other living thing.The plant’s genetic material, or genome, would reach about 100 metres when unravelled, outstripping Big Ben.Scientists say it's a "crazy" amount of DNA for a tiny plant that most people would walk by

[ad_1] Matthew ShermanMr Cooper's discovery reassembled in New YorkThe first stegosaurus skeleton to go under the hammer is set to fetch millions of dollars in New York. But the extraordinary discovery was made by chance, thousands of miles away out west during one man’s birthday stroll, writes Stephen Smith.It’s every child’s dream to wander into the garden and come face to face with a real-life dinosaur, ideally one of the

[ad_1] 3 days agoJonathan Amos,Science correspondent, @BBCAmosNASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Brant Robertson et alThe distant galaxy (circled) sits next to, but far behind, another galaxyThe James Webb Space Telescope has smashed its own record for detecting the most distant known galaxy.Called JADES-GS-z14-0, the collection of stars was spied as it was a mere 290 million years after the Big Bang.Put another way - if the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, it means we're

[ad_1] 4 days agoThomas Mackintosh,Kathryn Armstrong'Curtain of fire': Iceland volcano forces evacuationAnother volcanic eruption has begun in south-west Iceland, forcing the evacuation of the famous geothermal Blue Lagoon spa and the small fishing town of Grindavik.The new fissure opened up near Sundhnuksgigar on the Reykjanes peninsula, the fifth eruption in the area since December.The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the fissure was longer than 2.5km (1.5 miles) and was continuing

[ad_1] 5 days agoJonathan Amos,Science correspondent, @BBCAmosEsaArtwork: It's taken fully 20 years to get Earthcare into space A sophisticated joint European-Japanese satellite has launched to measure how clouds influence the climate.Some low-level clouds are known to cool the planet, others at high altitude will act as a blanket.The Earthcare mission will use a laser and a radar to probe the atmosphere to see precisely where the balance lies.It's one of

[ad_1] 6 days agoTom Edwards,Environment correspondent, London, @BBCTomEdwardsPAOne of the beavers to have made their home in EalingThe UK's first urban beavers were introduced into a west London nature reserve back in October. The family of five are part of a project that aims to get the public to engage with nature, to study biodiversity improvements and to monitor flood mitigation effects. Seven months on, how is it faring?It is

[ad_1] 6 days agoSuzanne Bearne,Technology ReporterUravuThe founders of Uravu (left to right) Govinda Balaji, Swapnil Shrivastav, Venkatesh RajaWhen a severe drought hit the Indian city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, in 2016, residents including student Swapnil Shrivastav had access to a limited amount of water each day. “We were rationed to two buckets of water a day, which we collected from water tanks,” he says.While he says it’s not

[ad_1] 25 May 2024Georgina Rannard,BBC climate and science reporterBBC/Gwyndaf HughesA plant that went extinct in the wild has been re-introduced to the UK mainland. We can’t tell you the exact location - it’s a secret, to keep it safe. It’s just one small plant but with one in six species in the UK endangered, you’ve got to start somewhere. We were there the moment pioneering horticulturist Robbie Blackhall-Miles returned it