When NASA’s Perseverance rover gently touched down on the surface of Mars on Thursday after seven months in space, it was an Indian-American named Dr Swati Mohan, who first confirmed that the rover had survived a particularly tricky plunge into the Martian atmosphere.

Washington: After a nearly seven month journey through space, Perseverance -- the largest and the most advanced rover NASA has ever sent to another world -- successfully touched down on the surface of Mars on Friday in a nail-biting landing that marks its first step in the search for signs of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

Chennai: Along with India and EU, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently became successful in inserting a spacecraft into orbit around Mars on the first try. The mission was announced in 2014 and the Hope probe succeeded in entering the planet’s orbit on 9 February.

Kolkata: Space enthusiasts had the opportunity to watch a rare celestial event on Monday evening as the Jupiter and the Saturn appeared to merge and looked like a single bright star, in what is called a conjunction.

Cape Canaveral (US): Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky Monday, appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileo's time in the 17th century.

Washington: An Indian-American is among the 18 astronauts selected by NASA for its manned mission to the Moon and beyond.

Cape Canaveral (US): NASA has named the 18 astronauts half of them women who will train for its Artemis moon-landing programme.

New York: 15-year-old Indian-American Gitanjali Rao, a "brilliant" young scientist and inventor, has been named by TIME magazine as the first-ever ‘Kid of the Year' for her “astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying”.