Latest News
Osiris-Rex: Nasa confirms return of asteroid Bennu samples
Dusty samples from the “most dangerous known rock in the Solar System” have been brought to Earth.
The American space agency Nasa landed the materials in a capsule that came down in the West Desert of Utah state. The samples had been scooped up from the surface of asteroid Bennu in 2020 by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft.
Nasa wants to learn more about the mountainous object, not least because it has an outside chance of hitting our planet in the next 300 years. But more than this, the samples are likely to provide fresh insights into the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago and possibly even how life got started on our world.
There was jubilation when the Osiris-Rex team caught sight of their capsule on long-range cameras.
Touchdown on desert land belonging to the Department of Defense was confirmed at 10:52 local time (14:52 GMT), three minutes ahead of schedule.
The car-tyre-sized container had come screaming into the atmosphere over the western US at more than 12km/s (27,000mph). A heatshield and parachutes slowed its descent and dropped it gently, perfectly on to restricted ground.
“This little capsule understood the assignment,” said Tim Priser, the chief engineer at aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin. “It touched down like a feather.”
Cleanliness was the watchword out in the desert. When the recovery teams caught up with the capsule on the ground, their objective was to bring it back to a temporary clean room at the nearby Dugway army base as quickly as possible.
If, as researchers think, the sample contains carbon compounds that may have been involved in the creation of life then mixing the rocky material with present-day Earth chemistry has to be avoided.
“The cleanliness and preventing contamination of the spacecraft has been a really stringent requirement on the mission,” said Mike Morrow, the Osiris-Rex deputy project manager. “The best way that we can protect the sample is just to get it from the field into the clean lab that we’ve set up here in a hangar as quickly as possible and get it under a pure nitrogen gas purge. And then it’s safe.”
This was achieved just before 13:00 local time, a mere four hours after touchdown. The lab team disassembled the capsule, removing its heat-shield and back cover but leaving the sample secure inside an inner canister.
(BBC)
During an operation conducted in the dark hours of 11 Mar 26, the Sri Lanka Navy seized an Indian fishing boat and apprehended 02 Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, in the sea area North of Mannar.
The North Central Naval Command spotted a group of Indian fishing boats engaging in illegal fishing, trespassing into Sri Lankan waters. In response, naval craft of the North Central Naval Command were deployed to drive away those Indian fishing boats from island waters off Mannar.
The seized boat (01) and Indian fishermen (02) were handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Kilinochchi for onward legal proceedings.
The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a torpedo attack by a US submarine last week in the Indian Ocean are due to be flown home on Friday, Sri Lanka’s defence ministry has said.
The seamen were among 130 thought to be aboard the Iranian warship, the Iris Dena, when it was sunk on 4 March about 40km (25 miles) from Sri Lanka’s southern coastline.
A police escort transferred bodies to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport on Friday morning for the repatriation to Iran, after they were stored in two freezers at Galle National Hospital.
Sri Lanka said 32 sailors rescued by its navy after the torpedo attack “will remain in Sri Lanka”, according to news agency AFP.
A magistrate in the Sri Lankan city of Galle ordered that the 84 bodies should be released to the Iranian embassy.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said shortly after the sinking that the Iranian warship had died a “quiet death”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US had “perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores”, adding that “the US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set”.
Video released by the US Department of Defense after the incident showed a ship being struck, causing the stern to rise up before exploding.
The Iris Dena had been returning from a military exercise hosted by India when it was attacked.
Its sinking in international waters came during the current US-Israeli war with Iran and marked a dramatic widening of the conflict.
Iran has since launched retaliatory strikes across the Middle East – targeting Gulf countries allied with the US.
Four of six members of a US military refueling aircraft’s crew have been confirmed dead after it crashed in western Iraq, US Central Command (Centcom) says.
Rescue efforts continue after the loss of the KC-135, it said, having earlier said neither hostile nor friendly fire were involved in the downing of the aircraft.
The tanker had been involved in ongoing US operations against Iran and was one of two aircraft involved in the incident. The second landed safely.
The Boeing-manufactured aircraft are capable of refueling planes midair and typically play a major role in US military operations. They were used extensively in the first Gulf War to extend the range of fighter jets and bombers.
Centcom said the incident occurred around 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT) on Thursday and that the circumstances of the crash were now under investigation.
The US military command unit added that the identities of the personnel who had been killed were being withheld for 24 hours so their next of kin could be notified.
The KC-135 usually has a crew of at least a pilot, a co-pilot and a boom operator responsible for controlling the refuelling arm of the aircraft.
Centcom earlier described the crash as happening over friendly airspace – but this is a region of Iraq where pro-Iranian militias operate. Iran’s military claimed on state TV that an allied group had targeted the plane with a missile.
Thursday’s crash brings the official US military death toll in the US-Israel war with Iran, which began a fortnight ago, to 11.
The US military has now lost at least four aircraft during the current war.
Earlier this month, three F15s were shot down in “an apparent friendly fire incident” over Kuwait, officials said. All six crew members were able to safely eject.
Boeing manufactured the KC-135 Stratotanker for the US military in the 1950s and early 1960s.
It has been a backbone to the US military’s air refuelling fleet, and allow combat aircraft to carry out longer missions without needing to land.
[BBC]
Navy seizes an Indian fishing boat poaching in Mannar seas
Bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in US torpedo strike to be repatriated
Four crew members killed after US refuelling plane crashes in Iraq
Safeguarding linguistic heritage is not only a cultural responsibility, but also a shared commitment to preserving the diversity of our world – PM
This is not an ordinary scholarship programme. It defines the future vision of our country – PM
West Indies name unchanged squad for home T20Is against Australia
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News7 days agoPeradeniya Uni issues alert over leopards in its premises
-
News5 days agoRepatriation of Iranian naval personnel Sri Lanka’s call: Washington
-
News7 days agoWife raises alarm over Sallay’s detention under PTA
-
Features5 days agoWinds of Change:Geopolitics at the crossroads of South and Southeast Asia
-
News4 days agoProf. Dunusinghe warns Lanka at serious risk due to ME war
-
Sports3 days agoRoyal start favourites in historic Battle of the Blues
-
Latest News7 days agoHeat Index at ‘Caution Level’ in the Sabaragamuwa province and, Colombo, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Hambanthota and Monaragala districts
-
Features7 days agoThe final voyage of the Iranian warship sunk by the US