Science News Roundup: NASA orders rare medical delay in launch of SpaceX mission to space statio; In Chile's Atacama desert, stargazers search for alien life and 'dark energy' and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. NASA orders rare medical delay in launch of SpaceX mission to space station NASA announced on Monday a rare, health-related delay in its SpaceX rocket launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, the second postponement of the mission in a week, citing an unspecified medical issue with one of the crew.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA orders rare medical delay in launch of SpaceX mission to space station

NASA announced on Monday a rare, health-related delay in its SpaceX rocket launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, the second postponement of the mission in a week, citing an unspecified medical issue with one of the crew. NASA said the issue was "not a medical emergency and not related to COVID-19," but the space agency declined to elaborate on the nature of the problem or say which astronaut was involved.

In Chile's Atacama desert, stargazers search for alien life and 'dark energy'

In Chile's dry Atacama desert, stargazers are scanning the clear night skies to detect the existence of life on other planets and study so-called 'dark energy,' a mysterious cosmic force thought to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Central to the race to peer into distant worlds is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a $1.8 billion complex being built at the Las Campanas observatory and which will have a resolution 10 times higher than the Hubble space telescope.

For baleen whales, meals are tons of fun - and lots of tons

The first study to methodically calculate how much food blue whales and some of their close relatives eat has yielded a simple answer: a whole lot. The blue whale, the largest animal in Earth's history, eats about 16 tons of krill daily in the North Pacific, gobbling up these tiny shrimp-like crustaceans with a filter-feeding system in the mouth using baleen plates made of keratin, the substance found in people's fingernails, scientists said on Wednesday.

(With inputs from agencies.)