Connect with us

Published

on

Indian scientists plan to seed clouds for the first time to trigger heavy rain in some areas of New Delhi, hoping this will be enough to tackle the smog gripping the world’s most polluted capital for a week, the project’s head said on Thursday.

Air quality dips in Delhi ahead of winter every year, when cold air traps pollutants from a variety of sources including vehicles, industries, construction dust, and agricultural waste burning. 

Scientists expect some cloud cover over the city around November 20 and are hoping this will be large enough — and with high enough moisture content — to trigger heavy rain via seeding with salts, said Manindra Agrawal, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, who is leading the trial.

The project, estimated to cost Rs. 1 crore for 100 square kilometres, would involve spraying into clouds a mix of salts that include silver iodine, Agrawal said.

“We don’t expect that big a cloud that will cover entire Delhi, but a few hundred kilometres would be good,” he told Reuters. 

The local government of the city of 20 million people, spread over roughly 1,500 square kilometres, has already shut all schools, stopped construction activities, and said it will impose restrictions on vehicle use to control pollution.

The air quality index in the city was 506 early on Thursday, which is categorised as “hazardous” by Swiss group IQAir.

Delhi needs heavy and widespread rain to wash away the pollutants, and light rain could worsen the situation, said Gufran Beig, the founder director of the federal government’s air-quality monitoring agency SAFAR.

Beig added that current airflow is carrying smoke from crop residue burning in the states of Punjab and Haryana to Delhi, which also has its own pollution sources and where there is currently almost no wind. 

“So unless a huge pressure is established by intense rain, this chain of transport from Punjab to Delhi will not be broken, and once it is broken it is difficult for the chain to form again for some time,” he told Reuters. 

About 38 percent of the pollution in the capital has been caused by stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, where over 22,000 stubble burning events were recorded between September 15 and November 7, according to a government statement.

Stubble burning is a practice followed by farmers wherein crop stubble left behind after rice is harvested is burnt to quickly clear fields before planting wheat crops. 

The federal government has directed authorities in both states to “take effective actions” to check further stubble burning, the statement added. 

The Delhi government is seeking to get approval for the project from the Supreme Court, which is hearing petitions related to pollution.

Several countries have used cloud seeding to produce rain, improve air quality and water crops in time of drought, including Mexico, the United States, China, Indonesia and Malaysia. 

However, in 2021, a plan to seed clouds over the mountains of New Mexico to increase snowfall was pulled after allegations it could poison people and the environment.

© Thomson Reuters 2023


Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

Continue Reading

Science

Space Research Reveals How Icy Comets and Asteroids Could Reshape Earth-Like Planets

Published

on

By

Space Research Reveals How Icy Comets and Asteroids Could Reshape Earth-Like Planets

Recent studies revealed that the collision of comets may lead to an impact that can affect the atmosphere of the Earth like planets, especially the ones that orbit M-dwarf stars. These findings have not just widened the understanding of planetary evolution and also gives hopes in identifying the far habitable world. There are chances that even the small icy comets could fetch water and oxygen to other exoplanets. ​The research started in September 2024, by a team led by Dr. Felix Sainsbury Martinez, studied the effects of icy comet impacts on the terrestrial planets that are tidally locked.

Comet Impacts on Tidally Locked Exoplanets

The researchers simulated a 2.5 km ice comet that impacts the Earth in a kind of atmosphere simulation. In findings, they exposed that such kinds of impact could even change the chemistry of atmosphere, and increase the water vapour together with hydrogen or oxygen-rich molecules, but decrease the ozone level by almost 10%. Such changes can be observed through current space-based telescopes, published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Asteroid Impacts and Earth’s Climate

Researchers from the IBS Center for Climate Physics on February 6, 2025, simulated the effects of a Bennu-type asteroid on Earth. This experiment revealed that an impact like this can inject millions of dust particles into the atmosphere, lowering the global temperature to almost 4°C, and a 32% decrease in the ozone level. Such changes could even lead to an impact on the global ecosystem with food security.

Observing Disintegrating Exoplanets

Understanding the planetary impacts further, the astronomers found a disintegrating exoplanet placed 140 light years away. This planet orbits closer to its star, and sheds mass equivalent to Mount Everest with each orbit, thus forming a dust tail till 5.6 million distance. Observations through the James Telescope analyse the composition of the dust, giving insights into its structure and habitability.

Implications for Planetary Habitability

The continuous exploration of exoplanets with the potential for habitability can help in understanding the frequency and effects of these impacts. This helps in not just finding life on other planets but also prepares us for future impacts on Earth.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


Astronomers Discover Closest Known Molecular Cloud to Earth



Google Makes Setting Up a New Google TV Easier with Faster Onboarding, More Features

Continue Reading

Science

Astronomers Discover Closest Known Molecular Cloud to Earth

Published

on

By

Astronomers Discover Closest Known Molecular Cloud to Earth

Astronomers found the nearest known molecular cloud to Earth, providing scientists with a unique up-close look at the cosmic recycling of matter that drives the formation of new planets and stars.
The newly discovered cloud, named “Eos” after the Greek goddess of dawn, is a massive, crescent-shaped mass of hydrogen gas that is only 300 light-years away from Earth. It is one of the biggest formations in the sky, spanning the equivalent of around 40 Earth moons arranged side by side at a width of nearly 100 light-years.

How it escaped detection

According to a paper published April 28 in the journal Nature Astronomy, Eos has so far escaped detection because of its low concentration of carbon monoxide (CO), a bright, easily detectable chemical signature that astronomers typically use to identify molecular clouds, despite its massive size and relative proximity to Earth. The researchers detected Eos through the fluorescent glow of hydrogen molecules within it — a novel approach that could reveal many similarly hidden clouds throughout the galaxy. Burkhart said to Live Sciences, “There definitely are more CO-dark clouds waiting to be discovered.”

Formation of Eos and further studies

Eos has been shaped into its crescent shape through interactions with the North Polar Spur, a vast region of ionized gas. The shape aligns perfectly with the North Polar Spur at high latitudes, suggesting that energy and radiation from this massive structure have influenced the surrounding gas, including Eos. It will evaporate in about 6 million years due to its molecular hydrogen reservoir being torn apart by incoming photons and high-energy cosmic rays. A follow-up study found no significant bursts of star formation in the past, but it remains uncertain whether the cloud will begin to form stars before dissipating. A NASA spacecraft named after the newly discovered molecular cloud is being developed to observe in far-ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the molecular hydrogen content in clouds across the Milky Way.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


Android 16 to Arrive With Redesigned Quick Settings, Visual Enhancements and New Animations: Report



Google Makes Setting Up a New Google TV Easier with Faster Onboarding, More Features

Continue Reading

Science

Researchers Challenge Claims of ‘Leather-Like’ T. rex Skin

Published

on

By

Researchers Challenge Claims of 'Leather-Like' T. rex Skin

A US-based marketing agency, VML, and biotechnology firms The Organoid Company from the Netherlands and Lab-Grown Leather Ltd of UK are partnering to create luxury fashion accessories using T-rex leather. The collaboration claims that the lab-grown T-rex leather will offer natural durability, repairability, and tactility, making it an eco-friendly and cruelty-free alternative to traditional leather. The material will be made from fossilized T. rex collagen, a protein that gives skin and tissues structure. However, dinosaur specialists are sceptical as there is no DNA from the prehistoric predator needed to create genuine T. rex leather. Additionally, palaeontologists have only discovered T. rex collagen in bone, not skin.

Criticism from Researchers

According to an email from Thomas Holtz, Jr., a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Maryland to told,Live Science, he thinks the T. rex leather claim is “misleading” after reading the announcement and was some sort of fantasy.

DNA decays after an animal’s death, and researchers haven’t found any DNA from the age of dinosaurs. The oldest preserved DNA on record is about 2 million years old, and T. rex went extinct with the rest of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Holtz also notes that researchers lack good tyrannosaurid skin samples, as soft tissues like skin are rarely preserved in fossils. Without good samples, researchers don’t know much about T. rex skin’s characteristics.

Dinosaur collagen as a material

The upcoming T. rex-themed leather will be based on T. rex collagen, of which there is some in the fossil record. T. rex collagen, once thought to be destroyed during fossilization, has been found in some dinosaur bones. Researchers, including Thomas Carr, an associate professor of biology at Carthage College and director of the Carthage Institute of Palaeontology in Wisconsin, are sceptical about using T. rex collagen for leather. Carr believes the understanding of T. rex collagen is incomplete due to the fragmented fossilized polypeptides.

Dinosaur specialists are also sceptical, as there is no DNA from the prehistoric predator needed to create genuine T. rex leather. Additionally, skin is the foundation of leather, but palaeontologists have only discovered T. rex collagen in bone, not skin.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


Google’s NotebookLM Android, iOS Apps Listed on App Stores Ahead of Launch at Google I/O 2025



Android 16 to Arrive With Redesigned Quick Settings, Visual Enhancements and New Animations: Report

Continue Reading

Trending