Science News Roundup: Wondrous extinct flying reptiles boasted rudimentary feathers; Israeli spacecraft gets final element before 2019 moon launch
Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
New Zealand's Rocket Lab shoots 13 tiny cube satellites into orbit
Rocket Lab, a rocket propulsion company backed by investors in Silicon Valley, has launched a batch of 13 tiny probes from New Zealand to study space. The Electron rocket lifted off on Sunday evening from the world's only private orbital launch pad on the Mahia Peninsula, carrying a payload of 10-cm (3.9-inch) cube-shaped research satellites.
Wondrous extinct flying reptiles boasted rudimentary feathers
A microscopic examination of fossils from China has revealed that the fur-like body covering of pterosaurs, the remarkable flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs, was actually made up of rudimentary feathers. The surprising discovery described by scientists on Monday means that dinosaurs and their bird descendants were not the only creatures to boast feathers and that feathers likely appeared much longer ago than previously known. Pterosaurs were only distantly related to dinosaurs and birds.
Israeli spacecraft gets final element before 2019 moon launch
Israeli engineers on Monday added the final element to a spacecraft destined for the moon - a digital time capsule - and said they aimed to land the craft early next year, somewhere between the landing sites of Apollo 15 and 17. It will be the first mission of its kind since 2013 and, if it is successful, Israel will be the fourth country to carry out a controlled "soft" landing of an unmanned vessel on the moon.
(With inputs from Reuters)
(With inputs from agencies.)
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